In  the  year  1648  there  appeared  a  pulpit  orator  in  the  Pxotes-
tant  Chxirch  of  Leyden  in  Holland,  who  vehemently  thundered
against  the  sons  of  Loyola,  and  at  the  same  time  a  little  book,ia
the  French  language,  came  out,  having  for  its  title  The  Jesuits
on  the  Scaffold,  owing  to  the  High  Crimes  perpetrated  by  them
in  the  Province  oj  Guyenne. The  pulpit  orator  and  author  of
the  book  were  one  and  the  same  person,  namely,  Peter  Jarrige,
formerly  a  Jesuit,  and  a  professed  one  of  the  four  vows,  who  had
done  service  for  some  considerable  time  as  teacher,  preacher,  and
Confessor,  and  also  as  Bector  of  the  College  in  Bordeaux,  as  well
as  m  other  towns  of  the  province  of  Guyenne,  where  the  Society  of
Jesus  possessed  a  College. Bom  in  the  year  1605,  and  falling
•very  early  into  the  hands  of  the  Jesuits,  he  was  brought  up  by
them,  and,  on  account  of  his  superior  talents,  seduced  into
joining  the  Order;    he  advanced  then  quickly  from  grade  to-


INCREASING  ENLIGHTENMENT. 499-

grade,  and  was  very  soon  considered  worthy  to  be  received  among
the  number  of  those  initiated  into  the  fourth  vow. In  spite  of
all  this  Jesuitical  education,  the  better  feelings  of  his  heart  were
still  not  extinguished,  and,  when  he  was  advanced  to  be  among
the  professed,  he  now  became  acquainted  with  the  frightful
wickedness  of  the  Order  of  Jesus — a  wickedness  which  must  have
appeared  to  him  in  a  still  more  glaring  light,  seeing  that,  at  the
same  time,  he  became  intimate  with  the  writings  of  the  Reformers,,
and  their  plain  Bible  faith. The  resolution  was  now  matured  in
him  to  quit  a  society,  the  leaders  of  which  united  in  themselves-
the  attributes  of  the  tiger,  the  wolf,  and  the  fox,  and  to  league
himself  with  Protestantism. He  caused  himself,  therefore,  on
some  plausible  pretext  or  other,  to  be  transferred  to  his  paternal
town  of  La  Rochelle,  where,  on  the  25th  December  1647,  he
secretly  lay  his  new  confession  of  faith  before  the  Calvinistic  Con-
sistorium,  and  then  hastily  took  flight  to  Holland,  under  the
protection  of  the  Calvinists,  in  order  to  escape  from  the  cellars
in  which  the  Society  of  Jesus  was  accustomed  to  smother  the
cry  of  its  disobedient  and  unfaithful  sons. His  flight  caused
a  great  sensation,  and  still  more  so  his  book  The  Jesuits  on
the  Scaffold. 