1556-1581.
THE SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH GENERALS OF THE ORDER.
Many were the trials the Jesuits had to encounter after the death of
Loyola. The moment he expired, the professed members who were at Rome
appointed Lainez Vicar-General, although he was at the time dangerously
ill, fixing, at the same time, the month of November for the election
of the new General. No objection could be raised against the nomination
of Lainez, he being without contradiction the most prominent living
member of the Society. The difficulties only began when the Vicar-General
adjourned the General Congregation _sine die_. Lainez was constrained
to take this step because Philip II. of Spain had forbidden any of his
subjects to leave his dominions, as he was then at war with the Pope.
Since that fatal epoch in which Clement VII., for the benefit of his
family (the Medici), had betrayed the glory and destinies of Italy
into the hands of the house of Austria, the unfortunate peninsula (if
we except Venice) became an imperial fief, and the subsequent popes
the Emperor’s chief vassals. Paul IV., although worn out with years,
conceived the bold idea of freeing Italy from the Austrian yoke. “He
would sit,” says Ranke, quoting Navagero, “for long hours over the black,
thick, fiery wine of Naples, his usual drink, and pour forth torrents
of stormy eloquence against these schismatics and heretics—accursed of
God—that evil generation of Jew and Moor—that scum of the world, and
other titles equally complimentary, which he bestowed with unsparing
liberality on everything Spanish.”[112] And so intense was his hatred
against the house of Austria, that he made a strict alliance with the
Protestant leader, Albert of Brandenburg, and formed his regiments almost
entirely of Protestants, to fight against a Roman Catholic king. And, as
if this were not enough, the Pope, the so-called chief of Christianity,
made proposals to Soliman I., the great enemy of the Christian name, to
enter into an alliance with him, in order to destroy the ultra-Roman
Catholic and bigoted Philip II.
The Spanish Jesuits thus prevented from going to Rome, the General
Congregation, as we have said, was postponed. This began the strife.
Private ambition broke forth, and threw the community into great
confusion. The revolt was headed by the violent Bobadilla. He prevailed
upon Rodriguez, Brouet, and two or three others, to join him in
reproaching the tyranny and despotism of Lainez. They pretended that he
had no right to possess, alone, the supreme authority, which ought to
reside in all the surviving founders of the order till a General was
elected. Pamphlets were addressed to the Pope, accusing the Vicar-General
of entertaining the design to repair to Spain for the purpose of holding
the Congregation, and of establishing the seat of the order in that
country. The Pope, upon this announcement, became furious; he thundered
imprecations against the Society; and when Lainez presented himself to
have an audience, he refused to see him, and ordered him to give up,
within three days, all the constitutions and ordinances of the Society,
with the name of every professed member resident at Rome, and forbade any
one of the latter to leave the capital. The storm, it is evident, was
gaining strength, but Lainez was an expert and skilful pilot. Inferior
to Loyola in natural gifts, in firmness of character, in boldness and
energy, he was his superior in cunning, in reflection, in patience.
Ignatius, the imperious ex-officer, in the same circumstances, would have
scourged Bobadilla, dismissed some rioters from the Society, and obliged
the others to fall at his feet and ask forgiveness. The politician
Lainez avoided combat in an open field, hoping to gain the battle by
stratagem. He quietly and stealthily got possession of all Bobadilla’s
writings on the subject,[113] learned from them what were his enemies’
projects, prepared his means of defence accordingly, detached Rodriguez
and Brouet from Bobadilla’s interest by caresses and promises, sent the
latter to reform a convent of Franciscan friars at Foligno, and condemned
Gorgodanuz, the most pertinacious of the rebels, to say one pater noster
and one ave Maria! When a cardinal related this fact to the Pope, Paul
crossed himself as at something strange and prodigious.[114] Sacchini
pretends that the Pope made the sign of the cross, being filled with
wonder at the blindness of the rebels; but assuredly Paul was struck at
the supremely cunning policy of the Vicar-General.[115]
The revolt was, however, subdued, the Pope appeased, and soon after the
war was also brought to an end. The Duke of Alva, that sanguinary and
ferocious butcher of the Belgians, conqueror of the Papal troops and of
the allied armies, entered vanquished Rome, craved for an audience of
the Pontiff, threw himself at his feet, and implored his forgiveness for
having dared to fight against him. What a strange piece of contradiction
is man!
