The Jesuits, 1534-1921: A History of the Society of Jesus from Its Foundation to the Present TimeCampbell, Thomas J. (Thomas Joseph)
History
The Jesuits, 1534-1921: A History of the Society of Jesus from Its Foundation to the Present Time
Campbell, Thomas J. (Thomas Joseph)
Jesuits -- History
Such a charge formulated by a king against the Sovereign Pontiff aroused
all Europe, and Bellarmine under the name of "Matthæus Tortus" descended
into the arena. Dr. Andrews replied with clumsy humor by another book
entitled, "Tortura Torti;" that is "The Tortures of Tortus," for which
he was made a bishop. Then Bellarmine retorted in turn and revealed the
fact that his majesty had written a personal letter to two cardinals,
himself and Aldobrandini, asking them to forward a request to the Pope
to have a certain Scotchman, who was Bishop of Vaison in France, made a
cardinal, "so as to expedite the transaction of business with the Holy
See." The letter was signed: "Beatitudinis vestræ obsequentissimus
filius J. R." (Your Holiness' most obsequious son, James the King.) This
sent James to cover and now quite out of humor with himself, because of
the storm aroused in England by the disclosure of his duplicity, he
handed over new victims to the pursuivants, "so that," as he said, "his
subjects might make profit of them," that is by the confiscation of
estates. He then got one of his secretaries to take upon himself the
odium of the letter to Bellarmine, by saying that he had signed the
king's name to it. Every one, of course, saw through the falsehood.
A most unexpected and interesting defender of Father Garnet, who had
been put to death by James, appeared at this juncture. He was no less a
personage than Antoine Arnauld, the famous Jansenist, who was at that
very moment tearing Garnet's brethren to pieces in France. "No
Catholic," he said, "no matter how antagonistic he might be to Jesuits
in general, would ever accuse Garnet of such a crime, and no Protestant
would do so unless blinded by religious hate" (Crétineau-Joly, III, 98).
James I and Bellarmine came into collision again on another point not,
however, in such a personal fashion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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