1541-48.
THE PROGRESS OF THE ORDER, AND ITS FIRST GENERAL.
Ignatius had no sooner obtained a bull from the Pope approving of
the Society, than he thought it expedient to give it a chief, or, to
speak more correctly, to be himself formally elected as such, being
_de facto_ its master already. In order, therefore, to proceed to the
election of the General, he summoned to Rome his companions, who were
scattered through different parts of Europe. Six came. Bobadilla,
Xavier, and Rodriguez sent their votes written. Both absent and present
were unanimous in their choice, which (as one may well imagine) fell
upon Ignatius. He, however, had the modesty (so we are told) to refuse
the honour, and insisted that they should proceed to a new election.
The second trial had the same result, but Ignatius still declined to
accept of the office. At last, however, on being much importuned to do
so, he exclaimed—“Since you persist in choosing me, who know well my
infirmities, I cannot in conscience subscribe to your judgment. It only
remains, then, that we refer the contested point to my confessor, whom,
as you know, I consider the interpreter of the Divine will.”[52] The good
fathers consented to this arrangement the more willingly, as they had no
doubt whatever (I should think not) that Father Theodose would approve
of their selection. Nor were they deceived.[53]
On Easter-day, therefore, in the year 1541, he assumed the government of
the Society, and on the following Friday he and his disciples, in the
magnificent Basilica of St Paul’s at Rome, renewed the four vows to which
they had bound themselves, with extraordinary pomp and ceremony.
We candidly admit, however, that Ignatius, after reaching the height
of his ambition, relaxed nothing in the strictness of his conduct, nor
allowed that zeal which he had manifested in order to attain it, to
cool down. On the contrary, he seemed to redouble his energy, and gain
additional strength in his new dignity. The days in which he lived were
days of battle, and Ignatius, not forgetting his first vocation, was
impatient to enter the _melée_. Protestantism, a giant in its infancy,
standing in a menacing attitude, with the Bible in one hand and the
sword in the other, bid defiance to the impugners of the Sacred Volume.
Catholicism, old in the debauch of power, discredited by the vices of its
ministers, could only oppose his formidable antagonist with a scattered
and undisciplined army of monks and priests, rendered effete by a life of
effeminacy and debauchery. At this critical moment, Ignatius rushed to
the rescue with an army, small indeed in number, but composed of brave
and resolute souls, learned, eloquent, passionate, trained to fight,
fully persuaded, as almost every soldier is, that theirs was the just
cause, and that to them the victory ought to belong. The disciples of
Ignatius took the field high in spirits, and prepared, if need be, to
sacrifice their liberty, their blood, their lives, their all, for the
cause they had embraced, which was in their eyes the cause of God. They
dispersed to every part of Europe. Lefevre, from the Congress of Worms,
proceeded to Spain; Lainez and Lejay succeeded him in Germany. Bobadilla
went to Naples, Brouet and Salmeron to Ireland, Rodriguez and Xavier to
Portugal. Everywhere these rigid and fanatic monks were, on the one hand,
engaged in theological discussion, while, on the other, they preached
repentance to the people and reform to the clergy, and paid no regard to
the hatred evinced towards them both by Protestants and Catholics. It
seems as if they courted persecution, and wished to wear the martyr’s
crown. When the infuriated populace of Vienna threatened to throw Lejay
into the Danube, he smiled scornfully, and calmly answered—“What do I
care whether I enter heaven by water or land!”
From Rome, Ignatius, as an able general, directed the movements of all
those soldiers of Christ, as they styled themselves. He praised one,
admonished another, inspired all with his zeal and fanaticism. Nor was
this enough for his ardent and indefatigable spirit. He turned his
attention to less unquestionable acts of religion and charity. Many of
the hospitals erected in the middle of Rome, were the fruits of his
zealous exertions. The Convent of Santa Martha was opened for abandoned
women, who wished to repent, and pass an upright and easy life. In
that of Santa Catherine, poor and honest young girls found an asylum
against temptation and seduction; fatherless children of both sexes were
received, and carefully educated, in two hospitals which yet exist in
Rome; and the inmates of which, on the 31st of July of every year, go in
procession to the Church of Gesù, to pray to the shrine of the saint, and
to give thanks to their benefactor.
