A Vanished Arcadia | Page 8

the Jesuits have not laboured assiduously, and in which they
have not shed their blood freely without hope of reward, yet it would
require much time and a lengthy catalogue to enumerate the list of
satirical and calumnious works which have appeared against them in
almost every language in Europe. Of these, perhaps the most celebrated
is the well-known `Monarquia de los Solipsos',* by Padre Melchior

Inshoffer, an ex-Jesuit, who describes the company in the worst
possible terms. It is interesting chiefly on account of the portraits of
well-known people of the time (1615 to 1648), as Pope Clement VIII.,
Francisco Suarez, Claudio Aquaviva, and others, veiled under easily
distinguishable pseudonyms. The object of the writer, as the title
indicates, is to show that the Jesuits endeavoured to turn all to their
own profit. In this, if it was the case, they do not seem to have been
greatly different from every other associated body of men, whether lay
or clerical. The celebrated Spanish proverb, `Jesuita y se ahorca, cuenta
le hace', meaning, Even if a Jesuit is hung he gets some good out of it,
may just as well be applied to members of other learned professions as
to the Jesuits.
-- * Madrid, 1770. --
The world has rarely persecuted any body of men conspicuous by its
poverty, or if it has done so has rarely persecuted them for long. The
Inquisition of Spain, violent against the wealthy Jews and comfortable
Moriscos, took little notice of the Gipsies; but, then, `Pobre como
cuerpo de Gitano' was and is a common saying in Spain.
As in the case of the Templars, persecution only began against the
Jesuits when it became worth while to persecute them. Ignatius Loyola,
Francisco Xavier, and Diego Lainez, as long as they confined
themselves to preaching and to teaching, were safe enough. Even the
annals of theological strife, bloodthirsty and discreditable to humanity
as they are, contain few examples of persecutors such as Calvin or
Torquemada, to whom, ruthless as they were in their savage and narrow
malignity and zeal for what they thought the truth, no suspicion of
venal motives is attributed.
Of the Jesuits' intrigues, adventures, rise and fall in Europe, much may
be said in attack or in extenuation; but it is not the intention of the
present work to deal with this aspect of the question. It was in Spanish
America, and especially in Paraguay and Bolivia, where the policy of
the Company in regard to savage nations was most fully developed, as
it was only the Jesuits who ever succeeded in reclaiming any large
number of the nomad or semi-nomad tribes of those countries.
Many excellent works in French, and the celebrated `Christianismo
Felice nel Paraguay' of the Abbate Muratori in Italian, certainly exist.
But neither Father Charlevoix, the French historian of the missions, nor

Muratori was ever in Paraguay, and both their books contain the faults
and mistakes of men, however excellent and well intentioned, writing
of countries of which they were personally ignorant. Both give a good
account of the customs and regimen of the missions, but both seem to
have believed too readily fabulous accounts of the flora and fauna of
Paraguay.* The fact of having listened too readily to a fable about an
unknown animal in no way detracts from the general veracity of an
author of the beginning of the eighteenth century, for in all other
respects except natural history Charlevoix keeps within the bounds of
probability, though of course as a Jesuit he holds a brief for the doings
of the Company in Paraguay. Muratori is more rarely led into
extravagances, but is concerned in the main with the religious side of
the Jesuits, as the title of his book indicates.
-- * Though in this respect Charlevoix is not so credulous as Padre Ruiz
de Montoya and the older writers, he yet repeats the story of the bird
that cleans the alligator's teeth, the magic virtues of the tapir's nails, and
many others. See Charlevoix, vol. i., bk. i., p. 27, Paris, 1756. [The
story of the bird that cleans the teeth of alligators is very nearly true --
`Pluvianus aegyptius' has a symbiotic relationship with crocodiles in
parts of Africa, and similar relationships exist throughout the natural
world. -- A. L., 1998.] --
Many other French writers, as Raynal, Montesquieu, and Voltaire, have
treated of Paraguay under Jesuit rule, but their writings are founded on
hearsay evidence. A German, Father Dobrizhoffer, stands alone.* His
delightful `History of the Abipones, an Equestrian People of Paraguay',
is perhaps the most charming book dealing with the subject. A simple
and easy style, a keen habit of observation, long acquaintance with the
country, a zeal for the conversion of the infidel, not only to Christianity,
but to a