influence of the Pope been exerted in favour of a moderate and
constitutional policy, it is probable that the great revolution
which in a short time changed the whole state of European affairs
would never have taken place. But, even before the middle of the
seventeenth century, the Society, proud of its services and
confident in its strength, had become impatient of the yoke. A
generation of Jesuits sprang up, who looked for protection and
guidance rather to the court of France than to the court of Rome;
and this disposition was not a little strengthened when Innocent
the Eleventh was raised to the papal throne.

The Jesuits were, at that time, engaged in a war to the death
against an enemy whom they had at first disdained, but whom they
had at length been forced to regard with respect and fear. Just
when their prosperity was at the height, they were braved by a
handful of opponents, who had indeed no influence with the rulers
of this world, but who were strong in religious faith and
intellectual energy. Then followed a long, a strange, a glorious
conflict of genius against power. The Jesuit called cabinets,
tribunals, universities to his aid; and they responded to the
call. Port Royal appealed, not in vain, to the hearts and to the
understandings of millions. The dictators of Christendom found
themselves, on a sudden, in the position of culprits. They were
arraigned on the charge of having systematically debased the
standard of evangelical morality, for the purpose of increasing
their own influence; and the charge was enforced in a manner
which at once arrested the attention of the whole world: for the
chief accuser was Blaise Pascal. His intellectual powers were
such as have rarely been bestowed on any of the children of men;
and the vehemence of the zeal which animated him was but too well