Danger in the Dark - ZseZse

DANGER IN TH~, DARK. 123
religion and politics. The mission of the order, in the
sixteenth century, was to destroy the reformation;
though unsuccessful, yet evidently it contributed much
to retard the progress of reform. Jesuits, in this
country, from motives of policy, profess to be the
friends of light and knowledge; but every reader of
history knows, that for three hundred years in Catho-
lic countries, they have been violent opposers of edu-
cation and the general dissemination of knowledge,
In France, whon they thought thcmselvca strong
enough to crush the colleges, they unblushingly made
the attempt; and for one, I doubt not, that the pre-
sent generation may live to witness a similar attempt
in this country."
"Do not Jesuits take their name from J esus ~"
"Yes; but should have taken it from Judas."
"Well, tell me something of the origin of the order."
" Jesuitism was born in Spain, prepared in France,
and developed in RO~le: there it assimilated itself
with the spirit of cosmopolitanism. In Spain, it only
thought at first of the possession of the holy sepul-
cher; arrived in Italy, it becomes more practical-
does not stop with coveting a tomb-what it wishes
for beside, is the living man, to make a corpse of
him, that is, that he become in a certain sense, dead,
and yield himself up a passive instrument in the
hands of the Pope and hi.s councils; to be used or
set aside at pleasure, just as a man would use a
staff;" ,
"How long has Jesuitism been in existence 1"