We must likewise observe to your majesty, that the instructions of the Jesuits in our dioceses are all performed in public; innumerable persons, of all conditions, are witnesses of what they teach; and we have the honour to assure your majesty, that they never were accused at our tribunals of teaching any such doctrine as is now imputed to them. Let us inquire of those, who have been brought up in their colleges, who have frequented their missions, their congregations, their retreats, we are persuaded there is not a man in the nation, who can attest, that he ever heard them teach a doctrine contrary to the safety of your majesty's person, or to the received maxims of the kingdom. On the contrary, in justice to their character, we must all confess, that the constant theme and subject of their school exercises is to celebrate the memorable deeds and heroic actions of our monarchs, and their whole study to impress in their hearers the most dutiful sentiments of loyalty and respect towards your majesty. ARTICLE III. "The conduct of the Jesuits with regard to their subordination to bishops; and whether, in the exercise of their functions, they do not encroach on the pastoral rights and privileges." It cannot be denied but that, if the Jesuits were to avail themselves of the many and great privileges which, at different times, have been granted to them by the see apostolic, they could not be said to live subordinate, either to bishops or to their ecclesiastical superiors. But {356} we are to observe, that these privileges were granted them by a communication and participation of such as had been granted to the mendicant orders, and to the other religious, long before they came into the world; and, with regard to these, we find a decree in the _explanation of their rule_ (art. xii, p. 447), that they are to make use of their privileges with the greatest caution and moderation, and with no other view than for the spiritual advantage of their neighbour; for, being bound by their fourth vow, immediately upon the first notice of his holiness's command, to embark, in order to preach the Gospel to the most remote and barbarous nations, these privileges become absolutely necessary in places where neither bishops nor other pastors are to be found. We may also take notice, both with regard to the bull of Paul III, and those of his successors, that there is a wide difference between their approbation of the first plan of the institute, or of the additions that were afterwards made for the perfecting of the same, and the _privileges_ granted to that society, which are merely accessory to the institute; for these bulls, being written in the ordinary style of the court of Rome, the dispositions made by them cannot be brought into precedent, or have any other force than that which is allowed them by the pope's decretals and the laws of the kingdom, both which have long since declared, that privileges granted by the court of Rome, contrary to the