parliament, to undertake an affair of this nature
without the concurrence and joint consent of his holiness the supreme
pastor of the church, of the bishops of France, and of a general
congregation of the Jesuits: we might add, without the consent of all the
professed Jesuits, as such an alteration in their dependence on their
general would affect the very vitals of the order, and change the whole
constitution.

For these one hundred and fifty years, our history affords one only
instance (of 1681) in which this authority of their general might have been
any way prejudicial to the state; and if, on that occasion, the loyalty of
the French Jesuits underwent a very severe trial, it had no other effect
than to convince the whole kingdom how well they deserved that honourable
testimony of your parliament, that their prudence guarded them against all
surprise, and their loyalty against corruption.

But nothing, perhaps, can be of greater weight in this matter than the
judgment of your majesty's royal {371} predecessor Henry IV, of glorious
memory[136], who, in the midst of all his troubles, when the kingdom was in
the greatest ferment, and he beset by persons, who spared no pains to
instil into his mind the greatest distrust of the Jesuits, desired no other
security for their good behaviour than this alone, that he might have one
of that body ever near his person in quality of preacher to his majesty,
and that a French assistant should be established with the general at Rome.

Your majesty is still possessed of the same security; and, since we are
taught by the experience of a hundred and fifty years, that this is
abundantly sufficient for the purpose, there can be no need of any farther
caution or new regulation; especially as the Jesuits, in the late
declaration, which they had the honour to present your majesty, have
assured us in the most express terms, that, if their general was to require
any thing of them contrary to the laws of your kingdom or to the obedience
and respect due to your majesty, they neither could nor would pay any
regard to such commands; and that their vow of obedience, as it is
explained in their rule, doth no way bind them to such a compliance. This
so peremptory declaration of the Jesuits, and the wise dispositions of the
edict in 1603, leave no room to apprehend any danger from the general's
abusing his authority to the prejudice of your majesty's kingdom. We are,
&c.

The cardinal DE LUYNES.