The peace established between King Philip and the Pope made a free
passage between Italy and Spain. The fathers arrived in Rome, and the
General Congregation met on the 19th of June 1558.
On the 2d of July, while the fathers were on the point of proceeding to
the election of the General, Cardinal Pacheco presented himself to the
conclave in the Pope’s name, and after some trifling compliments, said he
was ready to act as secretary and teller of the ballot. We cannot imagine
the reason Paul had for taking such a precaution, unless he was afraid
lest Borgia should be elected General—Borgia, the companion, the friend
of Charles V. and of his son. The Cardinal, however, took his place among
the fathers, and prepared to act as secretary. The schedules, which had
been put into an urn by each elector, having been withdrawn and examined,
the Cardinal announced that Lainez was elected by a majority of 13 to 7.
He was in consequence proclaimed General, and the Jesuits went in one
after another to pay him homage, and to kiss his hands on their bended
knees.
The Congregation then proceeded to dispose of other business. There was
first of all a discussion as to whether or not the Constitutions should
be modified. This was answered in the negative. It must be observed,
however, that Lainez, in the margin of the 16th chapter of the fourth
part of the Constitutions, where it is prescribed that in the School of
Theology the scholastic doctrine of St Thomas shall be explained, had
inserted a declaration, “that if any book of theology could be found more
adapted to the times, it shall be taught.” An historian very judiciously
remarks, that Lainez appears already to have formed the project of
establishing a new doctrine, which was propounded by Molina soon after.
The original manuscripts, which were written by Ignatius in Spanish,
were next confronted with the Latin version by Polancus. The latter was
approved of, and ordered to be printed by the press of the Roman College,
and this was immediately executed—the first edition of the Constitutions
bearing the date of 1558.
But whilst in the middle of their legislative labours, they were startled
by the arrival of Cardinal Trani, who announced to them that it was
the Pope’s pleasure that they should perform the choral office, like
all the other monastic orders, and that the office of General should
only last for three years. The Jesuits remonstrated, and spoke of their
Constitutions, and of the papal bull that had been issued in their
favour. The cardinal answered that the commands of his holiness must be
obeyed. The Jesuits got up a memorial, and Lainez and Salmeron went to
present it to the Pope. Paul received them freezingly; and at the first
observation of Lainez, exclaimed, “You are contumacious persons. In this
matter you act like heretics, and I fear lest some sectarian should be
seen issuing from your company. But we are firmly resolved to tolerate
such disorders no longer.”[116] This was the second time that Lainez had
been abruptly and arrogantly apostrophised by Paul. When he visited him
after he had been chosen Vicar-General, he received the volleys of insult
which the Pope poured upon him with the greatest submission. But it seems
that his patience at this time gave way, and he boldly answered, that he
had not sought of his own accord to be made General, that he was ready to
give up the office at that very moment, but that his holiness knew well
that the fathers, in proceeding to the election, had intended to name a
General for life, according to the rules of their Constitutions; for
the remainder, “we teach,” added he, “we preach against the heretics; on
that account they hate us, and call us Papists. Wherefore your holiness
ought to give us your protection, and evince toward us the yearnings of
a father, rather than find fault with us.”[117] This was the substance
of Lainez’s answer, shaped by the Jesuit historians into a more humble
and respectful form. But the irascible and obstinate Paul was unmoved by
his appeal. He told Lainez that he would not accept of his resignation,
that his orders must be executed, and then dismissed him and his brother
envoy. Paul was fierce and vindictive, and not to be trifled with. He
had accused his own nephews in a full consistory, and banished them and
their families from Rome. His greatest desire was to see the Inquisition
