THE JESUITS
1534-1921
THE JESUITS
1534-1921
A History of the Society of Jesus from Its
Foundation to the Present Time
BY
THOMAS J. CAMPBELL, S.J.
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA PRESS
Permissu superiorum
NIHIL OBSTAT: ARTHUR J. SCANLAN, D.D., _Censor_
IMPRIMATUR: PATRICK J. HAYES, D.D., _Archbishop of New York_
COPYRIGHT 1921
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA PRESS
_All rights reserved_
PREFACE
Some years ago the writer of these pages, when on his way to what is
called a general congregation of the Society of Jesus, was asked by a
fellow-passenger on an Atlantic liner, if he knew anything about the
Jesuits. He answered in the affirmative and proceeded to give an account
of the character and purpose of the Order. After a few moments, he was
interrupted by the inquirer with, "You know nothing at all about them,
Sir; good day." Possibly the Jesuits themselves are responsible for this
attitude of mind, which is not peculiar to people at sea, but is to be
met everywhere.
As a matter of fact, no Jesuit has thus far ever written a complete or
adequate history of the Society; Orlandini, Jouvancy and Cordara
attempted it a couple of centuries ago, but their work never got beyond
the first one hundred years. Two very small compendiums by Jesuits have
been recently published, one in Italian by Rosa, the other in French by
Brucker, but they are too congested to be satisfactory to the average
reader, and Brucker's stops at the Suppression of the Society by Clement
XIV in 1773. Crétineau-Joly's history was written in great haste; he is
often a special pleader, and even Jesuits find him too eulogistic. At
present he is hopelessly antiquated, his last volume bearing the date of
1833. B. N. (Barbara Neave) published in English a history of the
Society based largely on Crétineau-Joly. The consequence of this lack of
authoritative works is that the general public gets its information
about the Jesuits from writers who are prejudiced or ill-informed or,
who, perhaps, have been hired to defame the Society for political
purposes. Other authors, again, have found the Jesuits a romantic
theme, and have drawn largely on their imagination for their statements.
Attention was called to this condition of things by the Congregation of
the Society which elected Father Martin to the post of General of the
Jesuits in 1892. As a result he appointed a corps of distinguished
writers to co-operate in the production of a universal history of the
Society, which was to be colossal in size, based on the most authentic
documents, and in line with the latest and most exacting requirements of
recent scientific historiography. On the completion of the various
parts, they are to be co-ordinated and then translated into several
languages, so as to supply material for minor histories within the reach
of the general public. Such a scheme necessarily supposes a very
considerable time before the completion of the entire work, and, as
matter of fact, although several volumes have already appeared in
English, French, German, Spanish and Italian, the authors are still
discussing events that occurred two centuries ago. Happily their
researches have thrown much light on the early history of the Order; an
immense number of _documents inédits_, published by Carayon and others,
have given us a more intimate knowledge of the intermediate period; many
biographies have been written, and the huge volume of the "Liber
sæcularis" by Albers brings the record down to our own days. Thus,
though much valuable information has already been made available for the
general reader the great collaborative work is far from completion.
Hence the present history of the Jesuits.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
ORIGIN PAGE
The Name--Opprobrious meanings--Caricatures of the
Founder--Purpose of the Order--Early life of Ignatius--
Pampeluna--Conversion--Manresa--The Exercises--Authorship
--Journey to Palestine--The Universities--Life in Paris--
First Companions--Montmartre First Vows--Assembly at
Venice. Failure to reach Palestine--First Journey to Rome
--Ordination to the Priesthood--Labors in Italy--Submits
the Constitutions for Papal Approval--Guidiccioni's
opposition--Issue of the Bull _Regimini_--Sketch of the
Institute--Crypto-Jesuits 1-35
CHAPTER II
INITIAL ACTIVITIES
Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Italy--Election of
Ignatius--Jesuits in Ireland--"The Scotch Doctor"--Faber
and Melanchthon--Le Jay--Bobadilla--Council of Trent--
Laínez, Salmerón, Canisius--The Catechism--Opposition in
Spain--Cano--Pius V--First Missions to America--The
French Parliaments--Postel--Foundation of the Collegium
Germanicum at Rome--Similar Establishments in Germany--
Clermont and other Colleges in France--Colloque de
Poissy. 36-71
CHAPTER III
ENDS OF THE EARTH
Xavier departs for the East--Goa--Around Hindostan--
Malacca--The Moluccas--Return to Goa--The Valiant
Belgian--Troubles in Goa--Enters Japan--Returns to Goa--
Starts for China--Dies off the Coast--Remains brought to
Goa--Africa--Congo, Angola, Caffreria, Abyssinia--
Brazil, Nobrega, Anchieta, Azevedo--Failure of Rodriguez
in Portugal 72-95
CHAPTER IV
CONSPICUOUS PERSONAGES
Ignatius--Laínez--Borgia--Bellarmine--Toletus--Lessius--
Maldonado--Suárez--Lugo--Valencia--Petavius--Warsewicz--
Nicolai--Possevin--Vieira--Mercurian 96-133
CHAPTER V
THE ENGLISH MISSION
Conditions after Henry VIII--Allen--Persons--Campion--
Entrance into England--Kingsley's Caricature--Thomas
Pounde--Stephens--Capture and death of Campion--Other
Martyrs--Southwell, Walpole--Jesuits in Ireland and
Scotland--The English Succession--Dissensions--The
Archpriest Blackwell--The Appellants--The Bye-Plot--
Accession of James I--The Gunpowder Plot--Garnet,
Gerard 134-165
CHAPTER VI
JAPAN
1555-1645
After Xavier's time--Torres and Fernandes--Civandono--
Nunhes and Pinto--The King of Hirando--First Persecution
--Gago and Vilela--Almeida--Uprising against the Emperor
--Justus Ucondono and Nobunaga--Valignani--Founding of
Nangasaki--Fervor and Fidelity of the Converts--Embassy
to Europe--Journey through Portugal, Spain and Italy--
Reception by Gregory XIII and Sixtus V--Return to Japan
--The Great Persecutions by Taicosama, Daifusama, Shogun
I and Shogun II--Spinola and other Martyrs--Arrival of
Franciscans and Dominicans--Popular eagerness for death
--Mastrilli--Attempts to establish a Hierarchy--Closing
the Ports--Discovery of the Christians. 166-196
CHAPTER VII
THE GREAT STORMS
1580-1597
Manares suspected of ambition--Election of Aquaviva--
Beginning of Spanish discontent--Dionisio Vásquez--The
"Ratio Studiorum"--Society's action against Confessors
of Kings and Political Embassies--Trouble with the
Spanish Inquisition and Philip II--Attempts at a Spanish
Schism--The Ormanetto papers--Ribadeneira suspected--
Imprisonment of Jesuits by the Spanish Inquisition--
Action of Toletus--Extraordinary Congregation called--
Exculpation of Aquaviva--The dispute "de Auxiliis"--
Antoine Arnauld's attack--Henry IV and Jean Chastel--
Reconciliation of Henry IV to the Church--Royal
protection--Saint Charles Borromeo--Troubles in Venice--
Sarpi--Palafox 197-227
CHAPTER VIII
THE ASIATIC CONTINENT
The Great Mogul--Rudolph Aquaviva--Jerome Xavier--de
Nobili--de Britto--Beschi--The Pariahs--Entering Thibet
--From Pekin to Europe--Mingrelia, Paphlagonia and
Chaldea--The Maronites--Alexander de Rhodes--Ricci enters
China--From Agra to Pekin--Adam Schall--Arrival of the
Tatars--Persecutions--Schall condemned to Death--Verbiest
--de Tournon's Visit--The French Royal Mathematicians--
Avril's Journey 228-267
CHAPTER IX
BATTLE OF THE BOOKS
Aquaviva and the Spanish Opposition--Vitelleschi--The
"Monita Secreta"; Morlin--Roding--"Historia Jesuitici
Ordinis"--"Jesuiticum Jejunium"--"Speculum Jesuiticum"--
Pasquier--Mariana--"Mysteries of the Jesuits"--"The
Jesuit Cabinet"--"Jesuit Wolves"--"Teatro Jesuítico"--
"Morale Pratique des Jésuites"--"Conjuratio Sulphurea"--
"Lettres Provinciales"--"Causeries du Lundi" and
Bourdaloue--Prohibition of publication by Louis XIV--
Pastoral of the Bishops of Sens--Santarelli--Escobar--
Anti-Coton--Margry's "Descouvertes"--Norbert 268-295
CHAPTER X
THE TWO AMERICAS
1567-1673
Chile and Peru--Valdivia--Peruvian Bark--Paraguay
Reductions--Father Fields--Emigration from Brazil--
Social and religious prosperity of the Reductions--
Martyrdom of twenty-nine missionaries--Reductions in
Colombia--Peter Claver--French West Indies--St. Kitts--
Irish Exiles--Father Bath or Destriches--Montserrat--
Emigration to Guadeloupe--Other Islands--Guiana--Mexico--
