The Discipline of the Secret in the Origin of the Christian
Church.--The Inquisition.--The Mystics.--The rise of Monachism.--The
Mendicant Orders.--The Order of Knighthood.--The Jesuits, their
Organization, and History.--The Rosicrucians, &c.
But next appeared upon the stage of human life, our Lord and Saviour, JESUS
CHRIST; "The sun of Righteousness, rising with healing on his wings:" that
LIGHT of this world, which was to draw all men unto him, at the mention of
whose name "every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in
earth, and things under the earth."[78]
His lessons to man were all oral. The church he established received none
but traditional instruction. The gospels of his life were written more than
half a century after the crucifixion. The apostles, commissioned to go
forth and preach the Gospel, held their meetings in upper chambers, and in
secrecy, and part of their manner of teaching, if not all, was founded upon
the still-prevailing systems of the Kabbalistae and philosophers. There were
grades observed in the orders of ministry. The diaconate, the {72}
presbyter, priest or elder, and the [Greek: episkopos] or bishop. So there
were three grades of the laity--catechumens, (not yet baptized,) baptized
persons, and "the faithful." The policy of the apostles (who, when they
were taught to be harmless, were to be wise) adapted itself to the then
existing state of affairs. It was not only for fear of the Jews, as at
first, that they adopted the method of instruction in secret, and which is
to this day recognised by the catholic church as the then _disciplina
arcani_, or "discipline of the secret;" but they kept it up even during the
times of persecution, down to the time of St. Augustin. When our Saviour
was insulted by the scribes and Pharisees, saying, "why do thy disciples
transgress the tradition of the elders?" &c. He said to them, "why do ye
also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?"[79] Still more
did he rebuke them, when they asked him, "why walk not thy disciples
according to the traditions of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen
hands?" In his answer, he replied, "laying aside the commandment of God, ye
hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups, &c., &c. And he
said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may
keep your own tradition."[80] St. Paul afterward, well knowing the then
systems of philosophy, and their then traditional instruction, wrote to
them at Philippi,[81] "Beware lest any man spoil you through {73}
philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments
(or elements) of this world, and not after Christ." Then St. Paul, guarding
the early Christians so carefully, writes to the faithful in Thessaly, "Now
we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye
withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not
after the tradition which ye have received _of us_,"[82] &c. When St. Paul
preached on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to
break bread, it was in an upper chamber where they were gathered
together.[83] At an earlier date, the first day of the week after the
crucifixion, in the evening, "when the doors were shut where the disciples
were assembled, for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst,"
&c.[84] When Pliny was proconsul in Judea, such charges were made against
the Christians on account of their secrecy, as caused severe persecution,
not for matters of religion, but for supposed cannibalism. He writes to
Trajan, that he took all pains to inform himself as to the character of the
Christian sect. To do this he questioned such as had for many years been
separated from the Christian community, but though apostates rarely speak
well of the society to which they formerly belonged, he could find out
nothing. He then applied torture to two female-slaves, deaconesses, to
extort from them the truth. After all, he could learn only that the {74}
Christians were in the habit of meeting together on a certain day; that
they then united in a hymn of praise to their God, Christ; and that they
bound one another--not to commit crimes, but to refrain from theft, from
adultery, to be faithful in performing their promises, to withhold from
none the property intrusted to their keeping; and then separated and
afterward assembled at a simple and innocent meal.[85]
Evidently, the Christian mysteries were preserved secret from the Romans as
from the Jews, or such crime could never have been imputed to them.
Alluding to the secret traditional instruction prevalent in Judea and
adopted by the early church, St. Augustin writes, "You have heard the great
mystery. Ask a man, 'Are you a Christian?' He answers you, 'I am not.'
'Perhaps you are a pagan, or a Jew?' But if he has answered 'I am not;'
then put this question to him, 'Are you a catechumen, or one of the faith?'
If he shall answer you, 'I am a catechumen;' he is anointed but not yet
baptized. But, whence anointed? ask him. And he replies. Ask of him in whom
he believes. From the fact that he is a catechumen, he says, in Christ."
This is the third lecture of St. Augustin on the ninth chapter of St.
John's gospel, where our Saviour is portrayed as healing the blind man, by
mixing earth with spittle and anointing his eyes therewith. And St.
