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Title: The Jesuits, 1534-1921
A History of the Society of Jesus from Its Foundation to
the Present Time
Author: Thomas J. Campbell
Release Date: January 3, 2013 [EBook #41766]
Language: English
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THE JESUITS
1534-1921
THE JESUITS
1534-1921
A History of the Society of Jesus from Its
Foundation to the Present Time
BY
THOMAS J. CAMPBELL, S.J.
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA PRESS
Permissu superiorum
NIHIL OBSTAT: ARTHUR J. SCANLAN, D.D., _Censor_
IMPRIMATUR: PATRICK J. HAYES, D.D., _Archbishop of New York_
COPYRIGHT 1921
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA PRESS
_All rights reserved_
PREFACE
Some years ago the writer of these pages, when on his way to what is
called a general congregation of the Society of Jesus, was asked by a
fellow-passenger on an Atlantic liner, if he knew anything about the
Jesuits. He answered in the affirmative and proceeded to give an account
of the character and purpose of the Order. After a few moments, he was
interrupted by the inquirer with, "You know nothing at all about them,
Sir; good day." Possibly the Jesuits themselves are responsible for this
attitude of mind, which is not peculiar to people at sea, but is to be
met everywhere.
As a matter of fact, no Jesuit has thus far ever written a complete or
adequate history of the Society; Orlandini, Jouvancy and Cordara
attempted it a couple of centuries ago, but their work never got beyond
the first one hundred years. Two very small compendiums by Jesuits have
been recently published, one in Italian by Rosa, the other in French by
Brucker, but they are too congested to be satisfactory to the average
reader, and Brucker's stops at the Suppression of the Society by Clement
XIV in 1773. Crétineau-Joly's history was written in great haste; he is
often a special pleader, and even Jesuits find him too eulogistic. At
present he is hopelessly antiquated, his last volume bearing the date of
1833. B. N. (Barbara Neave) published in English a history of the
Society based largely on Crétineau-Joly. The consequence of this lack of
authoritative works is that the general public gets its information
about the Jesuits from writers who are prejudiced or ill-informed or,
who, perhaps, have been hired to defame the Society for political
purposes. Other authors, again, have found the Jesuits a romantic
theme, and have drawn largely on their imagination for their statements.
Attention was called to this condition of things by the Congregation of
the Society which elected Father Martin to the post of General of the
Jesuits in 1892. As a result he appointed a corps of distinguished
writers to co-operate in the production of a universal history of the
Society, which was to be colossal in size, based on the most authentic
documents, and in line with the latest and most exacting requirements of
recent scientific historiography. On the completion of the various
parts, they are to be co-ordinated and then translated into several
languages, so as to supply material for minor histories within the reach
of the general public. Such a scheme necessarily supposes a very
considerable time before the completion of the entire work, and, as
matter of fact, although several volumes have already appeared in
English, French, German, Spanish and Italian, the authors are still
discussing events that occurred two centuries ago. Happily their
researches have thrown much light on the early history of the Order; an
immense number of _documents inédits_, published by Carayon and others,
have given us a more intimate knowledge of the intermediate period; many
biographies have been written, and the huge volume of the "Liber
sæcularis" by Albers brings the record down to our own days. Thus,
though much valuable information has already been made available for the
general reader the great collaborative work is far from completion.
Hence the present history of the Jesuits.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
ORIGIN PAGE
The Name--Opprobrious meanings--Caricatures of the
Founder--Purpose of the Order--Early life of Ignatius--
Pampeluna--Conversion--Manresa--The Exercises--Authorship
--Journey to Palestine--The Universities--Life in Paris--
First Companions--Montmartre First Vows--Assembly at
Venice. Failure to reach Palestine--First Journey to Rome
--Ordination to the Priesthood--Labors in Italy--Submits
the Constitutions for Papal Approval--Guidiccioni's
opposition--Issue of the Bull _Regimini_--Sketch of the
Institute--Crypto-Jesuits 1-35
CHAPTER II
INITIAL ACTIVITIES
Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Italy--Election of
Ignatius--Jesuits in Ireland--"The Scotch Doctor"--Faber
and Melanchthon--Le Jay--Bobadilla--Council of Trent--
Laínez, Salmerón, Canisius--The Catechism--Opposition in
Spain--Cano--Pius V--First Missions to America--The
French Parliaments--Postel--Foundation of the Collegium
Germanicum at Rome--Similar Establishments in Germany--
Clermont and other Colleges in France--Colloque de
Poissy. 36-71
CHAPTER III
ENDS OF THE EARTH
Xavier departs for the East--Goa--Around Hindostan--
Malacca--The Moluccas--Return to Goa--The Valiant
Belgian--Troubles in Goa--Enters Japan--Returns to Goa--
Starts for China--Dies off the Coast--Remains brought to
Goa--Africa--Congo, Angola, Caffreria, Abyssinia--
Brazil, Nobrega, Anchieta, Azevedo--Failure of Rodriguez
in Portugal 72-95
CHAPTER IV
CONSPICUOUS PERSONAGES
Ignatius--Laínez--Borgia--Bellarmine--Toletus--Lessius--
Maldonado--Suárez--Lugo--Valencia--Petavius--Warsewicz--
Nicolai--Possevin--Vieira--Mercurian 96-133
CHAPTER V
THE ENGLISH MISSION
Conditions after Henry VIII--Allen--Persons--Campion--
Entrance into England--Kingsley's Caricature--Thomas
Pounde--Stephens--Capture and death of Campion--Other
Martyrs--Southwell, Walpole--Jesuits in Ireland and
Scotland--The English Succession--Dissensions--The
Archpriest Blackwell--The Appellants--The Bye-Plot--
Accession of James I--The Gunpowder Plot--Garnet,
Gerard 134-165
CHAPTER VI
JAPAN
1555-1645
After Xavier's time--Torres and Fernandes--Civandono--
Nunhes and Pinto--The King of Hirando--First Persecution
--Gago and Vilela--Almeida--Uprising against the Emperor
--Justus Ucondono and Nobunaga--Valignani--Founding of
Nangasaki--Fervor and Fidelity of the Converts--Embassy
to Europe--Journey through Portugal, Spain and Italy--
Reception by Gregory XIII and Sixtus V--Return to Japan
--The Great Persecutions by Taicosama, Daifusama, Shogun
I and Shogun II--Spinola and other Martyrs--Arrival of
Franciscans and Dominicans--Popular eagerness for death
--Mastrilli--Attempts to establish a Hierarchy--Closing
the Ports--Discovery of the Christians. 166-196
CHAPTER VII
THE GREAT STORMS
1580-1597
Manares suspected of ambition--Election of Aquaviva--
Beginning of Spanish discontent--Dionisio Vásquez--The
"Ratio Studiorum"--Society's action against Confessors
of Kings and Political Embassies--Trouble with the
Spanish Inquisition and Philip II--Attempts at a Spanish
Schism--The Ormanetto papers--Ribadeneira suspected--
Imprisonment of Jesuits by the Spanish Inquisition--
Action of Toletus--Extraordinary Congregation called--
Exculpation of Aquaviva--The dispute "de Auxiliis"--
Antoine Arnauld's attack--Henry IV and Jean Chastel--
Reconciliation of Henry IV to the Church--Royal
protection--Saint Charles Borromeo--Troubles in Venice--
Sarpi--Palafox 197-227
CHAPTER VIII
THE ASIATIC CONTINENT
The Great Mogul--Rudolph Aquaviva--Jerome Xavier--de
Nobili--de Britto--Beschi--The Pariahs--Entering Thibet
--From Pekin to Europe--Mingrelia, Paphlagonia and
Chaldea--The Maronites--Alexander de Rhodes--Ricci enters
China--From Agra to Pekin--Adam Schall--Arrival of the
Tatars--Persecutions--Schall condemned to Death--Verbiest
--de Tournon's Visit--The French Royal Mathematicians--
Avril's Journey 228-267
CHAPTER IX
BATTLE OF THE BOOKS
Aquaviva and the Spanish Opposition--Vitelleschi--The
"Monita Secreta"; Morlin--Roding--"Historia Jesuitici
Ordinis"--"Jesuiticum Jejunium"--"Speculum Jesuiticum"--
Pasquier--Mariana--"Mysteries of the Jesuits"--"The
Jesuit Cabinet"--"Jesuit Wolves"--"Teatro Jesuítico"--
"Morale Pratique des Jésuites"--"Conjuratio Sulphurea"--
"Lettres Provinciales"--"Causeries du Lundi" and
Bourdaloue--Prohibition of publication by Louis XIV--
Pastoral of the Bishops of Sens--Santarelli--Escobar--
Anti-Coton--Margry's "Descouvertes"--Norbert 268-295
CHAPTER X
THE TWO AMERICAS
1567-1673
Chile and Peru--Valdivia--Peruvian Bark--Paraguay
Reductions--Father Fields--Emigration from Brazil--
Social and religious prosperity of the Reductions--
Martyrdom of twenty-nine missionaries--Reductions in
Colombia--Peter Claver--French West Indies--St. Kitts--
Irish Exiles--Father Bath or Destriches--Montserrat--
Emigration to Guadeloupe--Other Islands--Guiana--Mexico--
Lower California--The Pious Fund--The Philippines--
Canada Missions--Brébeuf, Jogues, Le Moyne, Marquette--
Maryland--White--Lewger 296-342
CHAPTER XI
CULTURE
Colleges--Their Popularity--Revenues--Character of
education: Classics; Science; Philosophy; Art--
Distinguished Pupils--Poets: Southwell; Balde;
Sarbievius; Strada; Von Spee; Gresset; Beschi.--Orators:
Vieira; Segneri; Bourdaloue.--Writers: Isla; Ribadeneira;
Skarga; Bouhours etc.--Historians--Publications--
Scientists and Explorers--Philosophers--Theologians--
Saints 343-386
CHAPTER XII
FROM VITELLESCHI TO RICCI
1615-1773
Pupils in the Thirty Years War--Caraffa; Piccolomini;
Gottifredi--Mary Ward--Alleged decline of the Society--
John Paul Oliva--Jesuits in the Courts of Kings--John
Casimir--English Persecutions. Luzancy and Titus Oates--
Jesuit Cardinals--Gallicanism in France--Maimbourg--Dez--
Troubles in Holland. De Noyelle and Innocent XI--
Attempted Schism in France--González and Probabilism--Don
Pedro of Portugal--New assaults of Jansenists--
Administration of Retz--Election of Ricci--The Coming
Storm 387-423
CHAPTER XIII
CONDITIONS BEFORE THE CRASH
State of the Society--The Seven Years War--Political
Changes--Rulers of Spain, Portugal, Naples, France and
Austria--Febronius--Sentiments of the Hierarchy--Popes
Benedict XIV; Clement XIII; Clement XIV 424-441
CHAPTER XIV
Pombal
Early life--Ambitions--Portuguese Missions--Seizure of
the Spanish Reductions. Expulsion of the Missionaries--
End of the Missions in Brazil--War against the Society in
Portugal--The Jesuit Republic--Cardinal Saldanha--Seizure
of Churches and Colleges--The Assassination Plot--The
Prisons--Exiles--Execution of Malagrida 442-477
CHAPTER XV
CHOISEUL
The French Method--Purpose of the Enemy--Preliminary
Accusations--Voltaire's testimony--La Vallette--La
Chalotais--Seizure of Property--Auto da fé of the Works
of Lessius, Suárez, Valentia, etc.--Appeal of the French
Episcopacy--Christophe de Beaumont--Demand for a French
Vicar--"Sint ut sunt aut non sint"--Protest of Clement
XIII--Action of Father La Croix and the Jesuits of Paris--
Louis XV signs the Act of Suppression--Occupations of
dispersed Jesuits--Undisturbed in Canada--Expelled from
Louisiana--Choiseul's Colonization of Guiana 478-503
CHAPTER XVI
CHARLES III
The Bourbon Kings of Spain--Character of Charles III--
Spanish Ministries--O'Reilly--The Hat and Cloak Riot--
Cowardice of Charles--Tricking the monarch--The Decree
of Suppression--Grief of the Pope--His death--Disapproval
in France by the Encyclopedists--The Royal Secret--
Simultaneousness of the Suppression--Wanderings of the
Exiles--Pignatelli--Expulsion by Tanucci 504-529
CHAPTER XVII
THE FINAL BLOW
Ganganelli--Political plotting at the Election--Bernis,
Aranda, Aubeterre--The Zelanti--Election of Clement XIV--
Renewal of Jesuit Privileges by the new Pope--Demand of
the Bourbons for a universal Suppression--The Three
Years' Struggle--Fanaticism of Charles III--Menaces of
Schism--Moñino--Maria Theresa--Spoliations in Italy--
Signing the Brief--Imprisonment of Father Ricci and the
Assistants--Silence and Submission of the Jesuits to the
Pope's Decree 530-554
CHAPTER XVIII
THE INSTRUMENT
Summary of the Brief of Suppression and its Supplementary
Document 555-576
CHAPTER XIX
THE EXECUTION
Seizure of the Gesù in Rome--Suspension of the Priests--
Juridical Trial of Father Ricci continued during Two
Years--The Victim's Death-bed Statement--Admission of his
Innocence by the Inquisitors--Obsequies--Reason of his
Protracted Imprisonment--Liberation of the Assistants by
Pius VI--Receipt of the Brief outside of Rome--Refused by
Switzerland, Poland, Russia and Prussia--Read to the
Prisoners in Portugal by Pombal--Denunciation of it by
the Archbishop of Paris--Suppression of the Document by
the Bishop of Quebec--Acceptance by Austria--Its
Enforcement in Belgium--Carroll at Bruges--Defective
Promulgation in Maryland. 577-603
CHAPTER XX
THE SEQUEL TO THE SUPPRESSION
Failure of the Papal Brief to give peace to the Church--
Liguori and Tanucci--Joseph II destroying the Church in
Austria--Voltaireanism in Portugal--Illness of Clement
XIV--Death--Accusations of poisoning--Election of Pius VI
--The Synod of Pistoia--Febronianism in Austria--Visit of
Pius VI to Joseph II--The Punctation of Ems--Spain,
Sardinia, Venice, Sicily in opposition to the Pope--
Political collapse in Spain--Fall of Pombal--Liberation
of his Victims--Protest of de Guzman--Death of Joseph II
--Occupations of the dispersed Jesuits--The _Theologia
Wiceburgensis_--Feller--Beauregard's Prophecy--Zaccaria--
Tiraboschi--Boscovich--Missionaries--Denunciation of the
Suppression in the French Assembly--Slain in the French
Revolution--Destitute Jesuits in Poland--Shelter in
Russia 604-635
CHAPTER XXI
THE RUSSIAN CONTINGENT
Frederick the Great and the "Philosophes"--Protection of
the Jesuits--Death of Voltaire--Catherine of Russia--The
Four Colleges--The Empress at Polotsk--Joseph II at
Mohilew--Archetti--Baron Grimm--Czerniewicz and the
Novitiate--Assent of Pius VI--Potemkin--Siestrzencewicz--
General Congregation--Benislawski--"_Approbo; Approbo_"--
Accession of former Jesuits. Gruber and the Emperor Paul
--Alexander I--Missions in Russia 636-664
CHAPTER XXII
THE RALLYING
Fathers of the Sacred Heart--Fathers of the Faith--Fusion
--Paccanari--The Rupture--Exodus to Russia--Varin in
Paris--Clorivière--Carroll's doubts--Pignatelli--Poirot
in China--Grassi's Odyssey 665-684
CHAPTER XXIII
THE RESTORATION
Tragic death of Father Gruber--Fall of Napoleon--Release
of the Pope--The Society Re-established--Opening of
Colleges--Clorivière--Welcome of the Society in Spain--
Repulsed in Portugal--Opposed by Catholics in England--
Announced in America--Carroll--Fenwick--Neale 685-715
CHAPTER XXIV
THE FIRST CONGREGATION
Expulsion from Russia--Petrucci, Vicar--Attempt to wreck
the Society--Saved by Consalvi and Rozaven 716-733
CHAPTER XXV
A CENTURY OF DISASTER
Expulsion from Holland--Trouble at Freiburg--Expulsion
and recall in Spain--_Petits Séminaires_--Berryer--
Montlosier--The Men's Sodalities--St. Acheul mobbed--
Fourteen Jesuits murdered in Madrid--Interment of Pombal
--de Ravignan's pamphlet--Veuillot--Montalembert--de
Bonald--Archbishop Affre--Michelet, Quinet and Cousin--
Gioberti--Expulsion from Austria--Kulturkampf--Slaughter
of the Hostages in the Commune--South America and Mexico
--Flourishing Condition before the Outbreak of the World
War 734-764
CHAPTER XXVI
MODERN MISSIONS
During the Suppression--Roothaan's appeal--South America
--The Philippines--United States Indians--De Smet--
Canadian Reservations--Alaska--British Honduras--China--
India--Syria--Algeria--Guinea--Egypt--Madagascar--
Mashonaland--Congo--Missions depleted by World War--
Actual number of missionaries 765-824
CHAPTER XXVII
COLLEGES
Responsibility of the Society for loss of Faith in Europe
--The Loi Falloux--Bombay--Calcutta--Beirut--American
Colleges--Scientists, Archæologists, Meteorologists,
Seismologists, Astronomers--Ethnologists 825-854
CHAPTER XXVIII
LITERATURE
Grammars and Lexicons of every tongue--Dramas--Histories
of Literature--Cartography--Sinology--Egyptology--
Sanscrit--Catholic Encyclopedia--Catalogues of Jesuit
Writers--Acta Sanctorum--Jesuit Relations--Nomenclator--
Periodicals--Philosophy--Dogmatic, Moral and Ascetic
Theology--Canon Law--Exegesis 855-890
CHAPTER XXIX
THE SOVEREIGN PONTIFFS AND THE SOCIETY
Devotion, Trust and Affection of each Pope of the
Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries manifested in his
Official and Personal Relations with the Society 891-916
CHAPTER XXX
CONCLUSION
Successive Generals in the Restored Society--Present
Membership, Missions and Provinces 917-930
WORKS CONSULTED
Institutum Societatis Jesu.
JOUVANCY--Epitome historiæ Societatis Jesu.
JOUVANCY--Monumenta Societatis Jesu.
CRÉTINEAU-JOLY--Hist. relig., pol. et litt. de la Comp. de Jésus.
B. N.--The Jesuits: their foundation and history.
ROSA, I Gesuiti dalle origini ai nostri giorni.
MESCHLER, Die Gesellschaft Jesu.
BÖHMER-MONOD--Les Jésuites.
FEVAL,--Les Jésuites.
HUBER--Der Jesuitenorden.
DUHR--Jesuiten-Fabeln.
BROU--Les Jésuites et la légende.
BELLOC, Pascal's Provincial Letters.
FOLEY--Jesuits in Conflict.
FOUQUERAY--Histoire de la compagnie de Jésus en France.
BOURNICHON--La Compagnie de Jésus en France: 1814-1914.
ALBERS--Liber sæcularis ab anno 1814 ad annum 1914.
TACCHI-VENTURI--Storia della compagnia di Gesù in Italia.
MONTI--La Compagnia di Gesù.
DUHR--Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Ländern deutschen Zunge.
KROESS--Geschichte der böhmischen Provinz der Gesellschaft Jesu.
ASTRAIN--Hist. de la Comp. de Jesús en la asist. de España.
HUGHES--History of the Society of Jesus of North America.
ALEGRE--La Compañía de Jesús en la Nueva España.
FRIAS--La Provincia de España de la compañía de Jesús, 1815-63.
POLLARD--The Jesuits in Poland.
HOGAN--Ibernia Ignatiana.
TANNER--Societas Jesu præclara.
Lives of Jesuit Saints.
Menologies of the Society of Jesus.
SOUTHWELL--Bibliotheca Scriptorum Societatis Jesu.
SOMMERVOGEL--Bibl. des écrivains de la comp. de Jésus.
CHANDLERY--Fasti breviores Societatis Jesu.
MAYNARD--The Studies and Teachings of the Society of Jesus.
DANIEL--Les Jésuites instituteurs.
WELD--Suppression of the Society of Jesus in Portugal.
DE RAVIGNAN--De l'existence et de l'institut des Jésuites.
DE RAVIGNAN--Clément XIII et Clément XIV.
THEINER--Geschichte des Pontifikats Klemens XIV.
ARTAUD DE MONTOR--Histoire du pape Pie VII.
CARAYON--Documents inédits concernants la Compagnie de Jésus.
BERTRAND--Mémoires sur les missions.
BROU--Les Missions du xix^e siècle.
SEAMAN--Map of Jesuit Missions in the United States.
MARSHALL--Christian Missions.
BANCROFT--Native Races of the Pacific States.
CAMPBELL--Pioneer Priests of North America.
CHARLEVOIX--Histoire du Japon.
CHARLEVOIX--Histoire du Paraguay.
CHARLEVOIX--Histoire de la Nouvelle-France.
CRASSET--Histoire de l'église du Japon.
AVRIL--Voyage en divers états d'Europe et d'Asie.
THWAITES--Jesuit Relations.
BOLTON--Kino's Historical Memoir.
JANSSEN--History of the German People.
LAVISSE--Histoire de France.
RANKE--History of the Popes.
LINGARD--History of England.
TIERNEY-DODD--Church History of England.
POLLEN--The Institution of the Archpriest Blackwell.
HAILE-BONNEY--Life and Letters of John Lingard.
POLLOCK--The Popish Plot.
GUILDAY--English Catholic Refugees on the Continent.
MACGEOGHEGAN--History of Ireland.
FLANAGAN--Ecclesiastical History of Ireland.
O'REILLY--Lives of the Irish Martyrs and Confessors.
ROCHEFORT--Histoire des Antilles.
EYZAGUIRRE--Historia de Chile.
TERTRE--Histoire de St. Christophe.
ROHRBACHER--History of the Church.
HÜBNER--Sixte-Quint.
HUC--Christianity in China, Tartary and Tibet.
ROBERTSON--History of Charles V.
SHEA--The Catholic Church in Colonial Days.
PACCA--Memorie storiche del ministero.
SAINTE-BEUVE--Causeries.
PETIT DE JULLEVILLE--Histoire de la littérature française.
GODEFROY--Littérature française.
SCHLOSSER--History of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.
CANTÜ--Storia universale.
The Cambridge Modern History, Vols. VIII, XII.
The Month.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, passim.
The Encyclopedia Britannica, passim.
Realencyclopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche, passim.
THE JESUITS
1534-1921
CHAPTER I
ORIGIN
The Name--Opprobrious meanings--Caricatures of the Founder--
Purpose of the Order--Early life of Ignatius--Pampeluna--
Conversion--Manresa--The Exercises--Authorship--Journey to
Palestine--The Universities--Life in Paris--First Companions--
Montmartre First Vows--Assembly at Venice. Failure to reach
Palestine--First Journey to Rome--Ordination to the Priesthood--
Labors in Italy--Submits the Constitutions for Papal Approval--
Guidiccioni's opposition--Issue of the Bull _Regimini_--Sketch
of the Institute--Crypto-Jesuits.
The name "Jesuit" has usually a sinister meaning in the minds of the
misinformed. Calvin is accused of inventing it, but that is an error. It
was in common use two or three centuries before the Reformation, and
generally it implied spiritual distinction. Indeed, in his famous work
known as "The Great Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ," which appeared
somewhere about 1350, the saintly old Carthusian ascetic, Ludolph of
Saxony, employs it in a way that almost provokes a smile. He tells his
readers that "just as we are called Christians when we are baptized, so
we shall be called Jesuits when we enter into glory." Possibly such a
designation would be very uncomfortable even for some pious people of
the present day. The opprobrious meaning of the word came into use at
the approach of the Protestant Reformation. Thus, when laxity in the
observance of their rule began to show itself in the once fervent
followers of St. John Columbini--who were called Jesuati, because of
their frequent use of the expression: "Praised be Jesus Christ"--their
name fixed itself on the common speech as a synonym of hypocrisy.
Possibly that will explain the curious question in the "Examen of
Conscience" in an old German prayer-book, dated 1519, where the penitent
is bidden to ask himself: "Did I omit to teach the Word of God for fear
of being called a Pharisee, a Jesuit, a hypocrite, a Beguine?"
The association of the term Jesuit with Pharisee and hypocrite is
unpleasant enough, but connecting it with Beguine is particularly
offensive. The word Beguine had come to signify a female heretic, a
mysticist, an illuminist, a pantheist, who though cultivating a saintly
exterior was credited with holding secret assemblies where the most
indecent orgies were indulged in. The identity of the Beguines with
Jesuits was considered to be beyond question, and one of the earliest
Calvinist writers informed his co-religionists that at certain periods
the Jesuits made use of mysterious and magical devices and performed a
variety of weird antics and contortions in subterraneous caverns, from
which they emerged as haggard and worn as if they had been struggling
with the demons of hell (Janssen, Hist. of the German People, Eng. tr.,
IV, 406-7). Unhappily, at that time, a certain section of the
association of Beguines insisted upon being called Jesuits. There were
many variations on this theme when the genuine Jesuits at last appeared.
In Germany they were denounced as idolaters and libertines, and their
great leader Canisius was reported to have run away with an abbess. In
France they were considered assassins and regicides; Calvin called them
_la racaille_, that is, the rabble, rifraff, dregs. In England they were
reputed political plotters and spies. Later, in America, John Adams,
second President of the United States, identified them with Quakers and
resolved to suppress them. Cotton Mather or someone in Boston denounced
them as grasshoppers and prayed for the east wind to sweep them away;
the Indians burned them at the stake as magicians, and the Japanese
bonzes insisted that they were cannibals, a charge repeated by Charles
Kingsley, Queen Victoria's chaplain, who, in "Westward Ho," makes an old
woman relate of the Jesuits first arriving in England that "they had
probably killed her old man and salted him for provision on their
journey to the Pope of Rome." No wonder Newman told Kingsley to fly off
into space.
The climax of calumny was reached in a decree of the Parliament of
Paris, issued on August 6, 1762. It begins with a prelude setting forth
the motives of the indictment, and declares that "the Jesuits are
recognized as _guilty of having taught at all times, uninterruptedly,
and with the approbation of their superiors and generals_, simony,
blasphemy, sacrilege, the black art, magic, astrology, impiety,
idolatry, superstition, impurity, corruption of justice, robbery,
parricide, homicide, suicide and regicide." The decree then proceeds to
set forth eighty-four counts on which it finds them specifically guilty
of supporting the Greek Schism, denying the procession of the Holy
Ghost; of favoring the heresies of Arianism, Sabellianism, and
Nestorianism; of assailing the hierarchy, attacking the Mass and Holy
Communion and the authority of the Holy See; of siding with the
Lutherans, Calvinists and other heretics of the sixteenth century; of
reproducing the heresies of Wycliff and the Pelagians and
Semi-Pelagians; of adding blasphemy to heresy; of belittling the early
Fathers of the Church, the Apostles, Abraham, the prophets, St. John the
Baptist, the angels; of insulting and blaspheming the Blessed Virgin; of
undermining the foundations of the Faith; destroying belief in the
Divinity of Jesus Christ; casting doubt on the mystery of the
Redemption; encouraging the impiety of the Deists; suggesting
Epicureanism; teaching men to live like beasts, and Christians like
pagans (de Ravignan, De l'existence et de l'institut des Jésuites, iii).
This was the contribution of the Jansenists to the Jesuit chamber of
horrors. It was endorsed by the government and served as a weapon for
the atheists of the eighteenth century to destroy the religion of
France, and finally the lexicons of every language gave an odious
meaning to the name Jesuit. A typical example of this kind of ill-will
may be found in the "Diccionario nacional" of Domínguez. In the article
on the Jesuits, the writer informs the world that the Order was the
superior in learning to all the others; and produced, relatively at
every period of its existence more eminent men, and devoted itself with
greater zeal to the preaching of the Gospel and the education of
youth--the primordial and sublime objects of its Institute. Nevertheless
its influence in political matters, as powerful as it was covert, its
startling accumulation of wealth, and its ambitious aims, drew upon it
the shafts of envy, created terrible antagonists and implacable
persecutors, until the learned Clement XIV, the immortal Ganganelli,
suppressed it on July 21, 1773, for its abuses and its disobedience to
the Holy See. Why the "learned Clement XIV" should be described as
"immortal" for suppressing instead of preserving or, at least, reforming
an order which the writer fancies did more than all the others for the
propagation of the Faith is difficult to understand, but logic is not a
necessary requisite of a lexicon. "In spite of their suppression," he
continues, "they with their characteristic pertinacity have succeeded in
coming to life again and are at present existing in several parts of
Europe." The "Diccionario" is dated, Madrid, 1849. In other words, the
saintly Pius VII performed a very wicked act in re-establishing the
Order.
Of course the founder of this terrible Society had to be presented to
the public as properly equipped for the malignant task to which he had
set himself; so writers have vied with each other in expatiating on what
they call his complex individuality. Thus a German psychologist insists
that the Order established by this Spaniard was in reality a Teutonic
creation. The Frenchman Drumont holds that "it is anti-semitic in its
character," though Polanco, Loyola's life-long secretary, was of Jewish
origin, as were Laínez, the second General, and the great Cardinal
Toletus. A third enthusiast, Chamberlain, who is English-born, dismisses
all other views and insists that, as Loyola was a Basque and an Iberian,
he could not have been of Germanic or even Aryan descent, and he
maintains that the primitive traits of the Stone Age continually assert
themselves in his character. In reading the Spiritual Exercises, he
says, "I hear that mighty roar of the cave bear and I shudder as did the
men of the diluvial age, when poor, naked and defenceless, surrounded by
danger day and night, they trembled at that voice." (Foundations of the
Nineteenth Century, I, 570.) "If this be true," says Brou in "Les
Jésuites et la légende," "then, by following the same process of
reasoning, one must conclude that as Xavier was a Basque, his voice also
was ursine and troglodytic; and as Faber was a Savoyard, he will have to
be classified as a brachycephalous _homo alpinus_." Herman Müller, in
"Les Origines de la Compagnie de Jésus" claims the honor of having
launched an entirely novel theory about Loyola's personality. "The
'Exercises' are an amalgam of Islamic gnosticism and militant
Catholicism," he tells us; "but where did Ignatius become acquainted
with these Mussulmanic congregations? We have nothing positive on that
score, though we know that one day he met a Moor on the road and was
going to run him through with his sword. Then too, there were a great
many Moors and Moriscos in Catalonia, and we must not forget that
Ignatius intended to go to Palestine to convert the Turks. He must,
therefore, have known them and so have been subject to their influence."
Strange to say, Müller feels aggrieved that the Jesuits do not accept
this very illogical theory, which he insists has nothing discreditable
or dishonoring in it.
Omitting many other authorities, Vollet in "La Grande Encyclopédie" (s.
v. Ignace de Loyola, Saint), informs his readers that "impartial history
can discover in Loyola numberless traits of fantastic exaltation,
morbific dreaminess, superstition, moral obscurantism, fanatical hatred,
deceit and mendacity. On the other hand, it is impossible not to admit
that he was a man of iron will, of indomitable perseverance in action
and in suffering, and unshakeable faith in his mission; in spite of an
ardent imagination, he had a penetrating intelligence, and a marvelous
facility in reading the thoughts of men; he was possessed of a
gentleness and suppleness which permitted him to make himself all to
all. Visionary though he was, he possessed in the supreme degree, the
genius of organization and strategy; he could create the army he needed,
and employ the means he had at hand with prudence and circumspection. We
can even discover in him a tender heart, easily moved to pity, to
affection and to self-sacrifice for his fellow-men." Michelet says he
was a combination of Saint Francis of Assisi and Machiavelli. Finally
Victor Hugo reached the summit of the absurd when he assured the French
Assembly in 1850 that "Ignatius was the enemy of Jesus." As a matter of
fact the poet knew nothing of either, nor did many of his hearers.
As far as we are aware, St. Ignatius never used the term Jesuit at all.
He called his Order the _Compañía de Jesús_, which in Italian is
_Compagnia_, and in French, _Compagnie_. The English name Society, as
well as the Latin _Societas_, is a clumsy attempt at a translation, and
is neither adequate nor picturesque. Compañía was evidently a
reminiscence of Loyola's early military life, and meant to him a
battalion of light infantry, ever ready for service in any part of the
world. The use of the name _Jesus_ gave great offense. Both on the
Continent and in England, it was denounced as blasphemous; petitions
were sent to kings and to civil and ecclesiastical tribunals to have it
changed; and even Pope Sixtus V had signed a Brief to do away with it.
Possibly the best apology for it was given by the good-natured monarch,
Henry IV, when the University and Parliament of Paris pleaded with him
to throw his influence against its use. Shrugging his shoulders, he
replied: "I cannot see why we should worry about it. Some of my officers
are Knights of the Holy Ghost; there is an Order of the Holy Trinity in
the Church; and, in Paris, we have a congregation of nuns who call
themselves God's Daughters. Why then should we object to Company of
Jesus?"
The Spaniards must have been amazed at these objections, because the
name _Jesus_ was, as it still is, in very common use among them. They
give it to their children, and it is employed as an exclamation of
surprise or fear; like _Mon Dieu!_ in French. They even use such
expressions as: _Jesu Cristo!_ _Jesu mille veces_ or _Jesucristo, Dios
mio!_ The custom is rather startling for other nationalities, but it is
merely a question of _autre pays, autres moeurs_. A compromise was
made, however, for the time being, by calling the organization "The
Society of the Name of Jesus," but that was subsequently forbidden by
the General.
As a rule the Jesuits do not reply to these attacks. The illustrious
Jacob Gretser attempted it long ago; but, in spite of his sanctity, he
displayed so much temper in his retort, that he was told to hold his
peace. Such is the policy generally adopted, and the Society consoles
itself with the reflection that the terrible Basque, Ignatius Loyola,
and a host of his sons have been crowned by the Universal Church as
glorious saints; that the august Council of Trent solemnly approved of
the Order as a "pious Institute;" that twenty or thirty successive
Sovereign Pontiffs have blessed it and favored it, and that after the
terrible storm evoked by its enemies had spent its fury, one of the
first official acts of the Pope was to restore the Society to its
ancient position in the Church. The scars it has received in its
numberless battles are not disfigurements but decorations; and Cardinal
Allen, who saw its members at close quarters in the bloody struggles of
the English Mission, reminded them that "to be hated of the Heretikes,
S. Hierom computeth a great glorie."
It is frequently asserted that the Society was organized for the express
purpose of combatting the Protestant Reformation. Such is not the case.
On the contrary, St. Ignatius does not seem to have been aware of the
extent of the religious movement going on at that time. His sole purpose
was to convert the Turks, and only the failure to get a ship at Venice
prevented him from carrying out that plan. Indeed it is quite likely
that when he first thought of consecrating himself to God, not even the
name of Luther had, as yet, reached Montserrat or Manresa. They were
contemporaries, of course, for Luther was born in 1483 and Loyola in
1491 or thereabouts; and their lines of endeavor were in frequent and
direct antagonism, but without either being aware of it. Thus, in 1521,
when Loyola was leading a forlorn hope at Pampeluna to save the citadel
for Charles V, Luther was in the castle of Wartburg, plotting to
dethrone that potentate. In 1522 when the recluse of Manresa was writing
his "Exercises" for the purpose of making men better, Luther was posing
as the Ecclesiast of Wittenberg and proclaiming the uselessness of the
Ten Commandments; and when Loyola was in London begging alms to continue
his studies, Luther was coquetting with Henry VIII to induce that
riotous king to accept the new Evangel.
Ignatius Loyola was born in the heart of the Pyrenees, in the sunken
valley which has the little town of Azcoitia at one end, and the equally
diminutive one of Azpeitia at the other. Over both of them the Loyolas
had for centuries been lords either by marriage or inheritance. Their
ancestral castle still stands; but, whereas in olden times it was half
hidden by the surrounding woods, it is today embodied in the immense
structure which almost closes in that end of the valley.
The castle came into the possession of the Society through the
liberality of Anne of Austria, and a college was built around it. The
added structure now forms an immense quadrangle with four interior
courts. From the centre of the façade protrudes the great church which
is circular in form and two hundred feet in height. Its completion was
delayed for a long time but the massive pile is now finished. At its
side, but quite invisible from without, is the castle proper, somewhat
disappointing to those who have formed their own conceptions of what
castles were in those days. It is only fifty-six feet high and
fifty-eight wide. The lower portion is of hewn stone, the upper part of
brick. Above the entrance, the family escutcheon is crudely cut in
stone, and represents two wolves, rampant and lambent, having between
them a caldron suspended by a chain. This device is the heraldic symbol
of the name Loyola. The interior is elaborately decorated, and the upper
story, where Ignatius was stretched on his bed of pain after the
disaster of Pampeluna, has been converted into an oratory.
The church looks towards Azpeitia. A little stream runs at the side of
the well-built road-way which connects the two towns. Along its length,
shrines have been built, as have shelters for travelers if overtaken by
a storm. The people are handsome and dignified, stately in their
carriage--for they are mountaineers--and are as thrifty in cultivating
their steep hills, which they terrace to the very top, as the Belgians
are in tilling their level fields in the Low Countries. There is no
wealth, but there is no sordid poverty; and a joyous piety is everywhere
in evidence. Azpeitia glories in the fact that there St. Ignatius was
baptized; and when some years ago, it was proposed to remove the font
and replace it by a new one, the women rose in revolt. Their babies had
to be made Christians in the same holy basin as their great compatriot,
no matter how old and battered it might be.
Ignatius was the youngest of a family of thirteen or, at least, the
youngest of the sons; he was christened Eneco or Inigo, but he changed
his name later to Ignatius. His early years were spent in the castle of
Arévalo; and, according to Maffei he was at one time a page of King
Ferdinand. He was fond of the world, its vanities, its amusements and
its pleasures, and though there is nothing to show that there was ever
any serious violation of the moral law in his conduct, neither was he
the extraordinarily pious youth such as he is represented in the
fantastic stories of Nieremberg, Nolarci, García, Henao and others.
After the fashion of the hagiographers of the seventeenth century and
later, they describe him as a sort of Aloysius who, under the tutelage
of Doña María de Guevara, visited the sick in the hospitals, regarding
them as the images of Christ, nursing them with tenderest charity, and
so on. All that is pure imagination and an unwise attempt to make a
saint of him before the time.
Indeed, very little about the early life of Ignatius is known, except
that when he was about twenty-six he gained some military distinction in
an attack on the little town of Najara. Of course, he was conspicuous in
the fight at Pampeluna, but whether he was in command of the fortress or
had been merely sent to its rescue to hold it until the arrival of the
Viceroy is a matter of conjecture. At all events, even after the
inhabitants had agreed to surrender the town, he determined to continue
the fight. He first made his confession to a fellow-knight, for there
was no priest at hand, and then began what was, at best, a hopeless
struggle. The enemy soon made a breach in the walls and while rallying
his followers to repel the assault he was struck by a cannon-ball which
shattered one leg and tore the flesh from the other. That ended the
siege, and the flag of the citadel was hauled down. Admiring his
courage, the French tenderly carried him to Loyola, where for some time
his life was despaired of. The crisis came on the feast of St. Peter, to
whom he had always a special devotion. From that day, he began to grow
better. Loyalty to the Chair of Peter is one of the distinguishing
traits of the Compañía which he founded.
It is almost amusing to find these shattered limbs of Ignatius figuring
in the diatribes of the elder Arnauld against the Society, sixty or
seventy years after the siege. "The enmity of the Jesuits for France,"
he said, "is to be traced to the fact that Loyola took an oath on that
occasion, as Hannibal did against Rome, to make France pay for his
broken legs." An English Protestant prelate also bemoaned "the ravages
that had been caused by the fanaticism of that lame soldier." Other
examples might be cited. To beguile the tediousness of his
convalescence, Ignatius asked for the romance "Amadis de Gaul," a
favorite book with the young cavaliers of the period; but he had to
content himself with the "Life of Christ" and "The Flowers of the
Saints." These, however, proved to be of greater service than the story
of the mythical Amadis; for the reading ended in a resolution which
exerted a mighty influence in the history of humanity. Ignatius had made
up his mind to do something for God. The "Life of Christ" which he read,
appears to have been that of Ludolph of Saxony in which the name
"Jesuit" occurs. It had been translated into Spanish and published at
Alcalá as early as 1502. Thus, a book from the land of Martin Luther
helped to make Ignatius Loyola a saint.
When sufficiently restored to health he set out for the sanctuary of
Montserrat where there is a Madonna whose thousandth anniversary was
celebrated a few years ago. It is placed over the main altar of the
church of a Benedictine monastery, which stands three thousand feet
above the dark gorge, through which the river Llobregat rushes head-long
to the Mediterranean. You can get a glimpse of the blue expanse of the
sea in the distance, from the monastery windows. Before this statue,
Ignatius kept his romantic Vigil of Arms, like the warriors of old on
the eve of their knighthood; for he was about to enter upon a spiritual
warfare for the King of Kings. He remained in prayer at the shrine all
night long, not however in the apparel of a cavalier but in the common
coarse garb of a poverty-stricken pilgrim. From there he betook himself
to the little town of Manresa, about three miles to the north, on the
outskirts of which is the famous cave where he wrote the "Spiritual
Exercises." It is in the face of the rock, so low that you can touch the
roof with your hand, and so narrow that there is room for only a little
altar at one end. Possibly it had once been the repair of wild beasts.
It is a mistake, however, to imagine that he passed all his time there.
He lived either in the hospital or in the house of some friend, and
resorted to the cave to meditate and do penance for his past sins. At
present it is incorporated in a vast edifice which the Spanish Jesuits
have built above and around it.
Perhaps no book has ever been written that has evoked more ridiculous
commentaries on its contents and its purpose than this very diminutive
volume known as "The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius." Its very
simplicity excites suspicion; its apparent jejuneness suggest all sorts
of mysterious and malignant designs. Yet, as a matter of fact, it is
nothing but a guide to Christian piety and devotion. It begins with the
consideration of the great fundamental truths of religion, such as our
duty to God, the hideousness and heinousness of sin, hell, death, and
judgment on which the exercitant is expected to meditate before asking
himself if it is wise for a reasonable creature who must soon die to
continue in rebellion against the Almighty. No recourse is had to
rhetoric or oratory by those who direct others in these "Exercises," not
even such as would be employed in the pulpit by the ordinary parish
preacher. It is merely a matter of a man having a heart to heart talk
with himself. If he makes up his mind to avoid mortal sin in the future,
but to do no more, then his retreat is over as far as he is concerned.
But to have even reached that point is to have accomplished much.
There are, however, in the world a great many people who desire
something more than the mere avoidance of mortal sin. To them the
"Exercises" propose over and above the fundamental truths just mentioned
the study of the life of Christ as outlined in the Gospels. This outline
is not filled in by the director of the retreat, at least to any great
extent. That is left to the exercitant; for the word _exercise_ implies
personal action. Hence he is told to ask himself: "Who is Christ? Why
does He do this? Why does He avoid that? What do His commands and
example suppose or suggest?" In other words, he is made to do some deep
personal thinking, perhaps for the first time in his life, at least on
such serious subjects. Inevitably his thoughts will be introspective and
he will inquire why the patience, the humility, the meekness, the
obedience and other virtues, which are so vivid in the personality of
the Ideal Man, are so weak or perhaps non-existent in his own soul. This
scrutiny of the conscience, which is nothing but self-knowledge, is one
of the principal exercises, for it helps us to discover what perhaps
never before struck us, namely that down deep in our natures there are
tendencies, inclinations, likes, dislikes, affections, passions which
most commonly are the controlling and deciding forces of nearly all of
our acts; and that some of these tendencies or inclinations help, while
others hinder, growth in virtue. Those that do not help, but on the
contrary impede or prevent, our spiritual progress are called by St.
