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.
The literary activity of the Society has always been very great, not
only in theological, philosophical and scientific fields, but also in
those that are specifically designated as pertaining to the _belles
lettres_. Thus, under the heading "Linguistics," in Sommervogel's
"Bibliotheca" we find treatises on philology, the origin of language,
grammatical theories, a pentaglottic vocabulary, a lexicon of
twenty-four languages, the first language, etc. Then come the Classics.
Under "Greek," there are two huge pages with the names of various
grammars; besides dictionaries, exercises and collections of old Greek
authors. Under "Latin," we find four pages of grammars and lexicons;
some of the latter giving the equivalents in Portuguese, Tamul, Chinese,
French, Polish, Brazilian, Bohemian, Syrian, Armenian and Japanese.
After that we have: "Elegances," "Roots," "Ancient and Modern Latin,"
"Anthologies," "Pronunciations," "Medullas" etc. Six pages are devoted
to grammars and dictionaries of European languages, not only the
ordinary ones but also Basque, Bohemian, Celtic, Croat, Illyrian, Wend,
Provençal, Russian and Turkish. The Asiatic languages follow next in
order: Annamite, Siamese, Arabian, Armenian, Georgian, Chinese,
Cochinese, Hebrew, Hindustanee, Japanese, Persian, Sanscrit and Syrian;
with two columns of Angolese, Caffre, Egyptian, Ethiopian, Kabyle and
Malgache grammars. The Malgache all bear the dates of the late
nineteenth century, and there is an Esquimaux Grammar by Father Barnum
dated 1901.
The tongues of most of the North and South American Indians are
represented; the dictionaries of the South American Indians were all
written by the Fathers of the old Society.
The books devoted to the study of eloquence are appalling in their
number. They are in all languages and on all sorts of subjects, sacred
and profane. There are panegyrics, funeral orations, coronation
speeches, eulogies, episcopal consecrations, royal progresses, patriotic
discourses, but only occasionally does the eye catch a modern date in
the formidable list of sixty-three folio pages.
Latin poetry claims fifty-seven pages for the titles of compositions or
studies. Poetry in the modern languages is much more modest and requires
only as many columns as the ancients demanded pages. The English list is
very brief; the Italian very long; and while the ancient Jesuits seemed
to have little fear of breaking forth into verse, the modern worshippers
of the Muse, except when they utter their thoughts in Malgache, or
Chouana or Tagale or Japanese, are very cautious.
Pious people perhaps may be scandalized to hear that the Jesuits of the
old Society wrote a great deal for the theatres; it was not, however,
for the theatres of the world, but for the theatres of their colleges.
Hence in the chapter entitled "Theatre," after a number of treatises on
"The Restriction of Comedies," "Théatre des Grecs," "Liturgical Drama,"
"Reflections on the Danger of Shows," "The mind of St. Paul, St. Thomas
Aquinas and St. Francis de Sales on Plays;" etc., we come face to face
with the titles of plays that crowd and blacken by their close print no
less than ten huge folio pages. They are contributed by the Jesuits of
all countries. Germany especially was very prolific in this kind of
literature, claiming as many as four pages of titles; England furnishes
only seven dramas in all, three of which are modern. Three of the
ancient plays had for their author no less a personage than the Blessed
Edmund Campion. They were entitled "The Sacrifice of Isaac," "The
Tragedy of King Saul," while Southwell credits him with "Nectar et
Ambrosia," which was acted before the emperor. All these were written in
1575, when he was professor of rhetoric in Bohemia.
Belgium has a long list to its credit, and among the dramatists appears
the very eminent Ignace Carbonelle, but only as the author of the text
of a Cantata for the jubilee of Pius IX in 1877. In France occurs the
name of Arsène Cahours, who wrote many tragedies and even a vaudeville,
which he called "L'enterrement du Père Simon, le brocanteur." Longhaye's
well-known college plays are on the list.
There are many oratorios, but it is feared that the timid will be
scandalized to hear that an entire column is required for the names of
the authors of _ballets_. One of the writers is no less a personage than
the distinguished historian Jouvancy. The ballets are interludes; there
was no impropriety in these dances, however, for no female characters
appeared, and the college boys for whom they were written had to do all
the dancing themselves.
"Many of these dramas," says Father Schwickerath quoting Janssen, "were
exhibited with all possible splendor, as for instance those given at La
Flèche in 1614 before Louis XIII and his court. But it seems that
nowhere was greater pomp displayed than at Munich where the court
liberally contributed to make the performances especially brilliant. In
1574 the tragedy 'Constantine' was played on two successive days, and
the whole city was beautifully decorated. More than one thousand actors
took part in the play. Constantine entered the city in a triumphal
chariot surrounded by four hundred horsemen in glittering armor. At the
performance of 'Esther' in 1577, the most splendid costumes and gems
were furnished from the treasury of the Duke; and at the banquet of King
Assuerus one hundred precious dishes of gold and silver were used."
Those old Jesuits seemed to be carrying out the famous order of La
Mancha's Knight when the ordinary stage was too small: "Then build a
house or act it on the plain;" or as a recent writer declares "Like
Richard Wagner in our days, the Jesuits aimed at and succeeded in
uniting all the arts within the compass of the drama. The effect of such
plays was like those of the Oberammergau Passion Play, ravishing,
overpowering. Even people ignorant of the Latin tongue were captivated
by these representations and the concourse of people was usually very
great. In 1565 'Judith' was acted before the court in Munich and then
repeated in the public square. Even the surrounding walls and roofs of
the houses were covered with eager spectators. In 1560 the comedy
'Euripus' was given in the courtyard of the college at Prague before a
crowd of more than eight thousand people. It had to be repeated three
times and was asked for again and again."
The early German parsons denounced these dramas as devices for
propagating idolatry, but on the other hand a very capable critic Karl
von Reinhardstottner says: "In the first century of their history the
Jesuits did great work in this line. They performed dramas full of
power and grandeur, and though their dramatic productions did not equal
the fine lyrics of the Jesuit poets Balde and Sarbiewski, still in the
dramas of Fabricius, Agricola and others, there is unmistakable poetic
spirit and noble seriousness. How could the enormous success of their
performances be otherwise explained? And who could doubt for a moment
that by their dramas they rendered great service to their century; that
they advanced culture, and preserved taste for the theatre and its
subsidiary arts? It would be sheer ingratitude to undervalue what they
effected by their dramas."
Goethe was present at a play given in 1786 at Ratisbon. It was during
the Suppression, but happily the Jesuit traditions had been maintained
in the college. He has left his impressions in writing: "This public
performance has convinced me anew of the cleverness of the Jesuits. They
rejected nothing that could be of any conceivable service to them, and
they knew how to wield their weapons with devotion and dexterity. This
is not cleverness of the merely abstract order; it is a real fruition of
the thing itself; an absorbing interest which springs from the practical
uses of life. Just as this great spiritual society had its
organ-builders, its sculptors, its gilders so there seem to be some who
by nature and inclination take to the drama; and as their churches are
distinguished by a pleasing pomp, so these prudent men have seized on
the sensibility of the world by a decent theatre." (Italien Reise,
Goethe Werke, Cotta's Ed. 1840 XXIII p. 3-4.)