Lower California--The Pious Fund--The Philippines--
Canada Missions--Brébeuf, Jogues, Le Moyne, Marquette--
Maryland--White--Lewger 296-342
CHAPTER XI
CULTURE
Colleges--Their Popularity--Revenues--Character of
education: Classics; Science; Philosophy; Art--
Distinguished Pupils--Poets: Southwell; Balde;
Sarbievius; Strada; Von Spee; Gresset; Beschi.--Orators:
Vieira; Segneri; Bourdaloue.--Writers: Isla; Ribadeneira;
Skarga; Bouhours etc.--Historians--Publications--
Scientists and Explorers--Philosophers--Theologians--
Saints 343-386
CHAPTER XII
FROM VITELLESCHI TO RICCI
1615-1773
Pupils in the Thirty Years War--Caraffa; Piccolomini;
Gottifredi--Mary Ward--Alleged decline of the Society--
John Paul Oliva--Jesuits in the Courts of Kings--John
Casimir--English Persecutions. Luzancy and Titus Oates--
Jesuit Cardinals--Gallicanism in France--Maimbourg--Dez--
Troubles in Holland. De Noyelle and Innocent XI--
Attempted Schism in France--González and Probabilism--Don
Pedro of Portugal--New assaults of Jansenists--
Administration of Retz--Election of Ricci--The Coming
Storm 387-423
CHAPTER XIII
CONDITIONS BEFORE THE CRASH
State of the Society--The Seven Years War--Political
Changes--Rulers of Spain, Portugal, Naples, France and
Austria--Febronius--Sentiments of the Hierarchy--Popes
Benedict XIV; Clement XIII; Clement XIV 424-441
CHAPTER XIV
Pombal
Early life--Ambitions--Portuguese Missions--Seizure of
the Spanish Reductions. Expulsion of the Missionaries--
End of the Missions in Brazil--War against the Society in
Portugal--The Jesuit Republic--Cardinal Saldanha--Seizure
of Churches and Colleges--The Assassination Plot--The
Prisons--Exiles--Execution of Malagrida 442-477
CHAPTER XV
CHOISEUL
The French Method--Purpose of the Enemy--Preliminary
Accusations--Voltaire's testimony--La Vallette--La
Chalotais--Seizure of Property--Auto da fé of the Works
of Lessius, Suárez, Valentia, etc.--Appeal of the French
Episcopacy--Christophe de Beaumont--Demand for a French
Vicar--"Sint ut sunt aut non sint"--Protest of Clement
XIII--Action of Father La Croix and the Jesuits of Paris--
Louis XV signs the Act of Suppression--Occupations of
dispersed Jesuits--Undisturbed in Canada--Expelled from
Louisiana--Choiseul's Colonization of Guiana 478-503
CHAPTER XVI
CHARLES III
The Bourbon Kings of Spain--Character of Charles III--
Spanish Ministries--O'Reilly--The Hat and Cloak Riot--
Cowardice of Charles--Tricking the monarch--The Decree
of Suppression--Grief of the Pope--His death--Disapproval
in France by the Encyclopedists--The Royal Secret--
Simultaneousness of the Suppression--Wanderings of the
Exiles--Pignatelli--Expulsion by Tanucci 504-529
CHAPTER XVII
THE FINAL BLOW
Ganganelli--Political plotting at the Election--Bernis,
Aranda, Aubeterre--The Zelanti--Election of Clement XIV--
Renewal of Jesuit Privileges by the new Pope--Demand of
the Bourbons for a universal Suppression--The Three
Years' Struggle--Fanaticism of Charles III--Menaces of
Schism--Moñino--Maria Theresa--Spoliations in Italy--
Signing the Brief--Imprisonment of Father Ricci and the
Assistants--Silence and Submission of the Jesuits to the
Pope's Decree 530-554
CHAPTER XVIII
THE INSTRUMENT
Summary of the Brief of Suppression and its Supplementary
Document 555-576
CHAPTER XIX
THE EXECUTION
Seizure of the Gesù in Rome--Suspension of the Priests--
Juridical Trial of Father Ricci continued during Two
Years--The Victim's Death-bed Statement--Admission of his
Innocence by the Inquisitors--Obsequies--Reason of his
Protracted Imprisonment--Liberation of the Assistants by
Pius VI--Receipt of the Brief outside of Rome--Refused by
Switzerland, Poland, Russia and Prussia--Read to the
Prisoners in Portugal by Pombal--Denunciation of it by
the Archbishop of Paris--Suppression of the Document by
the Bishop of Quebec--Acceptance by Austria--Its
Enforcement in Belgium--Carroll at Bruges--Defective
Promulgation in Maryland. 577-603
CHAPTER XX
THE SEQUEL TO THE SUPPRESSION
Failure of the Papal Brief to give peace to the Church--
Liguori and Tanucci--Joseph II destroying the Church in
Austria--Voltaireanism in Portugal--Illness of Clement
XIV--Death--Accusations of poisoning--Election of Pius VI
--The Synod of Pistoia--Febronianism in Austria--Visit of
Pius VI to Joseph II--The Punctation of Ems--Spain,
Sardinia, Venice, Sicily in opposition to the Pope--
Political collapse in Spain--Fall of Pombal--Liberation
of his Victims--Protest of de Guzman--Death of Joseph II
--Occupations of the dispersed Jesuits--The _Theologia
Wiceburgensis_--Feller--Beauregard's Prophecy--Zaccaria--
Tiraboschi--Boscovich--Missionaries--Denunciation of the
Suppression in the French Assembly--Slain in the French
Revolution--Destitute Jesuits in Poland--Shelter in
Russia 604-635
CHAPTER XXI
THE RUSSIAN CONTINGENT
Frederick the Great and the "Philosophes"--Protection of
the Jesuits--Death of Voltaire--Catherine of Russia--The
Four Colleges--The Empress at Polotsk--Joseph II at
Mohilew--Archetti--Baron Grimm--Czerniewicz and the
Novitiate--Assent of Pius VI--Potemkin--Siestrzencewicz--
General Congregation--Benislawski--"_Approbo; Approbo_"--
Accession of former Jesuits. Gruber and the Emperor Paul
--Alexander I--Missions in Russia 636-664
CHAPTER XXII
THE RALLYING
Fathers of the Sacred Heart--Fathers of the Faith--Fusion
--Paccanari--The Rupture--Exodus to Russia--Varin in
Paris--Clorivière--Carroll's doubts--Pignatelli--Poirot
in China--Grassi's Odyssey 665-684
CHAPTER XXIII
THE RESTORATION
Tragic death of Father Gruber--Fall of Napoleon--Release
of the Pope--The Society Re-established--Opening of
Colleges--Clorivière--Welcome of the Society in Spain--
Repulsed in Portugal--Opposed by Catholics in England--
Announced in America--Carroll--Fenwick--Neale 685-715
CHAPTER XXIV
THE FIRST CONGREGATION
Expulsion from Russia--Petrucci, Vicar--Attempt to wreck
the Society--Saved by Consalvi and Rozaven 716-733
CHAPTER XXV
A CENTURY OF DISASTER
Expulsion from Holland--Trouble at Freiburg--Expulsion
and recall in Spain--_Petits Séminaires_--Berryer--
Montlosier--The Men's Sodalities--St. Acheul mobbed--
Fourteen Jesuits murdered in Madrid--Interment of Pombal
--de Ravignan's pamphlet--Veuillot--Montalembert--de
Bonald--Archbishop Affre--Michelet, Quinet and Cousin--
Gioberti--Expulsion from Austria--Kulturkampf--Slaughter
of the Hostages in the Commune--South America and Mexico
--Flourishing Condition before the Outbreak of the World
War 734-764
CHAPTER XXVI
MODERN MISSIONS
During the Suppression--Roothaan's appeal--South America
--The Philippines--United States Indians--De Smet--
Canadian Reservations--Alaska--British Honduras--China--
India--Syria--Algeria--Guinea--Egypt--Madagascar--
Mashonaland--Congo--Missions depleted by World War--
Actual number of missionaries 765-824
CHAPTER XXVII
COLLEGES
Responsibility of the Society for loss of Faith in Europe
--The Loi Falloux--Bombay--Calcutta--Beirut--American
Colleges--Scientists, Archæologists, Meteorologists,
Seismologists, Astronomers--Ethnologists 825-854
CHAPTER XXVIII
LITERATURE
Grammars and Lexicons of every tongue--Dramas--Histories
of Literature--Cartography--Sinology--Egyptology--
Sanscrit--Catholic Encyclopedia--Catalogues of Jesuit
Writers--Acta Sanctorum--Jesuit Relations--Nomenclator--
Periodicals--Philosophy--Dogmatic, Moral and Ascetic
Theology--Canon Law--Exegesis 855-890
CHAPTER XXIX
THE SOVEREIGN PONTIFFS AND THE SOCIETY
Devotion, Trust and Affection of each Pope of the
Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries manifested in his
Official and Personal Relations with the Society 891-916
CHAPTER XXX
CONCLUSION
Successive Generals in the Restored Society--Present
Membership, Missions and Provinces 917-930
WORKS CONSULTED
Institutum Societatis Jesu.
JOUVANCY--Epitome historiæ Societatis Jesu.
JOUVANCY--Monumenta Societatis Jesu.
CRÉTINEAU-JOLY--Hist. relig., pol. et litt. de la Comp. de Jésus.
B. N.--The Jesuits: their foundation and history.
ROSA, I Gesuiti dalle origini ai nostri giorni.
MESCHLER, Die Gesellschaft Jesu.
BÖHMER-MONOD--Les Jésuites.
FEVAL,--Les Jésuites.
HUBER--Der Jesuitenorden.
DUHR--Jesuiten-Fabeln.
BROU--Les Jésuites et la légende.
BELLOC, Pascal's Provincial Letters.
FOLEY--Jesuits in Conflict.
FOUQUERAY--Histoire de la compagnie de Jésus en France.
BOURNICHON--La Compagnie de Jésus en France: 1814-1914.
ALBERS--Liber sæcularis ab anno 1814 ad annum 1914.
TACCHI-VENTURI--Storia della compagnia di Gesù in Italia.
MONTI--La Compagnia di Gesù.
DUHR--Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Ländern deutschen Zunge.
