THE Overthrow of Cardinal Tournon was of no use towards the recovery of the Jesuitical cause; it rather inflamed matters more. The Pope, before he received advice of the imprisonment of Tournon, had approved, and in every respect confirmed his injunction. It was therefore necessary to carry on the same measure. The holy office assembled on the twenty-fifth of September, in the year 1710, in presence of the Pope, and came to a new resolution, or rather confirmed and approved that formerly made. They rejected the appeal to the Pope, with which the Jesuits in China had warded off the Cardinal's injunction; and decreed, that, without farther exception or objection, the judgment passed in the year 1704, and the injunction of Cardinal Tournon should remain in full force. They prohibited besides, under the most severe ecclesiastical penalties, the publication of any books or pamphlets concerning the Chinese ceremonies, and declared previously, that all such as should appear from the press, should be ranked among the list of prohibited books. This seems to be a clear

The title of this decree runs thus: "Declaratio super omnimoda ac inviolabili responsorum aliàs in causâ rituum seu ceremoniarum Sinensium à sacrâ congregatione datorum, et à sanctissimo approbatorum cum aliis ordinationibus." The present Pope has inserted it entire in his last bull, " Ex quo singulari," &c. No. 30. N. S.

and strong decree; but it was not strong enough to humble the mighty Jesuits. Extensive as the papal power is, it cannot reach them at the Court of Pekin, in the Emperor of China's Palace. The decree was immediately sent to the Bishop of Pekin, who resides at the city Linzingteou, and he was ordered forthwith to cause it to be delivered to the Jesuits. It arrived towards the end of the year 1713, and in January 1714, the Bishop dispatched his VicarGeneral Charles Castorani, a Franciscan monk, to deliver it into the hands of the Court Jesuits. Castorani executed his commission with great humility, and was received with extraordinary insolence. They told him without ceremony, that if he should presume to read this decree, or any way to divulge it, they would complain of him to the Emperor. He understood their meaning, and having no ambition of martyrdom, retired privately, well satisfied with experiencing no other effect of their resentment, but contempt. †

The Jesuits invented various

The present Pope in his bull just mentioned complains thus: "Nec decretum hujusmodi ad difficiles animos subjiciendos valuit.

+ Caroli Castorani Notæ et Observationes in Bullam Benedicti XIV. supra ceremonias et ritus Sinicos, p. 35. "Non sine mei injuriâ," says he, " ad prædice tum Dominum Episcopum redivi.”

20

bull answers in Asia to the same Pope's bull Unigenitus in Europe. The former controverted, the latter defended by the Jesuits; the former proved the source of great confusion among the Papists in Asia, the latter in Europe. Both have been the occasion of an expense, trouble, and detriment to the Papal See, of which it is not easy to foretel the end. Never was Pope so unfortunate in his bulls as Clement the Eleventh. The constitution Ex illa die is in some measure a contrast to that called Unigenitus. It redresses, as it were, by its zeal against the lax and indulgent maxims of the Jesuits, all the grievance occasioned by the constitution Unigenitus, which favoured them and their doctrine. Hence the Jesuits are as much offended at the former, as the Jansenists at the latter. The Pope begins with reciting all that had been done in the Chinese controversy. Next he sets forth, with expressions of grief, the many artful inventions, wherewith the Jesuits, whom he does not

* It is intitled thus: "Clementis Pape XI. Præceptum super omnimoda, absoluta, integra et inviolabili observatione eorum, quæ aliàs à Sanctitate sua in causa rituum seu ceremoniarum Sinen

sium decreta fuerunt: cum rejectione quarumcunque rationum, seu excusationum ad ejusmodi decretorum executionem declarandam allatarum, ac præscriptione formulæ juramenti per Missionarios illarum partium præsentes et futuros hac in re præstandi."

mention, had presumed to invalidate the last decree of the holy See, clear and limited as it was. To obviate at once and for ever this unaccountable insolence, he commands, in the strongest terms a Pope is capable of, all the clergy in China, and the monks in particular, under pain of that excommunication, which none but the Poper himself can remit, except in the hour of death, strictly to observe as sacred, the decrees hitherto passed by the Inquisition, and the ordinance of the Cardinal Tournon, and under no pretence whatever to transgress them. With the same rigour and caution he enjoins all ecclesiastics, who should be sent to China, and other Asiatic countries, to take an oath to obey his commands without any reserve, and that no person whatever should be admitted to the lowest office, without having previously taken this oath. To secure the observation of it more more strongly, the oath was not only to be taken viva voce, but to be subscribed by every ecclesiastic, and the oaths thus subscribed were all to be transmitted to the holy office at Rome. In the last place the Pope commands, with the highest degree of caution and severity, that no ancient indulgences, no general or particular rights and privileges, no tradition, no evasions, whether already invented, or thereafter to be invented, should avail in the least against these constitutions, and that they should remain in force as an eternal and irrevocable law. It was concluded with an express order, that this bull should be sent and notified to all the clergy, and especially to the Jesuits. It is needless to recite the oath at large. The juror was to oblige himself exactly, absolutely, inviolably, and without any evasion, to obey the bull,* and ac

knowledge himself worthy, in case of disobedience, of the punishment there threatened. There is not one among all the decrees of the bishops of Rome so accurately and cautiously worded, or so minutely guarded against every possible exception and evasion. The lawyers, who prepared it, exhausted their whole stock of such words, as might be effectual to disarm those men that study to transgress under the colour of law.