Tiraboschi began his literary work when a young professor in Modena by
editing the Latin-Italian dictionary of Monza, but he made so many
corrections that it was practically a new work. Subsequently he was
appointed librarian at Milan, and by means of the documents he
discovered, wrote a "History of the Humiliati," which filled up a gap
in the annals of the Church. While librarian in the ducal library at
Modena, he began his monumental work on the "Storia della letteratura
italiana." This history extends from Etruscan times to 1700, and
required eleven years of constant labor to complete it.
Hurter tells us "Michael Cosmas Petrus Denis was a most celebrated
bibliographer, whose almost innumerable works must be placed in the
category of humanistic literature." He entered the Society in Upper
Austria on October 17, 1747, and taught rhetoric for twelve years in the
Theresian College for Nobles, where he won some renown by his poetry. At
the time of the Suppression of the Society, to which he ever remained
grateful and attached, he was given charge of the Garelli Library and
devoted himself to the study of literature and bibliography. His public
lectures attracted immense throngs from far and near. He was promoted to
be royal counsellor by Emperor Leopold and was made custodian of the
Imperial Library. By that time he was a European celebrity. De Backer in
his "Bibliotheca" mentions ninety-three of his publications. Hurter
classifies as the most important the "Denkmale der christlichen
Glauben-und Sittenlehre." His poems which he signed "Sined," which was
Denis spelled backward, won him the name of Bard of the Danube, and
helped considerably to promote the study of German in Austria. He was
one of a group of poets whose chief aim was to arouse German patriotism.
Ossian was their ideal and inspiration, and Denis translated the Gaelic
poet into German (1768-69), and in addition he published two volumes of
poems just one year before the Suppression. Naturally these patriotic
effusions in verse by a Jesuit attracted considerable attention. Denis
died in Vienna on 20 September, 1800.
Father Baumgartner has won a high place in the domain of letters by his
large work entitled "History of the Literature of the Entire World."
Besides this he has to his credit three volumes on "Goethe," another on
"Longfellow;" a fifth on "Vondel," a sixth entitled "Ausflüge in das
Land der Seein" and a seventh called "Island und die Faröer."
Of Father Faustino Arévalo, the distinguished hymnographer and
patrologist, we have spoken above.
Geographical themes appealed to many writers both of the old and the new
Society, and also to those of the intervening period. The subjects
relate to every part of the world. There is, for instance, "The German
Tyrol" by the Italian Bresciani; "The Longitude of Milan" by Lagrange;
"The Geography of the Archipelago" by F. X. Liechtlé. This archipelago
was the West Indies. His brother Ignatius executed a similar work on the
Grecian Islands. He went to Naxos in 1754, and died there in 1795.
"Chota-Nagpur" is described in 1883, "Abyssinia" in 1896, and the
"Belgian Congo" in 1897. Veiga writes of the "Orinoco" in 1789, and
Armand Jean of the "Polynesians" in 1867. There is no end of maps such
as "Turkestan and Dzoungaria," "China and Tatary," "The Land of
Chanaan," "Paraguay," "Lake Superior," "The Land between the Napo and
the Amazons." The famous maps of Mexico by Father Kino have been
reproduced by Hubert Bancroft in his "Native Races."
Joseph de Mayoria de Mailla's great work called "Toung-Kian-Kang-mou,"
which is an abstract of the Chinese annals, was sent to France in 1737,
but was not published until 1785. He was the first European to give the
world a knowledge of the classic historical works of the Chinese. His
work is of great value for the reason that it provides the most
important foundation for a connected history of China. He sent along
with it many very valuable maps and charts--the result of his work in
making a cartographical survey of the country; the part assigned to him
including the provinces of Ho-nan, Kiang-hinan, Tshe-Kiang, Fo-Kien and
the Island of Formosa. As a reward for his labor the emperor made him a
mandarin, and when he died at the age of seventy-nine very elaborate
obsequies were ordered by imperial decree.
Father Joseph Fischer, a professor at Feldskirch, is known in all the
learned societies of the world for his "Die Entdeckungen der Normannen
in America" and also for his "Cosmographiæ introductio" of Martin
Waldseemüller, on whose map the name "America" first appeared. The maps
and studies of old Huronia by Father Jones have been published by the
Canadian Government.
John Baptist Belot, who died in 1904, won a reputation as an
Orientalist, as did his associate Father Cheiko by his "Chrestomathia
Arabica," in five volumes, and also by his Arabic Lexicon. Their
fellow-worker Father Lammens is now a professor in the Biblical
Institute in Rome. As they lived a considerable time in Syria they have
a distinct advantage over other Europeans in this particular study.
Andrew Zottoli is an authority as a sinologist. The misfortune of being
exiled from Italy in 1848 gave him the advantage, which he would not
otherwise have had, of becoming proficient in Chinese, for he lived
fifty-four years in Kiang-nan. Besides his Chinese catechism and
grammar, he has published a complete course of Chinese literature in
five volumes, and a universal dictionary of the Chinese language in
twelve.
To this list may be added what a recent critic called the monumental
work of the illustrious Father Beccari, known as "Scriptores rerum
ægyptiacarum." It consists of sixteen volumes, and includes the entire
period of Egyptian history from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.
In this category, Father Strassmaier represents the Society by his works
on Assyriology and cuneiform inscriptions. With him is Father Dahlman
whose "Das Mahabharata als Epos und Rechtbuch," "Nirvana," "Buddha," and
"Mahabharata Studien" have won universal applause.
Luigi Lanzi, the Italian archæologist, was born at Olmo near Macerata in
1732, and entered the Society in 1749. At its Suppression, the Grand
Duke of Tuscany made him the assistant director of the Florentine
Museum. He devoted himself to the study of ancient and modern
literature, and was made a member of the Arcadians. The deciphering of
monuments, chiefly Etruscan, was one of his favorite occupations and
resulted in his writing his "Saggio di lingua etrusca" in 1789. Four
years later he produced his noted "History of Painting in Italy." His
other works included a critical commentary on Hesiod's "Works and Days,"
with a Latin and an Italian translation in verse; three books of
"Inscriptiones et carmina," translations of Catullus, Theocritus and
others, besides two ascetic works on St. Joseph and the Sacred Heart
respectively. He died in 1810 four years before the Restoration.
