have learned nothing from them: if the oldest are the most learned, you
are certainly right; they had ended their studies before the Jesuits
had opened their schools. Other parliaments, I am credibly informed, do
not say so; nor, indeed, does all yours. They teach better than others;
that is the true reason why, since their absence, your University is
quite abandoned, and students {76} flock after these masters to Douay,
and other places, within and without my kingdom. You say, they engage
the brightest geniuses, they examine and pick out the best for their
society: I commend them for it. When I raise troops, I chuse those who
are likely to turn out the best soldiers. Were there no room for favour
amongst you, would you admit any, but what were worthy of being
members, and of having a seat in your parliament? I heartily wish you
received such only as are quite deserving, and that virtue were always
the badge and distinctive mark in posts of honour. If the Jesuits
served the public with ignorant masters and preachers, you would
despise them; and now, that they employ in your service men of wit and
capacity, you are not pleased. As to the great estates, you say, they
possessed, it is all calumny and imposture; and I very well know, by
the account of the estates re-annexed to the crown, that seven or eight
masters could not be maintained at Bourges and Lyons; whereas, when the
Jesuits were there, they were thirty or forty {77} in number. But
should there be any difficulty in this respect, I have provided against
it in my edict. To call them a _factious society_, for being concerned
in the _league_, is a reproach that falls only on the times. They
thought they did well: many others were concerned, with whom they were
mistaken and deluded; and they own now, that they have found my
intentions quite contrary to what they had preconceived. But, I am
inclined to believe, they acted with less malice than others, and that
the same disposition, with the favours they receive from me, will make
them as affectionate to me, even more so, than they ever were to the
_league_. It is objected, they get footing in cities and towns by all
means they can: so do others: I myself got into my kingdom as well as I
could. It must be owned, that, with their wonderful patience and
regular way of life, they may compass wh