lundering confusion of
the adventures of the bastard Portuguese prince Antonio, prior of Crato,
and of the history of king Alfonso, who, a hundred years later, was deposed
and confined in the island of Tercera. Whoever has looked into Portuguese
{293} history may remember, that Antonio's pretensions to the crown were
settled, not by Jesuits, but by the duke of Alva, at the head of a Spanish
army of twenty thousand men. He may have read, that several persons were
executed in Tercera, for supporting Antonio's cause, by the commanders of a
Spanish armament; but no man has read, that five hundred friars were put to
death, or ever existed at one time, in the island of Tercera. Whatever the
case may be, the Jesuits had no concern in what befel the pretender
Antonio, or king Alfonso, or the poor friars of Tercera. 8. "The Jesuits
deposed the grand duke of Muscovy with great bloodshed, for a creature of
their own[107]." When did all this happen, and who was the grand duke?
Laicus will not easily answer these questions. 9. "A memoir of cardinal
Noailles leaves no doubt of Louis XIV having taken the four vows of the
Jesuits[108]." On this {294} point the policy of the Jesuits appears to
have been defective. If they had sent good father Louis XIV to a foreign
mission, for instance, to Canada or Brazil, in execution of his fourth vow,
and had bestowed his crown upon some other creature of their own, as they
had transferred that of poor king Anthony, probably they might have ruled
Europe with less trouble. Father Louis XIV was not always disposed to be a
submissive subject[109].

I mention two facts more, because they are new--not related by Prynne, nor
even by the {295} learned writer of the historical articles in the
Encyclopedia Britannica, whose words, in his article "Jesuits," you have so
exactly copied into your Letters. 10. "Pope Urban VIII," you say,
"transmitted a bull to the Jesuits' vice-provincial, Stillington,
commanding all catholics to be aiding in the civil war, for which they
should receive indulgences, such as power of releasing others from
purgatory, and of eating fish at prohibited times, and if _he_ should be
killed, of being placed in the Martyrology[110]." The gross absurdity of
this narration is evident without a comment[111]. The other is still more
extraordinary. 11. You invite us to consult "the important memorial
presented by Parsons the Jesuit, to king James II, for bringing in
popery[112]." This Parsons