Angelo Mai is one of the very attractive figures at the beginning of the
nineteenth century. He had studied at the seminary of Bergamo and had as
professor, Father Mozzi, a member of the suppressed Society. When the
saintly Pignatelli opened the novitiate at Parma in 1799, Mozzi joined
him and young Angelo who was then seventeen years old went there as a
novice. He was sent to Naples in 1804 to teach humanities, but was
obliged to leave when the French occupied the city. He was then summoned
to Rome, and ordained a priest. While there, he met two exiled Jesuits
from Spain: Monero and Monacho, who besides teaching him Hebrew and
Greek, gave him his first instructions in paleography, showing him how
to manipulate and decipher palimpsests. In 1813 he was compelled by the
order of the duke to return to his native country, and was appointed
custodian of the Ambrosian Library at Milan. There he made his first
great discoveries of a number of precious manuscripts, which alone
sufficed to give him an important place in the learned world. In 1819 at
the suggestion of Cardinals Consalvi and Litta, the staunchest friends
of the Society, Pius VII appointed him librarian of the Vatican, with
the consent of the General.
From all this it is very hard to understand how Mai is generally set
down as having left the Society. Albers says so in his "Liber
sæcularis," Hurter in his "Nomenclator," as does Sommervogel in his
"Bibliotheca," and his name does not appear in Terrien's list of those
who died in the Society. In spite of all this, however, the expression
"left the Society" seems a somewhat cruel term to apply to one who was
evidently without reproach and who was asked for by the Sovereign
Pontiff. He was made a cardinal by Gregory XVI, a promotion which his
old novice master Father Pignatelli had foretold when Angelo was
summoned to be librarian at Milan. He continued his work in the Vatican
and gave to the world the unpublished pages of three hundred and fifty
ancient authors which he had discovered.
Father Hugo Hurter calls Francesco Zaccaria of the old Society the most
industrious worker in the history of literature. This praise might well
be applied to himself if it were only for his wonderful "Nomenclator
literarius theologiæ catholicæ." It is a catalogue of the names and
works of all Catholic theological writers from the year 1564 up to the
year 1894. Nor is it merely a list of names for it gives an epitome of
the lives of the authors and an appreciation of their work and their
relative merit in the special subject to which they devoted themselves;
it thus covers the whole domain of scholastic, positive and moral
theology, as well as of patrology, ecclesiastical history and the
cognate sciences such as epigraphy, archæology and liturgy. It consists
of five volumes with two closely printed columns on each page. The last
column in the second volume is numbered 1846. After that come
fifty-three pages of indexes and a single page of _corrigenda_ in that
volume alone. It is worth while noting that there are only six errors in
all this bewildering mass of matter; there are, besides, three
additions, not to the text, but to the index, from which the names of
three writers were accidentally omitted.
So condensed is the letterpress that only a dash separates one subject
from another. Nevertheless, thanks to the ingenious indexes, both of
persons and subjects, the subject sought for can be found immediately.
Finally, between the text and the indexes are two marvellous
chronological charts. By means of the first, the student can follow year
by year the growth of the various branches of theology and know the
names of all the authors in each. The second chart takes the different
countries of Europe--Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Germany,
England, Poland and Hungary--and as you travel down the years in the
succeeding centuries you can see what studies were most in favor in
different parts of the world and the different stages of their history.
Not only that, but a style of type, varying from a large black print,
down to a very pale and small impression, gives you the relative
prominence of every one of the vast multitude of authors. Such a work
will last to the end of time and never lose its value, and how Father
Hurter, who was the beloved spiritual father of the University of
Innsbruck, whose theological faculty he entered in 1858, and who,
besides publishing his unusually attractive theology and editing
fifty-eight volumes of the Fathers of the Church, could find time and
strength to produce his encyclopedic "Nomenclator" is almost
inconceivable.
In the year 1907, the scheme of a Catholic Encyclopedia was launched in
New York. The editors chosen were Dr. Charles Herbermann, for more than
fifty years professor of Latin and the most distinguished member of the
College of the City of New York; Mgr. Thomas Shahan, the rector of the
Catholic University at Washington, and later raised to the episcopal
dignity; Dr. Edward A. Pace, professor of philosophy in the same
university; Dr. Condé Benoist Pallen, a well-known Catholic publicist,
and Father John J. Wynne of the Society of Jesus.
The scope of the work is unlike that of other Catholic encyclopedias. It
is not exclusively ecclesiastical, for it records all that Catholics
have done not only in behalf of charity or morals, but also in the
intellectual, and artistic development of mankind. Hence, while covering
the whole domain of dogmatic and moral theology, ecclesiastical history
and liturgy, it has succeeded in giving its readers information on art,
architecture, archæology, literature, history, travel, language,
ethnology, etc., such as cannot be found in any other encyclopedia in
the English language. Only the most eminent writers have been asked to
contribute to it, and hence its articles can be cited as the most recent
exposition of the matters discussed. It appeared with amazing rapidity,
the whole series of sixteen volumes being completed in nine years. To it
is added an extra volume entitled "The Catholic Encyclopedia and its
Makers," which consists of photographs and biographical sketches of all
the contributors.
The encyclopedia has proved to be an immense boon to the Church in
America. The chief credit of the publication is generally accorded to
Father John Wynne, who is a native of New York. It was he who conceived
it, secured the board of editors, and, as his distinguished associate,
Bishop Shahan, declared with almost affectionate eagerness at a public
session of the faculty and students of the ecclesiastical seminary of
New York: "it was he who encouraged and sustained the editors by his
buoyant optimism in the perilous stages of its elaboration." This
information may be helpful abroad to show that the Society in America is
doing something for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. The
apostolic character of the work is further enhanced by the fact that
funds are being established in various dioceses to enable each
seminarian to become the personal owner of the entire set from the very
first moment he begins his studies. The effect of such an arrangement on
the ecclesiastical mind of the century is inestimable. It is also being
placed by the Knights of Columbus and by rich Catholics in battleships
and the United States' military posts, as well as in civic libraries and
club houses.
The first catalogue of Jesuit writers was drawn up by Father Ribadeneira
in 1602-1608. Schott and Alegambe continued the work in 1643, and
Nathaniel Bacon or Southwell, or Sotwel, as he was called on the
Continent, published a third in 1676. Nothing more, however, was done in
that line by the old Society, and it was not until the twenty-first
congregation, at which Father Roothaan presided, that a postulatum was
presented asking for the resumption of this valuable work. Something
prevented this from being done for the time being, and it was not until
1853 that the work was undertaken by the two Belgians, Augustine and
Aloys de Backer.
Up to 1861 a series of seven issues appeared, but as by that time the
number of names had increased to ten thousand, a new arrangement had to
be made, and in 1869 the work appeared in three large folios. In 1885,
on the death of Augustine de Backer, Charles Sommervogel took up the
work. Providentially he was well equipped for the task, for although he
had been continually employed at other tasks, sometimes merely as a
surveillant in a French college, he had contrived to publish in 1884 a
"Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymeset pseudonymes des religieux de la
Compagnie de Jésus." He began by recasting all that his predecessors had
done, and it was only after four years that he had published the first
volume. Others, however, followed in quick succession, and in 1900 the
ninth volume appeared. The tenth volume, an index, was unfinished at the
time of his death, but has since been completed by Father Bliard.
