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States . His application to his studies was not , however , at all relaxed ^ y the prospect of easy and rapid preferment opening before him . " He now freed himself from many of the prejudices , " to use his own expression , " which his education had deeply rooted in his mind . " In a word , he became a good Jansenist—the most tolerant form of popery , and the least repugnant to
reason . The Jesuits professed a blind reverence for the decretals of the popes , which not only served them for text-books of divinity , but might be said to constitute their Bible itself : the Jansenhts drew their theological systems from the decisions of the earlier councils and the works of the Fathers , and received the authority of St . Augustine , in particular , as decisive in all matters of faith . The Jesuits maintained that the pope is the only fountain of
spiritual authority on earth , and that the bishops receive their powers exclusively from him , to be continued , suspended , or withdrawn , at his absolute pleasure : the Jansenists asserted that the bishops , in common with the pope , received their powers directly from Christ , and that the keys of St . Peter were the emblem of authority , pre-eminence and supremacy indeed , but not of despotic and unlimited power . The Jesuits , proclaiming the indefeasible right of the Holy See to dispose of all the kingdoms of the earth ,
as its organs and representatives , became , wherever they gained a footing , " a state within the state , '' obtaining the ear of princes and ruling the affairs of states : the Jansenists contented themselves with taking charge of the spiritual interests of mankind , and limited the temporal dominion of the pope to his own states . But both parties were far enough from clearing the Christian temple of the emblems of idolatrous superstition , and opening wide its gates to the humble-minded , the conscientious , the sincere of every
denomination . The early and decided manner in which the subject of this memoir embraced the more liberal of the two parties which divided the church , is the more creditable to him from his near connexion with the Jesuitical party , particularly with Corso and Lorenzo De Ricci , to the first of whom he was heir , and to the second of whom he was strongly attached , and whom he visited in the Castle of St . Angelo , the state prison of Rome , after the dissolution of the order of which he was the head . This connexion led Ricci to become
perfectly acquainted with the circumstances attending the death of Pope Clement XIV . ( Ganganelli ) a few months after he had signed the bull , by virtue of which that celebrated association was dissolved . The cause of Ganganelli ' s death has been the subject of controversy , as the perpetrators of it could never be detected , or rather from motives of policy no efforts were made to bring them to light . Amongst Ricci ' s papers , as reported by De Potter , was a copy of a document received by him from the minister of Spain , by whom the original had been transmitted tp Madrid , from which it appears that the pope was in the soundest health at the time of signing the bull ; that dark prophecies were issued and an enigmatical medal struck ,
which was traced to the Jesuits ; in which the year of his death was indicated , 1774 ; that about two months after the signature he was seized with coldness , shivering , &c , which continued at intervals for six months , until he died ; that he had expressed his apprehension pf poison , that antidotes against it were found on his person , and that the body , whtfji opened , presented all those appearances which a Roman physician had previously described , in a work on the subject , as indications of slow poison . But no notice is taken of the current report in Italy that the sacramental host was the infamous channel adopted for conveying it to the victim . .
Untitled Article
442 Memoir of Scipio de Ricci
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1828, page 442, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2562/page/10/
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