Étienne Pasquier, the Jesuits' Catechism Or Their Doctrine Examined (1602)

Book excerpt: "Étienne Pasquier (1529-1615) was a lawyer, royal official, man of letters, and historian. He represented the University of Paris in its 1565 suit to dislodge a Jesuit school from Paris. Despite royal support, the Jesuits remained in conflict with many institutions, which in 1595 expelled them from much of the realm. With ever-increasing polemics, Pasquier continued to oppose the Jesuits. To further his aims, he published a dialog between a Jesuit (almost certainly Louis Richeome) and a lawyer (Pasquier himself). He called it the Jesuits' Catechism (1602). Pasquier's work did not stop the French king from welcoming the Jesuits back. But Pasquier's Catechism remained central to Jansenist and other anti-Jesuit agitation up to the Society's 1773 suppression and beyond"--