Theos-Talk Archives (October 2004 Message tt00415)

Oct 28 2004

 

Jesuitism and Theosophy -- HPB contrasts

 

A recent comment made reminded me of this article by HPB and also of what
she wrote on the same subject in Vol. 2 of ISIS UNVEILED .

 

Here is the article.

 

Best wishes,

 

Dallas

 

 

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THEOSOPHY OR JESUITISM?


"Choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers
served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the
Amorites."--JOSHUA, XXIV., 15.

The thirteenth number of Le Lotus, the recognised organ of Theosophy, among
many articles of undeniable interest, contains one by Madame Blavatsky in
reply to the Abbé Roca. The eminent writer, who is certainly the most
learned woman of our acquaintance, discusses the following question: "Has
Jesus ever existed?" She destroys the Christian legend, in its details, at
least, with irrecusable texts which are not usually consulted by religious
historians.

This article is producing a profound sensation in the Catholic and
Judeo-Catholic swamp: we are not surprised at this, for the author's
arguments are such as it is difficult to break down, even were one
accustomed to the Byzantine disputes of theology.--PARIS, Evening paper, of
May 12, 1888.

THE series of articles, one of which is referred to in the above quotation
from a well-known French evening paper, was originally called forth by an
article in Le Lotus by the Abbé Roca, a translation of which was published
in the January number of LUCIFER.

These articles, it would seem, have stirred up many slumbering animosities.
They appear, in particular, to have touched the Jesuit party in France
somewhat nearly. Several correspondents have written calling attention to
the danger incurred by Theosophists in raising up against themselves such
virulent and powerful foes. Some of our friends would have us keep silent on
these topics. Such is not, however, the policy of LUCIFER, nor ever will be.
Therefore, the present opportunity is taken to state, once for all, the
views which Theosophists and Occultists entertain with regard to the Society
of Jesus. At the same time, all those who are pursuing in life's great
wilderness of vain evanescent pleasures and empty conventionalities an ideal
worth living for, are offered the choice between the two now once more
rising powers--the Alpha and the Omega at the two opposite ends of the realm
of giddy, idle existence--THEOSOPHY and JESUITISM.

For, in the field of religious and intellectual pursuits, these two are the
only luminaries--a good and an evil star, truly--glimmering once more from
behind the mists of the Past, and ascending on the horizon of mental
activities. They are the only two powers capable in the present day of
extricating one thirsty for intellectual life from the clammy slush of the
stagnant pool known as Modern Society, so crystallized in its cant, so
dreary and monotonous in its squirrel-like motion around the wheel of
fashion. Theosophy and Jesuitism are the two opposite poles, one far above,
the other far below even that stagnant marsh. Both offer power--one to the
spiritual, the other to the psychic and intellectual Ego in man. The former
is "the wisdom that is from above . . . pure, peaceable, gentle . . . full
of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy," while
the latter is "the wisdom that descendeth not from above, but is earthly,
sensual, DEVILISH." One is the power of Light, the other that of Darkness. .
. .

A question will surely be asked: "Why should anyone choose between the two?
Cannot one remain in the world, a good Christian of whatever church, without
gravitating to either of these poles?" Most undeniably, one can do so, for a
few more years come. But the cycle is rapidly approaching the last limit of
its turning point. One out of the three great churches of Christendom is
split into atomic sects, whose number increases yearly; and a house divided
against itself, as is the Protestant Church--MUST FALL. The third, the Roman
Catholic, the only one that has hitherto succeeded in appearing to retain
all its integrity, is rapidly decaying from within. It is honeycombed
throughout, and is being devoured by the ravenous microbes begotten by
Loyola.

