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.
The pent-up energy of the new organization immediately found vent not
only in Europe but at the ends of the earth. Portugal gave its members
their first welcome when Xavier and Rodriguez went there, the latter to
remain permanently, the former only for a brief space. Araoz evangelized
Spain and was the first Jesuit to enter into relations with Francis
Borgia, Viceroy of Catalonia, who afterwards became General of the
Society. A college was begun in Paris and provided with professors such
as Strada, Ribadeneira, Oviedo and Mercurian. Faber accompanied Ortiz,
the papal legate, to Germany; Brouet, Bobadilla, Salmerón, Codure and
Laínez went everywhere through Italy; while Ignatius remained at Rome,
directing their operations and meantime establishing orphanages, night
refuges, Magdalen asylums, shelters for persecuted Jews, and similar
institutions. Strangely enough, Ignatius was not yet the General of the
Society, for no election had thus far taken place. Strictly speaking,
however, none was needed, for none of the associates ever dreamed of any
other leader. However, on April 5, 1541, the balloting took place; those
who were absent sending their votes by messenger. That of Xavier could
not arrive in time, for he had already left Portugal for the East;
indeed he had departed before the official approval of the Order by the
Pope--two things which have suggested to some inventive historians that
Francis Xavier was not really a Jesuit. They would have proved their
point better, if they could have shown Xavier had remained in Europe
after he had been ordered away. As a matter of fact; he had been one of
the collaborators of Ignatius in framing the Constitutions and was still
in Portugal when the news arrived of Guidiccioni's change of mind.
In the election every vote but one went for Ignatius. The missing one
was his own. He was dissatisfied and asked for another election. Out of
respect for him, the request was granted but with the same result--Such
a concession, it may be noted, is never granted now. The one who is
chosen submits without a word. The office is for life but provisions are
made for removal--a contingency which happily has never arisen. As in
the beginning, those elections are held at what are called general
congregations. The first one was made up of all the available fathers
but at present they consist of the fathers assistant, namely the
representatives of the principal linguistic groups in the Society or
their subdivisions--a body of men who constitute what is called the
Curia and who live with the General; the provincials; two delegates from
each province; and finally the procurator of the Society. With one
exception, these congregations have always met in Rome; the exception is
the one that chose Father Luis Martín in 1892, which assembled at Loyola
in Spain. That these elections may be absolutely free from all external
and internal influence, the delegates are strictly secluded, and have no
communication with other members of the Society. Four days are spent in
prayer and in seeking information from the various electors, but the
advocacy of any particular candidate is absolutely prohibited. The
ballot is secret and the voting is immediately preceded by an hour's
meditation in presence of the crucifix. The electors are fasting, but
the method of voting is such that a deadlock or even any great delay is
next to impossible. Up to the time of the Suppression of the Society in
1773, there had been eighteen Generals. In the interim between that
catastrophe and the re-establishment, there were three Vicars-General,
who were compelled by force of circumstances to live in Russia. In 1802
on the receipt of the Brief "Catholicæ Fidei," the title of the last
Vicar was changed to that of General. Since then, there have been eight
successors to that post.
St. Ignatius was chosen General on Easter Sunday, 1541. After the
election, the companions repaired to St. Paul's outside the Walls and
there renewed their vows. On that occasion it was ordained that every
professed father should, after making his vows, teach catechism to
children or ignorant people for forty days; subsequently this obligation
was extended to rectors of colleges after their installation. Ignatius
acquitted himself of this task in the church of Our Lady of the Wayside
at the foot of the Capitol.
In 1541 we find Salmerón and Brouet on their way to Ireland as papal
nuncios. They had been asked for by Archbishop Wauchope of Armagh, when
Henry VIII was endeavoring to crush out the Faith in England and
Ireland. Wauchope is a very interesting historical character. He had
been named Archbishop of Armagh after Browne of that see had
apostatized. He was generally known as "the Scotch Doctor," and had been
the Delegate of Pope Paul III at Spires where Charles V was striving in
vain to conciliate the German princes. With him as advisers were Le Jay,
Bobadilla and Faber. What made him especially conspicuous then and
subsequently, was the fact that he had risen to the dignity of
archbishop and of papal delegate though he was born blind. This is
asserted by a host of authors, among them Prat in his life of Le Jay,
and Crétineau-Joly, MacGeoghegan and Moore in their histories.
On the other hand we find in the "Acta Sanctæ Sedis" (XIII) a flat
denial of it by no less a personage than Pope Benedict XIV. It occurs
incidentally in a decision given on March 20, 1880, in connection with
an appeal for a young theologian, whose sight was very badly impaired at
the end of his theological course. The appellants had alleged the case
of the Archbishop of Armagh and the court answered as follows: "Nec
valeret adduci exemplum cujusdam Roberti Scoti, cui quamvis cæco a
puerili ætate, concessa fuit facultas nedum ad sacerdotium sed etiam ad
episcopatum, ascendendi, uti tenent Maiol. (_De irregularitate_), et
Barbos (_De officio episcopi_). Respondet enim Benedictus XIV, quod
reliqui scriptores, quibus major fides habenda est, Robertum non oculis
captum sed infirmum fuisse dicunt;" which in brief means: "Benedict XIV
declares that the most reliable historians say that Scotch Robert was
not blind but of feeble vision." As Benedict XIV was perhaps the
greatest scholar who ever occupied the Chair of Peter, and as his
extraordinary intellectual abilities were devoted from the beginning of
his career to historical, canonical and liturgical studies, in which he
is regarded as of the highest authority, such an utterance may be
accepted as final with regard to the "Scotch Doctor's" blindness.
Codure was to have been one of the Irish delegates, but he died, and
hence Salmerón, Brouet and Zapata undertook the perilous mission. The
last mentioned was a wealthy ecclesiastic who was about to enter the
Society and had offered to defray the expenses of the journey. In the
instructions for their manner of acting Ignatius ordered that Brouet
should be spokesman whenever nobles or persons of importance were to be
dealt with. As Brouet had the looks and the sweetness of an angel,
whereas Salmerón was abrupt at times, the wisdom of the choice was
obvious. They went by the way of France to Scotland, and when at
Stirling Castle, they received a letter from James V, the father of Mary
Queen of Scots, bespeaking their interest in his people. Crétineau-Joly
says they saw the king personally. Fouqueray merely hints at its
likelihood. From Scotland they passed over to Ireland and found that the
enemy knew of their arrival. A price was put upon their heads, and they
had to hurry from place to place so as not to compromise those who gave
them shelter. But in the brief period of a month which they had at their
disposal before they were recalled by the Pope they had ample
opportunity to take in the conditions that prevailed. They returned as
they had gone, through Scotland and over to Dieppe, and then directed
their steps to Rome, but they were arrested as spies near Lyons and
thrown into prison--a piece of news which Paget, the English ambassador
in France, hastened to communicate to Henry; Cardinals de Tournon and
Gaddi, however, succeeded in having them released and they then
proceeded to the Holy City to make their report.
