Edmond Paris - The Secret History of the Jesuits

capable of stopping completely the expansion of the "heretic" power.

But who can play this part in Europe apart from the French Empire?

Napoleon III, "the man sent by Providence", will have the honour of (42) Quoted by Monseigneur Journet: "Exigences chretiennes en politique"(Ed. L.V.F. Paris 1945, p.274).

(43) Albert Bayet: "Histoire de France" (Ed. du Sagittaire, Paris 1938, p.282).

THE SECOND EMPIRE AND THE FALLOUX LAW — THE WAR OF 1870

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avenging Sadowa. The French army is not ready. "The artillery is out of date. Our cannons are still loaded through the muzzle", wrote Rothan, French minister at Francfort who can see disaster coming. "Prussia knows of her superiority and our lack of preparation", he adds with many other observers. The war instigators are not concerned. The candidature of a Hohenzollern prince for the vacant Spanish throne is the excuse for that conflict; also, Bismark wants it. When he faked the dispatch of Ems, the advocates of war had the game in their hands and they aroused public opinion.

France herself declared war. this "war of 1870 which was proved by history to be the work of the Jesuits", as M. Gaston Bally wrote.

The composition of the government which sent France to disaster is described as follows by the eminent catholic historian, Adrien Dansette:

"Napoleon III started by sacrificing Victor Duruy, then resolved to appoint to his government men from the people's party (January 1870). The new ministers were nearly all sincere catholics, or ecclesiastics believing in social conservatism".(44)

It is easy to understand, now, what was inexplicable: the haste of this government to extract a "casus belli" from this faked dispatch, even before receiving a confirmation.

"The consequences were: the collapse of the Empire and the counter-coup for the papal throne which followed... The imperial edifice and the papal edifice, crowned by the Jesuits, fell in the same mud, in spite of the Immaculate Conception and papal infallibility; but, alas! it was over the ashes of France".(45)

(44) Adrien Dansette: "Histoire religieuse de la France contemporaine" (Ed. Flammarion, Paris 1948, I, p.432)

(45) Gaston Bally, op.cit., pp.100, 101.

Section IV

Chapter 6

The Jesuits in Rome—the Syllabus

One can read, in a book from the Abbe Brugerette, the following passage in the chapter entitled "The clergy under the Second Empire":

"Particular devotions, old or new, were honoured more and more at a time when romanticism still exalted the senses to the detriment of austere reason.

The worship of saints and their relics, restrained for so long by the cold breath of rationalism, had taken a new vigour. The worship of the holy Virgin, thanks to apparitions at La Salette and Lourdes, acquired an extraordinary popularity. Pilgrimages to these places privileged by miracles multiplied.

"The French Episcopate... favoured new devotions. It warmly and thankfully welcomed, in 1854, the encyclical letter of Pius IX proclaiming the dogma of the Immaculate Conception... It was also the episcopate, brought together in Paris, in 1856, for the baptism of the imperial Prince, who asked Pius IX that the feast of the Sacred-Heart... should be made into a solemn feast of the universal Church".(46)

These few lines clearly show the preponderant influence exercsied by the Jesuits under the Second Empire, in France as much as over the Holy See, As we saw earlier on, they were and remain the great propagators of these

"particular devotions, old or new", this "perceptible" and almost sensual piety made the masses excessively scrupulous in religious matters, especially women. As far as that is concerned, we must admit that they were realists. The time had gone—already under Napoleon III—when the public as a whole, the learned and the ignorant, took a deep interest in theological questions. Intellectually, Catholicism had ended its career.

It is then more by necessity than because of their formation that the sons of Loyola endeavoured, during the 19th century and today, to awaken (46) Abbe J. Brugerette: "Le pretre francais et la societe contemporaine", (Ed. Lethielleux Paris 1933, I, pp. 183-184).

THE JESUITS IN ROME — THE SYLLABUS

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superstitious religiosity, especially amongst women who make up most of the flock; this was to counter-balance "rationalism", For the secondary education of girls, the Order promoted the founding of several congregations of women. "The most famous and active was the

"Congregation des Dames du Sacre-Coeur"; in 1830, it comprised 105

houses with 4,700 teachers and its influence over the higher classes was very important".(47)

As far as the worship of Mary is concerned, which was always so dear to the Jesuits, it was greatly helped, under the Second Empire, by the very opportune "apparitions" of the Virgin to a little shepherdess of Lourdes; this happened two years after Pius IX promulgated the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (1854), at the instigation of the Company of Jesus.

The main acts of this pontificate were all victories for the Jesuits whose all-powerful influence over the Roman Curia affirmed itself more and more.

In 1864, Pius IX published the encyclical letter "Quanta Cura", accompanied by the "Syllabus" which anathematized the best political principles of the contemporary societies.

"Anathema on all that is dear to modern France! Modern France wants the independance of the state; the 'Syllabus' teaches that the ecclesiastical power must exercise its "authority without the assent and permission of the civil power. Modern France wants the liberty of conscience and liberty of worship; the'Syllabus' teaches that the Roman Church has the right to use force and reinstate the Inquisition. Modern France acknowledges the existence of several types of worship; the 'Syllabus' declares that the Catholic religion must be considered as the only religion of the state and all others are excluded. Modern France proclaims that the people are sovereign; the 'Syllabus' condemns universal suffrage. Modern France professes that all French people are equal before the law; the 'Syllabus'

affirms that ecclesiastics are exempt from ordinary civil and criminal tribunals."

"These are the doctrines taught by the Jesuits in their colleges. They are at the front of the army of counter-revolution... Their mission consists of bringing up the youth put in their care with a hatred for the principles on which French society rests, principles laid down by former generations at a great cost. By their teaching, they try to divide France into two and call into question all that has been done since 1789. We want harmony, they want strife; we want peace, they want war; we want France to be free, they want her enslaved; they are a combatant society receiving its orders from outside; they are fighting us, let us defend ourselves; they threaten us, let us disarm them".(48)

(47) H. Boehmer, op.cit., p.290.

(48) Adolphe Michel: "Les Jesuites" (Sandoz et Fischbacher, Paris 1879, pp.77 ss)

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THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE JESUITS

The Holy See's everlasting pretension to dominate civil society was then reaffirmed, as Renan had already said in 1848, in an article entiled "Clerical liberalism": "It demonstrated that the people's sovereignty, the liberty of conscience and all modern liberties were condemned by the Church. It presented the Inquisition as "the logical consequence of the whole orthodox system", as "the summary of the Church's spirit". It added:

"When she will be able to, the Church will bring back the Inquisition; if she doesn't do it, it is because she cannot do it".(49) The power of the Jesuits over the Vatican was shown even more strongly, a few years after the 'Syllabus', when the dogma of Pontifical Infallibility was promulgated; the Abbe Brugerette wrote that this dogma was to "throw over the tragic years of 1870-1871, which put France into mourning, the brightness of a great Christian hope".