Besides his articles in the "Etudes," he had also put into press a
"Table méthodique des Mémoires de Trévoux," in three volumes, a
"Bibliotheca Mariana S. J." and a "Moniteur bibliographique de la
Compagnie de Jésus." He had intended to publish a revised edition of
Carayon's, "Bibliographie historique," but was prevented by death.
As far back as 1658, Pope Alexander VIII did not hesitate to declare
that "no literary work had ever been undertaken that was more useful or
more glorious" than the "Acta Sanctorum" of Father Bollandus and his
associates, nor did the learned Protestants of those days refrain from
extolling the scientific spirit in which the work was being conducted.
The "Acta," which began in the middle of the seventeenth century and
which is still going on, reads like a romance. The account of it by De
Smedt tells us how the first writers had only a garret for a library,
and were forced to pile their books on the floor; how Cardinal
Bellarmine denounced the work as chimerical; how the Carmelites were in
a rage because Papebroch denied that Elias was the founder of their
order; how the Spanish Inquisition denounced the work and condemned the
thirty volumes as heretical, and how finally it reached its present
status.
The Bollandists did not immediately feel the blow that struck the rest
of the Society of Jesus in 1773. Indeed, the commissioners announced
that the government was satisfied with the labors of the Bollandists and
was disposed to exercise special consideration in their behalf. In 1778
they removed to the Abbey of Caudenberg in Brussels, and the writers
received a small pension. In 1788 three new volumes were published.
Meantime Joseph II had succeeded Maria Theresa, and the sky began to
darken. On October 16, 1788, the government decided to stop the pension
of the writers, and their books and manuscripts which the official
inspectors denounced as "trash" were ordered to be sold. After a year,
the Fathers made an offer to the Premonstratensian Abbot of Tongerloo to
buy the books and manuscripts for what would be equivalent now to about
$4,353; the money, however, was to be paid to the Austrian government
and not to the owners of the library. Happily the writers found shelter
in the monastery with their books and, though the Brabantine Revolution
disturbed them for a time, they continued at their work unmolested until
1794, when they issued another volume.
It was fortunate that they had succeeded in putting that volume into
print, for that very year the French invaded Belgium and both
Premonstratensians and Bollandists were obliged to disperse. Some of
the treasures of the library were hidden in the houses of the peasants,
and others were hastily piled into wagons and carried to Westphalia,
with the only result that could be anticipated--the loss of an immense
amount of most valuable material; a certain number of the books were
returned to the abbey, and left there in the dust until 1825. As there
was no hope, at that time, of the Bollandists ever being able to resume
their work, the monks disposed of most of the library treasure at public
auction, and, what was not sold, was given to the Holland government and
incorporated in the library of the Hague. The manuscripts were
transported to Brussels and deposited in the Burgundian Library. They
are still there.
In 1836 a hagiographical society in France under the patronage of Guizot
and several bishops proposed to take up the work of the Bollandists and
an envoy was sent to purchase the documents from the Belgian government.
The proposition evoked a patriotic storm in the little country, and a
petition was made to the minister of the interior, de Theux, imploring
him to lose no time in securing for his native land the honor of
completing the work, and to entrust the task to the Jesuit Fathers, who
had begun it and carried it on for two centuries. The result was that on
January 29, 1837, the provincial of Belgium appointed four Fathers who
were to live at St. Michel in Brussels. The government gave them an
annual subsidy of six thousand francs, but this was withdrawn in 1868 by
the Liberals and never restored, though the Catholics have been in
control since 1884.
There are more than one hundred volumes to the credit of the writers up
to the present time, sixty-five of which are huge folios. What they
contain may be learned from the most competent of all authorities,
Charles de Smedt, the Bollandist director, who wrote the most complete
and scientific account of the Bollandist collection for the Catholic
Encyclopedia. It is sufficient to state that in the opinion of the most
distinguished and capable scholars in the field, the work of the later
Bollandists is in no wise inferior to the work of their illustrious
predecessors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
In reviewing a recent publication of a Bollandist work, the scholarly
"American Historical Review" (July, 1920) has this to say: "It is to be
hoped that a more widely diffused knowledge of what the Bollandists have
been doing for human learning, historical and literary, may bring
American aid to fill the gaps in their resources caused by the
devastations of war. It is a pleasure to know that the Princeton
University Press intends to issue an English translation of Father
Delehaye's admirable book, which gives an account of the labors of the
Bollandists from 1638 down to the present day."
It has been said that the Jesuits had a way of keeping their most
brilliant members before the public eye while sending their inferior men
to the missions to be eaten by the savages. That this is not an accepted
opinion in America is evidenced by the publication of what are called
the "Jesuit Relations," in seventy-two volumes, by a firm in Cleveland,
Ohio, whose members had no affiliation with Catholics or Jesuits, and
whose venture involved immense financial risks. "The Jesuit Relations
and Allied Documents" is the title of the work. The subsidiary title is
"Travels and Explorations of Jesuit Missionaries in New France,
1610-1791. The Original French, Latin and Italian Texts, with English
Translations and Notes, illustrated by Portraits, Maps and Facsimiles."
The editor is Reuben Gold Thwaites, Secretary of the State Historical
Society of Wisconsin. In his preface he says: "American historians from
Shea and Parkman down have already made liberal use of the 'Relations,'
and here and there antiquarians and historical societies have published
fragmentary translations. The great body of the 'Relations' and their
allied documents however have never been Englished; hence these
interesting papers have never been accessible to the majority of
historical students. The present edition offers to the public for the
first time an English rendering side by side with the original.
"The authors of the journals which form the basis of the 'Relations'
were for the most part men of trained intellect, acute observers, and
practiced in the art of keeping records of their experiences. They had
left the most highly civilized country of their times to plunge at once
into the heart of the wilderness and attempt to win to the Christian
Faith the fiercest savages known to history. To gain these savages it
was first necessary to know them intimately, their speech, their habits,
their manner of thought, their strong points and their weak. These first
students of American Indian history were not only amply fitted for their
task but none have since had better opportunity for its prosecution.
They performed a great service to mankind in publishing their annals,
which are for historian, geographer and ethnologist our best
authorities.
"Many of the 'Relations' were written in Indian camps amid a chaos of
distractions. Insects innumerable tormented the journalists; they were
immersed in scenes of squalor and degradation, overcome by fatigue and
lack of proper sustenance, often suffering from wounds and disease,
maltreated in a hundred ways by hosts, who at times, might more properly
be called jailers; and not seldom had savage superstition risen to such
heights that to be seen making a memorandum was certain to arouse the
ferocious enmity of the band. It is not surprising that the composition
of these journals is sometimes crude; the wonder is that they could be
written at all. Nearly always the style is simple and earnest. Never
does the narrator descend to self-glorification or dwell unnecessarily
upon the details of his continual martyrdom. He never complains of his
lot, but sets forth his experiences in matter of fact phrases.
