The Press.
London, England, 1858-05-22 00:00:00

( To be continued.)

Russia and the Jesuits from 1772 to 1820. By
Henri Lutteroth. Translated from the French.
London : Seeleys.
ALTHOUGH Russia does not now attract as much
general interest as two years ago, still there are
abundant reasons why the thrtunes of so great a
power must always be regarded with attention. As
her future development will probably he influenced
by commercial considerations, Englishmen may
expect to meet her either as a friend or rival;
and whether her practice of trade will eventually
turn upon reciprocity or reprisal is even now a
question of intense interest to many capitalists in
our great seats of trade. The interest in Russian
politics and diplomacy has, for the time at least,
much diminished, on account of the results or the
Crimean campaign, but there will be notch
general and moral regard felt in the social pro-
gress of so great a State with such extraordinary
resources. Its religious aspects, and the attitude
maintained by the Greek Church towards the
Papacy, will also be of considerable importance.
It is computed that Russia has about fifty mil-
lions in her national Church, and all these, in the
eye of the Papacy, are " schismatics." The Rus-

sian Church shares with the Roman in many
corrupted tenets and superstitious Practices, hut
it rejects the " unity " of the Papacy, and it has
no connection with the College of Cardinals or
the Propaganda. Our eminent controversialist,
Leslie, in his " Dialogue between a Roman
Catholic Nobleman and a Protestant Divine,"
lays great force on the fact that the boasted
" unity" of Rome was never heard of in the
Greek Church ; and though Rome appeals to
" tradition " in favour of " unity," the Greek
Church appeals also to tradition against the pre-
tensions of the Papacy. It is too often forgotten
that the Greek Church joins in the cry of " No
Pope," in spite of its many superstitious prac-
tices. Hence the Jesuits would gladly toil to
reduce the Church of Russia, and to bring it
within the fold of Rome.

" Russia and the Jesuits" is a spirited sketch
of the proceedings of the wily members of the
" Society of Jesus" in relation to the religious
affairs of Russia. Banished from several coun-
tries in Europe, and suppressed in 1773 by Cle-
ment XIV., it was a singular circumstance that,
for a time at least, they found protection in
Russia, from which their intrigues again com-
pelled their exclusion. M. Lutteroth has illus-
trated by authentic documents the proceedings
of the Jesuits in Russia, and their conduct is
certainly very well deserving of study. After
the Pope and Roman Catholic princes had shaken
them off, it was a strange destiny that they
should have found protectors in Frederick the
Great and Catherine ll.—in the scoffer against
Christianity and in the habitual violator of
morality! Let us look at some of the unim-
peachable facts here narrated by M. Lutteroth
in this valuable historical tract.

When Catherine gave protection to the Jesuits,
their number was very small. M. Lutteroth
says :

The exact number of Jesuits existing at that period is
not known ; but according to the statistics taken some }ears
before in relation to the diocese of Mohilew, it appears that
the society in Russia in 1788 consisted of 178 members,
of wh mn 98 were priests, 32 students, and 48 lay brothers.
The bishop of this diocese, Stanislas Sestrenzewitch, autho-
rized the conservation of this opler in the empire, notwitte
standing the sentence of the Pope. We cannot exactly
say whether such a service merited much gratitude, but
however small the debt due to him might have been, it
was greater than that which the prelate obtained, for there
is no man of whom the Roman Catholic organs of this day
speak so ill. Not only did the schismatic Empress allow
the Jesuits, notwithstanding the dissolution of their order,
to retain all the possessions they held in the governments
of White Rests* but she liberated them from all manorial
taxes, and opened to all Jesuits residing in other countrie3,
who chose to accept of it, a sure asylum in this province ;
but while thus favouring them, she expected in return that
they would confine their labours exclusively to the educa-
tion of the young Roman Catholics.
Few though they were, the Government of Russia
experienced considerable trouble from them.
We should like to know how many Jesuits there
are in England at the present time, for the
numbers at Stoneyhurst, Ascot, and Clongowes
Wood in Ireland, and the Jesuits College in
Dublin, give no real clue to their strength.
When a mere handful of Jesuits caused such
religious discord in Russia, we may be assured
that they could do even more in England, on
account of the freedom of our laws ; and their
industry in fomenting religious strife has been
unhappily experienced by us in recent years.
Even if we had nothing but the facts in this
tract to guide us, we should be fully justified in
dreading the Jesuits.
It is remarkable that Peter the Great, on his
return from his travels, closed the existing Col-
lege of Russian Jesuits. They had first estab-
lished themselves in Russia between 1560 and
1580, and had toiled hard to bring the Russian
Church under the See of Rome. They excited
pretenders to the Throne of Moscow, and had
caused the' false Demetrius to be crowned, and
then the Polish Prince Vladislas. They were
then forbidden access into Russia, but they found
moans to insinuate themselves (as they have done
iii England since 1829), and in 1705 these un-
tiring secret religious conspirators established a
college in Moscow. In 1719, Peter the Great,
after returning from his travels, closed the college
by a ukase, which is very striking
It was," he said, " after having learned from the evi-
deuce of his own eyes the course of action pursued by
the
Jesuits in foreign countries, and the astonishment he felt
that other sovereigns still tolerated them, that ho had de-
termined to interdict their sojourn in his states
As M. Lutteroth observes, Peter made a great
distinction between Jesuitism and Homan Catbo-

