MONITA SECRETA SOC. JESU 492
MONITION"
After the suppression of the order in 1773, several MSS. of the work were found in Jesuitic haunts, partic- ularly in their colleges. A JIS. was even found in Korae which was printed in 1782 under the title Monita Se- creta Pairuiii Societalii Jesit, " nunc primum typis ex- pressa." Evidently its editor had never heard of a published copy of "the Monita. It contains numerous errors, such as are very likely to creep into a MS. The New York Union Theological Seminary possesses a copy of this printed edition. The early restoration of the order to power, in 1814, prevented the unearthing of copies direct from Jesuitic hands.
II. Di'finders of its A uthenticity ; recent Editors, etc. — As far back as the 17th century, after the authenticity of the Monita had been a matter of dispute for more than a liundred years, we find that astute Lutheran the- ologian Dr. Johann (ierhard, whose familiarity with po- lemic divinity was perfectly marvellous, make mention of Schoppe's Anatomia in his great work Confessio Calholica (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1C79), and refer to the Monita Secreta as a work of undoubted authentic- ity. This opinion has been generally quoted and en- dorsed l;y ecclesiastical historians, especially of the Prot- estant Church, with only one exception (Gieseler, A'n-c7i- enr/esc/i.vol. iii, pt. ii, p. 65G sq.). In 1831, after "careful investigation," an edition was jjublished at Trinceton, K J., by the learned Dr.W. C. IJrownlee, under the au- spices of the "American Protestant Society," containing the original, an English translation based upon that of ■\Valthoe (1723), aud a "Historical Sketch." Dr. Hodge, in reviewing the case in the Biblical Repository (iv, 138), takes occasion to say that the authenticity of the •work has never been disproved. "Attempts," he says, '• ha\e been made to cry down this work as a forgery. . . . We cannot imagine that these doubts can be se- riously entertained by those who peruse the historical essay which is prefixed to it. Facts and authorities are there adduced which we cannot help thinking ought to satisfy every mind, not only of the authenticity of the work, but also of the entire justice of the representations which it gives of the society whose official instructions it professes to exhibit." In 1813, shortly after an edi- tion of the Monita had been issued by Seeley, IMr. Edward Dalton, the secretary of the "Protestant Asso- ciation of Great Britain," took occasion thus to comment on it in his The Jesuits; their Principles and Acts : " If we weigh well the evidence which has been handed down to us by historians ; if we peruse the writings of the Jesuits themselves, and maturely consider the doc- trines therein promulgated, and their practical tendency, we can scarcely fail to be convinced of the authenticitj' of the Secreta Monita." In 1844 an edition was again published in the United States, this time under the au- spices of the "American and F'oreign Christian Union." It then became the subject of considerable agitation, several Protestant writers of note taking the ground that the ^vork had not a real basis in Jesuitism, and had been ])roved spuriinis. In consequence, the learned pro- fessor Henry INI. Haird, of the New York University, contributed the following additional testimony : " In proof of the authenticity of the ' Secret Instructions,' we have the testimony of a gentleman who as a historical investigator has scarcely a peer — certainly no superior. I refer to :M. Louis Prosper (Jachard, the 'archiviste- general' of the kingdom of Belgium, to whose rare sa- gacity, profound erudition, and indefatigable industry our own (li^liuguishod historians, Prcscott and ^Motley, pay such frequent and deserved compliments; the lat- ter, in the preface to his Dutch Hepublic, remarking: 'It is unnecessary to aild that all the publications of ]M.(;acliard — particularly the invaluable correspondence of Pliilip II and of William the Silent, as well as the "Archives et Correspondance" »)f the Orange Nassau family, edited by the learned and distinguished Groeu van Priusterer— have been my constant guides tlirough the tortuous labyrinth of Spanish aiul Netherland poli- tics.' In M. Gachard's Analectes Belyiques, a volume
from which Mr. Prescott draws much of the material of the first chapter of his Philip the Second, I find a short article devoted to ' The Secret Instnictions of the Jesuits' (p. C3). 'When the Monita Secreta Societutis Jesu were published, a lew years since,' says M. Ga- chard, ' many persons disputed the authenticity of this book ; others boldly maintained that it had been forged, with the design of injuring the society by ascribing to it principles which it did not possess. Here are facts that u-ill dissipate all uncertainty in this respect: At the suppression of the order in the Low Countries in 1773, there were discovered in one of its houses, in the College of Kuremonde (everywhere else they had been carefully destroyed at the first tidings of the bull fulminated by Clement XIV), the most important and most secret pa- pers, such as the correspondence of the general with the provincial fathers, and the directions of which the lat- ter alone could have had cognizance. Among these pa- pers were the Monita Sec?-eta. A translation of them was made, by order of the yovej-nnunt, by the " subslitut procureur-general" of Brabant, De Ik'rg. It still exists in the archives of the kingdom, and / can vouch that it differs in nothing substantially ((plant au fond)y)-o;« that which has been rcmkrcd jinUic' '"