It is no better now than a Dead Sea fruit, fair for some to look at, but
full of the rottenness of decay and death within. Roman Catholicism is but a
name. As a Church it is a phantom of the Pad and a mask. It is absolutely
and indissolubly bound up with, and fettered by the Society of Ignatius
Loyola; for, as rightly expressed by Lord Robert Montagu, "The Roman
Catholic Church is (now) the largest Secret Society in the world, beside
which Freemasonry is but a pigmy." Protestantism is slowly, insidiously, but
as surely, infected with Latinism--the new ritualistic sects of the High
Church, and such men among its clergy as Father Rivington, being undeniable
evidence of it. In fifty years more at the present rate of success of
Latinism among the "upper ten," the English aristocracy will have returned
to the faith of King Charles II, and its servile copyist--mixed
Society--will have followed suit. And then the Jesuits will begin to reign
alone and supreme over the Christian portions of the globe, for they have
crept even into the Greek Church.

It is vain to argue and claim a difference between Jesuitism and Roman
Catholicism proper, for the latter is now sucked into and inseparably
amalgamated with the former. We have public assurance for it in the pastoral
of 1876 by the Bishop of Cambrai. "Clericalism, Ultramontanism and Jesuitism
are one and the same thing--that is to say, Roman Catholicism--and the
distinctions between them have been created by the enemies of religion,"
says the "Pastoral." "There was a time," adds Monseigneur the Cardinal,
"when a certain theological opinion was commonly professed in France
concerning the authority of the Pope. . . . It was restricted to our nation,
and was of recent origin. The civil power during a century and a half
imposed official instruction. Those who professed these opinions were called
Gallicans, and those who protested were called Ultramontanes, because they
had their doctrinal centre beyond the Alps, at Rome. Today the distinction
between the two schools is no longer admissible. Theological Gallicanism can
no longer exist, since this opinion has ceased to be tolerated by the
Church. It has been solemnly condemned, past all return, by the Œcumenical
Council of the Vatican. ONE CANNOT NOW BE A CATHOLIC WITHOUT BEING
ULTRAMONTANE--AND JESUIT.

A plain statement; and as cool as it is plain.

The pastoral made a certain noise in France and in the Catholic world, but
was soon forgotten. And as two centuries have rolled away since an exposéof
the infamous principles of the Jesuits was made (of which we will speak
presently), the "Black Militia" of Loyola has had ample time to lie so
successfully in denying the just charges, that even now, when the present
Pope has brilliantly sanctioned the utterance of the Bishop of Cambrai, the
Roman Catholics will hardly confess to such a thing. Strange exhibition of
infallibility in the Popes! The "infallible" Pope, Clement XIV (Ganganelli),
suppressed the Jesuits on the 23rd of July, 1773, and yet they came to life
again; the "infallible" Pope, Pius VII, re-established them on the 7th of
August, 1814. The "infallible" Pope, Pius IX, travelled, during the whole of
his long Pontificate, between the Scylla and Charybdis of the Jesuit
question; his infallibility helping him very little. And now the
"infallible" Leo XIII (fatal figures!) raises the Jesuits again to the
highest pinnacle of their sinister and graceless glory.

The recent Brevet of the Pope (hardly two years old) dated July 13th (the
same fatal figure), 1886, is an event, the importance of which can never be
overvalued. It begins with the words Dolemus inter alia, and reinstalls the
Jesuits in all the rights of the Order that had ever been cancelled. It was
a manifesto and a loud defiant insult to all the Christian nations of the
New and the Old worlds. From an article by Louis Lambert in the Gaulois
(August 18th, 1886) we learn that "In 1750 there were 40,000 Jesuits all
over the world. In 1800, officially they were reckoned at about 1,000 men,
only. In 1886, they numbered between 7 and 8,000." This last modest number
can well be doubted. For, verily now--"Where you meet a man believing in the
salutary nature of falsehoods, or the divine authority of things doubtful,
and fancying that to serve the good cause he must call the devil to his aid,
there is a follower of Unsaint Ignatius," says Carlyle, and adds of that
black militia of Ignatius that: "They have given a new substantive to modern
languages. The word Jesuitism now, in all countries, expresses an idea for
which there was in nature no prototype before. Not till these last centuries
had the human soul generated that abomination, or needed to name it. Truly
they have achieved great things in the world, and a general result that we
may call stupendous."

