Excerpt from The English Review, Vol. 8: September-December, 1847 I am truly sorry that your eminence should object to the particular arrangement which I have proposed to you, which is desired by Spain, and would infallibly be desired by France, if the question had been mooted. The election of a new pope was the circumstance of all others the most favourable to our views that could have occurred. To make no arrangement with him beforehand, is to miss all, and to let slip the fairest opportunity, and the best and surest means, far surer than any means which might hereafter be employed by the courts. I am not acquainted with any other than natural theology, and shall never be able to understand why the secularization of a religious order, which no one can deny must foment division and trouble in the Church as long as it subsists, should be regarded as an illicit contract; on the contrary, such a proceeding can only be viewed as meritorious, and tending to the advancement of religion. I am fully sensible that I am not com petent to be the casuist of your eminence; but if you would consent to confer confidentially on the subject with Cardinal Ganganelli, one of the most celebrated theologians of this country, who has never had the reputation of moral laxity, I am not without hope that he might incline towards my view. There is here no question of any temporality; it is purely and absolutely a spiritual question. There is nothing more doubtful than what a pope, be he who he may, will do after his elec tion, unless he has b bound beforehand. - Clément XIV. Et les Jésuites, pp. 219, 220. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.