KROESS--Geschichte der böhmischen Provinz der Gesellschaft Jesu.
ASTRAIN--Hist. de la Comp. de Jesús en la asist. de España.
HUGHES--History of the Society of Jesus of North America.
ALEGRE--La Compañía de Jesús en la Nueva España.
FRIAS--La Provincia de España de la compañía de Jesús, 1815-63.
POLLARD--The Jesuits in Poland.
HOGAN--Ibernia Ignatiana.
TANNER--Societas Jesu præclara.
Lives of Jesuit Saints.
Menologies of the Society of Jesus.
SOUTHWELL--Bibliotheca Scriptorum Societatis Jesu.
SOMMERVOGEL--Bibl. des écrivains de la comp. de Jésus.
CHANDLERY--Fasti breviores Societatis Jesu.
MAYNARD--The Studies and Teachings of the Society of Jesus.
DANIEL--Les Jésuites instituteurs.
WELD--Suppression of the Society of Jesus in Portugal.
DE RAVIGNAN--De l'existence et de l'institut des Jésuites.
DE RAVIGNAN--Clément XIII et Clément XIV.
THEINER--Geschichte des Pontifikats Klemens XIV.
ARTAUD DE MONTOR--Histoire du pape Pie VII.
CARAYON--Documents inédits concernants la Compagnie de Jésus.
BERTRAND--Mémoires sur les missions.
BROU--Les Missions du xix^e siècle.
SEAMAN--Map of Jesuit Missions in the United States.
MARSHALL--Christian Missions.
BANCROFT--Native Races of the Pacific States.
CAMPBELL--Pioneer Priests of North America.
CHARLEVOIX--Histoire du Japon.
CHARLEVOIX--Histoire du Paraguay.
CHARLEVOIX--Histoire de la Nouvelle-France.
CRASSET--Histoire de l'église du Japon.
AVRIL--Voyage en divers états d'Europe et d'Asie.
THWAITES--Jesuit Relations.
BOLTON--Kino's Historical Memoir.
JANSSEN--History of the German People.
LAVISSE--Histoire de France.
RANKE--History of the Popes.
LINGARD--History of England.
TIERNEY-DODD--Church History of England.
POLLEN--The Institution of the Archpriest Blackwell.
HAILE-BONNEY--Life and Letters of John Lingard.
POLLOCK--The Popish Plot.
GUILDAY--English Catholic Refugees on the Continent.
MACGEOGHEGAN--History of Ireland.
FLANAGAN--Ecclesiastical History of Ireland.
O'REILLY--Lives of the Irish Martyrs and Confessors.
ROCHEFORT--Histoire des Antilles.
EYZAGUIRRE--Historia de Chile.
TERTRE--Histoire de St. Christophe.
ROHRBACHER--History of the Church.
HÜBNER--Sixte-Quint.
HUC--Christianity in China, Tartary and Tibet.
ROBERTSON--History of Charles V.
SHEA--The Catholic Church in Colonial Days.
PACCA--Memorie storiche del ministero.
SAINTE-BEUVE--Causeries.
PETIT DE JULLEVILLE--Histoire de la littérature française.
GODEFROY--Littérature française.
SCHLOSSER--History of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.
CANTÜ--Storia universale.
The Cambridge Modern History, Vols. VIII, XII.
The Month.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, passim.
The Encyclopedia Britannica, passim.
Realencyclopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche, passim.
THE JESUITS
1534-1921
CHAPTER I
ORIGIN
The Name--Opprobrious meanings--Caricatures of the Founder--
Purpose of the Order--Early life of Ignatius--Pampeluna--
Conversion--Manresa--The Exercises--Authorship--Journey to
Palestine--The Universities--Life in Paris--First Companions--
Montmartre First Vows--Assembly at Venice. Failure to reach
Palestine--First Journey to Rome--Ordination to the Priesthood--
Labors in Italy--Submits the Constitutions for Papal Approval--
Guidiccioni's opposition--Issue of the Bull _Regimini_--Sketch
of the Institute--Crypto-Jesuits.
The name "Jesuit" has usually a sinister meaning in the minds of the
misinformed. Calvin is accused of inventing it, but that is an error. It
was in common use two or three centuries before the Reformation, and
generally it implied spiritual distinction. Indeed, in his famous work
known as "The Great Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ," which appeared
somewhere about 1350, the saintly old Carthusian ascetic, Ludolph of
Saxony, employs it in a way that almost provokes a smile. He tells his
readers that "just as we are called Christians when we are baptized, so
we shall be called Jesuits when we enter into glory." Possibly such a
designation would be very uncomfortable even for some pious people of
the present day. The opprobrious meaning of the word came into use at
the approach of the Protestant Reformation. Thus, when laxity in the
observance of their rule began to show itself in the once fervent
followers of St. John Columbini--who were called Jesuati, because of
their frequent use of the expression: "Praised be Jesus Christ"--their
name fixed itself on the common speech as a synonym of hypocrisy.
Possibly that will explain the curious question in the "Examen of
Conscience" in an old German prayer-book, dated 1519, where the penitent
is bidden to ask himself: "Did I omit to teach the Word of God for fear
of being called a Pharisee, a Jesuit, a hypocrite, a Beguine?"
The association of the term Jesuit with Pharisee and hypocrite is
unpleasant enough, but connecting it with Beguine is particularly
offensive. The word Beguine had come to signify a female heretic, a
mysticist, an illuminist, a pantheist, who though cultivating a saintly
exterior was credited with holding secret assemblies where the most
indecent orgies were indulged in. The identity of the Beguines with
Jesuits was considered to be beyond question, and one of the earliest
Calvinist writers informed his co-religionists that at certain periods
the Jesuits made use of mysterious and magical devices and performed a
variety of weird antics and contortions in subterraneous caverns, from
which they emerged as haggard and worn as if they had been struggling
with the demons of hell (Janssen, Hist. of the German People, Eng. tr.,
IV, 406-7). Unhappily, at that time, a certain section of the
association of Beguines insisted upon being called Jesuits. There were
many variations on this theme when the genuine Jesuits at last appeared.
In Germany they were denounced as idolaters and libertines, and their
great leader Canisius was reported to have run away with an abbess. In
France they were considered assassins and regicides; Calvin called them
_la racaille_, that is, the rabble, rifraff, dregs. In England they were
reputed political plotters and spies. Later, in America, John Adams,
second President of the United States, identified them with Quakers and
resolved to suppress them. Cotton Mather or someone in Boston denounced
them as grasshoppers and prayed for the east wind to sweep them away;
the Indians burned them at the stake as magicians, and the Japanese
bonzes insisted that they were cannibals, a charge repeated by Charles
Kingsley, Queen Victoria's chaplain, who, in "Westward Ho," makes an old
woman relate of the Jesuits first arriving in England that "they had
probably killed her old man and salted him for provision on their
journey to the Pope of Rome." No wonder Newman told Kingsley to fly off
into space.
The climax of calumny was reached in a decree of the Parliament of
Paris, issued on August 6, 1762. It begins with a prelude setting forth
the motives of the indictment, and declares that "the Jesuits are
recognized as _guilty of having taught at all times, uninterruptedly,
and with the approbation of their superiors and generals_, simony,
blasphemy, sacrilege, the black art, magic, astrology, impiety,
idolatry, superstition, impurity, corruption of justice, robbery,
parricide, homicide, suicide and regicide." The decree then proceeds to
set forth eighty-four counts on which it finds them specifically guilty
of supporting the Greek Schism, denying the procession of the Holy
Ghost; of favoring the heresies of Arianism, Sabellianism, and
Nestorianism; of assailing the hierarchy, attacking the Mass and Holy
Communion and the authority of the Holy See; of siding with the
Lutherans, Calvinists and other heretics of the sixteenth century; of
reproducing the heresies of Wycliff and the Pelagians and
Semi-Pelagians; of adding blasphemy to heresy; of belittling the early
Fathers of the Church, the Apostles, Abraham, the prophets, St. John the
Baptist, the angels; of insulting and blaspheming the Blessed Virgin; of
undermining the foundations of the Faith; destroying belief in the
Divinity of Jesus Christ; casting doubt on the mystery of the
Redemption; encouraging the impiety of the Deists; suggesting
Epicureanism; teaching men to live like beasts, and Christians like
pagans (de Ravignan, De l'existence et de l'institut des Jésuites, iii).
This was the contribution of the Jansenists to the Jesuit chamber of
horrors. It was endorsed by the government and served as a weapon for
the atheists of the eighteenth century to destroy the religion of
France, and finally the lexicons of every language gave an odious
meaning to the name Jesuit. A typical example of this kind of ill-will
may be found in the "Diccionario nacional" of Domínguez. In the article
on the Jesuits, the writer informs the world that the Order was the
superior in learning to all the others; and produced, relatively at
every period of its existence more eminent men, and devoted itself with
greater zeal to the preaching of the Gospel and the education of
youth--the primordial and sublime objects of its Institute. Nevertheless
its influence in political matters, as powerful as it was covert, its
startling accumulation of wealth, and its ambitious aims, drew upon it
the shafts of envy, created terrible antagonists and implacable
persecutors, until the learned Clement XIV, the immortal Ganganelli,
suppressed it on July 21, 1773, for its abuses and its disobedience to
the Holy See. Why the "learned Clement XIV" should be described as
"immortal" for suppressing instead of preserving or, at least, reforming
an order which the writer fancies did more than all the others for the
propagation of the Faith is difficult to understand, but logic is not a
necessary requisite of a lexicon. "In spite of their suppression," he
continues, "they with their characteristic pertinacity have succeeded in
coming to life again and are at present existing in several parts of
Europe." The "Diccionario" is dated, Madrid, 1849. In other words, the
saintly Pius VII performed a very wicked act in re-establishing the
Order.