Eighteen years later, Father Michael Gaudan was sent as papal nuncio to
Mary Stuart. He entered Edinburgh disguised as a Scottish peddler and
succeeded in reaching the queen. As a Frenchman could not have acted the
part of a Scottish peddler, it is more than likely that Gaudan is a
gallicized form of Gordon. Indeed, there is on the records a Father
James Gordon, S. J., who had so exasperated the Calvinists by his
refutation of their errors that he was driven out of the country. He
returned again, however, immediately, as he simply got a boat to take
him off the ship which was carrying him into exile, and on the following
day he stood once more upon his native heath, remaining there for some
years sustaining his persecuted Catholic brethren (Claude Nau, Mary's
secretary).
That the "blind Archbishop" also succeeded in reaching his see is clear
from a passage in Moore's "History of Ireland" (xlvii), which tells how
during the reign of Edward VI two French gentlemen, the Baron de
Fourquevaux and the Sieur Montluc, afterwards Bishop of Valence, went to
Ireland as envoys of the French king and were concealed in Culmer Fort
on Loch Foyle. They kept a diary of their journey which may be found, we
are assured, in the "Armorial-général ou registre de la noblesse de
France." The diary relates that while at the Fort "they received a visit
from Robert Wauchope, better known by his pen name as Venantius, a
divine whose erudition was the more remarkable as he had been blind from
birth and was at the time, titular Archbishop of Armagh." He did not,
however, remain in Ireland. MacGeoghegan says "he returned to the
Continent and died in the Jesuit house at Paris in the year 1551."
Stewart Rose in her "Saint Ignatius Loyola and the Early Jesuits" tells
us it was at Lyons, but that was impossible, for there was no Jesuit
establishment in Lyons until after the great pestilence of 1565, when
the authorities offered the Society the municipal college of the Trinity
as a testimonial of gratitude to Father Auger. The generosity of this
offer, however, was not excessive. The Fathers were to take it for two
years on trial. They did so and then the provincial insisted that the
gift should be absolute or the staff would be withdrawn. After some
bickering on the part of a number of Calvinist échevins or aldermen,
the grant was made in perpetuity and confirmed by Charles IX in 1568.
Meantime, Faber had been laboring in Germany. He was to have been the
Catholic orator at Worms in 1540, but conditions were such that he made
no public utterance. Melanchthon was present, but whether Faber and he
met is not clear. In 1541 Faber received an enthusiastic welcome at
Ratisbon from the Catholics, especially from Cochlæus, the great
antagonist of Luther. Among his opponents at the Diet were Bucer and
Melanchthon; the discussion, as usual, led to no result. In one of his
letters he notes the inability of the Emperor to prevent the general
ruin of the Faith. From Ratisbon he went to Nuremberg, but as the legate
had been recalled, Faber's work necessarily came to an end. Le Jay and
Bobadilla succeeded him in Germany. The former addressed the assembly of
the bishops at Salzburg, preached in the Lutheran churches, escaped
being poisoned on one occasion and drowned on another; he failed,
however, to check the flood of heresy, which had not only completely
engulfed Ratisbon, but threatened to overwhelm Catholic Bavaria,
although Duke William maintained that such an event was impossible.
Ingolstadt had already been badly damaged, both doctrinally and morally;
and Bobadilla was despatched thither by the legate to see what could be
done.
Faber had, meantime, returned to Germany. In spite of attacks by
highwaymen, imprisonment, ill-treatment at the hands of disorderly bands
of soldiers and heretics, he reached Spires and completely revived the
spirit of the clergy. From there he hastened to Cologne, but in the
midst of his work he was sent off to Portugal for the marriage of the
king's daughter. By the time he reached Louvain, he was sick and
exhausted, so that the order to proceed to Portugal had to be rescinded.
He then returned to Cologne, where he again met Bucer and Melanchthon,
who were endeavoring to induce the bishop to apostatize. Apprehensive of
their success, he had them both expelled from the city. Again he was
summoned to Portugal, and in 1547 the king, at his instance, gave the
Society the college of Coimbra. Similar establishments were begun about
the same time in Spain--at Valencia, Barcelona and Valladolid, chiefly
through the influence of Araoz.
Le Jay, meanwhile, had been made professor of theology at Innsbruck, on
the death of the famous Dr. Eck, and the university petitioned the Pope
to make his appointment perpetual; but he was clamored for
simultaneously by several bishops, and we find him subsequently at
Augsburg, Salzburg, Dillingen and elsewhere, battling incessantly for
the cause of the Faith. He succeeded in inducing the bishops assembled
at Augsburg to prohibit the discussion of religion at the Diet, and a
little later he assisted at the ecclesiastical council of the province.
With him at this gathering was Bobadilla, who, says the chronicler,
"resembled him in energy and zeal but was altogether unlike him in
character." Le Jay was gentle and persuasive; Bobadilla, impetuous and
volcanic. Bobadilla's fire, however, seems to have pleased the Germans.
He strengthened the nobles and people of Innsbruck in their faith, was
consulted by King Ferdinand on the gravest questions, scored brilliant
successes in public disputes, and was made socius of the Apostolic
nuncio at Nuremberg, where, it was suspected, a deep plot was being laid
for the complete extirpation of the Faith. At the king's request, he
attended the Diet of Worms, and by his alertness and knowledge rendered
immense service to the Catholic party. He was shortly afterward
summoned by the king to Vienna where he preached to the people
incessantly and revived the ecclesiastical spirit of the clergy. He was
again at Worms for another diet, and persuaded both the emperor and
Ferdinand to oppose the Lutheran scheme of convoking a general council
in Germany. At the suggestion of St. Ignatius, an appeal had been made
to the bishops, through Le Jay, to establish seminaries in their
dioceses. They all approved of the project; and several immediately set
to work to carry it out.
When the Diet adjourned, Le Jay left Germany to take part in the Council
of Trent, while Bobadilla remained with the king as spiritual adviser to
the court and general supervisor of the sick and wounded soldiers of the
royal armies. In the latter capacity he acquitted himself with his usual
energy--his impetuosity of character often bringing him into the
forefront of battle, where he merited several honorable scars for his
daring. He also succeeded in falling a victim to the pestilence which
was ravaging the country; he was robbed and maltreated by marauders, but
came through it all safely, and we find him at the Diets of Ratisbon and
Augsburg, everywhere showing himself a genuine apostle, as the
Archbishop of Vienna informed Ignatius. The king offered him a
bishopric, but he refused. He was soon, however, to know Germany no
more.
The Council of Trent had already been in session for three years, when
Charles V issued an edict known as the Interim, which forbade any change
of religion until the council had finished its work; but at the same
time he made concessions to the heretics which angered the Catholics
both lay and clerical. Bobadilla was especially outspoken in the matter
and in a public discourse was imprudent enough to condemn the imperial
policy. Clearly he had not yet acquired the characteristic virtue of
his great leader. Not only did he not mend matters by his intemperate
eloquence, but he created an aversion for the Society in the mind of
Charles V, which lasted till the time of St. Francis Borgia. Besides, he
virtually blasted his own career. He was ordered to Naples by St.
