The Protestant Pope

Pope Clement XIV. has been called the Protestant Pope on account of a bull issued by him in 1773. It ordered the suppression of the Order of the Jesuits or the Society of Jesus, and to the devout Romanist this seemed a concession to Protestantism. The chief aim of the Society, established in 1537 by Ignatius de Loyola, was to establish the power of the Pope, to preserve it against the attacks of Protestantism, of kings, and national bishops.

It was by far the most powerful society in the Roman Catholic Church. The Franciscans were noted for their coarseness; the Dominicans were strict, gloomy and ascetic; while the Jesuits were polished, cheerful and social. They were noted for their learning, and they gained the larger part of their influence through the excellent schools they established, besides which the papal power granted them more privileges than any other body of men. In process of time they acquired an enormous influence in governments, and statesmen came to regard them with suspicion. In 1656, when they were at the height of their power, Pascal published his Lettres Provinciales. This book was the first great blow at the Jesuits, for it thoroughly unmasked the looseness of their morals, the selfishness of their aims, and the falseness of their actions. Pascal's work was condemned by the Pope and publicly burned. Its influence was thus doubled. The Jesuits were expelled from many countries, and all of those in Spain were arrested at the same hour and sent into the papal dominions (1767).

At last, in 1773, France, Spain, Portugal, Parma, Naples, and Austria, expressing the voice of public opinion, compelled Pope Clement to abolish the Order. In Prussia and Russia, however, they maintained a foot-hold, and after the fall of Napoleon, in 1815, Pope Pius VII. reestablished the Society in its old form. It soon penetrated into all countries with or without the consent of their governments. The dogma of the infallibility of the Pope is perhaps its latest achievement.

Many of the most learned men that ever adorned the world have belonged to the Jesuit Order.

The lines quoted above were written by Pope in honor of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, during the time when he was one of her most ardent admirers and most persistent suitors. Later they quarreled and became the most bitter and vindictive enemies. No one knows certainly how the quarrel began Lady Mary's version is that Mr. Pope chose a very unfortunate time to make her a formal declaration of love, and pressed his suit with so much passion as to make himself ridiculous in her eyes; and that, in spite of her utmost endeavors to be angry and to look grave, she was provoked into an immoderate fit of laughter. From that moment he became her implacable foe. "When we see," wrote Lord Wharncliffe, apropos of this episode, "how a personal defect, comparatively trifling, weighed upon Lord Byron's mind and, by his own avowal, warped his character, we cannot wonder that a temper so irritable as Pope's should have winced at being reminded of his extreme deformity more forcibly than by a thousand words." Dr. Johnson, writing in his "Lives of the Poets," of the company that met at Lord Oxford's house, said: "The table was infested by Lady Mary Wortley, who was the friend of Lady Oxford, and who, knowing his (Pope's) peevishness, could by no entreaties be restrained from contradicting him, till their disputes were sharpened to such asperity that one or the other quitted the house." This was denied by Lady Bute (Lady Mary's daughter) and the Dowager Duchess of Portland (Lord Oxford's daughter) when they read it, both asserting that the intimacy between the Oxfords and Lady Mary began long after her quarrel with Pope had reached its most violent stage, that it would have been an insult to invite them to dine under the same roof. The two eminent persons were never reconciled. Lady Montague was the daughter of the Duke of Kingston and was a second cousin of the novelist Fielding. She was from childhood a favorite in society both for her wit and her beauty. She married Sir Edward Wortely Montague in 1712. In 1716 she went with her husband to Constantinople, he being appointed ambassador to the Porte.

In 1716 she made a successful trial of inoculation for small-pox upon her only son, a practice common in the East, but unknown before her time in Western Europe. Her introduction of small-pox inoculation into England was accomplished in spite of great opposition and personal abuse from all classes. It was after her return to England that her bitter quarrel with Pope occurred. In 1739 she left her husband and resided, chiefly, in Italy. She wrote much that was never published, but she is remembered in a literary way, for her brilliant letters written during her travels; and, as Pope implies, she had partaken of "the whole tree" of knowledge, being considered the most learned woman in Europe. She died in England, of cancer, August 21st, 1762.