The Jesuits - James Aitken Wylie

inspired; and they were the subjects of a higher
monarch than the sovereign of the nation--their
own General. Nay, more, the Jesuits were cut off
even from the Pope. For if their General "held the
place of the Omnipotent God," much more did he
hold the place of "his Vicar." And so was it in fact;
for soon the members of the Society of Jesus came
to recognize no laws but their own, and though at
their first formation they professed to have no end
but the defense and glory of the Papal See, it came
to pass when they grew to be strong that, instead of
serving the tiara, they compelled the tiara to serve
the society, and made their own wealth, power, and
dominion the one grand object of their existence.
They were a Papacy within the Papacy--a Papacy
whose organization was more perfect, whose
instincts were more cruel, whose workings were
more mysterious, and whose dominion was more
destructive than that of the old Papacy.
So stood the Society of Jesus. A deep and wide
gulf separated it from all other communities and
interests. Set free from the love of family, from the
ties of kindred, from the claims of country, and
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