Augustin adds, "Why have I spoken of {75} spittle and of mud? Because the
word is made flesh; this the catechumens hear; but it is not sufficient for
them as to what they were anointed; let them hasten to the font, if they
desire light."[86]
But still further to mark the distinction between these grades of Christian
secret instruction, St. Augustin, in the eleventh tract on the Gospel of
St. John, treating of the conversation between Nicodemus and our Saviour,
as to regeneration, says, "If, therefore, Nicodemus was of the multitude
who believed in his name, now in that Nicodemus we comprehend why Jesus did
not trust them. Jesus answered and said to him, 'Verily, verily I say unto
you, unless any one shall have been born again, he can not see the kingdom
of God.' Jesus placed faith, therefore, in those who were born again. Lo!
they believed in him, and Jesus did not trust in them. Such are all
catechumens: they now believe in the name of Christ, but Jesus does not
confide in them. Let your love comprehend and understand this. If we say to
a catechumen, 'Do you believe in Christ?' He answers, {76} 'I do,' and
signs himself with Christ's cross: he bears it on his forehead, and blushes
not at his Lord's cross. Lo! he believes in his name. Let us ask him, 'Do
you eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood?' He knows not
what we say, because Jesus has not trusted him."[87]
Now we are told in Holy Writ in reference to this matter. St. Paul,
alluding to this secret traditional instruction in the several degrees of
Christian learning, says to those advanced to a higher or more perfect
degree: "and I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but
as unto carnal, even as to babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and
not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now
are ye able."[88] Even their first lessons in the great mystery were
imperfect. Other and further instruction was to complete it. So also St.
Peter saith in his general letter, "Wherefore laying aside all malice and
all guile and hypocrisies and envies {77} and all evil speakings, as
new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may _grow_
thereby."[89] And again, St. Paul saith,[90] "For when for the time ye
ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the
first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of
milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in
the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to
them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use" (_habit, or
perfection_) "have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Therefore leaving the principles" (the word of the beginning of Christ) "of
the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection,"[91] &c. We need not
here refer to the wonderful spread of Christianity. We learn a plain and
simple lesson taught by Jesus, as to the administration of his church.
"These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the
way of the Gentiles," &c. "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the
dead, cast out devils: freely have ye received, freely give. Provide
neither gold, nor silver, nor brass, in your purses: nor scrip for your
journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet a staff; for the workman
is worthy of his meat."[92] When questioned before Pilate, he declared, "My
kingdom is not of this world."[93] Whether the successors of the {78}
apostles have or not, since that day, established a kingdom of this world,
is not for us here to discuss. Whether those that claim such succession
obey the precept quoted, or not, we do not interfere with.
To insure unity in the church throughout the world, prudence would suggest
that there should be some place, free from the control of worldly politics,
whence its teachings should issue, and its counsels be heard. In its
infancy the Christian church suffered bitterly from persecution. The
faithful everywhere received a crown of martyrdom. When earthly terrors
interposed, the blood of the martyrs proved the seed of the church.
It is for us, however, to trace in history the secret teachings of those
who have claimed its highest authority in any denomination, and if we do
not reach their private counsels, their acts proclaim them.
Has, or not, each Christian church been tempted by worldly power, wealth,
and honor, like all other systems of religion?
Have there existed within their jurisdiction, confraternities, with secular
power, directly or indirectly under their control, seeking by secret
measures to manage the government of the nations of this earth?
That great Creator, whose word is truth which can not change, declared as
law to govern all his creatures, "THOU SHALT NOT KILL." What saith history
of those who claim to have acted in his name? Why, and in what manner did
they act? {79}
The south of France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries became a scene
of blood, the immediate cause of which was the erections of the "tribunals
of faith," better known to us as a secret society called "THE INQUISITION."
Innocent III., who ascended the papal chair in 1198, conceived the project
thereof, to extirpate the rebellious members of the church--the
Albigenses--and to extend the papal power at the expense of the bishops:
and his successors carried out his plan. This tribunal, "_the holy office_"
or "inquisition" (sanctum officium), was under the immediate direction of
the papal chair: it was to seek out heretics and adherents of false
doctrines, and to pronounce its dreadful sentence against their fortune,
their honor, and _their lives_, without appeal. The process of this
tribunal differed entirely from that of the civil courts. The informer was
not only concealed, but rewarded by the inquisition. The accused was
obliged to be his own accuser. Suspected persons were secretly seized and
thrown into prison. No better instruments could be found for inquisitors
than the mendicant orders of monks, particularly the Franciscans and
Dominicans, whom the pope employed to destroy the heretics, and inquire
into the conduct of bishops. Pope Gregory IX., in 1233, completed the
design of his predecessors, and, as they had succeeded in giving these
inquisitorial monks, who were wholly dependent on the pope, an unlimited
power, and in rendering the interference {80} of the temporal magistrates
only nominal, the inquisition was successively introduced into several
parts of Italy, and into some provinces of France; its power in the latter
country being more limited than in the former. The tribunals of faith were
admitted into Spain in the middle of the thirteenth century, but a firm
opposition was made to them, particularly in Castile and Leon, and the
bishops there maintained their exclusive jurisdiction in spiritual matters.
