tion of the Jesuits was a hybrid between their order and
Catholicism. The peril to the Church was imminent; its decadence
demanded desperate remedies. They invoked regicide, revolt, and treason,
to effect an impossible cure.

The political theory of the Jesuits was deduced from their fundamental
principle of obedience to the Church. They maintained that the
ecclesiastical is _jure divino_ superior to the secular power. The Pope
through God's commission and appointment sways the Church; the Church
takes rank above the State, as the soul above the body. Consequently,
the first allegiance of a Christian nation, together with its secular
rulers, belongs of right to the Supreme Pontiff. The people is the real
sovereign; and kings are delegates from the people, with authority which
they can only justly exercise so long as they remain in obedience to
Rome. It follows from these positions that every nation must refuse
fealty to an irreligious or contumacious ruler. In the last resort they
may lawfully remove him by murder; and they are _ipso facto_ in a state
of mortal sin if they elect or recognize a heretic as sovereign. This
theory sprang from the writings of the English Jesuits, Allen and
Parsons. It was elaborated in Rome by Cardinal Bellarmino, applied in
Spain by Suarez and Mariana, and openly preached in France by Jean
Boucher. The best energies of Paolo Sarpi were devoted to combating the
main position of ecclesiastical supremacy. His works had a salutary
effect by delimiting the relations of the Church to the State, and by
demonstrating even to Catholics the pernicious results of acknowledging
a Papal overlordship in temporal affairs. At the same time the boldly
democratic principle of the sovereignty of the people, which the Jesuits
advanced in order to establish their doctrine of ecclesiastical
superiority, provoked opposition. It led to the contrary hypothesis of
the Divine Right of sovereigns, which found favor in Protestant
kingdoms, and especially in England under the Stuart dynasty. When the
French Catholics resolved to terminate the discords of their country by
the recognition of Henri IV., they had recourse to this argument for
justifying their obedience to a heretic. It was felt by all sound
thinkers and by every patriot in Europe, that the Papal prerogatives
claimed by the Jesuits were too inconsistent with national liberties to
be tolerated. The zeal of the Society had clearly outrun its discretion;
and th