Monita Secreta Societas Jesu.

towards rendering favourable to our cause princes , noblemen , and magistrates of every locality , to such extent that , whenever the occasion offers , they may strenuously and faithfully take our part agaiust those of their own blood , their kindred , and their friends .

CHAPTER III . How the Society is to manage those v ; lw are possessed of high authority in a commonweaWi , and It-oie they may be made useful , even if they are not rich . 1 . Besides that which has beeu said heretofore , and all of which may be applied , in a certain measure , to this class of personstheir special goodwill is to be enlisted

, also iu opposition to our adversaries . 2 . Their authority , sagacity , and advice should also be made useful , with a vieAv to facilitate the acquisition by the Society of real estate and various endoAvments ( munerum ) , and under tho shield of their name our temporal possessions should be silently and in secret increased , provided sufficient reliance may be placed in

them . 3 . They should also be employed to appease and keep doAvn inferior people and the masses that are inimical to our Society . 4 . Of bishops , prelates , and other ecclesiastics of distinction , such things as may be thought profitable are to be askedand various reasons alleged to that effect

, , according to the favour or disfavour with which they eye us . 5 . In some countries it would be sufficient to induce prelates and clergymen to influence in our favour those who are under their authority , and forbear from opposing our ministrations ; but in countries in which they are more powerfulas in GermanyPoland & cthe very

, , , , greatest veneration should be paid to them ( sacro sancte colendi ) , to enable us , through the agency of their authority and that of princes , to get hold of monasteries , parishes , priories , patronages , charitable institutions , and pious foundations ; and Ave shall easily succeed in such endeavours in districts Avhere the Catholics are

mixed up with an heretical or schismatical population . By such means the prelates should be convinced that , from these changes , immense utility and benefit may be derived , which could never be expected if priests , whether secular or non-secular , were invested with tho same offices ; and if they comply with our desires , high encomium should be paid to their zeal in public , and

even in writing , and the remembrance of their actions perpetuated . 6 . Such prelates should be induced to employ members of our Order as much as possible as confessors aud councillors ; and if they are desirous , or in hope of preferment or promotion to higher degrees , all our influence Avith the See of Rome , aud all efforts of our friends

should be employed to aid them , in the attainment of their object . 7 . Our associates should also avail themselves of their influence Avith bishops and princes , Avhenever now colleges or parochial churches are founded , to procure for the Society the power of appointing a vicar , to have spiritual authority over tho flock , and the resident

" superior" for the time being should himself be appointed incumbent , so that AVO obtain a complete sway over the management of the church , that all parishioners be exclusively subject to us , and AVO may bo able to do anything Ave like with them ( quidvis ah Mis impetretur ) . 8 . Wherever the members of academies are antagonistic to us , or citizens , Avhether Catholics or heretics ,

oppose our foundations , it should be contrived , through tho agency of the prelates , that the chief pulpits in churches be occupied by members of our Order ; and thus tho Society be enabled to set forth , at feast occasionally , its wants and requirements . 9 . But the greatest efforts should be exercised on the prelates of the Church , Avhenever the beatification or canonisation of one of ours is at stake ; and in such cases

Monita Secreta Societas Jesu.

recommendations advocating and promoting our causa Avith the Apostolic See should bo procured from noblemen and princes through all available means . 10 . Whenever it happens that prelates or chief magistrates appoint any embassy , great efforts should be made to prevent members of other religious orders th-ib compete Avith us being employed , for they might transfer

their affection to the latter , and these bo introduced into provinces or cities in Avhich members of our Order are resident . If ambassadors thus appointed by our influence pass through those provinces or cities iu Avhich tho Society has branches , they are to be received Avith great honour and distinction , and entertained in such manner as religious modesty may permit . ( To be continued . )

Mission Of Freemasonry.

MISSION OF FREEMASONRY .

Perhaps a chief mission of Freemasonry in the present age is to keep alive the truth that man lives not by bread alone ; to prevent the vast mechanical achievements of the age seducing us into mechanical life ; to teach our Avealthy

youngmen that they are not honoured by ignoring their famil y history , and painting a coat of arms to cover up the leather aprons of their grandfathers ; and to declare that the mechanic in profession should be not a mere machine in soul , not working

exclusively in a dead system , but always the architect of a living ideal ; Freemasonry is almost alone as an effective agent here . Christianit y teaches this , and many Christians also . But the Church organisations , under the desire of

successful competition , pleasing the rich aud the influential , making distinctions in the house of God , and falling in with the spirit of the age instead of controlling and directing it , are fearfull y at fault towards the poor and the humble .

They must lose their hold of the poor , or they must cease their pati * onising charities , and full y acknowledge the brotherhood in Christ of the outcast and the despised . This mechanical

progress will prove our rum if separated from that which secures equal moral and spiritual progress . Moral earnestness and Christian charit y must keep pace with mechanical improvement . HOAV boldly does Freemasonry proclaim man to

be separate from , and superior to , machinery , whether of peace or of Avar . Upon the practical recognition of this truth depends just action between capitalists and labourers , between officers and soldiers . No man is adapted to use

well the talent of capital , Avho does not realise divinit y in the humblest humanity , that man is greater than any achievement of mechanism and any interest of capital . War tends to degrade the