And now since their reinstallment in Germany and elsewhere, they will
achieve still grander and more stupendous results. For the future can be
best read by the past. Unfortunately in this year of the Pope's jubilee the
civilized portions of humanity--even the Protestant ones--seem to have
entirely forgotten that past. Let then those who profess to despise
Theosophy, the fair child of early Aryan thought and Alexandrian
Neo-Platonism, bow before the monstrous Fiend of the Age, but let them not
forget at the same time its history.

It is curious to observe, how persistently the Order has assailed everything
like Occultism from the earliest times, and Theosophy since the foundation
of its last Society, which is ours. The Moors and the Jews of Spain felt the
weight of the oppressive hand of Obscurantism no less than did the Kabalists
and Alchemists of the Middle Ages. One would think Esoteric philosophy and
especially the Occult Arts, or Magic, were an abomination to these good holy
fathers? And so indeed they would have the world believe. But when one
studies history and the works of their own authors published with the
imprimatur of the Order, what does one find? That the Jesuits have practised
not only Occultism, but BLACK MAGIC in its worst form, more than any other
body of men; and that to it they owe in large measure their power and
influence!

To refresh the memory of our readers and all those whom it may concern, a
short summary of the doings and actings of our good friends, may be once
more attempted. For those who are inclined to laugh, and deny the
subterranean and truly infernal means used by "Ignatius' black militia," we
may state facts.

In "Isis Unveiled" it was said of this holy Fraternity that--

"though established only in 1535 to 1540--in 1555 there was already a
general outcry raised against them." And now once more--

"That crafty, learned, conscienceless, terrible soul of Jesuitism, within
the body of Romanism, is slowly but surely possessing itself of the whole
prestige and spiritual power that clings to it. . . . Throughout antiquity,
where, in what land, can we find anything like this Order or anything even
approaching it? . . . The cry of an outraged public morality was raised
against it from its very birth. Barely fifteen years had elapsed after the
bull approving its constitution was promulgated, when its members began to
be driven away from one place to the other. Portugal and the Low Countries
got rid of them, in 1578; France in 1594; Venice in 1606; Naples in 1622.
>From St. Petersburg they were expelled in 1815, and from all Russia in
1820."

The writer begs to remark to the readers, that this, which was written in
1875, applies admirably and with still more force 1888. Also that the
statements that follow in quotation marks may be all verified. And thirdly,
that the principles (principii) the Jesuits that are now brought forward,
are extracted from authenticated MSS. or folios printed by Various members
them selves of this very distinguished body. Therefore, they Can checked and
verified in the "British Museum" and Bodleian Library with still more ease
than in our works.

Many are copied from the large Quarto published by the authority of, and
verified and collated by, the Commissioners of the French Parliament. The
statements therein were collected and presented to the King, in order that,
as the "Arrêt du Parlement du 5 Mars, 1762," expresses it, "the elder sonof
the Church might he made aware of the perversity of this doctrine. . . . A
doctrine authorizing Theft, Lying, Perjury, Impurity, every Passion and
Crime; teaching Homicide, Parricide, and Regicide, overthrowing religion in
order to substitute for it superstition, by favoring Sorcery, Blasphemy,
Irreligion, and Idolatry . . . etc." Let us then examine the ideas on magic
of the Jesuits, that magic which they are pleased to call devilish and
Satanic when studied by the Theosophists. Writing on this subject in his
secret instructions, Anthony Escobar says:

"IT IS LAWFUL . . . TO MAKE USE OF THE SCIENCE ACQUIRED THROUGH THE
ASSISTANCE OF THE DEVIL, PROVIDED THE PRESERVATION AND USE OF THAT KNOWLEDGE
DO NOT DEPEND UPON THE DEVIL, FOR THE KNOWLEDGE IS GOOD IN ITSELF, AND THE
SIN BY WHICH IT WAS ACQUIRED HAS GONE BY."

True: why should not a Jesuit cheat the Devil as well as cheats every
layman?

