[99] Not having elsewhere met with this monstrous calumny, I incautiously ascribed the invention of it to Laicus. But in one of the Italian libels, mentioned in the last note, the writer, having informed the _minuto populo_ of Italy, that the Jesuits are professed poisoners, gives the proof in these words: "Perhaps pope Innocent XIII was snatched from us by Jesuitical barbarity. There would be no doubt of it, if only the surgeon of that pope, who is still alive (in 1760), would be pleased to declare, that the Jesuits had infused poison through the sore in the old pontiff's leg. But he is silent, through dread of the Jesuits' vengeance." This is called _illuminating the minuto populo_. Laicus catches the ray, and reflects it, with lustre improved, upon our _minuto populo_, when he assures them, that Innocent XIII _was UNIVERSALLY UNDERSTOOD to have been murdered by the Jesuits_. Such is the progress of genius. [100] See Letter II. [101] Ibid. [102] See Letter II. [103] See Letter II. [104] Ibid. [105] See Letter II. [106] Ibid. [107] See Letter II. [108] See Letter III. [109] Voltaire, in his History of Louis XIV, had the assurance to write, that our king James II was a Jesuit. Abbé Millot, a pitiful imitator of Voltaire, who had been dismissed from the society of the Jesuits, obtained a seat in the French academy, and published _Elemens de l'Histoire de France_. In this meagre work, not to be outdone by his master, he has the impudence to advance, that St. Louis IX, king of France, was a Dominican friar. All this passes for history with certain readers, who are not quite among the _minuto populo_. [110] See Letter III. [111] Urban VIII was elected pope in 1625. I have before me an authentic list of all the superiors of the Jesuits in England from 1623 downwards to 1773, in which no name like Stillington appears. [112] See Letter III. [113] Pope, indeed, has contradicted the calumny in his energetic verse, _Where London's column, pointing at the skies,_ _Like a tall bully, lifts the head, and lies._ In spite of which, the column is still allowed to disgrace the first city in the world, though it totters, and daily nods destruction around it.--_Ed._