Ignatius and forbidden to present himself at the Jesuit house as he
passed through Rome. He appears only once later and then in a manner
scarcely redounding to his credit: objecting to the election of Laínez
as vicar, although he had previously voted for him and obeyed him for a
year. Happily the brilliant services of his fellow Jesuits who were at
the Council of Trent and elsewhere, as well as his own splendid past,
averted any very great damage to the Society.
Although Ignatius had been invited to be present at the sessions in
Trent, he sedulously avoided the prominence which that would have given
him personally; moreover, absence from his post as General of the
newly-formed Institute would have materially interfered with the task of
preparing successors to the great men who were already at work. Thus,
Salmerón and Laínez were the Pope's theologians and Father Faber was
summoned from his sick bed in Portugal to assist them, but he arrived in
Rome only to die in the arms of Ignatius and never appeared at the
council. Le Jay was present as theologian of the Cardinal Archbishop of
Augsburg; Cavallino represented the Duke of Bavaria; and later Canisius
and Polanco were added to the group. The coming of Canisius was due more
or less to an accident. He had been laboring at Cologne to prevent the
archbishop, Herman von Weid, from openly apostatizing; when the
concessions to Melanchthon and Bucer had become too outrageous to be
tolerated, he had hurried off to meet the emperor and King Ferdinand to
ask for the deposition of the prelate. With the king he met Truchsess,
the great Cardinal of Augsburg, and had no difficulty in gaining his
point, but the Cardinal was so fascinated by the ability of the young
pleader that he insisted on taking him to Trent as his theologian in
spite of the protests of the whole city of Cologne.
Naturally, many of the Fathers of the Council had their suspicions of
these new theologians. They were members of a religious order which had
broken with the traditions of the past, and they might possibly be
heretics in disguise. Moreover, they were alarmingly young. Canisius was
only twenty-six, Salmerón thirty-one, Le Jay about the same age, and
Laínez, the chief figure in the council, not more than thirty-four. But
the indubitable holiness of their lives, their amazing learning, and
their uncompromising orthodoxy soon dissipated all doubts about them.
Laínez and Salmerón were especially prominent. They were allowed to
speak as long as they chose on any topic. Thus, after Laínez had
discoursed for an entire day on the Sacrifice of the Mass, he was
ordered to continue on the following morning. Entire sections of the
Acts of the council were written by him; and by order of the Pope both
he and Salmerón had to be present at all the sessions of the council,
which lasted with its interruptions from 1545 to 1563. Bishoprics and a
cardinal's hat were offered to Laínez; and, at the death of Paul IV,
twelve votes were cast for him as Pope. Indeed one section of the
cardinals had made up their minds to elect him, but when apprised of it,
he fled and kept in concealment until the danger was averted. He was at
that time General of the Society.
After the first adjournment of the council, these men whose stupendous
labors would appear to have called for some repose were granted none at
all. Thus, we find Laínez summoned by the Duke of Etruria to found a
college in Florence. The Pope's vicar wanted him to look after the
ecclesiastical needs of Bologna, whither he repaired with Salmerón,
while Le Jay was working at Ferrara and elsewhere in the Peninsula. The
most remarkable of them all, however, in the matter of work during these
recesses was undoubtedly Peter Canisius (Kanees, Kanys or De Hondt, as
he was variously called.) One would naturally imagine that he would have
been sent back to Cologne to the scene of his former triumphs. On the
contrary, he was ordered to teach rhetoric in the newly-founded college
of Messina in Sicily. He was then recalled to Rome, where he made his
solemn profession in the hands of St. Ignatius; after this he started
with Le Jay and Salmerón to Ingolstadt, where he taught theology and
began his courses of catechetical instructions which were to restore the
lost Faith of Germany.
On the way to the scene of his labors, he received a doctor's degree at
Bologna. In 1550 he was made rector of the University of Ingolstadt, but
was nevertheless, sent to Vienna to found a new college. He was
simultaneously court preacher, director of the hospitals and prisons,
and, in Lent, the apostle of the abandoned parishes of Lower Austria. He
was offered the See of Vienna, but three times he refused it, though he
had to administer the diocese during the year 1557. Five years prior to
that he had opened colleges at Prague and Ingolstadt, after which he was
appointed the first provincial of Germany. He was adviser of the king at
the Diet of Ratisbon, and by order of the Pope took part in the
religious discussions at Worms. He began negotiations for a college at
Strasburg, and made apostolic excursions to that place as well as to
Freiburg and Alsace. While taking part in the general congregation of
the order in Rome, he was sent by Pope Paul IV to the imperial Diet of
Pieterkow in Poland. In 1559 he was summoned by the emperor to the Diet
of Augsburg, and had to remain in that city from 1561 to 1562 as
cathedral preacher; during this time it is recorded that besides giving
retreats, teaching catechism and hearing confessions, he appeared as
many as two hundred and ten times in the pulpit. In 1562 he was back
again as papal theologian at Trent, where he found himself at odds with
Laínez, then General of the Society, on the question of granting the cup
to the laity--Laínez opposing this concession, which he advocated. He
remained at the council only for a few sessions, but returned again
after having reconciled the Emperor with the Pope. The Emperor's favor,
however, he lost later when he changed his views about Communion under
both species, and also by reason of an unfounded charge of revealing
imperial secrets which had been made against him.
In that year Canisius opened the college of Innsbruck and directed the
spiritual life of Magdalena, the saintly daughter of Ferdinand I. In
1564 he inaugurated the college of Dillingen and became administrator of
the university of that place; he was also constituted secret nuncio of
Pius IV to promulgate the decrees of the council in Germany. His mission
was interrupted by the death of the Pope, and although Pius V desired
him to continue in that office, he declined, because it exposed him to
the accusation of meddling in politics. In 1566 he was theologian of the
legate at the Diet of Augsburg and persuaded that dignitary not to issue
a mandate against the so-called religious peace. He thus prevented
another war and gave new life to the Catholics of Germany. In 1567 he
founded a college at Würzburg, and evangelized Mayence and Spires. At
Dillingen he received young Stanislaus Kostka into the Society
conditionally and sent him to Rome; he settled a philosophical dispute
at Innsbruck and established a college at Halle. At last in 1569 at his
own request he was relieved of his office of provincial, which he had
held for thirteen years; in 1570 he was court preacher of the Archduke
Ferdinand II; in 1575 he was papal envoy to Bavaria, and theologian to
the papal legate at the Diet of Ratisbon. He introduced the Sodality of
the Blessed Virgin at Innsbruck, and at the command of the Pope built a
college at Freiburg, where he remained for the rest of his life.
