them to be Apocryphal, 230 CHAPTER XII. 1608-1700. OVERGROWING INFLUENCE OF THE SOCIETY. New Phase of the History of the Order—The Jesuits contend for Supremacy wherever they are established—Their Influence in various Courts—They become Confessors of the Kings of France—Assassination of Henry IV.—The Jesuits accused by the Parliament of being the Accomplices of Ravaillac—Apologetic Letters of Father Cotton, the late King’s Confessor—The _Anti-Cotton_, a Pamphlet against the Jesuits—Cotton, Confessor of Louis XIII.—Death of Acquaviva, 1615—His Acts—With him ends the _prestige_ exercised by the Generals—Election of Vitelleschi—His Character—Canonisation of Loyola and Xavier—Rules to be observed in making Saints—Quantity of Saints found in the Cemetery of St Lorenzo fuor delle mura—They are at last discovered to have been dug up from a Pagan Burial-place—Feasts on the Canonisation of Loyola and Xavier—Impious Panegyrics in their Honour—Solemnisation of the Secular Year of the Establishment of the Society—_Imago Primi Sæculi_—Some Extracts from it—How Crétineau excuses the Extravagancies of the _Imago_—The Book expresses the real Feelings of the Jesuits—The greatest Houses have one of their Members a Jesuit—The Jesuits under Richelieu—Under Mazzarini—Louis XIV. assumes the Government—Beginning of the extraordinary Influence of the Order—Louis XIV. and Philip II. both bigoted Papists—Both wage War against the Pope—Servility of the Jesuits towards Louis XIV.—They are allowed to persecute the Protestants—De la Marca’s Formula to be subscribed by the Jansenists—They refuse to do so—Persecution raised against them—Edict of Nantes—Father Lachaise—His Character—He becomes the King’s Confessor—His Ascendancy over the King—Revocation of the Edict of Nantes—Massacre of the Huguenots—Their Bodies exhumed from the Tombs—Numberless Families obliged to leave France—Lachaise becomes an important Personage—His Residence—He disposes of _Lettres de Cachet_—What these were—He unites in Secret Marriage the King and Madame de Maintenon. The Right of disposing of all the Livings and Bishoprics attached to the Office of the King’s Confessor—Immense Power which it confers upon the Order—Letellier succeeds Lachaise as King’s Confessor—His Character—His Persecuting Spirit—By his orders, Port-Royal Destroyed from the Foundation, the Tombs Violated, and the Bodies of the Deceased given to be Devoured by the Dogs, 253