Ignatius inordinate affections, that is tendencies, which are out of
order, which do not go straight for the completeness and perfection of a
man's character, but on the contrary, lead in the opposite direction.
The well-balanced mind will fight against such tendencies, so as to be
able to form its judgments and decide on its course of action both in
the major and minor things of life without being moved by the pressure
or strain or weight of the passions. It will look at facts in the cold
light of reason and revealed truth, and will then bend every energy to
carry out its purpose of spiritual advancement.
Such is not the view of those who write about the "Exercises" without
knowledge or who are carried away by prejudice, an exalted imagination,
an overwhelming conceit or religious bias or perhaps because of a
refusal to recognize the existence of any spiritual element in humanity.
It is difficult to persuade such men that there are no "mysterious
devices" resorted to in the Exercises; no "subterraneous caverns," no
"orgies," no "emerging livid and haggard from the struggle," no
"illuminism," no "monoideism" as William James in his cryptic English
describes them; no "phantasmagoria or illusions;" no "plotting of
assassinations" as the Parliament of Paris pretended to think when
examining Jean Chastel, who had attempted the life of Henry IV; no
"Mahommedanism" as Müller fancies in his "Origins of the Society of
Jesus," nothing but a calm and quiet study of one's self, which even
pagan philosophers and modern poets assure us is the best kind of
worldly occupation.
Even if some writers insist that "their excellence is very much
exaggerated," that they are "dull and ordinary and not the dazzling
masterpieces they are thought to be," or are "a Japanese culture of
counterfeited dwarf trees," as Huysmans in his "En Route" describes
them; yet on the other hand they have been praised without stint by such
competent judges as Saints Philip Neri, Charles Borromeo, Francis de
Sales, Alphonsus Liguori, Leonard of Port Maurice, and by Popes Paul
III, Alexander VII, Clement XIII, Pius IX and Leo XIII. Camus, the
friend of St. Francis of Sales, thought "they were of pure gold; more
precious than gold or topaz;" Freppel calls them "a wonderful work
which, with the 'Imitation of Christ' is perhaps of all books the one
which gains the most souls for God;" Wiseman compares the volume to "an
apparently barren soil which is found to contain the richest treasures,"
and Janssen tells us that "the little book which even its opponents
pronounced to be a psychological masterpiece of the highest class, ranks
also as one of the most remarkable and influential products of later
centuries in the field of religion and culture in Germany.... As a guide
to the exercises it has produced results which scarcely any other
ascetic writings can boast of" (Hist. of the German People, VIII, 223).
Whatever may be thought of it, it is the Jesuit's manual, the _vade
mecum_, on which he moulds his particular and characteristic form of
spirituality. In the novitiate, he goes through these "Exercises" for
thirty consecutive days; and shortly after he becomes a priest, he makes
them once again for the same period. Moreover, all Jesuits are bound by
rule to repeat them in a condensed form for eight days every year; and
during the summer months the priests are generally employed in
explaining them to the clergy and religious communities. Indeed the use
has become so general in the Church at the present time, that houses
have been opened where laymen can thus devote a few days to a study of
their souls. Even the Sovereign Pontiffs themselves employ them as a
means of spiritual advancement. Thus we find in the press of today the
announcement, as of an ordinary event, that "in the Vatican, the
Spiritual Exercises which began on Sunday, September 26, 1920, and ended
on October 2, were followed by His Holiness, Benedict XV, with the
prelates and ecclesiastics of his Court; during which time, all public
audiences were suspended. After the retreat, the two directors and those
who had taken part in it were presented to the Sovereign Pontiff, who
pronounced a glowing eulogy of what he called the 'Holy' Exercises."
St. Ignatius' authorship of these "Exercises" has been frequently
challenged, and they have been described as little else than a
plagiarism of the book known as the "Ejercitatorio de la vida
espiritual," which was given to him by the Benedictines of Montserrat.
It is perfectly true that he had that book in his hands during all the
time he was at Manresa, and that he went every week to confession to Dom
Chanones, who was a monk of Montserrat, but there are very positive
differences between the "Ejercitatorio" and the "Spiritual Exercises."
In the first place it should be noted that the title had been in common
use long before, and was employed by the Brothers of the Common Life, to
designate any of their pious publications. Even Ludolph of Saxony speaks
of the "Studia spiritualis exercitii." Secondly, the "Ejercitatorio" is
rigid in its divisions of three weeks of seven days each, whereas St.
Ignatius takes the weeks in a metaphorical sense, and lengthens or
shortens them at pleasure. Thirdly, the object of the Benedictine manual
is to lead the exercitant through the purgative and illuminative life up
to the unitive; whereas St. Ignatius aims chiefly at the election of
that state of life which is most pleasing to God, or at least at the
correction or betterment of the one in which we happen to be. Finally,
the "Ejercitatorio" does not even mention the foundation, the Kingdom,
the particular examen, the Two Standards, the election, the discernment
of spirits, the rules for orthodox thinking, the regulation of diet, the
three degrees of humility, the three classes or the three methods of
prayer. Only a few of the Benedictine counsels have been adopted, as in
Annotations 2, 4, 13, 18, 19 and so. Some of thoughts, indeed, are
similar in the first week; but the three succeeding weeks of St.
Ignatius are entirely his own. In any case, the "Ejercitatorio" itself
is nothing else than a compilation from Ludolph, Gerson, Cassian, Saint
Bernard, Saint Bonaventure and contemporary writers. (Debuchy, article
"Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius" in the "Catholic Encyclopedia,"
XIV, 226.)
It would be much easier to find a source of the "Exercises" in "The
Great Life of Christ" by Ludolph of Saxony, which as has been said, was
one of the books read by Ignatius in his convalescence. It is not really
a life but a series of meditations, and in it we find a number of things
which are supposed to be peculiar to the Exercises of St. Ignatius, for
instance, the composition of place, the application of the senses and
the colloquies. On the other hand there is nothing of the "first week"
in it, such as the end of man, the use of creatures, sin, hell, death,
judgment, etc., besides many other things which are employed as
"Exercises" in the book of Ignatius.
It will be a surprise to many to learn that the famous meditation of the
"Kingdom" which is supposed to be particularly Ignatian is only an
adaptation. Father Kreiten, S. J., writing in the "Stimmen" traces it to
a well-known romance which had long been current in the tales of
chivalry, but which, unfortunately, is linked with a name most abhorrent
to Catholics; William of Orange. The medieval William, however, is in no
way identified with his modern homonym. He was a devoted Knight of the
Cross, indignant that his prowess had not been recognized by his king
and he asked for some royal fief as his reward. "Give me Spain," he
cries, "which is still in the power of the Saracens." The curious
request is granted whereupon William springs upon the table and shouts
to those around him: "Listen, noble knights of France! By the Lord
Almighty! I can boast of possessing a fief larger than that of thirty of
my peers, but as yet it is unconquered. Therefore I address myself to
poor knights who have only a limping horse and ragged garments, and I
say to them that if, up to now, they have gained nothing for their
service, I will give them money, lands and Spanish horses, castles and
fortresses, if together with me, they will brave the fortunes of war in
order, to help me to effect the conquest of the country and to
re-establish in it the true religion. I make the same offer to poor
squires, proposing, moreover, to arm them as knights." In answer to
these words all exclaim, "By the Lord Almighty! Sir William! haste thee,
haste thee; he who cannot follow thee on horseback will bear thee
company on foot." From all parts there crowded to him knights and
squires with any arms they could lay hold of, and before long thirty
thousand men were ready to march. They swore fealty to Count William and
promised never to abandon him, though they should be cut to pieces. St.
Ignatius applies this legend to Christ in the "Exercises".
Finally, the "Two Standards" is a picture of those who want to do more
than obey the Commandments. Their "Captain," the Divine Redeemer,
reveals to them the wiles of the foe, which they resolve to defeat.
What is emphatically distinctive in the "Exercises" is their coherence.
With inexorable logic, each conclusion is deduced from what has been
antecedently admitted as indisputable. Thus, at the end of the first
"week", it is clear that mortal sin is an act or condition of supreme
folly; and in the course of the second, third, and fourth, we are made
to see that unless a man chooses that particular state of life to which
God calls him, or unless he puts to rights the one he is already in, he
has no character, no courage, no virility, no gratitude to God, and no
sense of danger. The fourth "week", besides enforcing what preceded, may
be regarded as intimating, though not developing, the higher mysticism.
Throughout the "Exercises," the insistent consideration of the
fundamental truths of Christianity, and the contemplation of the
mysteries or episodes of the life of Christ so illumine the mind and
inflame the heart that we cannot fail, if we are reasonable, at least to
desire to make the love of Christ the dominating motive of our life;
and, in view of that end, we are given at every step a new insight into
our duties to God, chiefly under the double aspect of our Creation and
Redemption; we are taught to scrutinize our thoughts, tendencies,
inclinations, passions and aspirations, and to detect the devices of
self-deceit; we are shown the dangers that beset us and the means of
safety that are available; we are instructed in prayer, meditation and
self-examination. The proper co-ordination of these various parts is so
essential, that if their interdependence is neglected, if the
arrangements and adjustments are disturbed and the connecting links
disregarded or displaced, the end intended by Saint Ignatius is
defeated. Hence the need of a director. It may be noted that the
"Exercises" were not produced at Manresa in the form in which we have
them now. They were touched and retouched up to the year 1541, that is
twenty years after Loyola's stay in the "Cueva", but they are
substantially identical with the book he then wrote.
After spending about a year in the austerities of the Cave, Ignatius
begged his way to Palestine, but remained there only six weeks. The
Guardian of the Holy Places very peremptorily insisted upon his
withdrawal, because his piety and his inaccessibility to fear exposed
him to bad treatment at the hands of the infidels. He then returned to
Spain and set himself to the study of the Latin elements, in a class of
small boys, at one of the primary schools of Barcelona. It was a rude
trial for a man of his years and antecedents, but he never shrank from a
difficulty, and, moreover, there was no other available way of getting
ready for the course of philosophy which he proposed to follow at
Alcalá. At this latter place, he had the happiness of meeting Laínez,
Salmerón and Bobadilla, but he also made the acquaintance of the jails
of the Inquisition, where he was held prisoner for forty-two days, on
suspicion of heresy, besides being kept under surveillance, from
November, 1526, till June of the year following. It happened, also, that
as he was being dragged through the streets to jail, a brilliant
cavalcade met the mob, and inquiries were made as to what it was all
about, and who the prisoner was. The cavalier who put the question was
one who was to be later a devoted follower of Ignatius; he was no less a
personage than Francis Borgia. Six years after the establishment of the
Society, Ignatius repaid Alcalá for its harsh treatment, by founding a
famous college there, whose chairs were filled by such teachers as
Vásquez and Suárez.
Ignatius had no better luck at Salamanca. There he was not even allowed
to study, but was kept in chains for three weeks while being examined as
to his orthodoxy. But as with Alcalá, so with Salamanca. Later on he
founded a college in that university also, and made it illustrious by
giving it de Lugo, Suárez, Valencia, Maldonado, Ribera and a host of
other distinguished teachers. Leaving Salamanca, Ignatius began his
journey to Paris, travelling on foot, behind a little burro whose only
burden were the books of the driver. It was mid-winter; war had been
declared between France and Spain, and he had to beg for food on the
way; but nothing could stop him, and he arrived at Paris safe and sound,
in the beginning of February, 1528. In 1535 he received the degree of
Master of Arts, after "the stony trial," as it was called, namely the
most rigorous examination. For some time previously he had devoted
himself to the study of theology, but ill health prevented him from
presenting himself for the doctorate. He lived at the College of Ste
Barbe where his room-mates were Peter Faber and Francis Xavier.
Singularly enough and almost prophetic of the future, Calvin had studied
at the same college. The names of Loyola and Calvin are cut on the walls
of the building to-day. In 1533 Calvin, it is said, came back to induce
the rector of the college, a Doctor Kopp, to embrace the new doctrines.
He succeeded, and, before the whole university, Kopp declared himself a
Calvinist. Calvin had prepared the way by having the city placarded with
a blasphemous denunciation of the Blessed Eucharist. A popular uprising
followed and Calvin fled. In reparation a solemn procession of
reparation was organized on January 21, 1535. There is some doubt,
however, about the authenticity of this story.
Ignatius encountered trouble in France as he had in Spain. On one
occasion he was sentenced to be flogged in presence of all the students;
but the rector of the college, after examining the charge against him,
publicly apologized. There was also a delation to the Inquisition, but
when he demanded an immediate trial he was told that the indictment had
been quashed. Previous to these humiliations and exculpations he had
gathered around him a number of brilliant young men, all of whom have
made their mark on history. They afford excellent material for an
exhaustive study of the psychology of the Saints.
Most conspicuous among them was Francis Xavier, who will ever be the
wonder of history. With him were Laínez and Salmerón, soon to be the
luminaries of the Council of Trent, the former of whom barely escaped
being elevated to the chair of St. Peter, and then only by fleeing Rome.
There was also Bobadilla, the future favorite of kings and princes and
prelates, the idol of the armies of Austria, the tireless apostle who
evangelised seventy-seven dioceses of Europe, but who unfortunately
alienated Charles V from the Society by imprudently telling him what
should have come from another source or in another way. There was
Rodriguez who was to hold Portugal, Brazil and India in his hands,
ecclesiastically; and Faber who was to precede Canisius in the salvation
of Germany.
Each one of these remarkable men differed in character from the rest.
Bobadilla, Salmerón, Laínez and Xavier were Spaniards; but the
blue-blooded and somewhat "haughty" Xavier must have been tempted to
look with disdain on a man with a Jewish strain like Laínez. Salmerón
was only a boy of about nineteen, but already marvelously learned; and
Bobadilla was an impecunious professor whom Ignatius had helped to gain
a livelihood in Paris, but whose ebulliency of temper was a continued
source of anxiety; Rodriguez was a man of velleities rather than of
action, and his ideas of asceticism were in conflict with those of
Ignatius. The most docile of all was the Savoyard Peter Faber, who began
life as a shepherd boy and was already far advanced in sanctity when he
met St. Ignatius. In spite, however, of all this divergency of traits
and antecedent environment, the wonderful personality of their leader
exerted its undisputed sway over them all, not by a rigid uniformity of
direction, but by an adaptation to the idiosyncrasies of each. His
profound knowledge of their character, coupled as it was with an intense
personal affection for them, was so effective that the proud aloofness
of Xavier, the explosiveness of Bobadilla, the latent persistency of
Laínez, the imaginativeness and hesitancy of Rodriguez, the enthusiasm
of the boyish Salmerón, and the sweetness of Faber, all paid him the
tribute of the sincerest attachment and an eagerness to follow his least
suggestion. Rodriguez was the sole exception in the latter respect, but
he failed only twice. Two other groups of young men had previously
gathered around Ignatius, but, one by one, they deserted him. All of the
last mentioned persevered, and became the foundation-stones of the
Society of Jesus.
On August 15, 1534, Ignatius led his companions to a little church on
the hill of Montmartre, then a league outside the city, but now on the
Rue Antoinette, below the present great basilica of the Sacred Heart. In
its crypt which they apparently had all to themselves that morning, they
pronounced their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Faber, the
only priest among them, said Mass and gave them communion. Such was the
beginning of the new Order in the Church. A brass plate on the wall of
the chapel proclaims it to be the "cradle of the Society of Jesus." It
is almost startling to recall that while in the University of Paris, not
only Ignatius but also Francis Xavier and Peter Faber, who were to be so
prominent in the world in a short time, were in destitute circumstances.
They had no money even to pay for their lodging, and they occupied a
single room which had been given them, out of charity, in one of the
towers of Ste Barbe. It was providential, however, for in the same
college, but paying his way, was a former schoolmate of Faber and like
him a native of Savoy. This was Claude Le Jay, or Jay, as he is
sometimes called. Of course he had noticed Ignatius and the group of
brilliant young Spaniards, but he had little or nothing to do with them
until once, when Ignatius was absent in Spain, Faber let him into the
secret of their great plan of converting the Turks. The result was that
when next year the associates went out to Montmartre to renew their
vows, Le Jay was with them as were also two other university men: Jean
Codure from Dauphiné and the Picard, Pasquier Brouet, who was already a
priest.
It had been arranged that in 1536 when their courses of study were
finished and their degrees and certificates secured, they were to meet
at Venice to embark for the Holy Land. They were to make the journey to
Venice on foot. They set out, therefore, in two bands, a priest with
each, taking the route that passed by Meaux and then through Lorraine,
across Switzerland to Venice. It was a daring journey of fifty-two days
in the dead of winter, over mountain passes, without money to pay their
way or to purchase food; with poor and insufficient clothing, across
countries filled with soldiers preparing for war, or angry fanatics who
scoffed at the rosaries around their necks, and who might have
ill-treated them or put them to death; they bore it all, however, not
only patiently but light-heartedly, and on January 6, 1537, arrived in
Venice, where Ignatius was waiting for them. To them was added a new
member of the association, Diego Hozes, who had known Ignatius at Alcalá
and now came to him at Venice.
After a brief rest, which they took by waiting on the poor and sick in
the worst hospital of the city, they were told to go down to Rome to ask
the Pope's permission to carry out their plans. This journey was not as
long or as dangerous as the one they had just made, but the bad
weather, the long fasts, the sickness of some of them, the rebuffs and
abusive language which they received when they asked for alms, made it
hard enough for flesh and blood to bear; however their devotion to the
end they had in view, or what the world might call their Quixotic
enthusiasm bore them onward. They were apprehensive, however, about
their reception in Rome, not it is true, from the Father of the Faithful
himself, but from a certain great Spanish canonist, a Doctor Ortiz, who
happened to be just then at the papal court, making an appeal to the
Sovereign Pontiff in behalf of Catherine of Aragon against Henry VIII.
Ortiz had met Ignatius in Paris and was bitterly prejudiced against him.
That, indeed, was the reason why the little band appeared in the Holy
City without their leader, but neither he nor they were aware that Ortiz
had changed his mind and was now an enthusiastic friend. Hence when the
travel-stained envoys from Venice presented themselves, they could
scarcely believe their eyes. Ortiz received them with every
demonstration of esteem and affection. He presented them to the Pope,
and urged him to grant all their requests. Subsequently, Faber acted as
theologian for Ortiz, when that dignitary represented Charles V at Worms
and in Spain. Of course the Pontiff was overjoyed and not only blessed
the members of the little band but gave them a considerable sum of money
to pay their passage to the Holy Land. So they hurried back to Ignatius
with the good news, and on June 24 all those who were not priests were
ordained.
The custom that prevails in the Church, in our days, is for a
newly-ordained priest to celebrate Mass on the morning following his
ordination; but Ignatius and his companions prepared themselves for this
great act in an heroic fashion. They buried themselves in caverns or in
the ruins of dilapidated monasteries for an entire month, giving
themselves up to fasting and prayer, preaching at times in some
adjoining town or hamlet. It was on this occasion that the vacillating
character of Rodriguez revealed itself. He and Le Jay had taken up their
abode in a hermitage near Bassano where a venerable old man named
Antonio was reviving in the heart of Italy the practices of the old
solitaries of the Thebaid. Rodriguez fell ill and was at the point of
death when Ignatius arrived and told him that he would recover. So,
indeed, it happened, but singularly enough he was anxious to continue
his eremitical life and, without speaking of his doubts to Ignatius, set
out to consult the old hermit about it, but became conscience-stricken
before he arrived. "O man of little faith, why did you doubt?" was all
St. Ignatius said, when Rodriguez confessed what he had done.
Nevertheless, that did not cure him, for the desire of leading a life of
bodily austerity had taken possession of him and was at the bottom of
the trouble which he subsequently caused in Portugal, and also when, in
1554, he wrote entreatingly to Pope Julius III for permission to leave
the Society and become a hermit (Prat, Le P. Claude Le Jay, 32, note).
At the end of the retreat, they all returned to Venice, where they
waited in vain for a ship to carry them to the land of the Mussulmans.
It was only when there was absolutely no hope left, that they made up
their minds to go back to Rome, and put themselves at the disposal of
the Pope for any work he might give them. As this was fully twenty years
after Martin Luther had nailed his thesis to the church door of
Wittenberg, it is clear that Ignatius had no idea of attacking
Protestantism when he founded the Society of Jesus.
Possibly this stay in Venice has something to do with the solution of a
question which has been frequently mooted and was solemnly discussed at
a congress of physicians at San Francisco as late as 1900, namely, why
did Vesalius, the great anatomist, go to the Holy Land? The usual
supposition is that it was to perform a penance enjoined by the
Inquisition in consequence of some alleged heretical utterances by the
illustrious scientist. However, Sir Michael Foster of the University of
Cambridge, who was the principal speaker at the Congress, offered
another explanation. "It is probable," he said, "that while pursuing his
studies in the hospitals of Venice, Vesalius often conversed with
another young man who was there at the time and who was known as
Ignatius Loyola." Such a meeting may, indeed, have occurred, for
Ignatius haunted the hospitals, and his keen eye would have discerned
the merit of Vesalius, who was a sincerely pious man. Hence, it is not
at all unlikely that the young physician may have made the "Spiritual
Exercises" under the direction of Ignatius, and that his journey to the
Holy Land was the result of his intercourse with the group of brilliant
young students, who just then had no other object in life but to convert
the Turks.
On the journey to Rome Ignatius went ahead with Faber and Laínez, and it
was then that he had the vision of Christ carrying the cross, and heard
the promise: "Ego vobis Romæ propitius ero" (I will be propitious to you
in Rome.) They were received affectionately and trustingly by the Pope,
who sent Laínez and Faber to teach in the Sapienza, one lecturing on
holy scripture and the other on scholastic theology; while Ignatius gave
the "Spiritual Exercises" wherever and whenever the opportunity
presented itself. When the other four arrived, they were immediately
employed in various parts of Rome in works of charity and zeal.
It was in Rome that Ignatius first came in personal contact with the
Reformation. A Calvinist preacher who had arrived in the city had
succeeded in creating a popular outcry against the new priests, by
accusing them of all sorts of crimes. As such charges would be fatal in
that place above all, if not refuted, the usual policy of silence was
not observed. By the advice of the Pope the affair was taken to court
where the complaint was immediately dismissed and an official
attestation of innocence given by the judge. The result was a
counter-demonstration, that made the accuser flee for his life to
Geneva. As an assurance of his confidence in them, the Sovereign Pontiff
employed them in several parts of Italy where the doctrines of the
Reformation were making alarming headway. Thus, Brouet and Salmerón were
sent to Siena; Faber and Laínez accompanied the papal legate to Parma;
Xavier and Bobadilla set out for Campania; Codure and Hozes for Padua;
and Rodriguez and Le Jay for Ferrara. It is impossible to follow them
all in these various places, but a brief review of the difficulties that
confronted Rodriguez and Le Jay in Ferrara may be regarded as typical of
the rest.
In conformity with the instructions of Ignatius, they lodged at the
hospital, preached whenever they could, either in the churches or on the
public streets, and taught catechism to the children and hunted for
scandalous sinners. An old woman at the hospital discovered by looking
through a crack in the door that they passed a large part of the night
on their knees. At this point Hozes died at Padua, and Rodriguez had to
replace him; Le Jay was thus left alone at Ferrara. The duke, Hercules
II, became his friend, but the duchess, Renée of France, daughter of
Louis XII, avoided him. She was a supposedly learned woman, a
forerunner, so to say, of the _précieuses ridicules_ of Molière, and an
ardent patron of Calvin, a frequent visitor at the court along with the
lascivious poet Clément Marot, who translated the Psalms into verse to
popularize Calvin's heretical teachings. Another ominous figure that
loomed up at Ferrara was the famous Capuchin preacher, Bernardo Ochino,
a man of remarkable eloquence, which, however, was literary and dramatic
rather than apostolic in its character. His emaciated countenance, his
long flowing white beard and his fervent appeals to penance made a deep
impression on the people. They regarded him as a saint, never dreaming
that he was a concealed heretic, who would eventually apostacize and
assail the Church. He was much admired by the duchess, who conceived a
bitter hatred for Le Jay and would not even admit him to her presence.
The trouble of the Jesuit was increased by the attitude of the bishop,
who, knowing the real character of Ochino, looked with suspicion on Le
Jay as possibly another wolf in sheep's clothing; but his suspicions
were soon dispelled, and he gave Le Jay every means in his power to
revive the faith and morals of the city. The duchess, however, became so
aggressive in her proselytism that the duke ordered her into seclusion,
and when he died, his son and successor sent her back to her people in
France where she died an obstinate heretic.
From Ferrara Le Jay hastened to Bagnorea to end a schism there, and
though neither side would listen to him at first, yet his patience
overcame all difficulties, and finally, everybody met everybody else in
the great church, embraced and went to Holy Communion. Peace then
reigned in the city. The other envoys achieved similar successes
elsewhere throughout the peninsula; and Crétineau-Joly says that their
joint efforts thwarted the plot of the heretics to destroy the Faith in
Italy. The winter of 1538 was extremely severe in Rome, and a scarcity
of provisions brought on what amounted almost to a famine. This distress
gave Ignatius and his companions the opportunity of showing their
devotion to the suffering poor; and they not only contrived in some way
or other to feed, in their own house, as many as four hundred famishing
people, but inspired many of the well-to-do classes to imitate their
example.
With this and other good works to their credit, they could now ask the
authorization of the Sovereign Pontiff for their enterprise. Hence on
September 3, 1539, they submitted a draught of the Constitution, and
were pleased to hear that it evoked from the Pope the exclamation: "The
finger of God is here." But they were not so fortunate with the
commission of cardinals to whom the matter was then referred.
Guidiccioni, who presided, was not only distinctly hostile, but
expressed the opinion that all existing religious orders should be
reduced to four and hence he contemptuously tossed the petition aside.
It was only after a year that he took it up again--he scarcely knew
why--and on reading it attentively he was completely converted and
hastened to report on it as follows: "Although as before, I still hold
to the opinion that no new religious order should be instituted, I
cannot refrain from approving this one. Indeed, I regard it as something
that is now needed to help Christendom in its troubles, and especially
to destroy the heresies which are at present devastating Europe." Thus
it is Guidiccioni who is responsible for setting the Society to undo the
work of Martin Luther.
The Pope was extremely pleased by the commission's report, and on
September 27, 1540, he issued the Bull "Regimini Ecclesiæ," approving
"The Institute of the Society of Jesus." In this Bull and that of
Julius III, the successor of Paul III, we have the official statement of
the character and the purpose of the Society. Its object is the
salvation and perfection of the souls of its members and of the
neighbor. One of the chief means for that end is the gratuitous
instruction of youth. There are no penances of rule; but it is assumed
that bodily mortifications are practised and employed, though only under
direction. Great care is taken in the admission and formation of
novices, and lest the protracted periods of study, later, should chill
the fervor of their devotion, there are to be semi-annual spiritual
renovations, and when the studies are over, and the student ordained to
the priesthood, there is a third year of probation, somewhat similar to
the novitiate in its exercises. There are two grades in the Society--one
of professed, the other of coadjutors, both spiritual and temporal.
All are to be bound by the three vows of poverty, chastity and
obedience, but those of the coadjutors are simple, while those of the
professed are solemn. The latter make a fourth vow, namely, one of
obedience to the Sovereign Pontiff, which binds them to go wherever he
sends them, and to do so without excuse, and without provisions for the
journey. The Father-General is elected for life. He resides in Rome, so
as to be at the beck of the Sovereign Pontiff, and also because of the
international character of the Society. All superiors are appointed by
him, and he is regularly informed through the provincials about all the
members of the Society. Every three years there is a meeting of
procurators to report on their respective provinces and to settle
matters of graver moment. The General is aided in his government by
assistants chosen mostly according to racial divisions, which may in
turn be subdivided. There is also an admonitor who sees that the General
governs according to the laws of the Society and for the common good.
Disturbers of the peace of the Order are to be sharply admonished, and
if incorrigible, expelled. When approved scholastics or formed
coadjutors are dismissed they are dispensed from their simple vows. The
simple vow of chastity made by the scholastics is a diriment impediment
of matrimony. Because of possible withdrawals or dismissals from the
Society, the dominion of property previously possessed is to be
retained, as long as the general may see fit, but not the usufruct--an
arrangement which has been repeatedly approved by successive Pontiffs,
as well as by the Council of Trent.
All ambition of ecclesiastical honors is shut off by a special vow to
that effect. There is no choir or special dress. The poverty of the
Society is of the strictest. The professed houses are to subsist on
alms, and cannot receive even the usual stipends. Moreover, the
professed are bound by a special vow to watch over and prevent any
relaxation in this respect. The rule is paternal, and hence an account
of conscience is to be made, either under seal of confession or in
whatever way the individual may find most agreeable. A general
congregation may be convened as often as necessary. Its advisability is
determined at the meeting of the procurators. In the first part of the
Constitution, the impediments and the mode of admission are considered;
in the second, the manner of dismissal; in the third and fourth, the
means of furthering piety and study and whatever else concerns the
spiritual advancement, chiefly of the scholastics; the fifth explains
the character of those who are to be admitted and also the various
grades; the sixth deals with the occupations of the members; the seventh
treats of those of superiors; the eighth and ninth relate to the
General; and the tenth determines the ways and means of government.
Before the Constitutions were promulgated, Ignatius submitted them to
the chief representatives of the various nationalities then in the
Order, but they did not receive the force of law until they were
approved by the first general congregation of the whole Society. After
that they were presented to Pope Paul III, and examined by four
Cardinals. Not a word had been altered when they were returned. The
Sovereign Pontiff declared that they were more the result of Divine
inspiration than of human prudence.
For those who read these Constitutions without any preconceived notions,
the meaning is obvious, whereas the intention of discovering something
mysterious and malignant in them inevitably leads to the most ridiculous
misinterpretations of the text. Thus, for instance, some writers inform
us that St. Ignatius is not the author of the Constitutions, but Laínez,
Mercurian or Acquaviva. Others assure their readers that no Pope can
ever alter or modify even the text; that the General has special power
to absolve novices from any mortal sins they may have committed before
entering; that the general confessions of beginners are carefully
registered and kept; that a special time is assigned to them for reading
accounts of miraculous apparitions and demoniacal obsessions; that
before the two years of novitiate have elapsed a vow must be taken to
enter the Society; that all wills made in favor of one's family must be
rescinded; that in meditating, the eyes must be fixed on a certain point
and the thoughts centered on the Pater Noster until a state of
quasi-hypnotism results; that the grades in the Society are reached
after thirty or thirty-five years of probation, after which the
applicant becomes a probationer; the professed are called "ours"; the
spiritual coadjutors "externs." The latter do the plotting and have
aroused all the ill-will of which the Society has been the object;
whereas the professed devote themselves to prayer and are admired and
loved.
There are also, we are assured, secret, outside Jesuits. The Emperors
Ferdinand II and III, and Sigismund of Poland are put in that class, and
probably also John III of Portugal and Maximilian of Bavaria; while
Louis XIV is suspected of belonging to it. The Father-General dispenses
such members from the priesthood and from wearing the soutane. "Imagine
Louis XIV," says Brou, who furnishes these details, "asking the General
of the Jesuits to be dispensed from wearing the soutane!" Unlike the
other Jesuits, these cryptics would not be obliged to go to Rome to
pronounce their vows. Again, it is said, Pope Paul IV had great
difficulty in persuading the Jesuits to accept the dispensation from the
daily recitation of the breviary. Perhaps the most charming of all of
these "discoveries" is that the famous phrase _perinde ac cadaver_, "you
must obey as if you were a dead body," was borrowed from the Sheik
Si-Senoussi who laid down rules for his Senoussis in Africa, about two
centuries after St. Ignatius had died. The authors of these
extraordinary conceptions are Müller, Reuss, Cartwright, Pollard, Vollet
and others, all of whom are honoured with a notice posted in the British
Museum, as worthy of being consulted on the puzzling subject of
Jesuitry, and yet the Constitutions of the Society and the explanations
of them, by prominent Jesuit writers, can be found in any public
library.
CHAPTER II
INITIAL ACTIVITIES
Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Italy--Election of Ignatius--
Jesuits in Ireland--"The Scotch Doctor"--Faber and Melanchthon--
Le Jay--Bobadilla--Council of Trent--Laínez, Salmerón, Canisius--
The Catechism--Opposition in Spain--Cano--Pius V--First Missions
to America--The French Parliaments--Postel--Foundation of the
Collegium Germanicum at Rome--Similar Establishments in Germany--
Clermont and other Colleges in France--Colloque de Poissy.
The pent-up energy of the new organization immediately found vent not
only in Europe but at the ends of the earth. Portugal gave its members
their first welcome when Xavier and Rodriguez went there, the latter to
remain permanently, the former only for a brief space. Araoz evangelized
Spain and was the first Jesuit to enter into relations with Francis
Borgia, Viceroy of Catalonia, who afterwards became General of the
Society. A college was begun in Paris and provided with professors such
as Strada, Ribadeneira, Oviedo and Mercurian. Faber accompanied Ortiz,
the papal legate, to Germany; Brouet, Bobadilla, Salmerón, Codure and
Laínez went everywhere through Italy; while Ignatius remained at Rome,
directing their operations and meantime establishing orphanages, night
refuges, Magdalen asylums, shelters for persecuted Jews, and similar
institutions. Strangely enough, Ignatius was not yet the General of the
Society, for no election had thus far taken place. Strictly speaking,
however, none was needed, for none of the associates ever dreamed of any
other leader. However, on April 5, 1541, the balloting took place; those
who were absent sending their votes by messenger. That of Xavier could
not arrive in time, for he had already left Portugal for the East;
indeed he had departed before the official approval of the Order by the
Pope--two things which have suggested to some inventive historians that
Francis Xavier was not really a Jesuit. They would have proved their
point better, if they could have shown Xavier had remained in Europe
after he had been ordered away. As a matter of fact; he had been one of
the collaborators of Ignatius in framing the Constitutions and was still
in Portugal when the news arrived of Guidiccioni's change of mind.
In the election every vote but one went for Ignatius. The missing one
was his own. He was dissatisfied and asked for another election. Out of
respect for him, the request was granted but with the same result--Such
a concession, it may be noted, is never granted now. The one who is
chosen submits without a word. The office is for life but provisions are
made for removal--a contingency which happily has never arisen. As in
the beginning, those elections are held at what are called general
congregations. The first one was made up of all the available fathers
but at present they consist of the fathers assistant, namely the
representatives of the principal linguistic groups in the Society or
their subdivisions--a body of men who constitute what is called the
Curia and who live with the General; the provincials; two delegates from
each province; and finally the procurator of the Society. With one
exception, these congregations have always met in Rome; the exception is
the one that chose Father Luis Martín in 1892, which assembled at Loyola
in Spain. That these elections may be absolutely free from all external
and internal influence, the delegates are strictly secluded, and have no
communication with other members of the Society. Four days are spent in
prayer and in seeking information from the various electors, but the
advocacy of any particular candidate is absolutely prohibited. The
ballot is secret and the voting is immediately preceded by an hour's
meditation in presence of the crucifix. The electors are fasting, but
the method of voting is such that a deadlock or even any great delay is
next to impossible. Up to the time of the Suppression of the Society in
1773, there had been eighteen Generals. In the interim between that
catastrophe and the re-establishment, there were three Vicars-General,
who were compelled by force of circumstances to live in Russia. In 1802
on the receipt of the Brief "Catholicæ Fidei," the title of the last
Vicar was changed to that of General. Since then, there have been eight
successors to that post.
St. Ignatius was chosen General on Easter Sunday, 1541. After the
election, the companions repaired to St. Paul's outside the Walls and
there renewed their vows. On that occasion it was ordained that every
professed father should, after making his vows, teach catechism to
children or ignorant people for forty days; subsequently this obligation
was extended to rectors of colleges after their installation. Ignatius
acquitted himself of this task in the church of Our Lady of the Wayside
at the foot of the Capitol.
In 1541 we find Salmerón and Brouet on their way to Ireland as papal
nuncios. They had been asked for by Archbishop Wauchope of Armagh, when
Henry VIII was endeavoring to crush out the Faith in England and
Ireland. Wauchope is a very interesting historical character. He had
been named Archbishop of Armagh after Browne of that see had
apostatized. He was generally known as "the Scotch Doctor," and had been
the Delegate of Pope Paul III at Spires where Charles V was striving in
vain to conciliate the German princes. With him as advisers were Le Jay,
Bobadilla and Faber. What made him especially conspicuous then and
subsequently, was the fact that he had risen to the dignity of
archbishop and of papal delegate though he was born blind. This is
asserted by a host of authors, among them Prat in his life of Le Jay,
and Crétineau-Joly, MacGeoghegan and Moore in their histories.
On the other hand we find in the "Acta Sanctæ Sedis" (XIII) a flat
denial of it by no less a personage than Pope Benedict XIV. It occurs
incidentally in a decision given on March 20, 1880, in connection with
an appeal for a young theologian, whose sight was very badly impaired at
the end of his theological course. The appellants had alleged the case
of the Archbishop of Armagh and the court answered as follows: "Nec
valeret adduci exemplum cujusdam Roberti Scoti, cui quamvis cæco a
puerili ætate, concessa fuit facultas nedum ad sacerdotium sed etiam ad
episcopatum, ascendendi, uti tenent Maiol. (_De irregularitate_), et
Barbos (_De officio episcopi_). Respondet enim Benedictus XIV, quod
reliqui scriptores, quibus major fides habenda est, Robertum non oculis
captum sed infirmum fuisse dicunt;" which in brief means: "Benedict XIV
declares that the most reliable historians say that Scotch Robert was
not blind but of feeble vision." As Benedict XIV was perhaps the
greatest scholar who ever occupied the Chair of Peter, and as his
extraordinary intellectual abilities were devoted from the beginning of
his career to historical, canonical and liturgical studies, in which he
is regarded as of the highest authority, such an utterance may be
accepted as final with regard to the "Scotch Doctor's" blindness.
Codure was to have been one of the Irish delegates, but he died, and
hence Salmerón, Brouet and Zapata undertook the perilous mission. The
last mentioned was a wealthy ecclesiastic who was about to enter the
Society and had offered to defray the expenses of the journey. In the
instructions for their manner of acting Ignatius ordered that Brouet
should be spokesman whenever nobles or persons of importance were to be
dealt with. As Brouet had the looks and the sweetness of an angel,
whereas Salmerón was abrupt at times, the wisdom of the choice was
obvious. They went by the way of France to Scotland, and when at
Stirling Castle, they received a letter from James V, the father of Mary
Queen of Scots, bespeaking their interest in his people. Crétineau-Joly
says they saw the king personally. Fouqueray merely hints at its
likelihood. From Scotland they passed over to Ireland and found that the
enemy knew of their arrival. A price was put upon their heads, and they
had to hurry from place to place so as not to compromise those who gave
them shelter. But in the brief period of a month which they had at their
disposal before they were recalled by the Pope they had ample
opportunity to take in the conditions that prevailed. They returned as
they had gone, through Scotland and over to Dieppe, and then directed
their steps to Rome, but they were arrested as spies near Lyons and
thrown into prison--a piece of news which Paget, the English ambassador
in France, hastened to communicate to Henry; Cardinals de Tournon and
Gaddi, however, succeeded in having them released and they then
proceeded to the Holy City to make their report.
Eighteen years later, Father Michael Gaudan was sent as papal nuncio to
Mary Stuart. He entered Edinburgh disguised as a Scottish peddler and
succeeded in reaching the queen. As a Frenchman could not have acted the
part of a Scottish peddler, it is more than likely that Gaudan is a
gallicized form of Gordon. Indeed, there is on the records a Father
James Gordon, S. J., who had so exasperated the Calvinists by his
refutation of their errors that he was driven out of the country. He
returned again, however, immediately, as he simply got a boat to take
him off the ship which was carrying him into exile, and on the following
day he stood once more upon his native heath, remaining there for some
years sustaining his persecuted Catholic brethren (Claude Nau, Mary's
secretary).
That the "blind Archbishop" also succeeded in reaching his see is clear
from a passage in Moore's "History of Ireland" (xlvii), which tells how
during the reign of Edward VI two French gentlemen, the Baron de
Fourquevaux and the Sieur Montluc, afterwards Bishop of Valence, went to
Ireland as envoys of the French king and were concealed in Culmer Fort
on Loch Foyle. They kept a diary of their journey which may be found, we
are assured, in the "Armorial-général ou registre de la noblesse de
France." The diary relates that while at the Fort "they received a visit
from Robert Wauchope, better known by his pen name as Venantius, a
divine whose erudition was the more remarkable as he had been blind from
birth and was at the time, titular Archbishop of Armagh." He did not,
however, remain in Ireland. MacGeoghegan says "he returned to the
Continent and died in the Jesuit house at Paris in the year 1551."
Stewart Rose in her "Saint Ignatius Loyola and the Early Jesuits" tells
us it was at Lyons, but that was impossible, for there was no Jesuit
establishment in Lyons until after the great pestilence of 1565, when
the authorities offered the Society the municipal college of the Trinity
as a testimonial of gratitude to Father Auger. The generosity of this
offer, however, was not excessive. The Fathers were to take it for two
years on trial. They did so and then the provincial insisted that the
gift should be absolute or the staff would be withdrawn. After some
bickering on the part of a number of Calvinist échevins or aldermen,
the grant was made in perpetuity and confirmed by Charles IX in 1568.
Meantime, Faber had been laboring in Germany. He was to have been the
Catholic orator at Worms in 1540, but conditions were such that he made
no public utterance. Melanchthon was present, but whether Faber and he
met is not clear. In 1541 Faber received an enthusiastic welcome at
Ratisbon from the Catholics, especially from Cochlæus, the great
antagonist of Luther. Among his opponents at the Diet were Bucer and
Melanchthon; the discussion, as usual, led to no result. In one of his
letters he notes the inability of the Emperor to prevent the general
ruin of the Faith. From Ratisbon he went to Nuremberg, but as the legate
had been recalled, Faber's work necessarily came to an end. Le Jay and
Bobadilla succeeded him in Germany. The former addressed the assembly of
the bishops at Salzburg, preached in the Lutheran churches, escaped
being poisoned on one occasion and drowned on another; he failed,
however, to check the flood of heresy, which had not only completely
engulfed Ratisbon, but threatened to overwhelm Catholic Bavaria,
although Duke William maintained that such an event was impossible.
Ingolstadt had already been badly damaged, both doctrinally and morally;
and Bobadilla was despatched thither by the legate to see what could be
done.
Faber had, meantime, returned to Germany. In spite of attacks by
highwaymen, imprisonment, ill-treatment at the hands of disorderly bands
of soldiers and heretics, he reached Spires and completely revived the
spirit of the clergy. From there he hastened to Cologne, but in the
midst of his work he was sent off to Portugal for the marriage of the
king's daughter. By the time he reached Louvain, he was sick and
exhausted, so that the order to proceed to Portugal had to be rescinded.