However, the gratitude which we owe to Loyola for those charitable
institutions cannot restrain our indignation and abhorrence towards the
man who had so great a share in reviving the infamous tribunal of the
Inquisition. The Jesuits reckon it among the glories of their order, that
Loyola supported, by a special memorial to the Pope, a petition for the
reorganising of that cruel and abhorred tribunal.
In the 13th century, the Inquisition had been diabolically active. 25,000
Albigenses perished for bearing testimony to the Word of God. Dominique,
that wholesale butcher of these unfortunate Christians, by his barbarous
inhumanities, struck horror throughout Europe, and gained for himself a
place among the Roman saints. But, as is always the case, its very excess
prepared a reaction. The tribunal, as if satiated with human suffering,
gradually relented, and, in the epoch of which we are speaking, had
almost fallen into decay. Besides, the inquisitors, chosen from among the
monastic orders, were little inclined to enforce strict and severe laws
against practices or opinions with which they themselves were in many
cases chargeable.[54] Above all, the See of Rome, under the Alexanders,
the Juliuses, the Leos, plunged in political affairs, and, extremely
lax in matters of religion and morality, had little or no inclination
to enforce the almost forgotten edicts of the Inquisition. But the
new doctrines spread in Germany with amazing rapidity; and the outcry
raised against the morals of the Catholic clergy produced two immediate
effects—the partial reform of the more flagrant abuses of which the
clergy were guilty, and the revival of a tribunal, which should destroy
by fire and sword whoever dared to impugn the doctrines of the Popes,
and the canonical laws. Caraffa, whom we have already mentioned, was the
principal author of this dreadful tribunal. Through his exertions, and
those of Loyola, an edict appeared on the 21st of July 1542, appointing
six cardinals commissioners of the Holy See and general inquisitors, with
power to delegate their authority to any person they pleased. All ranks
of citizens, without exception, were subjected to these inquisitors.
Suspected persons were immediately imprisoned, the guilty punished with
death, and their property confiscated. No book could be printed or sold
(and such is still the case through nearly the whole of Italy) without
the authority of the inquisitor. Hence a catalogue of prohibited books,
the first issue of which, containing seventy works, appeared at Venice.
In order that the tribunal might be made more efficient, Caraffa drew up,
himself, the following stringent rules:—
_First_, When faith is in question, there must be no delay; but, on the
_slightest suspicion_, rigorous measures must be resorted to with all
speed.
“_Secondly_, No consideration is to be shewn to either prince or prelate,
however high his station.
“_Thirdly_, Extreme severity is to be exercised against all those who
attempt to shield themselves under the protection of any potentate; and
those only are to be treated with gentleness and fatherly compassion, who
make a full and frank confession of the charges laid against them.
“_Fourthly_, No man must _debase himself by shewing toleration_ towards
heretics of any kind, and above all to Calvinists.”[55]
This terrible tribunal, in the hands of the relentless and unforgiving
Caraffa, spread desolation and dismay throughout Italy, from its very
commencement. Thousands were arraigned before it, whose only crime
consisted in becoming the unhappy victims of such as were actuated by the
fell rage of revenge, or the thirst for power or wealth—in a word, by
any or all of those foul passions which degrade and brutalise humanity.
As sacerdotal ferocity then called to its aid the might of the secular
arm, and thus became all-powerful, death assumed a new and more terrible
aspect. And he who should invent new instruments of torture to dislocate
the limbs of the victims with the most exquisite and excruciating pains
possible would be rewarded!!! Throughout Italy, and in various parts
of Europe, you might have seen, whilst the infernal flames of the pile
were ascending, the sinister and diabolical smile of the Jesuits, who
were aiming at the increase of their order, under the shade of this
all-mastering power!
But we must resume our history. The first college of the order was
founded in Coimbra, in 1542, by John III. of Portugal. The same
year twenty-five of his subjects were admitted into it under the
superintendence of Rodriguez.
