Edmond Paris - The Secret History of the Jesuits

"But", said Albert V to the Munich City council, "God's honour and the salvation of souls must be placed above any temporal interests". 16) Little by little, all teaching in Bavaria was placed in the Jesuits' hands, and that land became the base for their penetration in eastern, western and northern Germany.

"From 1585 on, the Fathers converted the part of Westphalia depending on Cologne; in 1586, they appear in Neuss and Bonn, one of Cologne's archbishop's residences; they open colleges at Hildesheim in 1587 and Munster in 1588. This particular one already had 1300 pupils in 1618... A large part of western Germany was reconquered in that way by Catholicism,

(14) H. Boehmer, op.cit., pp.89, 104, 112, 114. (15) Rene Fulop-Miller, op.cit., II, pp.98, 102. (16) H.

Boehmer, op.cit., pp.89, 104, 112, 114.

36

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE JESUITS

thanks to the Wittelsbach and Jesuits.

"The alliance between the Wittelsbach and Jesuits was maybe even more important for the "Austrian lands" than for western Germany".(17) The archduke Charles of Styrie, last son of emperor Ferdinand, married in 1571 a Bavarian princess "who brought into Gratz castle the narrow Catholic tendencies and the friendship for the Jesuits which prevailed at the Court of Munich". Under her influence, Charles worked hard to "extirpate the heresy" from his kingdom and when he died, in 1590, he made his son and successor, Ferdinand, swear that he would go on with this work. In any case, Ferdinand was well prepared for this. "For five years, he had been a pupil of the Jesuits at Ingolstadt; besides, he was so narrow-minded that, to him, there was no nobler task than the reestablishment of the Catholic Church in his hereditary States. That this task was advantageous or not to his lands was of no concern to Him. "I prefer", said he, "to reign over a country in ruins, than over one which is damned". (18)

In 1617, the archduke Ferdinand was crowned king of Bohemia by the emperor. "Influenced by his Jesuit confessor Viller, Ferdinand started at once to combat Protestantism in his new kingdom. This signalled the start of that bloody war of religion which, for the next thirty years, kept Europe in suspense. When, in 1618, the unhappy events in Prague gave the signal for open rebellion, the old emperor Mathias tried at first to compromise, but he did not have enough power to make his intentions prevail against king Ferdinand, who was dominated by his Jesuit confessor; so, the last hope to settle this conflict amicably was lost". "At the same time, the lands of Bohemia had taken special measures and solemnly decreed that all Jesuits should be expelled, as they saw in them promoters of civil war".(19) Soon after, Moravia and Silesie followed this example, and Protestants of Hungary, where the Jesuit Pazmany ruled with a rod of iron, rebelled also.

But the battle of the White Mountain (1620) was won by Ferdinand, who had been made emperor again after the death of Mathias.

"The Jesuits persuaded Ferdinand to inflict the most cruel punishment on the rebels; Protestantism was rooted out of the whole country by means too terrible for words... At the end of the war, the country's material ruin was complete".

"The Jesuit Balbinus, Bohemia's historian, wondered how there could still be some inhabitants left in that country. But moral ruin was even more terrible... The flourishing culture found amongst the nobles and middle classes, the rich national literature which could not be replaced: all this had been destroyed, and even nationality had been abolished. Bohemia was (17) and (18) H. Boehmer, op.cit., pp.117, 120. (19) J.

Huber, op.cit., pp. 180-183.

GERMANY

37

open to the Jesuits' activities and they burned Czech literature en-masse; under their influence, even the name of the nation's great saint: John Huss, gradually grew dimmer until it was extinct in the hearts of the people... "The height of the Jesuits' power", said Tomek, "coincided with the country's greatest decadence in her national culture; it is because of the influence that Order had, that this unfortunate land's awakening came about one century too late..."

"When the Thirty Years War came to an end, and a peace was concluded assuring German Protestants the same political rights enjoyed by the Catholics, the Jesuits did their uttermost to continue the fighting; it was in vain".(20) But they obtained from their student Leopold the First, then reigning emperor, the promise to persecute the Protestants in his own lands, and especially in Hungary. "Escorted by imperial dragoons, the Jesuits undertook this work of conversion in 1671. The Hungarians rose to action and started a war which was to last for nearly a whole generation... But that insurrection was victoroius, under the leadership of Francis Kakoczy. The victor wanted to drive the Jesuits out of all the countries which fell under his power; but influencial protectors of the Order managed to adjourn these measures, and the expulsion did not take place until 1707...

"Prince Eugene blamed, with a harsh frankness, the politics of the imperial house and the intrigues of the Jesuits in Hungary. He wrote:

"Austria nearly lost Hungary because of their persecuting of the Protestants". One day, he bitterly exclaimed that the morals of the Turks were far superior to those of the Jesuits, in practice at least. "Not only do they want to dominate consciences, but also to have the right of life and death over men".

"Austria and Bavaria reaped the fruits of Jesuit domination in full: the compression of all progressive tendencies and the systematic stultification of the people".

"The deep misery which followed the war of religion, the powerless politics, the intellectual decadence, the moral corruption, a frightful decrease in the population and impoverishment of the whole of Germany: these were the results of the Order's actions".(21) (20) Rene Fulop-Miller, op.cit., II, pp. 104-105.

(21) J. Huber, op.cit., pp.183-186.

38 Section II

Chapter 3

Switzerland

It was only during the 17th century that the Jesuits succeeded in establishing themselves successfully in Switzerland, after having been called, then banished, by a few cities of the Confederation, during the second half of the 16th century.

The archbishop of Milan, Charles Borromee, who had favoured their installation at Lucerne in 1578, soon realised what the results of their actions would be, as we are reminded by J. Huber: "Charles Borromee wrote to his confessor that the Company of Jesus, governed by heads more political than religious, is becoming too powerful to preserve the necessary moderation and submission... She rules over kings and princes, and governs temporal and spiritual affairs; the pious institution has lost the spirit which animated her originally; we shall be compelled to abolish it".(22)

At the same time in France, the famous legal expert Etienne Pasquiet wrote: "Introduce this Order in our midst and, at the same time, you will introduce dissension, chaos and confusion".(23) Is it not this identical complaint heard over and over again, and in all countries, against the Company? It was the same in Switzerland, when the evidence of her evil deeds broke through the flattering appearances with which she excelled in covering herself.

"Wherever the Jesuits managed to take root, they seduced great and small, young and old. Very soon, the authorities would start consulting them in important circumstances; their donations started flowing in, and it was not long before they occupied all the schools, the pulpits of most churches, the confessionals of all high ranking and influential people (22) J. Huber op.cit., p.131.

(23) Cite by H. Fulop-Miller: "Les Jesuites et le secret de leur puissance" (Plon, Paris 1933

p.57)

SWITZERLAND 39