After a preliminary statement of his powers and responsibilities, he declares the Jesuits to have been accused of things "very detrimental to the peace and tranquillity of the Christian Republic," and proceeds to enumerate the Christian sovereigns who have, from time to time, complained of them, and asserts that Pope Sixtus V had found charges against them "just and well founded." Referring to the favor shown them by Gregory XIV, he says that, notwithstanding this, "the accusations against the society were multiplied without number, and especially with their insatiable avidity of temporal possessions." He enumerates _eleven_ popes, including Benedict XIV, who had "employed, without effect, all their efforts" to provide remedies against the evils they had engendered. He accuses them with opposition to "other religious orders;" with "the great loss of souls, and great scandal of the people;" with the practice of "certain idolatrous ceremonies;" with the use of maxims which the Church had "proscribed as scandalous and manifestly contrary to good morals;" with "revolts and intestine troubles in some of the Catholic States;" and with "persecutions against the Church" in both Europe and Asia. He refers to the fact that Innocent XI had been compelled to restrain the society by "forbidding the company to receive any more novices;" that Innocent XIII was obliged to threaten "the same punishment;" and that Benedict XIV had ordered a general visitation and investigation of all their houses in the Portuguese dominions. Alluding to the decree of Clement XIII in their favor, he says it "was rather _extorted_ than _granted_"--that is, that it was obtained by undue means and influences--and that it "was far from bringing any comfort to the Holy See, or any advantage to the Christian Republic;" but had made the times "more difficult and tempestuous," so that "complaints and quarrels were multiplied on every side. In some places dangerous seditions arose--tumults, discords, dissensions, scandals, which, weakening or entirely breaking the bonds of Christian charity, excited the faithful to all the rage of party hatred and enmities." Then follows the assertion that the Kings of France, Spain, Portugal, and Sicily had "found themselves reduced to the necessity of expelling and driving from their States, kingdoms, and provinces, these very Companions of Jesus," because "there remained no other remedy to so great evils;" and that "this step was necessary in order to prevent the Christians from rising one against the other, and for massacring each other in the very bosom of our common mother, the holy Church." For these and many other reasons, and because the Christian world could not be otherwise reconciled, it was urged upon him, he said, that the Jesuits should be "absolutely abolished and suppressed."