Lainez, aided by the Lipomana family, erected another at the same time
in Venice. A third was built in Padua. After that Italy became studded
with them. Those youth whom Loyola, in the beginning of 1540, had sent to
Paris to study, and receive a degree in its university, being expelled
from France, went to Louvain, and there, under the direction of Lefevre,
became the inmates of a college afterwards famous. The Jesuits had
already many colleges established in Germany, one of which was nursing in
its bosom Peter Canisius, who became most notorious for his cruelties.
In Spain, also, the new order met with prodigious success. Besides being
the birthplace of Ignatius and six of the founders of the order, it
succeeded, at its very commencement, in making a conquest of no less a
person than Francis Borgia, Duke of Candia, and vice-king of Barcelona.
The authority of his name, his exertions, and the eloquence of Father
Araoz, soon covered Spain with houses and colleges. Since the year 1543,
the order already counting nine houses, and more than eighty Professed
members, Paul III., who at first had limited the number of the Jesuits to
sixty, being highly satisfied with these new champions of the Roman See,
issued another bull on the 15th of March 1543, by which he empowered the
order to receive an unlimited number of members.
In speaking of the different countries into which the Jesuits had
intruded themselves, we have purposely passed over England; and that
for two reasons:—_First_, Because, writing in England, and for English
readers, we consider it but fair to expatiate all the more on what
particularly concerns their own country. _Secondly_, Because the two
first Jesuits who entered England were intrusted with a special political
mission—the first one of the kind, and which we are going to relate:—
The severe and somewhat capricious edicts of Henry VIII., even after
Moore and Fisher had perished by the hands of the executioner, while but
partially obeyed in England, were totally disregarded in Ireland. True
it is, that a great part of the aristocracy, for fear of proscription
and confiscation, had yielded to Henry’s orders, and even supported
him in his despotic policy; but the bulk of the nation, more perhaps
out of hatred to their oppressors than from real attachment to their
religion, refused to subscribe to a creed violently enforced by a hated
and despotic power. Not content with opposing Henry in his religious
ordinances, they, under the very pretence of religion, caused partial
insurrections, with the view of shaking off the yoke of their masters.
But the power of Henry bore down all opposition; and, as Dr Lingard says,
“the English domination over Ireland never appeared to be more firmly
established.” In such a state of things, the Archbishop of Armagh, a
Scotchman by birth, abandoning the flock confided to his care, fled to
Rome to implore the assistance of his master the Pope. Paul had already
evinced great anger against Henry for his apostacy. His anger was
increased by the fact, that not only was he unable to prevail on either
Francis I. or Charles V. to invade England, but, that these monarchs
had, in the face of his express commands, made, successively, a treaty
with the excommunicated king. Accordingly his resentment knew no bounds.
However, the means which Paul had at command to contend with Henry
were inadequate to gratify the hate which rankled in his bosom towards
him. Determined, nevertheless, not to remain inactive, he thought of
despatching some emissaries into Ireland, in order that, by working upon
the ignorant and bigoted minds of its fanatic inhabitants, he might
excite them to a civil war. With this pious end in view, he turned his
eyes to this newly established society, and asked from the General two
of its members, to be sent thither. From that day, down to the recent
mission of Cardinal Wiseman, the Court of Rome has striven, more or less
openly, more or less eagerly, to exasperate the Irish Catholics against
the English Protestants, and has made Ireland a sore thorn to the sister
island. Many a time did Pius V. exclaim, that he would willingly shed
his blood in a war against England; and Gregory XIII. was seriously
meditating to march in person, and head the insurrection which broke out
in Ireland during the reign of Elizabeth!
The two Jesuits whom Ignatius gave to the Pope for this mission were
Salmeron and Brouet, who received _secret instructions_ from the Pope,
and were honoured with the name of Papal Nuncios. “They accepted with joy
the perils of the embassy, but were in no way ambitious of the lustre and
honour which the title conferred.”[56] So modest they were, according to
Mr Crétineau.