An English ship carried over this terrible bull to China, and it was dispersed amongst the Romish clergy of the empire, before the Jesuits knew of its arrival. Had these been earlier apprized of it, the Emperor would probably have sent a countermand to meet and annul it. It was necessary, how ever, in obedience to the Pope's order, to present it to them, and notify it in their churches at Pekin. This was the ruin of the bull. Honest Castorami, by his bishop's command, undertook this dangerous office, and unfortunately for himself executed it with success. He arrived at Pekin on the fifth of November in 1716, and on the same day, without any previous notice to the Jesuits, read the decree he was charged with, in three of their churches. But he was ill rewarded for his pains. On the third day after his arrival, an officer of state, by the Emperor's order, caused him to be fettered with a chain of extraordinary weight and strength at his neck, hands, and feet, and thus loaded to be thrown into a dungeon, as a traitor who had dared to introduce foreign laws into the empire. His troubles lasted seventeen months. Sometimes he was indulged with a certain degree of liberty, and again shut up in close confinement, sometimes sent to Canton, and then recalled to Pekin. At last he obtained his liberty, upon condition that he should carry

the bull back to his bishop, and not dare to divulge it any farther.* This secured only the capital against the thundering bull; to defeat the terror of it in the rest of the empire, his Imperial Majesty by a severe edict notified to all Papists, that he would immediately banish them from his dominions, and cause their Chinese converts to be put to death without distinction, if they paid more regard to the Pope than to him, and attempted to execute Romish laws. And these menaces were not merely verbal. It appeared in some places, that the government was in earnest, and would not suffer itself to be insulted with impunity.

The Jesuits, who were the original founders of this and much more mischief, lamented it no less than those who felt the weight of it.

They complained heavily in their writings and conversation, that the Court of Rome was under the influence of persons neither discreet nor experienced, that bulls were transmitted to China, which tended to desolate the Lord's vineyard. "When will his Holiness," said they, " and our enemies who mislead him, awake and learn discretion? Not, it is to be feared, till they find it too late. We wash our hands; we have delivered our souls from the burden. Let the blood of the poor Christians in China, whom this bull perhaps will bring to a fatal end, fall upon the councils who dictated it. We have done our utmost to soften the Emperor's resentment. We have implored

and entreated him. But he is inexorable in matters that affect the ancient fundamental laws of the empire."

These complaints, however, did not exempt the Jesuits from the duty of obeying the bull, and

* Castorani notæ in Bullam Benedicti XIV. Sect. ii. p. 35, &c.

every precept it contained. The subjects of the Pope, and the Jesuits as much as any, are obliged to submit to his ordinances, though all the kings and infidels upon earth should oppose them. The supremacy he assumes, as vicegerent of Christ, would be merely titular indeed, if the laws and menaces of heathen kings had power to annul and invalidate his apostolical precepts. The Jesuits therefore, not knowing how to palliate their disobedience in the eyes of the Emperor, resolved to seek for some subterfuge in the bull itself. But this seemed impossible to find in a decree penned with so much caution and subtlety, as this Ex illa die. However, Jesuitical sagacity surmounts all difficulties. The evasion, which the bull itself will not afford, is discovered in the title. It was inscribed, Præceptum de omnimoda, This single word furnished the Jesuits with all they wanted. "A precept," said they, "is no law. The Pope himself calls his bull no more than a precept. Undoubtedly a precept from him claims the most profound respect; but it is not an indisputable article of faith which must be implicitly acquiesced in. We are therefore not bound tenaciously to adhere to this bull." This artifice of theirs will appear like a piece of slander. But it is attested by a hand of great authority in the present case, of the highest authority to the Jesuits themselves. The present Pope Benedict the Fourteenth is my author, and to obviate all doubts on this head, I have quoted his own words in the note.

&c.

* His words in the bull Ex quo singulari, &c. are these: "Nihilominus inobedientes et captiosi bomines exactam ejusdem Constitutionis (Clementis XI.) observantiam se effugere posse putarunt, EX RATIONE, QUOD ILLA PRÆCEPTI TITULUM PRÆFERT, quasi vero non indissolubilis legis, sed præcepti mere ecclesiastici vim haberet.