at work. Ranke says that he seldom interfered in other matters, but was
never so much as once absent from presiding every Thursday over the
Congregation of the Inquisition. Having such a man to deal with, the
Jesuits were forced to submit to perform the choral office, consoling
themselves with the hope that the next Pope would be more lenient toward
them; nor were they disappointed. Medici, the successor of Paul, who
took the name of Pius IV., shewed himself more favourable to the Company
of Jesus; not for love of them, but out of hatred to his predecessor,
who had been his enemy.[118] Although he was of a mild and cheerful
disposition, he made a fearful example of the nephews of the deceased
pontiff. Their crimes assuredly deserved punishment; but as it was not
in the disposition of Pius to be cruel or revengeful, he was doubtless
instigated to act in this case with unwonted rigour. But who his
instigators were, or whence he derived the malignant and retributory
inspiration on which he acted, it would be difficult to determine. We
only know that the Jesuits had been persecuted by the Caraffas from the
beginning, and that “Pius IV.,” as Crétineau affirms, “shewed himself
from first to last to be more favourable to the Jesuits than even Paul
III. had been.”[119] The Jesuits, it is certain, had then great influence
at the Court of Rome. Cardinal Caraffa and the Duke of Palliano, nephews
to the late Pope, along with two of their relatives, were condemned to
death. They were denied their own confessors, and Jesuits were called in
as their spiritual comforters. Crétineau says, that the Duke of Palliano
asked Lainez to send him a Jesuit confessor, while the detractors of
the order think that they intruded themselves, to witness the agony
and death of their enemies. We let our readers judge for themselves.
The unfortunate culprits were executed during the night of the 6th and
7th August 1561. The cardinal never for a moment suspected that they
would execute the sentence upon him. He tried to delay his execution
by lingering with his confessor. “Make an end, my lord, we have other
business on hand,” exclaimed an officer of police. A few minutes longer,
and the cardinal was a corpse.
The Society now seemed upon the whole to be in a prosperous condition,
and increased rapidly. Lainez did not exercise his authority with an
iron hand, like Loyola, but he had great tact, and knew how to govern a
community by cunning policy. Some mishaps, however, befel the Society.
In Grenada, a Jesuit confessor refused to give absolution to a woman
till she had revealed the name of her accomplice in the sin which she
had confessed. This made a great noise. But the Jesuits, supported by
the archbishop and the Inquisition, braved the opinion of the public
so far, that one of them, John Raminius, declared from the pulpit,
as an established doctrine, “that although in general no sin of the
most holy confession ought to be revealed, there may, nevertheless, be
circumstances in which the confessor may oblige the penitent to discover
the accomplice of the sin, or to give up the names of the persons
infected with heresy, permitting him (the confessor) to denounce the
person or persons to the competent tribunal.”[120]
This of itself shews clearly enough the _inviolability of the secret
of confession_, yet we must say that these gentlemen have made great
progress since, for now, without asking the penitent’s permission, they
betake themselves at once to the officers of police.[121] However, it is
only the sins committed against religion or politics which never fail to
be disclosed; the ruffian and assassin need not apprehend that _their_
crimes will be brought to light.
The next disaster the order encountered was the displeasure evinced by
Philip II. against Francis Borgia, the ex-Duke of Candia, one of his
father’s testamentary executors, and who had a very great influence
over the other sons of Charles V.[122] The Inquisition, that faithful
satellite of the Spanish crown, to please the king, condemned two ascetic
books by that same Borgia, who, a few years afterwards, was numbered
among the saints who were worshipped; he himself narrowly escaped being
captured as a heretic. Borgia bore all this with true Christian humility,
as well as some opposition shewn him by his own subordinates, and was
consoled by the Pope, who called him to Rome, and received him with the
utmost kindness.
