Cavalho--better known as Pombal--and the King of Portugal, were both faithful members of the Roman Church, and conducted the Government in obedience to its requirements. But neither of them was disposed to submit to the dictation of the Jesuits of Paraguay with regard to the question of boundary--which was entirely political--or submit to their rebellion against legitimate authority. Such a question did not admit of compromise or equivocation. It presented a vital issue they could neither avoid nor postpone, without endangering the Government and forfeiting their own self-respect. Consequently, they inaugurated prompt and energetic measures to suppress the threatened insurrection of the Jesuits before it should be permitted to ripen into open and armed resistance. From that time forward the controversy constantly increased in violence. The intense hatred of Pombal by the Jesuits has colored their opinions to such an extent that they deny to him either talents or merit, and, inasmuch as they charge all the ensuing results to him, he is pictured by them more as a monster of iniquity than as a statesman of acknowledged ability. All this, however, should count for nothing in deciding the real merits of the controversy. The whole matter is resolved into this simple proposition--that it was the duty of the Government to vindicate and maintain its own authority in the face of Jesuit opposition. It had nothing to do with the Church, nor the Church with it. It did not involve any question of faith, but was confined solely and entirely to secular and temporal affairs. And if, under these circumstances, Pombal had quietly permitted the Jesuits to defy the Government and consummate their object by successful rebellion against its authority, he would have won from Jesuit pens the brightest and most glowing praise, but his name would have gone into history as the betrayer of his country. With the foregoing facts impressed upon his mind, the reader will be prepared to appreciate the subsequent events which led to the expulsion of the Jesuits from all the Roman Catholic nations of Europe, and finally to the suppression and abolition of the society, as the only means of defense against its exactions and enormities. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 93: The Suppression of the Society of Jesus in the Portuguese Dominions. By the Rev. Alfred Weld, "of the Society of Jesus." London, 1877. Page 24.] [Footnote 94: _Ibid._, p. 30.] [Footnote 95: _Ibid._, p. 33.] [Footnote 96: _Ibid._, p. 42.] [Footnote 97: The Suppression of the Society of Jesus in the Portuguese Dominions. By the Rev. Alfred Weld, "of the Society of Jesus." London, 1877. Page 42.] [Footnote 98: History of the Jesuits. By Greisinger. Page 140.] [Footnote 99: Nicolini, p. 302.] [Footnote 100: Nicolini, pp. 303-304.] [Footnote 101: History of Paraguay. By Washburn. Vol. I, p. 87.] CHAPTER XI. THE PORTUGUESE AND THE JESUITS.