"Astrologers and soothsayers are either bound, or are not bound, to restore
the reward of their divination, if the event does not come to pass. I own,"
remarks the good Father Escobar, "that the former opinion does not at all
please me, because, when the astrologer or diviner has exerted all the
diligence in the diabolical art which is essential to his purpose, he has
fulfilled his duty, whatever may be the result. As the physician . . . is
not bound to restore his fee . . . if his patient should die; so neither is
the astrologer bound to restore his charge . . . except where he has used no
effort, or was ignorant of his diabolic art; because, when he has used his
endeavors he has not deceived."

Busembaum and Lacroix, in "Theologia Moralis," say, 

"PALMISTRY MAY BE CONSIDERED LAWFUL, IF FROM THE LINES AND DIVISIONS OF THE
HANDS IT CAN ASCERTAIN THE DISPOSITION OF THE BODY, AND CONJECTURE, WITH
PROBABILITY, THE PROPENSITIES AND AFFECTIONS OF THE SOUL."

This noble fraternity, which many preachers have of late so vehemently
denied to have ever been a secret one, has been sufficiently proved to be
such. Its constitutions were translated into Latin by the Jesuit Polancus,
and printed in the college of the Society at Rome, in 1558. "They were
jealously kept secret, the greater part of the Jesuits themselves knowing
only extracts from them. They were never produced to light until 1761, when
they were published by order of the French Parliament in 1761, 1762, in the
famous process of Father Lavalette." The Jesuits reckon it among the
greatest achievements of their Order that Loyola supported, by a special
memorial to the Pope, a petition for the reorganization of that abominable
and abhorred instrument of wholesale butchery--the infamous tribunal of the
Inquisition.

This Order of Jesuits is now all-powerful in Rome. They have been
reinstalled in the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, in
the Department of the Secretary of the State, and in the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. The Pontifical Government was for years previous to Victor
Emanuel's occupation of Rome entirely in their hands. . . . --Isis, vol. II,
p. 355, et seq. 1876.

What was the origin of that order? It may be stated in a few words. In the
year 1534, on August 16th, an ex-officer and "Knight of the Virgin," from
the Biscayan Provinces, and the proprietor of the magnificent castle of Casa
Solar--Ignatius Loyola, became the hero of the following incident. In the
subterranean chapel of the Church of Montmartre, surrounded by a few priests
and students of theology, he received their pledges to devote their whole
lives to the spreading of Roman Catholicism by every and all means, whether
good or foul; and he was thus enabled to establish a new Order. Loyola
proposed to his six chief companions that their Order should be a militant
one, in order to fight for the interests of the Holy seat of Roman
Catholicism. Two means were adopted to make the object answer; the education
of youth, and proselytism (apostolat). This was during the reign of Pope
Paul III, who gave his full sympathy to the new scheme. Hence in 1540 was
published the famous papal bull--Regimini militantis Ecclesiæ (the regiment
of the warring, or militant Church)--after which the Order began increasing
rapidly in numbers and power.

At the death of Loyola, the society counted more than one thousand Jesuits,
though admission into the ranks was, as alleged,, surrounded with
extraordinary difficulties. It was another celebrated and unprecedented
bull, issued by Pope Julius the III in 1552, that brought the Order of Jesus
to such eminence and helped it towards such rapid increase; for it placed
the society outside and beyond the jurisdiction of local ecclesiastical
authority, granted the Order its own laws, and permitted it to recognize but
one supreme authority--that of its General, whose residence was then at
Rome. The results of such an arrangement proved fatal to the Secular Church.
High prelates and Cardinals had very often to tremble before a simple
subordinate of the Society of Jesus. Its generals always got the upper hand
in Rome, and enjoyed the unlimited confidence of the Popes, who thus
frequently became tools in the hands of the Order. Naturally enough, in
those days when political power was one of the rights of the "Vice-gerents
of God"--the strength of the crafty society became simply tremendous. In the
name of the Popes, the Jesuits thus granted to themselves
unheard-of-privileges, which they enjoyed unstintedly up to the year 1772.
In that year, Pope Clement XIV published a new bull, Dominus ac Redemptor
(the Lord and Redeemer), abolishing the famous Order. But the Popes proved
helpless before this new Frankenstein, the fiend that one of the "Vicars of
God" had evoked. The society continued its existence secretly,
notwithstanding the persecutions of both Popes and the lay authorities of
every country. In 1801, under the new alias of the "Congregation of the
Sacrê Coeur de Jêsus," it had already penetrated into and was toleratedin
Russia and Sicily.