He then returned to Cologne, where he again met Bucer and Melanchthon,
who were endeavoring to induce the bishop to apostatize. Apprehensive of
their success, he had them both expelled from the city. Again he was
summoned to Portugal, and in 1547 the king, at his instance, gave the
Society the college of Coimbra. Similar establishments were begun about
the same time in Spain--at Valencia, Barcelona and Valladolid, chiefly
through the influence of Araoz.
Le Jay, meanwhile, had been made professor of theology at Innsbruck, on
the death of the famous Dr. Eck, and the university petitioned the Pope
to make his appointment perpetual; but he was clamored for
simultaneously by several bishops, and we find him subsequently at
Augsburg, Salzburg, Dillingen and elsewhere, battling incessantly for
the cause of the Faith. He succeeded in inducing the bishops assembled
at Augsburg to prohibit the discussion of religion at the Diet, and a
little later he assisted at the ecclesiastical council of the province.
With him at this gathering was Bobadilla, who, says the chronicler,
"resembled him in energy and zeal but was altogether unlike him in
character." Le Jay was gentle and persuasive; Bobadilla, impetuous and
volcanic. Bobadilla's fire, however, seems to have pleased the Germans.
He strengthened the nobles and people of Innsbruck in their faith, was
consulted by King Ferdinand on the gravest questions, scored brilliant
successes in public disputes, and was made socius of the Apostolic
nuncio at Nuremberg, where, it was suspected, a deep plot was being laid
for the complete extirpation of the Faith. At the king's request, he
attended the Diet of Worms, and by his alertness and knowledge rendered
immense service to the Catholic party. He was shortly afterward
summoned by the king to Vienna where he preached to the people
incessantly and revived the ecclesiastical spirit of the clergy. He was
again at Worms for another diet, and persuaded both the emperor and
Ferdinand to oppose the Lutheran scheme of convoking a general council
in Germany. At the suggestion of St. Ignatius, an appeal had been made
to the bishops, through Le Jay, to establish seminaries in their
dioceses. They all approved of the project; and several immediately set
to work to carry it out.
When the Diet adjourned, Le Jay left Germany to take part in the Council
of Trent, while Bobadilla remained with the king as spiritual adviser to
the court and general supervisor of the sick and wounded soldiers of the
royal armies. In the latter capacity he acquitted himself with his usual
energy--his impetuosity of character often bringing him into the
forefront of battle, where he merited several honorable scars for his
daring. He also succeeded in falling a victim to the pestilence which
was ravaging the country; he was robbed and maltreated by marauders, but
came through it all safely, and we find him at the Diets of Ratisbon and
Augsburg, everywhere showing himself a genuine apostle, as the
Archbishop of Vienna informed Ignatius. The king offered him a
bishopric, but he refused. He was soon, however, to know Germany no
more.
The Council of Trent had already been in session for three years, when
Charles V issued an edict known as the Interim, which forbade any change
of religion until the council had finished its work; but at the same
time he made concessions to the heretics which angered the Catholics
both lay and clerical. Bobadilla was especially outspoken in the matter
and in a public discourse was imprudent enough to condemn the imperial
policy. Clearly he had not yet acquired the characteristic virtue of
his great leader. Not only did he not mend matters by his intemperate
eloquence, but he created an aversion for the Society in the mind of
Charles V, which lasted till the time of St. Francis Borgia. Besides, he
virtually blasted his own career. He was ordered to Naples by St.
Ignatius and forbidden to present himself at the Jesuit house as he
passed through Rome. He appears only once later and then in a manner
scarcely redounding to his credit: objecting to the election of Laínez
as vicar, although he had previously voted for him and obeyed him for a
year. Happily the brilliant services of his fellow Jesuits who were at
the Council of Trent and elsewhere, as well as his own splendid past,
averted any very great damage to the Society.
Although Ignatius had been invited to be present at the sessions in
Trent, he sedulously avoided the prominence which that would have given
him personally; moreover, absence from his post as General of the
newly-formed Institute would have materially interfered with the task of
preparing successors to the great men who were already at work. Thus,
Salmerón and Laínez were the Pope's theologians and Father Faber was
summoned from his sick bed in Portugal to assist them, but he arrived in
Rome only to die in the arms of Ignatius and never appeared at the
council. Le Jay was present as theologian of the Cardinal Archbishop of
Augsburg; Cavallino represented the Duke of Bavaria; and later Canisius
and Polanco were added to the group. The coming of Canisius was due more
or less to an accident. He had been laboring at Cologne to prevent the
archbishop, Herman von Weid, from openly apostatizing; when the
concessions to Melanchthon and Bucer had become too outrageous to be
tolerated, he had hurried off to meet the emperor and King Ferdinand to
ask for the deposition of the prelate. With the king he met Truchsess,
the great Cardinal of Augsburg, and had no difficulty in gaining his
point, but the Cardinal was so fascinated by the ability of the young
pleader that he insisted on taking him to Trent as his theologian in
spite of the protests of the whole city of Cologne.
Naturally, many of the Fathers of the Council had their suspicions of
these new theologians. They were members of a religious order which had
broken with the traditions of the past, and they might possibly be
heretics in disguise. Moreover, they were alarmingly young. Canisius was
only twenty-six, Salmerón thirty-one, Le Jay about the same age, and
Laínez, the chief figure in the council, not more than thirty-four. But
the indubitable holiness of their lives, their amazing learning, and
their uncompromising orthodoxy soon dissipated all doubts about them.
Laínez and Salmerón were especially prominent. They were allowed to
speak as long as they chose on any topic. Thus, after Laínez had
discoursed for an entire day on the Sacrifice of the Mass, he was
ordered to continue on the following morning. Entire sections of the
Acts of the council were written by him; and by order of the Pope both
he and Salmerón had to be present at all the sessions of the council,
which lasted with its interruptions from 1545 to 1563. Bishoprics and a
cardinal's hat were offered to Laínez; and, at the death of Paul IV,
twelve votes were cast for him as Pope. Indeed one section of the
cardinals had made up their minds to elect him, but when apprised of it,
he fled and kept in concealment until the danger was averted. He was at
that time General of the Society.
After the first adjournment of the council, these men whose stupendous
labors would appear to have called for some repose were granted none at
all. Thus, we find Laínez summoned by the Duke of Etruria to found a
college in Florence. The Pope's vicar wanted him to look after the
ecclesiastical needs of Bologna, whither he repaired with Salmerón,
while Le Jay was working at Ferrara and elsewhere in the Peninsula. The
most remarkable of them all, however, in the matter of work during these
recesses was undoubtedly Peter Canisius (Kanees, Kanys or De Hondt, as
he was variously called.) One would naturally imagine that he would have
been sent back to Cologne to the scene of his former triumphs. On the
contrary, he was ordered to teach rhetoric in the newly-founded college
of Messina in Sicily. He was then recalled to Rome, where he made his
solemn profession in the hands of St. Ignatius; after this he started
with Le Jay and Salmerón to Ingolstadt, where he taught theology and
began his courses of catechetical instructions which were to restore the
lost Faith of Germany.
On the way to the scene of his labors, he received a doctor's degree at
Bologna. In 1550 he was made rector of the University of Ingolstadt, but
was nevertheless, sent to Vienna to found a new college. He was
simultaneously court preacher, director of the hospitals and prisons,
and, in Lent, the apostle of the abandoned parishes of Lower Austria. He
was offered the See of Vienna, but three times he refused it, though he
had to administer the diocese during the year 1557. Five years prior to
that he had opened colleges at Prague and Ingolstadt, after which he was
appointed the first provincial of Germany. He was adviser of the king at
the Diet of Ratisbon, and by order of the Pope took part in the
religious discussions at Worms. He began negotiations for a college at
Strasburg, and made apostolic excursions to that place as well as to
Freiburg and Alsace. While taking part in the general congregation of
the order in Rome, he was sent by Pope Paul IV to the imperial Diet of
Pieterkow in Poland. In 1559 he was summoned by the emperor to the Diet
of Augsburg, and had to remain in that city from 1561 to 1562 as
cathedral preacher; during this time it is recorded that besides giving
retreats, teaching catechism and hearing confessions, he appeared as
many as two hundred and ten times in the pulpit. In 1562 he was back
again as papal theologian at Trent, where he found himself at odds with
Laínez, then General of the Society, on the question of granting the cup
to the laity--Laínez opposing this concession, which he advocated. He
remained at the council only for a few sessions, but returned again
after having reconciled the Emperor with the Pope. The Emperor's favor,
however, he lost later when he changed his views about Communion under
both species, and also by reason of an unfounded charge of revealing
imperial secrets which had been made against him.
In that year Canisius opened the college of Innsbruck and directed the
spiritual life of Magdalena, the saintly daughter of Ferdinand I. In
1564 he inaugurated the college of Dillingen and became administrator of
the university of that place; he was also constituted secret nuncio of
Pius IV to promulgate the decrees of the council in Germany. His mission
was interrupted by the death of the Pope, and although Pius V desired
him to continue in that office, he declined, because it exposed him to
the accusation of meddling in politics. In 1566 he was theologian of the
legate at the Diet of Augsburg and persuaded that dignitary not to issue
a mandate against the so-called religious peace. He thus prevented
another war and gave new life to the Catholics of Germany. In 1567 he
founded a college at Würzburg, and evangelized Mayence and Spires. At
Dillingen he received young Stanislaus Kostka into the Society
conditionally and sent him to Rome; he settled a philosophical dispute
at Innsbruck and established a college at Halle. At last in 1569 at his
own request he was relieved of his office of provincial, which he had
held for thirteen years; in 1570 he was court preacher of the Archduke
Ferdinand II; in 1575 he was papal envoy to Bavaria, and theologian to
the papal legate at the Diet of Ratisbon. He introduced the Sodality of
the Blessed Virgin at Innsbruck, and at the command of the Pope built a
college at Freiburg, where he remained for the rest of his life.
For years Canisius had urged his superiors and had also pleaded at the
Council of Trent for the establishment of colleges of writers in various
countries to defend the Faith. He was in constant touch with the great
printers and publishers of the day, such as Plantin, Cholin and Mayer;
he brought out the first reports of foreign missions, and induced the
town council of Freiburg to establish a printing-press. All this time he
was actively writing, and the list of his publications covers
thirty-eight quarto pages in the "Bibliothèque des écrivains de la C. de
Jésus." He was commissioned by Pius V to refute the Centuriators of
Magdeburg--the society of writers who, under the inspiration of Flacius
Illyricus, had undertaken to falsify the works of the early Fathers of
the Church, century by century, so as to furnish a historical proof in
support of Luther's errors. In 1583 he united in one volume the two
books which he had previously issued in 1571 and 1577, styling them
"Commentaria de Verbi corruptelis," having in the meantime published the
genuine texts of Saints Cyril and Leo.
His "Catechism" was his most famous achievement. It consisted of two
hundred and eleven, and later, of two hundred and twenty-two doctrinal
questions, and was intended chiefly for advanced students; but there
were annexed to it a compendium for children, and another for students
of the middle and lower grades. It is recognized as a masterpiece even
by Protestant writers such as Ranke, Menzel, Kawerau and others. Two
hundred editions of it in one form or another were published during his
lifetime in twelve different languages. "I know my Canisius" became a
synonym in Germany for "I know my catechism." In brief, he did more than
any other man to save Germany for the Church, and he is regarded as
another St. Boniface. He died on November 21, 1597 and was beatified
by Pius IX on April 17, 1864. The Catechism appears to have been
first suggested by Ferdinand I to Le Jay who took up the work
enthusiastically. But instead of crowding everything into one volume, he
divided it into three: the first, a summa of theology for the
university; the second, a volume for priests engaged in the ministry;
while the third was for school teachers. He laid the matter before St.
Ignatius, who assigned the first part to Laínez and the second to
Frusius, then rector of Vienna. But as Frusius died, and Laínez was made
General of the Society, Canisius undertook the entire work.
Apparently, it was from Le Jay also that the idea came of founding the
Collegium Germanicum in Rome, though Cardinal Morone claims it as his
conception. Le Jay, indeed, had discussed the matter with him, but had
previously made a much more serious study of the question with Cardinal
Truchsess, Archbishop of Augsburg. As the purpose of the Collegium was
to supply a thoroughly educated priesthood to Germany, Truchsess could
appreciate the need of it more than Morone, whose ideas about the need
of good works, the vital question in Germany at the time, were extremely
curious, according to his own account of a stormy interview he had with
Salmerón on that topic. He reproached Salmerón for making too much of
good works. Indeed Morone had been at one time under the surveillance
of the Inquisition on account of certain utterances. His orthodoxy,
however, must have been above suspicion, because of the exalted position
he occupied.
Le Jay was broken-hearted when Maurice of Saxony, the leader of the
imperial troops, swung his whole army over to the very Lutherans whom he
had just defeated at Muhlberg. The awful condition of religion in the
Empire preyed upon his mind to such a degree that he died at Vienna on
Aug. 6, 1552, at the age of fifty-two. Canisius, who preached the
funeral oration, said that he was "a worthy successor of Faber, and that
his instinct was so correct that the character he gave to the college of
Vienna over which he presided was adopted as the model throughout
Germany." Ranke might be quoted on that point also. He points out that
"at the beginning of 1551 the Jesuits had no fixed place in Germany--Le
Jay was appointed rector only in June of that year--but in 1566 they
occupied Bavaria, Tyrol, Franconia, a great part of the Rhine Province
and Austria, and had penetrated into Hungary and Moravia. It was the
first durable anti-Protestant check that Germany had received."
Under normal conditions, Spain would of course, have received these
distinguished sons of hers with open arms; but, unfortunately, a
deplorable state of affairs prevailed in the highest circles both of
Church and State, almost as open and as shameless as in other parts of
Europe. Princes and nobles held the titles of bishops and archbishops
and appropriated the revenues of dioceses. That alone made any effort in
the way of reform impossible. Added to this, Bobadilla's indiscretion in
attacking the policy of Charles V in Germany had, as we have already
said, predisposed that monarch, and consequently many of his subjects,
against the whole Society; but as the Emperor did not openly interfere
with them they established colleges in Barcelona, Gandia, Valencia and
Alcalá, as early as 1546; but two years later, when they made their
appearance in Salamanca, they found an implacable foe in the person of
the distinguished Dominican theologian, Melchior Cano.
From the pulpit and platform and in the press Cano denounced and decried
the new religious, not only as constituting a danger to the Church, but
as being nothing else than the precursors of Antichrist. His own
Master-General wrote a letter eulogizing the Society and forbidding his
brethren to attack it; but this had no effect on Melchior, nor did the
fact that the new Order was approved by the Pope avail to keep him
quiet. Finally, in order to mollify him he was made Bishop of the
Canaries, but he actually resigned that see in order to return to the
attack. His hostility continued not only till his death, but after it;
for, before he departed, he left in the hands of a friend a document
which was of great service to the enemies of the Society at the time of
the Suppression. "God grant," he wrote, "that I may not be a Cassandra,
who was believed only after the sack of Troy. If the religious of the
Society continue as they have begun, there may come a time, which I hope
God will avert, when the Kings of Europe would wish to resist them but
will be unable to do so." One of the reasons of Cano's hostility to the
Society was that the Fathers urged Catholics to frequent the sacraments
(Suau, Vie de Borgia, 136). This opposition of Cano was backed by the
Archbishop of Saragossa, who was Francis Borgia's uncle. Bands of street
children carrying banners on which hideous devils were painted marched
to the new church of the Society and pelted it with stones. Then the mob
drove the luckless Fathers out of the city; when Borgia's sister
sheltered the exiles in her castle her uncle, the archbishop,
excommunicated her. But that was the way of the world in those days.
Even the illustrious Cardinal Carranza was kept in the prison of the
Spanish Inquisition for seventeen years, because of something discovered
in his writings by his brother Dominican Melchior Cano (Suau, _op.
cit._, 136).
Little by little, however, the prejudices were dissipated, and both
Alcalá and Salamanca called Strada to lecture in their halls.
Nevertheless, each new success only raised a fresh storm. Thus it was
bad enough when the rector of the University of Salamanca, Anthony of
Córdova, who was just about to be made a cardinal, entered the Society;
but the excitement became intense when, in 1550, Francis Borgia, who was
Duke of Gandia, Viceroy of Catalonia, a friend of the Emperor, a soldier
who had distinguished himself in the invasion of Provence, and whose
future usefulness was reckoned upon for the service of his country, let
it be known that he, too, was going to become a Jesuit. To prevent it,
the Pope was urged to make him a Cardinal, but Borgia, who was then in
Rome, fled back to Spain. When, however, he finally appeared as a member
of the Order, houses and colleges were erected wherever he wished to
have them: at Granada, Valladolid, Saragossa, Medina, San Lucar,
Monterey, Burgos, Valencia, Murcia, Placentia and Seville. In 1556
Charles V was succeeded by Philip II, who asked that the cardinal's hat
should be given to Borgia, but the honor was again refused. On three
other occasions the same offers and refusals were repeated.
By the time Francis Borgia became General of the Order it had already
developed into eighteen provinces, with one hundred and thirty
establishments, and had a register of three thousand five hundred
members. Besides attempting to convert the Vaudois heretics, the
Society maintained the missions of Brazil and the Indies and established
new ones in Peru and Mexico; by the help of the famous Pedro Menéndez,
who is the special object of hatred on the part of American Protestant
historians, it sent the first missionaries to what is now Florida in the
United States. Segura and his companions were put to death on the
Rappahannock; and Martínez was killed further down the coast, while
Sánchez, a former rector of Alcalá, reached Vera Cruz in Mexico in 1572
with twelve companions to look after the Spaniards and natives and to
care for the unfortunate blacks whom the Spaniards were importing from
Africa.
When Pius V was elected Pope, there was a general fear that he would
suppress the Society; but the Pontiff set all doubts at rest when, on
his way to be crowned at St. John Lateran, he called Borgia to his side
and embraced him. He also made Salmerón and Toletus his official
preachers, and gave the Jesuits the work of translating the "Catechism"
of the Council of Trent and of publishing a new edition of the Bible. He
was, however, about to revoke the Society's exemption from the office of
choir; but Borgia induced him to change his mind on that point, and even
obtained a perpetual exemption from the public recitation of the Office,
as well as the revocation of the restriction of the priesthood to the
professed of the Society. Moreover, when there was danger of a Turkish
invasion, Borgia was sent with the Pope's nephew to Spain and France to
organize a league in defence of Christendom, while Toletus accompanied
another cardinal to Germany.
Philip II had asked for missionaries to evangelize Peru, and hence at
the end of March, 1568, Portillo and seven Jesuits landed at Callao, and
proceeding to Lima established a church and college there on a
magnificent scale. It was easy to do so, however, for the Spanish
colonists were rolling in wealth. At the same time, the Indians and
negroes were not neglected. In 1569 twelve new missionaries arrived, and
one of them, Alonzo de Barzana, to the amazement of every one, preached
in the language of the Incas as soon as he came ashore. He had been
studying it every moment of the long journey from Spain. In 1574 a
college was established at Cuzco, in an old palace of the Incas, and
another in the city of La Paz.
At this stage of the work the first domestic trouble in the New World
presented itself. Portillo, the provincial, was admitting undesirable
candidates into the Society, and placing the professed in parishes, thus
flinging them into the midst of the civil and ecclesiastical turmoil
which then prevailed. In spite of his abilities, however, he was
promptly recalled to Spain. It is very gratifying to learn that outside
the domestic precincts, no one ever knew the reason of this drastic
measure. Freedom from parochial obligations left the Fathers time for
their normal work, and they forthwith established schools in almost
every city and town of Peru. The training school on Lake Titicaca,
especially, was a very wise and far-seeing enterprise, for there the
missionaries could devote themselves exclusively to the study of the
native language and to historical, literary and scientific studies. The
result was that some of the most eminent men of the period issued from
that educational centre. It is said that the printing-press they brought
over from Europe was the first one to be set up in that part of the New
World. Titicaca flourished as late as 1767, but at that time Charles III
expelled the Jesuits from Peru and Titicaca ceased to be.
The Society had a long and desperate struggle, before it could gain an
educational foothold in France. Possibly it was a preparation for the
future glory it was to win there. Its principal enemies were the
University of Paris and, incidentally, the Parliament, which came under
the influence of the doctors of the Sorbonne. The first band of Jesuits
arrived under the leadership of Domenech, who had been a canon in Spain
but had relinquished his rich benefice to enter the Society--an act
which seemed so supremely foolish in the eyes of his friends that they
accused Ignatius of bewitching him. Later, he became a sort of Saint
Vincent de Paul for Italy. He found Palermo swarming with throngs of
half-naked and starving children, and immediately built an asylum for
them. He established hospitals, Magdalen asylums, refuges for the aged,
and went round the city holding out his hand for alms to repair the
dilapidated convents of nuns, whom the constant wars had left homeless
and hungry. Giving the Spiritual Exercises was one of his special
occupations.
In the group, also, was Oviedo, the future Patriarch of Abyssinia, who
was to spend his life in the wilds of Africa. There too was Strada,
orator, poet and historian, who was to be one of the most illustrious
men of his time; he taught rhetoric for fifteen years in the Roman
College, was the official preacher and the intimate friend of Popes
Clement VIII and Paul V, and wrote a "History of the Wars of Flanders,"
which met with universal applause. Finally, there was the famous young
Ribadeneira, then only a boy of fourteen; he had left one of the most
brilliant courts of Europe--that of Cardinal Farnese, the brother of
princes and popes--and later became famous as a distinguished Latinist,
a successful diplomat, the chosen orator at the inaugural ceremonies of
the Collegium Germanicum, an eminent preacher at Louvain and Brussels,
and an envoy to Mary Tudor in her last illness. He was provincial,
visitor and assistant under Borgia and Laínez, the great champion of the
Society in Spain against Vásquez and his fellow-conspirators, and an
author whose works in his native Castilian are ranked among the classics
of the language.
Their staunch friend was du Prat, the Bishop of Clermont, who gave them
the palace which had been, up to that time, his residence when visiting
the metropolis. Before that shelter was assured to them, they had lived
as boarders, first in the Collège des Trésoriers and then in the Collège
des Lombards, not as Jesuits, but as ordinary students whose similarity
of taste in matters of piety seemed to the outside world to have drawn
them together. Of course, their real character soon became known, and
then their troubles began. A college was attempted at Tournon in the
following year, with Auger as rector, but the civil war was raging and
before a twelve-month, Adrets, the most bloodthirsty monster of the
Huguenot rebellion, whose favorite amusement was to make his prisoners
leap off the ramparts to the rocks below, put an end to everything
Catholic in Tournon.
Crétineau-Joly is of opinion that the recognition of the Society in
France was retarded by its refusal to admit the famous Guillaume Postel
in its ranks. It seems absurd, but it happened just then that France had
gone mad about Postel; and Marguérite de Valois used to speak of him as
the "Wonder of the World." He was indeed a very remarkable personage.
Though only self-instructed, he knew almost every language; he had
plunged in the depths of rabbinical and astrological lore; to obtain an
intimate knowledge of the Orient, he had accompanied the Sultan in an
expedition against the Persians; he had spent vast sums of money in
purchasing rare manuscripts; he was sought for by all the universities;
he drew immense crowds to his lectures, and wrote books about every
conceivable subject, but at the same time with all his genius he was
undoubtedly insane. So that when he went to Rome and told about his
spiritual communications with the mythical Mère Jeanne, and how he
proposed to unite the whole human race, by the power of the sword or the
word, under the banner of the Pope and the King of France, who, he said,
was a lineal descendant of the eldest son of Noe, the perspicacity of a
Loyola was not needed to understand his mental condition. His rejection
ought to have been a recommendation rather than a reproach.
When established in their new house, the Jesuits received scholars and
asked for affiliation to the university, but the request was
peremptorily refused, for the alleged reason that they were neither
secular priests nor friars, but a nondescript and novel organization
whose purpose was mysterious and suspicious. Besides, they were all
Spaniards--a genuine difficulty at a time when Charles V and Francis I
were threatening to go to war with each other. It happened also that the
Archbishop of Paris, du Bellay, was their avowed enemy; he denounced
them as corrupters of youth, and expelled them from the little chapel of
Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which a Benedictine abbot had put at their
disposal. Finally, when the war seemed imminent, the foreigners were
sent away, some to Lyons and some to Louvain. For a time, those who
remained were shielded by the papal nuncio at Paris, but he was
recalled. Then the Archbishop of Rheims and the Cardinal of Lorraine
appeared as their protectors. They had even secured the grant of a
charter for the college and were very hopeful of opening it, but, as the
concession had to be passed on by the Parliament before it became
effective, they were as badly off as ever. Besides this, their lack of
friends had left the college without funds, for the teaching given in
their house was gratuitous--a practice which formed the chief
educational grievance alleged by the university. Evidently a staff of
clever professors who taught for nothing constituted a menace to all
other institutions. Conditions became so desperate that at one time
there were only four pupils at Clermont. Nevertheless, with an amazing
confidence in the future success of the Society in France, it was just
at this moment that St. Ignatius established the French province, and
sent the beloved Pasquier Brouet as superior.
Brouet had already given proofs of his ability in dealing with
difficulties; for with Salmerón he had faced the danger of death in
Ireland, and when there was question of creating a Patriarch of
Abyssinia or Ethiopia, another place of prospective martyrdom, he was
the first choice, though Oviedo was ultimately selected, probably
because of his nationality. Shortly after his arrival, a new college was
attempted at Billom, but Father de la Goutte who was appointed rector
was captured by the Turks and died on an island off the coast of Tunis.
A substitute, however, was appointed, and in a few years the college had
five hundred students on its roll. Applications were made also for
establishments at Montarges, Périgueux and elsewhere. In 1560 the first
friend of the Society in France, the Bishop of Clermont, died, leaving
rich bequests in his will to the colleges at Paris and Billom, but they
were disallowed by the courts because the Society was not an authorized
corporation. For, in spite of the fact that not only the sanction of
Henry II but also that of Francis II had been given, yet the university
and the Archbishop of Paris had contrived by all sorts of devices to
delay the complete official recognition of the establishment. In the
long fight that ensued against this injustice, Father Cogordan, who was
the procurator of the province, distinguished himself by his
resourcefulness in facing and mastering the various situations.
The opposition finally collapsed in a very dramatic fashion. Charles IX
was on the throne, but the reins of government were in the hands of his
mother, Catherine de' Medici, who, contrary to the express wish of the
Sovereign Pontiff, had consented to the demands of the Huguenots for a
general assembly, where the claims of the new religion might be
presented to the representative Catholics of the kingdom. The Colloquy,
as it was called, took place at Poissy in 1561. The experience of
Germany in permitting such gatherings had shown very clearly that,
instead of conducing to religious peace, they only widened the breach
between Catholics and Protestants. For the calm statement of dogmatic
differences was ignored by the appellants, and the sessions were
purposely turned into a series of disorderly and virulent denunciations
and recriminations.
The Colloquy in this instance was very imposing. The queen mother,
Charles IX and the whole court were present. There were five cardinals,
forty bishops and a throng of learned divines from all parts of France.
Cardinal de Tournon presided; Hôpital was the spokesman for the crown;
while the King of Navarre and the Prince de Condé represented the
Huguenot party. Among the Protestant ministers were Theodore Beza and
Peter Martyr, the ex-friar. Eight days had gone by in useless squabbles
when into the assembly came James Laínez, who was then General of the
Society, and had been sent thither by the Pope to protest against the
Colloquy. Beza had already been annihilated by the Cardinal of Lorraine,
and Peter Martyr was speaking when Laínez entered. The great man who
had held the Council of Trent enthralled by his leaning and eloquence
listened for a while to his unworthy adversary and then arose.
Addressing the queen, he said: "It may be unseemly for a foreigner to
lift his voice in this presence, but as the Church is restricted to no
nation, it cannot be out of place for me to give utterance to the
thoughts that present themselves to my mind on this occasion. I will
first advert to the danger of these assemblies and will especially
address myself to what Friar Peter and his colleague have advanced."
The use of the name "friar" publicly pilloried the apostate. He writhed
under it, but he could not escape. It recurred again and again as the
tactics of Beza and his associates were laid bare. Then, turning to the
queen, Laínez said: "The first means to be taken to avoid the deceits of
the enemy is for your Majesty to remember that it is not within the
competency either of your Majesty or any other temporal prince to
discuss and decide matters pertaining to the Faith. This belongs to the
Sovereign Pontiff and the Councils of the Church. Much more so is this
the case when, as at present, the General Council of Trent is in
session. If these teachers of the new religion are sincerely seeking the
truth, let them go there to find it." After adding his authority to the
splendid reply already uttered by the Cardinal of Lorraine, Laínez said:
"As Friar Peter has asked us for a confession of faith, I confess the
Catholic Faith, for which I am ready to die; and I implore Your
Majesties, both you, Madame, and your son, the Most Christian King, to
safeguard your temporal kingdom if you wish to gain the Kingdom of
Heaven. If on the contrary you care less for the fear and love of God
than the fear and love of man, are you not running the risk of losing
your earthly as well as your heavenly kingdom? I trust that this
calamity will not fall upon you. I expect, on the contrary, that God in
his goodness will grant you and your son the grace of perseverance in
your faith, and will not permit this illustrious nobility now before me,
and this most Christian kingdom, which has been such an example to the
world, ever to abandon the Catholic Faith or be defiled by the
pestilential touch of these new sects and new religions."
This discourse was a particularly daring act, on the part of Laínez.
According to a recent authority (Martin, Gallicanisme et la Réforme, 28,
note 4), Du Ferrier, the government delegate at Trent, circulated a note
which said among other things: "As for Pius IV we withdraw from his
rule; whatever decisions he may have made we reject, spit back at him
(_respuimus_) and despise. We scorn and renounce him as Vicar of Christ,
Head of the Church and successor of Peter." Far from reprehending his
ambassador for these furious words, Charles IX and, of course, Catherine
praised the ambassador unreservedly. Catherine had busied herself
previous to this in trying to persuade the different governments to have
a council in which the Pope should have nothing to say, one whose object
would be, not to define dogma or enforce discipline, but, to draw up a
formula of reconciliation which would satisfy Protestants. Even the
French bishops, though admitting that the Pope was a supreme power in
the Church, denied that he had supreme power over it, and refused to
acknowledge "his plenitude of power to feed, rule and govern the
Universal Church." The separation of France from the Church was at that
time openly advocated. Since such were the conditions in France at that
time, it is clear that Catherine never expected an attack of the kind
that Laínez treated her to. She burst into tears and withdrew from the
Colloquy. There was never another public session. Crétineau-Joly says
that Laínez told Condé: "The queen's tears are a bit of comedy;" but
such an utterance from a man of the character of Laínez and in such
surroundings, where the insult would have been immediately reported to
the queen, is simply inconceivable. He could never have been guilty of
such an unpardonable indiscretion.
Meantime, the bishops and archbishops of France had been meeting during
the recesses of the Colloquy to consider the question of legislation for
the Jesuit colleges. With the exception of Cardinal de Châtillon and the
Archbishop of Paris, they were all anxious to put an end to the
proscription to which the Society had been so long and so unjustly
subjected. As it happened that Cardinal de Châtillon, the brother of the
famous Admiral Coligny, the patron saint of the French Calvinists, was
just then on the point of apostatizing and taking a wife and as the
scandal was of common knowledge it evidently would not do for the
Archbishop of Paris to be ranged on his side. That and, probably, the
fact of his being tired out by the long fight which had been protracted
only because of his natural stubbornness, made him give way, and the
Society was legalized in France. No doubt the presence of Laínez and his
closing up of the Colloquy by his audacious discourse had helped largely
to bring about that result. Some disagreeable restrictions were appended
to the grant, it is true, but they were cancelled a few years later by a
royal decree. Parliament finally yielded and signed the charter of the
College on January 14, 1562. Laínez saw the queen frequently after the
Colloquy, and remained in France for some time, striving unweariedly to
win back to the Faith such men as Condé, the King of Navarre and others,
and continuing to warn the queen that her unwise toleration would
result in disaster to the realm. Unfortunately he was not heeded.
While all this was going on, another college had been established at
Pamiers, which was in the heretical territory of Navarre. Its founders
were none others than the rector of the Roman College, Jean Pelletier,
and Edmond Auger. But in the beginning the inhabitants were suspicious
and refused the commonest hospitality to the new comers, so that their
first dwelling had the advantage of being like the Stable of
Bethlehem--a hut with no doors and no windows. Finally, however, their
sermons in the churches captivated the people and the "Jezoists," as
they were called, succeeded in getting a respectable house and beginning
their classes. This was in 1559, but before the end of 1561 the
"Jezoists" were expelled by the excited Huguenots, and were compelled to
take refuge in Toulouse.
The Edmond Auger just mentioned was perhaps the most eloquent man of
that period in France. He was called the Chrysostom of his country.
Wherever he went, crowds flocked to hear him, fanatical Calvinists as
well as devoted Catholics. His first sermon was in Valence, where the
bishop had just apostatized and the Huguenots were in complete
possession. A furious outbreak resulted, and he was seized and sentenced
to be burned to death. While standing at the stake, he harangued the
people before the torch was applied, and so captivated the mob that they
clamored for his release. His devotedness to the sick in a pestilence at
Lyons won the popular heart and a college was asked for. At various
times he was chaplain of the troops, confessor of Henry IV, rector and
provincial; but unfortunately he was so outspoken in his denunciation of
the League that the people of Lyons, who once admired him, were wrought
up to fury by his utterances on the political situation, and were on
the point of throwing him into the Rhône. His unwise zeal had thus
seriously injured the Society.
When the council of Trent had concluded its sessions, Canisius was sent
back to Germany by the Pope to see that the decrees were promulgated and
enforced. He labored for five years to accomplish this task, but failed
completely. With the exception of some bishops like Truchsess of
Augsburg, very few paid any attention to the Pope's wish, the reason
being that they were mostly scions of the nobility, who were accustomed
to live in luxury and had adopted the ecclesiastical profession solely
because of the rich revenues of the sees to which their relatives had
had them appointed. At that very time fourteen of them, it is said on
the best authority, were wearing their mitres without even having
notified the Pope of their election or asking his approbation. They,
more than Martin Luther, were responsible for the loss of Germany. Their
lives were such that Canisius forbade his priests to accept the position
of confessor to any of them. Of course, such men turned a deaf ear to
the papal decree about establishing diocesan seminaries; and those who
desired them were prevented by their canons, some of whom were not even
priests. It was for this reason that Canisius begged the Pope to
establish burses in foreign seminaries, where worthy ecclesiastics might
be trained whose lives would be in such contrast with the general
depravity and ignorance of the clergy that the bishops would perhaps be
shamed out of their apathy.
The establishment of burses, however, was only a temporary expedient;
for the few secular priests they might furnish could scarcely support
the strain to which they would be subjected in the terrible isolation
which their small number would entail. They would not have the compact
organization of a religious order to keep them steady, and yet they
would be the victims of the same kind of persecution as Canisius and his
associates had to undergo. From this difficulty arose the idea of the
Collegium Germanicum already referred to, an establishment in Rome under
the direction of the Jesuits, to which young Germans distinguished for
their intellectual ability and virtue could be sent and trained to be
apostles in their native land. It was the Collegium Germanicum that
saved to the Faith what was left of Germany and won back much that was
lost.
"The German College at Rome," said a Protestant preacher in 1594
(Nothgedrungene Erinnerungen, Bl. 8), "is a hotbed singularly favorable
for developing the worst kind of Jesuitry. Our young Germans are
educated there gratuitously; and at the end of their studies they are
sent home to restore papistry to its former place and to fight for it
with all their might. You find them exercising the ministry in a great
number of collegiate churches and parishes. They become the advisers of
bishops and even archbishops; and we see these Jesuits under our very
eyes defending the Catholic cause with such zeal that we Evangelicals
may well ask ourselves in what lands and in what towns such fervent zeal
for the beloved Gospel is found among our own party. They seduce so many
souls from us that it is too distressing even to enumerate them." Martin
Chemnitz, the Protestant theologian, said that if the Jesuits had done
nothing but found the German College, they would deserve to be regarded
for that one achievement as the most dangerous enemy of Lutheranism.
"These young men," said another Protestant controversialist in 1593,
"are like their teachers in diabolical cunning, in hypocritical piety,
and in the idolatrous practices which they propagate among the people.
They preach frequently, pretending to be good Christians, they frequent
hospitals and visit the sick at home, all out of a pure hypocrisy
saturating the very hides of these wretches. They are again persuading
the simple and credulous people to return to their damnable papistry"
(Janssen, op. cit., IX, 323, sqq.).
Echsfeld, Erfurt, Aschaffenburg, Mayence, Coblentz, Trèves, Würzburg,
Spires and other places soon felt the effects of the zeal of these
students of the Collegium Germanicum. Their manner of life meant
hardship and danger of every kind; assaults by degenerate Catholics and
infuriated heretics; vigils in miserable huts and pest-laden hospitals,
resulting sometimes in sickness and violent death; but "these messengers
of the devil," as the preachers called them, kept at their work and soon
won back countless numbers of their countrymen to the Faith. Similar
establishments also grew up at Braunsberg, Dillingen, Fulda, Munich and
Vienna. Representatives of other religious orders entered into the
movement and gave it new life and vigor. Janssen (IX, 313) informs us
that the foundation of seminaries for poor students also was due to
Canisius and his fellow-workers. At their suggestion Albert V founded
the Gregorianum at Munich in 1574; and Ingolstadt, Würzburg, Innsbruck,
Halle, Gratz and Prague soon had similar establishments. As early as
1559 Canisius assumed the responsibility for two hundred poor students,
and by having them live in common was able to supply all their needs.
After each of his sermons in the cathedral, he went around among the
great personages assembled to hear him, to ask for alms to keep up his
establishments. Father Voth, following his example forty years later,
collected 1400 florins in a single year for the same purpose.
The work of regeneration was not restricted to the foundation of
ecclesiastical seminaries. Janssen (l.c.) gives us an entire page of
the names of colleges taken from the "Litteræ annuæ," in some of which
there were nine hundred, one thousand, and even thirteen hundred
scholars. Between 1612 and 1625 Germany had one hundred Jesuit colleges.
In all of them were established sodalities the members of which besides
performing their own religious exercises in the chapel, visited the
hospitals, prisons and camps and performed other works of charity and
zeal. On their rosters are seen the names of men who attained eminence
in Church and State--kings, princes, cardinals, soldiers, scholars, etc.
These sodalities had also established intimate relations with similar
organizations all over Europe. Naturally, this intense activity aroused
the fury of the heretics. Calumnies of every kind were invented; and in
1603 a preacher in Styria announced that the most execrable and
sanguinary plots were being formed to drown the whole Empire in blood in
order to nullify the teaching of the Evangel. "O poor Roman Empire!" he
exclaimed, "your only enemies, the only enemies of the Emperor, of the
nation, of religion are the Jesuits." Janssen adds: "The facts told a
different story."
Father Peter Pázmány figures at this period in a notable fashion. He was
a Hungarian from Nagy Várad, also known as Grosswardein. His parents
were Calvinists, but he became a Catholic and at the age of sixteen
entered the Society at Rome, where he was a pupil of such scholars as
Bellarmine and Vásquez. He taught in the college of Gratz, which had
been founded by the Jesuits in 1573 with theological and philosophical
faculties. The Archduke Ferdinand enriched it with new buildings and
furnished it with ample revenues, giving it also ecclesiastical
supremacy in Carinthia and other estates of the crown. Pázmány became
the apostle of his countrymen, both by his books and his preaching. He
was a master in his native tongue, says Ranke (History of the Popes, IV,
124), and his spiritual and learned work "Kalaus," produced an
irresistible sensation. Endowed with a ready and captivating eloquence,
he is said to have personally converted fifty of the most distinguished
families, one of which ejected twenty ministers from their parishes and
replaced them by as many Catholic priests. The government was also swung
into line; the Catholics had the majority in the Diet of 1625, and an
Esterhazy was made Palatine. Pázmány was offered a bishopric which he
refused, but finally the Pope, yielding to the demand of the princes and
people, appointed him primate and then made him a cardinal. His "Guide
to Catholic Truth" was the first polemic in the Hungarian language. He
founded a university at Tyrnau which was afterwards transferred to Buda.
The Hungarian College at Rome was his creation, as was the Pazmaneum in
Vienna. His name has been recently inserted in the Roman Breviary in
connection with the three Hungarian martyrs, two of whom were Jesuits,
Pongracz and Grodecz, who were put to death in 1619.
Italy exhibited a similar energy from one end to the other of the
Peninsula. Chandlery in his "Fasti Breviores" (p. 40) tells us that "the
first school of the Society was opened in the Piazza Ara Coeli in 1551,
and soon developed into the famous Roman College. In 1552 it was removed
to a house near the Minerva; in 1554 to a place near the present site;
in 1562 to the house of Pope Paul IV; and in 1582 to the new buildings
of the Gregorian University." It was in this college on March 25, 1563,
that the Belgian scholastic, John Leunis, organized the first sodality
of the Blessed Virgin. Fouqueray, however, contests this claim of the
Ara Coeli school, and asserts that the first college was at Messina,
and was begun in 1547, and that St. Ignatius determined to make it the
model of all similar establishments. Its rule was based on the methods
that prevailed in the colleges of the University of Paris, with changes,
however, in its discipline and religious direction. Its plan of studies
was the first "Ratio studiorum." It had two sessions of two or three
hours each daily; Latin was always employed as the language of the
house, but both Hebrew and Greek were taught. Vacation lasted only
fifteen days for pupils in humanities and the higher grades; and only
eight days or less for those in the lower classes. The students went to
confession every month and assisted daily at Mass. Nearly all the cities
of the peninsula had called for similar colleges. In what is now Belgium
there were thirty-four colleges or schools, an apparently excessive
number, but the fact that they were, with two exceptions, day-schools
and that small boys were excluded will explain the possibility of
managing them with comparatively few professors. Six or seven sufficed
for as many hundred pupils. Moreover, something in the way of a
foundation to support the school was always required before its
establishment.
In 1564 the Roman Seminary was entrusted to the Society; and in 1578 the
Roman College. Five years previously, the Collegium Germanicum, after
Canisius had presented a memorial to Gregory XIII on the services it was
expected to render, obtained a subsidy for a certain number of students.
The Bull, dated August, 1573, exhorted the Catholics of the German
Empire to provide for a hundred students of philosophy and theology. The
Pope gave it the palace of St. Apollinaris, the Convent of St. Sabas and
the revenues of St. Stephen on Monte Coelio. Over and above this, he
guaranteed 10,000 crowns out of the revenues of the Apostolic Treasury.
In 1574 it had one hundred and thirty students and in a few years one
hundred and fifty. The philosophers followed a three years' course, the
theologians four. Between 1573 and 1585 the Pope disbursed for the
Collegium Germanicum alone about 235,649 crowns--equivalent to about a
quarter of a million dollars. Besides this, as early as 1552 St.
Ignatius had obtained from Julius III a Bull endowing a college for the
study of the humanities, in which young Germans could prepare themselves
for philosophy and theology. In its opening year it had twenty-five
students, and in the following twice as many. Under Paul IV when the
establishment was in dire want, St. Ignatius supported it by begging,
and he told Cardinal Truchsess that he would sell himself into slavery
rather than forsake his Germans. It was while engrossed in this work
that Ignatius died. His memory is tenderly cherished in the Collegium
Germanicum to this day. When his name is read out in the Martyrology on
July 31, the students all rise, and with uncovered heads listen
reverently to the announcement of the feast of their founder.