For a time this power waned, when, afterward in the fifteenth century, it
assumed an aspect truly alarming. Three religions then prevailed in Spain:
Christians, Jews, and Mahommedans. The power of the nobles was a bar, at
the same time, to the absolute power of Ferdinand and Isabella. But this
engine of religious tyranny accomplished their ends, and became the most
powerful instrument of their policy. Owing to the fanatical preaching of
Fernando Nunez, who taught the persecution of the Jews to be a good work,
popular tumults prevailed, in which this people was plundered, robbed, and
murdered. Cardinal Mendoza, at Seville, in 1477, condemned and punished
many who persevered in opposition to the doctrines of his faith.
Mendoza recommended the establishment of the inquisition to Ferdinand and
Isabella. Dependent entirely upon the court, what better engine could they
use to render their power absolute, by confiscation of estates to fill
their treasury, and to limit the {81} power of the nobles and superior
clergy? In the assembly of the estates, therefore, held at Toledo, 1480, in
spite of all opposition, it was determined to establish a tribunal, under
the name of the general inquisition (_general inquisicion suprema_). This
was opened in Seville, 1481. Thomas de Torquenada, prior of the Dominican
convent at Segovia, father-confessor to Mendoza, had been appointed first
grand inquisitor by the king and queen, in 1478. The peaceful teachings of
the meek and lowly Jesus do not seem to have had much influence on this
political Boanerges. He had two hundred familiars, and a guard of fifty
horsemen, but he lived in continual fear of poison. The Dominican monastery
at Seville soon became insufficient to contain the numerous prisoners, and
the king removed the court to the castle in the suburb of Triana. At the
first _auto da fe_ (act of faith), seven apostate Christians were burnt,
and the number of penitents was much greater. Spanish writers relate that
above seventeen thousand were given up to the inquisition. More than two
thousand were condemned to the flames the first year, and great numbers
fled to neighboring countries. The then pope, Sixtus IV., opposed the
establishment of this court, as being the conversion of an ecclesiastical
into a secular tribunal: but he was compelled to submit to circumstances,
and actually promulgated a bull subjecting Aragon, Valencia, and Sicily,
the hereditary dominions of Ferdinand, to the {82} inquisitor-general of
Castile. The introduction of the new tribunal was attended with risings and
oppositions in many places, excited by the cruelty of the inquisitors, and
encouraged, perhaps, by the jealousy of the bishops. Saragossa and other
places refused admission to the inquisitors, many of whom lost their lives;
but the people were obliged to yield in the contest; and _the kings not
only became the absolute judges in matters of faith, but the honor,
property, and life of every subject were in their hands_. The political
importance of this institution may be estimated by the following statement.
In every community, the grand inquisitor must fix a period, from thirty to
forty days, within which time heretics, and those who have lapsed from the
faith, shall deliver themselves up to the inquisition. Penitent heretics
and apostates, although pardoned, could hold no public office, nor become
lessees, lawyers, physicians, apothecaries, or grocers; nor wear gold,
silver, or precious stones; nor ride; nor carry arms; during their whole
life, under a penalty of being declared guilty of a relapse into heresy:
and they were obliged to give up a part of their property for the support
of the war against the Moors. Those who did not surrender themselves within
the time fixed were deprived of their property irrevocably. The absent,
also, and those who had been long dead, could be condemned, provided there
was sufficient evidence against them. The bones of those who were condemned
after death were dug up, {83} and the property which they had left
escheated to the king.
At first the jurisdiction of the inquisition was not accurately defined;
but it was regularly organized by the ordinance of 1484, establishing
branches in the different provinces of Spain, under the direction of the
inquisitor-general. The inquisitor-general presided, with aid of six or
seven counsellers nominated by the king; and his officers were a fiscal (or
quasi prosecuting attorney), two secretaries, a receiver, two relators, a
secuestrador (or escheator), and officials. In an ordinance of 1732, it was
made the duty of all believers, to inform the inquisition, if they knew any
one, living or dead, present or absent, who had wandered from the faith,
who did observe, or had observed the laws of Moses, or even spoken
favorably of them: if they knew any one who followed, or had followed the
doctrines of Luther; any one who had concluded an alliance with the devil,
either expressly or virtually; any one who possessed any heretical book, or
the Koran, or the Bible in the Spanish tongue; or, in fine, if they knew
any one who had harbored, received, or favored heretics. If the accused did
not appear at the third summons he was excommunicated. From the moment that
the prisoner was in the power of the court he was cut off from the world.