Of course the founder of this terrible Society had to be presented to
the public as properly equipped for the malignant task to which he had
set himself; so writers have vied with each other in expatiating on what
they call his complex individuality. Thus a German psychologist insists
that the Order established by this Spaniard was in reality a Teutonic
creation. The Frenchman Drumont holds that "it is anti-semitic in its
character," though Polanco, Loyola's life-long secretary, was of Jewish
origin, as were Laínez, the second General, and the great Cardinal
Toletus. A third enthusiast, Chamberlain, who is English-born, dismisses
all other views and insists that, as Loyola was a Basque and an Iberian,
he could not have been of Germanic or even Aryan descent, and he
maintains that the primitive traits of the Stone Age continually assert
themselves in his character. In reading the Spiritual Exercises, he
says, "I hear that mighty roar of the cave bear and I shudder as did the
men of the diluvial age, when poor, naked and defenceless, surrounded by
danger day and night, they trembled at that voice." (Foundations of the
Nineteenth Century, I, 570.) "If this be true," says Brou in "Les
Jésuites et la légende," "then, by following the same process of
reasoning, one must conclude that as Xavier was a Basque, his voice also
was ursine and troglodytic; and as Faber was a Savoyard, he will have to
be classified as a brachycephalous _homo alpinus_." Herman Müller, in
"Les Origines de la Compagnie de Jésus" claims the honor of having
launched an entirely novel theory about Loyola's personality. "The
'Exercises' are an amalgam of Islamic gnosticism and militant
Catholicism," he tells us; "but where did Ignatius become acquainted
with these Mussulmanic congregations? We have nothing positive on that
score, though we know that one day he met a Moor on the road and was
going to run him through with his sword. Then too, there were a great
many Moors and Moriscos in Catalonia, and we must not forget that
Ignatius intended to go to Palestine to convert the Turks. He must,
therefore, have known them and so have been subject to their influence."
Strange to say, Müller feels aggrieved that the Jesuits do not accept
this very illogical theory, which he insists has nothing discreditable
or dishonoring in it.
Omitting many other authorities, Vollet in "La Grande Encyclopédie" (s.
v. Ignace de Loyola, Saint), informs his readers that "impartial history
can discover in Loyola numberless traits of fantastic exaltation,
morbific dreaminess, superstition, moral obscurantism, fanatical hatred,
deceit and mendacity. On the other hand, it is impossible not to admit
that he was a man of iron will, of indomitable perseverance in action
and in suffering, and unshakeable faith in his mission; in spite of an
ardent imagination, he had a penetrating intelligence, and a marvelous
facility in reading the thoughts of men; he was possessed of a
gentleness and suppleness which permitted him to make himself all to
all. Visionary though he was, he possessed in the supreme degree, the
genius of organization and strategy; he could create the army he needed,
and employ the means he had at hand with prudence and circumspection. We
can even discover in him a tender heart, easily moved to pity, to
affection and to self-sacrifice for his fellow-men." Michelet says he
was a combination of Saint Francis of Assisi and Machiavelli. Finally
Victor Hugo reached the summit of the absurd when he assured the French
Assembly in 1850 that "Ignatius was the enemy of Jesus." As a matter of
fact the poet knew nothing of either, nor did many of his hearers.
As far as we are aware, St. Ignatius never used the term Jesuit at all.
He called his Order the _Compañía de Jesús_, which in Italian is
_Compagnia_, and in French, _Compagnie_. The English name Society, as
well as the Latin _Societas_, is a clumsy attempt at a translation, and
is neither adequate nor picturesque. Compañía was evidently a
reminiscence of Loyola's early military life, and meant to him a
battalion of light infantry, ever ready for service in any part of the
world. The use of the name _Jesus_ gave great offense. Both on the
Continent and in England, it was denounced as blasphemous; petitions
were sent to kings and to civil and ecclesiastical tribunals to have it
changed; and even Pope Sixtus V had signed a Brief to do away with it.
Possibly the best apology for it was given by the good-natured monarch,
Henry IV, when the University and Parliament of Paris pleaded with him
to throw his influence against its use. Shrugging his shoulders, he
replied: "I cannot see why we should worry about it. Some of my officers
are Knights of the Holy Ghost; there is an Order of the Holy Trinity in
the Church; and, in Paris, we have a congregation of nuns who call
themselves God's Daughters. Why then should we object to Company of
Jesus?"
The Spaniards must have been amazed at these objections, because the
name _Jesus_ was, as it still is, in very common use among them. They
give it to their children, and it is employed as an exclamation of
surprise or fear; like _Mon Dieu!_ in French. They even use such
expressions as: _Jesu Cristo!_ _Jesu mille veces_ or _Jesucristo, Dios
mio!_ The custom is rather startling for other nationalities, but it is
merely a question of _autre pays, autres moeurs_. A compromise was
made, however, for the time being, by calling the organization "The
Society of the Name of Jesus," but that was subsequently forbidden by
the General.
As a rule the Jesuits do not reply to these attacks. The illustrious
Jacob Gretser attempted it long ago; but, in spite of his sanctity, he
displayed so much temper in his retort, that he was told to hold his
peace. Such is the policy generally adopted, and the Society consoles
itself with the reflection that the terrible Basque, Ignatius Loyola,
and a host of his sons have been crowned by the Universal Church as
glorious saints; that the august Council of Trent solemnly approved of
the Order as a "pious Institute;" that twenty or thirty successive
Sovereign Pontiffs have blessed it and favored it, and that after the
terrible storm evoked by its enemies had spent its fury, one of the
first official acts of the Pope was to restore the Society to its
ancient position in the Church. The scars it has received in its
numberless battles are not disfigurements but decorations; and Cardinal
Allen, who saw its members at close quarters in the bloody struggles of
the English Mission, reminded them that "to be hated of the Heretikes,
S. Hierom computeth a great glorie."
It is frequently asserted that the Society was organized for the express
purpose of combatting the Protestant Reformation. Such is not the case.
On the contrary, St. Ignatius does not seem to have been aware of the
extent of the religious movement going on at that time. His sole purpose
was to convert the Turks, and only the failure to get a ship at Venice
prevented him from carrying out that plan. Indeed it is quite likely
that when he first thought of consecrating himself to God, not even the
name of Luther had, as yet, reached Montserrat or Manresa. They were
contemporaries, of course, for Luther was born in 1483 and Loyola in
1491 or thereabouts; and their lines of endeavor were in frequent and
direct antagonism, but without either being aware of it. Thus, in 1521,
when Loyola was leading a forlorn hope at Pampeluna to save the citadel
for Charles V, Luther was in the castle of Wartburg, plotting to
dethrone that potentate. In 1522 when the recluse of Manresa was writing
his "Exercises" for the purpose of making men better, Luther was posing
as the Ecclesiast of Wittenberg and proclaiming the uselessness of the
Ten Commandments; and when Loyola was in London begging alms to continue
his studies, Luther was coquetting with Henry VIII to induce that
riotous king to accept the new Evangel.
Ignatius Loyola was born in the heart of the Pyrenees, in the sunken
valley which has the little town of Azcoitia at one end, and the equally
diminutive one of Azpeitia at the other. Over both of them the Loyolas
had for centuries been lords either by marriage or inheritance. Their
ancestral castle still stands; but, whereas in olden times it was half
hidden by the surrounding woods, it is today embodied in the immense
structure which almost closes in that end of the valley.
The castle came into the possession of the Society through the
liberality of Anne of Austria, and a college was built around it. The
added structure now forms an immense quadrangle with four interior
courts. From the centre of the façade protrudes the great church which
is circular in form and two hundred feet in height. Its completion was
delayed for a long time but the massive pile is now finished. At its
side, but quite invisible from without, is the castle proper, somewhat
disappointing to those who have formed their own conceptions of what
castles were in those days. It is only fifty-six feet high and
fifty-eight wide. The lower portion is of hewn stone, the upper part of
brick. Above the entrance, the family escutcheon is crudely cut in
stone, and represents two wolves, rampant and lambent, having between
them a caldron suspended by a chain. This device is the heraldic symbol
of the name Loyola. The interior is elaborately decorated, and the upper
story, where Ignatius was stretched on his bed of pain after the
disaster of Pampeluna, has been converted into an oratory.
The church looks towards Azpeitia. A little stream runs at the side of
the well-built road-way which connects the two towns. Along its length,
shrines have been built, as have shelters for travelers if overtaken by
a storm. The people are handsome and dignified, stately in their
carriage--for they are mountaineers--and are as thrifty in cultivating
their steep hills, which they terrace to the very top, as the Belgians
are in tilling their level fields in the Low Countries. There is no
wealth, but there is no sordid poverty; and a joyous piety is everywhere
in evidence. Azpeitia glories in the fact that there St. Ignatius was
baptized; and when some years ago, it was proposed to remove the font
and replace it by a new one, the women rose in revolt. Their babies had
to be made Christians in the same holy basin as their great compatriot,
no matter how old and battered it might be.
Ignatius was the youngest of a family of thirteen or, at least, the
youngest of the sons; he was christened Eneco or Inigo, but he changed
his name later to Ignatius. His early years were spent in the castle of
Arévalo; and, according to Maffei he was at one time a page of King
Ferdinand. He was fond of the world, its vanities, its amusements and
its pleasures, and though there is nothing to show that there was ever
any serious violation of the moral law in his conduct, neither was he
the extraordinarily pious youth such as he is represented in the
fantastic stories of Nieremberg, Nolarci, García, Henao and others.