For years Canisius had urged his superiors and had also pleaded at the
Council of Trent for the establishment of colleges of writers in various
countries to defend the Faith. He was in constant touch with the great
printers and publishers of the day, such as Plantin, Cholin and Mayer;
he brought out the first reports of foreign missions, and induced the
town council of Freiburg to establish a printing-press. All this time he
was actively writing, and the list of his publications covers
thirty-eight quarto pages in the "Bibliothèque des écrivains de la C. de
Jésus." He was commissioned by Pius V to refute the Centuriators of
Magdeburg--the society of writers who, under the inspiration of Flacius
Illyricus, had undertaken to falsify the works of the early Fathers of
the Church, century by century, so as to furnish a historical proof in
support of Luther's errors. In 1583 he united in one volume the two
books which he had previously issued in 1571 and 1577, styling them
"Commentaria de Verbi corruptelis," having in the meantime published the
genuine texts of Saints Cyril and Leo.
His "Catechism" was his most famous achievement. It consisted of two
hundred and eleven, and later, of two hundred and twenty-two doctrinal
questions, and was intended chiefly for advanced students; but there
were annexed to it a compendium for children, and another for students
of the middle and lower grades. It is recognized as a masterpiece even
by Protestant writers such as Ranke, Menzel, Kawerau and others. Two
hundred editions of it in one form or another were published during his
lifetime in twelve different languages. "I know my Canisius" became a
synonym in Germany for "I know my catechism." In brief, he did more than
any other man to save Germany for the Church, and he is regarded as
another St. Boniface. He died on November 21, 1597 and was beatified
by Pius IX on April 17, 1864. The Catechism appears to have been
first suggested by Ferdinand I to Le Jay who took up the work
enthusiastically. But instead of crowding everything into one volume, he
divided it into three: the first, a summa of theology for the
university; the second, a volume for priests engaged in the ministry;
while the third was for school teachers. He laid the matter before St.
Ignatius, who assigned the first part to Laínez and the second to
Frusius, then rector of Vienna. But as Frusius died, and Laínez was made
General of the Society, Canisius undertook the entire work.
Apparently, it was from Le Jay also that the idea came of founding the
Collegium Germanicum in Rome, though Cardinal Morone claims it as his
conception. Le Jay, indeed, had discussed the matter with him, but had
previously made a much more serious study of the question with Cardinal
Truchsess, Archbishop of Augsburg. As the purpose of the Collegium was
to supply a thoroughly educated priesthood to Germany, Truchsess could
appreciate the need of it more than Morone, whose ideas about the need
of good works, the vital question in Germany at the time, were extremely
curious, according to his own account of a stormy interview he had with
Salmerón on that topic. He reproached Salmerón for making too much of
good works. Indeed Morone had been at one time under the surveillance
of the Inquisition on account of certain utterances. His orthodoxy,
however, must have been above suspicion, because of the exalted position
he occupied.
Le Jay was broken-hearted when Maurice of Saxony, the leader of the
imperial troops, swung his whole army over to the very Lutherans whom he
had just defeated at Muhlberg. The awful condition of religion in the
Empire preyed upon his mind to such a degree that he died at Vienna on
Aug. 6, 1552, at the age of fifty-two. Canisius, who preached the
funeral oration, said that he was "a worthy successor of Faber, and that
his instinct was so correct that the character he gave to the college of
Vienna over which he presided was adopted as the model throughout
Germany." Ranke might be quoted on that point also. He points out that
"at the beginning of 1551 the Jesuits had no fixed place in Germany--Le
Jay was appointed rector only in June of that year--but in 1566 they
occupied Bavaria, Tyrol, Franconia, a great part of the Rhine Province
and Austria, and had penetrated into Hungary and Moravia. It was the
first durable anti-Protestant check that Germany had received."
Under normal conditions, Spain would of course, have received these
distinguished sons of hers with open arms; but, unfortunately, a
deplorable state of affairs prevailed in the highest circles both of
Church and State, almost as open and as shameless as in other parts of
Europe. Princes and nobles held the titles of bishops and archbishops
and appropriated the revenues of dioceses. That alone made any effort in
the way of reform impossible. Added to this, Bobadilla's indiscretion in
attacking the policy of Charles V in Germany had, as we have already
said, predisposed that monarch, and consequently many of his subjects,
against the whole Society; but as the Emperor did not openly interfere
with them they established colleges in Barcelona, Gandia, Valencia and
Alcalá, as early as 1546; but two years later, when they made their
appearance in Salamanca, they found an implacable foe in the person of
the distinguished Dominican theologian, Melchior Cano.
From the pulpit and platform and in the press Cano denounced and decried
the new religious, not only as constituting a danger to the Church, but
as being nothing else than the precursors of Antichrist. His own
Master-General wrote a letter eulogizing the Society and forbidding his
brethren to attack it; but this had no effect on Melchior, nor did the
fact that the new Order was approved by the Pope avail to keep him
quiet. Finally, in order to mollify him he was made Bishop of the
Canaries, but he actually resigned that see in order to return to the
attack. His hostility continued not only till his death, but after it;
for, before he departed, he left in the hands of a friend a document
which was of great service to the enemies of the Society at the time of
the Suppression. "God grant," he wrote, "that I may not be a Cassandra,
who was believed only after the sack of Troy. If the religious of the
Society continue as they have begun, there may come a time, which I hope
God will avert, when the Kings of Europe would wish to resist them but
will be unable to do so." One of the reasons of Cano's hostility to the
Society was that the Fathers urged Catholics to frequent the sacraments
(Suau, Vie de Borgia, 136). This opposition of Cano was backed by the
Archbishop of Saragossa, who was Francis Borgia's uncle. Bands of street
children carrying banners on which hideous devils were painted marched
to the new church of the Society and pelted it with stones. Then the mob
drove the luckless Fathers out of the city; when Borgia's sister
sheltered the exiles in her castle her uncle, the archbishop,
excommunicated her. But that was the way of the world in those days.
Even the illustrious Cardinal Carranza was kept in the prison of the
Spanish Inquisition for seventeen years, because of something discovered
in his writings by his brother Dominican Melchior Cano (Suau, _op.
cit._, 136).
Little by little, however, the prejudices were dissipated, and both
Alcalá and Salamanca called Strada to lecture in their halls.
Nevertheless, each new success only raised a fresh storm. Thus it was
bad enough when the rector of the University of Salamanca, Anthony of
Córdova, who was just about to be made a cardinal, entered the Society;
but the excitement became intense when, in 1550, Francis Borgia, who was
Duke of Gandia, Viceroy of Catalonia, a friend of the Emperor, a soldier
who had distinguished himself in the invasion of Provence, and whose
future usefulness was reckoned upon for the service of his country, let
it be known that he, too, was going to become a Jesuit. To prevent it,
the Pope was urged to make him a Cardinal, but Borgia, who was then in
Rome, fled back to Spain. When, however, he finally appeared as a member
of the Order, houses and colleges were erected wherever he wished to
have them: at Granada, Valladolid, Saragossa, Medina, San Lucar,
Monterey, Burgos, Valencia, Murcia, Placentia and Seville. In 1556
Charles V was succeeded by Philip II, who asked that the cardinal's hat
should be given to Borgia, but the honor was again refused. On three
other occasions the same offers and refusals were repeated.
