CONTENTS

PART I.

AGAINST THOSE WHO ATTACK THE RELIGIOUS PROFESSION INTRODUCTION

PROLOGUE: Wherein the author expounds his intentions in undertaking this work

CHAPTER

I.   The meaning of religion. In what does Religious Perfection consist?

II.  Is it lawful for religious to teach?

III.  Is it lawful for religious to belong to a college of secular teachers?

IV.  Is it lawful for religious who have not the cure of souls, to preach and hear confessions?

V.   Are religious bound to manual labour?

VI.  Is it lawful for a religious to relinquish all that he possesses, and to retain no property, either private or common?

VII.  May religious live on alms?

VIII.  Showing how religious are attacked by their enemies on many frivolous grounds, the first being the coarseness and poverty of the religious habit

IX.  Religious are attacked on account of their works of charity

X.   Religious are attacked on account of the journeys which they undertake for the salvation of souls

XI.  Religious are attacked on account of their studies

XII.  Religious are attacked on account of the systematic method of their preaching

XIII.  The false judgment passed on the doings of religious. First, the attacks brought against them because they commend themselves and their Order, and because they procure letters of commendation

XIV.  Religious are condemned because they resist their detractors

XV.  Religious are condemned because they go to law

XVI.  Religious are condemned because they bring their persecutors to justice

XVII.  Religious are accused of seeking to find favour with men

XVIII.  Religious are condemned because they rejoice at the great things which God accomplishes by means of them

XIX.  Religious are blamed because they frequent the courts of sovereigns

XX.  Divers calumnies brought against religious. First, the evil (if evil there be) found among them is grossly exaggerated

XXI.  Secondly, doubts are brought forward as to whether religious seek the favours of the world and their own glory, or the glory of Christ

XXII.  Thirdly, divers calumnies and accusations are brought against religious. It is asserted that they are false apostles, false prophets, and false Christs

XXIII.  Fourthly, the character of religious is aspersed; all the evils from which the Church has ever suffered are attributed to them; they are accused of being wolves and robbers, and of making their way into men's houses

XXIV.  All the evils which are to come upon the Church until the end of time, are imputed to religious: and, on their account, the days of Antichrist are said to be at hand

XXV.  Religious are accused of being the ambassadors of Antichrist

XXVI.  Those actions of religious which are manifestly good, e.g. prayer and fasting, are maligned and regarded as suspicious

EPILOGUE