Then followed tortures, solitary confinement, and death in flames, with
every attendant of abject humiliation, while his name, with that {84} of
his children and grand-children, was officially declared infamous. Napoleon
crushed this monstrous iniquity December 4, 1808. According to the estimate
of Llorente, the number of victims of the Spanish inquisition, from 1481 to
1808, amounted to 341,021 persons.
In Portugal the inquisition was established in 1557. Whence they also
carried a branch of it to Goa, in the East Indies; in like manner as the
Spaniards established one in America.[94]
From the earlier days, however, of the Christian religion we find a select
few known as the MYSTICS, steadily pursuing a peaceful course in the
investigation of truth. Of them it is said, that they exercised a powerful
influence both upon life and literature: and, although the inculcation of
meekness and self-humiliation paralyzed active exertion, and a life devoted
to emotions and sentiments occasionally produced fanaticism, yet this
influence, especially in the middle ages was highly beneficial. John
Tauler, of Strasbourg, Henry Suss, of Constance, and Thomas a Kempis, were
active mystics, and eminent among their fraternity which was called "the
brethren of the common life." Theirs was a religion of feeling, poetry, and
imagination, in contrast with philosophical rules and forms of reasoning,
as taught by the school-men. They excused their fanaticism, by appealing to
the words of St. Paul: {85} "The spirit prays in us by sighs and groans
that are unutterable." Now, if the spirit, say they, prays in us, we must
resign ourselves to its motions, and be swayed and guided by its impulse,
by remaining in mere inaction. Hence, passive contemplation they considered
the highest state of perfection. The number of the mystics increased in the
fourth century under the influence of the Grecian fanatic, who gave himself
out as Dionysius, the Areopagite, a disciple of St. Paul, and probably
lived about this period; and by pretending to higher degrees of perfection
than other Christians, and practising greater austerities, their cause
gained ground, especially in the eastern provinces in the fifth century. A
copy of the pretended works of Dionysius, was sent by Balbus to Louis the
Meek, in the year 824, which kindled the flame of mysticism in the western
provinces, and filled the Latins with the most enthusiastic admiration of
this new religion. In the twelfth century these mystics took the lead in
their method of expounding Scripture; and by searching for mysteries and
hidden meanings in the plainest expressions, forced the word of God into a
conformity with their visionary doctrines, their enthusiastic feelings, and
the system of discipline which they had drawn from the excursion of their
irregular fancies. In the thirteenth century they were the most formidable
antagonists of the schoolmen, and toward the close of the fourteenth many
of them resided and propagated their tenets in {86} almost every part of
Europe. In the fifteenth century they had many persons of distinguished
merit in their number; and in the sixteenth, previously to the Reformation,
it is said that the only true sparks of real piety were to be found among
them.[95]
Let us, then, examine the rise of confraternities attached to, and of, the
Christian church, yet not necessarily more than its other laity entitled to
authority which they afterward usurped.
Monachism took its rise in the East, where a solitary and contemplative
life, devoted to the consideration of divine subjects, had always been
considered more meritorious than active exertion. This calling was
gradually adopted by so many, that at the end of the third century, the
Egyptian Antonius, who had cast away his vast possessions, and chosen the
desert for his residence, collected together the hitherto dispersed
anchorites (monachi) into fenced places (monasteria, caenobia, claustra,
cloisters), that they might live together in fellowship; and his disciple,
Pachomius, soon gave the brotherhood a rule. Monachism soon extended to the
west. In the sixth century, Benedict, of Nursia, established the first
monastery on Mount Casius, in Lower Italy, and became, by this means, the
founder of the widely-spread order of Benedictines, which rapidly extended
itself among all nations, and built many convents. These monasteries,
erected, for the most part, in {87} beautiful and remote situations, and
the inhabitants of which were obliged to take the three vows of chastity
(celibacy), personal poverty, and obedience, proved in those days of
lawlessness and barbarism, a blessing to mankind. They converted heaths and
forests into flourishing farms. They afforded a place of refuge (asylum) to
the persecuted and oppressed. They ennobled the rude minds of men by the
preaching of the Gospel. They planted the seeds of morality and
civilization in the bosoms of the young by their schools for education. And
they preserved the remains of ancient literature and philosophy from utter
destruction. Many of the Benedictine monasteries were the nurseries of
education, the arts, and the sciences, as St. Gallen, Fulda, Reichenau, and
Corvey (in Westphalia), and many others. When the Benedictine order became
relaxed, the monastery in Clugny, in Burgundy, separated itself from them
in the tenth century, and introduced a more rigid discipline. In the
twelfth century the monks of Clugny numbered upward of two thousand
cloisters. But this order, also, soon proved insufficient to satisfy the
strong demands of the middle age, against the allurements of sin, and the
seductions of the flesh; so that, at the end of the eleventh century, the
Cistercians, and, a few decades later, the Premonstrants sprang up: the
former in Burgundy (Citeaux), the latter in a woody country near Laon
(Premontre). The order of Carthusians, founded about the year {88} 1084,
which commenced with a cloister of anchorites (Carthusia, Chartreuse) in a
rugged valley near Grenoble, was the most austere in its practice. A life
of solitude and silence in a cell, a spare and meagre diet, a penitential
garment of hair, flagellations, and the rigid practices of devotional
exercises, were duties imposed upon every member of this fraternity.