By the time Francis Borgia became General of the Order it had already
developed into eighteen provinces, with one hundred and thirty
establishments, and had a register of three thousand five hundred
members. Besides attempting to convert the Vaudois heretics, the
Society maintained the missions of Brazil and the Indies and established
new ones in Peru and Mexico; by the help of the famous Pedro Menéndez,
who is the special object of hatred on the part of American Protestant
historians, it sent the first missionaries to what is now Florida in the
United States. Segura and his companions were put to death on the
Rappahannock; and Martínez was killed further down the coast, while
Sánchez, a former rector of Alcalá, reached Vera Cruz in Mexico in 1572
with twelve companions to look after the Spaniards and natives and to
care for the unfortunate blacks whom the Spaniards were importing from
Africa.
When Pius V was elected Pope, there was a general fear that he would
suppress the Society; but the Pontiff set all doubts at rest when, on
his way to be crowned at St. John Lateran, he called Borgia to his side
and embraced him. He also made Salmerón and Toletus his official
preachers, and gave the Jesuits the work of translating the "Catechism"
of the Council of Trent and of publishing a new edition of the Bible. He
was, however, about to revoke the Society's exemption from the office of
choir; but Borgia induced him to change his mind on that point, and even
obtained a perpetual exemption from the public recitation of the Office,
as well as the revocation of the restriction of the priesthood to the
professed of the Society. Moreover, when there was danger of a Turkish
invasion, Borgia was sent with the Pope's nephew to Spain and France to
organize a league in defence of Christendom, while Toletus accompanied
another cardinal to Germany.
Philip II had asked for missionaries to evangelize Peru, and hence at
the end of March, 1568, Portillo and seven Jesuits landed at Callao, and
proceeding to Lima established a church and college there on a
magnificent scale. It was easy to do so, however, for the Spanish
colonists were rolling in wealth. At the same time, the Indians and
negroes were not neglected. In 1569 twelve new missionaries arrived, and
one of them, Alonzo de Barzana, to the amazement of every one, preached
in the language of the Incas as soon as he came ashore. He had been
studying it every moment of the long journey from Spain. In 1574 a
college was established at Cuzco, in an old palace of the Incas, and
another in the city of La Paz.
At this stage of the work the first domestic trouble in the New World
presented itself. Portillo, the provincial, was admitting undesirable
candidates into the Society, and placing the professed in parishes, thus
flinging them into the midst of the civil and ecclesiastical turmoil
which then prevailed. In spite of his abilities, however, he was
promptly recalled to Spain. It is very gratifying to learn that outside
the domestic precincts, no one ever knew the reason of this drastic
measure. Freedom from parochial obligations left the Fathers time for
their normal work, and they forthwith established schools in almost
every city and town of Peru. The training school on Lake Titicaca,
especially, was a very wise and far-seeing enterprise, for there the
missionaries could devote themselves exclusively to the study of the
native language and to historical, literary and scientific studies. The
result was that some of the most eminent men of the period issued from
that educational centre. It is said that the printing-press they brought
over from Europe was the first one to be set up in that part of the New
World. Titicaca flourished as late as 1767, but at that time Charles III
expelled the Jesuits from Peru and Titicaca ceased to be.
The Society had a long and desperate struggle, before it could gain an
educational foothold in France. Possibly it was a preparation for the
future glory it was to win there. Its principal enemies were the
University of Paris and, incidentally, the Parliament, which came under
the influence of the doctors of the Sorbonne. The first band of Jesuits
arrived under the leadership of Domenech, who had been a canon in Spain
but had relinquished his rich benefice to enter the Society--an act
which seemed so supremely foolish in the eyes of his friends that they
accused Ignatius of bewitching him. Later, he became a sort of Saint
Vincent de Paul for Italy. He found Palermo swarming with throngs of
half-naked and starving children, and immediately built an asylum for
them. He established hospitals, Magdalen asylums, refuges for the aged,
and went round the city holding out his hand for alms to repair the
dilapidated convents of nuns, whom the constant wars had left homeless
and hungry. Giving the Spiritual Exercises was one of his special
occupations.
In the group, also, was Oviedo, the future Patriarch of Abyssinia, who
was to spend his life in the wilds of Africa. There too was Strada,
orator, poet and historian, who was to be one of the most illustrious
men of his time; he taught rhetoric for fifteen years in the Roman
College, was the official preacher and the intimate friend of Popes
Clement VIII and Paul V, and wrote a "History of the Wars of Flanders,"
which met with universal applause. Finally, there was the famous young
Ribadeneira, then only a boy of fourteen; he had left one of the most
brilliant courts of Europe--that of Cardinal Farnese, the brother of
princes and popes--and later became famous as a distinguished Latinist,
a successful diplomat, the chosen orator at the inaugural ceremonies of
the Collegium Germanicum, an eminent preacher at Louvain and Brussels,
and an envoy to Mary Tudor in her last illness. He was provincial,
visitor and assistant under Borgia and Laínez, the great champion of the
Society in Spain against Vásquez and his fellow-conspirators, and an
author whose works in his native Castilian are ranked among the classics
of the language.
Their staunch friend was du Prat, the Bishop of Clermont, who gave them
the palace which had been, up to that time, his residence when visiting
the metropolis. Before that shelter was assured to them, they had lived
as boarders, first in the Collège des Trésoriers and then in the Collège
des Lombards, not as Jesuits, but as ordinary students whose similarity
of taste in matters of piety seemed to the outside world to have drawn
them together. Of course, their real character soon became known, and
then their troubles began. A college was attempted at Tournon in the
following year, with Auger as rector, but the civil war was raging and
before a twelve-month, Adrets, the most bloodthirsty monster of the
Huguenot rebellion, whose favorite amusement was to make his prisoners
leap off the ramparts to the rocks below, put an end to everything
Catholic in Tournon.
Crétineau-Joly is of opinion that the recognition of the Society in
France was retarded by its refusal to admit the famous Guillaume Postel
in its ranks. It seems absurd, but it happened just then that France had
gone mad about Postel; and Marguérite de Valois used to speak of him as
the "Wonder of the World." He was indeed a very remarkable personage.
Though only self-instructed, he knew almost every language; he had
plunged in the depths of rabbinical and astrological lore; to obtain an
intimate knowledge of the Orient, he had accompanied the Sultan in an
expedition against the Persians; he had spent vast sums of money in
purchasing rare manuscripts; he was sought for by all the universities;
he drew immense crowds to his lectures, and wrote books about every
conceivable subject, but at the same time with all his genius he was
undoubtedly insane. So that when he went to Rome and told about his
spiritual communications with the mythical Mère Jeanne, and how he
proposed to unite the whole human race, by the power of the sword or the
word, under the banner of the Pope and the King of France, who, he said,
was a lineal descendant of the eldest son of Noe, the perspicacity of a
Loyola was not needed to understand his mental condition. His rejection
ought to have been a recommendation rather than a reproach.
