“Loose all your bars of massy light, And wide unfold the' ethereal scene; The Lord that all our foes o'ercame; "Morn Unbarr'd the gates of light......when all the plain...... ("Paradise Lost," book vi., II. 2–18.) The repetition in substance of the preceding words in the third stanza, as in the Psalm, increases the effect of the whole in grandeur and impressiveness. Hymns for Whitsunday are the following:-Hymn 86, from C. Wesley's " "Hymns," etc., 1742: "Sinners, your hearts lift up," etc; a striking and admirable paraphrase of Psalm lxviii. 18, 19. Hymn 653: 'Come, Holy Spirit, raise our songs," etc. The first three verses are by Robert Carr Brackenbury, and the remainder from C. Wesley's "Hymns,” etc., 1742. Hymn 654:- "Creator, Spirit, by whose aid," etc. This grand hymn has been too long and familiarly known to need comment. It is a translation by John Dryden of the ancient Latin hymn, "Veni, Creator, Spiritus." Its authorship and precise age are undetermined. We are only certain that it existed about the middle of the twelfth century, as it was then used in France at the ordination of priests, manuscripts of that date being still extant.* Most of the Wesleyan Hymns designated “For New Year's Day" are of sombre hue and penitential cast, bringing the recollections of the departed year into that which is newly born. To a certain extent, this may be right, for penitential retrospection is always proper. But New Year's Day is a festival, and therefore an appropriate season for gratitude and joy. Accordingly, on the Watchnight at the close of the year, in most Methodist congregations, it has long been and is still customary as soon as "The iron tongue of midnight hath toll'd twelve," for the congregation to sing with united voice the exultant Hymn 46:— Come, let us anew Our journey pursue," etc. 46 There is, in another part of our Collection, a hymn of the same metre, and conceived in the same spirit, 498, beginning with the same words :"Come, let us anew Our journey pursue, With vigour arise, And press to our permanent place in the skies," etc. • Palmer's Origines Liturgica. Hymn 645 is entitled, "The Year of Jubilee." Mr. Wesley, in his Journal of January, 1750, alludes to the Jubilee then about to be held at Rome, under Benedict XIV. It was instituted at the end of the thirteenth century, by Boniface VIII., to be held once in a hundred years. At the request of the Roman citizens Clement VI. shortened the period to one in every fifty years, and caused it to be observed A.D. 1350, with great pomp and splendour, and abundance of pardons and indulgences to the multitude of pilgrims who flocked thither. Mr. Wesley says: 66 Monday, January 1, 1750.—A large congregation met at four o'clock, and began the year of Jubilee in a better manner than they at Rome are accustomed to do."* "Blow ye the trumpet, blow The gladly solemn sound; Let all the nations know, To earth's remotest bound, Return, ye ransom'd sinners, home," etc. This bold and stirring hymn is an evangelical paraphrase of Leviticus xxv., or, the Law of the Jubilee, which began on the first day of the month Tisri, the civil New Year's Day. The special purpose of the institution did not appear till the tenth day, which was the great day of atonement. The nine intermediate days were spent in joy and festivity. The slaves did no work, but crowned themselves with garlands, and ate, drank, and made merry. On the tenth day the proper authorities caused the trumpets of the Jubilee to be sounded throughout the land; and in that instant the bondmen became free, and the lands reverted to the original owners. To all these circumstances allusion is made in the hymn. Another Jubilee Hymn, by C. Wesley, in our Collection, is the 712th. It is composed in a calmer strain than the preceding, and although not quite equal, is a close approximation to it in excellence :— "Sing to the Great Jehovah's praise! All praise to Him belongs: Who kindly lengthens out our days, The remaining five stanzas are expressive of ardent gratitude and holy resolution to dedicate body and soul, and time and talents, to God:— "Our residue of days or hours Thine, wholly Thine, shall be; "Till Jesus in the clouds appear To saints on earth forgiven, Journal, vol. ii. J. W. T. THE JESUITS. NO. III. BEFORE THE SUPPRESSION. IN no country were the Jesuits first welcomed more heartily than in Portugal; but they soon wore out the welcome. Ignatius himself sent Simon Rodriguez thither, accompanied by Francisco Xavier, when as yet they were all young men. Rodriguez was introduced to King John III. by Don Pedro Mascarenhas, Portuguese ambassador at the court of Pope Paul III., and was received with great honour by His Majesty and Doña Catharina, the queen, both