They deserve, at our hands, the full benefit of an honest and severe
Christian effort to find out and nurture truth; so long as government and
political power did not control them. History next tells us of the
so-called "MENDICANT ORDERS." They originated in the thirteenth century,
and this establishment was productive of remarkable results. Francis of
Assisi (A.D. 1226), the son of a rich merchant, renounced all his
possessions, clothed himself in rags, and wandered through the world,
begging, and preaching repentance. His fiery zeal procured him disciples,
who, like himself, renounced their worldly possessions, fasted, prayed,
tore their backs with scourges, and supplied their slender wants from
voluntary alms and donations. The order of Franciscans then spread rapidly
through all countries. About the same time arose the order of Dominicans,
or preaching monks, founded by an illustrious and learned Spaniard,
Dominicus. Their chief objects were the maintenance of the predominant
faith in its considered purity, and the extinction of heretical opinions.
In {89} carrying these out, they became endowed with the greatest worldly
and temporal privileges, received the powerful patronage of the pope,
gradually obtained the chairs in the universities, and took the lead in the
murder of their fellow creatures through the inquisition. What a temptation
to brawling mendicants, too lazy to earn a living, authorized to beg, and
the supple tools of political leaders; and all this by a mysterious
society, under the guise and pretence of the Christian religion! Laic tools
for such clerical workmen!
While, from the mystics of that date, valuable works have been preserved,
what has been left us from these mendicant orders? Anything save the cry of
blood from the earth? Aught else than servile obedience in accomplishing
the mandates of those in power?
In the eleventh century, the crusades had given rise to a singular class of
men, half-military, half-monk. They had their secret means of recognition,
a peculiar garb, and a professed object. Religion was the motive cause,
while science and philosophy seem to have been secondary with them. They
were knights, of three orders, viz.: the Knights of St. John, or
Hospitallers; the Templars; and the Teutonic Knights. The Knights of St.
John are known equally by the name of the Knights of Malta, because, in
1530, Charles V. granted them the islands of Malta, Gozzo, and Comino, on
condition of perpetual war {90} against the infidels and pirates, and the
restoration of these islands to Naples, if the order should succeed in
recovering Rhodes. The chief of this order had immense possessions in most
parts of Europe. Their chief was called _Grand Master of the Holy Hospital
of St. John of Jerusalem_, and _Guardian of the Army of Jesus Christ_. He
was chosen by vote, and lived at La Villette in Malta. Foreign powers
addressed him as _Altezza eminentissima_. His income equalled a million of
guilders annually. This order still exists. Originally the affairs of the
order were exercised by "THE CHAPTER," which consisted of eight balliages
(_ballivi conventuali_), of the different languages of which the knights of
the order consisted, that is, Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon,
Germany, Castile, and England. The lands of these ballivi conventuali of
languages were divided into three classes, priories, balliages, and
commanderies. Of the priories the German had the preference, and was called
the Grand Priory.
This confraternity were free-masons. And their organization was framed
accordingly. Such was their kindness and benevolence to a wandering and
unprotected pilgrim, that when afterward accosted on his journey with the
customary inquiry, "Whence came you?" one and multitudes would answer,
"From a lodge of the Holy St. John of Jerusalem," having experienced their
hospitality and kindness in their pilgrimage. Their duty was to nurse,
accommodate, {91} and protect pilgrims to the Holy Land: and everywhere on
their travels, in whatever country, these lodges (or _hutten_) were found
for their comfort.
In the beginning of the twelfth century a secret order was formed, "for the
defence of the Holy Sepulchre, and the protection of Christian Pilgrims."
They were first called "The poor of the Holy City," and afterward assumed
the appellation of "Templars," because their house was near the Temple. The
order was founded by Baldwin II., then king of Jerusalem, with the
concurrence of the pope.
Many of the noblest knights connected themselves therewith, and they became
known, then, as the KNIGHTS TEMPLARS.
But the order degenerated, became faithless to their vows, and used the
wealth and power they had attained in such manner as to occasion their
public condemnation.