CHAPTER III
ENDS OF THE EARTH
Xavier departs for the East--Goa--Around Hindostan--Malacca--The
Moluccas--Return to Goa--The Valiant Belgian--Troubles in Goa--
Enters Japan--Returns to Goa--Starts for China--Dies off the
Coast--Remains brought to Goa--Africa--Congo, Angola, Caffreria,
Abyssinia--Brazil, Nobrega, Anchieta, Azevedo--Failure of
Rodriguez in Portugal.
When John III of Portugal asked for missionaries to evangelize the
colonies which the discoveries of Da Gama and others had won for the
crown in the far east, Bobadilla, Rodriguez and Xavier were assigned to
the work. Bobadilla's sickness prevented him from going, and then His
Majesty judged that he was too generous to his new possessions and not
kind enough to the mother country; so it was decided to keep Rodriguez
in Portugal, his native land, and send Xavier to the Indies.
Xavier arrived at Lisbon in June, 1540, and waited there eight months
for the departure of the vessel, during which time he and Rodriguez
effected a complete reformation in the morals of the city. He then began
a series of apostolic journeys which were nothing less than stupendous
in their character, not only for the distances covered during the eleven
years to which they were restricted, but because of the extraordinary
and often unseaworthy craft in which he traversed the yet uncharted seas
of the East, which were swept by typhoons and infested by pirates, and
where there was constant danger of being wrecked on inhospitable coasts
and murdered by the savage natives. Three times his ship went to pieces
on the rocks, and on one occasion he had to cling to a plank for days
while the waves swept over him. Several times he came near being
poisoned, and once he had to hide in the bush for a long time to escape
the head-hunters of the Moluccas. The distances he traversed can only be
appreciated by having an atlas at hand while perusing the story.
Leaving Europe, his course lay along the west coast of Africa, rounding
Cape of Good Hope and then making for far away Mozambique. From there he
pointed across the Arabian Sea to Goa on the west coast of Hindostan.
Shortly afterwards, he continued down the coast to Cochin and Cape
Comorin and across to Ceylon, then along the eastern side of the
peninsula to the Pearl Fisheries, and back to Goa. Soon after, he is
sailing across the Bay of Bengal to distant Malacca, which lies north of
Sumatra; from there he penetrates into the Chinese Sea, and skirting
Borneo and the Celebes, he arrives at the Molucca Islands, going through
them from north to south and back. Returning to Goa, he again makes for
Malacca and points north to Japan, passing the Philippines on his way,
though it is claimed that he landed at Mindanao. From Japan he returns
to Goa and then sets out for China. He reached an island opposite
Canton, pined away there for a month or so, as no one dared to carry him
over to the coast. He then took his flight to heaven, which was very
near.
It was a great day for Lisbon when, on April 7, 1541, which happened to
be his birthday, Xavier set sail for India. He was papal nuncio and King
John's ambassador to the Emperor of Ethiopia. Nevertheless the princes
and potentates whom this poorly clad ambassador met on his way must have
gazed at him in wonder; for in spite of his honors, he washed and mended
his own clothes, and while on shipboard refused the assistance of a
servant and scarcely ate any food. The crew were a rascally set, as
were most of the sea-rovers of those days; but this extraordinary papal
nuncio and ambassador passed his time among them, always bright,
approachable and happy, nursing them when they were sick, and gently
taking them to task for their ill-spent lives. All day long he was busy
with them, and during the night he was scourging himself or praying. By
the time the ship reached its destination it was a floating church.
Goa was the capital of Portuguese India. It was not yet the golden Goa
of the seventeenth century; but it had churches and chapels and a
cathedral, an inchoate college and a bishop and a Franciscan friary.
Mingled, however, with the Christian population was a horde of
idolaters, Mussulmans, Jews, Arabians, Persians, Hindoos and others, all
of them rated as inferior races by the Portuguese who were the hidalgos
or fidalgos of Goa, even if they had been cooks and street-sweepers in
Lisbon or Oporto. They were now clad in silks and brocades, and wore
gold and precious gems in profusion; they delighted in religious
displays; but in morality they were more debased than the worst pagans
they jostled against in the streets. There were open debauchery,
concubinage, polygamy and kindred crimes.
The coming of the papal nuncio was a great event, but he refused all
recognition of his official rank. He lived in the hospital, looked after
the lepers in their sheds, or the criminals in the jails, taught the
children their catechism, and conversed with people of every class and
condition. He got the secrets of their conscience; and in five months,
Goa, at least in its Christian population, was as decent in its morals
as it had formerly been corrupt and depraved. At the end of the
peninsula, but beyond Cape Comorin, were the Pearl Fisheries, where
lived a degraded caste who had been visited by the Franciscans and
baptized some years before; but they had been left in their ignorance
and vice, and no one in Goa now ever gave them a thought. Thither Xavier
betook himself with his chalice and vestments and breviary, but with no
provisions for his support.
On his way he passed Salsette, where Rudolph Aquaviva was martyred in
later days; and he saw Canara and Mangalore and Cananon, where there was
a mission station. He then went to Calicut and Cranganore and Cape
Comorin, where the goddess Dourga was worshipped, and finally arrived at
the Fisheries, where he found a people who were wretchedly poor, with
nothing to cover them but a turban and a breech-clout, and who lived in
huts along the shifting sands near the cocoanut-trees. With their tiny
boats and rafts they contrived to get a livelihood from the sea, but
they were shunned by the other Hindoos; for baptism had made them
outcasts, and they were also the helpless victims of the pirates who
were constantly prowling along the coast. Xavier lived in their filthy
houses, talked with them through interpreters, gave them what
instructions they were capable of receiving, and baptised all who had
not yet become Christians. He remained two years with them, and after
getting Portuguese ships to patrol the Sea, sent other missionaries to
replace him when he had built catechumenates and little churches here
and there. Although Xavier appears to have justified these rapid
conversions by the precedent of 3000 people becoming Christians after
the first sermon of St. Peter, yet Ignatius, while not blaming his
methods, wrote him later that the instructions should precede and not
follow baptism, and that quality rather than quantity should be the
guide in accessions to the Faith.
Xavier returned thence to Goa, but we find him in the last days of
September, 1545, abandoning India for a time and going ashore near the
Portuguese settlement on the Straits of Malacca. It was a dangerous
post, for it swarmed with Mohammedans. There were fierce _écumeurs de
mer_, or sea-combers, on the near-by coasts of Sumatra, and on the
island of Bitang the dethroned sultans were waiting for a chance to
expel the Portuguese, while all through the interior were fierce and
unapproachable savage tribes. Besides all this, the whites who had
settled there for trade were a depraved mob; it is recorded that Xavier
spent three whole days without food hearing their confessions, and
passed entire nights praying for their conversion. In spite of all this
accumulation of labor, he contrived to write a catechism and a
prayer-book in Malay. In 1546 he went further east, past Java and
Flores, and reached the Moluccas after a month and a half. He was on
sociable terms everywhere, with soldiers and sailors and commandants of
posts as well as cannibals, and made light of every hardship and danger
in his efforts to win souls to God. Up and down the islands of the
archipelago he travelled, meeting degeneracy of the worst kind at every
step. But he established missionary posts, with the wonderful result
that ten years later, De Beira, whom he sent there, had forty-seven
stations and 3000 Christian families in these islands. Xavier spent two
years in the Moluccas to prepare the way, and was back again in Goa in
1548.
During his absence, a number of missionaries, making in all six priests
and nine coadjutor brothers, had been sent from Portugal. With them were
a dozen Dominicans. Among the Jesuits were Fernandes and Cosmo de
Torres, who, later on, were to be along with Xavier the founders of the
great mission of Japan. There came also Antonio Gomes, a distinguished
student of Coimbra, a master of arts, a doctor of canon law, and a
notable orator. But, except as an orator, he was not to have the success
in Goa that he had won in Lisbon. Likewise in the party was Gaspard
Baertz, a Fleming, who had had a varied career, as a master of arts at
Louvain, a soldier in the army of Charles V, a hermit at Montserrat, a
Jesuit in Coimbra, and now a missionary in India. It was Baertz's
capacity for work that prompted Xavier's famous petition: "Da mihi
fortes Belgas" (Give me sturdy Belgians). Criminali, the first of the
Society to be martyred in the East, had arrived previously, as had
Lancilotti, a consumptive, who seemed to be particularly active in
writing letters to Rome complaining of Xavier's frequent absences from
Goa.
Gomes was appointed rector of the nondescript college, which belonged to
the Bishop of Goa, and which had been partly managed by Lancilotti up to
that time. The new superior immediately proceeded to turn everything
upside down, and his hard, authoritative methods of government
immediately caused discontent. According to Lancilotti, he was utterly
unused to the ways of the Society in dealing not only with the members
of the community but with the native students. His idea was to make the
college another Coimbra--a great educational institution with branches
at Cochin, Bacaim and elsewhere. However, the plan was not altogether
his conception. Something of that kind had been projected for India in
connection with a great educational movement which was agitating
Portugal at that time. In writing to Lisbon and Rome about this matter,
Xavier incidentally reveals his ideas on the question of a native
priesthood. He required for it several previous generations of
respectable Christian parents. The division of castes in India also
created a difficulty, for the reason that a priest taken from one caste
was never allowed intercourse with those who belonged to another; and,
finally, he pointed out that for a Portuguese to confess to a native was
unthinkable.
Meanwhile, although domestic matters were not as satisfactory as they
might have been, Xavier was planning his departure for Japan. He first
visited several posts and settled the difficulties that presented
themselves. Gomes was his chief source of worry, and there is no doubt
that he would have been removed from his post as rector on account of
the dissatisfaction he had caused, had it not been for his wonderful
popularity in the city as a preacher. Just then a change might have
caused an outbreak among the people and a rupture with the bishop.
Xavier contented himself, therefore, with restricting the activities of
Gomes to temporal matters; and assigned to Cypriano the care of the
spiritual interests of the community. He could have done nothing more,
even if he had remained at Goa.
These repeated absences of Francis Xavier from Goa have often been urged
against him as revealing a serious defect in his character; a yielding
to what was called "Basque restlessness," which prompted those who had
that strain in their blood to be continually on the road in quest of new
scenes and romantic adventures. The real reason seems to have been his
despair of doing anything in Goa, with its jumble of Moslems and pagans
and corrupt Portuguese, and its string of military posts where every
little political commandant was perpetually interfering with missionary
efforts. It could never be the centre of a great missionary movement. "I
want to be," he said, "where there are no Moslems or Jews. Give me out
and out pagans, people who are anxious to know something new about
nature and God, and I am determined to find them." He had heard
something about Japan, as verifying these conditions; and, though he
had travelled much already and was aware of the complaints about
himself, he resolved to go further still; so, taking with him de Torres
and Fernandes, besides a Japanese convert, Xaca, and two servants, he
set his face towards the Land of the Rising Sun. He was then forty-three
years of age.
He was at Malacca from May 31 to June 24, 1549, and found that the
missions he had established there were doing remarkably well, as were
the others in the Moluccas. The latter, however, he did not visit. He
started for Japan in a miserable Chinese junk, three other associates
having joined him meantime,--a Portuguese, a Chinaman, and a Malay. It
took two months before he saw the volcanoes of Kiu Siu on the horizon,
and it was only on August 15, 1549, that he went ashore at Kagoshima,
the native city of his Japanese companion. The day was an auspicious
one. It was the anniversary of his first vows at Montmartre.
Xavier began studying the language of the country and remained for a
time more or less in seclusion; with the help of Xaca, or Paul as they
called him, a short statement of the Christian Faith was drawn up. With
that equipment, after securing the necessary permission, he, Fernandes
and Xaca started on their first preaching excursion. Their appearance
excited the liveliest curiosity. In the eyes of the people Xavier was
merely a new kind of bonze, and they listened to him with the greatest
attention. The programme adopted was first for Xaca to summon the crowd
and address them, then Xavier would read his paper. They were always
ready to stop at any part of the road or for any assembly and repeat
their message. Soon their work rose above mere street preaching. They
were invited to the houses of the great who listened more or less out of
curiosity or for a new sensation. When they had accomplished all they
could in one place, they went to another, always on foot, in wretched
attire, through cities and over snow-clad mountains, always, however,
with the aim of getting to the capital of the empire, both to see the
emperor and to reach the great university, about which they had heard
before they set out for Japan. Naturally, the teaching of this new
religion brought Xavier into conflict with the bonzes, who were a
grossly immoral set of men, though outwardly pretending to great
austerity. The people, however, understood them thoroughly and were more
than gratified when the hypocrites were held up to ridicule.
By this time he discovered his mistake in going about in the apparel of
a beggar, and henceforward he determined to make a proper use of his
position as envoy of the Governor of the Indies and of the Bishop of
Goa. He, therefore, presented himself to the Daimyo of Yamaguchi in his
best attire, with his credentials engrossed on parchment and an abundant
supply of rich presents--an arquebus, a spinnet, mirrors, crystal
goblets, books, spectacles, a Portuguese dress, a clock and other
objects. Conditions changed immediately. The Daimyo gave him a handsome
sum of money, besides full liberty to preach wherever he went. He lived
at the house of a Japanese nobleman at Yamaguchi, and crowds listened to
him in respectful silence as he spoke of creation and the soul--subjects
of which the Japanese knew nothing. His learning was praised by every
one, and his virtue admired; soon several notable conversions followed.
After remaining at this place for six months, Xavier went to the
capital, Meaco, the present Kioto, but apparently he made little or no
impression there. Then news came from Goa which compelled him to return
to India. So leaving his faithful friends, de Torres and Fernandes, to
carry on the work which was so auspiciously begun, he started for Goa,
somewhere between 15 and 20 November, 1551. He had achieved his
purpose--he had opened Japan to Christianity.
On the ship that carried him back to Goa, Xavier made arrangements with
a merchant named Pereira to organize an expedition to enter China.
Pereira was to go as a regularly accredited ambassador of the Viceroy of
the Indies, while Xavier would get permission from the emperor to preach
the Gospel, and ask for the repeal of the laws hostile to foreigners
and, among other things, for the liberation of the Portuguese
prisoners--dreams which were never realized, but which reveal the
buoyant and almost boyish hopefulness of Xavier's character. On his way
back he heard of the tragic death of Criminali at Cape Comorin--the
first Jesuit to shed his blood in India. It occurred in one of the
uprisings of the Badages savages against the Portuguese. Later a brother
was killed at the same place. Success, however, had attended the labors
of Criminali and his associates; for according to Polanco and an
incomplete government census, there were between 50,000 and 60,000
Christians at that point in 1552. It was well on in February of that
year when Xavier stepped ashore at Goa.
During his absence, the missions had all achieved a remarkable success.
Among them was a new post at Ormuz off the coast of Arabia where
Mussulmans of Persia, Jews from far and near, even from Portugal, Indian
Brahmans and Jains, Parsees, Turks, Arabians, Christians of Armenia and
Ethiopia, apostate Italians, Greeks, Russians and a Portuguese garrison
met for commerce, and for the accompanying debauchery of such Oriental
centres. The Belgian missionary, Baertz, had transformed the place. All
this was satisfactory; but the college at Goa where Gomes presided was
in disorder. Before that imprudent man could have possibly become
acquainted with the ways of the new country, he had let himself be duped
by one of the native chiefs who pretended to be a convert, but who was
in reality a black-hearted traitor. He had also nullified the authority
of his associate in the government of the college, and had been acting
almost as superior of the entire mission. Among the people he had caused
intense irritation by changing the traditional church services; he had
dismissed the students of the college and put novices in their stead; he
had appropriated a church belonging to a confraternity and, in
consequence, had got both himself and the Society embroiled with the
governor-general. But in spite of all this, it was still difficult to
depose him on account of his popularity and because he was looked upon
as an angel by the bishop. Unfortunately, Gomes refused to be convinced
of his shortcomings and even disputed the right of his successor, who
had already been appointed. Hence popular though he was, he was given
his dimissorial letters. He appealed to Rome, and on his way thither was
lost at sea. It is rather startling to find that Francis Xavier not only
used this power of dismissal himself but gave it even to local superiors
(Monumenta Xaveriana, 715-18). Possibly it was because of the difficulty
of communication with Rome that this method was adopted, but it would be
inconceivable nowadays.
When all this was settled, Xavier appointed Baertz, vice-provincial,
and, on April 17, 1552, departed for China. On arriving at Cochin, he
heard that one of the missionaries had been badly treated by the
natives, that the mission was in dire want, and that Lancilotti was in
sore straits at Coulam. But all that did not stop him. He merely wrote
to Baertz to remedy these evils, and then continued on his journey. Of
course it would be impossible to judge such missionary methods from a
mere human standpoint. For Xavier's extraordinary thaumaturgic powers,
his gifts of prayer and prophecy easily explain how he could not only
convert multitudes to the Faith, in an incredibly short space of time,
but keep them firm and constant in the practice of their religion, long
after he had entrusted the care of them to others. The memory of his
marvellous works, which are bewildering in their number, would
necessarily remain in the minds of his neophytes, while the graces which
his prayers had gained for them would give them a more intelligent
comprehension of the doctrines he had taught them than if they had been
the converts of an ordinary missionary.
Up to the time of his departure for China his apostolic career had been
like a triumphal progress. He was now to meet disaster and defeat, but
it is that dark moment of his life which throws about him the greatest
lustre. His friend, Pereira, had been duly accredited as ambassador of
the viceroy and had invested the largest part of his fortune in the
vessel that was to convey Xavier as papal nuncio to the court of the
Emperor of China. It was the only way to enter the country and to reach
the imperial court; but the Governor of Malacca defeated the whole
scheme. He was a gambler and a debauchee, and wanted the post of
ambassador for himself to pay his debts. Hence, in spite of the
entreaties of Xavier and the menace of the wrath both of the king and
the Pope he confiscated the cargo and left the two envoys stranded, just
when success was assured. The result was that Pereira had to remain in
hiding, while Xavier shook the dust from his feet, not figuratively but
actually, so as to strike terror into the heart of Don Alvaro. He
embarked on his own ship, "The Holy Cross," which was now converted into
a merchantman and packed with people. In that unseemly fashion he
started for China.
A landing was made on the island of Sancian which lay about thirty miles
from the mainland, on a line with the city of Canton. Trading was
allowed at that distance, but any nearer approach to the coast meant
imprisonment and death. That island was Xavier's last dwelling-place on
earth; there he remained for months gazing towards the land he was never
to enter. There were several ships in the offing, but he was shunned by
the crews, for fear of the terrible Alvaro who was officially "master of
the seas" and could punish them for being friends of his enemy. At least
the Chinese traders who had come over to the island were approachable,
and Xavier succeeded in inducing one of them for a money consideration
to drop him somewhere on the coast--he did not care where. But no sooner
was the bargain known than there was an uproar among the crews of the
ships. If he were caught, they would all be massacred, and so he agreed
to wait till they had sailed away.
Slowly the weeks passed, as one by one the vessels hoisted sail and
disappeared over the horizon. Xavier's strength was failing fast, and he
lay stretched out uncared for, under a miserable shed which had been
built on the shore to protect him from the inclemency of the weather.
With his gaze ever turned towards the coast which he had so longed to
reach, he breathed his last on December 2, 1552, with the words on his
lips: "In thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me not be confounded forever."
He was but forty-six years old; eleven years and seven months had
elapsed since he sailed down the Tagus for the Unknown East. Only four
people were courageous enough to give him the decencies of a burial, the
others looked on from the gunwales of the ship, while his grave was
being dug on shore. His body was placed in a box of quick-lime so that
the flesh might be quickly consumed, and the bones carried back to Goa;
having lowered it into a grave which was made in a little hillock above
the sea, the small party withdrew.
Two months later, when the ship was about to leave, the box was opened,
and to the amazement and almost the terror of all, not only was the
flesh found to be intact, but the face wore a ruddy hue, and blood
flowed from an incision made below the knee. It was a triumphant
ship's-crew that now carried the precious freight to Malacca. They were
no longer afraid, for their ship was a sanctuary guarding the relics of
a saint. The ceremonies were impressive when they reached Malacca,
though Don Alvaro scorned even to notice them; but when the vessel
entered the harbor of Goa the splendor of the reception accorded the
dead hero surpassed all that the Orient had ever seen. Xavier rests
there yet, and his body is still incorrupt. It was a proper ending of
the earthly career of the greatest missionary the world has known since
the days of the Apostles. In 1622 he was canonized with his friend
Ignatius by Pope Gregory XV.
In striking contrast with all this glory is the failure of every one of
the missions on the Dark Continent of Africa. Between 1547 and 1561 the
Congo and Angola had been visited, but no permanent post had been
established. In Caffreria, Father Silveira and fifty of his neophytes
were martyred. In 1555 Nunhes, Carnero and Oviedo were sent to
Abyssinia, the first as patriarch, the others as suffragans. The
patriarchate subsequently passed to Oviedo, who was the only one to
reach the country. He was well received by the Negus, Asnaf, and
permitted to exercise his ministry, but, in 1559 the king was slain in
battle, and his successor drove the missionary and his little flock out
into the desert of Adowa, a region made famous, in our own times, by the
disastrous defeat of the Italian troops when they met Menelik and his
Abyssinians. Oviedo continued to live there during twenty years of
incredible suffering. In 1624 Paez, one of his successors, succeeded in
converting the Emperor Socimos, and in getting Abyssinia to abjure its
Eutychianism, but when Basilides mounted the throne in 1632 he handed
over the Jesuits to the axe of the executioner. After that, Abyssinia
remained closed to Christianity until 1702.
The most curious of these efforts to win Africa to the Faith occurred as
early as 1561, when Pius IV, at the request of the Patriarch of
Alexandria, sent a delegation to the Copts, in an endeavour to re-unite
them to the Church. Among the papal representatives was a Jesuit named
Eliano, who was a converted Jew. He had been brought up as a strict
Hebrew, and when his brother became a Christian he had hurried off to
Venice to recall him to Judaism. The unexpected happened. Eliano himself
became a Christian and, later, a Jesuit. As he had displayed great
activity in evangelizing his former co-religionists, he was thought to
be available in this instance, but unfortunately on arriving at
Alexandria, he was recognized by the Jews, who were numerous and
influential there, and a wild riot ensued, the voice that shrieked the
loudest for his blood being that of his own mother. It was with great
difficulty that his friends prevented his murder. He returned to Europe
and his last days were spent in Rome where he was the friendly rival of
the great Cardinal Farnese in caring for the poor of the city. They
died on the same day, and their tombs were regarded as shrines by their
sorrowing beneficiaries.
In the western world, the first Jesuit missionary work was begun in the
Portuguese possession of Brazil. After Cabral had accidentally
discovered the continent in 1500, a number of Portuguese nobles
established important colonies along the coast; and when subsequently
some French Calvinists, under Villegagnon, attempted a settlement on the
Rio Janeiro, Thomas da Sousa was commissioned by the king to unite the
scattered Portuguese settlements and drive out the French intruders. He
chose the Bay of All Saints as his central position, and there built the
city of San Salvador. Fortifications were thrown up; a cathedral, a
governor's palace and a custom house were erected, and a great number of
houses were built for the settlers. Unlike France and England, Spain and
Portugal lavished money on their colonies. With da Sousa were six Jesuit
missionaries, chief of whom was the great Nobrega. They were given an
extensive tract of land some distance from San Salvador, and there in
course of time the city of São Paolo arose. There was plenty to do with
the degenerate whites in the various settlements, but the savages
presented the greatest problem. They were cannibals of an advanced type,
and no food delighted them more than human flesh. To make matters worse,
the white settlers encouraged them in their horrible practices, probably
in the hope, that they would soon eat each other up.
Nobrega determined to put an end to these abominations, he went among
the Indians, spoke to them kindly, healed their bodily ailments,
defended them against the whites, and was soon regarded by these wild
creatures as their friend and benefactor. At last, concluding that the
time had come for a master stroke, he one day walked straight into a
group of women who were preparing a mangled body for the fire, and with
the help of his companions carried off the corpse. This was sweeping
away in an instant all their past traditions, and as a consequence the
whole tribe rose in fury and swarmed around the walls of the city
determined to make an end of the whites. But Sousa called out his
troops, and, whether the Indians were frightened by the cannon or
mollified by the kind words of the governor, the result was that they
withdrew and promised to stop eating human flesh. This audacious act had
the additional effect of exciting the anger of the colonists against
Nobrega and his associates. The point had been made, however, that
cannibalism was henceforth a punishable offence and great results
followed. Tribe after tribe accepted the missionaries and were converted
to Christianity. But it was very hard to keep them steady in their
faith. A pestilence or a dearth of food was enough to make them fall
into their old habits; and they were moreover, easily swayed by the
half-breeds who, time and time again, induced them to rise against the
whites. But da Sousa was an exceptional man, and had the situation well
in hand. He pursued the Indians to their haunts, and, as his punitive
expeditions were nearly always headed by a priest with his uplifted
cross he often brought them to terms without the shedding of blood.
Another obstacle in this work of subjugation was found in the remnants
of Villegagnon's old French garrison. At one time they had succeeded in
uniting all the savages of the country in a league to exterminate the
Portuguese. Villegagnon's supposedly impregnable fort was taken and
battle after battle was won by the Portuguese, but the war seemed never
to end. At last Nobrega took the matter in his own hands. "Let me go,"
he said, "to see if I cannot arrange terms of peace with the enemy." It
was a perilous undertaking, for it might mean that in a few days his
body would be roasting over a fire in the forest, in preparation for a
savage banquet. But that did not deter him. He and his fellow-missionary
Anchieta set out and found the Indians wild with rage against the
whites. Plea after plea was made, but in vain. At last, he got them to
make some concession, and then returned to explain matters to the
governor, leaving Anchieta alone with the Indians. They did him no harm,
however; on the contrary, he won their hearts by his kindness and amazed
them by his long prayers, his purity of life, his prophecies and his
miraculous powers. Month after month went by and yet there was no news
from Nobrega. Finally the governor, accepting the conditions insisted on
by the Indians, yielded, and peace was made.
It is interesting to learn that the lonely man who had stayed all this
while in the forest, José Anchieta, was a perfect master of Latin,
Castilian and Portuguese; besides being somewhat skilled in medicine, he
was an excellent poet and even a notable dramatist. He composed grammars
and dictionaries of the native language, after he returned to where pen
and ink were available; and it is said he put into print a long poem
which he had meditated and memorized during his six terrible months of
captivity. He died in 1597; but before departing for heaven, he saw the
little band of six Jesuits who had landed with Nobrega increased to one
hundred and twenty, and when his career ended one hundred more rushed
from Portugal to fill the gap.
As for Nobrega, the day before he died, he went around to call on his
friends. "Where are you going?" they asked him. "Home to my own
country," he answered, and on the morrow they were kneeling around his
coffin. Southey says that "so well had Nobrega and Anchieta trained
their disciples that in the course of half a century, all the nations
along the coast of Brazil, as far as the Portuguese settlements
extended, were collected in villages under their superintendence"
(History of Brazil, x, 310). "Nobrega died at the close of the sixteenth
century," says Ranke, "and in the beginning of the seventeenth we find
the proud edifice of the Catholic Church completely reared in South
America. There were five arch-bishoprics, twenty-seven bishoprics, four
hundred monasteries and innumerable parish churches." Of course, with
due regard to Ranke, all that was not the work of Jesuits, but men of
his kind see "Jesuit" in everything. It may be said, however, that they
contributed in no small degree to bring about this result.
In 1570 Azevedo conducted thirty-nine Jesuits from Madeira to Brazil.
Simultaneously, thirty more in two other ships set sail from Lisbon for
the same destination. But the day after Azevedo's party had left
Madeira, the famous Huguenot pirate, Jaques Soria, swooped down upon
them, hacked them to pieces on the deck, and then threw the mangled
remains to the sharks. The amazing Southey narrates this event as
follows: "He did by the Jesuits as they would have done by him and all
their sect:--put them to death." When the news reached Madeira, the
brethren of the martyrs sang a Te Deum which Southey informs us, "was as
much the language of policy as of fanaticism." Four days later, one
English and four French cruisers which Southey fails to tell us were
commanded by the Huguenot Capdeville, caught the other missionaries and
did their work so effectually, that of the sixty-nine splendid men whom
Azevedo started out with, only one arrived in Brazil. The struggle did
not end with the massacre. Sixty years afterwards the same enemy
attacked the missions of Pernambuco in Brazil where, "one hundred and
fifty tribes"--a Protestant annalist calls them "hordes"--had been
brought into alliance with the Portuguese, and were rapidly making
progress both in Christianity and civilization; on Good Friday in the
year 1633 the freebooters, passing at midnight through the smoking ruins
of Olinda, attacked Garassu in the early morning, while the inhabitants
were assembled at Mass, with the result, says Southey, that "the men who
came their way were slaughtered, the women were stripped, and the
plunderers with cruelty tore away ear-rings through the ear-flap, and
cut off fingers for the sake of the rings that were upon them. They then
plundered and burnt the town."
Similar heroism was shown in other parts of the world about this time.
Thus in 1549 Ribeira was poisoned at Amboina; a like fate overtook
González in 1551 at Bazaim, India; in 1555 three Jesuits were wrecked on
a desert island while on their way to the East, and died of starvation;
in 1573, Alvares, the visitor of Japan and four companions were lost at
sea; and in 1575 another Jesuit died at Angola in Africa after fourteen
years' cruel imprisonment.
Over all this splendor, however, there rests a shadow. Simon Rodriguez,
who was so to speak the creator of all this apostolic enthusiasm, came
very near being expelled from the Society. He was the idol of Portugal
and the intimate friend and adviser of King John III, who was untiring
in promoting missionary enterprise in the vast regions over which he
held sway, both in the Eastern and Western world. This association,
however, involved frequent visits to the court, and the attractions of
the work soon grew on Rodriguez, though with his characteristic
unsteadiness he was writing to Xavier and others to say that he was
longing to go out to the missions, a longing he never gratified.
Moreover, his judgment in the choice of missionaries was of the worst.
Untrained novices were sent out in great numbers and were naturally
found unfit for the work with the result that they had to return to
Europe. Meantime another influence was effacing the real spirit of the
Society from the soul of this chosen man whom Ignatius himself had
trained. A craze for bodily mortifications had swept over Portugal, and
Brou in his "Vie de St. François Xavier" tells us: that it was not
uncommon to see eight or ten thousand flagellants scourging themselves
as they walked processionally through the streets of Lisbon. The Jesuits
there were naturally affected by the movement, with the result that
although intense fervor was displayed in the practice of this virtue,
domestic discipline suffered. The supreme fact that obedience was the
characteristic trait of the Society had never been thoroughly
appreciated or understood by Simon Rodriguez, although he was one of the
first companions of St. Ignatius.
Astrain in his "Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la Asistencia de
España", does not mince matters on this point (I, xix). Indeed, the
provincialship of Rodriguez in Portugal almost brought about a tragedy
in the history of the Society. Yielding to the popular craze for public
penances, his subjects paid little attention to mortification of the
will, with the result that the defections from the Society in that
country, both in number and quality, amounted to a public scandal.
Finally, the removal of Rodriguez became imperative, but, unfortunately,
his successor, Father Mirón, was deplorably lacking in the very elements
of prudence. Disregarding the advice of Francis Borgia and of the
official visitor, de Torres, who were sent with him as advisers, he went
alone into Portugal and abruptly removed Rodriguez from his post. As
Rodriguez was almost adored then by the people of Portugal and was very
much admired and beloved by King John III and by the whole royal family,
they should have been first approached and the reason of the change
explained. To pass by such devoted friends who had lavished favors on
the Society and who could do so much harm, if alienated, was not only
highly impolitic but grossly discourteous. Anyone else but John III
might well not only have driven them from Portugal but have withdrawn
them from Brazil and the Indies, with the result that the Society would
probably never have had an Anchieta or a Francis Xavier. Happily such a
calamity was averted. Mirón's subsequent administration was in keeping
with his initial act, and when at last the visitor arrived and restored
normal conditions in the province no less than one hundred and
thirty-seven members of the province had either left the Society or had
to be dismissed.
Rodriguez was summoned to Rome and might have been pardoned immediately
had he avowed his fault, but he demanded a canonical trial. Several
grave fathers were, therefore, appointed and their sentence was
extremely severe, but Ignatius made them reconsider it again and again,
and make it milder. He even modified their final verdict. Rodriguez
never went back again to Portugal in an official capacity.
This humiliating episode is somewhat slurred over by Crétineau-Joly, but
the Jesuit historians like Jouvancy, Brou, Astrain, Valignano, Pollen
make no attempt to conceal or palliate it. The failure of Rodriguez only
illustrates the difficulty that St. Ignatius had in making his followers
grasp the fundamental idea of the Society.
Paulsen, the German Protestant historian, is shocked to find that in
Jesuits, generally, there exists "something of the silent but incessant
action of the powers of nature. Without passion, without appeals to war,
without agitation, without intemperate zeal, they never cease to
advance, and are scarcely ever compelled to take a step backward.
Sureness, prudence and forethought characterize each of their movements.
As a matter of fact, these are not lovable qualities," he says, "for
whoever acts without some human weakness is never amiable." The "step
backward" made by Rodriguez, in this instance, ought to satisfy
Paulsen's requirements for that amiability which, according to him, is
associated with "human weakness." One need not be reminded that it is a
curious psychology that can find amiability in a disease or a deformity.
The amiability is in the person who puts up with it, not in the
offender. Henri Joly in his "Psychologie des Saints," furnishes another
example of this disregard of facts which so often affects the vision of
a man in pursuit of a theory. To prove the marvellous power which
Ignatius exerted over men, he tells us that when Rodriguez was summoned
to Rome "the only sentiment in his mind was that of almost delirious
joy, at again seeing the companion of his youth, his friend and master."
The facts narrated above would imply that there was anything but
delirious joy in the mind of Rodriguez before, during or after his
trial, and the facts also show that sometimes it takes more than the
marvellous power of a St. Ignatius to control even a holy man under the
influence of a passion or a delusion.
This incident also disposes of the hallucination that Jesuits are all
run in the same mould and hence easily recognizable as members of the
Order. This is far from being the case. It is true that as the Society
is governed to a certain extent on military principles, cheerful and
prompt obedience is its characteristic. The General is supreme commander
and is in touch with every member of the organization; he can tell in a
moment where the individual is, what he is doing and what are his good
qualities and defects. He can assign him to any country or any post;
refusal to obey is absolutely out of the question. Such is the special
trait of the Society, but apart from this, it is an aggregation of as
disparate units as can possibly be imagined. Men of all races,
conditions, dispositions, aspirations and attainments, Americans,
English, French, Italian, Spanish, Syrians, Hungarians, Hindoos,
Chinese, Japanese, Malgache, and others live in the same house, follow
the same rules, and maintain absolute peace with each other. All
infractions of brotherly love are frowned upon and severely punished,
and continued dissension or rebellion means expulsion. These men, from
the highest to the lowest, do not shirk danger--like genuine soldiers
they covet it; nor are they depressed by the repeated exiles,
expulsions, spoliations and persecutions, to which the Society has been
always subject. Taught by experience of the past, they know that they
will emerge from the struggle stronger and better than before and will
win further distinction in the battle for God.
CHAPTER IV
CONSPICUOUS PERSONAGES
Ignatius--Laínez--Borgia--Bellarmine--Toletus--Lessius--Maldonado
--Suárez--Lugo--Valencia--Petavius--Warsewicz--Nicolai--Possevin
--Vieira--Mercurian.
St. Ignatius died on July 31, 1556. During his brief fifteen years as
General, he had seen some of his sons distinguishing themselves in one
of the greatest councils of the Church; others turning back the tide of
Protestantism in Germany and elsewhere; others again, winning a large
part of the Orient to the Faith; and still others reorganizing Catholic
education throughout regenerated Europe, on a scale that was bewildering
both in the multitude of the schools they established and the splendor
of their success. Great saints were being produced in the Society and
also outside of it through its ministrations. Meantime, its development
had been so great that the little group of men which had gathered around
him a few years before had grown to a thousand, with a hundred
establishments in every part of the world.
Magnificent as was this achievement he did not allow it to reflect any
glory upon himself personally. On the contrary, he withdrew more and
more from public observation, and devoted to the establishment of his
multiplied and usual charities, among the humblest and most abandoned
classes of the city of Rome, what time was left him from the absorbing
care of directing, advising, exhorting and inspiring his sons who were
scattered over the earth in ever changing and dangerous situations. The
palaces of the great rarely, if ever, saw him, and he was the most
positive and persistent antithesis of what he is so commonly accused of
being: a schemer, a plotter, a politician, a poisoner of public morality
and the like. Nor was he seeking to exercise a dominating influence
either in the Church or State, as he is calumniously charged with doing.
The glory of God and the advancement of the spiritual kingdom on earth
was his only thought, and so far was he from imagining that the Society
was an essential factor in the Church's organization that he did not
hesitate to say that if it were utterly destroyed, or as he expressed
it, "if it were to dissolve like salt in water," a quarter of an hour's
recollection in God would have been sufficient to console him and
restore peace to his soul, provided the disaster had not been brought
about by his fault.
He was not, as he has often been charged with being, stern, severe,
arbitrary, harsh, tyrannical; on the contrary, his manner was most
winning and attractive. He was fond of flowers; music had the power of
making him forget the greatest bodily pain, and the stars at night
filled his soul with rapturous delight. He would listen with infinite
patience to the humblest and youngest person, and every measure of
importance before being put into execution was submitted to discussion
by all who had any concern in it. He would show intense and outspoken
indignation, it is true, at flagrant faults and offences, especially if
committed by those who were in authority in the Society; his wrath,
however, was vented not against the culprit, but against the fault.
Moreover, while reprehending, he kept his feelings under absolute
control. Indeed, his longanimity in the cases both of Rodriguez and
Bobadilla is astounding, and it is very doubtful if St. Francis Xavier,
whom he wanted to be his successor, would have been as tolerant or as
gentle. In his directions for works to be undertaken he was not
meticulous nor minute, but left the widest possible margin for personal
initiative; nor would he tolerate an obedience that was prompted by
servile fear. He continually insisted that the only motive of action in
the Society was love of God and the neighbor.
The gentle Lionel Johnson, poet though he was, gives us a fairly
accurate appreciation of the character of Saint Ignatius. "In the Saints
of Spain," he says, "there is frequently prominent the feature of
chivalry. Even the great Saint James, apostle and Patriarch of Spain,
appears in Spanish tradition and to Spanish imagination as an _hidalgo_,
a knight in gleaming mail who spurs his white war horse against the
Moor. And of none among them is this more true than of the founder of
the Society of Jesus. Cardinal Newman, describing him in his most famous
sermon, finds no phrase more fitting than 'the princely patriarch, St.
Ignatius, the Saint George of the modern world with his chivalrous lance
run through his writhing foe.' He was ever a fighter, a captain-general
of men, indomitable, dauntless. The secret of his character lies in his
will; in its disciplined strength; its unfailing practicality; its
singleness and its power upon other wills. It was hardly a Franciscan
sweetness that won to him his followers who from the famous six at
Montmartre grew so swiftly into a great band; it was not supremacy of
intellect or of utterance; it was not even the witness of his intense
devotion and self-denial. It was his unequalled precision and tenacity
of purpose; it was his will and its method. But we can detect no trace
of that proud personal ambition and imperiousness often ascribed to him.
He simply had learned a way of life that was profitable to religion
which was all in all to him, and he could not be lukewarm in its
service. _Noblesse oblige_, and a Christian holds a patent from the King
of kings. The Jesuit A. M. D. G. was his ruling principle. The former
heroic soldier of Spain was still a soldier, a swordsman, a strategist,
but in a holy war. His eyes were always turned towards the battle; but
he was far from forbidding, harsh, grim. He was tender and stern and
like Dante kept his thoughts fixed on the mysteries of good and evil."
His death was in keeping with his life. There was no show, no
ostentation, nothing "dramatic" about it, as Henri Joly imagines in his
"Psychologie des Saints." There was no solemn gathering of his sons
about his bedside, no parting instruction or benediction, as one would
have expected from such a remarkable man who had established a religious
order upon which the eyes of the world were fixed. He was quite aware
that his last hour had come, and he simply told Polanco, his secretary,
to go and ask for the Pope's blessing. As the physicians had not said
positively that there was any immediate danger, Polanco inquired if he
might defer doing so for the moment, as there was something very urgent
to be attended to; whereupon the dying Saint made answer: "I would
prefer that you should go now, but do as seems best." These were his
last words. He left no will and no instructions, and what is, at first,
incomprehensible, he did not even ask for Extreme Unction--possibly
because he was aware that the physicians disagreed about the seriousness
of his malady, and he was unwilling to discredit any of them; possibly,
also, he did so in order to illustrate the rule that he laid down for
his sons "to show absolute obedience in time of sickness to those who
have care of the body." When at last they saw that he was actually dying
someone ran for the holy oils, but Ignatius was already in his agony.
For one reason or another, he had not designated the vicar, who,
according to the Constitution, was to govern the Society, until a
General was regularly elected. Hence, as the condition of the times
prevented the assembling of the professed from the various countries of
Europe, the fathers who were in Rome elected Laínez. He, therefore,
summoned the congregation for Easter, 1557, but it happened just then
that Philip II and the Pope were at odds with each other, and no
Spaniard was allowed to go to Rome. Because of that, Borgia, Araoz and
others sent in a petition for the congregation to meet at Barcelona.
This angered the Pope, and he asked Laínez, who put the case before him:
"Do you want to join the schism of that heretic Philip?" Nevertheless,
when the papal nuncio at Madrid supported the request of the Spanish
Jesuits, his holiness relented somewhat, and said he would think of it.
The situation was critical enough with a Pope who was none too friendly,
when something very disedifying and embarrassing occurred. The
irrepressible Bobadilla who had not only voted for the election of
Laínez as vicar, but had served under him for a year, suddenly
discovered that the whole previous proceeding was invalid, and he
pretended, that, because St. Ignatius had failed to name a vicar, the
government of the Society devolved on the general body of the professed.
The matter was discussed by the Fathers and he was overruled, but he
still persisted and demanded the decision of Carpi, the cardinal
protector of the Society. When that official heard the case, he decided
against Bobadilla who forthwith appealed to the Pope. This time the
Cardinal assigned to investigate was no other than the future St. Pius
V. He took in the situation at a glance and dismissed Bobadilla almost
with contempt. There was another offender, Cogordan, who does not appear
to have objected to Laínez personally but who sent a written
communication to his holiness saying that Laínez and some others really
wanted to go to Spain, so as to be free from Roman control. This so
incensed the Pope that Laínez, though greatly admired by Paul IV,
obtained an audience only with the greatest difficulty, and was then
ordered to hand over the Constitutions for examination. Fortunately, the
same holy Inquisitor was sent, and Cogordan never forgot the lesson he
received on that occasion for daring to suggest such a thing about
Laínez. In the meantime, Philip had allowed the Spanish Jesuits to go to
Rome, and Laínez was elected General on July 2, 1558. As has been said
in speaking of Rodriguez, this incident is another illustration of the
tremendous difficulty of the task St. Ignatius undertook when he
gathered around him those unusually brilliant men, who were accustomed
to take part in the diets of the Empire, to be counsellors of princes
and kings and even popes. He proposed to make them all, as he said
"think the same thing according to the Apostle." He succeeded
ultimately.
