Monita secreta of de geheime instructiën die door de Jesuieten in stilte worden nageleefd (Oostburg Bronswijk, 1868)
According to the Monita, Jesuits are to use every means at their disposal to acquire wealth for the order. For instance, Jesuits are encouraged to entice promising young men to enter the order and endow it with their estates; rich widows are to be cajoled and dissuaded from remarriage. Every means is to be used for the advancement of Jesuits to bishoprics or other ecclesiastical dignities and to discredit the members of other orders, while the world is to be persuaded that the Society is animated by the purest and least interested motives: the reputation of those who quit it is to be assailed and maligned in every way.
Anti-Jesuit pamphlet
The Monita secreta ("Secret Instructions") is an anonymous document from 1614 whose original title is Monita privata Societatis Iesu . This booklet gives instructions to the Jesuits on how to proceed in order to gain power and wealth. It is a fake - and known as such since 1615 - but it had great success with the enemies of the Jesuits, including the 19th and 20th centuries. Scholars regard the document as an anti-Jesuit forgery, written by Hieronymus Zahorowski, a Jesuit dismissed from the Order.
Monita privata Societatis Iesu
Keywords: Jesuits; 19th Century (1801-1900); 17th Century (1601-1700); Religion; Pamphlet