The Franklin Files

Omega · Guru

RE: The Thule Society II

Omega · Guru

CHAPTER XII

WHO MAY COME THAT THEY MAY BE SUSTAINED AND PRESERVED IN THE SOCIETY.

1. The first place in the Society pertains to the good operators; that is to say, those who cannot procure less for the temporal than for the spiritual good of the Society; such as the confessors of princes, of the powerful, of the widows, of the rich pious women, the preachers and the professors who know all these secrets.

2. Those who have already failed in strength or advanced in years; conforming to the use they have made of their talents in and for the temporal good of the Society; of the manner which has attended them in days that are passed; and further, are yet convenient instruments to give part to the Superiors of the ordinary defects which are to be noted in ourselves, for they are always in the house.

3. We must never expel but in case of extreme necessity, for fear of the Society acquiring a bad reputation.

4. Furthermore, it will be necessary to favor those who excel by their talent, their nobleness and their fortune; particularly if they have powerful friends attached to the Society; and if they themselves have for it a sincere appreciation, as we have already said before. They must be sent to Rome, or to the universities of greater reputation to study there; or in case of having studied in some province, it will be very convenient that the professors attend to them with special care and affection. Meanwhile, not having conveyed their property to the Society, we must not refuse them anything; for after confirming the cession, they will be disappointed as the others, notwithstanding guarding some consideration for the past.

5. Having also especial consideration on the part of the Superiors, for those that have brought to the Society, a young notable, placed so that they are given to know the affection made to it; but if they have not professed, it is necessary to take care of not having too much indulgence with them, for fear that they may return at another time, to carry away those whom they have brought to the Society.

Omega · Guru

CHAPTER XIII

OF THE YOUTH WHO MAY BE ELECTED TO BE ADMITTED INTO THE SOCIETY, AND OF THE MODE OF RETAINING THEM.

1. It is necessary that much prudence shall be exercised, respecting the election of the Youth; having to be sprightly, noble, well liked, or at the least excellent in some of these qualities.

2. To attract them with greater facility to our institute, it is necessary in the meanwhile, to study that the rectors and professors of colleges shall exhibit an especial affection; and outside the time of the classes, to make them comprehend how great is God, and that some one should consecrate to his service all that he possesses; and particularly if he is in the Society of his Son.

3. Whenever the opportunity may arrive, conducive in the college and in the garden, and yet at times to the country houses, that in the company of ourselves, during the recreations, that we may familiarize with them, little by little, being careful, notwithstanding, that the familiarity does not engender disgust.

4. We cannot consent that we shall punish them, nor oblige them to assemble at their tasks among those who are the most educated.

5. We must congratulate them with gifts and privileges conforming to their age and encouraging above all others with moral discourses.

6. We must inculcate them, that it is for one divine disposition, that they are favorites among so many who frequent the same college.

7. On other occasions, especially in the exhortations, we must aim to terrify them with menaces of the eternal condemnation, if they refuse the divine vocation.

8. Meanwhile frequently expressing the anxiety to enter the Society, we must always defer their admission, that they may remain constant; but if for these, they are undecided, then we must encourage them incessantly by other methods.

9. If we admonish effectively, that none of their friends, nor yet the fathers, nor the mothers discover their vocation before being admitted; because then, if then, they come to the temptation of withdrawing; so many as the Society desires to give full liberty of doing that which may be the most convenient; and in case of succeeding to conquer the temptation, we must never lose occasions to make them recover spirit; remembering that which we have said, always that this will succeed during the time of the novitiate, or after having made their simple vows.

10. With respect to the sons of the great, nobles, and senators, as it is supremely difficult to attract them, meanwhile living with their fathers, who are having them educated to the end, that they may succeed in their destinies, we must persuade, vigorously, of the better influences of friends that are persons of the same Society; that they are ordered to other provinces, or to distant universities in which there are our teachers; careful to remit to the respective professors the necessary instructions, appropriate to their quality and condition, that they may gain their friendship for the Society with greater facility and certainty.

11. When having arrived at a more advanced age, they will be induced to practice some spiritual exercises, that they may have so good an exit in Germany and Poland.

12. We must console them in their sadness and afflictions, according to the quality and dispositions of each one, making use of private reprimands and exhortations appropriate to the bad use of riches; inculcating upon them that they should depreciate the felicity of a vocation, menacing them with the pains of hell for the things they do.

Omega · Guru

CHAPTER XIV

UPON RESERVED CASES AND MOTIVES THAT NECESSITATE EXPULSION FROM SOCIETY.