When established in their new house, the Jesuits received scholars and
asked for affiliation to the university, but the request was
peremptorily refused, for the alleged reason that they were neither
secular priests nor friars, but a nondescript and novel organization
whose purpose was mysterious and suspicious. Besides, they were all
Spaniards--a genuine difficulty at a time when Charles V and Francis I
were threatening to go to war with each other. It happened also that the
Archbishop of Paris, du Bellay, was their avowed enemy; he denounced
them as corrupters of youth, and expelled them from the little chapel of
Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which a Benedictine abbot had put at their
disposal. Finally, when the war seemed imminent, the foreigners were
sent away, some to Lyons and some to Louvain. For a time, those who
remained were shielded by the papal nuncio at Paris, but he was
recalled. Then the Archbishop of Rheims and the Cardinal of Lorraine
appeared as their protectors. They had even secured the grant of a
charter for the college and were very hopeful of opening it, but, as the
concession had to be passed on by the Parliament before it became
effective, they were as badly off as ever. Besides this, their lack of
friends had left the college without funds, for the teaching given in
their house was gratuitous--a practice which formed the chief
educational grievance alleged by the university. Evidently a staff of
clever professors who taught for nothing constituted a menace to all
other institutions. Conditions became so desperate that at one time
there were only four pupils at Clermont. Nevertheless, with an amazing
confidence in the future success of the Society in France, it was just
at this moment that St. Ignatius established the French province, and
sent the beloved Pasquier Brouet as superior.
Brouet had already given proofs of his ability in dealing with
difficulties; for with Salmerón he had faced the danger of death in
Ireland, and when there was question of creating a Patriarch of
Abyssinia or Ethiopia, another place of prospective martyrdom, he was
the first choice, though Oviedo was ultimately selected, probably
because of his nationality. Shortly after his arrival, a new college was
attempted at Billom, but Father de la Goutte who was appointed rector
was captured by the Turks and died on an island off the coast of Tunis.
A substitute, however, was appointed, and in a few years the college had
five hundred students on its roll. Applications were made also for
establishments at Montarges, Périgueux and elsewhere. In 1560 the first
friend of the Society in France, the Bishop of Clermont, died, leaving
rich bequests in his will to the colleges at Paris and Billom, but they
were disallowed by the courts because the Society was not an authorized
corporation. For, in spite of the fact that not only the sanction of
Henry II but also that of Francis II had been given, yet the university
and the Archbishop of Paris had contrived by all sorts of devices to
delay the complete official recognition of the establishment. In the
long fight that ensued against this injustice, Father Cogordan, who was
the procurator of the province, distinguished himself by his
resourcefulness in facing and mastering the various situations.
The opposition finally collapsed in a very dramatic fashion. Charles IX
was on the throne, but the reins of government were in the hands of his
mother, Catherine de' Medici, who, contrary to the express wish of the
Sovereign Pontiff, had consented to the demands of the Huguenots for a
general assembly, where the claims of the new religion might be
presented to the representative Catholics of the kingdom. The Colloquy,
as it was called, took place at Poissy in 1561. The experience of
Germany in permitting such gatherings had shown very clearly that,
instead of conducing to religious peace, they only widened the breach
between Catholics and Protestants. For the calm statement of dogmatic
differences was ignored by the appellants, and the sessions were
purposely turned into a series of disorderly and virulent denunciations
and recriminations.
The Colloquy in this instance was very imposing. The queen mother,
Charles IX and the whole court were present. There were five cardinals,
forty bishops and a throng of learned divines from all parts of France.
Cardinal de Tournon presided; Hôpital was the spokesman for the crown;
while the King of Navarre and the Prince de Condé represented the
Huguenot party. Among the Protestant ministers were Theodore Beza and
Peter Martyr, the ex-friar. Eight days had gone by in useless squabbles
when into the assembly came James Laínez, who was then General of the
Society, and had been sent thither by the Pope to protest against the
Colloquy. Beza had already been annihilated by the Cardinal of Lorraine,
and Peter Martyr was speaking when Laínez entered. The great man who
had held the Council of Trent enthralled by his leaning and eloquence
listened for a while to his unworthy adversary and then arose.
Addressing the queen, he said: "It may be unseemly for a foreigner to
lift his voice in this presence, but as the Church is restricted to no
nation, it cannot be out of place for me to give utterance to the
thoughts that present themselves to my mind on this occasion. I will
first advert to the danger of these assemblies and will especially
address myself to what Friar Peter and his colleague have advanced."
The use of the name "friar" publicly pilloried the apostate. He writhed
under it, but he could not escape. It recurred again and again as the
tactics of Beza and his associates were laid bare. Then, turning to the
queen, Laínez said: "The first means to be taken to avoid the deceits of
the enemy is for your Majesty to remember that it is not within the
competency either of your Majesty or any other temporal prince to
discuss and decide matters pertaining to the Faith. This belongs to the
Sovereign Pontiff and the Councils of the Church. Much more so is this
the case when, as at present, the General Council of Trent is in
session. If these teachers of the new religion are sincerely seeking the
truth, let them go there to find it." After adding his authority to the
splendid reply already uttered by the Cardinal of Lorraine, Laínez said:
"As Friar Peter has asked us for a confession of faith, I confess the
Catholic Faith, for which I am ready to die; and I implore Your
Majesties, both you, Madame, and your son, the Most Christian King, to
safeguard your temporal kingdom if you wish to gain the Kingdom of
Heaven. If on the contrary you care less for the fear and love of God
than the fear and love of man, are you not running the risk of losing
your earthly as well as your heavenly kingdom? I trust that this
calamity will not fall upon you. I expect, on the contrary, that God in
his goodness will grant you and your son the grace of perseverance in
your faith, and will not permit this illustrious nobility now before me,
and this most Christian kingdom, which has been such an example to the
world, ever to abandon the Catholic Faith or be defiled by the
pestilential touch of these new sects and new religions."
This discourse was a particularly daring act, on the part of Laínez.
