of
Paul were to be imputed, by the modern conspirators, to their machinations.
On the contrary, the internal tranquillity of that country was never more
apparent, and the improvement of the mind has made rapid strides. The
placing of the Jesuits in her dominions is a proof of the {126} sagacity of
Catherine, and I doubt whether Russia was ever more indebted to any
sovereign than for this step, which was at once magnanimous, wise, and
popular.

CLEMENT XIII.

I should not have thought of enrolling a pope among the authorities in
favour of the Jesuits, it being natural to suppose, that every pope was a
friend to the society, had I not found a list of them arrayed against them
by sir John Hippisley, on the authority of Ganganelli's rescript. Now, that
the sovereign pontiffs interfered in the proceedings and writings of the
members of the society; that they blamed them for the dissentions in which
their zeal involved them with their enemies in all parts of the world; and
that they have condemned some of the fanatical (for this is a term as
appropriate to catholic as puritan zealots), I say some of the fanatical
maxims formerly preached by individuals is not denied, and has {127} been
already noticed in these pages; and this is all that can be gathered from
the rescript; but that this renders the popes _impugners_ of the order is
far from being the fact, and for this reason it is I have been induced to
cite this pontiff, as well as his successor, in the catalogue of
authorities. By the word _impugner_, I presume, that sir John means
_assailant_; now, that the disapproval of some casuists, and the blaming of
untimely or misplaced zeal of some of the society was no assailing of the
order, the following words of Clement XIII, addressed to the archbishops
and bishops of France, will, I think, sufficiently prove: "But the thing,
which gives the deepest wound to the public weal, and to the faithful,
which is the greatest insult to the apostolic see and to you, is the
persecution they have raised against the society of Jesus, which has ever
supplied the church with many able champions, and now, by the credit of a
prevailing faction, is oppressed and dissipated. Its institute, that
institute, which the Roman catholic church, {128} assembled in the council
of Trent, approved of; that institute upon which our predecessors have
bestowed so many solemn encomiums; which has hitherto found protection and
received the most signal marks of