A Curious Correspondence.

to the Pope , and the King to the People ; and that in the case of flagrant maladministration , the People could depose its King , and even commission any one to kill him . If the King were a heietic , rebellion was justifiable after sentence of deposition had been pronounced against him by the Pope . The King could then be killed by anyone whom the Pope had duly authorised iu that behalf . "Ergo quando respublica juste potest deponererecte

regem , faciunt ministri ejus regem cogendo vel interficiendo si sit necesse Si Papa regem deponat , ab illis tantum poterit expelli vel interfeci quibus ipse id commiserit" ( "Def . Fid . " lib . vi , e . iv . ) . In 1614 , Paul V ., in a Brief , expressed his full approval of this work . But for want of space , many other Jesuit writers might be named who have defended regicide .

At a time when the Jesuit Order was straining every nerve to destroy heresy in Europe by secret intrigue and open force—when its most learned writers were justifying the slaying of heretical monarchs—it could not be expected to remain a passive spectator of the religious struggles in France under Francis II ., Charles IX ., and Henry III . In spite of the Parliament , the Sorbonne , and . the Clergy , it had succeeded in securing a firm footing in

that country . Jesuit priests were everywhere engaged in exciting the popular fury against the Huguenots by inflammatory addresses from the pulpit and numberless pamphlets sown broadcast throughout the country . In the civil wars , they were the most zealous allies of Cardinal de Lorraine , the leading spirit of tho Catholic Reaction . Cretineau-Joly , the apologist of Jesuitism , bears witness to the active part they played in the wars of the League ( " Hist , de la Com . de Jesus . " Paris , 1844 , ii . 390 ) . At their head-centre in Rome

they guided the councils of Pius V . and Gregory XIII ., two of the warmest Patrons of the Order . The former called on Charles IX . to exterminate the Reformation , and furnished liberal supplies of men and money for that purpose . The latter , on the representations of the Jesuit Father Matthieu , warmly approved of an appeal to the sword . Lainez himself , at the Colloquy of Poissy iu 1561 , exhorted Catherine de Medici and the leading Catholic nobility to use

severe measures against the Reformation . This speech was followed by cruel edicts . " France , " says the historian , H . Martin , " became the scene of the most terrible fanaticism and brutality . Armed bands scoured the country , pillaging , burning , and murdering ; what they left undone the executioner ' s axe completed . , These horrors culminated , on the 24 th of August , 1572 , in the Massacre of St . Bartholomew , which is too well-known to require any description When

.., ' , it became known in Rome , there was great rejoicing . Cardinal de Lorraine , who was then at the Papal court , gave the courier a thousand ducats . Gregory XIII . celebrated the event hy solemn processions and a pubic thanksgiving , and had a special medal struck to commemorate it . Cardinal San Severina , another deadly foe of the Reformation , spoke of the fatal day as one " most joyful to the Catholics " ( Ranke . " History of the Popes , " vol . ii .

p . 235 ) . Hallam states that the Jesuit Botero , in his treatise entitled "Relazione Universal ! de Capitani Illustri , " "justifies the Massacre of St . Bartholomew , and all other atrocities of the age " ( " Literature of Europe , " vol . ii . p . 49 ) . The Jesuit Eudssmon Joannes , also , in defending Ribandeneira against the charge of having approved of regicide " sine ulla forma indicii , " says : " Quod si dixisset , damnari tamen ab alio non potuisset , quam ab eo , qui Bartholomaeianum Caroli noni regis immorkditate dignissimi non probaret " ( " Confutatio Anticottoni . " Mayence , 1611 , p . 83 ) .

In 1589 , Henry III . fell by the dagger of Jacques Clement , a young Dominican . Lecky states : — " The Catholics of the League received the news with a burst of undisguised exultation , and in many churches the image of the murderer was placed for reverence upon the altar of God , The Pope publicly pronounced the act to be worthy of ranking with that of Judith . He said it could only be accomplished by the special assistance of Providence , and he blasphemously compared it to the Incarnation and the Resurrection " ( " Hist .