The consternation occasioned at Rome, by this unexpected and disagreeable news from China, may be easily imagined. It was now apparent, that all orders and constitutions would be vain, and the Jesuits prove invincible, unless the Emperor could be gained, and a protection obtained for the obnoxious bull from him. The Pope therefore resolved to send a legation to the Emperor, to entreat him, that he would permit the clergy to observe his bull. The legate was Charles Anthony Mezzabarba, a Milanese, who died Bishop of Lodi some years ago. His Holiness created him Patriarch of Alexandria, to add lustre and dignity to his commission. He embarked at Lisbon, March 25, 1720, landed at Macao, September the twenty-sixth of the same year, and re-embarked for Europe, with the body of his predecessor Cardinal Tournon, on the thirteenth of December, 1721. It is not above eight or nine years ago, since the world has had a circumstantial account of his negotiations, sufferings, and dangers, published by his direction. The editor was P. Viani, his confessor and fellow-traveller.* All that was known of his success before that time was, that he had conducted himself with more prudence, and therefore met with better treatment than Tournon, and that he in some measure explained and softened the bull of Clement the

Istorie delle cose operate nella China da Monsignor Gio-Ambrosio Mezzabarba, Patriarca d'Alessandria, Legato Apostolico, in quell' Impero et di presente Vascovo de Lodi. Scritta dal Padre Viani suo Confessore e Compagno nella predetta Legazione. Opera data adesso la prima volta alla luce. In Parigi. Appresso Monsu Briasson. 1739." Though the title dates it from Paris, the book was without doubt printed privately in Italy. A large extract of it may be seen in the Bibliotheque raisonnée, Tom. xxv. P. i. p. 101, and P. ii. p. 326. See likewise P. Norbert's Memoires sur les Missions Orientales, Tom. ii, p. 256, &c.

Eleventh according to the humour of the Jesuits. Indeed, the choice of him was more judicious than that of the Cardinal. Mezzabarba was a man of sound judgment and quick apprehension, perfectly knew the world, possessed all the art and finesse of an Italian, was never disconcerted in the most sudden circumstances of danger, and always deliberated before he spoke. Without departing in the least from his dignity, he paid all the respect due to the person of the Emperor, and in the midst of his zeal against the Jesuits, expressed marks of reverence to him as sovereign of the country, and to his substitutes. The Emperor received him most graciously, and gave him frequent audience. But notwithstanding the honours that were shown him, he was in continual fear and danger of his life. He complains in his pastoral letter, of which we shall soon have occasion to take notice, that his residence in China was attended with fear and trembling, because he knew not how to speak the wisdom of this world. And indeed he might probably have found it difficult to escape imprisonment, or perhaps even death, had he not, in his greatest extremity, signified to the Jesuits the powers he had to moderate the obnoxious bull by some favourable explanations. He was never admitted to an audience at court without some bitter mortification. Cam-hi was lively, ingenious, and much disposed to raillery. He frequently made his sport of the pope, the legate, the bull, and the Romish faith itself. Sometimes he spoke with warmth of Tournon, Maigrot, and the other opponents of his friends the Jesuits. Mezzabarba was obliged to be cautious and respectful in his answers to the Emperor's jests

* Quia non sapientiam hujus sæculi locuti fuimus, in timore et tremore multo fuimus apud vos.

and menaces. But he was entirely disappointed in the principal subject of his legation. The Emperor subscribed the bull, in red ink, with his Ci, that is, his authoritative declaration concerning it. "The bull," says he, "in my opinion concerns only the common Europeans, and does not at all affect the great and venerable doctrine of the Chinese. It contains many absurdities and falsehoods, and the best step we can take to put a final end to these disputes, is, to prohibit the Europeans from preaching their law in our empire." The Legate had nothing farther to solicit, but leave to return to Europe, and inform his Holiness of the Emperor's opinion and resolution. He continued to be variously mortified for some time, both by the Jesuits and at court, and was at last permitted to depart.

He was detained at Macao six months after his return from Pekin. Part of this time he spent in writing that celebrated pastoral letter to the Romish clergy in China, to which alone may be attributed all the praise conferred on him by Du Halde and the rest of the Jesuits. This piece contains the eight indulgences or limitations of the bull, Ex illa die, &c. under the protection of which the Jesuits have for some time past, without hindrance or molestation, violated it. I beg leave briefly to relate the history of these indulgences from the words of the present Pope Benedict the fourteenth, who hath repealed them.

at

Whilst Mezzabarba was Rome, preparing for his voyage, some doubts and queries, concerning the delivery of this bull, had been laid before two persons, who had resided long in China. These two were probably Jesuits. The Pope mentions neither their names, nor their order. He seems displeased at them, yet studies to