Again, in Montepulciano, a town fifteen miles distant from Sienna, the
Jesuits were accused of immorality. One was charged with having pressed
a woman to go home with him; another, of having issued from a brothel;
a third, of having offered violence to a female; and Father Gombar, the
Superior himself, of having illicit intercourse with several ladies, and
particularly with one whose love-letters were found in his possession.
All these were incontestible facts, proved by sworn witnesses. Now
listen to the imperturbable impudence of the historian Sacchini upon
this matter. The reason he assigns for all these calumnies is, that
“the Jesuits confessed almost all the women in Montepulciano; that they
induced many young ladies to consecrate themselves to God in monasteries,
and married females to be chaste and faithful wives. Hence arose the
grief and fury (_dolor et furor_) of those whose passions could no longer
find aliment. They, therefore, plotted the expulsion of the fathers.”
What a set of monsters were these citizens of Montepulciano!
But let us proceed. “The man accused of having solicited a woman to go
with him, was a simpleton, who, meeting a female on the road, was asked
where he was going, and had the imprudence to answer. It was an enemy
of the order, dressed as a Jesuit, who was seen to leave the brothel.
Gombar, the Rector, did indeed entertain himself rather long in the
confessional, but then he was engaged in spiritual conversation with the
ladies. Among other penitents, he had two sisters belonging to a very
high family; and the father, not being able to undertake the charge of
both, was forced to abandon one of them. The one that was dismissed, out
of spite and jealousy, accused the other to her brother, who forbade her
to confess any longer to Gombar. The letters were falsified, and every
other accusation was mere calumny.”[123] After such justifications as
these, few will doubt that the Jesuits were guilty. Gombar, at any rate,
frightened by the public rumour, fled, and Lainez dismissed him from
the Society, in spite of all his entreaties. The town-council stopped
paying the Jesuit teacher the allowed salary. The College was deserted—no
alms!—no friends! Poor Jesuits! they were starving. And Lainez, after
trying in vain to regain for the College its former good name, by sending
thither some of the best and most conspicuous of the Jesuits, suppressed
it altogether in 1563. Let them after this proclaim their innocence!
Accusations of a like nature were brought against the Jesuits in Venice,
and were corroborated by the Patriarch. Some of the senators proposed to
expel the Jesuits from the states of the republic, or to make them submit
to the Patriarch’s authority; but the authority and interference of the
Pope brought matters again to an accommodation.
Further, all the Jesuits in the College of Milan were accused of
unnatural crimes. Here, also, the facts were pretty well established.
Crétineau himself is forced to admit the occurrence of individual crimes;
but, although a certain bishop brought forth many young men as witnesses
against the Jesuits, yet the cardinal, chosen by the Pope to examine into
the case, absolved them.
Meanwhile, at the end of three years, Lainez thought it would be politic
on his part to appear anxious to resign the office. Having consulted
his brethren on the subject, they declared that the office should be
perpetual. We shall here give Bobadilla’s answer, on account of its
originality. The formerly fierce opponent of Lainez writes to him
thus from Ragusa:—“My opinion is that the office of General should be
perpetual, according to the letter of our Constitutions. Let, then, your
reverence keep a firm hold of it for a hundred years, and if after your
death you should return to life, my advice is that the office be again
conferred upon you, that you may keep it to the day of judgment. And I
beg of you, for the love of Christ, to keep it, and be of good cheer,” &c.
Lainez being now assured of the perpetuity of his office, leaving
Salmeron to manage the affairs of Italy, set out for France, in order
that he might take part in the famous colloquy or conferences of Poissy,
of which more hereafter. From France he passed into Belgium, visited the
Rhenish provinces, a part of Germany, and crossed the Tyrol on his way to
Trent.