After the fashion of the hagiographers of the seventeenth century and
later, they describe him as a sort of Aloysius who, under the tutelage
of Doña María de Guevara, visited the sick in the hospitals, regarding
them as the images of Christ, nursing them with tenderest charity, and
so on. All that is pure imagination and an unwise attempt to make a
saint of him before the time.
Indeed, very little about the early life of Ignatius is known, except
that when he was about twenty-six he gained some military distinction in
an attack on the little town of Najara. Of course, he was conspicuous in
the fight at Pampeluna, but whether he was in command of the fortress or
had been merely sent to its rescue to hold it until the arrival of the
Viceroy is a matter of conjecture. At all events, even after the
inhabitants had agreed to surrender the town, he determined to continue
the fight. He first made his confession to a fellow-knight, for there
was no priest at hand, and then began what was, at best, a hopeless
struggle. The enemy soon made a breach in the walls and while rallying
his followers to repel the assault he was struck by a cannon-ball which
shattered one leg and tore the flesh from the other. That ended the
siege, and the flag of the citadel was hauled down. Admiring his
courage, the French tenderly carried him to Loyola, where for some time
his life was despaired of. The crisis came on the feast of St. Peter, to
whom he had always a special devotion. From that day, he began to grow
better. Loyalty to the Chair of Peter is one of the distinguishing
traits of the Compañía which he founded.
It is almost amusing to find these shattered limbs of Ignatius figuring
in the diatribes of the elder Arnauld against the Society, sixty or
seventy years after the siege. "The enmity of the Jesuits for France,"
he said, "is to be traced to the fact that Loyola took an oath on that
occasion, as Hannibal did against Rome, to make France pay for his
broken legs." An English Protestant prelate also bemoaned "the ravages
that had been caused by the fanaticism of that lame soldier." Other
examples might be cited. To beguile the tediousness of his
convalescence, Ignatius asked for the romance "Amadis de Gaul," a
favorite book with the young cavaliers of the period; but he had to
content himself with the "Life of Christ" and "The Flowers of the
Saints." These, however, proved to be of greater service than the story
of the mythical Amadis; for the reading ended in a resolution which
exerted a mighty influence in the history of humanity. Ignatius had made
up his mind to do something for God. The "Life of Christ" which he read,
appears to have been that of Ludolph of Saxony in which the name
"Jesuit" occurs. It had been translated into Spanish and published at
Alcalá as early as 1502. Thus, a book from the land of Martin Luther
helped to make Ignatius Loyola a saint.
When sufficiently restored to health he set out for the sanctuary of
Montserrat where there is a Madonna whose thousandth anniversary was
celebrated a few years ago. It is placed over the main altar of the
church of a Benedictine monastery, which stands three thousand feet
above the dark gorge, through which the river Llobregat rushes head-long
to the Mediterranean. You can get a glimpse of the blue expanse of the
sea in the distance, from the monastery windows. Before this statue,
Ignatius kept his romantic Vigil of Arms, like the warriors of old on
the eve of their knighthood; for he was about to enter upon a spiritual
warfare for the King of Kings. He remained in prayer at the shrine all
night long, not however in the apparel of a cavalier but in the common
coarse garb of a poverty-stricken pilgrim. From there he betook himself
to the little town of Manresa, about three miles to the north, on the
outskirts of which is the famous cave where he wrote the "Spiritual
Exercises." It is in the face of the rock, so low that you can touch the
roof with your hand, and so narrow that there is room for only a little
altar at one end. Possibly it had once been the repair of wild beasts.
It is a mistake, however, to imagine that he passed all his time there.
He lived either in the hospital or in the house of some friend, and
resorted to the cave to meditate and do penance for his past sins. At
present it is incorporated in a vast edifice which the Spanish Jesuits
have built above and around it.
Perhaps no book has ever been written that has evoked more ridiculous
commentaries on its contents and its purpose than this very diminutive
volume known as "The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius." Its very
simplicity excites suspicion; its apparent jejuneness suggest all sorts
of mysterious and malignant designs. Yet, as a matter of fact, it is
nothing but a guide to Christian piety and devotion. It begins with the
consideration of the great fundamental truths of religion, such as our
duty to God, the hideousness and heinousness of sin, hell, death, and
judgment on which the exercitant is expected to meditate before asking
himself if it is wise for a reasonable creature who must soon die to
continue in rebellion against the Almighty. No recourse is had to
rhetoric or oratory by those who direct others in these "Exercises," not
even such as would be employed in the pulpit by the ordinary parish
preacher. It is merely a matter of a man having a heart to heart talk
with himself. If he makes up his mind to avoid mortal sin in the future,
but to do no more, then his retreat is over as far as he is concerned.
But to have even reached that point is to have accomplished much.
There are, however, in the world a great many people who desire
something more than the mere avoidance of mortal sin. To them the
"Exercises" propose over and above the fundamental truths just mentioned
the study of the life of Christ as outlined in the Gospels. This outline
is not filled in by the director of the retreat, at least to any great
extent. That is left to the exercitant; for the word _exercise_ implies
personal action. Hence he is told to ask himself: "Who is Christ? Why
does He do this? Why does He avoid that? What do His commands and
example suppose or suggest?" In other words, he is made to do some deep
personal thinking, perhaps for the first time in his life, at least on
such serious subjects. Inevitably his thoughts will be introspective and
he will inquire why the patience, the humility, the meekness, the
obedience and other virtues, which are so vivid in the personality of
the Ideal Man, are so weak or perhaps non-existent in his own soul. This
scrutiny of the conscience, which is nothing but self-knowledge, is one
of the principal exercises, for it helps us to discover what perhaps
never before struck us, namely that down deep in our natures there are
tendencies, inclinations, likes, dislikes, affections, passions which
most commonly are the controlling and deciding forces of nearly all of
our acts; and that some of these tendencies or inclinations help, while
others hinder, growth in virtue. Those that do not help, but on the
contrary impede or prevent, our spiritual progress are called by St.
Ignatius inordinate affections, that is tendencies, which are out of
order, which do not go straight for the completeness and perfection of a
man's character, but on the contrary, lead in the opposite direction.
The well-balanced mind will fight against such tendencies, so as to be
able to form its judgments and decide on its course of action both in
the major and minor things of life without being moved by the pressure
or strain or weight of the passions. It will look at facts in the cold
light of reason and revealed truth, and will then bend every energy to
carry out its purpose of spiritual advancement.
Such is not the view of those who write about the "Exercises" without
knowledge or who are carried away by prejudice, an exalted imagination,
an overwhelming conceit or religious bias or perhaps because of a
refusal to recognize the existence of any spiritual element in humanity.
It is difficult to persuade such men that there are no "mysterious
devices" resorted to in the Exercises; no "subterraneous caverns," no
"orgies," no "emerging livid and haggard from the struggle," no
"illuminism," no "monoideism" as William James in his cryptic English
describes them; no "phantasmagoria or illusions;" no "plotting of
assassinations" as the Parliament of Paris pretended to think when
examining Jean Chastel, who had attempted the life of Henry IV; no
"Mahommedanism" as Müller fancies in his "Origins of the Society of
Jesus," nothing but a calm and quiet study of one's self, which even
pagan philosophers and modern poets assure us is the best kind of
worldly occupation.
Even if some writers insist that "their excellence is very much
exaggerated," that they are "dull and ordinary and not the dazzling
masterpieces they are thought to be," or are "a Japanese culture of
counterfeited dwarf trees," as Huysmans in his "En Route" describes
them; yet on the other hand they have been praised without stint by such
competent judges as Saints Philip Neri, Charles Borromeo, Francis de
Sales, Alphonsus Liguori, Leonard of Port Maurice, and by Popes Paul
III, Alexander VII, Clement XIII, Pius IX and Leo XIII. Camus, the
friend of St. Francis of Sales, thought "they were of pure gold; more
precious than gold or topaz;" Freppel calls them "a wonderful work
which, with the 'Imitation of Christ' is perhaps of all books the one
which gains the most souls for God;" Wiseman compares the volume to "an
apparently barren soil which is found to contain the richest treasures,"
and Janssen tells us that "the little book which even its opponents
pronounced to be a psychological masterpiece of the highest class, ranks
also as one of the most remarkable and influential products of later
centuries in the field of religion and culture in Germany.... As a guide
to the exercises it has produced results which scarcely any other
ascetic writings can boast of" (Hist. of the German People, VIII, 223).
Whatever may be thought of it, it is the Jesuit's manual, the _vade
mecum_, on which he moulds his particular and characteristic form of
spirituality. In the novitiate, he goes through these "Exercises" for
thirty consecutive days; and shortly after he becomes a priest, he makes
them once again for the same period. Moreover, all Jesuits are bound by
rule to repeat them in a condensed form for eight days every year; and
during the summer months the priests are generally employed in
explaining them to the clergy and religious communities. Indeed the use
has become so general in the Church at the present time, that houses
have been opened where laymen can thus devote a few days to a study of
their souls. Even the Sovereign Pontiffs themselves employ them as a
means of spiritual advancement. Thus we find in the press of today the
announcement, as of an ordinary event, that "in the Vatican, the
Spiritual Exercises which began on Sunday, September 26, 1920, and ended
on October 2, were followed by His Holiness, Benedict XV, with the
prelates and ecclesiastics of his Court; during which time, all public
audiences were suspended. After the retreat, the two directors and those
who had taken part in it were presented to the Sovereign Pontiff, who
pronounced a glowing eulogy of what he called the 'Holy' Exercises."