In the beginning of the fourteenth century a sect of soi-disant
philosophers appeared, known as the ROSICRUCIANS. They bound themselves
together by a solemn secret, which they all swore inviolably to preserve;
and obliged themselves, at their admission into the order, to a strict
observance of certain established rules. They pretended chiefly to devote
themselves to medicine, but above all that, to be masters of important
secrets, and among others, that of the philosopher's stone; all which they
affirmed to have received by tradition from the ancient Egyptians, {92}
Chaldeans, the Magi, and the Gymnosophists. By their pretences that they
could restore youth, they received the name of _Immortelles_. Their
pretension to all knowledge, acquired for them the title of _Illuminati_.
For years they were lost sight of. Consequently, when in later years they
once more appeared under their original organization, they have been
recognised as "_The invisible brothers_." Their name is not, as generally
supposed, derived from _rosa_ and _crux_: but it is from _ros_ (dew), the
then supposed solvent of gold, and _crux_ (the cross). To see, perhaps, a
badge of this order, mark the arms of Luther! a cross placed upon a rose.
True, a mistake as to the definition, yet does it not indicate the reason
of its use politically and otherwise?
Passing by, then, the middle ages, we commence a new era with the rise and
progress of a religious secret order, without a parallel in the history of
the world; one which has risen in influence and power far above all the
other orders of the church, prohibiting its members to accept office in the
church, yet which, in the art of ruling, has excelled the governments of
the world hitherto, no less than any of its ecclesiastical rivals of any
age or country.
The Society of Jesus--known as THE JESUITS--early raised itself to a degree
of historical importance unparalleled in its kind. This order was founded
(1539) by Ignatius Loyola, who called it the Society of Jesus, in
consequence of a vision, and bound the {93} members, in addition to the
usual vows of poverty, chastity, and implicit obedience to their superiors,
to a fourth, viz: to go, unhesitatingly, and without recompense,
whithersoever they should be sent, as missionaries for the conversion of
infidels and heretics, or for the service of the church in any other way,
and to devote all their powers and means to the accomplishment of the work.
The intention of Ignatius Loyola was originally directed rather to mystic
and ascetic contemplations; but the order, from the nature of its fourth
vow, soon took a shape adapted to the wants of the church.
The origin of this society seems to have been a vision to the over-wrought
mind of Loyola: may we call it a temporary inflammation of the brain? He
was a Spaniard of very warm imagination, and a man of great sensibility. He
declared he saw Mary, the mother of Jesus, in a vision: that she gave him
the power of chastity: that Jesus and Satan appeared to him in the form of
military officers enlisting men for service; whereupon he followed Christ.
The society designated their object by Loyola's motto--_Omnia ad majorem
Dei gloriam_. The intimate union of this society has been insured by severe
trials, constant inspection, and unconditional obedience. Thoroughly
organized by past experience, it now quietly pursues a policy deep,
powerful, and difficult to be met on account of its mysticism. After
Loyola's death the society was farther developed by Lainez, {94} and after
him, by Aquaviva, men of deep knowledge of mankind, and steadfast purpose,
who became the real authors of the present society. The seat of the society
was, in so far, in Rome, as the general of the order resided there, with
the committee of the society, and the monitor, who, totally independent of
him, controlled the general as if he were his conscience. The order was
divided into provinces, each of which was superintended by a provincial.
Under the care of these officers were the professed-houses, with each a
praepositus at its head, and the colleges, with each a rector. In the latter
there were also novices. The mutual dependence of all parts of the system
resemble the structure of a well-built fabric. The relations of
subordination are so well ordered that the society is _simplex duntaxat
unum_, without interrupting the free will of the individual, as is said,
who only had to obey in permitted things.
The popes Paul III. and Julius III., seeing what a support they would have
in the Jesuits against what is usually called "the Reformation," which was
rapidly gaining ground, granted to them privileges such as no body of men,
in church, or state, had ever before obtained. They were permitted not only
to enjoy all the rights of the mendicant and secular orders, and to be
_exempt from all episcopal and civil jurisdiction_ and taxes, so that they
acknowledged no authority but that of the pope and the superiors of their
order, and were permitted to exercise every {95} priestly function,
parochial rights notwithstanding, among all classes of men, even during an
interdict; but, also (what is not even permitted to archbishops
unconditionally), they could absolve from all sins and ecclesiastical
penalties, change the objects of the vows of the laity, acquire churches
and estates without further papal sanction, erect houses for the order, and
might, according to circumstances, dispense themselves from the canonical
observance of hours of fasts and prohibition of meats, and even from the
use of the breviary. Besides this, their general was invested with
unlimited power over the members; could send them on missions of every
kind, even among excommunicated heretics; could appoint them professors of
theology at his discretion, wherever he chose, and confer academical
dignities, which were to be reckoned equal to those given by universities.
