Danger in the Dark - ZseZse

DaNGER IN THE DaRK. 211
Bedini, to enter the priesthood and also the Society of
Jesus.
That they might be the better qualified to practice
the arts of Jesuitism, the necessity of acquiring a
knowledge of letters, was urged upon them.. This
seemed an onerous task-especially to Bedint; yet in
the course of a few years, they both succeeded in acquiring
education enough to read and write. With
these attainments, they were satisfied, as respected
literature and science,
The city of Rome, and indeed the whole country,
being overrun with indolent, idle and destitute priests.
who received but a scanty support and precarious
living, Dupin concei~ed the idea of rendering some
signal service to the Pope, in order to gain promotion;
for he found that to be a priest, without being a favorite
of the sovereign Pontiff, was no great advantage.
Putting himself on the look-out to perform some
feat in Jesuitical artifice, he was not long in finding a
chance to try his hand. A rnmor had somehow got
afloat, that certain of Martin Luther's books, favorable
to the reformation in the sixteenth century, were
being read and circulated among a class of citizens
who had some time been suspected of holding republican
and Protestant principles. Seizing eagerly the
opportunity, Dupin set about ferreting out the matterand
showed himself exceedingly zealous in hunting
down the vile heretics, who should dare possess, and
presume to read books which had been condemned
and interdicted by his holiness the Pope.