Two Orations on the Political Question: Whether the Children of Lutherans Can Be Sent to Jesuit Schools with a Clear Conscience

M. THOMAS SAGITTARIUS.

rummaging through the homes of the powerful and the wealthy, crawling into every corner, searching out and examining everything, even consciences themselves, so that no impediment can be placed in the way of the Jesuit course, nor anything attempted or thought against παπποκολακείαν flattery of the Pope and the absolute authority of their father Refers to the Pope.. Those who should seriously restrain this madness, beat it back by all means, and nip it in the bud, often—whether out of ignorance or negligence, it matters little—assist them as if they were gathering forces, and by joining them, confirm them more and more with their own support. They bring into the heart of Germany, on their own shoulders, those whom it would be right to banish to the farthest Garamantes A desert tribe in North Africa, representing the ends of the earth in classical literature. or beyond the Frozen Ocean. This is especially true of those parents who, lured by I know not what holiness of these companions, and persuaded by the diligence they boast of in educating pupils, and moved by the singular scarcity of expenses which they believe is required here, send their own children to the schools of the Jesuits as if to the most bountiful emporiums of liberal arts and workshops of all piety. They are choosing and finding mustard instead of pepper, spurge instead of roses, and aloe instead of honey. This calamity of the Lutheran foundation is so great that it cannot be sufficiently expressed in words or deplored with tears. And yet, they think that the state of Germany does not hinge on this, nor that any loss redounds to the parents or the children from it. Indeed, they stupidly believe that they have found something far greater than what boys say they find in a bean A reference to a children's game or a proverbial expression for finding something trivial or worthless., and that they have provided for their own exceptionally well.

Therefore, so that this error and terror of parents, like the ass’s ears of Midas The mythical king who was given donkey's ears for his lack of musical judgment., might appear to all, and so that the means and remedies by which this poison may be ejected from the vitals of Germany and cast out might be more promptly sought and prepared by all, I have decided in this brief half-hour to show in a few words that Lutheran parents can neither with a good conscience nor to the benefit of their own children send and consign them to the schools of the Jesuits. I shall not examine the studies, morals, life, and doctrine of the Jesuits as much as the matter itself demands, for a month would scarcely suffice. But as much as your patience in listening and my stammering in speaking will allow, I shall inquire into and report those things which the historians and the [witnesses] of our times