St. Ignatius' authorship of these "Exercises" has been frequently
challenged, and they have been described as little else than a
plagiarism of the book known as the "Ejercitatorio de la vida
espiritual," which was given to him by the Benedictines of Montserrat.
It is perfectly true that he had that book in his hands during all the
time he was at Manresa, and that he went every week to confession to Dom
Chanones, who was a monk of Montserrat, but there are very positive
differences between the "Ejercitatorio" and the "Spiritual Exercises."
In the first place it should be noted that the title had been in common
use long before, and was employed by the Brothers of the Common Life, to
designate any of their pious publications. Even Ludolph of Saxony speaks
of the "Studia spiritualis exercitii." Secondly, the "Ejercitatorio" is
rigid in its divisions of three weeks of seven days each, whereas St.
Ignatius takes the weeks in a metaphorical sense, and lengthens or
shortens them at pleasure. Thirdly, the object of the Benedictine manual
is to lead the exercitant through the purgative and illuminative life up
to the unitive; whereas St. Ignatius aims chiefly at the election of
that state of life which is most pleasing to God, or at least at the
correction or betterment of the one in which we happen to be. Finally,
the "Ejercitatorio" does not even mention the foundation, the Kingdom,
the particular examen, the Two Standards, the election, the discernment
of spirits, the rules for orthodox thinking, the regulation of diet, the
three degrees of humility, the three classes or the three methods of
prayer. Only a few of the Benedictine counsels have been adopted, as in
Annotations 2, 4, 13, 18, 19 and so. Some of thoughts, indeed, are
similar in the first week; but the three succeeding weeks of St.
Ignatius are entirely his own. In any case, the "Ejercitatorio" itself
is nothing else than a compilation from Ludolph, Gerson, Cassian, Saint
Bernard, Saint Bonaventure and contemporary writers. (Debuchy, article
"Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius" in the "Catholic Encyclopedia,"
XIV, 226.)
It would be much easier to find a source of the "Exercises" in "The
Great Life of Christ" by Ludolph of Saxony, which as has been said, was
one of the books read by Ignatius in his convalescence. It is not really
a life but a series of meditations, and in it we find a number of things
which are supposed to be peculiar to the Exercises of St. Ignatius, for
instance, the composition of place, the application of the senses and
the colloquies. On the other hand there is nothing of the "first week"
in it, such as the end of man, the use of creatures, sin, hell, death,
judgment, etc., besides many other things which are employed as
"Exercises" in the book of Ignatius.
It will be a surprise to many to learn that the famous meditation of the
"Kingdom" which is supposed to be particularly Ignatian is only an
adaptation. Father Kreiten, S. J., writing in the "Stimmen" traces it to
a well-known romance which had long been current in the tales of
chivalry, but which, unfortunately, is linked with a name most abhorrent
to Catholics; William of Orange. The medieval William, however, is in no
way identified with his modern homonym. He was a devoted Knight of the
Cross, indignant that his prowess had not been recognized by his king
and he asked for some royal fief as his reward. "Give me Spain," he
cries, "which is still in the power of the Saracens." The curious
request is granted whereupon William springs upon the table and shouts
to those around him: "Listen, noble knights of France! By the Lord
Almighty! I can boast of possessing a fief larger than that of thirty of
my peers, but as yet it is unconquered. Therefore I address myself to
poor knights who have only a limping horse and ragged garments, and I
say to them that if, up to now, they have gained nothing for their
service, I will give them money, lands and Spanish horses, castles and
fortresses, if together with me, they will brave the fortunes of war in
order, to help me to effect the conquest of the country and to
re-establish in it the true religion. I make the same offer to poor
squires, proposing, moreover, to arm them as knights." In answer to
these words all exclaim, "By the Lord Almighty! Sir William! haste thee,
haste thee; he who cannot follow thee on horseback will bear thee
company on foot." From all parts there crowded to him knights and
squires with any arms they could lay hold of, and before long thirty
thousand men were ready to march. They swore fealty to Count William and
promised never to abandon him, though they should be cut to pieces. St.
Ignatius applies this legend to Christ in the "Exercises".
Finally, the "Two Standards" is a picture of those who want to do more
than obey the Commandments. Their "Captain," the Divine Redeemer,
reveals to them the wiles of the foe, which they resolve to defeat.
What is emphatically distinctive in the "Exercises" is their coherence.
With inexorable logic, each conclusion is deduced from what has been
antecedently admitted as indisputable. Thus, at the end of the first
"week", it is clear that mortal sin is an act or condition of supreme
folly; and in the course of the second, third, and fourth, we are made
to see that unless a man chooses that particular state of life to which
God calls him, or unless he puts to rights the one he is already in, he
has no character, no courage, no virility, no gratitude to God, and no
sense of danger. The fourth "week", besides enforcing what preceded, may
be regarded as intimating, though not developing, the higher mysticism.
Throughout the "Exercises," the insistent consideration of the
fundamental truths of Christianity, and the contemplation of the
mysteries or episodes of the life of Christ so illumine the mind and
inflame the heart that we cannot fail, if we are reasonable, at least to
desire to make the love of Christ the dominating motive of our life;
and, in view of that end, we are given at every step a new insight into
our duties to God, chiefly under the double aspect of our Creation and
Redemption; we are taught to scrutinize our thoughts, tendencies,
inclinations, passions and aspirations, and to detect the devices of
self-deceit; we are shown the dangers that beset us and the means of
safety that are available; we are instructed in prayer, meditation and
self-examination. The proper co-ordination of these various parts is so
essential, that if their interdependence is neglected, if the
arrangements and adjustments are disturbed and the connecting links
disregarded or displaced, the end intended by Saint Ignatius is
defeated. Hence the need of a director. It may be noted that the
"Exercises" were not produced at Manresa in the form in which we have
them now. They were touched and retouched up to the year 1541, that is
twenty years after Loyola's stay in the "Cueva", but they are
substantially identical with the book he then wrote.
After spending about a year in the austerities of the Cave, Ignatius
begged his way to Palestine, but remained there only six weeks. The
Guardian of the Holy Places very peremptorily insisted upon his
withdrawal, because his piety and his inaccessibility to fear exposed
him to bad treatment at the hands of the infidels. He then returned to
Spain and set himself to the study of the Latin elements, in a class of
small boys, at one of the primary schools of Barcelona. It was a rude
trial for a man of his years and antecedents, but he never shrank from a
difficulty, and, moreover, there was no other available way of getting
ready for the course of philosophy which he proposed to follow at
Alcalá. At this latter place, he had the happiness of meeting Laínez,
Salmerón and Bobadilla, but he also made the acquaintance of the jails
of the Inquisition, where he was held prisoner for forty-two days, on
suspicion of heresy, besides being kept under surveillance, from
November, 1526, till June of the year following. It happened, also, that
as he was being dragged through the streets to jail, a brilliant
cavalcade met the mob, and inquiries were made as to what it was all
about, and who the prisoner was. The cavalier who put the question was
one who was to be later a devoted follower of Ignatius; he was no less a
personage than Francis Borgia. Six years after the establishment of the
Society, Ignatius repaid Alcalá for its harsh treatment, by founding a
famous college there, whose chairs were filled by such teachers as
Vásquez and Suárez.
Ignatius had no better luck at Salamanca. There he was not even allowed
to study, but was kept in chains for three weeks while being examined as
to his orthodoxy. But as with Alcalá, so with Salamanca. Later on he
founded a college in that university also, and made it illustrious by
giving it de Lugo, Suárez, Valencia, Maldonado, Ribera and a host of
other distinguished teachers. Leaving Salamanca, Ignatius began his
journey to Paris, travelling on foot, behind a little burro whose only
burden were the books of the driver. It was mid-winter; war had been
declared between France and Spain, and he had to beg for food on the
way; but nothing could stop him, and he arrived at Paris safe and sound,
in the beginning of February, 1528. In 1535 he received the degree of
Master of Arts, after "the stony trial," as it was called, namely the
most rigorous examination. For some time previously he had devoted
himself to the study of theology, but ill health prevented him from
presenting himself for the doctorate. He lived at the College of Ste
Barbe where his room-mates were Peter Faber and Francis Xavier.
Singularly enough and almost prophetic of the future, Calvin had studied
at the same college. The names of Loyola and Calvin are cut on the walls
of the building to-day. In 1533 Calvin, it is said, came back to induce
the rector of the college, a Doctor Kopp, to embrace the new doctrines.
He succeeded, and, before the whole university, Kopp declared himself a
Calvinist. Calvin had prepared the way by having the city placarded with
a blasphemous denunciation of the Blessed Eucharist. A popular uprising
followed and Calvin fled. In reparation a solemn procession of
reparation was organized on January 21, 1535. There is some doubt,
however, about the authenticity of this story.
Ignatius encountered trouble in France as he had in Spain. On one
occasion he was sentenced to be flogged in presence of all the students;
but the rector of the college, after examining the charge against him,
publicly apologized. There was also a delation to the Inquisition, but
when he demanded an immediate trial he was told that the indictment had
been quashed. Previous to these humiliations and exculpations he had
gathered around him a number of brilliant young men, all of whom have
made their mark on history. They afford excellent material for an
exhaustive study of the psychology of the Saints.
Most conspicuous among them was Francis Xavier, who will ever be the
wonder of history. With him were Laínez and Salmerón, soon to be the
luminaries of the Council of Trent, the former of whom barely escaped
being elevated to the chair of St. Peter, and then only by fleeing Rome.
There was also Bobadilla, the future favorite of kings and princes and
prelates, the idol of the armies of Austria, the tireless apostle who
evangelised seventy-seven dioceses of Europe, but who unfortunately
alienated Charles V from the Society by imprudently telling him what
should have come from another source or in another way. There was
Rodriguez who was to hold Portugal, Brazil and India in his hands,
ecclesiastically; and Faber who was to precede Canisius in the salvation
of Germany.
