sts to the heavens, in the words of the lord mayor, Patience Ward, that
the city of London was burnt by the malice of the catholics, in 1666. The
difference is, that in calmer times the Gallic column, with all the
calumnies of Harlay, was erased, but Patience Ward, who had been put into
the pillory for perjury, still lies uncontradicted[113]. To the article of
regicides I add, that {309} the attempt on the life of Louis XV, in 1757,
was not imputed to Jesuits, either by parliaments, or by Jansenists. The
calumny in the fourth Letter is, I imagine, the undisputed property of
Laicus or his prompters[114].

{310}

On the second head of accusation--immoral doctrine--I wish to be short. The
purity of the Jesuits' doctrine and morals was solemnly attested by the
most qualified judges, a special assembly of fifty cardinals, archbishops,
and bishops, of the Gallic church, convened by Louis XV; and their report
was confirmed by many other prelates, who were not deputed to that
assembly. A stronger proof of their innocence was the absolute inability of
their enemies to convict a single Jesuit of four thousand, who were spread
through France, of any immoral principle, doctrine, or practice. The
parliament still pursued their beaten track. _Il faut denigrer les
Jesuites_ was their maxim. Envy, with her hundred jaundiced eyes, was every
where on the watch to discover a flaw. Malice, with her hundred envenomed
tongues, stood ready to echo it through the globe. Fruitless industry!
{311} The poor parliament was reduced to spare the living Jesuits, not from
any regard for truth, but because they knew, that their calumnies would not
be believed. They therefore impeached the doctrine and morals of all
deceased Jesuits, who had existed during two hundred years, and they
intrusted the delicious task of blackening the dead to the impure pens of
Jansenists, headed principally by Dom. Clemencet. From this man's foul
laboratory proceeded the _Extraits des Assertions_, a monstrous compilation
of forged and falsified texts, purporting to contain the uniform doctrine,
taught invariably at all times by the whole society of Jesus, and to
exhibit a fair picture of their morals. The parliament sanctioned, and
addressed this abominable book to every bishop, and to every college in
France. Every bishop in France felt himself and religion insulted by it;
and almost every bishop condemned and forbade it to be kept or read. The
celebrated archbishop of Par