king and queen being most devoutly submissive to the Pope. But even on his first appearance in Lisbon, Rodriguez made himself an object of suspicion. He roughly rejected the marks of royal faithfulness which awaited him, and, under pretence of humility, turned his back upon both king and queen, and went about the city begging from door to door. To display compassion for the sick, he lodged at night in hospitals. To signify much regard for the poor, he preached to them in congregations by themselves alone. Pretending friendship to captives, he paid visits to the convicts. Now, if works of mercy like these had been sincerely done, he would have been crowned with universal admiration; but intelligent observers gave him little credit for honesty. Those overdone benevolences looked like tricks played to attract the lower classes, while, by his own example, he encou raged them to show disrespect to their superiors; for he treated the king and the queen with insolence, and then went into the streets, as if to call up sedition. He next worked himself into importance in the University of Coimbra, and extended his personal influence to Oporto. So the " companions of Ignatius," as people called them, step by step, spread themselves all over the little kingdom of Portugal in the short space of seven years, having first shown themselves in the provinces under the ostentatiously humble character of missionary penitents. By this time persons of discernment watched their proceedings with anxious jealousy. They say that one Vasco Ferraz, a member of the rising brotherhood, pretending sickness, went from Lisbon to Oporto for change of air, and there established a religious house, as such houses are called, where companions multiplied, and whence they overran the neighbouring country, doing mischief wherever they went; and it became notorious that, as they multiplied, the cynical spirit of discontent, which they propagated first in Lisbon, spread over the kingdom among all classes of people. Always in some disguise, or under some artful pretence, they stealthily made their way into new places, and penetrated into every class of society. One Manoel Godinho, for example, entered the University disguised as a student, in order to instil his principles into the minds of the youth. Another of their fraternity assumed the dress and manners of a working-man, actually worked among the lowest labourers, and took his pay daily as they did. They showed him kindness as a foreigner, and trusted him as a friend. Another of them, brother of the famous Simon Rodriguez, dressed all his novices in skins, begirt with cords, like beggars, and so took them to the Palace Royal, on which occasion simple Queen Catharina wept with emotion at sight of their humility. Then again the rector of the Jesuit College at Coimbra, having a quarrel with the monks of Santa Cruz, put on the air of a man in deep affliction, and took his brothers, in the habit of penitents, in slow procession through the city, whipping themselves as they went, to excite pity and induce the people to do violence to the monks on their behalf. Meanwhile they were industriously swelling their numbers by bringing strangers into their establishments from Spain, France, and Italy, and by enticing young men from the best families in Portugal to join their Society. Thus they accumulated wealth and gained power, both at court and in the provinces. At length, to crown the whole, Rodriguez assumed the title of apostle, and gave the same to his companions, whence, probably, came the term Missionary Apostolic," now so well known in England. But this assumption greatly angered the Portuguese priests, who considered themselves insulted by the insinuation that apostles were needed to bring Christianity into Portugal anew. The year 1540 was marked "unlucky," because of the coming of the Jesuits in that year, the very year of the birth of their Society, and therefore equally unfortunate to Europe and the world. Far otherwise would it have been if honest and true men had united for the work of saving souls, and had done their work with equal earnestness and perseverance, scorning disguise, doing nothing in a corner, and suffering reproach for Christ's sake. From 1540 to 1873, such persons would now have outlived reproach for centuries, and certainly would not at this day be branded with mistrust even where they have not been actually banished and pursued with public execration. During the seventeen years that elapsed from their first appearance in Lisbon to the death of King John III., they had provoked the suspicion, and incurred the enmity, of the majority of the nation. Murmurs rose against the king himself within the royal palace. The court complained that