"From these writings we gain a vivid picture of life in the primeval
forests. Not only do these devoted missionaries--never in any field has
been witnessed greater personal heroism than theirs--live and breathe
before us in these 'Relations,' but we have in them our first competent
account of the Red Indian when relatively uncontaminated by contact with
Europeans. Few periods of history are so well illuminated as the French
régime in North America. This we owe in a large measure to the existence
of the Jesuit Relations."
"The existence of these Relations," to use Mr. Thwaites' expression, is
due to the scholarly modern Jesuit, Father Félix Martin, the founder and
first rector of St. Mary's College at Montreal, who in 1858 induced the
Quebec government to reprint the old Cramoisy editions of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was Martin who developed in
Gilmary Shea, then a Jesuit scholastic in Montreal, the historical
instinct; and gave to Parkman much if not all of the information that
made that author famous, in spite of the bigotry or lack of
comprehension that sometimes reveals itself in his pages. Martin's first
publication consisted of three double columned, closely printed and
bulky octavos in French. He never dreamed that the interest in the book
would grow until the splendid edition of Thwaites in seventy-two volumes
would signify to the scientific world the value of these documents
"written in canoes or in the depths of the forests," as Thwaites says,
"a decade before the landing of the Plymouth Pilgrims."
While these "Relations" about the Canada missions were being published
Father Le Gobien began to issue his "Lettres sur les progrès de la
religion de la Chine," which ultimately developed into the well-known
"Lettres édifiantes et curieuses" describing missionary enterprises all
over the world. During the Suppression they were issued in twenty-six
duo-decimo volumes. An Austrian Jesuit began in 1720 to translate some
of these letters, entitling his work "Neue Welt Bott." It soon became
independent of the "Letters" and appeared in five volumes folio. It is
still being published.
A certain number of periodicals are published by the Society, the most
important of which are the "Civiltà Cattolica," the "Etudes," the
"Stimmen aus Maria-Laach" and the "Razón y Fe."
The "Civiltà" was begun in 1850 by express order of Pius IX. Its first
editors were Fathers Curci, Bresciani, Liberatore, Taparelli, Oreglia,
Piccirillo, and Pianciani, a staff which would insure the success of any
publication. Its articles are of the most serious kind, dealing with
questions of theology, philosophy, sociology and literature. Its first
issue of 4,200 copies appeared at Naples; later it was published at
Rome. In 1870 the staff was transferred to Naples, but returned in 1887
to Rome. It is published every fortnight, and at present has a
circulation of over 12,000 copies. It is under the direct control of the
Pope, and unlike other Society publications of the same kind it is not
connected with any house or college. It has received the highest
commendations from Pius IX and from Leo XIII.
In 1856 the "Etudes" was begun by the Jesuits in France under the
editorship of Daniel Gagarin and Godfroy. In character it closely
resembles the "Civiltà." The troubles of 1876 caused its suspension for
almost a year, but the various dispersions of the French provinces have
not affected it, except perhaps in the extent of its circulation. It is
published at Paris, but was at one time issued from Lyons. From a
monthly it has developed into a fortnightly review in latter years.
The German Fathers have their monthly "Stimmen aus Maria-Laach," the
first number of which appeared in 1865. The defense of the Syllabus
called it into being. When the Kulturkampf drove the editors from
Maria-Laach, they migrated to Tervuren in Belgium. There they remained
until 1880, when they went to Blijenbeck in Holland. In 1910 we find
them at Valkenburg, Holland, attached to the Scholasticate. The ability
of the staff has placed the "Stimmen" on a very high plane as a
periodical.
The monthly "Razón y Fe" was begun by the Spanish Fathers in 1901, and
"Studies" by the Irish Jesuits in 1912. This latter, however, admits
contributors who are not of the Society. The same may be said of the
"Month" (London), the weekly "America" (New York), the "Irish Monthly"
(Dublin) and a number of minor periodicals. There are also publications
for private circulation, such as the "Woodstock Letters," the "Letters
and Notices"; "Lettres Edifiantes" of various provinces of the Society,
most of which are printed in the scholasticates, and convey information
about the different works of the Society in different parts of the
world. They are largely of the character of the ancient "Relations des
Jésuites" of the old French Fathers and are of great value as
historical material. Finally the American "Messenger of the Sacred
Heart" publishes a monthly edition of 350,000, besides millions of
leaflets to promote the devotion. There are fifty-one editions of the
"Messenger" published in thirty-five different languages.
The reason why the Society has not succeeded in producing since the
Restoration any theologians like Suárez, Toletus and others, is the same
that prevented Napoleon Bonaparte from winning back his empire when he
was a prisoner on St. Helena. Conditions have changed. Suárez, de Lugo,
Ripalda and their brilliant associates passed their lives in Catholic
Spain which gloried in universities like Salamanca, Valladolid or
Alcalá. There those great men wrote and taught; Bellarmine and Toletus
labored in Rome and Lessius in Louvain; whereas the Jesuit theologians
in our day have been not only debarred from the great universities but
robbed of their libraries, sent adrift in the world and compelled to
seek not for learned leisure but for a roof to shelter them. They were
expelled from France in 1762, and were never allowed to open a school
even for small boys until 1850. At present they are permitted to shed
their blood on the battle field for their country from which they have
been driven into exile. They were banished from Italy repeatedly, and
have never secured a foothold in Germany since 1872; they do not exist
in Portugal and any moment may see them expelled from Spain. In England
and Ireland Catholics were not emancipated until 1829, and it is only
grudgingly that the government allows Ireland to have a university which
Catholics can safely frequent, and even there no chair of Catholic
theology may be maintained with the ordinary revenues. In America
everything is in a formative state and what money is available has to
be used for elementary instruction, both religious and secular, of the
millions whom poverty and persecution have driven out of Europe. It is
very doubtful if Suárez and his great associates would have written
their splendid works in such surroundings.
As the eye travels over Hurter's carefully prepared chronological chart,
it catches only an occasional gleam of the old glory, when the names of
the Wiceburgenses, Zaccaria, Mai, Muzzarelli, Arévalo and Morcelli make
their appearance in the late sixties of the nineteenth century. But
those were the days of the French Revolution and of its subsequent
upheavals. The Church itself was in the same straits between 1773 and
1860, and its number of great theologians of any kind is extremely
small. Thus, abstracting from the Jesuits, we find in 1773 only Flórez,
the Augustinian, who wrote ecclesiastical history; in 1782 the erudite
Maronite Assemani, who is classed as a moralist; in 1787 St. Alphonsus
Liguori; and in 1793 the Benedictine Gerbert, who is also a moralist.