""”,e

licisra. Ile did not assail the Church of Rome as
a creed ; be only put down an order which, upon
national and political grounds, he had reason to
fear. In a later period the Roman Catholic
States of Europe had to implore Rome to suppress
the Jesuits, and finally the Emperor Alexander
had to get rid of them. In the last Emperor's
Act of Accusation against the Jesuits there occur
two passajes, which we extract. One of them is
to this elect

MI the actions of the Jesuits are prompted by self-
interest alone, being directed solely to the acquisition of
unlimited power; dexterous in finding excuses for each
and all of their illegal proceedings, by some regulation of
their Company, they have made for themselves a conscience
as elastic as it is extensive.

The phrase " a conscience as elastic as it is exten-
sive" is a happy one, and critically describes the
Order of Jesus. And, again, this passage is
worthy of note :
The conduct of the Jesuits having placed them beyond
the protection of the law of the empire, RS they have not
only forgotten the sacred duty of gratitude, but also those
duties imposed upon them by their oath as subjeots, they
will be sent beyond the frontiers of the empire, under the
care of the police, and will never be allowed to re-enter
the empire under any other character or denomination
whatsoever.

Thus they had to be driven out of the country
which had extended hospitality towards them,
and which they bad ungratefully repaid.

One of the most interesting parts of this tract
is the notice of that extraordinary writer, Count
Joseph de Maistre, author of "Du Pape," and
other polemical works. 'We recollect that La-
martine happily described De Maistre as " a man
" whose faith in ancient things amounted to a
" deficiency of reason, and to the paradox of the
" servitude of the human mind." De Maistre
was Sardinian Ambassador at St. Petersburg in
the times when the Jesuits were at their intrigues,
and he supported them with great art, and the
Russian Court had finally to request his recal.
Nobody could start a paradox so well as De
Maistre, and he did in his day a vast deal of ser-
vice to the Court and Church of Rome. He wrote
up the idea of " the Pope" with great art, and
supported his views with much ingenuity. But
his eccentric theories, his audacious sophisms,
and his disr of facts make him a dangerous
follfr cause. The Church of Rome has

itself of De Maistre's services, without
acknowledging the orthodoxy of his views.
De Maistre, as quoted by M. Lutteroth, thus
attempted to reason against the argument that
Jesuits are an Imperium in imperio :
Jesuits, it is said, wish to create a state within the
What an absurdity! they might as well say that a
• wished to create a state within the state, because
to depend only upon their own colonel, and
.consider themselves humbled, even insulted, if they
subjected to the examination and control of a strange
The regiment is not shut up in its quarters to go
their exercise, they exercise in the public place.
they manoeuvre ill, the lnspector•General or the Empe•
himself could see it, and place them in order. But if,
'r the pretext of unity, they should deprive this regi-
' which I suppose to have been celebrated and irre-
e for three centuries) of the power of regulating
that they should place such a regiment, and its
under the control of a captain of citizen militia,
never drawn a sword, such an idea would be
if the consequences were not likely to be exceed-
fatal. See, then, M. le Comte, to what we have
this burlesque bugbear of a state within the state;
within a state is a state concealed, or a state inde-
-f the state. The Jesuits, like all other legitimate
and more so than others, are under the hand of
sovereign : he has only to let it fall, and they are
- analogy of the regiment completely fails. A
regiment—English, I rench, or German—is a
of a national army, and is commanded by
nominated by the Sovereign. A regiment
affiliated branches in other countries • its
manoeuvres are not in secret ; its force is visible ;
discipline is known and authorized ; and it is
Periodically subject to the close inspection of the
national authorities. It is not a political or pro-
Pagandist body, and it does not meddle with
private families, or addict itself to intrigues.

great merit in this essay of M. Lutteroth
shows how De Maistre had acquired such
extraordinary zeal in propagating Romanism.
have erroneously supposed that he was an
d thinker, living in his study; but it is
that the Jesuits in Russia aided him largely.
a sort of "lay Jesuit," in point of fact.
curious passages from his writings are
/ M. Lutteroth. Amongst them is one
we quote as a specimen of the way in
an intellectual Romanist of the high

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