The fact is, that they could not and would not have dared to assume in
public the title of the Pope’s Legates, or Nuncios, and were obliged to
content themselves to be simple and secret emissaries. Ignatius also
gave them private instructions, and we may thank Orlandini for having
sent down this document, which, if well examined, clearly shews that
the crafty and mysterious policy for which the Society has earned such
merited notoriety and execration, is as old as the order. Here is the
precious document, which, however, shews a remarkable knowledge of human
nature:—
“I recommend you to be, in your intercourse with all the world in
general—but particularly with your equals and inferiors—modest and
circumspect in your words, always disposed and patient to listen, lending
an attentive ear till the persons who speak to you have unveiled the
depth of their sentiments. Then you will give them a clear and brief
answer which may anticipate all discussion.
“In order to conciliate to yourselves the goodwill of men in the desire
of extending the kingdom of God, you will make yourselves all things
to all men, after the example of the apostle, in order to gain them to
Jesus Christ. Nothing, in effect, is more adapted than the resemblance of
tastes and habits to conciliate affection, to gain hearts.
“Thus, after having studied the character and manners of each person,
you will endeavour to conform yourselves to them as much as duty
will permit,—so that, if you have to do with an excitable and ardent
character, you should shake off all tedious prolixity.
“You must, on the contrary, become somewhat slow and measuring in speech,
if the person to whom you speak is more circumspect and deliberate in his
speech.
“For the rest, if he who has to do with a man of irascible temperament
has himself that defect, and if they do not agree thoroughly in their
opinion, it is greatly to be feared lest they permit themselves to be
hurried into passion. Therefore, he who recognises in himself that
propensity ought to watch himself with the most vigilant care, and
fortify his heart with a supply of strength, in order that anger should
not surprise him; but rather that he may endure with equanimity all that
he shall suffer from the other, even should the latter be his inferior.
Discussions and quarrels are much less to be apprehended from quiet and
slow tempers than from the excitable and ardent.
“In order to attract men to virtue, and fight the enemy of salvation, you
shall employ the arms he uses to destroy them—such is the advice of St
Basil.
“When the devil attacks a just man, he does not let him see his snares;
on the contrary, he hides them, and attacks him only indirectly, without
resisting his pious inclinations, feigning even to conform to them;—but
by degrees he entices him, and surprises him in his snares. Thus it is
proper to follow a similar track to extricate men from sin.
“Begin with praising what is good in them, without at first attacking
their vices; when you shall have gained their confidence, apply the
remedy proper for their cure.
“With regard to melancholy or unsettled persons, exhibit whilst
addressing them, as much as you can, a gay and serene countenance—give
the greatest sweetness to your words, in order to restore them to a state
of mental tranquillity—combating one extreme by another extreme.
“Not only in your sermons, but also in your private conversation,
particularly when you reconcile people at variance, do not lose sight of
the fact that all your words may be published—what you say in darkness
may be manifested in the light of day.
“In affairs anticipate the time, rather than defer or adjourn it; if you
promise anything for to-morrow, do it to-day. As to money, do not touch
even that which shall be fixed for the expenses which you shall pay. Let
it be distributed to the poor by other hands, or employ it in good works,
in order that you may be able, in case of need, to affirm on oath that in
the course of your legation you have not received a penny. When you have
to speak to the great, let Pasquier Bruet have the charge. Deliberate
with yourselves in all the points touching which your sentiments might
be at variance. Do what two persons out of three would have approved, if
called upon to decide.
“Write often to Rome during your journey—as soon as you shall have
reached Scotland, and also when you shall have got over to Ireland. Then
give an account of your legation monthly.”[57]
Now, examine well these instructions, and you will find that the true
Jesuit must be crafty, insinuating, deceitful, even whilst pretending to
be a most sincere Christian, and as if raised by God to defend his holy
religion. Their sacrilegious maxim, “that no means can be bad when the
end is good,” sanctifies in their eyes the most atrocious crimes.
At first sight, these precepts which Ignatius gave to the two emissaries
of Paul, although not very honest, appear in themselves prudent
instructions for proceeding in what they considered a most holy cause—the
maintenance of the Catholic religion. But apply them to political
purposes—and Ignatius knew that this was the case—and you will at once
perceive the extent of the Jesuit immorality, and the artful way in
which, in the name of the most sacred of all things—religion, they
accomplish the most heinous offences.
