t the devoted society of Jesus would require a complete
history of the destruction of the Order[13], but within the limits of this
brief exposition it is not possible to go very deep into the scrutiny of
the malice, and of the means resorted to for the purpose of effecting it.
To remove some of the thick, poisonous weeds, which mantle the surface of
the subject, so as to show the body clear {34} beneath, is the extent of my
present undertaking; and, if I appear concise, one consideration is in my
favour, namely, that imputations advanced by a thousand different writers
are not _multiplied_ but _repeated_, and that reverberations of falsehood
are still falsehood. We have already seen, that even the powers and
ingenuousness of a Robertson have been unable to extract from them the
voice of truth.

France has produced the greatest number of writers against the society. The
speeches and publications of those in the times of the league, as I have
said, furnished the original matter to the authors of the _Comptes Rendus_;
the theme of regicide, the tales of the Jesuits Varade, Gueret, Guignard,
the whole guilt of the league, &c., to which more recent matter,
particularly lax doctrines of morality, has been added. This is all
collected in the _Extraits des Assertions_, a work evidently replete with
studied fabrications, as is shown by Beaumont, archbishop of Paris,
Montesquiou, bishop of Sarlat, and in the {35} _Re__ponse aux Assertions_.
I believe, that this _Reponse_ and the _Apologie de l'Institut_ are the
only works written in defence of the society, which the Jesuits publicly
avowed. These are unanswerable, and should be referred to by historians.

The characters of Prynne and De Thou are drawn in the following
Letters[14]. De Thou was a parliamentarian. Of Prynne I shall farther
observe, that, besides his notoriety as a factious agent, lord Clarendon
informs us, that he had been looked upon as a man of reproachful character
previous to the infamous severities of the star chamber, which was the
means of his obtaining consideration, for those of his profession, and
others, thought, that persons, in his situation of life, should not be
treated so ignominiously[15]. His character may be viewed in Hume's
History[16]; and here let me observe, that {36} it was not only the
catholics he attacked, but the manners of the times and the church; for
which he was punished. Prynne was a thorough-paced puritan: through him and
others of