His Most Christian Majesty had wasted his wealth on friars and self-styled apostles, neglecting the just claims of his own faithful servants, and the safety of Portugal itself, and of its possessions abroad. The nobility complained that the king had abandoned himself to be cheated by the Jesuits, instead of taking counsel with his proper advisers. They were especially disgusted with his weakness in allowing them to decoy away his nephew, a son of the Duke of Braganza, whom they had induced to enter their college. The University of Coimbra, having discovered some concealed Jesuits among them, prayed the king that foreigners might be thenceforth excluded; but their prayer was not granted, and they had to mourn over the perversion of some of their choicest youth. The city of Oporto complained, that after admitting strangers whom at first sight they had trusted, they were now surprised to find a clandestine association in their midst. Evora made a similar complaint, attributing their misfortune to the malice of the devil, who had sent those incendiaries within their walls, envying them the prosperity they had hitherto enjoyed. The Inquisition, unused to put any censure on its friends, but perhaps envying these friends the share of its own work they had taken, lifted up its voice, pronouncing father Master Simon a heretic, and requiring the Book of Spiritual Exercises to be VOL. XIX.-FIFTH SERIES. R burnt, which Ignatius himself had written. In short, no one could have any good understanding with such persons. Jealousy ripened into open denunciation, and we have in the Portuguese language an official analysis of the whole story,-the struggle which never ceased, but has been prolonged for three centuries and a third between Jesuitism and humanity. It was published in Lisbon, so far as it went, in the year 1767, the eighth year after the expulsion of the Jesuits from Portugal.* "The court of Lisbon had not ceased to lavish on this Society all that could prove the most entire confidence and the most preponderating credit. At court they were not only the directors of conscience and of conduct to all the princes and princesses of the royal family, but the king and his ministers consulted them on the most important affairs. No place in Church or State was given by the government without their approval or their influence. The high clergy, the nobles, and the people vied with each other in giving them their protection and their favour."† So says Theiner; but this protection and favour were somewhat intermittent, as appears from the multitude of facts recited in the Deduction of Seabra da Sylva, quoted above. That important collection of the Portuguese minister discloses a career of dishonesty, of power and opportunity abused, which more than justified the treatment they received. When their conduct had become utterly insufferable, the Count d'Oeyras, afterwards Marquis of Pombal, Portuguese ambassador at the court of Vienna, strongly expressed his impatience, and the other ministers representing Bourbon sovereigns heartily agreed with him in a determination not to rest until they had effected the dissolution of the Society in their several States. Pope Clement XIII. and his Nuncio at the court of Lisbon strove hard to save those chosen agents of the Papacy. It was evident that the Jesuits were neither more nor less than confidential agents of the Pope and his court for upholding Papal ascendancy over all temporal authority; and the Portuguese Government well knew that, on the course they were compelled to take, depended the safety of the kingdom. They therefore expelled the Nuncio, recalled the Portuguese ambassador from the court of Rome, and interdicted every Portuguese subject, whether clerical or lay, from holding any correspondence with that court, under pain of confiscation of goods, imprisonment, or even death. The Company was at once abolished in Portugal. For the space of ten years the land was swept clean of it. Clement XIII., trembling for himself, reconciled Portugal by abandoning the cause of his disgraced servants in that country; and their expulsion was happily accomplished in the year 1759. Their experience in Portugal should have taught them the need of caution in other countries, but they were not free to learn. Their master, the chief central power, was in Rome. The policy of that power was bold, not to say reckless, as it is unto this day, and the soul of Jesuit discipline is obedience. The Society may not learn except what the Autho * Deducção Chronologica e Analytica. Pelo Doutor Jozeph de Seabra da Sylva. Lisboa. 1767. Histoire du Pontificat de Clement XIV., d'apres des Documents inédits des Archives secrètes du Vatican. Par Augustin Theiner. Paris, 1852. |
