he refused the dignity of cardinal, with which the pope
offered to distinguish his eminent merit; and, that he ended his career in
1565, seven years after he had been elected general of the young society.
Now, say, what time could a man so busied in theological and missionary
labours in Italy and France, command to conduct commercial {276}
speculations in India, as you in your odious libel assert?

But alas, why should Laicus spare Laines, when he has dared to blaspheme
the great, the renowned Francis Xavier, as a monster of cruelty, as an
extortioner of Indian wealth? As if such senseless insult, at the distance
of two hundred and sixty years, could disparage the revered merit, or
obliterate the tribute of admiration and praise, which mankind have agreed
to give him, and which sober protestants have not refused: such are Baldeus
and Hackluyt, cited in the wonderful life of that famous apostle, by
Bouhours, translated into English by our Dryden.--See p. 766, 767.

The maxims of Xavier and Laines, consigned in your _Monita Secreta_, were
first brought to light, you tell us, at the close of the seventeenth
century, about one hundred and forty years after the decease of the
supposed author; and yet you have not a shadow of proof to allege, that
they {277} made any sensation in the world; that any prince, prelate, or
magistrate, that any man whatever gave credit to them. Would you know, Sir,
the origin of your despicable _Monita_? Not in the days of Laines, not at
the close, but in the early years of the seventeenth century, a Jesuit was
dismissed with ignominy from the society in Poland, an uncommon
circumstance but judged due to his misconduct. The walls of the city of
Cracow were soon covered with sheets of revengeful insults; and, in the
year 1616, this outcast of the society published his fabricated _Secreta
Monita_, with a view to cover his own disgrace, or to gratify his revenge.
"Whether he attained either of these objects," says the elegant historian,
Cordara (a name well known in the republic of letters), "I cannot
determine; but certain it is, nothing was ever more ineptly silly, than
this work: _Quo opere, ut modeste dicam, nihil ineptius._"--Vid. Cordara,
Hist. Soc. Jes. page 29. Cordara would have made an exception in favour of
Laicus, if he had lived to read {278} his Letters in the Times. The libel,
however, though condemned and prohibited at Rome by the Congregation of the
Index on the 10th of May, 1616, wa