1. To most of the cases expressed in the Constitutions, and of which only the Superior or the ordinary confessor, with permission of this, can absolve them, where there is sodomy, unseats crime, fornication, adultery, of the unchaste touch of a man, or of a woman; also if under the pretext of zeal, or whatever motive, they have done some grave thing against the Society; against its honors and its gains; these will be just causes for reason of the expulsion of the guilty.

2. If anyone confesses in the confessional of having committed some similar act, he will not be promised absolution, until he has promised to reveal to the Superior, outside of the confessional, the same or by his confessor. The Superior will operate the better for it, in the general interests of the Society; further, if there is founded hope of the careful hiding of the crime, it will be necessary to impose upon the guilty a convenient punishment; if otherwise be can be expelled much before. With all the care that is possible, the confessor will give the penitent to understand that he runs the danger of being expelled.

3. If any one of our confessors, having heard a strange person say, that he had committed a shameful thing with one of the Society, he will not absolve such a person, without his having said, outside of his confession, the name of the one with whom he has sinned; and if he so says, he will be made to swear that he will not divulge the same, without the consent of the Society.

4. If two of ourselves have sinned carnally, he who first avows it will be retained in the Society; and the other will be expelled; but he who remains permanent, will be after such mortification and bad treatment, of sorrow, and by his impatience, and if we have occasion for his expulsion, it will be necessary for the future of it that it be done directly.

5. The Society being a noble corporation and preeminent in the Church, it can dismiss those that will not be apt for the execution of our object, although giving satisfaction in the beginning; and the opportunity does not delay in presenting itself; if it procures continuous maltreatment; and if he is obliged to do contrary to his inclination; if they are gathered under the orders of gloomy Superiors; if he is separated from his studies and from the honorable functions, &c., &c., until he gets to murmuring.

6. In no manner must we retain in the Society, those that openly reveal against their Superiors, or that will complain publicly, or reservedly, of their companions, or particularly if they make them to strangers; nor to those who are among ourselves, or among persons who are on the outside, censure the conduct of the Society in regard to the acquisition or administration of temporal properties, or whatever acts of the same; for example, of crushing or oppressing many of those whom we do not wish well, or that they the same having been expelled, &c., &c. Nor yet those, that in conversation, who tolerate, or defend the Venetians, the French and others, that have driven the Society away from the territories, or that have occasioned great prejudices.

7. Before the expulsion of any we must vex and harass them in the extreme; depriving them of the functions that they have been accustomed to discharge, dedicating them to others. Although they may do well, it will be necessary to censure them, and with this pretext, apply them to another thing. Imposing by a trifling fault that they have committed the most severe penalties, that they blush in public, until they have lost all patience; and at last will be expelled as pernicious to all, for which a future opportunity will present itself when they will think less.

8. When some one of the Society has a certain hope of obtaining a bishopric, or whatever other ecclesiastical dignity, to most of the ordinary vows of the Society he will be obliged to take another; and that is, that he will always preserve good sentiments towards the Society; that he will always speak favorably of it; that he will not have a confessor that will not be to its bosom; that he will do nothing of entity without having heard the justice of the same. Because in consequence of not having observed this, the Cardinal Tolet the Society had obtained of the Holy See, that no swinish descendants of Jews or Mahometans were admitted, that he did not desire to take such vows; and that for celebrity that is out, he was expelled as a firm enemy of the Society.

Omega · Guru

CHAPTER XV

HOW THE SOCIETY MUST BE CONDUCTED WITH THE MONKS AND NUNS.

1. The confessors and preachers must guard well against offending the nuns and occasioning temptations contrary to their vocation; but on the contrary, having conciliated the love of the Lady Superiors, that we obtain to hear, when less, their extraordinary confessions, and that it is predicted that we may hope soon to receive some gratitude from them; because the abbesses, principally the rich and noble, can be of much utility to the Society, by themselves, and by their relatives and friends; of the manner with which we treat with them and influence of the principal monasteries, the Society will little by little arrive to obtain the knowledge of an the corporation and increase its friendship.

2. It will be necessary, notwithstanding, to prohibit our nuns from frequenting the monasteries of women, for fear that their mode of life may be more agreeable, and that the Society will see itself frustrated in the hopes of possessing all their properties. We must induce them to take the vow of chastity and obedience, at the hands of their confessors; and to show them that this mode of life will conform with the uses of the Primitive Church, placed as a light to shine in the house, and that it cannot be hidden under a measure, without the edification of their neighbor, and without fruit for the souls; furthermore, that in imitation of the widows of the Gospel, doing well by giving themselves to Jesus Christ and to his Society. If they were to know how evil it can possibly be, of the life of the cloisters; but these instructions must be given under the seal of inviolable secrecy that they do not come to the ears of the monks.