The splendid work performed by Laínez at the Council of Trent had
naturally made him a prominent figure in the Church at that time.
Personally, also he was most acceptable to the reigning Pontiff, Paul
IV; nevertheless, owing to outside pressure, there was imminent danger
on several occasions of serious changes being made in the Constitutions
of the Society. The Pope had been dissuaded from urging most of them,
but he refused to be satisfied on one point, namely the recitation of
the Divine Office. He insisted that it must be sung in choir, as was the
rule in other religious orders. Laínez had to yield, and for a time the
Society conformed to the decision, but the Pope soon died, and in the
course of a year, his successor, Pius IV, declared the order to be
merely the personal wish of his predecessor and not a decree of the Holy
See.
During this generalate there were serious troubles in various parts of
Europe. Thus, in Spain, when Charles V withdrew into the solitude of
Yuste he was very anxious to have as a companion in retirement his
friend of many years, Francis Borgia. It was hard to oppose the
expressed wish of such a potentate as Charles, but Laínez succeeded, and
Borgia continued to exercise his great influence in Spain to protect his
brethren in the storm which was then raging against them. There were
troubles, also, throughout Italy. A veritable persecution had started in
Venice; an attempt was made to alienate St. Charles Borromeo in Milan;
in Palermo, the rector of the college was murdered. The General himself
had to go to France to face the enemies of the Faith at the famous
Colloquy of Poissy; Canisius was continuing his hard fight in Germany;
there were the martyrdoms of two Jesuits in India where, as in Brazil,
the members of the Society were displaying the sublimest heroism in the
prosecution of their perilous missionary work.
Laínez died in 1565, and was succeeded by Francis Borgia, who for many
years had been the most conspicuous grandee of Spain. He was Marquis of
Lombay, Duke of Gandia, and for three years had filled the office of
Viceroy of Catalonia. His intimacy with the Emperor Charles V, apart
from his great personal qualities, naturally resulted in having every
honor showered upon him. Astrain, in his history of the Society in
Spain, notes the difference in the point of view from which the Borgia
family is regarded by Spaniards and by other mortals. The former always
think of the saintly Francis, the latter see only Alexander VI. It is
not surprising, however, for it is one of the weaknesses of humanity to
exult in its glories and to be blind to its defects. Francis Borgia was
the great-grandson of Alexander on the paternal, and of King Ferdinand
on the maternal, side; there are, however, bar sinisters on both
descents that are not pleasant to contemplate, and Suau says, "he was
unfortunate in his ancestry."
Born on October 28, 1510, Borgia began his studies at Saragossa,
interrupting them for a short space to be the page of the Infanta
Catarina, daughter of Joanna the Mad. At eighteen, he was one of the
brilliant figures of the court of Charles V. At nineteen, he married
Eleanor de Castro, who belonged to the highest nobility of Portugal, and
at that time he was made Marquis of Lombay. When he was twenty-eight,
the famous incident occurred, which has been made the subject of so much
oratorical and pictorial exaggeration--his consternation at the sight of
the corrupting remains of the beautiful Empress Isabella, and his
resolution to abandon the court and the world forever. Astrain in
speaking of this event merely says: "he was profoundly moved;" Suau, in
his "Histoire de Saint François de Borgia," makes no mention of any
perturbation of mind and ascribes Borgia's vocation rather to subsequent
events. The Bollandists do not vouch for the story of his consternation,
but note that he was the only one who dared to approach the coffin, the
others keeping aloof on account of the odor. They add that his
biographers make him say: "Enough has been given to worldly princes." As
a matter of fact, later on, he willingly accepted the office of major
domo to Prince Philip, who was about to marry the Infanta of Portugal.
As the King and Queen of Portugal, however, refused to accept him in
that capacity, he was simply disgraced in the eyes of all diplomatic
Europe and was compelled to keep out of the court of his own sovereign,
for three whole years. "This and other serious trials, at that period,"
says Suau, "probably developed in him the work of sanctification begun
at Granada."
Borgia was thirty-six years of age when his wife died in 1546, and he
then consulted Father Faber, who happened to be in Spain at the time,
about the advisability of entering a religious order. He made the
Spiritual Exercises under Oviedo, and determined to enroll himself as
one of the members of the Compañía founded by Ignatius, with whom he had
been for some time in communication. He was accepted and given three
years to settle his worldly concerns. By a special rescript, the Pope
allowed him to make his vows of profession immediately. In January,
1550, he was allowed to present himself for ordination to the priesthood
whenever he found it feasible. On August 20 of the same year, he
obtained the degree of doctor of theology and ten days later, set out
for Rome with a small retinue. Accompanying him were nine Jesuits, among
whom was Father Araoz, the provincial. In every city he was officially
received, the nobility going out to meet him at Rome. He was sumptuously
lodged in the Jesuit house, part of which St. Ignatius had fitted up at
great expense to do honor to the illustrious guest. Soon, however, it
was rumored that he was to be made a cardinal, whereupon he took flight,
making all haste for Spain, without any of the splendor or publicity
which had surrounded him three months before. His only purpose was to
escape observation. Arriving in Spain, he visited Loyola, the birthplace
of Ignatius, and then fixed his residence at the hermitage of Oñate,
where, after receiving the Emperor's leave, he renounced all his honors
and possessions in favor of his son Charles. He was ordained priest on
May 23, 1551.
After six months spent in evangelizing the Basques, Borgia was sent to
Portugal to put an end to the troubles caused by Simon Rodriguez, but
did not reach that country until 1553. Meantime, sad to say, Father
Araoz astounded every one by displaying an intense jealousy of Borgia,
who had been made independent of all superiors except Ignatius himself,
and he demanded that his former friend and benefactor should show
himself less in public and give evidence of greater humility. His
complaints were incessant, and unfortunately an accidental unpopularity
involving the whole Borgia family which just then supervened gave some
color to the charges. In the meanwhile the Pope had again insisted on
bestowing the cardinalitial honor upon Borgia, and for a moment Nadal,
the Commissary General of Spain, was afraid that it might be accepted,
not out of any ambition on the part of Francis, but because of his
profound reverence for the will of the Sovereign Pontiff, especially as
he had not as yet pronounced the simple vow of the professed against the
reception of ecclesiastical dignities. Whereupon, Ignatius sent an order
for him to make the vow, and from that forward his conscience was at
rest on the question of running counter to the desires of the Pope.
In 1554 he was made commissary general in place of Nadal, who had been
summoned to Rome to assist Ignatius, now in feeble health. The
appointment of Borgia to such a post was most extraordinary for the
reason that he had been but such a short time in the Society, and had
never been in a subordinate position. The difficulty of his task was
augmented by the fact that he had been commissioned to divide the
Spanish section of the Society into four distinct provinces, and to
assume, in this and other matters the duties and functions of an office
which had no defined limitations, and which would inevitably bring him
into conflict with other superiors. As a matter of fact, the
commissariate was such a clumsy contrivance that it had soon to be done
away with.
Araoz had previously been at odds with Nadal, but he found it still more
difficult to get along with Borgia. This disedifying antagonism
continued for some time, and it is said that the old worldly superiority
of the viceroy showed itself occasionally in Borgia. His dictatorial
methods of government, his resentment of interference with his plans,
even when Nadal spoke to him, showed that he was not yet a Jesuit saint.
As if he still possessed unlimited revenues he established no less than
twenty new houses; and, when there were not sufficient resources to
carry them on, he expected his subjects to live in a penury that was
incompatible with general content and fatal to the existence of the
institutions. Moreover, his old propensity for great mortifications
manifested itself to such an extent that there was danger of the Jesuits
under him becoming Carthusian in their mode of life. Indeed, he was of
opinion that the old monastic prison and stocks should be introduced
into the Society, and he sent a _postulatum_ or petition to that effect
to the congregation which elected Laínez. The result was that a spirit
of revolt began to manifest itself in Spain, and Nadal, who was
temporarily there, was happy when recalled to Rome.
How all this can be reconciled with the admittedly remarkable prudence
of St. Ignatius and his profound knowledge of the character of those he
had to deal with is difficult to say. Had he perhaps received some
divine intimation of what Borgia was yet to be? On the other hand, it
must be borne in mind that these isolated instances of impatience,
authoritativeness, resentment and the like, naturally attract more
attention when seen in one who is possessed of brilliant qualities than
they would in any ordinary personage. Moreover, they occurred only in
his dealings with Jesuits of the same official standing, and were never
remarked when he had to treat with the rank and file who were entrusted
to his care and guidance. They were, in any case, faults of judgment and
not of perversity of will. Indeed so intent was he on acquiring the
virtue of obedience that he fell into a state of almost despondency and
distress when he was warned that Ignatius would disapprove of his
methods and measures. Finally, he was then only on the way to sanctity;
he had not yet achieved it.
It must be confessed, however, that Nadal was not at all pleased with
the attitude of Borgia and the other Spanish Jesuits, when the call for
the election of a new general was issued. He fancied that it was the
beginning of a schism. When, as previously pointed out, Philip II
allowed the Spanish delegates to go to the congregation, Borgia,
remained in Spain. The fear of the red hat still haunted him. The famous
_postulatum_ about the prison and stocks which he sent to the
congregation was, of course, promptly rejected. Borgia, however, had
other reasons not to go to Rome. Several Spanish cities were up in arms
against the Society; he himself was assailed openly in church by
Melchior Cano; a book he had written or was accused of having written
was condemned by the Inquisition, and he expected momentarily to be
arrested; evil things were also said about his character. Unfortunately,
Araoz took advantage of all this and began to pen a series of
denunciatory letters to the General against Borgia, and, though he was
rebuked for them and made public reparation for his offense, he soon
relapsed into his customary antagonism. To put an end to it all Laínez
summoned Borgia to Rome and conferred on him the honor of assistant.
Even that lesson Araoz failed to take to heart.
Francis reached Rome only in 1561. In the following year when Laínez had
to attend the re-opened Council of Trent, he made Borgia vicar general,
and, when Laínez died at the age of fifty-three in January, 1565, the
congregation which was convened in July of that year elected Borgia in
his place. At the same time stringent laws were enacted against the
hasty multiplication of houses and the inevitable lack of formation
which ensued. This was a notice served on the new General to control his
zeal in that direction. Borgia instituted novitiates in every province;
he circulated the book of Exercises and laid down rules for common life,
which on account of the enormous growth of the Society had now become a
matter of primary importance. Instead of showing any proneness to the
eremitical life or wishing to impose it on the Society, he gave an
example of immense and intense activity in public matters. Thus he had
much to do with the revision of the Bible, the translation of the
"Catechism" of the Council of Trent; the foundation of Propaganda; and,
omitting other instances of his administrative ability, when the plague
broke out in Rome in 1566, he so successfully organized the financial
and medical machinery of the city that two years afterwards, when the
plague appeared again, all the public funds were immediately placed in
his hands.
The impression that his administration was severe, exacting, harsh and
narrow has no foundation in fact. It is sufficient to glance at the five
bulky volumes made up mainly of correspondence and documents in the
"Monumenta Borgiana" to be convinced that the reverse was the case.
There is a kindliness, a graciousness, even a joyousness observable in
them on every page. He even kept a list of all the sick in the Society,
and consoled them whenever the opportunity offered. The vastness of his
correspondence is simply astounding; his letters are addressed to all
kinds of people, the lowest as well as the highest, and deal with every
variety of topic. Finally, there was no General who developed the
missions of the Society so widely and so solidly as did St. Francis
Borgia. He reformed those of India and the Far East, created those of
America, and before he died he had the consolation of knowing that
sixty-six of his sons had been martyred for the Faith during his
Generalate. The discovery of him by St. Ignatius was an inspiration, for
Borgia is one of the great glories of the Society. He ended his
remarkable life by a splendid act of obedience to the Pope and of
devotion to the Church.
On June 27, 1571, St. Pius V, his intimate friend, requested him to
accompany Cardinal Bonelli on an embassy to Spain and Portugal. He was
just then recovering from a serious illness, and felt quite sure that
the journey would result in his death, but he accepted the call. In
Spain he was received with the wildest enthusiasm. Indeed the papal
legate was almost forgotten in the public ovations. Portugal also
lavished honors on him, and when in consequence of new orders from the
Pope the embassy continued on to France to plead with Charles IX and
Catherine de' Medici, he was received in the same manner in that
country. On February 25 he left Blois but by the time Lyons was reached
he had been stricken with congestion of the lungs. From Lyons, the route
led across the snow-clad Mt. Cenis and continued by the way of Turin to
Alexandria, where they arrived on April 19.
As the invalid was in too perilous a state to permit of his going any
further for the moment, his relative, the Duke of Ferrara, kept him
through the summer until September 3, when another start was made for
Rome, where he wanted to die. The last stage of his journey inflicted
untold suffering on him, but he never complained. On September 28, he
arrived at the professed house in Rome, and throngs of cardinals and
prelates hurried to see him to get his blessing, for he was already
canonized in the popular mind. For two days he lingered, retaining full
consciousness, conversing at times with those around him, but most of
the time absorbed in prayer. When asked to name his vicar he laughed and
said: "I have enough to do to give an account of my own stewardship."
Towards evening he became speechless and about midnight peacefully
expired, ending a career which it would be hard to equal in romance--a
gorgeous grandee of Spain, a duke, a viceroy, the affectionate friend of
the greatest potentate on earth, and now dying in the poor room of a
Jesuit priest, atoning by his splendid sanctity for the offenses which
have made the name of the family to which he belonged a synonym of every
kind of iniquity.
Following close upon St. Francis Borgia came a number of men who have
reflected glory upon the Church and on the Society, some of them, the
most illustrious theologians of modern times, and others acting as the
diplomatic agents of the great nations of Europe in the tentative but
usually unsuccessful efforts to reunite Christendom. We refer to
Bellarmine, Toletus, Suárez, Petavius, Possevin and Vieira.
Speaking of Bellarmine, Andrew White, in his "Conflict of Science and
Religion" informs us that "there must have been a strain of Scotch in
Bellarmine, because of his name, Robert,"--a typical illustration of the
unreliability of Andrew White as a witness. The first Robert who appears
in Scottish history is the son of William the Conqueror, and
consequently a Norman. Even the name of Robert Bruce frequently occurs
as Robert _de_ Bruce, just as there is a John _de_ Baliol; Robert _de_
Pynkeny, etc. There is also a Robert of Arbrissel, associated with Urban
II in preaching the Crusades; Robert of Geneva, an antipope; Robert de
Luzarches, who had to do with the building of Notre-Dame in Paris, and
scores of others might be cited.
Robert Bellarmine was born at Montepulciano, in 1542. He was a nephew of
Pope Marcellus II, and after entering the Society was immediately
admitted to his vows. He studied philosophy for three years at the Roman
College and was then assigned to teach humanities. In 1567 he began his
theology at Padua, but towards the end of his course, he went to Louvain
to study the prevailing heresies of the day at close range. While there,
his reputation as a preacher was such that Protestants came from England
and Germany to hear him. In 1576 he was recalled to Rome to fill the
recently established chair of controversy, and the lectures which he
gave at that time form the groundwork for his remarkable work "De
controversiis." It was found to be so comprehensive, conclusive and
convincing in its character that special chairs were established in
Protestant countries to refute it. It still remains a classic.
Singularly enough, though Sixtus V had permitted the work to be
dedicated to him, he determined later to put it on the Index, because it
gave only an indirect power to the Holy See in temporal matters. But he
died before carrying out his threat, and his successor, Gregory XIII,
gave a special approbation to the book and appointed its author a member
of the commission to revise the Vulgate, which Sixtus had inaugurated,
but into which certain faults had crept. At Bellarmine's suggestion the
revision was called the "Sixtine edition" to save the reputation of the
deceased Pontiff.
He was rector of the Roman College in 1592, and in 1595 provincial of
Naples. In 1597 he was made theologian of Pope Clement VIII, examiner of
bishops, consultor of the Holy Office, cardinal in 1599, and assessor of
the Congregation "de Auxiliis," which had been instituted to settle the
dispute between the Thomists and Molinists on the question of the
conciliation of the operation of Divine grace with man's free will.
Bellarmine wanted the decision withheld, but the Pope differed from him,
though afterwards he adopted the suggestion. He had, meantime, been
consecrated Archbishop of Capua, by the Pope, and was twice in danger of
being raised to the papacy. He remained only three years at Capua, and
passed the rest of his life in Rome as chief theological adviser of the
Holy See. During this period occurred the dispute between Venice and the
Holy See in which Bellarmine and Baronius opposed the pretensions of
Paolo Sarpi and Marsiglio, the champions of the Republic. The English
oath of allegiance also came up for consideration at that time. In this
controversy Bellarmine found himself in conflict with James I of
England. He was conspicuous also in the Galileo matter. His life was so
remarkable for its holiness that the cause of his beatification was
several times introduced, but was not then acted on, because his name
was connected with the doctrine of papal authority, which was extremely
obnoxious to the French regalist politicians. It has, however, been
recently re-introduced.
When Baius, the theological dean of Louvain, first broached his errors
on grace, he was answered by Bellarmine; and in 1579 when he again
defended them, he was taken in hand by Toletus, who, after refuting him,
induced him to acknowledge his heresy before the united faculties of the
university. Unlike Bellarmine, who was of noble blood and the nephew of
a Pope, Toletus came of very humble people in Spain. Rosa says he was
one of the "new Christians," that is, of Jewish or Moorish blood. He was
born at Córdova in 1532 and was, consequently, ten years older than his
friend and fellow-Jesuit, Bellarmine. He made his studies at Salamanca,
where his master, the famous Soto, described him as an intellectual
prodigy; he must have been such, for he occupied a chair of philosophy
when he was fifteen. He entered the Society in 1558, and was sent to
Rome as professor of theology. He was appointed theologian and preacher
of Pius V, Gregory XIII, Sixtus V and Urban VIII, successively. He
accompanied Cardinal Commendone in his diplomatic visit to Germany, to
form a league against the Turks, just as Bellarmine had been deputed to
go with Gaetano to France during the Huguenot troubles. He was made a
cardinal in 1593, and in 1595 he induced Pope Clement to grant Henry IV
the absolution that brought peace to France. He warned the Pontiff that
a refusal in that case would be a grievous sin. Shortly afterwards he
was named legate to that country, but, as he had offended his
fellow-countrymen by showing himself hostile to Philip II in the matter
of the succession of Henry IV, it was considered advisable to send
someone else in his stead. He died in the following year, and that gave
occasion to the now discredited historian, d'Etoile, to say that the
Spaniards had poisoned him.
The writings of Toletus are very numerous. Bossuet was a great admirer
of his "Instructions to Priests," in which, as in his "Commentaries,"
his enemies discovered the "lax" principles of probabilism,
ultra-montanism, and the like, and he has been accused of teaching even
perjury, simony and regicide. He was the preacher and theologian of four
of the Popes, the counsellor of princes, and the great defender of the
Faith in the northern countries. Cabassut, one of the most learned of
the French Oratorians in the reign of Louis XIV, declared that we should
have to wait for several centuries before a man would appear who would
equal Cardinal Toletus. Tanner says that his life could not have been
more useful or better employed for Jesus Christ if he travelled over the
whole earth preaching the Gospel. Gregory XIII indignantly denounced
what he called the lies of those who assailed his character. "We set
against those calumnies our own testimony," he wrote, "and we affirm in
all truthfulness that he is incontestably the most learned man living
to-day; we have a greater opinion still of his integrity and his
irreproachable life. We have had personal proofs of both. We know him
perfectly and we testify to what we know. We beg of your Highness to
give full and entire faith to the truth and to the sincerity of our
testimony, and to regard this man henceforward as a true servant of
Jesus Christ, and marvellously useful to the whole Christian world."
These words were uttered before Toletus was clothed with the purple. He
will appear again at the election of Aquaviva.
Very angry at the punishment he had received at the hands of Bellarmine
and Toletus, Baius turned on Lessius, who was then teaching in the
Jesuit College at Louvain, where, acting on misinformation, the
university condemned thirty-four propositions which Baius ascribed to
him. Lessius declared that they were not his, but the university refused
to accept his word. Baius, therefore, continued his denunciation of
Lessius in particular and of the Jesuits in general as Lutherans and
heretics. Whereupon, not only the other universities but the whole
country took up the quarrel. When the question was ultimately referred
to the Pope, he replied that he himself had taught the same doctrine as
Lessius. Besides being one of the very great theologians of the Society,
Lessius was remarkable for the holiness of his life. Pope Urban VIII,
who made such stringent laws about canonization, and who knew Lessius
personally, paid a special tribute to his sanctity. He is now like
Bellarmine ranked among the venerable, and the process of his
beatification is proceeding.
Another great Jesuit theologian of this period was the Spaniard, Juan
Maldonado, who was born in 1533 at Casas de Reina, about sixty-six
leagues from Madrid. He went to the University of Salamanca, where he
studied Latin under two blind professors. He took up Greek with El
Pinciano, philosophy with Toletus, and theology with Soto. He was
endowed with a prodigious memory and never forgot anything he had ever
learned. His aspirations were at first for law, but he turned to
theology; and after obtaining the doctorate, taught theology, philosophy
and Greek at the university. He entered the Society in 1562, and was
ordained priest in the following year. He lectured on Aristotle in the
new College of Clermont in 1564, and then taught theology for the four
following years; after an interruption of a year, he continued his
courses until 1576. His lectures attracted such crowds that at times the
college courtyard was substituted for the hall. He was appointed a
member of the commission for revising the Septuagint; his knowledge of
Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldaic and Arabic and his comprehensive
knowledge of history, of the early Fathers and of all the heresies, gave
him the first rank among the Scriptural exegetes of his time. In
Cornely's opinion, his "Commentaries on the Gospels" are the best ever
published. Above all, he was a man of eminent sanctity, endowed with an
extraordinary instinct for orthodoxy, and an unflinching courage in
fighting for the Church as long as he had life. "His constant desire,"
says Prat, "was to make everything the Society undertook, bear the mark
of the greatness and sanctity which St. Ignatius had stamped on the
Institute."
There was also the great Suárez, who was born at Granada in 1548, and
became a Jesuit in 1564. Pope Paul V appointed him to answer King James
of England and wanted to retain him in the Holy City, but Philip II
claimed him for Coimbra to give prestige to the university. When he
visited Barcelona the doctors of the university went out to meet him
processionally to pay him honor. Bossuet declared that his writings
contained the whole of Scholastic theology. In Scholasticism he founded
a school of his own, and modified Molinism by his system of Congruism.
His book, "De defensione fidei," was burned in London by royal command,
and was prohibited as containing doctrines against the power of
sovereigns. One edition of his works consisted of twenty-three and
another of twenty-eight volumes in folio. De Scoraille has written an
admirable biography of this great man.
Cardinal de Lugo also should be included in this catalogue; indeed he is
one of the most eminent theologians of modern times. His precocity as a
child was almost preternatural, he was reading books when he was three
years old and was tonsured at ten; at fourteen, he defended a public
thesis in philosophy, and about the same time he was appointed to an
ecclesiastical benefice by Philip II. He studied law at the University
of Salamanca, but soon followed his brother into the Society. After
teaching philosophy at Medina del Campo and theology at Valladolid, he
was summoned to Rome to be professor of theology. His lectures were
circulated all over Europe before they were printed, and only when
ordered by superiors did he put them in book form. Between 1633 and 1640
he published four volumes which cover the whole field of dogmatic
theology. Their characteristic is that there is little, if any,
repetition of what other writers had already said. St. Alphonsus Liguori
rated him as only just below St. Thomas Aquinas; and Benedict XIV
styles him "a light of the Church." He was made a cardinal in 1643.
The distinguished Father Lehmkuhl appropriates four long columns in "The
Catholic Encyclopedia" to express his admiration for Gregory de Valencia
who was born in 1541 and died in 1603. He came from Medina in Spain and
was studying philosophy and jurisprudence in Salamanca, when attracted
by the preaching of Father Ramírez, he entered the novitiate and had the
privilege of being trained by Baltasar Álvarez, who was one of the
spiritual directors of St. Teresa. St. Francis Borgia called him to
Rome, where he taught philosophy with such distinction that all North
Germany and Poland petitioned for his appointment to their universities.
He was assigned to Dillingen, and two years afterwards to Ingolstadt,
where he taught for twenty-four years. His "Commentary" in four volumes
on the "Summa theologica" of St. Thomas is one of the first
comprehensive theological works of the Society. He contributed about
eight polemical treatises to the war on Lutheranism, which was then at
white heat; but he was not at one with his friend von Spee in the matter
of witchcraft. Von Spee wanted both courts and trials abolished; Gregory
thought their severity might be tempered. He had much to do with the
change of view in moral theology on the subject of usury; and the two
last volumes of his great work, the "Analysis fidei catholicæ"
culminates in a proof of papal infallibility which expresses almost
literally the definition of the Vatican Council.
In 1589 he was summoned to Rome to take part in the great theological
battle on grace. The task assigned to him was to prove the orthodoxy of
Molina, which he did so effectively and with such consummate skill that
both friend and foe awarded him the palm. But the battle was not over,
for it was charged that isolated statements taken from Molina's book
contradicted St. Augustine. Consequently all of St. Augustine's works
had to be examined; a scrutiny which of course called for endless and
crushing labor, but he set himself to the task so energetically that
when the debates were resumed his health was shattered, and he was
allowed to remain seated during the discussions. Thomas de Lemos was his
antagonist at this stage. In the ninth session, Gregory's strength gave
way and he fainted in his chair. His enemies said it was because the
Pope had reproached him with tampering with St. Augustine's text, but as
his holiness had decorated him with the title of "Doctor doctorum," the
accusation must be put in the same category as the other which charged
the Jesuits with poisoning Clement VIII so as to prevent him from
condemning their doctrine.
According to the "Biographie universelle," Denis Pétau, or Petavius, was
one of the most distinguished savants of his time. He was born at
Orléans, August 21, 1583, and there made his early studies. Later he
went to Paris, and at the end of his philosophical course defended his
thesis in Greek. He took no recreation, but haunted the Royal Library,
and amused himself collecting ancient manuscripts. It was while making
these researches, that he met the famous Casaubon, who urged him to
prepare an edition of the works of Synesius. While engaged at this work,
he was chosen for the chair of philosophy at Bourges, though he was then
only nineteen years old. As soon as he was ordained to the priesthood,
he was made canon of the cathedral of his native city. There he met
Father Fronton du Duc and entered the Society. After his novitiate, he
was sent to the University of Pont-à-Mousson for a course of theology.
He then taught rhetoric at La Flèche, and from there went to Paris. His
health gave way at this time, and he occupied himself in preparing some
of the works which Casaubon had formerly advised him to publish. In
1621, he succeeded Fronton du Duc as professor of positive theology, and
continued at the post for twenty-two years with ever increasing
distinction.
Pétau's leisure moments were given to deciphering old manuscripts and
studying history. Every year saw some new book from his hands;
meanwhile, his vast correspondence and his replies to his critics
involved an immense amount of other labor. Though naturally of a mild
disposition, his controversies unfortunately assumed the harsh and
vituperative tone of the period. It was the accepted method. His great
work on chronology appeared in 1627 and won universal applause; Philip
IV of Spain offered him the chair of history in Madrid, but he refused
it on the score of health. In 1637 he dedicated to Pope Urban VIII a
"Paraphrase of the Psalms in Greek verse," for which he was invited to
Rome, but he escaped the honor on the plea of age. As a matter of fact,
he was so frightened at the prospect of being made a cardinal that he
fell dangerously ill, and recovered only when assured that his name was
removed from the list. He stopped teaching in 1644, only eight years
before his death. The complete list of his books fills twenty-five
columns in Sommervogel's catalogue of Jesuit publications. They are
concerned with chronology, history, polemics, and the history of dogma.
His "Dogmata theologica" is incomplete, not having been carried beyond
the fifth volume.
In those days there was an extraordinary amount of exaggerated
confidence entertained by many of the dignitaries of the Church that the
Jesuits had an especial aptitude for adjusting the politico-religious
difficulties which were disturbing the peace of Europe. Thus, we find
Father Warsewicz sent to Sweden in 1574 to strengthen the resolution of
the king of that country, who, under the influence of his Catholic
queen, was desirous of restoring the nation to the Faith. Warsewicz
appeared in the court of King John, not as representing the Pope, but as
the ambassador of the King of Poland, who was related to Queen
Catherine. It was she who had suggested this means of approaching the
king. Accordingly, private meetings were held with the monarch during an
entire week, for five and six hours consecutively, for John prided
himself on his theological erudition. He agreed to re-establish
Catholicity in his realm, provided the chalice was granted to the laity
and that marriage of the clergy and the substitution of Swedish for
Latin in the liturgy were permitted. He had no difficulty about the
doctrinal teaching of the Church.
The king's conditions were, of course, unacceptable, and in 1576 Father
Nicolai was sent to see if he could induce him to modify his demand.
According to the "Realencyclopädie für protestantische Theologie und
Kirche" and Böhmer-Monod, Nicolai represented himself as a Lutheran
minister, and taught in Protestant seminaries. The "Realencyclopädie"
adds, "he almost succeeded in smuggling in what was virtually a Romish
liturgy." But in the first place, this "liturgy" was not "smuggled in"
by the Jesuit or anyone else. It was imposed by the king, and was in use
until his death which occurred seventeen years later, (The Catholic
Encyclopedia). Secondly, Nicolai could not have been posing as a
minister, for he let it be known that he had studied in Louvain,
Cologne, and Douay, which were Catholic seminaries. It is true that he
did not declare he was a Jesuit; but it is surely possible to be a
Catholic without being a Jesuit. It is more than likely that the school
was a sort of union seminary, which was striving to arrive at
conciliation, for, according to the king, what kept the two sections
apart was merely a matter of ecclesiastical usage. Finally, the
Confession of Augsburg was not admitted in Sweden as the religion of the
State until 1593. Had Nicolai advocated Luther's doctrines either in the
pulpit or the professor's chair, he would have been instantaneously
expelled from the Society.
The next Jesuit who appeared in Sweden was Anthony Possevin, an Italian
of Mantua, who was born either in 1533 or 1534. He began his career as
the secretary of Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, and became a Jesuit at the age
of twenty-five. He accomplished much in France as a preacher and founder
of colleges; and in 1573 was made secretary of the Society under
Mercurian. In 1577 he was sent as a special legate of the Pope to John
III of Sweden, and also to the Courts of Bohemia and Bavaria to secure
their support for John in the event of certain political complications.
These political features of the mission made it very objectionable to
the Jesuits because of their possible reaction on the whole Society. But
as the order came from the Pope, and as the conversion of the king and
of all Sweden was the predominating idea of the mission, the attempt was
made in spite of its possible consequence.
Like his predecessor, he did not appear in his clerical garb, nor even
as the legate of the Pope. That would scarcely be tolerated in a
Protestant country like Sweden, but he came as the ambassador
extraordinary of the Empress of Germany, the widow of Maximilian II.
With him were two other Jesuits--Good, an Englishman, and Fournier, a
Frenchman. Crétineau-Joly makes Good an Irishman, but the English
"Menology" for July 5 says he was born at Glastonbury in Somersetshire,
and was one of the first Englishmen admitted to the Society. After his
noviceship he was sent to Ireland, where he labored for four years under
the Archbishop of Armagh. He then accompanied Possevin to Sweden and
Poland, and after passing four years in the latter country, died at
Naples in 1586.
When Possevin had finished discussing the political situation with the
king, he began his work as ambassador of the Lord. He had many private
interviews with his majesty, and convinced him of his errors in matters
of faith; but the king insisted on points of discipline and liturgy
which could not be granted. In brief, he was a Catholic, but reasons of
State prevented him from making any public declaration. However, on May
16, 1578, he decided to take the step, and an altar was erected in a
room of his palace. There he assisted at Mass, and in the presence of
the queen, the Governor of Stockholm and his secretary, declared himself
a Catholic. But he still hesitated about making it known to his people,
and begged Possevin to return to Rome to see if he could not obtain the
dispensation already asked for,--such as Communion under both kinds,
Mass in Swedish, the marriage of priests, which Possevin knew would
never be granted. However, he set out for Rome with seven young
converts, and sent two Jesuits to Stockholm as preachers. He also got
others ready in Austria, Poland, and Moravia, and made arrangements with
the Emperor Rudolph to give his daughter in marriage to King John's son,
Sigismund. He finally reached Rome, but the congregation of Cardinals,
of course, rejected the king's pusillanimous petition.
In spite of this failure, Possevin was then sent as legate to Russia,
Lithuania, Moravia, Hungary, and, in general, to all the countries of
the North; while Philip II of Spain entrusted him with a confidential
mission to the King of Sweden. In Bavaria, he has to see the duke; at
Augsburg, he makes arrangements for the Pope with the famous banking
firm of Fugger, the Rothschilds of those days, who had figured so
conspicuously in the question of Indulgences in Luther's time. From
there he proceeded to Prague to deliver a message to the Emperor; and at
Vilna he conferred with Bathori, the King of Poland. A Swedish frigate
waited for him at Dantzig and, after a fourteen days' voyage, he landed
at Stockholm on July 26, 1579. He was no longer dressed as a layman, but
went to the court in his Jesuit cassock and was received with great
ceremony by the dignitaries of the realm.
Meantime, however, the king's brother and sister-in-law had aroused the
Lutherans; the Swedish bishops were banded against him, and finally,
when the king learned that none of his demands had been granted, except
that of keeping the confiscated ecclesiastical property, he lost courage
and reverted to Protestantism. The assurance given him by Possevin that
he could rely on the help of Spain, of the Emperor, and of the Catholic
princes of Germany did not move him. He saw before him the revolt of his
subjects, and the accession of his brother; and, while insisting that he
was a Catholic at heart, he refused to act, unless the Pope granted all
his demands. On February 19 he convoked a Diet at Wadstena, at which
Possevin was present, but as the majority was clearly against returning
to the old Faith, the legate had to be satisfied with being merely an
onlooker, while the king, convinced that he was acting against his
conscience, yielded to the popular clamor. Another Diet was held with
the same result. Meantime, the legate remained in Stockholm, devoting
himself to the sick and dying, in a pestilence that was then devastating
the city. He also succeeded in so strengthening the faith of the young
Sigismund, the heir apparent, that when there was question subsequently
of his renouncing Catholicity in order to ascend the throne, he had the
courage to say that he would relinquish all his rights and withdraw into
private life, rather than abandon the Faith.
A much more curious exercise of diplomacy came in Possevin's way in the
quarrel between the King of Poland and the ruler of Muscovy. The latter
had made vast conquests in the East, and then turned his attention to
Livonia, which was Polish territory. Bathori, who was ruler of Poland,
met and conquered the invader in a series of successful battles.
Whereupon the Czar, knowing Bathori's devotion to the Holy See, asked
the Sovereign Pontiff, Gregory XIII, to intervene. Possevin was again
called upon, and set out as plenipotentiary to arrange peace between the
two nations. Incidentally, the intention of the Pope was to obtain the
toleration of Catholics in the Russian dominions, to secure a safe
passage for missionaries to China through Russia, to induce the Czar to
unite with the Christian princes against the Turks, and even to bring
about a union of the Greek and Latin churches.
Possevin arrived at Vilna in 1581. He found Bathori elated by his
victories, but in no humor to entertain proposals of peace, which he
wisely judged to be merely a device of his opponent to gain time.
However, he yielded to persuasion, and Possevin set out to find the
Russian sovereign at Staritza. He was received with all the honors due
to an ambassador, and succeeded in gaining a suspension of hostilities,
the surrender of Livonia to Poland, as well as the agreement to the
demands of the Pope for religious toleration, and the passage across
Russia to China for Catholic missionaries. Even the proposal to join the
crusade against the Turks was accepted, in the hope that it would put
Constantinople in the hands of Russia. But when the question of the
union of Churches was mooted, which, of course, implied the recognition
of the Pope as Supreme Pastor, the savage awoke in the Czar, and, for a
moment, it seemed as if the life of the ambassador was at stake. The
treaty of peace was finally signed on January 15, 1582, the delegates
meeting in the chapel, where the ambassador celebrated Mass; all the
representatives of Poland and Russia kissing the cross as a declaration
of their fidelity to their oath. Possevin and his associates then
started for Rome towards the end of April. They were loaded with
presents from the Czar; but to the amazement of the barbarians, they
distributed them among the poor of the city.
There was, however, an appendix to this mission. Though the Polish king
did all in his power to preserve the Faith in Livonia, the German
Lutherans, Calvinists, Baptists, and other heretics had already invaded
the country, and were inflaming the population with hatred of the Pope
and the Church. Added to this was the alarm awakened in the mind of the
Emperor of Germany at the growing power of the Poles. Again Possevin had
to return to the scenes of his labors, but this time it was more as a
priest than a diplomat. Indeed, much of his energy was expended in
proving that he was neither German nor Pole, but an ambassador of Christ
sent to build up the Faith of both nations against heresy. We hear of
him once more in the matter of the reconciliation of Henry IV of France
to the Holy See. To him and Toletus was due the credit of inducing the
Pope to absolve the king, and by so doing, save France from schism. When
this was done, Possevin became an ordinary Jesuit, laboring here and
there, exclusively for the salvation of souls. It is a curious story,
and it would be hard to find anything like it in the chronicles of the
Church, except, perhaps the career of the famous Portuguese Jesuit,
Antonio Vieira, surnamed by his fellow-countrymen, "the Great."
Vieira was born in Lisbon, on February 5, 1608, and died at Bahia, in
Brazil, on July 18, 1697. He was virtually a Brazilian, for he went out
to the colony when still a child, and after finishing his studies in the
Jesuit college there, entered the Society in 1623, when he was only
fifteen years of age. At eighteen, he was teaching rhetoric and writing
commentaries on the Canticle of Canticles, the tragedies of Seneca, and
the "Metamorphoses" of Ovid, but it was twelve years before he was
raised to the priesthood. The eloquence of his first sermon astounded
everyone.
In 1640 Portugal declared its independence from Spain, to which it had
been subject for sixty years. As the union had been effected by fraud
and force, and as all the former Portuguese possessions in the East and
a part of Brazil had been wrested from Spain by the Dutch and English;
and as the taxes imposed on Portugal were excessively onerous, there was
a strong feeling of hatred for the Spaniards. This hostility broke out
finally in a revolution, and John IV ascended the throne of Portugal,
but the change of government involved the country in a disastrous war of
twenty years' duration.
Before the outbreak, the Jesuits were solemnly warned by their Superiors
to observe a rigid neutrality. But in the excited state of the public
mind, Father Freire forgot the injunction, and, in an Advent sermon in
the year 1637, let words escape him that set the country ablaze.
Crétineau-Joly says "the provincial promptly imprisoned him," which
probably meant that he was kept in his room, for there are no prisons in
Jesuit houses. But even that seclusion produced a popular tumult. The
provincial was besieged by protests, and a delegation was even sent to
Madrid to protest that the words of the preacher had been
misinterpreted. The Spanish king accepted the explanation, and when the
envoys returned to Lisbon, Freire had been already liberated.
Ranke asserts in his "History of the Popes" that as there was question
of establishing a republic in Portugal at that time, it is possible that
Spain preferred to see the innocuous John of Braganza, whose son was a
dissolute wretch, made king, than to run the risk of a republic like
those projected at that time by the Calvinists in France and by the
Lutherans in Sweden. Later, however, an investigation was ordered, and a
Jesuit named Correa was incarcerated for having predicted at a college
reception given to John of Braganza some years earlier that he would one
day wear the crown. Meantime the explosion took place, and in 1640 John
of Braganza was proclaimed king of an independent Portugal.
In the following year Vieira arrived from Brazil and was not only made
tutor to the Infante, Don Pedro, as well as court preacher, but was
appointed member of the royal council. In the last-named office he
reorganized the departments of the army and navy, gave a new impetus to
commerce, urged the foundation of a national bank, and the organization
of the Brazilian Trading Company, readjusted the taxation, curbed the
Portuguese Inquisition, and was mainly instrumental in gaining the
national victories of Elvas, Almeixal, Castello Rodrigo, and Montes
Claros.
Between 1646 and 1650 he went on diplomatic missions to Paris, the
Hague, London, and Rome, but refused the title of ambassador and also
the offer of a bishopric. He wanted something else, namely, to work
among his Indians, and he returned to Brazil in 1652. There he provoked
the wrath of the slave-owners by his denunciation of their ill-treatment
of the negroes and Indians, and was soon back in Lisbon pleading the
cause of the victims. He won his case, and, in 1655, we find him once
more at his missionary labors in Brazil, evangelizing the cannibals,
translating the catechism into their idioms, travelling over steep
mountain ranges and paddling hundreds of miles on the Amazon and its
numberless tributaries. Eleven times he visited every mission post on
the Maranhon, which meant twenty journeys along the interminable South
American rivers, on some of which he had to keep at the oar for a month
at a time. It is estimated that he made 15,000 leagues on foot, and
advanced 600 leagues farther into the interior of the continent than any
of his predecessors. He continued this work till 1661, and then the
slave-owners rose against him with greater fury than ever, and sent him
a prisoner to Lisbon. He was no longer as welcome at court as
previously, for the degenerate Alfonso, who had to be subsequently
deposed, was on the throne. In 1665 the Inquisition forbade him to
preach, and flung him into a dungeon, where he lay till 1667, when he
was released by the new king Pedro II. He then went to Rome, and was
welcomed by the Pope, the cardinals, and the General of the Order,
Father Oliva.
While at Rome he met Christina of Sweden, who had abdicated her throne
in order to become a Catholic. Ranke, in his "History of the Popes,"
devotes a whole chapter to this extraordinary woman, and she is referred
to here merely because of her admiration for Vieira, and also to call
attention to the fact that the first priest she spoke to about her
conversion was the Jesuit, Antonio Macedo, who was the confessor of
Pinto Pereira, the Portuguese ambassador to Sweden. The "Menology" tells
us that Macedo did not wear his priestly dress in that country. He was
the ambassador's secretary and interpreter, but he attracted the
attention of the queen, who remembered no doubt that the Jesuit,
Possevin, had appeared in the same court, in the time of John III,
disguised as an officer. She finally asked Macedo about it, and he
admitted that he was a Jesuit. Then began a series of conversations in
Latin, which Christina spoke perfectly, as she did several other
languages. She finally told him that she had resolved to become a
Catholic, even if she forfeited her crown, and she commissioned him to
inform the Sovereign Pontiff of her purpose. To reward Macedo she asked
the Pope to make him a bishop, but as he had been a missionary in
Africa, the mitre did not appeal to him, and he went back to Lisbon,
where he died after sixty-seven years passed in the Society.
Macedo's departure from Stockholm was so sudden that it excited comment,
and possibly to persuade the public she had nothing to do with it, the
queen pretended to despatch messengers in pursuit of him. In fact, she
had requested the General of the Society to send some of the most
trusted members of the Order to Sweden. It may be that the old African
missionary, Macedo, was not skillful enough in elucidating some of the
metaphysical problems which she was discussing. "In February, 1652,"
says Ranke, "the Jesuits who had been asked for arrived in Stockholm.