In 1814, as already said, a new bull of Pius VII resurrected the Order of
Jesus, though its late privileges, even those among the lay clergy, were
withheld from it. The lay authorities, in France as elsewhere, have found
themselves compelled ever since to tolerate and to count with Jesuits. All
that they could do was to deny them any special privileges and subject the
members of that society to the laws of the country, equally with other
ecclesiastics. But, gradually and imperceptibly the Jesuits succeeded in
obtaining special favours even from the lay authorities. Napoleon III
granted them permission to open seven colleges in Paris only, for the
education of the young, the only condition exacted being, that those
colleges should be under the authority and supervision of local bishops. But
the establishments had hardly been opened when the Jesuits broke that rule.
The episode with the Archbishop Darboy is well known. Desiring to visit the
Jesuit college in the Rue de la Poste (Paris), he was refused admittance,
and the gates were closed against him by order of the Superior. The Bishop
lodged a complaint at the Vatican. But the answer was delayed for such a
length of time, that the Jesuits remained virtually masters of the situation
and outside of every jurisdiction but their own.

And now read what Lord R. Montagu says of their deeds in Protestant England,
and judge:

The Jesuit Society--with its Nihilist adherents in Russia, its Socialist
allies in Germany, its Fenians and Nationalists in Ireland, its accomplices
and slaves in its power, think of that Society which has not scrupled to
stir up the most bloody wars between nations, in order to advance its
purposes; and yet can stoop to hunting down a single man because he knows
their secret and will not be its slave . . . think of a Society which can
devise such a diabolical scheme and then boast of it; and say whether a
desperate energy is not required in us?. . . If you have been behind the
scenes . . . then you would still have before you the labour of unravelling
all that is being done by our Government and of tearing off the tissue of
lies by which their acts are concealed. Repeated attempts will have taught
you that there is not a public man on whom you can lean. Because as England
is 'between the upper and nether millstone,' none but adherents or slaves
are now advanced; and it stands to reason that the Jesuits, who have got
that far, have prepared new millstones for the time when the present ones
shall have passed away; and then again, younger millstones to come on after,
and wield the power of the nation.--("Recent Events and a Clue to their
Solution," Page 76.)

In France the affairs of the sons of Loyola flourished to the day when the
ministry of Jules Ferry compelled them to retire from the field of battle.
Many are those who still remember the useless strictness of the police
measures, and the clever enacting of dramatic scenes by the Jesuits
themselves. This only added to their popularity with certain classes. They
obtained thereby an aureole of martyrdom, and the sympathy of every pious
and foolish woman in the land was secured to them.

And now that Pope Leo XIII has once more restored to the good fathers, the
Jesuits, all the privileges and rights that had ever been granted to their
predecessors, what can the public at large of Europe and America expect?
Judging by the bull, the complete mastery, moral and physical, over every
land where there are Roman Catholics, is secured to the Black Militia. For
in this bull the Pope confesses that of all the religious congregations now
existing, that of the Jesuits is the one dearest to his heart. He lacks
words sufficiently expressive to show the ardent love he (Pope Leo) feels
for them, etc., etc. Thus they have the certitude of the support of the
Vatican in all and everything. And as it is they who guide him, we see his
Holiness coquetting and flirting with every great European potentate--from
Bismarck down to the crowned heads of Continent and Isle. In view of the
ever increasing influence of Leo XIII, moral and political--such a certitude
for the Jesuits is of no mean importance.

 

 



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