In all these places Lainez made good use of both his name and authority,
endeavoured to acquire new protectors for his order, to increase its
revenues, to establish new houses, never forgetting, either in his
sermons or controversies, to throw out slanders, and vehemently to attack
the Protestant cause. He at last arrived in Trent for the re-opening
of the Council. This famous assembly, which so solemnly consecrated
some of the greatest errors that had ever been given to the world—which
interposed an impassable barrier between Christian and Christian, but
which, nevertheless, the Court of Rome calls most holy, re-opened on
the 18th January 1562. This last Council had been called for by Luther,
by the Protestants, and all those princes who were desirous to check
the despotism of the Court of Rome, and to give peace to the Church by
mutual concessions between the opposing parties. Different successive
Popes refused this as long as possible, dreading the total ruin of their
authority. Yet this assembly, as Fra Paolo, its historian, judiciously
remarks, had a result quite opposite from that which was expected. The
Protestants took no part in the Council’s proceedings, the authority of
the Popes was further extended and more firmly established than ever, and
the hope of healing the schism in the Church was altogether blasted.
The Council commenced its sittings in Trent on the 13th December 1545,
was thence transferred to Bologna in March 1547, against the will of the
German and Spanish prelates, who continued at Trent, was interrupted
on the 2d of June of the same year, re-opened in May 1551, was again
suspended in April 1552, re-opened in Trent, as we have said, in January
1562, and finally closed on the 3d of December 1563. The Jesuits boast
of having had the greatest share in drawing up the decrees and fixing
the dogmas as they now stand. Salmeron, Brouet, and especially Lainez,
exercised great influence; and, if there were any glory in upholding
erroneous doctrines and the tyrannical authority of the Pope, it most
undoubtedly belonged to them, nor are we disposed to envy them the
distinction they thus gained.[124]
Lainez left Trent for Rome, and his whole journey through Italy was one
continued triumph. But, alas! poor Lainez had not long to taste the
sweetness of adulation. His health, which had always been delicate,
became worse and worse. He fell seriously ill, lingered in his bed for
two or three months, and breathed his last on the 19th of January 1565,
at the age of 53.
Lainez was under the middle size, had a fair complexion and cheerful
countenance, with large bright eyes, but his appearance was very
unprepossessing. He was gifted with a great facility of elocution, and
a prodigious memory. He left many manuscripts behind him; some were
unfinished, and almost all are unintelligible, as his handwriting was
execrable.
[Illustration: _Francois de Borgia._
_Hinchliff._]
The day after Lainez expired, the Jesuits in Rome named Francis Borgia
Vicar-General, until a new election should take place. Borgia is one of
the saints and glories of the order, and his history is really a most
extraordinary one. He was descended from that Alexander VI. who united in
his person all the crimes of past and future Popes, and was a stain to
humanity itself. Our Borgia was, however, a man of the strictest honesty,
and of unblemished honour. He was handsome, brave, the companion in arms
and friend of Charles V., was Duke of Candia and Vice-king of Barcelona.
In 1546, when he was only 36 years of age, his duchess died. The sight of
her beautiful face, altered and disfigured by death, made such a powerful
impression upon his mind, that he from that moment resolved to give up
all worldly thoughts, and consecrate himself (as the phrase goes) to God.
He chose the Society of the Jesuits as the safest retreat, and wrote to
Loyola for the purpose. Ignatius’ answer begins thus:—“The resolution
you have taken, most illustrious lord, gives me much joy. Let the angels
and saints in heaven give thanks to God, for we on this earth cannot be
sufficiently grateful to God for the great honour He bestows upon His
little Society in calling you to join it.”[125]
This man had nine children, some in infancy, and all under age, whom he
left in the wide world unprotected, to enter the Society. And the angels
and saints ought to praise God for this! Alas for the moral blindness
of perverted human nature! Loyola again wrote to him, saying that he
accepted him as his brother, but that, before he could be admitted into
the noviciate, he must settle all his temporal affairs, and have nothing
more to do with the world; meanwhile, until he was ready to enter the
Society, to _keep his intention a secret_. Borgia was admitted into the
house of probation in 1548, and from that moment he became a bigoted
fanatic, whose greatest happiness consisted in lacerating his body.
