ertheless
excepted, whose alarm must have a very different spring); men, who have
already dared to warn the clergy of England against instituting schools, in
which children are to be instructed in the national religion, because of
the hostile feelings which will be excited between them and the children of
the anti-church institutions[94]; jacobinical philosophers, materialists,
votaries of reason and eternal sleep, and, perhaps, some clergy, as before,
of their own communion, whose interest may be affected, and who have not
penetration and virtue enough to see and enjoy the motive and the justice
of their restoration to religion and to letters: "ignorance," said Henry
IV, in his speech to Harlay before cited, "has always borne a grudge to
learning." I trust, however, and believe, that I {257} have proved enough
to convince the reader, that the Jesuits have been calumniated; that their
destruction was effected by the malice and envy of their enemies, on the
one hand, and by the pusillanimity of their proper protector on the other;
that, as far as authority extends, there is a great and brilliant balance
in their favour; that, on the ground of reasoning, the proof of their
virtue as well as of their religion does not fall short of demonstration in
the account of their institute; that they are not at war with protestant
governments, whose catholic subjects they are well known long to have
trained up in loyalty; and, that the small number now in this country have
completed those proofs of loyalty by a solemn oath of allegiance to the
king.

* * * * *

THE

LETTERS

OF

CLERICUS.

* * * * *

Calumniare audacter; semper aliquid adhaerebit.

* * * * *

{261}

THE

LETTERS

OF

CLERICUS TO LAICUS.

* * * * *

LETTER I.

_Jesuitae, qui se maxime nobis opponunt, aut necandi, aut si hoc commode
fieri non potest, ejiciendi, aut certe mendaciis et calumniis opp
imendi sunt._--Calv. Axiom.--Vide Becan. tom. i, opusc. xvii, aphor.
15[95].

In God's name, Laicus, who are you, and what is your aim? The order of
Jesuits, you tell us, has been _totally abolished_. Every person {262} of
moderate information knows, that to accomplish that abolition, which was
not total, all the artifices of calumny were exhausted. Neither Calvin, nor
Le Courayer, nor even Laicus, could have a