They were two young men who represented themselves to be Italian
noblemen engaged in travel, and in this character they were admitted to
her table." They were Fathers Cavati and Molenia, who were able
mathematicians as well as theologians. Descartes also was there about
that time. The queen did not recognize the young noblemen in public,
but, says Ranke: "as they were walking before her to the dining-hall,
she said, in a low voice to one of them: 'Perhaps you have letters for
me.' Without turning his head he replied that he had. Then, with a
quick word, she bade him keep silence. On the following morning they
were conducted secretly to the palace. Thus," continues Ranke, "to the
royal dwelling of Gustavus Adolphus there now came ambassadors from Rome
for the purpose of holding conferences with his daughter about joining
the Catholic Church. The charm of this affair for Christina was
principally the conviction that no one had the slightest suspicion about
her proceedings."
The conferences seem to have been long drawn out, although the envoys
subsequently reported that "Her Majesty apprehended with most ready
penetration the whole force of the arguments we laid before her.
Otherwise we should have consumed much time. Suddenly she appeared to
abandon every desire to carry out her purpose, and attributed her doubts
to the assaults of Satan. Her spiritual advisers were in despair, when
just as suddenly she exclaimed: 'There is no use. I must resign my
crown.'" The abdication was made with great solemnity amid the tears and
protests of her subjects. She left her country and spent the rest of her
life in Rome, where her unusual intellectual abilities and great
learning excited the wonder of everyone. Her heroism in sacrificing her
kingdom was, of course, the chief subject of the praise that was
showered upon her.
When Vieira arrived in Rome and fascinated everyone by his extraordinary
eloquence, Christina wanted him to be her spiritual director. But the
old hero preferred ruder work, and by 1681 he was again back in Brazil
among his Indians. Even in his old age he was a storm centre, and
although he had done so much for the glory of God and the good of
humanity, he was deprived of both active and passive voice in the
Society, that is to say, he could neither vote for any measures of
administration or be eligible to any office, because he was supposed to
have canvassed a provincial congregation. It was only after he had
expired, at the age of ninety, that his innocence was established. His
knowledge of scripture, theology, history, and literature was
stupendous, and he is said to have been familiar with the language of
six of the native races. Southey, in his "History of Brazil," calls him
one of the greatest statesmen of his country. He was a patriot, whose
one dream was to see Portugal the standard-bearer of Christianity in the
Old and New Worlds. As an orator he was one of the world's masters, and
as a prose writer the greatest that Portugal has every produced. His
sermons alone fill fifteen volumes, and there are many of his
manuscripts to be found in the British Museum, the National Library of
Paris, and elsewhere.
When St. Francis Borgia, the third General of the Society, died in 1572,
his most likely successor was Polanco, who had been the secretary of St.
Ignatius, and was generally credited with having absorbed the genuine
spirit of St. Ignatius. Had he been elected, he would have been the
fourth successive Spanish General. It would have been a misfortune at
that time, and would have fastened on the members of the Society the
name which was already given to them in some parts of Europe: "the
Spanish priests," a designation that would have been an implicit denial
of the catholicity of the Order, even though the Spanish monarch was
"His Catholic Majesty."
Their devoted friend, Pope Gregory XIII, saw the danger and determined
to avert it. Fortunately, he had just been asked by Philip of Spain,
Sebastian of Portugal, and the cardinal inquisitor not to allow the
election of Polanco, who was of Jewish descent. The Pope determined to
go further and to exclude any Spaniard from the office, for the time
being. At the customary visit of the delegates, prior to the election,
he intimated that as there had been three successive Spanish Generals,
it might be wise, in view of the world-wide expansion of the Society, to
elect someone of another nationality, and he suggested Mercurian.
Doubtless his words found a ready response in the hearts of many of
those to whom they were addressed, and even most of the Spaniards must
have seen the wisdom of the change. A remonstrance, however, was
respectfully made that His Holiness was thus withdrawing from the
Society its right of freedom of election, to which the Pope made answer
that such was not his intention; but in case a Spaniard was chosen he
would like to be told who he was, before the public announcement was
made. As the Pope's word is law, the Spaniards were excluded as
candidates, and apparently, as a measure of conciliation, Everard de
Mercoeur, or Mercurian, was elected. As his native country, Belgium, was
then subject to Spain, the blow thus given to the Spaniards was, to a
certain extent, softened. But it was the beginning of trouble which at
one time almost threatened the Society with destruction. Fortunately,
Mercurian's successor, Aquaviva, had to deal with it when it came.
Mercurian had as yet done nothing great enough to attract public
attention; but he evidently enjoyed the unqualified esteem of the Pope.
In the Society itself he had filled many important posts such as
vice-præpositus of the professed house in Rome, rector of the new
college of Perugia, visitor and provincial of Flanders and France, and
assistant of Francis Borgia. And in all of these charges he was said to
have reproduced in his government the living image of St. Ignatius. A
man with such a reputation was invaluable, especially for the spiritual
life of the Society, and that is of infinitely greater importance than
outward show. There is one thing for which the Order is especially very
grateful to him namely, the "Summary of the Constitutions," and the
"Common Rules" and the rules for each office, which he drew up at the
beginning of his administration. This digest is read every month in the
refectory of every Jesuit house and selections from it form the basis of
the domestic exhortations given twice a month to the communities by the
rector or spiritual father. By this means the character and purpose of
the Institute is kept continually before the eyes of every Jesuit, from
the youngest novice to the oldest professed, and they are made to see
plainly that there is nothing cryptic or esoteric in the government of
the Society. Hence, when the priest, after his ordination, goes through
what is called his third year of probation, in which the study of the
Institute constitutes a large part of his work, nothing really new is
presented to him. It is familiar matter studied more profoundly.
There were other great men whose names might be mentioned here, but they
will appear later in the course of this history.
CHAPTER V
THE ENGLISH MISSION
Conditions after Henry VIII--Allen--Persons--Campion--Entrance
into England--Kingsley's Caricature--Thomas Pounde--Stephens--
Capture and death of Campion--Other Martyrs--Southwell, Walpole
--Jesuits in Ireland and Scotland--The English Succession--
Dissensions--The Archpriest Blackwell--The Appellants--The
Bye-Plot--Accession of James I--The Gunpowder Plot--Garnet,
Gerard.
When Dr Allen suggested to Father Mercurian to send Jesuits to the
English mission, Claudius Aquaviva came forward as an enthusiastic
advocate of the undertaking, and was one of the first to volunteer. He
was not, however, accepted, because evidently only English-speaking
priests would be of any use there. But his election as General shortly
after gave new courage to Campion and his companions when they were in
the thick of the fight.
Dr Allen had left England in 1561, and taken refuge in Belgium, but he
returned in the following year, and went around among the persecuted
Catholics, exhorting them to be steadfast in their Faith. He found that
the people were not Protestants by choice, and he was convinced that all
they needed was an organized body of trained men to look after their
spiritual needs, to comfort them in their trials, and to keep them
well-instructed in their religion. Because of the lack of such help they
were not only becoming indifferent, but were almost ready to compromise
with their persecutors. Henry had confiscated ninety colleges, two
thousand three hundred and fourteen chantries and free chapels and ten
hospitals, besides putting to death seventy-six priests and monks,
beginning with Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester, as well as a great
number of others, gentle and simple, conspicuous among whom was the
illustrious chancellor, Thomas More. There was a partial cessation of
persecution when Edward VI, a boy, was placed on the throne, and, of
course, the conditions changed completely when Mary Tudor came to her
own. But when the terrible Elizabeth, infuriated by her excommunication,
took the reins of government in her hands, no one was safe.
Unfortunately, however, in the interval, the people had become used to
the situation, and it began to be a common thing for them to resort to
all sorts of subterfuges, even going to Protestant churches to conceal
their Faith. Hence, there was great danger that, in the very near
future, Catholicity would completely die out in England. Allen proposed
to Father Mercurian to employ the Society to avert that disaster.
Some of the General's consultors balked at the project because it
implied an absolutely novel condition of missionary life. There were
none of the community helps, such as were available even in the Indies
and in Japan; for, in England, the priest would have to go about as a
peddler, or a soldier, or a sailor, or the like, mingling with all sorts
of people, in all sorts of surroundings, and would thus be in danger of
losing his religious spirit. The obvious reply was that if a man
neglected what helps were at hand he would no doubt be in danger of
losing his vocation, but that otherwise God would provide. Allen had
already founded a missionary house at Douai in 1568, and its success may
be estimated from the fact that one hundred and sixty priests, most of
them from the secular clergy, who had been trained there, were martyred
for the Faith. He had succeeded also in obtaining another establishment
in Rome. In 1578, however, when the occupants of Douai were expelled,
they were lodged at Rheims in the house of the Jesuits. Meantime, the
Roman foundation had been entrusted to the Society; and with these two
sources of supplies now at his disposal, Father Mercurian determined to
begin the great work.
The most conspicuous figure in this heroic enterprise was Edmund
Campion. He was born in London, and after the usual training in a
grammar school was sent to Christ's Hospital. There he towered head and
shoulders over everyone; and when Queen Mary made her solemn entry into
London, it was he who made an address of welcome to her at St. Paul's
School. With the queen on that occasion was her sister Elizabeth. Later,
when Sir Thomas White founded St. John's College, Oxford, Campion was
made a junior fellow there, and "for twelve years," says "The Catholic
Encyclopedia," "he was the idol of Oxford, and was followed and imitated
as no man ever was in an English University except himself and Newman."
The "Dictionary of National Biography" goes further and informs us that
"he was so greatly admired for his grace of eloquence that young men
imitated not only his phrases but his gait, and revered him as a second
Cicero." He was chosen to deliver the oration at the re-interment of Amy
Robsart, the murdered wife of Robert Dudley, afterwards Earl of
Leicester. The funeral discourse on the founder of the college was also
assigned to him. In 1566 when Queen Elizabeth visited Oxford, Campion
welcomed her in the name of the University, and was defender in a Latin
disputation held in presence of her majesty. The queen expressed her
admiration of his eloquence and commended him particularly to Dudley for
advancement.
Father Persons assures us that "Campion was always a Catholic at heart,
and utterly condemned all the form and substance of the new religion.
Yet the sugared words of the great folk, especially the queen, joined
with pregnant hopes of speedy and great preferment, so enticed him that
he knew not which way to turn." While in this state of mind, he was
induced by Cheyney, the Bishop of Gloucester, who had retained much of
the ancient Faith, to accept deacon's orders and to pronounce the oath
of supremacy, but the reproaches of a friend opened his eyes to his sin;
and in anguish of soul, he abandoned all his collegiate honors. In
August, 1569, he set out for Ireland. The reason for going there was to
participate in a movement for resurrecting the old papal University of
Dublin, the direction of which was to be entrusted largely to him. The
scheme, however, fell through, chiefly on account of Campion, but very
much to his credit. His papistry was too open. Meantime, he had written
a "History of Ireland" based chiefly on Giraldus Cambrensis, which has
ever since strongly prejudiced Irish people against him, notwithstanding
his sanctity. But his good name has recently been restored by the
distinguished Jesuit historian, Father Edmund Hogan, who tells us, that
when Campion fled from Dublin to escape arrest for being a Catholic his
manuscript fell into the hands of his pursuers who garbled and mutilated
it at pleasure. He himself never published the book.
It will be of interest to students of literature to learn that one of
Shakespeare's most famous passages was borrowed from this "History,"
namely, the description of Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII. Whole passages
have been worked into the play. As Campion wrote it in 1569, when
Shakespeare was only four or five years old, its authorship is beyond
dispute. Conditions finally became so unpleasant in Dublin that he was
obliged to take to flight. He left Ireland disguised as a serving-man
and reached London, in time to witness the execution of Dr. Storey in
June, 1571. That completed the work of his conversion, and he went to
Douai, where after a recantation of his heresy, he resumed his course of
scholastic theology; a year later, he set out for Rome as a penniless
pilgrim, arriving there barefooted and in rags, much to the amazement of
one of his former Oxford admirers, who met him on the street.
He was received into the Society by Father Mercurian, and made his
novitiate at Prague in Bohemia, where he was ordained in 1578. He was
one of the first group of missionaries who left the Continent for
England under the guidance of Persons. In the party were Dr. Goldwell,
Bishop of Saint Asaph, thirteen secular priests, three Jesuits: Persons,
Campion and Ralph Emerson, a lay-brother, besides two young men not in
orders. Goldwell had been consecrated as early as 1555 and had
accompanied Cardinal Pole to England; he was England's sole
representative at the Council of Trent. He was now on his way again to
his native country, but he fell ill at Rheims and, according to the
"Dictionary of National Biography," was recalled by the Pope. "This,"
says Dr. Guilday (English Refugees, p. 125), "was a disappointment to
Persons. The presence of a bishop in England had been a condition of the
Jesuits' taking up the burden of converting lapsed Catholics, and
despite all the rebuffs the demand for a hierarchy met at Rome, the
Jesuits themselves continually renewed it." These words of the
distinguished historian who is the most recent witness in the matter of
the archipresbyterate are invaluable testimony on a sorely controverted
point.
The missionaries left Rome on foot, and passing through Milan were
detained for a week by St. Charles Borromeo, who made Campion discourse
every day to the episcopal household on some theological topic. From
there they directed their steps to Geneva and were bold enough to visit
Theodore Beza in his own house, but he refused to discuss religious
matters. At Rheims Campion spoke to the students on the glory of
martyrdom. Finally he and Persons arrived at Calais, and made their
plans to cross the Channel; the other missionaries had meantime
scattered along the coast, as it would have been manifestly unsafe for
all to embark at the same place. Persons went aboard the boat disguised
as a naval officer, and on stepping ashore at Dover presented himself
with supreme audacity to the port warden or governor, and asked for a
permit for his friend "Patrick," a merchant who was waiting on the other
side for leave to cross. "Patrick" was Campion. He had used that name
when escaping from Ireland, and as it had stood him in good stead then,
he again assumed it.
Campion, however, did not play his part as well as Persons, for the
governor eyed him intently and said: "You are Doctor Allen." "Indeed, I
am not," replied Campion. "Well, you are a suspicious character, at all
events, and your case must be looked into." A council was accordingly
held, and it was decided to send the new-comer to London, under an armed
escort. Campion thought himself lost, but up in his heart arose a
prayer: "O Lord, let me work at least one year for my country, and then
do with me what Thou wilt." Immediately a change came over the
Governor's face, and, to the amazement of everyone, he said: "I was
mistaken; you can go." Full of gratitude to God, the future martyr made
all haste for London, where someone was on the look-out for him, and he
soon met Father Persons.
Such are the plain facts taken from the writings of Campion to his
superiors, describing his arrival in England. But the public mind had
to be debauched on this as on every other point concerning the Jesuits,
even at the expense of the man whom Oxford is still proud of as a
scholar and a gentleman, who was called by Cecil "one of the diamonds of
England," and whose grace and beauty and eloquence made him the favorite
of Dudley and Elizabeth. In spite of all that, however, Kingsley, in his
"Westward Ho" (chap. iii), describes Campion at this juncture of his
life as "a grotesque dwarf whose sword, getting between his spindle
shanks, gave him, at times, the appearance of having three legs, and
figuring sometimes as a tail when it stuck out behind. He was so small
that he could only scratch at the ribs of his horse which he was trying
to mount on the wrong side, but he finally succeeded in gaining his seat
by the help of a stool." He also wore "a tonsure," we are informed, "cut
by apostolic scissors," and Londoner though he was, he is made to speak
of his countrymen as "Islanders." Persons also is described as a
blustering, blaspheming bully, who gives himself absolution for his own
transgressions. All this is omitted, however, from the school edition of
"Westward Ho."
Persons and Campion set to work immediately, and soon managed to call a
meeting of the priests who were in hiding in various places of the
country. The purpose of the summons was to let them know that the
newcomers had received the most stringent orders from their superiors to
keep absolutely aloof from anything savoring of politics. At Hoxton,
Campion made a written statement to that effect; and it was there that
he received a visit from one of the most interesting, and, to some
extent, the oddest of the English missionaries--a man who was made a
Jesuit by letter--the famous Thomas Pounde.
Pounde had begun by being a very conspicuous fop at the court of Queen
Elizabeth. He was a favorite of the queen, and had, on one occasion,
prepared a splendid pageant at which her majesty was present. One of its
features was a dance, a _pas seul_ by himself. However, as luck would
have it, he stumbled and fell right at the queen's feet. The accident
was ridiculous enough to humiliate him, but when his gracious sovereign
honored him with a brutal kick, and called out scoffingly: "Get up, Sir
Ox," Pounde arose, indeed, but not as an ox. He was a changed man. Up to
that, though a Catholic, he had put his religion aside altogether. Now,
he openly proclaimed his Faith and exhorted others to do the same. The
result was that he was confined in almost every dungeon of the kingdom.
He was loaded with fetters and shut up in cells where no ray of light
could penetrate; and when liberated, either through the influence of
friends, or because he had served the appointed term, he was
incarcerated again. Everywhere and at all times he preached the truths
of the Faith, not only in a courageous, but in an extraordinarily joyous
fashion to his fellow-prisoners, or to people outside the jail, making
converts of many and inducing others to amend their lives. Of the latter
class was a certain Thomas Cottam, an Oxford man, who, thanks to his
friend Pounde, not only became very devout, but, after he had succeeded
in getting to the Continent, became a Jesuit and returning later was
martyred at Tyburn on May 30, 1582.
A chance reading of the Jesuit missions in India had quite captivated
Pounde, as well as a friend of his, named Thomas Stephens, who used to
go around disguised as Pounde's servant. They determined to make for the
Continent and to ask for admission to the Society. On the way, Pounde
was captured because he had stopped too long in trying to convert a
Protestant who had given him shelter; Stephens, however, reached Rome
and was admitted to the Society. But instead of being sent back to
England, as one would have fancied, his longing for India was satisfied,
and we find him in Goa, on October 24, 1579. He was there known as Padre
Estevão, or Estevan, or again as Padre Busten, Buston, or de Buston, the
latter names being so many Portuguese efforts to pronounce Bulstan, in
Wiltshire, England, where Stephens was born about 1549. As we see from
the dates, he had then reached the age of 30. He is mentioned in
Hakluyt's "Voyages" as the first Englishman who ever went to India.
Hakluyt's information came from a series of letters which Stephens wrote
to his father, "offering the strongest inducements to London merchants
to embark on Indian speculations." These letters bore such evidence of
sound commercial knowledge that they are regarded as having suggested
the formation of the English East India Company.
Father Stephens spent his first five years as minister of the professed
house at Goa, and was then sent to Salsette as rector, and, for a time,
was socius to the visitor. After that he spent thirty-five years as a
missionary among the Brahmin Catholics of Salsette, but his labors in
that field did not prevent him from doing a great deal of hard literary
work. Thus, he was the first to make a scientific study of Canarese. He
also plunged into Hindustani, and wrote grammars and books of devotion
in those languages. Most of his writings, however, were lost at the time
of the Suppression of the Society. He died in Goa in 1619. (The Catholic
Encyclopedia, XIV, 292.)
Pounde's Jesuit work was quite different from that of Stephens. Not
being able to present himself in person to the General, he asked by
letter to be received into the Order. It was on December 1, 1578, while
he was imprisoned in the Tower that an answer came from Father Mercurian
granting his request. That encouraged him to labor more strenuously than
ever, and for thirty years he kept on defying the Government. Lingard
gives one notable instance of his audacity, though the great historian
does not seem to be aware that Pounde was a Jesuit. In the proceedings
connected with the Gunpowder Plot, someone was sentenced for harboring a
Jesuit. Pounde appeared in court to protest against the ruling of the
judge, with the result that he himself was arrested. He was condemned to
have one of his ears cut off, to go to prison for life, and to pay a
fine of a thousand pounds, if he did not tell who advised him to act as
he did. He did not lose his ear; while he was in the Tower the queen,
Anne of Denmark, interceded in his behalf. Her loving husband, however,
King James I, told her: "never to open her mouth again in favor of a
Catholic." Finally he got off by standing a whole day in the pillory, an
experience which he probably enjoyed, for in spite of dungeons and
chains and loss of property and his own terrible austerity--he often
scourged himself to blood--he never lost his spirit of fun. He ended his
wonderful career on March 5, 1615, at the age of 76, at Belmont,
breathing his last in the room in which he was born.
When Campion was caught on his way to Lancashire and brought to London,
where he was stretched on the rack and interrogated again and again
while being tortured, the story was circulated that he had, at last, not
only recanted, but had revealed secrets of the confessional. Pounde was
in a fury about it, and wrote Campion an indignant letter, but he found
out that it was one of the usual tricks of the English Government. The
same villainy had been practised by Elizabeth's father on More and
Fisher, but like them, Campion was too true a man to yield to suffering.
On August 31, by order of the queen, bruised as he was and almost
dismembered by the long and repeated rackings, he was led with Sherwin
to a public disputation in the royal presence. Against them were Nowell
and Day, two of the doughtiest champions of heresy that could be found
in the kingdom. The dispute lasted for four hours in the morning and
four in the afternoon--the intention being to keep it up for days. It
was during this debate that the listeners saw with horror, as Campion
stretched out his arms to emphasize his words by a gesture, that the
nails had been torn off the fingers of both hands. The public
discussions ended after the second session, for Nowell and Day had been
completely beaten. What happened in the examinations held after that,
behind closed doors, the authorities never let the world know, but it
leaked out that Campion had made many converts among those who came to
hear him. One of them was Arundel, who subsequently died for his faith
on the scaffold.
On November 14 the Jesuits, Campion and Thomas Cottam, with Ralph
Sherwin, Bosgrave, Rhiston, Luke Kirby, Robert Johnson and Orton,
secular priests, were called for trial. They all pleaded innocent of
felony and rebellion. "How could we be conspirators?" Campion asked, "we
eight men never met before; and some of us have never seen each other."
On November 16, six others were cited. It was on this occasion that
Campion answered the question: "Do you believe Elizabeth to be the
lawful queen?" "I told it to herself," he said, "in the castle of the
Duke of Leicester." Thither he had been called for a private interview,
and Elizabeth recognized him as the Oxford man and the little lad of
Christ Church, who, not then dreaming of the terrible future in store
for him, had paid the homage of respectful and perhaps affectionate
loyalty to her majesty. At that meeting were Leicester, the Earl of
Bedford, two secretaries of state and the queen. As the prosecution was
so weak and the defense made by Campion was so unassailable, everyone
expected an acquittal, but to their amazement, a verdict of guilty was
brought in. "The trial," says Hallam, "was as unfairly conducted and
supported by as slender evidence as can be found in our books."
(Constitutional History of England, I, 146.)
When the presiding judge asked the accused if they had anything to say,
Campion replied: "The only thing that we have now to say is that if our
religion makes us traitors we are worthy to be condemned, but otherwise
we are and have been as true subjects as ever the queen had. In
condemning us, you condemn all your own ancestors, all that was once the
glory of England, the Island of Saints, and the most devoted child of
the See of St. Peter. For what have we taught, however you may qualify
it with the odious name of treason, that they did not uniformly teach?
To be condemned along with those who were the glory not of England alone
but of the whole world by their degenerate descendants is both glory and
gladness to us. God lives; posterity will live, and their judgment is
not so liable to corruption as that of those who are now going to
condemn us to death." When the sentence was uttered, Campion lifting up
his voice intoned the "Te Deum laudamus" in which the others joined,
following with the anthem "Hæc est dies quam fecit Dominus, exultemus et
lætemur in ea" (This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice
and exult in it.) There were conversions in the courtroom that day.
The scene at the scaffold on December 1, was characterized by the
brutality of savages. The victims were placed on hurdles and dragged
through the streets to Tyburn. Campion was the first to mount the fatal
cart, and when the rope was put about his neck and he was addressing the
crowd that thronged around, Knowles interrupted him with, "Stop your
preaching and confess yourself a traitor." To which Campion replied, "If
it be a crime to be a Catholic, I am a traitor." He continued to speak,
but the cart was drawn from under him and he was left dangling in the
air. Before he breathed his last he was cut down, his heart was torn out
and the hangman holding it aloft in his bloody hand, cried out, "Behold
the heart of a traitor!" and flung it into the fire. Alexander Briant
and Ralph Sherwin then met the same fate. Previous to this gruesome
tragedy, 4,000 people had been won back to the Faith.
Thomas Cottam and William Lacey were the next English martyrs of the
Society. The latter calls for special mention. He was a Yorkshire
gentleman, who for some time thought that he could, with a safe
conscience, frequent Protestant places of worship, but as soon as he was
made aware that it was forbidden, he desisted; and fines and vexations
of all kinds failed to change his resolution. Becoming a widower, he
determined in spite of his years to consecrate himself to God, and
having met Dr. Allen at Rheims, he went to Rome, where, after his
theological studies he was ordained a priest, and returning to England
labored strenuously to revive the faith of his fellow-countrymen. He
succeeded even in entering a jail in York where a number of priests were
confined, and afforded them whatever help he could. As he was leaving,
he was arrested and was executed a month later, August 22, 1582. Father
Possoz, S. J., the author of "Edmond Campion," says "there is no mention
of Lacy, either in Tanner or Alegambe, but I found, in the catalogue of
Rayssius, 'Gulielmus Lacæus, sacerdos romanus qui in carcere
constitutus, in Societatem Jesu fuit receptus.'" The same is true of
Thomas Methame who did not die on the scaffold, but after seventeen
years of captivity in various prisons, gave up the ghost at Wisbech in
1592 at the age of sixty. He was remarkable for his profound knowledge
both of history and theology. There also appears on the list an
O'Mahoney (John Cornelius), who was a ward of the Countess of Arundel.
He was thrown into the Marshalsea, where Father Henry Garnet admitted
him to make his vows. He won his crown at Dorchester on July 4, 1594.
His name is not found in the "Fasti Breviores" or the "Menology," but it
is given by Possoz.
The poet Robert Southwell was martyred on February 21, 1595. Writing
about him, Thurston calls attention to an interesting coincidence in his
life. His grandfather, Sir Richard Southwell, a prominent courtier in
the reign of Henry VIII, had brought the poet Henry Howard to the block,
and yet Divine providence made their respective grandsons, Robert
Southwell and Philip, Earl of Arundel, devoted friends and
fellow-prisoners for the Faith. The poetry, however, had shifted to the
Southwell side, for, unlike his friend, Arundel did not cultivate the
muse. Southwell had been a pupil of the great Lessius at Louvain, and
had made the "grand act" in philosophy at the age of seventeen. At Paris
he applied for admission to the Society, but was refused, and his grief
on that occasion elicited the first poetical effusion of his of which we
have any knowledge. Two years later, however, he was accepted; he was
ordained in 1584, and became prefect of studies in the English College
at Rome. In 1586 he was sent to England, and passed under the name of
Cotton. Two years later he was made chaplain of the Countess of Arundel,
and thus came into relationship with her imprisoned husband, Philip, the
ancestor of the present ducal house of Norfolk. Southwell's prose elegy,
"Triumphs Over Death," was written to console the earl. In going his
rounds he usually passed as a country gentleman, and that accounts for
the "hawk" metaphors which so often occur in his verse. He was finally
arrested at Harrow in 1592, and after three years' imprisonment in a
dungeon which was swarming with vermin, he was hanged, drawn and
quartered. Even during his lifetime, his poetical works were highly
esteemed.
Henry Walpole was one of the spectators at the execution of Campion, and
that gave him his vocation. He was admitted to the Society by Aquaviva,
and made his second year of noviceship at the now famous Verdun. He was
chaplain of the Spanish troops in Flanders, and was for some time in
Spain. From there he went to Dunkirk where he embarked for England on a
Spanish ship which landed him on the coast sixteen miles from York.
There he fell into the hands of the Earl of Huntington, a grandnephew of
Cardinal Pole, but a bitter foe of the Church. He was shifted about from
prison to prison for a year or more, and was stretched on the rack
fourteen times; at length, he was executed at York on April 7, 1595.
Roger Filcock, who was put to death at London, on February 22 or 27,
1601, was a secular priest who was admitted to the Society while engaged
in the work of the missions. So also was Francis Page. He had been a
Protestant lawyer, and was engaged to a Catholic lady who converted
him, but instead of marrying her he became a priest. One day, while
celebrating Mass, he was so nearly caught that the chalice on the altar
was found, but he had time to get into his secular clothes and escape.
He applied for admission to the Society and was received, but before he
could reach the novitiate in Flanders he was seized, racked and put to
death in London on April 20, 1602.
Twenty years after the visit of Salmerón and Brouet to Ireland, David
Wolff was sent there as Apostolic delegate. O'Reilly in his "Memorials"
says, he was one of the most remarkable men who labored in Ireland
during the first years of Elizabeth's reign. About 1566, he was captured
and imprisoned in Dublin Castle, from which he escaped to Spain. He
returned again in 1572, and died of starvation in the Castle of Clonoan
near the borders of Galway. Bishop Tanner of Cork had been a Jesuit, but
was obliged to leave the Society on account of his health. He was
imprisoned in Dublin, tortured in various ways and in 1678, after
eighteen months' suffering, died in chains. In 1575 Father Edmund
Donnelly was hanged and disembowelled in Cork and his heart thrown into
the fire. In 1585 Archbishop Creagh, the Primate of Ireland, who was
poisoned while in jail in Dublin made his confession, says O'Reilly "to
a fellow-prisoner, Father Critonius of the Society of Jesus." In 1588
Maurice Eustace, a young novice, was hanged and quartered in Dublin.
Brother Dominick Collins, who had been a soldier in France and Spain,
was executed at Youghal in 1602. He was the last of Elizabeth's victims.
An interesting character appears at this juncture in the person of
Father Slingsby, the eldest son of Sir Francis Slingsby, a Protestant
Englishman settled in Ireland. Young Francis was converted to the Faith
in 1630, when he was twenty-two years old; he made up his mind to be a
Jesuit, but in obedience to his father's order he returned to Ireland.
He was imprisoned in Dublin. At the request of the queen, Henrietta
Maria, however, he was not executed but banished from the kingdom.
Returning to Rome in 1636, he was received into the Society in the
following year. It was the intention of his Superiors to send him back
to Ireland but he was detained on the Continent for his studies. He was
ordained a priest in 1641 and a short time afterwards died at Naples
with the reputation of a saint. Meantime he had converted most of his
Protestant relatives. In 1642 Father Henry Caghwell, who had taught
philosophy to Father Slingsby, was dragged from his house in Dublin,
paralytic though he was, scourged in the public square, and left lying
on the ground in the sight of his friends, none of whom dared to lift
him up. He was then thrown into prison and after a while flung with
twenty other priests into a ship. He reached France in a dying
condition, but unexpectedly recovered and made his way back to Ireland,
in spite of a storm that lasted twenty-one days. A few days after
landing, he fell a victim to his charity in attending the sick.
Scotland had been visited in 1562 by Father Gouda who was sent to Mary
Queen of Scots to invite her to have her bishops go to the Council of
Trent. He brought back with him six young Scots who were to be the
founders of the future mission. Prominent among them was Edmund Hay, who
became rector of Clermont. In 1584 Crichton and Gordon attempted to
enter their country, but Crichton was captured, while Gordon succeeded
in finding his way in, and was afterwards joined by Hay and Drury. The
Earl of Huntley, who was Gordon's nephew, and for a time the leader of
the Catholic party, joined the Kirk in 1597, and that put an end to the
mission. Prior to that, Father Abercrombie made a Catholic of the
queen, Anne of Denmark, but she was not much to boast of. Meantime, the
Scots College had been founded by Mary Stuart in Paris, and later other
colleges were begun in Rome and Madrid. In 1614 Father John Ogilvie was
martyred at Glasgow, while his associates were banished.
Coming back to England, where more tragedies were to be enacted, we find
that before Campion was executed, Persons had succeeded in reaching
France. He had intended to return after he had secured a printing-press
to replace the one that had been seized, but, as a matter of fact,
England never saw him again. Dr. Allen would not allow him to return;
he, therefore, remained on the Continent and was conspicuous as a
staunch supporter of the French League in its early days, and an
advocate of the invasion of England by Philip II, primarily in the
interest of Mary Queen of Scots, but also, to secure a successor to
Queen Elizabeth. We find him frequently in Spain on various missions: in
1588 to reconcile Philip with Father Aquaviva; at other times, to obtain
from the king the foundations of the seminaries of Valladolid, Seville
and Madrid, as well as of two residences which afterwards developed into
collegiate establishments. Allen had left England in 1565, sixteen years
before Persons, and it is worth noting that during the three years which
he spent in going around from place to place to sustain the courage of
the persecuted Catholics he was not yet a priest. He was ordained only
when he crossed over to Mechlin, sometime in 1565; it was not until
1587, twenty-two years afterwards that he was made a cardinal; he was
never raised to the episcopal dignity. He was mentioned, it is true, for
the See of Mechlin by Philip II, but, for some reason which has never
been thoroughly explained, the nomination, although publicly allowed to
stand several years, was never confirmed. He continued to reside at the
English College in Rome until his death on October 16, 1594.
For some time previously the burning question of the English succession
was being discussed by English Catholics and it did more harm to the
Church in England than the persecutions of Henry and Elizabeth.
Elizabeth had left no issue, and had not designated her heir. Some were
in favor of a certain princess of Spain, who could trace her lineage
back to John of Gaunt, and both Allen and Persons espoused her cause.
Others held out for James VI of Scotland; a rabid partisan on this side
was the Scotch Jesuit, Crichton, who was supported by a very large
contingent of the secular clergy. A similar divergence of sentiment
showed itself in Rome. Thus, for example, the cardinal-protector of the
English mission, Gaetano, was pro-Spanish; the vice-protector, Cardinal
Borghese, was pro-French, and with him was the Jesuit Cardinal Toletus,
who, though a Spaniard, was against his countrymen in this matter. The
Pope was not pro-Spanish. The result was that the English College in
Rome was torn asunder by dissensions or "stirs" and some of the students
gave public scandal in the city. Order was not restored till Persons was
recalled from Spain to be rector of the college, but even he was told to
his face by some of his boisterous pupils that they would never change
their opinion, and they contended that if they died for it they would be
martyrs of the Faith. Conditions were much worse in England itself. Even
among the priests who were confined at Wisbeach, bitter disputes were
kept up year after year in a way that was the reverse of edifying.
Finally, when cognizance of this deplorable state of affairs was taken
at Rome, Father Persons was requested to suggest a remedy, after Dr.
Stapleton, who was a pro-Spaniard, had been summoned to Rome, but had
failed to arrive on account of ill-health. In 1597 Persons, now no
longer rector of the college, presented to the Pope a memorial drawn up
in England asking for the appointment of two bishops, one for England
proper, and the other for the English in Flanders. This proposition was
sent to a commission of the Holy Office, but they gave an adverse
decision, namely that the new hierarchy should not be episcopal, but
sacerdotal, with an archpriest at its head.
Persons, who had been from the outset insisting on the necessity of
sending a bishop to England, did not easily give up his plan, and he
persuaded Cardinal Gaetano to take him around to all the members of the
commission in order to press his views upon them, but without avail. Out
of caution, the Pope resolved not to set up the hierarchy by Papal
brief, and he gave orders to the cardinal-protector, Gaetano, to issue
"constitutive letters" to that effect. The draft for these letters was
prepared in the Papal _Archivi dei Brevi_, where it is still extant
(Pollen, Institution of the Archpriest Blackwell, p. 25; see also Meyer,
England and the Church under Elizabeth, p. 409. Meyer is a German
Protestant). Hence, it is clear that the Jesuits are not responsible for
the establishment of an archipresbyterate instead of an episcopate to
rule England. It was the explicit act of the Holy Office and of the
Pope. Moreover, the trouble that subsequently arose was due, not from
the function itself, but from the person to whom it was entrusted; for,
though Blackwell was the man most in evidence at that time, and one for
whom everyone would have voted, he had too exalted an idea of his new
dignity, and resorted to such high-handed and autocratic methods that
his rule became intolerable. As a result, two Appellants made their way
to Rome, as representatives of the clergy, though, as a matter of fact,
no such commission had been given them. On their arrival, they were
promptly put in seclusion in one of the colleges, and were forbidden to
return to England.
Then began a bitter war of pamphlets between the adherents and the
adversaries of the archpriest. Persons, and the Jesuits, in general,
were especially assailed. One of the malcontents, Bluet, actually put
himself in communication with the Protestant Bishop Bancroft, who
expressed the opinion that "it was clearer than light that Persons had
no other object except the conquest of England by the Spaniards." Bluet
assented, and added that "the charge against the Jesuit would be proved
best by our appeal to the Pope, in which we should make all our
grievances manifest." Bancroft revealed this to the queen, and the
government then did all in its power to foment the dissensions and
facilitate the appeal to the Pope. In 1602 another party of Appellants
set out for Rome with no authorization whatever, except that of their
own faction. On their way they were joined by a Dr. Cecil, who was,
though they were unaware of it, in the employ of the English Government
as a spy--a degradation to which he had descended, not precisely to ruin
his co-religionists, but because he was under the delusion that he could
so reconstruct the Church in England that it would be acceptable to the
queen.
Cecil and his companions were admitted to Rome only because the French
Ambassador, de Béthune, took them under his protection. He had
constituted himself their patron, not, however, for religious reasons,
but merely to score a point against the influence of the King of Spain
with the Pope. Their reception by his Holiness was extremely cold, and
when they reported back to de Béthune, he appeared before the Pope on
the next day, and said: "Hitherto the Catholic policy has been grossly
wrong (_turpiter erratum est_). Nothing has been tried except arms,
poisons, and plots. If only these were laid aside Elizabeth would be
tolerant. Therefore, (1) Your Holiness must withdraw your censures from
the queen; (2) you must threaten the Catholics with censure if they
attempt political measures against her directly or indirectly; (3)
Father Persons and his like must be chastised and expelled from your
seminaries; (4) the Archpriest, who seems to have been constituted
solely to help the Spanish faction by false informations, should be
removed or much restrained; (5) if perhaps all this cannot be done at
once, a beginning should be made by giving satisfaction to the Appellant
priests; (6) then, by degrees, Henri will intervene and Elizabeth's
anger will cool down." As Pollen remarks: "The Frenchman's boldness was
almost sublime. To throw over St. Pius V, Cardinal Allen, Gregory,
Sixtus, Campion and all the seminaries, with one sweeping remark:
_turpiter erratum est_--was worthy of _la furie française_. De Béthune
scoffed at a past already acknowledged to be one of the glories of the
Church, as a period of murder plots, diversified by armed invasions."
On October 12 the Pope gave a Brief to the contending parties to settle
their quarrel. Both sides shouted victory, and the paper was at once
sent to England, where it was intercepted by Elizabeth's spies. The
government responded by a proclamation against the Catholic clergy,
banishing them from the realm lest it might be thought that Elizabeth
had ever meant to grant toleration. "God doth know our innocency," it
said, "of any such imagining." The royal proclamation was cunningly
devised. It declared that all Jesuits were unqualified traitors and
must leave the country within thirty days. For other Catholics, a
commission was to be appointed which, after three months, was to begin
an individual examination of all suspects and deal with them at
discretion.
By the Scottish party this was regarded as the beginning of a new era,
and they, consequently, drafted an instrument stating: (1) that they
owed the same civil obedience to the queen as that which bound Catholic
priests to Catholic sovereigns; (2) that they would inform her of any
plots or attempts at evasion, even when made to place a Catholic
sovereign on the throne; (3) that were any excommunication issued
against them on account of their performance of this duty, they would
regard it as not binding. This statement was issued on January 31, 1603.
It never reached Elizabeth, for she died in the following March. But as
it stood, it was in direct contravention of the Pope's instructions to
the clergy to do all in their power, short of rebellion, to restore the
Catholic succession.
Before the death of Elizabeth, two clergymen, Watson and Clarke had gone
to Scotland to sound James on his possible attitude to English Catholics
in case he obtained the throne. Of course, he was extremely affable, to
them, as he was to the English Puritans, who were just then arrayed in
opposition to the Established Church. But he was no sooner king than he
began to treat both Puritans and Catholics with such rigor that a plot
was formed by both of the aggrieved parties to seize his person and
compel him to modify his policy. Among the Protestant conspirators were
such men as Cobham, Markham, Grey and Walter Raleigh. The whole history
of this singular combination, however, is so confused that it is hard to
pronounce with certainty as to what really was done or intended. But it
appears that the purpose of the Catholic conspirators was to allow the
king to be taken prisoner by the Puritans and then to rescue him from
their hands. It was called the Bye Plot, and was based on the hope that
James would be so grateful for this act of devotion to his interest that
he would grant all their requests. On the other hand, such childish
simplicity seems almost incredible. It was worthy of the visionary,
Watson, who planned it.
The farce ended in a tragedy. The two priests were hanged without more
ado. Of the Puritans, Cobham was sent to the scaffold, and Grey, Markham
and Raleigh, after being condemned, were pardoned. King James received a
letter from the Pope regretting the action of Watson and Clarke, and
assuring him of the abhorrence with which he regarded all acts of
disloyalty. He also expressed his willingness to recall any missionary
who might be an object of suspicion, and both Jesuits and seculars were
ordered to confine themselves to their spiritual duties and to
discourage by every means in their power any attempt to disturb the
tranquillity of the realm (Lingard, History of England, IX, 21).
In 1604 James drew up for Catholics an oath of allegiance which not only
denied the power of the Pope to depose kings, but declared that such a
claim was heretical, impious and damnable. It was condemned by Paul V,
but the Archpriest Blackwell publicly announced that notwithstanding the
condemnation, the oath might be conscientiously taken by any English
Catholic, and he accepted it himself before the Commissioners of
Lambeth. Bellarmine and Persons wrote long expostulations to him, but
without avail. He was finally deposed from office, and Birkhead took his
place as archpriest. "This measure," says Lingard, "was productive of a
deep and long-continued schism in the Catholic body. The greater number,
swayed by the authority of the new Archpriest and of the Jesuit
missionaries, looked upon the oath as a denial of their religion; but,
on the other hand, many preferring to be satisfied with the arguments of
Blackwell and his advocates, cheerfully took it, when it was offered,
and thus freed themselves from the severe penalties to which they would
have been subject by the refusal" (op. cit., IX, 77).
Now came the disaster. Irritated beyond measure by the treachery and the
tyranny of King James I, a number of Catholic gentlemen, some of them
recent converts, formed a plot to blow up the House of Parliament and so
get rid of king, lords and commons by one blow.
While the plans were being laid, some of the conspirators began to doubt
about their right to involve so many innocent people in the wholesale
ruin that must result from this terrible crime. To settle their
scruples, Catesby, the chief plotter, proposed a supposititious case to
Father Garnet, the Jesuit provincial. "I am going to join the army of
the Archduke on the Continent," he said, "and I may be ordered, for
example, to blow up a mine in order to destroy the enemy. Can I do so,
even if a number of innocent persons are killed?" The answer of course
was in the affirmative, and then Catesby made haste to assure his
friends that they could proceed in their work with a safe conscience.