The Barnabite Gerdil appears under date of 1802 as an apologist, and
from that year up to 1864 there is no one to whom Hurter accords
distinction in any branch of divinity. Perhaps the reason is that the
century was in the full triumph of its material civilization and that
men derided and despised the dogmatic teachings of religion.
A study of Hurter's "Nomenclator" is instructive. In 1774, the year
after the Suppression, there are only four publications by Jesuit
authors; in 1775 there are nine; and then the number begins to grow
smaller. In 1780 the figure rises to ten, and it is somewhat remarkable
that in 1789 and 1790, the first years of the French Revolution,
seventeen writers appear. The stream then dribbles along until 1814, the
year of the Restoration, when we find only one book with the letters S.
J. after the name of its author. The next year there is none.
The Jesuit who illumines the darkness of that period is Thaddeus
Nogarola, whom Hurter describes as "a member of the most noble family of
Verona." He was born on 24 December, 1729. Consequently he was
eighty-five years of age at the time of the Restoration. He wrote on
sanctifying grace; and in 1800 he and another Jesuit had a fierce
theological battle on the subject of attrition, in which he defended his
position with excessive vehemence. In 1806 he had issued his great
treatise against Gallicanism. His doughty antagonist re-entered the
Society in 1816. He had expressed himself very vigorously on the subject
of the Napoleonic oath in France and his books were prohibited in the
Cisalpine Republic.
In 1816 four books were published; but the number continues small and
1823 is credited with none. In 1824, there were two publications, one of
them by Arévalo, the eminent patrologist, who composed the hymns and
lessons of the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians. It is a very sad
list from 1826 to 1862, with its succession of ones and zeros. Only
three names of any note appear: Kohlmann in 1836, Loriquet in 1845, and
de Ravignan in 1858. That period of almost forty years had seen the
revolutions of 1830 and 1848, and there was no stability for any Jesuit
establishment. Finally, however, in 1862 came Pianciani, Taparelli and
Bresciani; and in 1865 and 1866 Tongiorgi and Gury, respectively. It was
only then that the Society was able to begin its theological work after
its redintegration. The space is not great between 1862 and the present
time, but since then there have been Perrone and the great Bollandist
and theologian, Victor de Buck, who appeared in 1876; Edmund O'Reilly in
1878; Ballerini and Patrizi in 1881; Kleutgen in 1883; and in 1886
Cardinals Franzelin and Mazzella.
During that period there was no end of confiscations and expulsions,
even of those who were not engaged in educational work. Thus the German
Jesuits acquired the old Benedictine Monastery of Maria-Laach in 1863 on
the southwest bank of a fine lake near Andernach in the Rhineland. There
they organized a course of studies for the scholastics as well as a
college of writers. Among them were the learned Schneeman, Riess and
others who began the great work of the church Councils and the
"Philosophia Lacensis," besides publishing the Jesuit "Stimmen." How
long were they there? Only ten years. The Kulturkampf banished them from
their native land and they had to continue their labors in exile. This
has been the story of the Society in almost every European country and
in the Spanish Republics of South America and Mexico. In spite of all
this, however, Hurter's chart shows that from 1773 to 1894 there have
been no less than four hundred Jesuit theologians who published works in
defense of the doctrines of the Church, and some of them have achieved
prominence.
In philosophy, for instance, there was Taparelli who died in 1863. He
was the first rector of the Roman College, when it was given back to the
Society by Leo XII. He taught philosophy for fifteen years at Palermo,
and in 1840 issued his great work which he called "A Theoretical Essay
on Natural Rights from an historical standpoint." It reached the seventh
edition in 1883 and was translated into French and German. Next in
importance is his "Esame critico degli ordini rappresentativi nella
società moderna." Besides his striking monographs on "Nationality,"
"Sovereignty of the People," "The Grounds of War," he wrote a great
number of articles in the "Civiltà" on matters of political economy and
social rights. His first great work was in a way the beginning of modern
sociology. Palmieri issued his "Institutiones Philosophiæ" in 1874, and
at the very outset won the reputation of a great thinker, even from
those who were at variance with his conclusions and mode of thought.
In the same branch Liberatore was for a long time preëminent, and his
"Institutiones" and "Composito humano" went through eleven editions.
Cornoldi's "Filosofia scolastica specolativa" was also a notable
production. Lehmen's "Lehrbuch" reached the third edition before his
death in 1910. Boedder is well-known to English speaking people because
of his many works written during his professorship at St. Beuno's in
Wales. Cathrein's "Socialism" has been translated into nine different
languages, and his "Moral Philosophy" has enjoyed great popularity.
Pesch's position is established; his last work, "Christliche
Lebens-philosophie," reached its fourth edition within four years.
Kleutgen who is perhaps the best known of these German Jesuits, was
called by Leo XIII "the prince of philosophers" and is regarded as the
restorer of Catholic philosophy throughout Germany. In Spain, Father
Cuevas has written a "Cursus completus philosophiæ" and a "History of
Philosophy." Mendive's "Text-book of Philosophy" in Spanish is used in
several universities, but the writer who dominated all the rest in that
country is admittedly Urráburu, who died prematurely in 1904. His
"Cursus philosophiæ scholasticæ," brings up the memory of the famous old
philosophers of earlier ages.
It is not only edifying but inspiring to hear that the Venerable Father
de Clorivière occupied himself while in prison in the Temple at Paris
during the Revolution in writing commentaries on the Sacred Scriptures.
He was over seventy years of age and was expecting to be summoned to the
guillotine at any moment, but he had plenty of time to write, for his
imprisonment lasted five years. Sommervogel credits him with
commentaries on "The Canticle of Canticles," "The Epistles of St.
Peter," "The Discourse at the Last Supper," "The Animals of Ezechiel,"
"The Two Seraphim of Isaias," besides Constitutions for the religious
orders he had founded, lives of the saints, novenas, and religious
poems. He also translated "Paradise Lost" into French. Evidently the
commentary written in a prison cell cannot have measured up to the
scientific exegesis of the present day, but perhaps for that reason it
reached the soul more readily. In any case, the Scriptural students of
the modern Society made an excellent start with a saint and a virtual
martyr.
Francis Xavier Patrizi distinguished himself as an exegete. He was one
of the first to enter the Society after the Restoration, and was so
esteemed for his virtue and ability that he came very near being elected
General of the Society. His first publication on "The Interpretation of
the Holy Scriptures" appeared in 1844. He translated the Psalms word for
word from the Hebrew. His works are packed with erudition, of scrupulous
accuracy in their citations, and of most sedulous care in defending the
Sacred Text against the Protestants of the early days of the nineteenth
century. The "Cursus Scripturæ" of the Fathers of Maria-Laach: Cornely,
Knabenbauer, Hummelauer, and others, is a monument of erudition and
labor and is without doubt the most splendid triumph of exegesis in the
present century.
