to guard against in considering the Jesuits. The intended unity
never was enforced when the order became numerous and was joined by
many able men. There arose so great a wealth of talent that it was
followed by variety in ideas among them, such as the founder never
contemplated. Their general, Aquaviva, forbade every opinion that
contradicts St. Thomas. There could be no question whether it was
true or false, and no other test of truth than conformity with his
teaching. Yet Molina taught, in regard to grace, a doctrine very
different from Thomism, and was followed by the bulk of his order.
They were expected to think well of their rule and their rulers; but
the most perspicacious exposure of what he called the infirmities of
the company was composed by Mariana. Jesuits were by profession
advocates of submission to authority; but the Jesuit Sarasa preceded
Butler in proclaiming the infallibility of conscience. No other
Society was so remarkable for internal discipline; but there were
glaring exceptions. Caussin, confessor to Lewis XIII, opposed the
policy of his superiors, and was dismissed by them. And when the
general required works on theology to be revised at Rome, before
publication, he was told that Father Gretser of Ingolstadt would never
consent. They were all absorbed in the conflict with the Protestants;
but when the idea of reunion arose, late in the seventeenth century,
there were Jesuits, such as Masenius, one of those who anticipated
Paradise Lost, who wrote in favour of it.

As trials for witchcraft were promoted by Rome, the Jesuits,
especially Del Rio, defended them. But it was another Jesuit, Spec,
who broke the back of the custom, though he had to publish his book
anonymously and in a Protestant town. They were, of necessity,
friends of persecution, though one of them, Faure, said that he knew
of 6000 heretics put to death, and doubted if one of them had
renounced his belief. Belief in system, and in an accepted system,
was an essential laid down in their constitutions. But it was Father
Petavius who first described the evolution of dogma, and cast every
system into the melting-pot of History. Under the name of
probabilism, the majority adopted a theory of morals that made
salvation easy, partly as confessors of the great, that they might
retain their penitents; partly as subject to superiors, that they
might not scruple to obey in dubious cases; and partly as defenders of
the irrevocab