According to a recent authority (Martin, Gallicanisme et la Réforme, 28,
note 4), Du Ferrier, the government delegate at Trent, circulated a note
which said among other things: "As for Pius IV we withdraw from his
rule; whatever decisions he may have made we reject, spit back at him
(_respuimus_) and despise. We scorn and renounce him as Vicar of Christ,
Head of the Church and successor of Peter." Far from reprehending his
ambassador for these furious words, Charles IX and, of course, Catherine
praised the ambassador unreservedly. Catherine had busied herself
previous to this in trying to persuade the different governments to have
a council in which the Pope should have nothing to say, one whose object
would be, not to define dogma or enforce discipline, but, to draw up a
formula of reconciliation which would satisfy Protestants. Even the
French bishops, though admitting that the Pope was a supreme power in
the Church, denied that he had supreme power over it, and refused to
acknowledge "his plenitude of power to feed, rule and govern the
Universal Church." The separation of France from the Church was at that
time openly advocated. Since such were the conditions in France at that
time, it is clear that Catherine never expected an attack of the kind
that Laínez treated her to. She burst into tears and withdrew from the
Colloquy. There was never another public session. Crétineau-Joly says
that Laínez told Condé: "The queen's tears are a bit of comedy;" but
such an utterance from a man of the character of Laínez and in such
surroundings, where the insult would have been immediately reported to
the queen, is simply inconceivable. He could never have been guilty of
such an unpardonable indiscretion.
Meantime, the bishops and archbishops of France had been meeting during
the recesses of the Colloquy to consider the question of legislation for
the Jesuit colleges. With the exception of Cardinal de Châtillon and the
Archbishop of Paris, they were all anxious to put an end to the
proscription to which the Society had been so long and so unjustly
subjected. As it happened that Cardinal de Châtillon, the brother of the
famous Admiral Coligny, the patron saint of the French Calvinists, was
just then on the point of apostatizing and taking a wife and as the
scandal was of common knowledge it evidently would not do for the
Archbishop of Paris to be ranged on his side. That and, probably, the
fact of his being tired out by the long fight which had been protracted
only because of his natural stubbornness, made him give way, and the
Society was legalized in France. No doubt the presence of Laínez and his
closing up of the Colloquy by his audacious discourse had helped largely
to bring about that result. Some disagreeable restrictions were appended
to the grant, it is true, but they were cancelled a few years later by a
royal decree. Parliament finally yielded and signed the charter of the
College on January 14, 1562. Laínez saw the queen frequently after the
Colloquy, and remained in France for some time, striving unweariedly to
win back to the Faith such men as Condé, the King of Navarre and others,
and continuing to warn the queen that her unwise toleration would
result in disaster to the realm. Unfortunately he was not heeded.
While all this was going on, another college had been established at
Pamiers, which was in the heretical territory of Navarre. Its founders
were none others than the rector of the Roman College, Jean Pelletier,
and Edmond Auger. But in the beginning the inhabitants were suspicious
and refused the commonest hospitality to the new comers, so that their
first dwelling had the advantage of being like the Stable of
Bethlehem--a hut with no doors and no windows. Finally, however, their
sermons in the churches captivated the people and the "Jezoists," as
they were called, succeeded in getting a respectable house and beginning
their classes. This was in 1559, but before the end of 1561 the
"Jezoists" were expelled by the excited Huguenots, and were compelled to
take refuge in Toulouse.
The Edmond Auger just mentioned was perhaps the most eloquent man of
that period in France. He was called the Chrysostom of his country.
Wherever he went, crowds flocked to hear him, fanatical Calvinists as
well as devoted Catholics. His first sermon was in Valence, where the
bishop had just apostatized and the Huguenots were in complete
possession. A furious outbreak resulted, and he was seized and sentenced
to be burned to death. While standing at the stake, he harangued the
people before the torch was applied, and so captivated the mob that they
clamored for his release. His devotedness to the sick in a pestilence at
Lyons won the popular heart and a college was asked for. At various
times he was chaplain of the troops, confessor of Henry IV, rector and
provincial; but unfortunately he was so outspoken in his denunciation of
the League that the people of Lyons, who once admired him, were wrought
up to fury by his utterances on the political situation, and were on
the point of throwing him into the Rhône. His unwise zeal had thus
seriously injured the Society.
When the council of Trent had concluded its sessions, Canisius was sent
back to Germany by the Pope to see that the decrees were promulgated and
enforced. He labored for five years to accomplish this task, but failed
completely. With the exception of some bishops like Truchsess of
Augsburg, very few paid any attention to the Pope's wish, the reason
being that they were mostly scions of the nobility, who were accustomed
to live in luxury and had adopted the ecclesiastical profession solely
because of the rich revenues of the sees to which their relatives had
had them appointed. At that very time fourteen of them, it is said on
the best authority, were wearing their mitres without even having
notified the Pope of their election or asking his approbation. They,
more than Martin Luther, were responsible for the loss of Germany. Their
lives were such that Canisius forbade his priests to accept the position
of confessor to any of them. Of course, such men turned a deaf ear to
the papal decree about establishing diocesan seminaries; and those who
desired them were prevented by their canons, some of whom were not even
priests. It was for this reason that Canisius begged the Pope to
establish burses in foreign seminaries, where worthy ecclesiastics might
be trained whose lives would be in such contrast with the general
depravity and ignorance of the clergy that the bishops would perhaps be
shamed out of their apathy.
The establishment of burses, however, was only a temporary expedient;
for the few secular priests they might furnish could scarcely support
the strain to which they would be subjected in the terrible isolation
which their small number would entail. They would not have the compact
organization of a religious order to keep them steady, and yet they
would be the victims of the same kind of persecution as Canisius and his
associates had to undergo. From this difficulty arose the idea of the
Collegium Germanicum already referred to, an establishment in Rome under
the direction of the Jesuits, to which young Germans distinguished for
their intellectual ability and virtue could be sent and trained to be
apostles in their native land. It was the Collegium Germanicum that
saved to the Faith what was left of Germany and won back much that was
lost.
"The German College at Rome," said a Protestant preacher in 1594
(Nothgedrungene Erinnerungen, Bl. 8), "is a hotbed singularly favorable
for developing the worst kind of Jesuitry. Our young Germans are
educated there gratuitously; and at the end of their studies they are
sent home to restore papistry to its former place and to fight for it
with all their might. You find them exercising the ministry in a great
number of collegiate churches and parishes. They become the advisers of
bishops and even archbishops; and we see these Jesuits under our very
eyes defending the Catholic cause with such zeal that we Evangelicals
may well ask ourselves in what lands and in what towns such fervent zeal
for the beloved Gospel is found among our own party. They seduce so many
souls from us that it is too distressing even to enumerate them." Martin
Chemnitz, the Protestant theologian, said that if the Jesuits had done
nothing but found the German College, they would deserve to be regarded
for that one achievement as the most dangerous enemy of Lutheranism.
"These young men," said another Protestant controversialist in 1593,
"are like their teachers in diabolical cunning, in hypocritical piety,
and in the idolatrous practices which they propagate among the people.
They preach frequently, pretending to be good Christians, they frequent
hospitals and visit the sick at home, all out of a pure hypocrisy
saturating the very hides of these wretches. They are again persuading
the simple and credulous people to return to their damnable papistry"
(Janssen, op. cit., IX, 323, sqq.).