Macaulay says, in an article in the _Edinburgh Review_, “that it is
making penitence with him to listen to the recital of his flagellations
and his self-inflicted punishments of all kinds.” He had so destroyed his
constitution by this absurd way of trying to please God, that he never
had a single day of good health, and was even once threatened with a
gangrene over his whole body. Such was the man appointed Vicar-General,
and afterwards chief of the order. He had no wish for the honour,
considered the office a _burden_, and we believe he was sincere in his
humility. The first battle he had to fight was against the Holy See
itself. Almost contemporaneously with his nomination, a Dominican friar
ascended the Papal throne, under the name of Pius V. A more bigoted,
fanatical, cruel, and sanguinary man never existed. Brought up under
the wing of the Inquisition, he contracted a sort of blind passion for
that bloody tribunal, and never felt so happy as when he heard of some
barbarous cruelties inflicted upon the heretics, or when some hecatombs
of these accursed enemies of Popery were sacrificed at the altar of his
revenge, or when some new instrument of torture was invented against
them. Suffice it to say, that when he sent his general, Santafiore,
to fight against the French Protestants, he commanded him in the most
peremptory manner to take no Huguenot prisoner, but to put them one and
all to the sword; and because Santafiore had not rigorously executed his
commands, he reproached him in the most bitter manner. And when that
monster of cruelty, the Duke of Alva, had spread death and desolation
over the entire of the Netherlands, 18,000 of the inhabitants of which
he boasted of having delivered up into the hands of the executioners, so
pleased was Pius with his deeds, that he sent him the consecrated hat and
sword, as marks of his approval.[126] Can this, then, be the religion
of Christ? Is it for a moment possible that this should be the true
religion, this which erects upon its altars the statues of such monsters
of iniquity, and impiously calls them saints, to be worshipped in place
of God the Lord? And among the greatest of these modern saintships
stands forth the name of Pius V.! This Pope, a most rigorous observer
of all the monastic and superstitious ceremonies, gave the Jesuits to
understand that they should undertake the choral hours as prescribed by
Pius IV., and that no Jesuit should be ordained a priest before he had
pronounced the four vows. We shall not repeat the conversation which took
place between the Holy Father and the saint Borgia, as given by Sacchini
and other historians; we shall only give some extracts of the bold and
eloquent memorials which the Jesuits presented to the Pope on this
occasion.
After reminding his holiness, in a gentle yet admonitory manner, that
their Constitutions had been approved of by three popes, and that they
could not be altered without good reasons for so doing, they proceed to
state, “that their Society had been established to repel the impious
efforts of the heretics, to oppose the infernal tricks which had been had
recourse to to extinguish the light of the Catholic truth, and to resist
the barbarous enemies of Christ, who were besieging the holy edifice of
the Church, undermining it insensibly; that, in order that they might
be able to resist this invasion effectually, their holy father Ignatius
thought that it would be better for them to leave singing to others....
And did not the same causes still exist, they inquired, for the exercise
of their activity, as the signs of the times unmistakably demonstrated?
They submitted that a vast conflagration was devouring France; that
Germany was in a great measure consumed; that England was one heap of
ashes; that Belgium was falling into ruins; that Poland smoked in every
quarter; that the flames were already blazing around the confines of
Italy.... And they should lose their time in undertaking the choral
hours.”[127] On this point the Pope yielded; but, on the other, he was
inflexible, saying, that it was requisite that at least as much learning
and virtue should be in a priest as in a Jesuit, even of the class of
the Professed. This Sacchini denies, affirming that it is more difficult
to make one good Jesuit than a thousand priests. The Jesuits, who stood
in need of priests, but would not enlarge the aristocratic class of
the Professed members, who alone take the four vows, obtained as usual
their end by exercising a little cunning. They presented themselves for
ordination, not as Jesuits, but as secular ecclesiastics.