Each one of these remarkable men differed in character from the rest.
Bobadilla, Salmerón, Laínez and Xavier were Spaniards; but the
blue-blooded and somewhat "haughty" Xavier must have been tempted to
look with disdain on a man with a Jewish strain like Laínez. Salmerón
was only a boy of about nineteen, but already marvelously learned; and
Bobadilla was an impecunious professor whom Ignatius had helped to gain
a livelihood in Paris, but whose ebulliency of temper was a continued
source of anxiety; Rodriguez was a man of velleities rather than of
action, and his ideas of asceticism were in conflict with those of
Ignatius. The most docile of all was the Savoyard Peter Faber, who began
life as a shepherd boy and was already far advanced in sanctity when he
met St. Ignatius. In spite, however, of all this divergency of traits
and antecedent environment, the wonderful personality of their leader
exerted its undisputed sway over them all, not by a rigid uniformity of
direction, but by an adaptation to the idiosyncrasies of each. His
profound knowledge of their character, coupled as it was with an intense
personal affection for them, was so effective that the proud aloofness
of Xavier, the explosiveness of Bobadilla, the latent persistency of
Laínez, the imaginativeness and hesitancy of Rodriguez, the enthusiasm
of the boyish Salmerón, and the sweetness of Faber, all paid him the
tribute of the sincerest attachment and an eagerness to follow his least
suggestion. Rodriguez was the sole exception in the latter respect, but
he failed only twice. Two other groups of young men had previously
gathered around Ignatius, but, one by one, they deserted him. All of the
last mentioned persevered, and became the foundation-stones of the
Society of Jesus.
On August 15, 1534, Ignatius led his companions to a little church on
the hill of Montmartre, then a league outside the city, but now on the
Rue Antoinette, below the present great basilica of the Sacred Heart. In
its crypt which they apparently had all to themselves that morning, they
pronounced their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Faber, the
only priest among them, said Mass and gave them communion. Such was the
beginning of the new Order in the Church. A brass plate on the wall of
the chapel proclaims it to be the "cradle of the Society of Jesus." It
is almost startling to recall that while in the University of Paris, not
only Ignatius but also Francis Xavier and Peter Faber, who were to be so
prominent in the world in a short time, were in destitute circumstances.
They had no money even to pay for their lodging, and they occupied a
single room which had been given them, out of charity, in one of the
towers of Ste Barbe. It was providential, however, for in the same
college, but paying his way, was a former schoolmate of Faber and like
him a native of Savoy. This was Claude Le Jay, or Jay, as he is
sometimes called. Of course he had noticed Ignatius and the group of
brilliant young Spaniards, but he had little or nothing to do with them
until once, when Ignatius was absent in Spain, Faber let him into the
secret of their great plan of converting the Turks. The result was that
when next year the associates went out to Montmartre to renew their
vows, Le Jay was with them as were also two other university men: Jean
Codure from Dauphiné and the Picard, Pasquier Brouet, who was already a
priest.
It had been arranged that in 1536 when their courses of study were
finished and their degrees and certificates secured, they were to meet
at Venice to embark for the Holy Land. They were to make the journey to
Venice on foot. They set out, therefore, in two bands, a priest with
each, taking the route that passed by Meaux and then through Lorraine,
across Switzerland to Venice. It was a daring journey of fifty-two days
in the dead of winter, over mountain passes, without money to pay their
way or to purchase food; with poor and insufficient clothing, across
countries filled with soldiers preparing for war, or angry fanatics who
scoffed at the rosaries around their necks, and who might have
ill-treated them or put them to death; they bore it all, however, not
only patiently but light-heartedly, and on January 6, 1537, arrived in
Venice, where Ignatius was waiting for them. To them was added a new
member of the association, Diego Hozes, who had known Ignatius at Alcalá
and now came to him at Venice.
After a brief rest, which they took by waiting on the poor and sick in
the worst hospital of the city, they were told to go down to Rome to ask
the Pope's permission to carry out their plans. This journey was not as
long or as dangerous as the one they had just made, but the bad
weather, the long fasts, the sickness of some of them, the rebuffs and
abusive language which they received when they asked for alms, made it
hard enough for flesh and blood to bear; however their devotion to the
end they had in view, or what the world might call their Quixotic
enthusiasm bore them onward. They were apprehensive, however, about
their reception in Rome, not it is true, from the Father of the Faithful
himself, but from a certain great Spanish canonist, a Doctor Ortiz, who
happened to be just then at the papal court, making an appeal to the
Sovereign Pontiff in behalf of Catherine of Aragon against Henry VIII.
Ortiz had met Ignatius in Paris and was bitterly prejudiced against him.
That, indeed, was the reason why the little band appeared in the Holy
City without their leader, but neither he nor they were aware that Ortiz
had changed his mind and was now an enthusiastic friend. Hence when the
travel-stained envoys from Venice presented themselves, they could
scarcely believe their eyes. Ortiz received them with every
demonstration of esteem and affection. He presented them to the Pope,
and urged him to grant all their requests. Subsequently, Faber acted as
theologian for Ortiz, when that dignitary represented Charles V at Worms
and in Spain. Of course the Pontiff was overjoyed and not only blessed
the members of the little band but gave them a considerable sum of money
to pay their passage to the Holy Land. So they hurried back to Ignatius
with the good news, and on June 24 all those who were not priests were
ordained.
The custom that prevails in the Church, in our days, is for a
newly-ordained priest to celebrate Mass on the morning following his
ordination; but Ignatius and his companions prepared themselves for this
great act in an heroic fashion. They buried themselves in caverns or in
the ruins of dilapidated monasteries for an entire month, giving
themselves up to fasting and prayer, preaching at times in some
adjoining town or hamlet. It was on this occasion that the vacillating
character of Rodriguez revealed itself. He and Le Jay had taken up their
abode in a hermitage near Bassano where a venerable old man named
Antonio was reviving in the heart of Italy the practices of the old
solitaries of the Thebaid. Rodriguez fell ill and was at the point of
death when Ignatius arrived and told him that he would recover. So,
indeed, it happened, but singularly enough he was anxious to continue
his eremitical life and, without speaking of his doubts to Ignatius, set
out to consult the old hermit about it, but became conscience-stricken
before he arrived. "O man of little faith, why did you doubt?" was all
St. Ignatius said, when Rodriguez confessed what he had done.
Nevertheless, that did not cure him, for the desire of leading a life of
bodily austerity had taken possession of him and was at the bottom of
the trouble which he subsequently caused in Portugal, and also when, in
1554, he wrote entreatingly to Pope Julius III for permission to leave
the Society and become a hermit (Prat, Le P. Claude Le Jay, 32, note).
At the end of the retreat, they all returned to Venice, where they
waited in vain for a ship to carry them to the land of the Mussulmans.
It was only when there was absolutely no hope left, that they made up
their minds to go back to Rome, and put themselves at the disposal of
the Pope for any work he might give them. As this was fully twenty years
after Martin Luther had nailed his thesis to the church door of
Wittenberg, it is clear that Ignatius had no idea of attacking
Protestantism when he founded the Society of Jesus.
Possibly this stay in Venice has something to do with the solution of a
question which has been frequently mooted and was solemnly discussed at
a congress of physicians at San Francisco as late as 1900, namely, why
did Vesalius, the great anatomist, go to the Holy Land? The usual
supposition is that it was to perform a penance enjoined by the
Inquisition in consequence of some alleged heretical utterances by the
illustrious scientist. However, Sir Michael Foster of the University of
Cambridge, who was the principal speaker at the Congress, offered
another explanation. "It is probable," he said, "that while pursuing his
studies in the hospitals of Venice, Vesalius often conversed with
another young man who was there at the time and who was known as
Ignatius Loyola." Such a meeting may, indeed, have occurred, for
Ignatius haunted the hospitals, and his keen eye would have discerned
the merit of Vesalius, who was a sincerely pious man. Hence, it is not
at all unlikely that the young physician may have made the "Spiritual
Exercises" under the direction of Ignatius, and that his journey to the
Holy Land was the result of his intercourse with the group of brilliant
young students, who just then had no other object in life but to convert
the Turks.
On the journey to Rome Ignatius went ahead with Faber and Laínez, and it
was then that he had the vision of Christ carrying the cross, and heard
the promise: "Ego vobis Romæ propitius ero" (I will be propitious to you
in Rome.) They were received affectionately and trustingly by the Pope,
who sent Laínez and Faber to teach in the Sapienza, one lecturing on
holy scripture and the other on scholastic theology; while Ignatius gave
the "Spiritual Exercises" wherever and whenever the opportunity
presented itself. When the other four arrived, they were immediately
employed in various parts of Rome in works of charity and zeal.
It was in Rome that Ignatius first came in personal contact with the
Reformation. A Calvinist preacher who had arrived in the city had
succeeded in creating a popular outcry against the new priests, by
accusing them of all sorts of crimes. As such charges would be fatal in
that place above all, if not refuted, the usual policy of silence was
not observed. By the advice of the Pope the affair was taken to court
where the complaint was immediately dismissed and an official
attestation of innocence given by the judge. The result was a
counter-demonstration, that made the accuser flee for his life to
Geneva. As an assurance of his confidence in them, the Sovereign Pontiff
employed them in several parts of Italy where the doctrines of the
Reformation were making alarming headway. Thus, Brouet and Salmerón were
sent to Siena; Faber and Laínez accompanied the papal legate to Parma;
Xavier and Bobadilla set out for Campania; Codure and Hozes for Padua;
and Rodriguez and Le Jay for Ferrara. It is impossible to follow them
all in these various places, but a brief review of the difficulties that
confronted Rodriguez and Le Jay in Ferrara may be regarded as typical of
the rest.
