French Reformation
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disguise too difficult for them to assume. Vowed to perpetual poverty
and humility, it was their studied aim to secure wealth and power, to
be devoted to the overthrow of Protestantism, and the re-establishment
of the papal supremacy.
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When appearing as members of their order, they wore a garb of
sanctity, visiting prisons and hospitals, ministering to the sick and the
poor, professing to have renounced the world, and bearing the sacred
name of Jesus, who went about doing good. But under this blameless
exterior the most criminal and deadly purposes were often concealed.
It was a fundamental principle of the order that the end justifies the
means. By this code, lying, theft, perjury, assassination, were not
only pardonable but commendable, when they served the interests
of the church. Under various disguises the Jesuits worked their way
into offices of state, climbing up to be the counselors of kings, and
shaping the policy of nations. They became servants to act as spies
upon their masters. They established colleges for the sons of princes
and nobles, and schools for the common people; and the children of
Protestant parents were drawn into an observance of popish rites. All
the outward pomp and display of the Romish worship was brought to
bear to confuse the mind and dazzle and captivate the imagination, and
thus the liberty for which the fathers had toiled and bled was betrayed
by the sons. The Jesuits rapidly spread themselves over Europe, and
wherever they went, there followed a revival of popery.
To give them greater power, a bull was issued re-establishing the
inquisition. (See Appendix.) Notwithstanding the general abhorrence
with which it was regarded, even in Catholic countries, this terrible
tribunal was again set up by popish rulers, and atrocities too terrible
to bear the light of day were repeated in its secret dungeons. In many
countries, thousands upon thousands of the very flower of the nation,
the purest and noblest, the most intellectual and highly educated, pi-
ous and devoted pastors, industrious and patriotic citizens, brilliant
scholars, talented artists, skillful artisans, were slain or forced to flee
to other lands.
Such were the means which Rome had invoked to quench the light
of the Reformation, to withdraw from men the Bible, and to restore
the ignorance and superstition of the Dark Ages. But under God’s
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blessing and the labors of those noble men whom He had raised up to
succeed Luther, Protestantism was not overthrown. Not to the favor or