But listen to the ingenious Mr Crétineau:—“In these instructions,” says
he, “Loyola takes care to be silent about those which the Pope had given
them; he keeps aloof from politics. Salmeron and Brouet are the Pope’s
legates, and have his confidence. Ignatius endeavours to make them worthy
of it, but he does not go beyond.”[58] Good! You confess, then, that
Paul—Christ’s vicegerent—is plotting revenge under the garb of religion,
and that he has sent the Jesuits on a political mission. Ignatius,
confident in Paul’s abilities, confined himself to the prescribing of
rules calculated to insure success in their undertaking; you prize him
for that, and boast that he keeps aloof from politics? Good!
Salmeron and Brouet set out on their mission, and, as they were ordered,
visited Holyrood on their way to Ireland. James V. was then on the
throne of Scotland, who, “there is reason to believe,” says the author
of the _Tales of a Grandfather_, “was somewhat inclined to the Reformed
doctrines—at least he encouraged the poet Lindsay to compose bitter
satires against the corruptions of the Roman Catholic clergy.” His uncle,
Henry VIII., encouraged him in this disposition, strongly advised him
to take possession of the immense wealth of the religious orders; and
desired an interview with him at York in the beginning of the year 1542.
Henry went there, and waited six days for his nephew, but he never made
his appearance. There can be little doubt that the Jesuits, who had
arrived in Scotland some time before with the Pope’s letter for the king,
to whom they were introduced by Beaton, of cruel and tragic memory, who
had known Loyola at Rome, used their utmost influence to prevent this
meeting. Nor do I think it presumption to assert that the two Jesuits,
and the letter which they brought from Paul, who exhorted the king to
remain faithful to the religion of his fathers, were the chief cause that
detained him at home. The war which followed soon after, with disastrous
consequences to both nations, and especially to Scotland, as well as
the torrents of blood shed during a long course of religious struggles,
would, in all likelihood, have been avoided had James resisted the
influence of the Jesuits.
Meanwhile Paul’s two emissaries arrived in Ireland about the month of
February 1542. There, according to Jesuitical historians, they wrought
prodigies, reforming and stirring up the people, and confirming them in
the tenets of the true religion; celebrating masses, hearing confessions,
and especially granting many indulgences;[59] exacting from the people
a very _moderate tax_, which, according to the instructions of Ignatius,
was not gathered by themselves, but by a stranger.[60] The people
flocked around them, and poured out benedictions upon their head. Their
adversaries, on the other hand, assert that they plotted to stir up
one class of citizens against another, and drained the pockets of the
credulous Irishmen so forcibly, that at last they became so odious in the
eyes of the people, that they threatened to deliver them into the hands
of Henry’s officers.[61] We ourselves believe that both of these versions
are in part true. No doubt they, to keep up appearance, said masses,
heard many confessions, granted millions of indulgences, but there is as
little doubt that they excited the people against their excommunicated
sovereign, whom, to be faithful to their religion, they must execrate,
and use all their efforts to dethrone. That they collected money from the
people, either party confess; but whether that money was employed for
the repairing of the churches and the supporting of widows and orphans,
as the one pretends, or as an aliment to foment civil war, as the other
asserts, is not sufficiently ascertained. We leave our readers to judge
for themselves. Certain it is, however, they only continued in Ireland
for thirty-four days, and during that time they wandered about from
place to place in disguise, never sleeping two successive nights under
the same roof, afraid every moment of being seized. Upon leaving, they
formed the _noble complot_ (says Mr Crétineau, illustrating Orlandini)
of going to London, and finding means of being admitted into Henry’s
presence, when, by their eloquence and tenderness, they would disarm the
anger of the king, in pleading the cause of the Catholic religion at the
tribunal of his conscience.[62] It was as well for Henry, and England
too, that their plan was found to be “_impracticable_.” We must not
forget that they were the emissaries of that Paul who thought the sword
and the stake, for the conversion of heretics, to be the most effectual
and conclusive arguments. Neither must we forget, that some years after,
James Clement and Ravaillac adopted a more expeditious way than eloquence
for the converting of Henrys III. and IV. Salmeron and Brouet thought it
advisable, in the circumstances, to retire into France, and being ordered
by Paul to return again into Scotland, they refused to obey, and went
direct to Rome.
Thus ended the first mission into England. Would to God it had been the
last!