without interruption, their protection, to these two institutions.
The spirit of Christianity is meekness, gentleness, charity, and, above all, loyalty; its arms are persuasion and demonstration.
The spirit of the Inquisition is despotism and avidity; its arms are violence and cruelty. The spirit of the society of the Jesuits is egotism; and it is by means of craft that they endeavour to accomplish their end, which is that of exercising a general control over ecclesiastics as well as the laity.
The design of the Inquisition is radically bad and anti-Christian, even though the inquisitors had doomed to perish in their autos da fé only persons guilty of opposing themselves to the moral and physical condition of the poorest class; even in this case, which would have brought all the sacred college itself to the stake, they would have acted as heretics; but Jesus did not admit of an exception when he prohibited his church from using violence; but this heresy of the Inquisition would have been venial in comparison with that which they have professed in their atrocious functions.
The condemnations pronounced by the Inquisition have never had for their motive any but pretended crimes against dogma and worship, which ought to have been considered as trivial faults, and not as crimes worthy of capital punishment.
These condemnations have always had for their object to render the Catholic clergy all-powerful in sacrificing the poor to the rich and powerful laity, on condition that these last should themselves consent to submit to be governed in every respect by the ecclesiastics.
As to the "Society of Jesus," the celebrated Pascal has so well analyzed its spirit, its conduct, and its intentions, that I ought merely to recommend the faithful to read the "Provincial Letters." I will only add that, the New Company of Jesus is infinitely more contemptible than the old, since it tends to re-establish the preponderance of dogma and worship