Echsfeld, Erfurt, Aschaffenburg, Mayence, Coblentz, Trèves, Würzburg,
Spires and other places soon felt the effects of the zeal of these
students of the Collegium Germanicum. Their manner of life meant
hardship and danger of every kind; assaults by degenerate Catholics and
infuriated heretics; vigils in miserable huts and pest-laden hospitals,
resulting sometimes in sickness and violent death; but "these messengers
of the devil," as the preachers called them, kept at their work and soon
won back countless numbers of their countrymen to the Faith. Similar
establishments also grew up at Braunsberg, Dillingen, Fulda, Munich and
Vienna. Representatives of other religious orders entered into the
movement and gave it new life and vigor. Janssen (IX, 313) informs us
that the foundation of seminaries for poor students also was due to
Canisius and his fellow-workers. At their suggestion Albert V founded
the Gregorianum at Munich in 1574; and Ingolstadt, Würzburg, Innsbruck,
Halle, Gratz and Prague soon had similar establishments. As early as
1559 Canisius assumed the responsibility for two hundred poor students,
and by having them live in common was able to supply all their needs.
After each of his sermons in the cathedral, he went around among the
great personages assembled to hear him, to ask for alms to keep up his
establishments. Father Voth, following his example forty years later,
collected 1400 florins in a single year for the same purpose.
The work of regeneration was not restricted to the foundation of
ecclesiastical seminaries. Janssen (l.c.) gives us an entire page of
the names of colleges taken from the "Litteræ annuæ," in some of which
there were nine hundred, one thousand, and even thirteen hundred
scholars. Between 1612 and 1625 Germany had one hundred Jesuit colleges.
In all of them were established sodalities the members of which besides
performing their own religious exercises in the chapel, visited the
hospitals, prisons and camps and performed other works of charity and
zeal. On their rosters are seen the names of men who attained eminence
in Church and State--kings, princes, cardinals, soldiers, scholars, etc.
These sodalities had also established intimate relations with similar
organizations all over Europe. Naturally, this intense activity aroused
the fury of the heretics. Calumnies of every kind were invented; and in
1603 a preacher in Styria announced that the most execrable and
sanguinary plots were being formed to drown the whole Empire in blood in
order to nullify the teaching of the Evangel. "O poor Roman Empire!" he
exclaimed, "your only enemies, the only enemies of the Emperor, of the
nation, of religion are the Jesuits." Janssen adds: "The facts told a
different story."
Father Peter Pázmány figures at this period in a notable fashion. He was
a Hungarian from Nagy Várad, also known as Grosswardein. His parents
were Calvinists, but he became a Catholic and at the age of sixteen
entered the Society at Rome, where he was a pupil of such scholars as
Bellarmine and Vásquez. He taught in the college of Gratz, which had
been founded by the Jesuits in 1573 with theological and philosophical
faculties. The Archduke Ferdinand enriched it with new buildings and
furnished it with ample revenues, giving it also ecclesiastical
supremacy in Carinthia and other estates of the crown. Pázmány became
the apostle of his countrymen, both by his books and his preaching. He
was a master in his native tongue, says Ranke (History of the Popes, IV,
124), and his spiritual and learned work "Kalaus," produced an
irresistible sensation. Endowed with a ready and captivating eloquence,
he is said to have personally converted fifty of the most distinguished
families, one of which ejected twenty ministers from their parishes and
replaced them by as many Catholic priests. The government was also swung
into line; the Catholics had the majority in the Diet of 1625, and an
Esterhazy was made Palatine. Pázmány was offered a bishopric which he
refused, but finally the Pope, yielding to the demand of the princes and
people, appointed him primate and then made him a cardinal. His "Guide
to Catholic Truth" was the first polemic in the Hungarian language. He
founded a university at Tyrnau which was afterwards transferred to Buda.
The Hungarian College at Rome was his creation, as was the Pazmaneum in
Vienna. His name has been recently inserted in the Roman Breviary in
connection with the three Hungarian martyrs, two of whom were Jesuits,
Pongracz and Grodecz, who were put to death in 1619.
Italy exhibited a similar energy from one end to the other of the
Peninsula. Chandlery in his "Fasti Breviores" (p. 40) tells us that "the
first school of the Society was opened in the Piazza Ara Coeli in 1551,
and soon developed into the famous Roman College. In 1552 it was removed
to a house near the Minerva; in 1554 to a place near the present site;
in 1562 to the house of Pope Paul IV; and in 1582 to the new buildings
of the Gregorian University." It was in this college on March 25, 1563,
that the Belgian scholastic, John Leunis, organized the first sodality
of the Blessed Virgin. Fouqueray, however, contests this claim of the
Ara Coeli school, and asserts that the first college was at Messina,
and was begun in 1547, and that St. Ignatius determined to make it the
model of all similar establishments. Its rule was based on the methods
that prevailed in the colleges of the University of Paris, with changes,
however, in its discipline and religious direction. Its plan of studies
was the first "Ratio studiorum." It had two sessions of two or three
hours each daily; Latin was always employed as the language of the
house, but both Hebrew and Greek were taught. Vacation lasted only
fifteen days for pupils in humanities and the higher grades; and only
eight days or less for those in the lower classes. The students went to
confession every month and assisted daily at Mass. Nearly all the cities
of the peninsula had called for similar colleges. In what is now Belgium
there were thirty-four colleges or schools, an apparently excessive
number, but the fact that they were, with two exceptions, day-schools
and that small boys were excluded will explain the possibility of
managing them with comparatively few professors. Six or seven sufficed
for as many hundred pupils. Moreover, something in the way of a
foundation to support the school was always required before its
establishment.
In 1564 the Roman Seminary was entrusted to the Society; and in 1578 the
Roman College. Five years previously, the Collegium Germanicum, after
Canisius had presented a memorial to Gregory XIII on the services it was
expected to render, obtained a subsidy for a certain number of students.
The Bull, dated August, 1573, exhorted the Catholics of the German
Empire to provide for a hundred students of philosophy and theology. The
Pope gave it the palace of St. Apollinaris, the Convent of St. Sabas and
the revenues of St. Stephen on Monte Coelio. Over and above this, he
guaranteed 10,000 crowns out of the revenues of the Apostolic Treasury.
In 1574 it had one hundred and thirty students and in a few years one
hundred and fifty. The philosophers followed a three years' course, the
theologians four. Between 1573 and 1585 the Pope disbursed for the
Collegium Germanicum alone about 235,649 crowns--equivalent to about a
quarter of a million dollars. Besides this, as early as 1552 St.
Ignatius had obtained from Julius III a Bull endowing a college for the
study of the humanities, in which young Germans could prepare themselves
for philosophy and theology. In its opening year it had twenty-five
students, and in the following twice as many. Under Paul IV when the
establishment was in dire want, St. Ignatius supported it by begging,
and he told Cardinal Truchsess that he would sell himself into slavery
rather than forsake his Germans. It was while engrossed in this work
that Ignatius died. His memory is tenderly cherished in the Collegium
Germanicum to this day. When his name is read out in the Martyrology on
July 31, the students all rise, and with uncovered heads listen
reverently to the announcement of the feast of their founder.