But as time wore on, he was noticed by his friends to be habitually
excited, very often absent from home, and apparently not preparing to go
abroad, as he had said he intended to do. Hence, suspicion was aroused,
and Garnet, having received some vague hints of the conspiracy, took
occasion at Catesby's own table, to inculcate on his host the necessity
of submitting meekly to the persecution then going on. Whereupon Catesby
burst out in a rage: "It is to you and such as you," he exclaimed,
"that we owe our present calamities. This doctrine of non-resistance
makes us slaves. No priest or pontiff can deprive a man of the right to
repel injustice." Garnet, alarmed at this utterance, immediately wrote
to his superior in Rome, and in due time received two letters, one from
the General, the other from the Pope, putting him under strict orders to
do all in his power to prevent any attempt against the State. These
letters were shown to Catesby, but he protested that they were written
on wrong information, and he volunteered to send a special messenger to
Rome to put before the authorities there the true state of things. This
promise satisfied Garnet, and he felt sure the matter was disposed of,
at least, for a time.
This was on May 8, 1605. On October 26, Catesby went to confession to
Father Greenwell, or Greenway, or Texmunde, or Tessimond, a Yorkshire
man, and revealed the whole plot. Greenwell showed his horror at the
proposition and forbade him to entertain it, but Catesby refused to be
convinced, and asked him to state the case to Garnet, under seal of
confession, with leave to speak of it to others, after the matter, had
become public. This will explain how the fact of the confession came out
in the trial. Unfortunately, Greenwell was foolish enough to communicate
it to Garnet under seal of confession. He was bitterly reproved for
doing so, but it was too late; had he kept it to himself, Garnet would
not have died on the scaffold. On November 5 after midnight, the plot
was discovered, and Guy Fawkes, who was guarding the powder in the
cellar of the building where Parliament was to meet, was seized, and
acknowledged that the thirty-five barrels of powder which had been
placed there were "to blow the Scottish beggars back to their native
mountains"--an utterance that won from the king the expression: "Fawkes
is the English Scævola." The other conspirators had time to flee, but
were caught on November 8, at Holbeach House. They made a brief stand,
but in the fight four were killed, among them Catesby. The others, with
the exception of Littleton, who, it would seem, had betrayed them,
purposely or otherwise, were taken prisoners and lodged in the Tower.
"More than two months intervened," says Lingard, "between the
apprehension and the trial of the conspirators. The ministers had
persuaded themselves, or wished to persuade others, that the Jesuit
missionaries were deeply implicated in the plot. On this account the
prisoners were subjected to repeated examinations; every artifice which
ingenuity could devise, both promises and threats, the sight of the
rack, and occasionally the infliction of torture were employed to draw
from them some avowal which might furnish a ground for the charge; and
in a proclamation issued for the apprehension of Gerard, Garnet, and
Greenway, it was said to be plain and evident from the examinations that
all three had been peculiarly practisers in the plot, and therefore no
less pernicious than the actors and counsellors of the treason."
The mention of Gerard in the warrant arose from the fact that two years
previously, namely on May 1, 1604, the first five conspirators, Catesby,
Percy, Wright, Fawkes, and Winter, met "at a house in the fields beyond
St. Clement's Inn, where," according to Fawkes' confession, "they did
confer and agree on the plot; and they took a solemn oath and vowed by
all their force to execute the same, and of secrecy not to reveal it to
any of their fellows, but to such as should be thought fit persons to
enter into the action, and in the same house they did receive the
sacrament of Gerard, the Jesuit, to perform their vow and oath of
secrecy aforesaid, but that Gerard was not acquainted with their
purpose." This document is in the handwriting of Sir Edward Coke, but
there appear in the original paper, just before the phrase exculpating
Gerard, the words _huc usque_ (i. e. up to this). Coke read the passage
to the judges, "up to this" but the words that would have freed Gerard
from suspicion he withheld. "At length," continues Lingard, "the eight
prisoners were arraigned. They all pleaded not guilty, not, they wished
it to be observed, because they denied their participation in the
conspiracy, but because the indictment contained much to which till that
day they had been strangers. It was false that the three Jesuits had
been the authors of the conspiracy, or had ever held consultations with
them on the subject: as far as had come to their knowledge, all three
were innocent." They maintained their own right to do as they had done,
because "no means of liberation was left but the one they had adopted."
Gerard and Greenwell escaped to the Continent, whereas Garnet, after
sending a protestation of his innocence to the Council, secreted himself
in the house of Thomas Abingdon, who had married a sister of Lord
Mounteagle, the nobleman who had first put the authorities on the scent.
According to Jardine (Criminal Trials, 67-70) much ingenuity was
employed at the trial to prevent Mounteagle's name from being called in
question. With Garnet were Father Oldcorne and Owen, a lay-brother, and
also a servant named Chambers. Oldcorne was the chaplain of the house,
but Hallam in his Constitutional History (I-554) says: "the damning
circumstance against Garnet is that he was taken at Hendlip in
concealment, along with the other conspirators." As Oldcorne and the two
others had nothing whatever to do with the affair and as all the
conspirators had been already shot or hanged, "the damning evidence" of
perverting the facts of the case is against Hallam.
On February 1, the Bill of Attainder was read, and day after day, till
March 28, the commissioners visited the Tower to elicit evidence.
Oldcorne was repeatedly put on the rack, but nothing was extorted from
him. So also with Owen, Chambers and Johnson, the chief steward of the
house where the priests were found. On March 1, after Owen had been
tortured, he was told he would be stretched on the rack the two
following days. The third experiment killed him, and it was given out
that "he had ripped his belly open with a blunt knife." Garnet, when
threatened with the rack, replied that "the threat did not frighten
him--he was not a child."
The trial was finally called for March 28. The most distinguished lawyer
in the realm at that time was Attorney-General Coke. He began his charge
by recalling the history of all the plots that had been hatched since
Elizabeth's time; he declaimed against Jesuitical equivocation and the
temporal power of the Pope, and insisted that all missionaries, and the
Jesuits in particular, were leagued in conspiracy against the king and
his Protestant councillors. But when he got down to the real merits of
the indictment, he soon betrayed the groundlessness of his charge. Not a
word did he say of the confessions or the witnesses or their dying
declarations, although he had boasted he would prove that Garnet had
been the original framer of the plot and the confidential adviser of the
conspirators. His whole charge rested on his own assertions, and was
supported only by a few unimportant facts, susceptible of a very
different interpretation (Lingard, op. cit., IX, 63).
Garnet answered that he had been debarred from making known his
information of the plot for the reason that it had been imparted to him
under the seal of confession, and could not be revealed until it had
become public property. His concealment of it, nevertheless, was
considered by the judges as misprision of treason, and on that ground,
and not by anything adduced by the attorney-general, was he condemned.
Indeed, Coke had so utterly failed to prove his case that even Cecil
confessed that nothing had been produced against Garnet, except that he
had been overheard to say in conversation with Oldcorne in the Tower,
that "only one person knew of his acquaintance with the conspiracy." It
is this particular feature of the trial that has evoked ever since a
great deal of hypocritical denunciation of Garnet's lack of veracity.
When asked if he had spoken to Oldcorne or written to Greenway, he
replied in the negative; but it was proved that he had done both. As it
is Coke who alleges this inveracity of Father Garnet, we may reject it
as a calumny for that same distinguished personage declared in his
official report that Garnet, when on the scaffold, admitted his
complicity in the crime, whereas this was flatly denied by those who
were present at the execution. If Coke could lie about one thing, he
could lie about another. But in any case a criminal court is not a
confessional, and the worst offender can plead "not guilty" without
violating the truth. Garnet was executed on March 3, 1606, but his body
was not quartered until life had left it.
Gerard, who had been proscribed, but who was perfectly innocent of any
knowledge of the conspiracy, had made haste to leave the country. It was
a difficult thing to do but he finally succeeded, and at the very time
that Garnet was standing on the scaffold, Gerard was leaving London as a
footman in the train of the Spanish ambassador. A lay-brother was with
him in some other capacity. Such was his farewell to his native
country. He had been sent there as a missionary in 1588, and had stepped
ashore on the Norfolk coast just after the defeat of the Armada--a time
when everyone was hunting for Papists. The story of the adventure of
this handsome, courtly gentleman, who had three or four languages at his
disposal, who was a keen sportsman, a skilful horseman, and a polished
man of the world, and was at ease in the highest society, yet who was
always preaching the Gospel wherever he went, in prisons and even on the
rack, forms one of the most attractive pages in the records of the
English mission. He died in Rome at the age of seventy-three.
During the trial of Father Garnet, Oldcorne had been removed from the
Tower and executed at Worcester on April 7 or 17. Littleton, who had
saved himself at the time of the conspiracy by informing on the others,
begged the father's pardon on the scaffold and died with him. Two years
afterwards, on June 23, 1608, Father Garnet's nephew, Thomas was
martyred in London. He was then thirty-four years old, and had been only
three years a Jesuit.
After the execution of Garnet a much more drastic penal code was
enacted. Henry IV of France, through his ambassador and the Prince de
Joinville, tried hard to restrain the anger of King James, but without
avail, except that two missionaries, under sentence of death for
refusing to take the oath, were saved by the French king's intercession.
He could not obtain the reprieve of Drury, however, who was condemned to
death because a copy of a letter from Persons denouncing the oath of
allegiance was found in his possession. Whether this Drury was a Jesuit
or not cannot be ascertained, for the "Fasti Breviores" and the
"Menology" speak only of a Drury who was killed with another Jesuit in
the collapse of a church at old Blackfriars in 1623. James would not
listen to the remonstrances of Henry; he assured the ambassador that he
was, by nature, an enemy of harsh and cruel measures, and that he had
repeatedly held his ministers in check, but that the Catholics were so
infected with the doctrine of the Jesuits that he had to leave the
matter to parliament. When the ambassador remarked that there was
apparently no difference of treatment whether Catholics took the oath or
not, the king did not reply.
CHAPTER VI
JAPAN
1555-1645
After Xavier's time--Torres and Fernandes--Civandono--Nunhes and
Pinto--The King of Hirando--First Persecution--Gago and Vilela--
Almeida--Uprising against the Emperor--Justus Ucondono and
Nobunaga--Valignani--Founding of Nangasaki--Fervor and Fidelity
of the Converts--Embassy to Europe--Journey through Portugal,
Spain and Italy--Reception by Gregory XIII and Sixtus V--Return
to Japan--The Great Persecutions by Taicosama, Daifusama, Shogun
I and Shogun II--Spinola and other Martyrs--Arrival of
Franciscans and Dominicans--Popular eagerness for death--
Mastrilli--Attempts to establish a Hierarchy--Closing the Ports
--Discovery of the Christians.
When Francis Xavier bade farewell to Japan in 1551, he left behind him
Fathers Torres and Fernandes. They could not possibly have sufficed for
the vast work before them, and hence, in August of the following year,
Father Gago was sent with two companions, neither of whom was yet in
Holy Orders. They were provided with royal letters and well supplied
with presents to King Civandono, who was a devoted friend to Francis
Xavier.
The newcomers were amazed at the piety of the 3,000 Christians, who were
awaiting further instruction. They found them kind and charitable, very
much given to corporal austerities, and extremely scrupulous in matters
of conscience and there was no difficulty in getting enthusiastic
catechists among them to address the people and teach them the new
religion. As the belief of the Japanese, was then, as it is today,
Shintoism, which has no dogma, no moral law, and no books, and is
tinctured with Buddhism, the main doctrine of which is the
transmigration of souls, it was easy to arouse interest in a religion
which presented to their consideration spiritual doctrines, a moral law
and sacred books. In 1554 there were 1500 baptisms in the kingdom of
Arima alone, though no priest had as yet entered that part of the
country. The feudal system of government then prevailing made
conversions easy. Thus, when the Governor of Amaguchi became a
Christian, more than three hundred of his vassals and friends
immediately followed his example. This influence was still more in
evidence whenever a distinguished bonze accepted the Faith, an example
of which occurred when the two most celebrated personages of that class
came down from Kioto to Amaguchi for a public disputation. After the
conference they fell at the feet of Torres, and not only asked for
baptism, but became zealous instructors of the people. Naturally all the
bonzeries of the Empire were alarmed and they rose in revolt against the
Government for not checking these conversions. But Civandono called his
troops together to quell what soon assumed the proportions of organized
warfare. Indeed at one time, the insurgents seemed to be getting the
upper hand: but just as the king was on the point of being entrapped,
Fernandes at the risk of his life slipped through the ranks of the enemy
and gave Civandono information which won the victory. After that the
friendship of the monarch never failed his Christian subjects. He had
ample opportunity to show his devotion to them, for uprisings were as
common as the earthquakes in Japan, which were said to average three a
day.
Father Nunhes, the provincial, had been induced by the Viceroy of the
Indies to pay a visit to Japan at this juncture, and he arrived with
Father Vilela and a number of young scholastics. With them was a rich
Portuguese named Pinto, who had resolved to employ most of his money in
building a school in Civandono's dominions. In order to help the scheme,
the viceroy had made Pinto his ambassador. They arrived in April, 1556,
after a perilous journey, only to find a letter there from St. Ignatius,
reminding Father Nunhes that provincials had no business to undertake
such journeys and leave their official work to others. However, such a
pressing invitation had come meantime from the King of Firando or
Hirando, as it is now called, and the chance seemed so promising for the
king's conversion, that Father Nunhes presumed permission to delay his
return to India. He was received by Civandono, whom he had to visit on
his way to Hirando, with the same splendid ceremonies that had been
accorded to St. Francis Xavier; and, during a long conference which was
held with the help of Fernandes, he urged the king to become a
Christian, but Civandono insisted that reasons of State prevented him
from doing so for the moment. Nunhes then set out for Hirando, but fell
ill before he reached it, and, in consequence, was compelled to return
to Goa. As he had not converted a single idolater, and as Pinto's grand
plans for the education of the Japanese were a failure, the provincial
concluded that it would have been wiser to have remained in Hindostan,
where he was accomplishing great things, than to engage in apostolic
work to which obedience had not assigned him. Pinto's failure, however,
was compensated for by the devotion of another rich man, Louis Almeida,
who had come with Father Nunhes to Japan. Almeida being a physician,
immediately set to work to build two establishments--a hospital for
lepers and a refuge for abandoned children, which the immorality of the
Japanese women made extremely necessary. This was another expression of
gratitude to Civandono, which the king appreciated. By this time
Almeida had become a Jesuit.
Meantime the King of Hirando, who had asked for Nunhes, was propitiated
by having Father Gago sent to him. The missionary's success was
marvellous. Numberless conversions followed his visit, beginning with
that of the king himself. Helpers were sent, among them being the
illustrious bonze, Paul of Kioto, whose conversion had caused a great
stir some few years before. In a month or so 1400 baptisms were
recorded; but Paul had reached the end of his apostolic career and he
returned to die in the arms of Father Torres.
The usual uprising occurred, and the king who had made so much ado about
calling Father Nunhes turned out to be a very weak-kneed Christian.
Churches were destroyed, crosses desecrated, and other outrages
committed, but he did nothing to quell the disturbance. Political
reasons, he alleged, prevented him. It was in this outbreak that the
first martyrdom occurred, that of a poor slave-woman who had been
accustomed to pray before a cross erected outside the city. She had been
warned that it was as much as her life was worth to declare her
Christianity so openly; she persisted, nevertheless, and was killed as
she knelt down in the roadway to receive the blow of the executioner's
sword. Even Father Gago himself came near falling a victim to the
popular fury. In view of subsequent events, if they were as reported, it
is to be regretted that he missed the opportunity of winning the crown.
The first Jesuit who reached Kioto and remained there was Vilela. He had
travelled a long distance to visit a famous bonzery to which he had been
invited; and then, finding himself not far away from the imperial city,
he determined to present himself to the emperor, or Mikado as he was
called. His method of approaching that great potentate amazed the
onlookers by its novelty. Holding his cross high in the air, he
proclaimed his purpose in coming to Japan. To the surprise of every one,
the Mikado seemed extremely pleased; but that alarmed the bonzes, and
they accused Vilela of all sorts of crimes, not excluding cannibalism.
Indeed, they had seen great pieces of human flesh at Vilela's house,
they said. To stop their clamors, the Mikado finally consented to a
public debate, doing so with great apprehension, however, for Vilela's
success. The discussion took place, but, if the metempsychosis set forth
by their spokesman on that occasion, represented the popular creed, one
is forced to say that the Japanese mentality of that period was not of a
very superior character. Vilela's easy victory gave him the right to
preach everywhere in the Empire; and the number of converts was so great
that many missionaries were needed to help him.
Father Gago, who had missed the chance of martyrdom a short time before,
was looked upon as the man for the emergency. Francis Xavier had chosen
him expressly for Japan; his facility in learning the language was
marvellous; his piety was admitted by all; his zeal knew no bounds, and
his success corresponded with his efforts. Indeed, he was almost adored
wherever he went; but suddenly, just as he was needed he appeared to be
a changed man. His energy, his zeal, his enthusiasm had all evaporated.
There was, absolutely, nothing amiss in his conduct--not even a
suspicion suggested itself. But he wanted to give up his work; and to
the dismay of his associates he returned to Goa. He was nearly
shipwrecked on his way, but that resulted only in a temporary revival of
his fervor. He was sent to Salsette and was taken prisoner but was
subsequently released. He was never again, however, the man that he had
been in the beginning of his career. "I have enlarged on this," says
Charlevoix, "for I am writing a history and not a panegyric." The
"Menology" of Portugal, however, assails both Charlevoix and Bartoli for
this charge, but the defence lacks explicitness.
From Kioto, Vilela went to Sacai, which was an independent
city--republican in its administration, but in its rule as tyrannical as
Venice was about that time. Over and above that, it was grossly immoral,
and only one family in it would have anything to do with the missionary.
So he shook its dust from his feet and went elsewhere.
Almeida, the physician, distinguished himself in his missionary journeys
at this time, and he tells how he came across a whole community of
people in a secluded district who had seen a priest only once in
passing, yet had remembered all that had been told them, and were
keeping the commandments as well as they knew how. He baptized them all,
and leaving them capable catechists, one of whom had written a book
about Christianity, he continued on his way, hunting for more souls to
save. It was largely due to him that some of the reigning princes were
gained over. One of them, Sumitanda by name, had distinguished himself
by throwing down a famous idol, called the God of War, just at the
moment the army was going into battle. As the fight was won, most of the
soldiers not only became Christians, but, later on, when Sumitanda found
himself attacked by two kings who resented his conversion, a great
number of his men fastened crosses on their armor and swept the enemy
from the field.
Meantime a revolution had broken out at Kioto against the Mikado; he was
besieged in his citadel, but finally succeeded in beating back the foe.
When peace was restored in 1562 Vilela returned to the capital; and
multitudes, not only of the people, but many princes of the blood and
distinguished nobles, made a public profession of Christianity. This
again brought the bonzes to the fore, and as a prelude to a decree of
expulsion of the missionaries, they succeeded in having two of the most
influential men of the kingdom, both bitter pagans, constituted as a
commission to examine into the new teachings. So convinced was everyone
that it was only the beginning of a process of extermination that Vilela
was advised to withdraw from the capital. He acquiesced, much against
his will; but it happened that two of his Christians of the humbler
class so astounded the inquisitors by their answers that both of the
great men asked for baptism. A discourse of Vilela gained another
convert in the person of the father of a man who became famous in those
days of Japanese history--Justus Ucondono.
In 1565 the missionaries were treated with special consideration by the
Mikado, on the occasion of the splendid court ceremonies which marked
the opening of the new year. The whole nation was astounded at the
unprecedented favor, but as usual it was only the prelude of a storm. In
the following year the Mikado was murdered; and all his adherents were
either put to the sword or expelled from the capital. This was the first
act of a tragedy that would make a theme for a Shakespeare. It is as
follows: The successful rebels had placed the younger brother of the
emperor on the throne, but fearing a similar fate, he had fled to the
castle of the distinguished soldier, Vatadono, who, finding himself not
strong enough to maintain the claim of the fugitive monarch, induced the
ablest military man of Japan, Nobunaga, the King of Boari, to take up
the cause of their sovereign. The offer was accepted; two bloody battles
followed; the insurgents were cut to pieces, and the young emperor,
under the name of Cubosama, was enthroned at Kioto. The palace, which
had been wrecked in the war, was replaced by a new one, built of the
stones of the bonzeries and the statues of the national idols. The two
conquerors then made haste to show their esteem for the missionaries and
assured them of protection; Nobunaga withdrew to his kingdom when the
work was completed, and Vatadono, his lieutenant, remained as viceroy at
Kioto. All these events occurred in the single year of 1568.
Just then the illustrious Alexander Valignani, the greatest man of the
missions in the East after Francis Xavier, came on the scene. For
thirty-two years all his efforts were directed to shaping and guiding
the various posts of the vast field of apostolic work in this new part
of the world, his success being marvellous. He was born at Chieti. The
close friendship of his father with Pope Paul IV made the highest
offices of the Church attainable if he chose to aspire to them; but he
left the papal court, and was received into the Society by Francis
Borgia, beginning his life as a Jesuit by the practice of terrible
bodily mortifications, which he continued until the end of his career.
He was chosen by Mercurian to be visitor to the Indies; thirty-two
companions were given him, and he was authorized to select eight more,
wherever he might find them.
At that time Japan had only twenty missionaries, while there were none
at all in China. When Valignani died, there were in the empire of Japan
one hundred and fifty Jesuits and six hundred catechists, who in spite
of wars and persecutions had three hundred churches and thirty-one
places for the missionaries to assemble. There were a novitiate, a house
of theological and philosophical studies, two colleges where the
Japanese nobles sent their sons, besides a printing establishment, two
schools of music and painting, multitudes of sodalities, schools, and
finally, hospitals for every kind of human suffering, and when the
persecutions began, he had resources enough at his disposal to provide
for nine hundred exiled Japanese. Finally, it was his guidance and help
that enabled Matteo Ricci to plant the cross in the two capitals of
China. He wielded such an influence over the terrible Taicosama that it
was a common saying in the empire that if Father Alexander had survived,
the Church of Japan would never have succumbed. There was great
rejoicing when his arrival was announced. The ship which brought him to
port had not dropped anchor, before it was surrounded by hundreds of
boats filled with Christians, all of them carrying flags on which a
cross was painted. When he approached the city, throngs of people came
out to meet him, some kissing his robe, others his hands, others his
feet, and a long procession led him in triumph to the Church, where a Te
Deum was sung to thank God for his coming.
In that year, Nagasaki, which was afterwards to furnish so many martyrs
to the faith, suddenly developed from an inconspicuous village to a
great city, because of the number of Christians who had settled there. A
great sorrow, however, just then fell on the Church; Fernandes, one of
the missionaries whom Xavier had left behind him in Japan, had died.
Torres still remained, indeed, but he also was to end his glorious
career in a year or two. However, they had built up a splendid Church;
and under such conditions the work of evangelization could not fail to
proceed rapidly. Indeed, the records of that period teem with accounts
of conversions of princes and entire populations; and when Cabral
arrived as superior in place of Torres, the emperor gave the
missionaries his protection, in spite of the unrelenting opposition of
the bonzes, who still exercised a preponderating influence at Court. In
one of the provinces, Cabral, in his official visitations, found a very
remarkable evidence of solidity in the faith. No priest had been there
for ten years; yet a beautiful church had been erected and a fervent
congregation filled it continually. In another place where the constant
wars in which the ruler was engaged and the carnage which he had
committed in conquering the territory had kept out the missionaries for
at least twenty years, thanks to an old blind man named Tobias whom St.
Francis Xavier had baptized and named, all the people who were left in
the vicinity were thoroughly instructed in their Faith.
Meantime a new historical drama was being enacted, which was more
marvellous than the first. The weak character of Cubosama had made him
the victim of the bonzes, whom he heartily detested. They had also
succeeded in disrupting the friendship of Vatadono and Nobunaga.
Fortunately, the two friends were reconciled in time, but that gave rise
to a counter movement to destroy them. War was declared on some pretext
or other, and in one of the first engagements Vatadono was killed. It
was a sad blow for the missionaries, for the hero was a catechumen and
was waiting to be baptized. Left alone now and supposed to be unable to
defend himself, Nobunaga was more fiercely assailed than ever by the
bonzes. Wearied of it all, he called his troops together and set out for
Kioto. His enemies fled before him. He took the city and set it on fire,
and then, not because he was actuated by motives of personal ambition,
but because he saw that if Cubosama was allowed to rule the state of
warfare would continue, he locked up the feeble monarch in a fortress,
and constituted himself supreme military commander or Shogun. It was
then that Civandono, King of Bungo, the original friend of Francis
Xavier, became a Christian and took the name of Francis; furthermore he
built a city in which only Christians were allowed to live. There he
passed the rest of his days an example of piety to all.
Meantime, Nobunaga continued to shower favors on the missionaries. He
built a new and splendid city, and in the best part of it founded a
college and a seminary. Christianity made great strides under his
administration, as he was the deadly enemy of the bonzes who for years
had endeavored to compass his ruin. Nevertheless, though he listened
with interest and pleasure to explanations of the creed, and asked the
missionaries, half roguishly, if they really believed all they said, and
if they were not as bad as the bonzes, he went no further.
In the first years of Nobunaga's rule, Valignani conceived the idea of
having a solemn embassy sent by the various Christian kings of the
country, to pay their homage to the Sovereign Pontiff in the Eternal
City. It was not an imperial delegation, but was restricted to the three
devout rulers of Bungo, Arima and Omura. Nobunaga willingly gave his
consent, and the ambassadors left Nagasaki on February 22, 1582, and
repaired to Kioto. From there they went by the way of Malacca to Goa. On
this part of the journey they were frequently in imminent danger of
shipwreck, but they arrived safely in Goa at the beginning of 1583.
There they were received with great ceremony by the Viceroy,
Mascaregnas, who entertained them for several months. Valignani, who had
conducted them thus far, returned to Japan after putting them in the
hands of Fathers Mesquita and Rodrigues, who remained with them till
they reached Rome.
They set sail at the end of February, and on August 10 dropped anchor in
the Tagus. Charlevoix remarks that "this part of the journey was not
long," though it was nearly six months in duration. The prince cardinal
who was at that time Viceroy of Portugal showered honors upon them, and
made them his guests in the royal palace for an entire month. They then
visited the principal cities of Portugal. Nothing was too much for them
in the way of honor and even in the way of money. Finally they were
conducted to Madrid and had a public audience with Philip II, to whom
they presented their credentials and offered the presents of the
Christians of Japan and their expression of gratitude for all that his
majesty had done for the infant Church of their country. Philip is said
to have embraced them affectionately, assuring them of the great regard
he had for the kings whom they represented. The Queen Maria put her
carriages at their disposal, and on the following day they were
conducted to the Escorial where they received the congratulations of the
princes and grandees of Spain. The French ambassador also paid them a
ceremonious visit. Even the king himself called upon them and had a
vessel equipped at Alicante to conduct them to Italy. They left Madrid
on November 26, and were received with almost royal honors in every city
on their way. It was already January, 1585, when they left Spain. The
Mediterranean treated them badly; and it was only in the month of March
that they stepped ashore at Leghorn, amid the salvos of artillery from
the fort. The carriages of the grand duke carried them on their journey
to Pisa. There the prince and all his court were waiting to receive
them, and led them to the palace, where a splendid banquet was prepared,
after which Pietro de' Medici and the grand duke came to pay them their
respects.
They saw the carnival at Pisa, and then journeyed on to Florence, where
the papal nuncio and the cardinal archbishop, who was afterwards Pope
Leo XI, bade them welcome. From there they passed to Siena, where, as
guests of the Pope, they were met at the frontier by two hundred
arquebusiers sent by the vice-legate of Viterbo to show them special
honor. Gregory XIII was then on the Pontifical throne; and feeling that
his end was approaching, he sent a company of light horse to hasten
their coming. It was Friday, March 20, 1585, when they entered Rome, and
their first visit was to Father Aquaviva, who was then General of the
Society. He led them to the church, where a Te Deum was sung; and on the
following day the Pope held a consistory which ordered that the envoys
should be regarded as royal ambassadors; that their reception should be
as splendid as possible; and that their first audience should be at the
full consistory in the papal palace.
On the day appointed for the solemn entry, March 23, the Spanish
ambassador sent his carriages to convey the visitors to the villa of the
Pope; and then with the papal light horse at the head, followed by the
Swiss guards, the cardinalitial officials and the ambassadors of Spain
and Venice, with their pages and officers and trumpeters and all the
papal household in their purple robes, the delegates proceeded to the
City. The Japanese were on horseback and wore the costume of their
country; princes and archbishops rode on either side, and followed by
Father Diego, who acted as interpreter. A throng of mounted cavaliers in
gorgeous apparel closed the pageant. The whole city turned out to
receive them. The streets were crowded with people, as were the roofs of
the houses, all observing a reverential silence, interrupted only by the
blast of the trumpets or the occasional but enthusiastic acclamations of
the multitude. When the bridge of Castle Sant' Angelo was reached, the
cannon boomed out a welcome which was repeated by the guns of the papal
palace and taken up by strains of musical instruments that resounded
from every quarter as the envoys approached the palace.
So great was the throng of cardinals and prelates in the hall that the
Swiss guards had to force their way through it, to conduct the Pontiff
to his throne. When he was seated the ambassadors approached, holding
their credentials in their hands; and then, kneeling at the feet of the
Pope, they announced in a clear and loud voice that they had come from
the ends of the earth to see the Vicar of Jesus Christ and to offer him
the homage of the princes whose envoys they were. Tears flowed down the
cheeks of the Pontiff as he lifted the envoys up and embraced them
tenderly, again and again, with an affection they never forgot. They
were then conducted to a raised platform; and the secretary of the Pope
read aloud the letters, which they had brought. When that was concluded,
Father González explained at length the purpose of their mission, and a
bishop replied in the name of His Holiness. The second kissing of the
feet was next in order, and the cardinals crowded around the wondering
Japanese to ask them numberless questions about their country and the
events of their voyage, to all of which replies were given with a
refinement and courtesy that charmed all who heard them. The session was
now ended, and rising from his throne, the Pope withdrew, giving to the
visitors the honor, conferred only on the imperial ambassadors, of
bearing the papal train. They were then entertained at a sumptuous
banquet.
Private interviews with the Pope followed; and after receptions by
various dignitaries, at some of which the Japanese wore their national
dress, at others appearing in the Italian apparel, the Pope gave them
expensive robes, which they wore with an ease and grace that was
amazing for men so unaccustomed to such surroundings and ceremonies.
When they went to offer their prayers at the seven churches they were
received processionally at each of them, the bells ringing and organs
playing. Meantime physicians were sending hourly bulletins to His
Holiness, who was deeply concerned about one of the envoys who had been
debarred from all these ceremonies by an attack of sickness. The
invalid, however, did not die, but, later on, in his native country,
gave his life for the Faith.
Indeed it was the Pope himself who died a few days after these pageants.
He was ill only a few days, but in his very last moments he was making
inquiries about the sick man from the Far East. He departed this life on
April 10, and on the 25th Sixtus V mounted the throne. Before his
election he had been most effusive in his attention to the Japanese, and
was more so after his election, even giving them precedence over
cardinals, when there was question of an audience. They assisted at his
coronation, served as acolytes at his Mass, and were guests at a banquet
in his villa. He even decorated them as knights, and when they had been
belted and spurred by the ambassadors of France and Venice, he hung rich
gold chains and medals on their necks, lifted them up and kissed them
and gave them communion at his private Mass. He sent letters and
presents to the kings they represented, and the ambassadors themselves
were recipients of rich rewards from the generous Pontiff.
Finally, they were made patricians by the Senate, which assembled at the
Capitol for that purpose; and were given letters patent with a massive
gold seal attached. They then bade farewell to the Pope, who defrayed
all the expenses of their journey to Lisbon. Invitations were extended
to them from other sovereigns of Europe, but it was impossible to
accept them, and they left Rome on June 3, 1585, conducted a
considerable distance by the light horse and numbers of the nobility. At
Spoleto, Assisi, Montefalcono, Perugia, Bologna, Ferrara and elsewhere,
every honor was given them. As they approached Venice, for instance,
forty red-robed senators received them and accompanied them up the Grand
Canal in a vessel that was usually kept for the use of kings. Every
gondola of the city followed in their wake; the patriarch and all the
nobility visited them; and they were then conducted to the palace of the
Doge, where the attendant senators accorded them the first places in the
assembly. Tintoretto painted their portraits, and they were shown
tapestries on which their reception by the Pope had been already
represented. A hundred pieces of artillery welcomed them to Mantua; the
city was illuminated and the people knelt in the street to show their
veneration for these new children of the Faith from the Far East. They
even stood sponsors at the baptism of a Jewish rabbi. It was the same
story at Milan and Cremona. They approached Genoa by sea, and galleys
were sent out to convoy them to the city. Leaving there on August 8 they
reached Barcelona on the 17th. At Moncon they again saw Philip II who
had a vessel specially equipped for them at Lisbon; he lavished money
and presents on them, and gave orders to the Viceroy of India to provide
them with everything they wished till they reached Japan. They finally
left Lisbon on April 30, 1586. During their stay in Europe they had the
happiness of meeting St. Aloysius Gonzaga, who was then a novice in the
Society.
The splendor of these European courts must have dazzled the eyes of the
dark-skinned sons of the East as they journeyed through Portugal, Italy
and Spain; but they were probably not aware of the tragedies that were
enacted near-by in the dominions of the Most Christian King, where
Catholics and Huguenots were at each other's throats; nor did they know
of the fratricidal struggles in Germany that were leading up to the
Thirty Years War, which was to make Christian Europe a desert; nor of
the fury of Elizabeth who was at that very time putting to death the
brothers of the Jesuits whom they so deeply revered. The revolutions,
assassinations and sacrileges committed all through those countries
would have been startling revelations of the depths to which Christian
nations could descend. However, they may have been informed of it all,
and could thus understand more easily the remorseless cruelty of their
own pagan rulers whose victims they were so soon to be.
Cubosama, as we have seen, had been kind to the Christians, and Nobunaga
had welcomed the priests to his palace and found pleasure in their
conversations. He had given them a place in the beautiful city he built;
but in reality he doubted the sincerity of their belief just as he
disbelieved the teaching of the bonzes. In default of another deity, he
had begun to worship himself, and, like, Nabuchodonosor of old, he
finally exacted divine honors from his subjects. Such an attitude of
mind naturally led to cruelty, and in 1586 he was murdered by one of his
trusted officials who, in turn, perished in battle when Ucondono, the
Christian commander of the imperial armies, overthrew him. Unwisely,
perhaps, Ucondono did not assume the office of protector of the young
son of Nobunaga, but left it to a man of base extraction, the terrible
Taicosama, who quickly became the Shogun. At first he protected the
Christians, made the provincial, Coelho, his friend and permitted the
Faith to be preached throughout the empire. The chief officers of his
army and navy were avowed believers.
Three years passed and the number of neophytes had doubled. There were
now 300,000 Christians in Japan--among them kings and princes, and the
three principal ministers of the empire. But it happened that, in the
year 1589 two Christian women had refused to become inmates of
Taicosama's harem, and that turned him into a terrible persecutor.
Ucondono was deprived of his office and sent into exile; Father Coelho
was forbidden to preach in public, and the other Jesuits were to
withdraw from the country within twenty days, while every convert was
ordered to abjure Christianity. The two hundred and forty churches were
to be burned. The recreant son of the famous old king of Bungo gave the
first notable example of apostasy, but, as often happens in such
circumstances, the persecution itself won thousands of converts who, up
to that, had hesitated about renouncing their idols. At this juncture,
Father Valignani appeared as ambassador of the Viceroy of the Indies,
and in that capacity was received with royal magnificence by Taicosama.
But the bonzes, who had now regained their influence over the emperor,
assured him that the embassy was only a device to evade the law, and,
hence, though he accepted the presents, he did not relent in his
opposition; yet in his futile expedition against China two Jesuits
accompanied the troops.
Blood was first shed in the kingdom of Hirando. Fathers Carrioni and
Martel were poisoned, and Carvalho and Furnaletto, who took their
places, met the same fate. A fifth, whose name is lost, was killed in a
similar fashion. Unfortunately, the Spanish merchants in the Philippines
just at that time induced the Franciscan missionaries of those islands
to go over to Japan, for the rumor had got abroad that the Jesuits in
Japan had been wholly exterminated, although there were still, in
reality, twenty-six of them in the country. It is true they were not in
evidence as formerly, for with the exception of the two army chaplains,
they were exercising their ministry secretly. Of that, however, the
Spaniards were not aware and probably spoke in good faith. The
Franciscans, on arriving, discovered that they had been duped in
believing that the persecution was prompted by dislike of the Jesuits'
personality, some of whom no doubt they met. Nevertheless, they
determined to remain, and Taicosama permitted them to do so, because of
the letters they carried from the Governor of the Philippines, who
expressed a desire of becoming Taicosama's vassal. Meantime, a Spanish
captain whose vessel had been wrecked on the coast had foolishly said
that the sending of missionaries to Japan was only a device to prepare
for a Portuguese and Spanish invasion. Possibly he spoke in jest, but
his words were reported to Taicosama, with the result that on February
5, 1597, six Franciscans and three Jesuits were hanging on crosses at
Nagasaki. The Jesuits were Paul Miki, James Kisai, and John de Goto, all
three Japanese. On the same day a general decree of banishment was
issued.
Just then Valignani, who had withdrawn, returned to Japan with nine more
Jesuits and the coadjutor of the first bishop of Japan--the bishop
having died on the way out. Valignani, who was personally very
acceptable to Taicosama, was cordially received and the storm ceased
momentarily; but unfortunately, Taicosama died a year afterwards and,
strange to say, two Jesuit priests, Rodrigues and Organtini, who had won
his affection, were with him when he breathed his last, but they failed
to make any impression on his mind or heart. He left a son, and
Daifusama became regent or Shogun. Fortunately, Valignani had some
success in convincing him that to establish himself firmly on his
throne it would be wise to extend his protection to his Christian
subjects. Moreover, the King of Hirando, though at first bent on
continuing the persecution, was constrained by the threatening attitude
of his Christian subjects, who were very numerous and very powerful in
his kingdom, to desist from his purpose, at least for a while. Probably
he was assisted in this resolution by the fact that in the first year
after the outburst, namely in 1599, seventy thousand more Japanese had
asked for baptism. In 1603 there were 10,000 conversions in the single
principality of Fingo.
Father Organtini succeeded in getting quite close to Daifusama who, to
strengthen himself politically, allowed the churches to be rebuilt in
the empire and even in Kioto. Unfortunately, however, in 1605 he heard
that Spain was sending out a number of war vessels to subjugate the
Moluccas, and fancying that its objective was really Japan, he gave
orders to the Governor of Nagasaki to allow no Spanish ships to enter
the harbor. To make matters worse, it happened that Valignani, who
exercised an extraordinary influence on Daifusama, was not at hand to
disabuse him of his error. He was then dying, and expired the next year
at the age of sixty-nine. For the moment Daifusama was so much affected
by the loss of his friend that he forgot his suspicions and gave full
liberty to the missionaries to exercise their ministry everywhere. In
fact, he summoned to his palace the famous Charles Spinola, who appears
now for the first time in the country for which he was soon to shed his
blood. With Spinola was Sequiera, the first bishop who had succeeded in
reaching Japan. The imperial summons was eagerly obeyed by Spinola and
the bishop, for such progress had already been made in the formation of
a native clergy that five parishes which they had established in
Nagasaki were at that time in the hands of Japanese priests, and an
academy had been begun in which, besides theology, elementary physics
and astronomy were taught. Organtini, who had labored in Japan for
forty-nine years, had even built a foundling asylum, to continue the
work which Almeida had inaugurated elsewhere. A hospital for lepers had
also been started.
Nothing happened for the moment, but though outwardly favoring the
missionaries, Daifusama was in his heart worried about this amazingly
rapid expansion of Christianity, and when in 1612 two merchants, one
from Holland and one from England, which were plotting to oust the
Spanish and Portuguese from the control of the commerce of Japan,
aroused his old suspicions by assuring him that the priests were in
reality only the forerunners of invading armies, the old hostility
flamed out anew. The opportunity to work on Daifusama's fears presented
itself in a curious way. A Spanish ship had been sent from Mexico by the
viceroy to see what could be done to establish trade relations with
Japan, and on coming into port it was seen to be taking the usual
soundings--a mysterious proceeding in the eyes of the Japanese. The fact
was reported to Daifusama, who asked an English sea-captain what it
meant. "Why," was the reply, "in Europe that is considered a hostile
act. The captain is charting the harbor so as to allow a fleet to enter
and invade Japan. These Jesuits are well known to be Spanish priests who
have been hunted out of every nation in Europe as plotters and spies,
and the religion they teach is only a cloak to conceal their ulterior
designs."
Whether Daifusama believed this or not is hard to say, but greater men
than this rude barbarian have been deceived by more ridiculous
falsehoods. There was no delay. Fourteen of the most distinguished
families of the empire were banished, and others awaited a like
proscription. Then the persecution became general; the churches were
destroyed and all the missionaries were ordered out of the empire.
Daifusama died in 1616, but his son and successor outdid him in ferocity
though there was a short lull on account of internal political troubles.
It was during this period that thirty-three Jesuits slipped back into
the country under various disguises. Their purpose was to work secretly,
so that the government would not remark their presence. Unfortunately,
twenty-four Franciscans, deceived by a rumor that a commercial treaty
had been made with Spain and under the impression that the root of the
trouble was personal dislike for Jesuits, landed at Nagasaki at the end
of the year 1616, and insisted on going out in the open and proclaiming
the Gospel publicly. They reckoned without their host. A decree was
issued making it a capital offense to harbor missionaries of any garb.
Not only that, but it was officially announced that death would be
inflicted on the occupants of the ten houses nearest the one where a
missionary was discovered. The Jesuits took to the mountains and marshes
to save their people, but the Franciscans defied the edict. The result
was that immediate orders were issued to take every priest that could be
found. Nagasaki was first ransacked. The Jesuits had all vanished except
Machado; he and a Franciscan were captured, and on May 21, 1617, were
decapitated. In spite of this warning, however, a Dominican and an
Augustinian publicly celebrated Mass, under the very eyes of Sancho, an
apostate prince who was an agent of the Shogun. The result was immediate
death for both. The same useless bravado was repeated elsewhere.
Different tactics, as we have said, were adopted by the Jesuits. Thus,
de Angelis covered the mountains of Voxuan; Navarro and Porro lived in a
cave in Bungo, and crept out when they could, to visit their scattered
flocks. There was a group also on the rich island of Nippon--among them
Torres, Barretto, Fernandes and a Japanese named Yukui. From this place
of concealment they spread out in all directions, usually disguised as
native peddlers; all of them, even in those terrible surroundings,
winning many converts to the Faith.
A phenomenon not unusual in the Church, but carried to extraordinary
lengths in this instance, now presented itself. Instead of striking
terror into the hearts of the Christians, the very opposite result
ensued. A widespread eagerness, a special devotion for martyrdom, as it
were, manifested itself. Crowds gathered in every city to accompany the
victims to the place of execution; the women and children put on their
richest attire; songs of joy were sung and prayers aflame with
enthusiasm were recited by the spectators, who kept reminding the
sufferers that the scaffold was the stairway to heaven. At Kioto there
was no trouble in filling out the lists of those who were to be
executed. People came of themselves to give their names. Those who did
not were rated as idolaters. The number ran up to several thousands and
the emperor was so alarmed that he cut them down to 1700. There were
fifteen Jesuits in the city. Six of them were banished, but the other
nine went from place to place, keeping up the courage of their flocks.