In 1901, the Sovereign Pontiff appointed and approved a Biblical
Commission for the proper interpretation and defense of Holy Scripture.
It consists of five cardinals and forty-three consultors. Among the
distinguished men chosen for this work we find Fathers Cornely,
Delattre, Gismondi, von Hummelauer, Méchineau, and Prat. One of the
duties with which the commission was charged was the establishment of a
special institute for the prosecution of higher Biblical Studies. In
1910 Father Fonck, its first rector, began the series of public
conferences which was one of the assigned works of the Institute. It
publishes the "Biblical Annals." The French Fathers in Syria are very
valuable adjuncts to this institute, because of their knowledge of
Oriental languages. One of them, Father Lammens, was for years the
editor of "Bachir," an Arabic periodical.
When Father John Carroll went to England to be consecrated Bishop of
Baltimore, he probably met at Lulworth Castle, where the ceremony took
place, a French Jesuit of the old Society who had found shelter with the
Weld family during the Revolution and was acting as their chaplain. He
was Father Grou, a man of saintly life. It was while he was in England
that he wrote "La Science de crucifix" the "Caractère de la vraie
dévotion," "Maximes spirituelles," "Méditation sur l'amour de Dieu,"
"L'intérieur de Jésus et de Marie," "Manuel des âmes intérieures," "Le
livre du jeune homme." These works were frequently reprinted and
translated.
It is very interesting to find that, before the expulsion from France,
Father Grou had been an ardent student of Plato and had even published
eight books about the great philosopher. He also wrote an answer to La
Chalotais' attack on the Society. Sommervogel mentions another book
written by him in conjunction with Father du Rocher. It is entitled
"Temps Fabuleux," an historical and dogmatic treatise on the true
religion.
Among the other noted ascetical writers were Vigitello, author of "La
Sapienza del cristiano," Mislei, who wrote "Grandezze di Gesù Cristo"
and "Gesù Cristo e il Cristiano," Hillegeer, Dufau, Verbeke, Vercruysse,
de Doss, Petit, Meschler, Schneider and Chaignon, whose "Nouveau cours
de méditations sacerdotales" has gone through numberless editions;
Watrigant has made extensive studies on the "Exercises;" Ramière's
"Apostolat de la Prière" made the circuit of the world and gave the
first impulse to the League of the Sacred Heart. Coleridge's "Life of
Our Lord," consisting of thirty volumes, is a mine of thought and
especially valuable for directors of religious communities.
In 1874 Father Camillo Tarquini was raised to the cardinalate for his
ability as a canonist. His dissertation on the Regium placet exequatur
made him an international celebrity. With him high in the ranks of
canonists are Father General Wernz, Laurentius, Hilgers, Beringer,
Oswald, Sanguinetti, Ojetti, Vermeersch, and the present Assistant
General Father Fine.
Stephen Anthony Morcelli, who is eminent as a historian and is regarded
as the founder of epigraphy, was born in Trent, in the year 1737. He
made his studies in the Roman College, and there founded an academy of
archæology. At the Suppression he became the librarian of Cardinal
Albani. He re-entered the restored Society. He was then eighty-four
years of age. He had no superior as a Latin stylist. His "Calendar of
the Church of Constantinople," covering a thousand years, his "Readings
of the Four Gospels" according to various codices, and his notes on
"Africa Christiana" are of great value.
Possibly the Portuguese Francis Macedo might be admitted to this list of
famous authors. It is true that he left the Society but as he had been
a member for twenty-eight years it deserves some credit for the
cultivation of his remarkable abilities. Maynard calls him the prodigy
of his age. Thus at Venice in 1667 Macedo held a public disputation on
nearly every branch of human knowledge, especially the Bible, theology,
patrology, history, literature and poetry. In his quaint and extravagant
style he called this display the literary roarings of the Lion of St.
Mark. It had been prepared in eight days. On account of his success,
Venice gave him the freedom of the city and the professorship of moral
philosophy at the University of Padua. In his "Myrothecium morale" he
tells us that he has pronounced three hundred and fifty panegyrics,
sixty Latin harangues, thirty-two funeral orations, and had composed one
hundred and twenty-three elegies, one hundred and fifteen epitaphs, two
hundred and twelve dedicatory epistles, two thousand and six hundred
heroic poems, one hundred and ten odes, four Latin comedies, two
tragedies and satires in Spanish, besides a number of treatises on
theology such as "The Doctrines of St. Thomas and Scotus," "Positive
theology for the refutation of heretics," "The Keys of Peter," "The
Pontifical Authority," "Medulla of Ecclesiastical History," and the
"Refutation of Jansenism." The Society made him great but failed to
teach him humility.
In most theological libraries which are even moderately equipped one
sees long lines of books on which the name of Muzzarelli appears. They
are of different kinds; ascetical, devotional, educational,
philosophical and theological, and many of them have been translated
into various languages. He belonged to the old Society, entering it only
four years before the suppression. He was then twenty-four years of age.
As he was of a noble family of Ferrara, he held a benefice in his
native city at the time of his banishment, and a little later, the Duke
of Parma made him rector of the College of Nobles. Pius VII called him
to Rome and made him theologian of the Penitentiaria, which meant that
he was the Pope's theologian. When the Society was re-established in
Naples, he asked permission to join his brethren there, but the Pope
refused. It was just as well, for Napoleon's troops soon closed the
establishment. When Pius VII was carried off a prisoner in 1809,
Muzzarelli was also deported. He never returned to Rome, but died in
Paris one year before the Restoration of the Society. He was not however
forgotten in his native city, which regarded him as one of its glories.
Among his works were several of an ascetic character such as "The Sacred
Heart," "The Month of Mary," and also a "Life of St. Francis Hieronymo."
There were also a few modern Jesuits who were conspicuous in moral
theology. First, in point of time was Jean-Pierre Gury, who was born in
Mailleroncourt on January 23, 1801. He taught theology for thirty-five
years at Annecy and at the Roman College. He died on April 18, 1866. His
work was adopted as a text-book in a number of seminaries, because of
its brevity, honesty and solidity. It is true that his brevity impaired
his accuracy at times, as well as the scientific presentation of
questions, but his successors such as Seitz, Cercia, Melandri and
Ballerini filled up the gaps by the help of the decisions of the
Congregations and the more recent pronouncements of the Holy See.
Besides his "Moral Theology" he also published his "Casus conscientiæ."
That made him the typical "Jesuit Casuist," and drew on him all the
traditional hatred of Protestant polemicists, especially in Germany. His
work did much to extirpate what was left of Jansenism in Europe.