These privileges, which secured to the Jesuits a spiritual power almost
equal to that of the pope himself, together with a greater impunity, in
point of religious observance, than the laity possessed, were granted them
to aid their missionary labors, so that they might accommodate themselves
to any profession or mode of life, among heretics, and infidels, and be
able, wherever they found admission, to organize Catholic churches without
a further authority. A general dispersion, then, of the members throughout
society with the most entire union and subordination, formed the basis of
their constitution. {96}
In the education of youth, there has been a very unjust charge against
them, that is, that they mutilated the classics. Would to God that every
pure Christian would follow such an example; and that we might thereby
present such an expurgated edition, as would create all the good they may
contain, devoid of evil. Any who have read Virgil, Ovid, Terence, or other
classic works, must acknowledge this necessity. Even Shakespeare's plays
can not be read, as printed, in a modest company. There is not, either, any
prudery in this. And, accordingly, a family expurgated edition has been
published by Dr. Bowdler, demanding a far greater circulation than it may
have as yet received. Praise, then, be awarded to all instructors of youth
who will promote such expurgation from the classics as will blot out their
immorality!
The latitude in which this society has understood its rights and immunities
has given occasion to fear an unlimited extension and exercise of them,
dangerous to all existing authority, civil and ecclesiastical, as the
constitution of the order, and its erection into an independent monarchy in
the bosom of other governments, have assumed a more fixed character.
This society seems to have been divided into different ranks or classes.
The _novices_, chosen from the most talented and well-educated youths, and
men without regard to birth or external circumstances; and who were tried
for two years, in separate {97} novitiate houses, in all imaginable
exercises of self-denial and obedience, to determine whether they would be
useful to the purposes of the order, were not ranked among the actual
members, the lowest of whom are the _secular coadjutors_, who take no
monastic vows, and may, therefore, be dismissed. They serve the order
partly as subalterns, partly as confederates, and may be regarded as the
people of the Jesuit state. Distinguished laymen, public officers, and
other influential personages (e.g., Louis XIV., in his old age), were
honored with admission into this class, to promote the interests of the
order. Higher in rank, stand the _scholars_ and _spiritual coadjutors_, who
are instructed in the higher branches of learning, take upon themselves
solemn monastic vows, and are bound to devote themselves particularly to
the education of youth. These, as it were, the artists of the Jesuit
community, are employed as professors in academies, as preachers in cities,
and at courts; as rectors, and professors in colleges, as tutors and
spiritual guides in families which they wish to gain or to watch, and as
assistants in the missions. Finally, the nobility, or highest class, is
made up of _the professed_, among whom are admitted only the
most-experienced members, whose address, energy, and fidelity to the order,
have been eminently tried and proved. According to one statement, they make
profession, that is, take the vows of their order, by binding themselves in
addition to the common {98} monastic vows by the fourth vow, to the
undertaking of missions, among whom they consider heathen and heretics, as
governors in colonies in remote parts of the world, as father-confessors of
princes, and as residents of the order in places where it has no college.
They are entirely exempt, on the other hand, from the care of the education
of youth. None but the professed have a voice in the election of a general,
who must himself be of their number, and who has the right of choosing from
them the assistants, provincials, superiors, and rectors. The general holds
his office for life, and has his residence in Rome, where he is attended by
a monitor, and five assistants or counsellors, who also represent the five
chief nations: the Italians, Germans, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. He
is the centre of the government of the whole order, and receives monthly
reports from the provincials, and one every quarter from the superiors of
the professed-houses, from the rectors of the colleges, and from the
masters of the novices. These reports detail all remarkable occurrences,
political events, and the characters, capacities, and services of
individual members, and thereupon the general directs what is to be done,
and how to make use of tried and approved members. All are bound to obey
him implicitly, and even contrary to their own convictions. There is no
appeal from his orders.
Loyola died July 31, 1556, leaving to the order a sketch of this
constitution, and a mystical treatise {99} called "Exercitia Spiritualia,"
which work occupies the first four weeks of every novice. The rapid
increase of the order, and the previous purity of Loyola's life, obtained
canonization for him in 1662. Their first great missionary was St. Francis
Xavier, whose labors (1541) in the Portuguese East Indies, where he died
ten years afterward, have obtained for him the name of "the apostle of
India", and the honor of canonization. We are told that, at Goa,
Travancore, Cochin, Malacca, Ceylon, and Japan, some hundred thousand were
by him converted to the Christian religion. If so, at present the light of
it has become very dim. _Stat nominis umbra._ The inquisition at Goa,
perhaps, may have shown the people the difference between theory and
practice. Claudius Aquaviva, of the family of the dukes of Atri, general of
the Jesuits from 1581 to 1615, is the author of their system of education.