We pass over a number of interesting incidents which happened under the
generalship of Borgia down to the year 1571, when we find the General,
though in very ill health, leaving Rome for Spain and France, for the
purpose of soliciting assistance from the respective monarchs of these
countries to aid the Venetians in a war against the Turks, who were then
threatening to pour their savage hordes over Europe. Philip II. joined
the league, and his vessels gained some of the laurels which were won at
that ever memorable battle fought at Lepanto on the 7th October 1571,
when the descendants of the Prophet suffered a defeat from which they
have never recovered. Before Borgia entered Spain, the Inquisition,
aware that Philip was on the best terms both with him and the Pope,
published, with the highest eulogium, those same works which she had
proscribed nine years before when the king frowned upon Father Borgia—a
most striking example of the servility of the Spanish Inquisition to
the crown. From Spain, Borgia proceeded to Portugal, thence to France,
at the very time when Catherine and Charles were plunged in continual
feasts and pleasures, the forerunner of what they expected to enjoy on
Saint Bartholomew’s eve. But we have no reason to believe that he was
at all privy to the plot. It is not at all likely that the cunning
and circumspect Catherine of Medicis would be so foolish as to confide
so important a secret to such a weak-brained man. Borgia witnessed the
massacre in the southern provinces of France, when on his return to Rome,
where he arrived on the 28th of September 1572, and where he expired
three days after. So ended this extraordinary man, whom the Church of
Rome has enrolled among the saints. Would to God that none of them were
worse than he!
At the opening of the fourth General Congregation the Pope inquired of
the Jesuit deputies, who had gone up according to custom to ask his
benison, “How many votes each nation had?” The answer was that “Spain
had more votes than all the rest put together.” “And from what nation
or nations has the General been hitherto chosen?” “From Spain,” was
the reply. “Well,” resumed Gregory XIII., “it would be but just, then,
that you should, for this once, elect one from some other nation.” The
deputies remonstrated; “but,” said the Pope, “Father Mercurianus is a
very good man,” and dismissed them. To another deputation, sent purposely
to assert their independence in the choice of their own General, the Pope
answered, that he did not impugn their right, that he only requested of
them to inform him if their choice should fall upon a Spaniard, before he
was officially proclaimed. The reason of all this was national jealousy,
united to the aversion evinced by Spain and Portugal to all Christianised
Jews and Moors. This aversion was shared in by the Court of Rome, and
was now aroused by the fear of seeing Polancus, a Christianised Jew,
on the point of being elected General of the order, “and it was not
thought desirable that the supreme authority in a body so powerful and so
monarchically constituted should be confided to such hands.”[128]
Father Mercurianus was chosen. He was a simple and weak old man, a native
of Belgium. He delivered up the government of the Society first to Father
Palmio, then to Father Manara. This produced internal troubles and the
formation of two parties, which caused great commotion in the days of his
successor. Mercurianus exercised very little influence on the destinies
of the order, and was the first General whose authority was held in
little account. He died on the 1st of August 1580, at which time the
Society numbered 5750 members, 110 houses, and 21 provinces. The wealth
they had acquired was immense; it did not matter how it was got, as the
end with them sanctified the means. For example, when the troops of the
ferocious Alva sacked Malines, Father Trigosus freighted a vessel with
victuals and sailed to Malines to buy a great part of the booty, under
the pretext of giving it back to the proprietors. Doubtless, to deceive
the fools, he restored some of it to the proper owners, but then this
was only to a trifling amount; the remainder and most valuable portion
was employed to adorn the College of Antwerp with regal magnificence. In
France the Jesuits were left heirs to the immense fortune of the Bishop
of Clermont. In Spain they allured into their Society the representatives
of two of the wealthiest families in that country, for which they were
brought before the tribunal and condemned. Moreover, Gregory XIII.
presented them with enormous sums, and founded no fewer than thirteen of
their colleges, every one of which was richly endowed; while in Portugal
they were almost masters of the entire kingdom. We shall by and by
examine the causes of this unparalleled prosperity.