Antonio Ballerini held the chair of moral theology in the Roman College
from 1856 until his death in 1881. In the cautious words of Hurter he
was "almost the prince of moralists of our times." Besides his "Principi
della scuola Rosminiana" he wrote his remarkable "Sylloge monumentorum
ad mysterium Immaculatæ Conceptionis illustrandum," and in 1863 issued
his "De morali systemate S. Alphonsi M. de Ligorio." In 1866 appeared
his "Compendium theologiæ moralis." The style was somewhat acrid, and
sharp, especially in the controversy it provoked with the out-and-out
defenders of St. Alphonsus. His annotations were a mine of erudition and
revealed at the same time a very unusual intellectual sagacity and
correctness of judgment. His book, on the whole, exercised a great
influence in promoting solid theological study; and its denunciation of
the frivolous reasons on which many opinions were based and the
unreliableness of many quotations decided the tone of subsequent works
by other authors. Following Ballerini were other Jesuits such as
Lehmkuhl, Sabbetti, Noldin, Genicot and Palmieri, who won fame as
moralists.
Palmieri was not only a theologian, a moralist and a philosopher, but an
exegete. He taught Scripture and the Oriental languages in Maastricht
for seven years, and in 1886, published a Commentary on the Epistle to
the Galatians and another on the historicity of the Book of Judith. He
was among the first to sound the alarm about Loisy's heterodoxy and he
wrote several books against the Modernistic errors. His reputation rests
chiefly on his dogmatic theology; every two years, from 1902, he issued
treatises that immediately attracted attention for their brilliant
originality and exhaustive learning. He died in Rome on May 29, 1909.
"This superlatively sagacious man," says Hurter, "blended Gury and the
super-abundant commentaries of Ballerini into one continuous text,
injecting, of course, his own personal views into his seven great
volumes, with the result that it is a positive pleasure to read him."
The wonderful theological acumen manifested in this, as in his other
works apparently restored him to favor with Leo XIII, who disliked some
of his philosophical speculations. Hence, when Father Steinhüber was
made cardinal, Palmieri was appointed to succeed him as theologian of
the Penitentiaria.
Besides all this, Palmieri gave a delightful revelation of his
affectionate character as a devoted son, when he wrote, at the request
of his mother, a Commentary of Dante. Ojetti says that "he brought all
the profundity of his philosophy and theology to his task and produced a
work which astonished those who were able to appreciate the depth of the
thought and the scientific erudition employed in the exposition of each
individual canto."
The great Perrone was born in Chieri in 1794 and entered the Society on
December 14, 1815, one of the first novices after the Re-establishment.
He began his career as professor of dogma at Orvieto, and from thence
was transferred to Rome, where he remained until the outbreak of the
Revolution in 1848. After a three years' stay in England he resumed his
place at the Roman College. He was consultor of various congregations,
was conspicuous as the antagonist of Hermes, and also in the discussion
that ended in the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception. His
"Prælectiones theologiæ" in nine volumes reached its thirty-fourth
edition, while its "Compendium" saw fifty-seven.
Carlo Passaglia is another great theological luminary. He entered the
Society in 1827, and when scarcely thirty years old was teaching at the
Sapienza and was prefect of studies at the Collegium Germanicum. The
Gregorian University then claimed him, and, in 1850, he took a leading
part in preparing the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate
Conception on which he wrote three large volumes. Other great works are
to his credit, but his historico-linguistic method met with criticism.
It was said he substituted grammar for dogma. Passaglia left the
Society, however, in 1859. Pius IX gave him a chair in the Sapienza;
there he came in contact with an agent of Cavour and under his influence
wrote his book "Pro causa italica". It was placed on the "Index," and
Passaglia fled to Turin, where he taught moral philosophy until his
death and edited a weekly called "Il Medicatore," which welcomed
articles from discontented priests. He also published a daily paper
called "La Pace," as well as "Il Gerdil," a theological review. He was
suspended from his priestly functions, dressed as a layman, and was
temerarious enough to criticise the Syllabus. The Bishop of Mondovi
tried to reconcile him with the Church, but he did not retract until a
few months before his death. Hurter calls him "an illustrious professor
of dogma who was carried away by politics, left the Society, assailed
the Temporal Power, and by his sad defection cast a stain on his former
glory. His quotations from the Fathers are too diffuse, and although his
work on the Immaculate Conception displays immense erudition it crushes
the reader by its bulk."
Carlo Maria Curci also brought grief to his associates in those days. He
had acquired great fame for his defense of the rights of the Pope
against the Liberal politicians of the Peninsula, but unfortunately,
soon after, became a Liberal himself and left the Society. He returned
again, however, shortly before his death which occurred on June 19,
1891. He was one of the first contributors to the "Civiltà" and was,
besides, a remarkable orator. His "Nature and Grace," "Christian
Marriage," "Lessons from the two books of the Machabees and the Four
Gospels," and "Joseph in Egypt" were the most notable of his writings.
Josef Wilhelm Karl Kleutgen was a Westphalian. He entered the Society on
April 28, 1834, at Brieg; to avoid difficulties with the German
Government he became a naturalized Swiss, and for some time went by the
name of Peters. In 1843 he was professor of sacred eloquence in the
Collegium Germanicum, and subsequently was named substitute to the
Secretary of Father General, consultor of the Congregation of the Index,
and collaborator in the preparation of the Constitution "De fide
catholica" of the Vatican Council. He wrote the first draft of Pope
Leo's Encyclical "Æterni Patris" on the revival of Scholastic theology
and philosophy. His knowledge of the writings of the Angelic Doctor was
so great that he was called _Thomas redivivus_. His first work
"Theologie der Vorzeit" and his "Philosophie der Vorzeit" against
Hermes, Hirscher, and Günther were declared to be epoch-making. The
writing of these books coincided with a remarkable event in his life,
namely suspension from his priestly office for his imprudence in
allowing a community of nuns under his direction to honor as a saint one
of their deceased members. He went into seclusion consequently but at
the opening of the Vatican Council he was recalled by Pius IX to take
part in it. All his works excel in solidity of doctrine, accuracy and
brilliancy of exposition and nobility of style.
Johann Franzelin was a Tyrolese. He entered the Society on 27 July,
1834, but passed most of his life outside of his country. He studied
theology in Rome, and became such an adept in Greek and Hebrew that he
occupied the chair when the professor was ill. He had to leave the city
in the troublous times of 1848, but on his return he gave public
lectures in the Roman College on Oriental languages. In 1857 he began
his career as professor of dogma and his immense erudition caused him to
be called for in many of the Roman congregations. In 1876 Pius IX
created him cardinal. His theological works are known throughout the
Church for their solidity, erudition and scrupulous accuracy. His
dignity made no change in his simple and laborious life. He continued
until the end of his days to wear poor garments, occupied two small
rooms in the Novitiate of Sant' Andrea, rose at four every morning and
spent the time until seven in devotional exercises. He kept up his
penitential practises till death came on 11 December, 1886.