In conformity with the instructions of Ignatius, they lodged at the
hospital, preached whenever they could, either in the churches or on the
public streets, and taught catechism to the children and hunted for
scandalous sinners. An old woman at the hospital discovered by looking
through a crack in the door that they passed a large part of the night
on their knees. At this point Hozes died at Padua, and Rodriguez had to
replace him; Le Jay was thus left alone at Ferrara. The duke, Hercules
II, became his friend, but the duchess, Renée of France, daughter of
Louis XII, avoided him. She was a supposedly learned woman, a
forerunner, so to say, of the _précieuses ridicules_ of Molière, and an
ardent patron of Calvin, a frequent visitor at the court along with the
lascivious poet Clément Marot, who translated the Psalms into verse to
popularize Calvin's heretical teachings. Another ominous figure that
loomed up at Ferrara was the famous Capuchin preacher, Bernardo Ochino,
a man of remarkable eloquence, which, however, was literary and dramatic
rather than apostolic in its character. His emaciated countenance, his
long flowing white beard and his fervent appeals to penance made a deep
impression on the people. They regarded him as a saint, never dreaming
that he was a concealed heretic, who would eventually apostacize and
assail the Church. He was much admired by the duchess, who conceived a
bitter hatred for Le Jay and would not even admit him to her presence.
The trouble of the Jesuit was increased by the attitude of the bishop,
who, knowing the real character of Ochino, looked with suspicion on Le
Jay as possibly another wolf in sheep's clothing; but his suspicions
were soon dispelled, and he gave Le Jay every means in his power to
revive the faith and morals of the city. The duchess, however, became so
aggressive in her proselytism that the duke ordered her into seclusion,
and when he died, his son and successor sent her back to her people in
France where she died an obstinate heretic.
From Ferrara Le Jay hastened to Bagnorea to end a schism there, and
though neither side would listen to him at first, yet his patience
overcame all difficulties, and finally, everybody met everybody else in
the great church, embraced and went to Holy Communion. Peace then
reigned in the city. The other envoys achieved similar successes
elsewhere throughout the peninsula; and Crétineau-Joly says that their
joint efforts thwarted the plot of the heretics to destroy the Faith in
Italy. The winter of 1538 was extremely severe in Rome, and a scarcity
of provisions brought on what amounted almost to a famine. This distress
gave Ignatius and his companions the opportunity of showing their
devotion to the suffering poor; and they not only contrived in some way
or other to feed, in their own house, as many as four hundred famishing
people, but inspired many of the well-to-do classes to imitate their
example.
With this and other good works to their credit, they could now ask the
authorization of the Sovereign Pontiff for their enterprise. Hence on
September 3, 1539, they submitted a draught of the Constitution, and
were pleased to hear that it evoked from the Pope the exclamation: "The
finger of God is here." But they were not so fortunate with the
commission of cardinals to whom the matter was then referred.
Guidiccioni, who presided, was not only distinctly hostile, but
expressed the opinion that all existing religious orders should be
reduced to four and hence he contemptuously tossed the petition aside.
It was only after a year that he took it up again--he scarcely knew
why--and on reading it attentively he was completely converted and
hastened to report on it as follows: "Although as before, I still hold
to the opinion that no new religious order should be instituted, I
cannot refrain from approving this one. Indeed, I regard it as something
that is now needed to help Christendom in its troubles, and especially
to destroy the heresies which are at present devastating Europe." Thus
it is Guidiccioni who is responsible for setting the Society to undo the
work of Martin Luther.
The Pope was extremely pleased by the commission's report, and on
September 27, 1540, he issued the Bull "Regimini Ecclesiæ," approving
"The Institute of the Society of Jesus." In this Bull and that of
Julius III, the successor of Paul III, we have the official statement of
the character and the purpose of the Society. Its object is the
salvation and perfection of the souls of its members and of the
neighbor. One of the chief means for that end is the gratuitous
instruction of youth. There are no penances of rule; but it is assumed
that bodily mortifications are practised and employed, though only under
direction. Great care is taken in the admission and formation of
novices, and lest the protracted periods of study, later, should chill
the fervor of their devotion, there are to be semi-annual spiritual
renovations, and when the studies are over, and the student ordained to
the priesthood, there is a third year of probation, somewhat similar to
the novitiate in its exercises. There are two grades in the Society--one
of professed, the other of coadjutors, both spiritual and temporal.
All are to be bound by the three vows of poverty, chastity and
obedience, but those of the coadjutors are simple, while those of the
professed are solemn. The latter make a fourth vow, namely, one of
obedience to the Sovereign Pontiff, which binds them to go wherever he
sends them, and to do so without excuse, and without provisions for the
journey. The Father-General is elected for life. He resides in Rome, so
as to be at the beck of the Sovereign Pontiff, and also because of the
international character of the Society. All superiors are appointed by
him, and he is regularly informed through the provincials about all the
members of the Society. Every three years there is a meeting of
procurators to report on their respective provinces and to settle
matters of graver moment. The General is aided in his government by
assistants chosen mostly according to racial divisions, which may in
turn be subdivided. There is also an admonitor who sees that the General
governs according to the laws of the Society and for the common good.
Disturbers of the peace of the Order are to be sharply admonished, and
if incorrigible, expelled. When approved scholastics or formed
coadjutors are dismissed they are dispensed from their simple vows. The
simple vow of chastity made by the scholastics is a diriment impediment
of matrimony. Because of possible withdrawals or dismissals from the
Society, the dominion of property previously possessed is to be
retained, as long as the general may see fit, but not the usufruct--an
arrangement which has been repeatedly approved by successive Pontiffs,
as well as by the Council of Trent.
All ambition of ecclesiastical honors is shut off by a special vow to
that effect. There is no choir or special dress. The poverty of the
Society is of the strictest. The professed houses are to subsist on
alms, and cannot receive even the usual stipends. Moreover, the
professed are bound by a special vow to watch over and prevent any
relaxation in this respect. The rule is paternal, and hence an account
of conscience is to be made, either under seal of confession or in
whatever way the individual may find most agreeable. A general
congregation may be convened as often as necessary. Its advisability is
determined at the meeting of the procurators. In the first part of the
Constitution, the impediments and the mode of admission are considered;
in the second, the manner of dismissal; in the third and fourth, the
means of furthering piety and study and whatever else concerns the
spiritual advancement, chiefly of the scholastics; the fifth explains
the character of those who are to be admitted and also the various
grades; the sixth deals with the occupations of the members; the seventh
treats of those of superiors; the eighth and ninth relate to the
General; and the tenth determines the ways and means of government.
Before the Constitutions were promulgated, Ignatius submitted them to
the chief representatives of the various nationalities then in the
Order, but they did not receive the force of law until they were
approved by the first general congregation of the whole Society. After
that they were presented to Pope Paul III, and examined by four
Cardinals. Not a word had been altered when they were returned. The
Sovereign Pontiff declared that they were more the result of Divine
inspiration than of human prudence.
For those who read these Constitutions without any preconceived notions,
the meaning is obvious, whereas the intention of discovering something
mysterious and malignant in them inevitably leads to the most ridiculous
misinterpretations of the text. Thus, for instance, some writers inform
us that St. Ignatius is not the author of the Constitutions, but Laínez,
Mercurian or Acquaviva. Others assure their readers that no Pope can
ever alter or modify even the text; that the General has special power
to absolve novices from any mortal sins they may have committed before
entering; that the general confessions of beginners are carefully
registered and kept; that a special time is assigned to them for reading
accounts of miraculous apparitions and demoniacal obsessions; that
before the two years of novitiate have elapsed a vow must be taken to
enter the Society; that all wills made in favor of one's family must be
rescinded; that in meditating, the eyes must be fixed on a certain point
and the thoughts centered on the Pater Noster until a state of
quasi-hypnotism results; that the grades in the Society are reached
after thirty or thirty-five years of probation, after which the
applicant becomes a probationer; the professed are called "ours"; the
spiritual coadjutors "externs." The latter do the plotting and have
aroused all the ill-will of which the Society has been the object;
whereas the professed devote themselves to prayer and are admired and
loved.
There are also, we are assured, secret, outside Jesuits. The Emperors
Ferdinand II and III, and Sigismund of Poland are put in that class, and
probably also John III of Portugal and Maximilian of Bavaria; while
Louis XIV is suspected of belonging to it. The Father-General dispenses
such members from the priesthood and from wearing the soutane. "Imagine
Louis XIV," says Brou, who furnishes these details, "asking the General
of the Jesuits to be dispensed from wearing the soutane!" Unlike the
other Jesuits, these cryptics would not be obliged to go to Rome to
pronounce their vows. Again, it is said, Pope Paul IV had great
difficulty in persuading the Jesuits to accept the dispensation from the
daily recitation of the breviary. Perhaps the most charming of all of
these "discoveries" is that the famous phrase _perinde ac cadaver_, "you
must obey as if you were a dead body," was borrowed from the Sheik
Si-Senoussi who laid down rules for his Senoussis in Africa, about two
centuries after St. Ignatius had died. The authors of these
extraordinary conceptions are Müller, Reuss, Cartwright, Pollard, Vollet
and others, all of whom are honoured with a notice posted in the British
Museum, as worthy of being consulted on the puzzling subject of
Jesuitry, and yet the Constitutions of the Society and the explanations
of them, by prominent Jesuit writers, can be found in any public
library.