The want of deep, critical learning, with the mutilation of the classics
(for which last they deserve praise, not blame), exposed their teachers,
for a time, to the censure of philologists. Viewed with suspicion by the
French, they only were admitted into that nation in 1562, under the name of
"the Fathers of the College of Clermont," with a humiliating renunciation
of their most important privileges, but they soon united in the factions of
that country, and, notwithstanding a strong suspicion of their having had a
share in the murder of Henry III., under the {100} protection of the
Guises, they contrived to establish themselves, regain their privileges,
and deprive the French Protestants of their rights. One of their pupils,
John Chatel, attempted Henry's life (1594), and this caused their
banishment until 1603, when, at the intercession of the pope, they were
again restored by Henry IV. That they participated in the crime of
Ravaillac could never be proved. They became the confidential advisers in
Germany, of Ferdinand II. and III. They discovered remarkable political
talent in the thirty years' war; the league of the Catholics could do
nothing without them. Father Lamormain, a Jesuit, and confessor to the
emperor, effected the downfall of Wallenstein, and by means of his agents,
kept the jealous Bavarians in their alliance with Austria. Then burst upon
them in France and the Netherlands, the hurricane of the Jansenist
controversy, when Pascal's Provincial Letters scathed them, and his
sentiments were even quoted (1679) by Innocent IX., against sixty-five of
their offensive propositions. Complaints were made against some of them by
the Iroquois, who had been converted by them, as would appear by the treaty
of peace (1682). In 1759, by an edict, they were declared guilty of
high-treason, and expelled from Portugal. Owing to difficulties at
Martinique under their deputy, Father La Vallette, and the declaration of
their general, Lorenzo Ricci, refusing to make any change in their
constitution (_sint aut non sint_), "let them be as they {101} are, or not
be," the king of France (1764) issued a decree for abolishing the order in
all the French states, as being a mere political society, dangerous to
religion, whose object was self-aggrandizement. In 1767 they were driven
out of Spain, and soon after from Naples, Parma, and Malta. And the voice
of public opinion at length compelled Pope Clement XIV. to publish his
famous bull, _Dominus ac Redemptor noster_, of July 21, 1773, by which the
society of Jesus was totally abolished in all the states of Christendom.
The society, however, did not become extinct. In 1780 they were thought to
have possessed themselves of the secrets of the Rosicrucians, and to have
taken a part in the schemes of the Illuminati. In 1787, an unsuccessful
attempt was made to revive the order under the name of the _Vicentines_.
Pius VII. restored the order, in 1814, upon the issuance of the bull,
August 7, _Solicitudo omnium_. In 1815 they were restored in Spain. Russia,
by an imperial ukase, March 25, 1820, banished them thence. Since then they
have been driven from Mexico, again restored by Santa Anna, and now, though
resident, they are politically powerless under the administration of
President Comonfort. They now seem to rely on the United States of America
as their chief asylum, and upon the valley of the Mississippi river and its
tributaries, as their basis of operations. Full and perfect freedom of
thought and speech, of religious toleration, and of mode of life, monastic
or {102} otherwise, insures to them a safe home in this country. They
possess a flourishing college at Georgetown, which may almost be considered
as part of the city of Washington, the capital of the United States. Also
one at Cincinnati, and one at St. Louis, well endowed, and possessed of
great wealth. They exercise a powerful yet unseen influence over the minds
of the members of the Catholic faith where they reside, each naturalized
citizen of which has an equal voice in selecting all officers of state and
general government. An eminent writer has remarked, that everything in
history has its time, and the order of Jesuits can never rise to any great
eminence in an age in which knowledge is so rapidly spreading. We think
differently. A society so capable of adaptation to any circumstances,
whether political, religious, or social, plastic in nature to meet every
desired impression, talented, highly learned, wealthy, and among others,
embracing in its order some men of such pure and admirable life as to be
cited as examples of virtue and Christian character, with the protection
the American flag throws around all under its folds, is to be carefully
observed. Human nature is always the same. The past history, then, of this
society merits the study of every philanthropist and patriot. Once, in
Paraguay, it became a blessing to mankind. Within due limits, it may be so
anywhere. But its interference in any political affairs, under pretence of
serving him, whose "kingdom is not of this {103} world," is not to be
tolerated, as it may prove a most dangerous engine in the struggle of the
cause of popular self-government. An unconditional surrender of one's own
convictions to the will of another man is at variance with _every_
principle of republicanism.
* * * * *
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