For many years they did indeed deny that any such secret rules existed; and doubtless, they will now deny, that these are the real _secret counsels_ by which their affairs are conducted. But about the middle of the last century, when the society was suppressed in Portugal for being accessory to the assassination of King Joseph I. and suddenly expelled from Spain for their complicated crimes; their constitutions and secret records fell into the hands of the public. And in the famous controversy before the great Chamber at Paris, between the merchants of Lyons and Marseilles and the French Jesuits, in the year 1761, about the immense losses in the Martinica trade, the court demanded, and in a luckless hour the Jesuits produced, their secret constitutions; thus falsifying all their former statements. But it had been long certain, that what was now first admitted was really true. In the year 1624 the University of Paris, charged this order with being “_governed by private laws, neither sanctioned by kings, nor registered by parliaments; and which they were afraid to communicate, having done all in their power to prevent their being seen by any other than those of the society_.” (Hist. of the Jesuits p. 329 of vol. 1.) How perfectly does this accord with their own maxims, in their preface to the present work; _let no one who knows our secrets, be allowed to join any other order, except the CARTHUSIANS who preserve strict retirement and perfect silence; WHICH THE SEE OF ROME HAS CONFIRMED_? So that the allegation of the unknown libeller who the Jesuits would have us believe forged the _Secreta Monita_, is confirmed by the direct declaration of the University of Paris, and placed past doubt by the indirect confirmation of the Pope himself! But I will produce one more witness,—PALAEOX, _Bishop of Angelopolis_, in his famous letter to POPE INNOCENT X. dated Jan. 8, 1649, writing of this society, demands “_what other Religion has a secret constitution, hidden privileges, and concealed laws of its own? And what other order has all those things which relate to its government involved in so much mystery? There is suspicion in mystery. The rules of all other orders are open to all; even the Rules and Canons of Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, and the whole clergy; the privileges, instructions, and statutes, of other religious orders may be seen and consulted in almost every library; and the lowest novice in the Franciscan order may read at one view, what his duty would be, if he should ever become the General of his Order._ BUT THE SUPERIORS OF THE JESUITS DO NOT GOVERN THEM BY THE RULES OF THE CHURCH, WHICH ARE KNOWN TO ALL, BUT BY CERTAIN SECRET RULES, (_Regles Cachees_) WHICH ARE ONLY KNOWN TO THOSE SUPERIORS.” (See p. 36, of the edition printed at Cologne, in 1666.)