_approval_
and _confirmation_. To my understanding they convey a most decided
approbation and confirmation of the institute. Well, what succeeds the
_imprimis_? What does the pontiff next examine, weigh, and debate
attentively, carefully, and wisely? The reader will look in vain for the
second head of wise deliberation; the actuating assertion immediately
follows: "actuated by _so many_ and important considerations," &c. &c., and
_impelled by fear_, for that is the import of the following sentences, "WE
DO SUPPRESS AND ABOLISH THE SAID COMPANY." The only possible apology, that
can be made for Clement, in this rescript, is, that he acted, as lawyers
term it, under duress. After his own avowal, while a cardinal, can any man
doubt, that he {109} imagined that the intrigues going on in France, Spain,
Portugal, and Sicily, against the Jesuits, would prove fatal to the power
of Rome, if the society were protected? The whole of the preamble of his
rescript consists of the approbation of his predecessors, and the appeals
of the intriguers of the nations around him against the Jesuits. At last,
the _Inquisition_[46] of Spain (see page 20), press so strongly, that
Sixtus V determines to examine the matter; but he is saved the misfortune
by death, and his successor, Gregory XIV, approves of the institution of
the society in its utmost extent, confirms their privileges, and ordains
that, under pain of excommunication, all proceedings against the society
should be quashed (page 21). In short, neither in the multifarious
preamble, nor in the short actuating clause, does Clement XIV once advance
an opinion of his {110} own adverse to the society; but throughout lends
himself to the representations of foreign cabals, to which he at last
confessedly sacrifices them.

All, then, that this rescript proves is, that powerful parties prevailed,
in certain states, against the Jesuits, and that Clement XIV,
notwithstanding the _approval_ and _confirmation_ of the council of Trent,
evinced by their declaration, as above cited; notwithstanding the approval
and confirmation of successive popes; notwithstanding his own approval and
regret (all clearly inserted in this rescript); found himself compelled, by
the pressure of unjust and arbitrary power, to withhold his confirmation,
to suppress and abolish a society, to whom he knew it was doubtful, whether
religion and piety or science and letters were more indebted.

Such is the analysis of the lum