Gomes and the bishop had died in the midst of these horrors; and the
duties of both devolved on Carvalho.
Unfortunately, at this juncture, a paper was found signed in blood by a
number of Christians pledging themselves to fight to death against the
banishment of the missionaries. That was enough for the Shogun. The
Jesuits, to the number of one hundred and seventeen, with twenty-seven
members of other religious orders, Augustinians, Franciscans and
Dominicans, were dragged down to Nagasaki and shipped to Macao and the
Philippines. With them was Ucondono, the erstwhile commander of the
forces of Taicosama. On the vessels also were several families of
distinguished people. Some died on the journey; and others, Ucondono
among the number, gave up the ghost shortly after arriving at the
Philippines. Twenty-six Jesuits and some other religious succeeded in
remaining in Japan. As the provincial Carvalho, was among the exiles, he
named Rodrigues as his successor, and appointed Charles Spinola to look
after Nagasaki and the surrounding territory. The work had now become
particularly difficult. Thus, one of these concealed apostles tells how
most of his labor had to be performed at night. Often he found himself
groping along unknown roads through forests and on the edges of
precipices, over which he not infrequently rolled to the bottom of the
abyss. Another says: "I am hiding in a hut, and a little rice is handed
in to me from time to time. The place is so wet that I have got
sciatica, and cannot stand or sit; most of my work is done at night,
visiting my flock, while my protectors are asleep." So it was for all
the rest.
The Protestant historian Kampfer is often quoted in this matter. In his
"History of Japan" he says that "the persecution was the worst in all
history, but did not produce the effect that the government expected.
For, although, according to the Jesuit accounts, 20,570 people suffered
death for the Christian religion in 1590, yet in the following years,
when all the churches were closed, there were 12,000 proselytes.
Japanese writers do not deny that Hideyori, Taicosama's son and
intended successor, was suspected of being a Catholic, and that the
greater part of the court officials and officers of the army professed
that religion. The joy that made the new converts suffer the most
unimaginable tortures excited the public curiosity to such an extent
that many wanted to know the religion that produced such happiness in
the agonies of death; and when told about it, they also enthusiastically
professed it."
Spinola, who was seized at Nagasaki, was called upon to explain why he
had remained in Japan, in spite of the edict. He replied: "There is a
Ruler above all kings--and His word must be obeyed." The answer settled
his fate, and he and two Dominicans were condemned to a frightful
imprisonment. It is recorded that as the three victims approached the
jail, they intoned the Te Deum, and that the refrain was taken up by a
Dominican and a Franciscan who had already passed a year in that
horrible dungeon. When the martyrs met inside the walls they kissed each
other affectionately and fell on their knees to thank God. Leonard
Kimura, a Japanese, was arrested at Nagasaki on suspicion of having
concealed the son of the Shogun, and also of having killed a man while
defending the prince. He was acquitted, but when withdrawing he was
asked if he could give the court information about any Jesuit who might
be hiding in the vicinity. "Yes, I know one," he said, "I am a Jesuit."
After three years in a dungeon he was burned at the stake.
In 1619 the Jesuits, Spinola and Fernandes, with fourteen others,
Dominicans and Franciscans, were brought out of prison and kept in a pen
with no protection from cold or heat and so narrow that it was
impossible to assume any but a crouching posture. It was hoped that by
exposing them publicly, emaciated, hungry, filthy, and diseased, that
the heroic element which the executions seemed to develop in the
victims would be eliminated, and their converts alienated from the
Faith. The contrary happened, and from that enclosure Spinola not only
preached to the people, but actually admitted novices to the Society. As
he stood at the stake where he was to be burned, a little boy whom he
had baptized was put in his arms; Spinola blessed him, and the child and
his mother were executed at the same time as their father in God. Five
Jesuits died in 1619; and in 1620 six others came from Macao to replace
them. Next year brought down an edict on all shipmasters, forbidding
them to land such undesirable immigrants as missionaries. Nevertheless,
two months after the edict was published, Borges, Costanza, de Suza,
Carvalho and Tzugi, a Japanese, appeared in the disguise of merchants
and soldiers. The Dutch and English traders volunteered after that to
search all incoming vessels, and report the suspicious passengers. An
attempt at a prison delivery precipitated the condemnation of Spinola
and his companions in the pens. They were burned alive on September 10,
1622; on the 19th of the same month three more met the same fate, and in
November two others went to heaven through the flames.
In 1623 de Angelis and Simon Jempo, with a number of their followers,
were burned to death, after having their feet cut off. Carvalho and
Buzomo were caught in a forest in mid-winter, and on February 21, 1624,
were plunged naked into a pond, and left there to freeze for the space
of three hours. Four days afterwards the experiment was repeated for six
consecutive hours. But the night was so cold that they were both found
dead in the morning, wrapped in a shroud of ice. Another Carvalho
perished in the same year. Petitions were sent from the Philippines and
elsewhere, imploring a cessation of these horrors, but the appeals made
the Shogun more cruel. As the persecutions had produced only a few
apostacies, the executioners were told to scourge the victims down to
the bone, to tear out their nails, to drive rods into their flesh or
ears or nose, to fling them into pits filled with venomous snakes, to
cut them up piece by piece, to roast them on gridirons, to put red-hot
vessels in their hands, and, what was the most diabolical of all, to
consider the slightest movement or cry a sign of apostasy. Another
favorite punishment was to hang the sufferer head down over a pit from
which sulphurous or other fumes were rising, or to stretch them on their
backs and by means of a funnel fill them full of water till the stomach
almost burst, and then by jumping on the body to force the fluid out
again.
It is unnecessary here to enter into all the details of these
martyrdoms; but it will be enough to state that in a very few years,
twenty-eight native Japanese Jesuits, besides multitudes of people who
were living in the world, men, women and children, gave up their lives
for the Faith, side by side with those who had come from other parts of
the world to teach them how to die. In 1634 only a handful of Jesuits
remained. Chief among them was Vieira. He had been sent to report
conditions to Urban VIII, and in 1632 he returned to die. He re-entered
Japan as a Chinese sailor, and for nearly two years hurried all over the
blood-stained territory, facing death at every step, until finally he
and five other Jesuits stood before the tribunal and were told to
apostatize or die. Vieira, the spokesman, said: "I am 63 years old, and
all my life I have received innumerable favors from Almighty God; from
the emperor--nothing, and I am not going now to bow down to idols of
sticks and stones to obey a mortal man like myself. So say the others."
They were put to death.
In that year, however, it is painful and humiliating to be obliged to
say there was a Jesuit in Japan who apostatized: Father Ferara. It was
the only scandal during those terrible trials. He had even been
provincial, at one time, but when the test came, he fell, and the
glorious young Church was thrilled with horror at seeing a man who had
once taught them the way to heaven now throwing away his soul. The shame
was too much for the Society, and it resolved to wipe it out. Marcellus
Mastrilli, a Neapolitan, made the first attempt to atone for the crime.
No one could enter Nagasaki without trampling on the cross--a device
suggested by the Dutch and English merchants. However, Mastrilli made up
his mind to enter without committing the sacrilege. He succeeded, but
was arrested and led through the streets of Nagasaki, with the
proclamation on his back: "This madman has come to preach a foreign
religion, in spite of the emperor's edict. Come and look at him. He is
to die in the pit." For sixty hours he hung over the horrible opening
through which the poisonous fumes continually poured. Finally he was
drawn up and his head struck off. It was October 17, 1637, and Ferara
was looking on. Three years afterwards a similar execution took place.
There were four victims this time, and the apostate stood there again.
In 1643 the final attempt was made to win back the lost one. Father
Rubini and four other Jesuits landed on a desolate coast. They were
captured and dragged to Nagasaki. To their horror the judge seated at
the tribunal was none other than Ferara. "Who are you, and what do you
come here for?" he asked. "We are Jesuits," they answered, "and we come
to preach Jesus Christ, who died for us all." "Abjure your faith," cried
Ferara, "and you shall be rich and honored." "Tell that to cowards whom
you want to dishonor," answered Rubini. "We trust that we shall have
courage to die like Christians and like priests." Ferara fled, and the
missionaries died, but the shaft had struck home, though it took nine
years for Divine grace to achieve its ultimate triumph. The victory was
won in 1652, when an old man of eighty was dragged before the judge at
Nagasaki. "Who are you?" he was asked. "I am one," he replied, "who has
sinned against the King of Heaven and earth. I betrayed Him out of fear
of death. I am a Christian; I am a Jesuit." His youthful courage had
returned, and for sixty hours he remained unmoved in the pit, in spite
of the most excruciating torture. It was Ferara; and thus Christianity
died in Japan in his blood and in that of 200,000 other martyrs. Eighty
Jesuits had given their life for Christ in this battle.
This disaster in Japan has been frequently laid at the door of the
Society, because of its unwillingness to form a native clergy. Those who
make the cruel charge forget a very important fact. It is this:
precisely at that time a native clergy was not saving England or Germany
or any of the Northern nations. Not only that, but the clergy themselves
first gave the example of apostasy in those countries. Secondly, it had
been absolutely impossible, up to that time, to obtain a bishop in Japan
to ordain any of the natives. Sixteen years had not elapsed from the
moment the first Jesuits began their work in Japan, namely in 1566, when
Father Oviedo, the Patriarch of Ethiopia, was appointed Bishop of Japan.
But he entreated the Pope to let him die in the hardships and dangers by
which he was surrounded in Africa. Father Carnero was then sent in his
place, but he died when he reached Macao. In 1579 a petition was again
dispatched to Rome asking for a bishop, but no answer was given. When
the Japanese embassy knelt at the feet of the Pope, they repeated the
request. Morales was then named, but he died on the way out. In 1596
Martines arrived with a coadjutor, Sequiera, and immediately a number of
young Japanese who had been long in preparation for the priesthood were
ordained; in 1605 a parish was established in Nagasaki and put in the
hands of a native priest. In 1607 four more parishes were organized.
Then Martines died, and in 1614 Sequiera followed him to the grave.
Finally, Valente was appointed, but he never reached Japan.
Rohrbacher, the historian, was especially prominent in fastening this
calumny on the Society, and when Bertrand, the author of "Mémoires sur
les missions," put him in possession of these facts, not only was the
charge not withdrawn, but no acknowledgment was made of the receipt of
the information. As a matter of fact, it would be difficult to find in
the history of the Church an example of greater solicitude to provide a
native priesthood than was given by the Jesuits of Japan. The crushing
out in blood of the marvellous Church which Xavier and his successors
had created in that part of the world cannot be considered a failure--at
least in the minds of Catholics who understand that "the blood of
martyrs is the seed of the Church." Nor can such a conclusion be arrived
at by any one who is aware of what occurred in the city of Nagasaki as
late as the year 1865.
The ports of Japan had been opened to the commerce of the world in 1859.
But even then all attempts to penetrate into the interior had been
hopelessly frustrated. On March 17, 1865 Father Petitjean, of the
Foreign Missions, was praying, disconsolate and despondent, in a little
chapel he had built in Nagasaki. No native had ever entered it. One
morning he became aware of the presence of three women kneeling at his
side. "Have you a Pope?" they asked. "Yes," was the answer. "Do you
pray to the Blessed Virgin?" "Yes." "Are you married?" "No." "Do you
take the discipline?" To the last interrogatory he replied by holding up
that instrument of penance. "Then you are a Christian like ourselves."
To his amazement he found that in Nagasaki and its immediate
surroundings, which had been the principal theatre of the terrible
martyrdoms of former times--there were no less than 2,500 native
Japanese Catholics. In a second place there was a settlement of at least
a thousand families, and, later on, five other groups were found in
various sections of the country; and it was certain that there was a
great number of others in various localities. As many as 50,000
Christians were ultimately discovered. Pius IX was so much moved by this
wonderful event, that he made the 17th of March the great religious
festival of the Church of Japan, and decreed that it was to be
celebrated under the title of "The Finding of the Christians."
A Church that could preserve its spiritual life for over two hundred
years in the midst of pagan hatred and pagan corruption, without any
sacramental help but that of baptism, and without priests, without
preaching, without the Holy Sacrifice, and could present itself to the
world at the end of that long period of trial and privation with 50,000
Christians, the remnants of those other hundreds and hundreds of
thousands who, through the centuries, had never faltered in their
allegiance to Christ, was not a failure. It may be noted, moreover, that
this survival of the Faith after long years of privation of the
sacraments of the Church is not the exclusive glory of Japan. Other
instances will be noted when the Society resumed its work after the
Suppression.
CHAPTER VII
THE GREAT STORMS
1580-1597
Manares suspected of ambition--Election of Aquaviva--Beginning
of Spanish discontent--Denis Vásquez--The "Ratio Studiorum"--
Society's action against Confessors of Kings and Political
Embassies--Trouble with the Spanish Inquisition and Philip II--
Attempts at a Spanish Schism--The Ormanetto papers--Ribadeneira
suspected--Imprisonment of Jesuits by the Spanish Inquisition--
Action of Toletus--Extraordinary Congregation called--Exculpation
of Aquaviva--The dispute "de Auxiliis"--Antoine Arnauld's attack
--Henry IV and Jean Chastel--Reconciliation of Henry IV to the
Church--Royal protection--Saint Charles Borromeo--Troubles in
Venice--Sarpi--Palafox.
When Mercurian died, on August 1, 1580, Oliver Manares, who, like the
deceased General, was a Belgian, called the general congregation for
February 7, 1581. Two of the old companions of St. Ignatius, Salmerón
and Bobadilla, were there, as were also the able coadjutor of Canisius,
Hoffæus, and Claude Matthieu, the latter of whom was beginning to be
conspicuous in the League against the King of Navarre. Maldonatus, also,
occupied a seat in the distinguished assembly. Before the congregation
met, rumors began to be heard that Manares was seeking the generalship
for himself. The grounds of the suspicions seem almost too frivolous for
an outsider, but in an order which had pronounced so positively against
ambition in the Church, it was proper that it should be scrupulously
sensitive about any act in the body itself that might resemble it. The
grounds of the accusation were that he had sent a present to Father
Toletus who was very close to the Pope, and had also once said to a
lay-brother: "If I were General, I would do so and so." A committee was
appointed to examine the case, and Manares was declared ineligible. The
Pope found the action of the congregation excessively rigid, but,
possibly, as in the preceding congregation it had been decided that the
succession of three Spanish Generals contained in it an element of
danger, so it was feared that as the dead General who had appointed one
of his own race to be vicar, there might be reason for apprehension in
that also. As a matter of fact, the power given to the General to
appoint his vicar was by some looked upon as quite unwise, as it
afforded at least a remote opportunity for self-perpetuation.
On February 19, 1581, Claudius Aquaviva was elected General of the
Society by thirty-two votes out of fifty-one. He was not yet
thirty-eight years of age. The Pope was astounded at the choice, but the
sequel proved that it was providential. "No one," says Bartoli, "was
raised to that dignity who had given more evident or more numerous signs
that his election came from God, and perhaps, no one, with the exception
of St. Ignatius, has a greater claim to the gratitude of the Society or
has helped it more efficaciously to achieve the object for which it was
founded." He was the youngest son of the Duke of Atri, and was born at
Naples in 1543. As his youth was passed in his father's palace, he could
at most only have heard the names of some of the companions of St.
Ignatius, but when he was about twenty years of age he was sent to Rome
to defend some family interest, and he attracted so much attention that
he was retained at court, first by Paul IV, and afterwards by Pius V,
both of whom were struck by his superior qualities of mind and heart.
There for the first time he came in contact with the Jesuits. It
happened that Christopher Rodriguez, John Polanco, and Francis Borgia
were frequently admitted to an audience with the Holy Father, and young
Aquaviva was so drawn to them when he heard them speaking of Divine
things, that he began to make inquiries about their manner of life and
the rule they followed. He felt called to join them but he hesitated a
while, for the Roman purple was an honor that was assured him; finally,
however, he made up his mind, and after the Pontifical Mass on St.
Peter's day he fell at Borgia's feet and asked for admission to the
Society. When Ormanetto, the papal legate, heard of it, he exclaimed:
"The Apostolic College has lost its finest ornament."
Nine years later, Aquaviva was made rector of the Roman Seminary, and
then, by a strange coincidence, became rector of the College of Naples,
as successor of Dionisio Vásquez, who later on was to be very
conspicuous in an attempt by the Spanish members to disrupt the Society,
and thus occasion the bitterest trial of Aquaviva's administration as
General. After rapidly repairing the ruin that Vásquez had caused in
Naples, Aquaviva was made provincial, and was then entrusted with the
care of the Roman province. He had served in that capacity only a year
when he was elected General. Some years before that, Nadal must have
foreseen the promotion when he advised Aquaviva to make the
Constitutions of Saint Ignatius his only reading. "You will stand very
much in need of it," he said. The congregation formulated sixty-nine
decrees, one of which gave the General power to appoint his vicar, and
another to interpret the Constitutions. Such interpretations, however,
were not to have the force of law, but were to be considered merely as
practical directions for government. Another decree regulated the method
to be followed in the dissolution of houses and colleges.
Aquaviva's first letter to the Society was concerned chiefly with the
qualities which superiors should possess--especially those of
vigilance, sweetness and strength. His second was more universal, and
dealt with the necessity of a constant renewal of the spiritual life. To
him the Society is indebted for the "Directorium," or guide of the
Spiritual Exercises.
Under his administration the "Ratio Studiorum," or scheme of studies,
was produced. It was the result of fifteen years of collaboration
(1584-99) by a number of the most competent scholars that could be found
in the Society. It covers the whole educational field from theology down
to the grammar of the lower classes, exclusive, however, of the
elements. Of course, this "Ratio" has not escaped criticism, for
scarcely anything the Society ever attempted has had that good fortune.
Thus, to take one out of many, Michelet bemoans the fact that "the Ratio
has been; in operation for 300 years and has not yet produced a man."
Such a charge, of course, does not call for discussion.
The greatest service that Aquaviva rendered the Society, and for which
it will ever bless his memory is that he saved it from destruction in a
fight that ran through the thirty years of his Generalate, and in which
he found opposed to him Popes, kings, and princes, along with the
terrible authority of the Spanish Inquisition and, worst of all, a
number of discontented members of the Order, banded together and
resorting to the most reprehensible tactics to alter completely the
character of the Institute and to rob it of that Catholicity which
constitutes its glory and its power.
He began his work by making it impossible, as far as it lay in his
power, for a Jesuit to be used as the tool of any prince or potentate,
no matter how dazzling might be the dignity with which one so employed
was invested, or the glory which his work reflected on the Society.
Thus, he put his ban on the office of royal confessor, which some of
the members of the Society in those days were compelled to accept. He
could not prevent it absolutely just then, but he laid down such
stringent laws regarding it, that all ambition or desire of that very
unapostolic work was eliminated. Its inconveniences were manifest. It is
inconceivable, for instance, that a sovereign like Henry IV, who was a
devoted friend of the Society, ever consulted Father Coton about
scruples of conscience; for his majesty was never subject to spiritual
worry of that description; and on the other hand, the unfortunate
confessor was often suspected or accused of influencing or advising
political measures with which he could have had nothing whatever to do.
Jealousy also, of those who were appointed to the office was inevitable,
and dislike and hatred not only of the individual who occupied the post,
but of the order to which he belonged was aroused. Even the confessor's
own relatives and friends were alienated, because he was forbidden to
make use of his spiritual influence for their worldly advantage.
Finally, apart from the loss of time, daily contact with the vice of the
court, which he could not openly reprehend, necessarily reacted on the
spiritual tone of the religious himself.
The same objections obtained for the flamboyant embassies which had been
so much in vogue up to that time, and which are still quoted as
evidencing the wonderful influence wielded by the Society in those days.
They, too, were stopped, for the reason that although they were nearly
always connected with the interests of the Faith, yet they were very
largely controlled by worldly politics. Hence Possevin, who had made
such a stir by his embassies to Muscovy, Sweden, Poland and elsewhere,
was relegated to a class-room in Padua. Matthieu, who figured
conspicuously in the politico-religious troubles of France as the
"Courier de la Ligue," was told to desist from his activities, although
Pope Sixtus V judged otherwise; and finally, the most famous orator of
his day in France, Father Auger, who was loud in his denunciation of the
Holy League, received peremptory orders to desist from discussing the
subject at all. His quick obedience to the command was the best sermon
he ever preached.
Aquaviva had also a very protracted struggle with Philip II in relation
to the Spanish Inquisition. The king had frequently expressed a desire
to have a Jesuit in one or other of the conspicuous offices of that
tribunal, but Aquaviva stubbornly refused, first, because of the odium
attached to the Inquisition itself, and also because he suspected that
Philip designed, by that means, to lay hold of the machinery of the
Society and control it. His most glorious battle, however, was one that
was fought in the Society itself, against an organized movement which
was making straight for the destruction of the great work of St.
Ignatius. It is somewhat of a stain on the splendid history of the
Order, but it should not be concealed or palliated or explained away,
for it not only reveals the masterful generalship of Aquaviva, but it
also brings out, in splendid relief, the magnificent resisting power of
the organization itself.
The Spanish Jesuits were profoundly shocked when the Pope prevented the
perpetuation of Spanish rule in the Society. The psychological reason of
their surprise was that the average Spaniard at that time was convinced
that Spain alone was immune from heresy. As a matter of fact, all the
other nations of Europe, Ireland excepted, had been infected, and
possibly it was a mistaken loyalty to the Church that prompted a certain
number of them to organize a plot to make the Society exclusively
Spanish or destroy it.
It will come as a painful discovery for many that the originator of this
nefarious scheme was Father Araoz, the nephew of St. Ignatius. Astrain
(II, 101) regrets to admit it, but the documents in his hands make it
imperative. He quotes letters which show that even in the time of St.
Ignatius, Araoz complained of the Roman administration, putting the
blame, however, on Polanco. His discontent was more manifest under
Laínez, when he maintained that the General should not be elected for
life; that provincials and rectors should be voted for, as in other
Orders; that there should be a general chapter in Spain to manage its
own affairs, and not only that no foreigner should be admitted to a
Spanish province, but that there should not even be any communication
with non-Spaniards in other sections of the Society. One would not
expect such Knownothingism in a Jesuit, but the documents setting forth
these facts which were found among the papers of Araoz after his death
make it only too manifest. They contain among other things accounts of
the opposition of Araoz to Laínez, to Francis Borgia, and to Nadal, none
of which is very pleasant reading.
In a letter unearthed by Antonio Ibáñez, the visitor of the province of
Toledo, Araoz goes on to say: "(1) We must petition the Pope and ask
that all religious orders in Spain shall have a Spanish general,
independent of the one in Rome, so as to avoid the danger of heresy. (2)
No Spaniard living outside of Spain should be elected general,
commissary or visitor in Spain. (3) As there is such a diversity of
customs and usages in each nation, they should not mix with one another.
(4) General congregations expose the delegates to act as spies for the
enemy. (5) The king should write to the cardinal protector of the
religious orders not to oppose this plan." Other papers by Spanish
Jesuits were found among those of Ormanetto, nuncio at Madrid, who died
on June 17, 1577. They call for drastic changes, in the difference of
grades, the manner of electing superiors, dismissals from the Society,
and such matters. The authorship of the Ormanetto papers could not be
determined with certainty, but suspicion fell upon Father Solier, and
for a time, even upon Ribadeneira who, at that time, was in Madrid for
his health, and was in the habit of calling frequently at the nunciature
with Solier. In the following year, it was admitted that the suspicion
about him was unfounded. As a matter of fact, he subsequently wrote a
denunciation of the conspiracy and a splendid defense of the Institute.
That King Philip knew what was going on was revealed by certain remarks
he let drop, such as: "Your General does not know how to govern; we need
a Spanish superior independent of the General; we have able men here
like Ribadeneira and others, etc."
At the end of 1577 it was discovered that Father Dionisio Vásquez, who
was of Jewish extraction, was disseminating these ideas by letter and by
word of mouth. The friendship that existed between him and Ribadeneira
from childhood again threw a cloud over the latter, but finally the
provincial learned from Vásquez himself that Ribadeneira knew nothing at
all about the whole affair. By that time the names of the chief plotters
were revealed, and it was also discovered that Vásquez had given one
copy of his memorial to the king and another to the Inquisition. Two
more had been shown to various other people. Vásquez alleged eight
reasons for this attempt to change the character of the Society: (1)
Because the General had to treat with so many depraved and heretical
nations, that there was a danger of contaminating the whole Society. (2)
Money and subjects were being taken from Spain to benefit other
provinces. (3) If any one was in danger of being punished by the
Inquisition it was easy to send the culprit elsewhere. (4) Rome was
governing by means of information which was frequently false. (5) There
were delays in correspondence. (6) As the General never left Rome, he
could not visit his subjects. (7) When the king asks for missionaries,
Rome often answers that there are none to send. (8) There should be a
commissary in Spain, because Spaniards are badly treated in Rome.
Astrain notes that these pretences of the danger of heresy, respect for
the Inquisition, and the needs of satisfying the king's demands for
missionaries were devised merely to win the favor of Philip. Another
conspirator whose name appears is Estrada. He is described by the
provincial as a "_novus homo_ whose conversation is pestilential."
There was no public manifestation of this spirit of schism in the first
years of Aquaviva's Generalship, though in Spain a great deal of
underhand plotting was going on between some of the discontented ones
and the Inquisition. Four persons, however, had caused grave anxiety to
their Superiors, namely: Dionisio Vásquez, Francisco de Abreo, Gonzalo
González and Enrique Enríquez. Following in their wake, came Alonso
Polanco, nephew of the famous Polanco, José de San Julian, Diego de
Santa Cruz, and a certain number of inconspicuous persons whose names it
is not necessary to give. In the background, however, there were two men
of considerable importance: Mariana, whose writings have given so much
trouble to the Society, and José de Acosta. To these Jouvancy in his
"Epitome" and Prat in his "Ribadeneira" add the name of Jerome de
Acosta, but according to Astrain, the two historians are in error both
as to the character of Jerome and his participation in the plot. He was,
indeed, suspected of being mixed up in it, but the suspicion was soon
dispelled, as in the case of Ribadeneira. Manuel López was at most a
suspect, because he was a friend and admirer of Araoz and because,
although the oldest man in the province, he gave no aid to the defenders
of the Institute. When the fight was ended, however, he pronounced for
those who had won.
Meantime Enríquez, by means of false accusations, had induced the
Inquisition to put in prison on various charges Fathers Marcen, Lavata,
López and the famous Ripalda. That tribunal also expelled others from
Valladolid and Castile, and called for the Bulls, the privileges, and
the "Ratio studiorum" of the Society. The findings of the judges were
put before the king, and the Inquisition then demanded all the copies of
the aforesaid documents that the Fathers had (Astrain, III, 376). So far
the inquisitors were safe, but they took one step more which ruined the
plot in which they were conscious or unconscious participators. Under
pain of excommunication they forbade a band of thirty Jesuit
missionaries who were on their way to Transylvania to leave Spain, the
reason being that they endangered their faith in embarking on such an
enterprise. It was the plotter, Enrique Enríquez who suggested this
piece of idiocy. When Sixtus V, who was then Pope, heard of the order,
he sent such a vigorous reprimand to the Inquisition that all the
confiscated papers were immediately restored and the imprisoned
theologians were liberated from jail after two years' confinement.
But the enemy was not yet beaten. Anonymous petitions kept pouring in
upon the Inquisition, "all of them," says Astrain, "bearing the stamp of
the atrabilious Vásquez, the rigorist González, the under-handed
Enríquez, and the sombre Abreo." Besides the old demands, a new one was
made, namely, the investigation of the Society by an official of the
Inquisition. Finally, in the provincial congregation of 1587, the hand
of Vásquez was visible when a general congregation was asked for
unanimously and a request made for a procurator for the Spanish
provinces. Meantime, Philip had been wrought upon and he supported the
petition for the visit of an inquisitor, who was none other than D.
Jerónimo Manrique, the Bishop of Cartagena, a choice which shows that
these Jesuit insurrectos were not gifted with the shrewdness usually
attributed to their brethren. For apart from the odiousness of having an
unfriendly outsider investigate, it so happened that Manrique had a very
unsavory past, and when that was called to the attention of Sixtus, the
whole foolish project collapsed of itself, and King Philip confessed his
defeat.
All this finally convinced Sixtus V that there was something radically
wrong with the Society, and he ordered the Congregation of the Holy
Office (the Roman Inquisition) to examine the Constitutions. Aquaviva
protested that it was unjust to judge the Order from anonymous writings,
many of them forgeries by a single individual; and that the faults were
alleged not with a view to correction, but to alter the Institute
radically. With regard to the proposal of a capitular government,
several objectionable consequences, he said, must follow, such as
ambition, simony, laxity of discipline, and the like, and he emphasized
the fact that Sixtus himself, only a short time before, had urged the
appointment of Italian superiors in France. He convinced the Pope, also,
that the exclusiveness advocated by the Spaniards, in refusing subjects
from other parts of the world would soon shrivel up the Spanish
provinces themselves. Finally, a capitular government in missionary
countries was a physical impossibility, and would disrupt the whole
Order. Indeed, when Cardinal Colonna mentioned the word "capitular" to
the Pope, His Holiness interjected: "I don't want chapters in the
Society. You would have one in every city and every family; and that
does not suit the system of the Jesuits."
While this was going on, letters were received from the Emperor Rodolf,
King Sigismond, the Duke of Bavaria, and other princes and distinguished
personages, entreating the Pope to make no change in the Institute. The
protest of the Duke of Bavaria especially startled the Pontiff, and he
surmised that it was a Jesuit fabrication, or that it had been asked for
or suggested. Such was really the case. The points had been drawn up by
Alber, the provincial of Germany, and the Duke had heartily approved of
them. At that, the Pope relented and declared that he never had any
intention of changing the Institute. What he chiefly desired was to
prevent certain Jesuits from interfering in politics more than was
proper--an allusion, in Sacchini's opinion, to Possevin and Auger, who
had already been retired by the General. Sixtus had apparently changed
his mind about these semi-political occupations.
Thus ended the year 1589, but the year 1590 had new troubles in store.
Up to that time, the Sacred Congregation, whose members, especially
Caraffa, were friendly to the Society, had purposely delayed sending in
a report to the Pope. He was indignant at this, and handed the case over
to four theologians. Their verdict was in conformity with the views of
Sixtus. They were more timid than the cardinals. By deduction from
Aquaviva's argument against the findings, the first complaint was about
the name: "The Society of Jesus." Then follow the various matters of
stipends, penances, the profession, the examinations for grade,
doctrines, the eighth rule of the Summary forbidding assistance to
relatives, obedience, the account of conscience, delay of profession,
fraternal correction, censors, and simple vows. Astrain gives Aquaviva's
answer to all these charges in detail (III, 465). The cardinals, without
exception, admitted Aquaviva's rebuttal, and when they gave the Pope
their verdict, he said: "All of you, even those who are of my own
creation, favor these Fathers." One thing, however, he insisted on, and
that was the change of name, and he therefore ordered Aquaviva to send
in a formal request to that effect. There was nothing to do but to
submit, and the Pope signed the Brief, but as the bell of San Andrea
summoned the novices to litanies that night, Sixtus died, and ever since
the tradition runs in Rome that if the litany bell rings when the Pope
is sick, his last hour has come. As was to be expected, the Society was
accused of having had something to do with the Pope's opportune demise.
The successor of Sixtus tore up the Brief, and the Society kept its
name.
In spite of all this, the battle continued. Clement VIII succeeded
Sixtus V on January 29, 1592, and his election was welcomed by the
Spanish rebels, for he was credited with a personal antipathy to
Aquaviva. Hence they revived Philip's interest in the matter. His
ambassador at Rome was more than friendly to the project, and it was
confidently hoped that the great Spanish Jesuit, Toletus, the friend of
the Pope, could be won over. The fact that, at the suggestion of
Aquaviva, the Pope had rendered a decision about the sacrament of
Penance which the Inquisition regarded as an infringement of its rights,
again brought that tribunal into the fray. The new plan of the
conspirators was, first, to re-assert the claims advanced by Vasquez the
year before, and failing that, to demand, at least, a commissary general
for Spain. They wrote to Philip asking for his authorization and
support. When Aquaviva was apprised of all this, he requested the king
to name anyone he chose to pass on the proposal for a commissary. Philip
picked out Loyasa, the instructor of the heir apparent; but he, after
examining the question, bluntly told the insurgents: "I do not at all
share your opinion, and I am positive that Ignatius, like St. Dominic
and St. Francis, was inspired by God in the foundation of his Order. One
Pope is enough to govern the Church, and one General ought to be enough
for the Society." Foiled in this, they induced the Pope and the king to
compel the General to call a general congregation; and in order to make
it easier to carry out their plot, they persuaded the Pope to send
Aquaviva to settle a dispute between the Dukes of Parma and Mantua, thus
keeping him out of Rome for three whole months. Toletus is accused of
having been a party to this removal of Aquaviva, but the proof adduced
is not convincing. At Naples, Aquaviva fell seriously ill, and the
Fathers demanded his recall. It was only on his return that he began to
appreciate the full extent and bearing of the movement as well as the
peril in which the Society was involved. For although all the cardinals
were on his side, yet arrayed against him were the king, the Pope and a
number of the professed. The case seemed hopeless. Finally, Toletus
informed him that the Pope insisted on a general congregation and it was
summoned for November 4, 1593.
To make matters worse, Toletus was then made cardinal; whereupon the
insurgents asked the Pope to authorize José Acosta and some of his
associates to enter the congregation--a privilege they had no claim
to--and also to have Toletus preside. The congregation began its
sessions on the day appointed. There were sixty-three professed present
among them Acosta, but Aquaviva, not Toletus, was in the chair. The
usual committee was appointed for the business of the congregation, and
Aquaviva insisted that they should begin by investigating the complaints
against his administration. They did so, and were amazed to find that
all the charges were based on false impressions, personal prejudices,
and imaginary acts. They were naturally indignant and when they reported
to the Pope, he said: "They wanted to find a culprit and they have
discovered a saint." The demands of the Spaniards were then examined.
According to Jouvancy, the province of Castile fathered them. They were
in the main: a modification of the time and manner of profession; the
abolition of grades; the introduction of a new mode of dismissal; and
the full use of the "Bulla Cruciata."
The business of the congregation was conducted as usual up to the
twenty-first decree. Philip II of Spain had asked that the members of
the Society should not avail themselves of the privileges accorded
them--first of reading prohibited books; secondly, of absolving from
heresy; thirdly, of exemption from honors and dignities outside the
Society. The twenty-first decree states that the first two royal
requests had already been acted upon. With regard to the third, it was
decreed that his majesty should be entreated to use his authority
against the acceptance of ecclesiastical and civic honors by members of
the Society. It was only in the fifty-second decree that the Society
expressed its mind on the race question, by ruling that applicants of
Hebrew and Saracenic origin were not to be admitted to the Society. It
even declared that those who were admitted through error should be
expelled if the error were discovered prior to their profession. It had
been found that out of the twenty-seven conspirators, twenty-five were
of Jewish or Moorish extraction.
The twenty-seven guilty men were denounced as "false sons, disturbers of
the common peace, and revolutionists (_architecti rerum novarum_) whose
punishment had been asked for by many provinces. The congregation,
therefore, while grievously bewailing the loss of its spiritual sons,
was nevertheless compelled in the interests of domestic union, religious
obedience, and the perpetuation of the Society, to employ a severe
remedy in the premises." After recounting their charges against the
Society, and their claim to be "the whole Society," although they were
only a few "degenerate sons" the decree denounces them and their
accomplices as having incurred the censures and penalties contained in
the Apostolic Bulls, and orders them to be expelled from the Society.
"If for one reason or another, they cannot be immediately dismissed they
were declared incapable of any office or dignity and denied all active
or passive voice." It also orders that "those suspected of being parties
to such machinations shall make a solemn oath to support the
Constitution as approved by the Popes, and to do nothing against it. If
they refuse to take the oath, or having taken it, fail to keep it, they
are to be expelled, even if old and professed."
Aquaviva had thus triumphed all along the line. He had not only saved
the Institute, but had received the power of expelling every one of the
insurgents if they refused the oath of submission. Acosta, the leading
rebel, was one of the chief sufferers; although he was the
representative of Philip II, he was struck, like his associates, by the
condemnation. The one who was punished, most, however, was Toletus, who
like Acosta had a Jewish strain, which may explain the moroseness which
the delegates remarked whenever they met him, and also his complaints
that "the proceedings of the Congregation could not have been worse ...
that it had treated Philip like a valet."
Toletus, however, continued to fight. On January 12 he advised Aquaviva
to propose the discussion of a change of assistants and a sexennial
congregation. A commission was immediately formed to wait on the Pope,
but it failed to see him; whereupon Toletus appeared on January 14 and
informed the General that the two points should be regarded as settled
without discussion. Accordingly, four days later, new assistants were
elected, but the law of the six-year convocations became a dead letter.
On January 8 Toletus had presented a document to the Pontiff urging nine
different changes in the Constitutions, adding that Philip II had asked
for them, though in reality the king had only asked that they should be
discussed. Doubtless Toletus had misunderstood. Fortunately, the Pope
would not admit all of the changes, but suggested to the congregation
four harmless ones--first, that except for the master of novices, the
term of office should be three years; second, that at the end of their
term the provincials should give an account of their administration;
third that the papal reservations should be observed; and fourth, that
the assistants should have a deciding vote. The three first were readily
accepted, and the fourth respectfully rejected. The remaining business
was then expedited, and the congregation adjourned on January 19, 1594.
The conspirators, however, had not yet been beaten. They proposed to the
Pope to appoint Aquaviva Archbishop of Capua. Of course, Aquaviva
refused, and then it was cunningly suggested that it would be an
excellent thing if the General, in the interests of unity and peace,
should visit the Spanish provinces. Philip III, who was now on the
throne, had been approached, and he wrote to the Pope to that effect.
Clement rather favored the proposition, but Henry IV of France,
Sigismund of Poland, the Archdukes Ferdinand and Matthias and other
German princes protested. Then the Pope took the matter under
consideration, but before he reached any conclusion he died, and the
plot was thus thwarted.
The one who planned this visit to Spain was the plotter Mendoza. His
purpose was simply to humiliate the General by confronting him with the
king, the greatest nobles of the realm and the Inquisition, and then to
force from him all sorts of permissions which were in direct violation
of the methods of Jesuit life. The story, as it appears in Astrain, is
simply amazing. Mendoza had actually procured from the Pope, through the
magnates of Spain, permission to receive and spend money as he wished,
to be free from all superiors, and to go and live wherever he chose.
When Aquaviva protested to the Pope that such permissions were
subversive of all religious discipline, His Holiness suggested a way out
of the difficulty, which took every one by surprise--Mendoza was made
Bishop of Cuzco in Peru. This interference of rich and powerful
outsiders in the family life of the Society, as well as the shameful way
in which some of the members sought the favor of men of great influence
in the State may explain how, after the angry fulminations of the
congregation against the Spanish plotters, it took several years to get
even a few of them out of the Society.
The dispute, known as the "De Auxiliis," which raged with great
theological fury for many years, had for its object the reconciliation
of Divine grace with human freedom. "The Dominicans maintained that the
difficulty was solved by their theory of physical premotion and
predetermination, whereas the Jesuits found the explanation of it in the
_Scientia media_ whereby God knows in the objective reality of things
what a man would do in any circumstances in which he might be placed.
The Dominicans declared that this was conceding too much to free will,
and that it tended towards Pelagianism, while the Jesuits complained
that the Dominicans did not sufficiently safeguard human liberty and
hence seemed to lean towards the doctrines of Calvin" (Astrain). It was
not until 1588, that Luis de Molina, whose name is chiefly connected
with the doctrine of the _Scientia media_, got into the fight. Domingo
Ibánez, the Dominican professor at Salamanca, was his chief antagonist.
The debates continued for five years, and by that time there were public
disturbances in several Spanish cities. Clement VIII then took the
matter in his own hands, and forbade any further discussion till the
Holy See had decided one way or the other. The opinions of universities
and theologians were asked for, but by 1602 no conclusion had been
arrived at, and between that year and 1605, sixty-eight sessions had
been held with no result. Thus it went on till 1607, when the Pope
decided that both parties might hold their own opinions, but that each
should refrain from censuring the other. In 1611, by order of the Pope,
the Inquisition issued a decree forbidding the publication of any book
concerning efficacious grace until further action by the Holy See. The
prohibition remained in force during the greater part of the seventeenth
century. The principal theologians who appeared on the Jesuit side of
this controversy were Toletus, Bellarmine, Lessius, Molina, Padilla,
Valencia, Arubal, Bastida and Salas.
While these constitutional and theological wars were at their height a
discussion of quite another kind was going on in the immediate
surroundings of the General. It was to determine what amount of prayer
and penitential exercises should be the normal practice of the Society.
Maggio and Alarcón, two of the assistants, were for long contemplations
and great austerities, while Hoffæus and Emmanuel Rodrigues advocated
more sobriety in those two matters. Aquaviva decided for a middle
course, declaring that the Society was not established especially for
prayer and mortification, but, on the other hand, that it could not
endure without a moderate use of these two means of Christian
perfection. As this was coincident with the Spanish troubles, these five
holy men were like the old Roman senators who were speculating on the
improvement of the land which was still occupied by the Carthaginian
armies. Meantime, another storm was sweeping over the Society in France.
When Henry IV entered Paris in triumph, his former enemies, the Sorbonne
and the parliament, hastened to pay him homage; but something had to be
done to make the public forget their previous attitude in his regard.
The usual device was resorted to of denouncing the Jesuits. A complaint
was manufactured against the College of Clermont, about the infringement
of someone's property rights, and the rector was haled to court to
answer the charge. The orator for the plaintiffs was Antoine Arnauld,
the father of the famous Antoine and Angélique, who were to be, later
on, conspicuous figures in the Jansenist heresy. Absolutely disregarding
the point at issue, Arnauld launched out in a fierce diatribe against
the Jesuits in general; "those trumpets of war," he called them, "those
torches of sedition; those roaring tempests that are perpetually
disturbing the calm heavens of France. They are Spaniards, enemies of
the state, the authors of all the excesses of the League, whose
Bacchanalian and Catalinian orgies were held in the Jesuit college and
church. The Society is the workshop of Satan, and is filled with
traitors and scoundrels, assassins of kings and public parricides. Who
slew Henry III? The Jesuits. Ah, my King!" he cried, "when I contemplate
thy _bloody shirt_, tears flow from my eyes and choke my utterance." And
yet every one knew that it was his own clients, the Sorbonne and the
parliament, who were the centre of all "the orgies of the League"; that
it was they who had glorified the assassin of Henry III as a hero, and
made the anniversary of his murder a public holiday; that it was they
who had heaped abuse on Henry IV, and had sworn that he never should
ascend the throne of France, even if he were absolved from heresy by the
Pope, and had returned to the Faith. The travesty of truth in this
discourse is so glaring that Frenchmen often refer to it as "the second
original sin of the Arnauld family," the source, namely, of its
ineradicable habit of misrepresentation.
A short time after this, Jean Chastel struck Henry IV with a knife and
cut him slightly on the lip. Immediately everyone recalled Arnauld's
furious denunciation of the Jesuits, and a descent was made on the
college. A scrap of paper was conveniently found in the library,
incriminating the custodian, but the volumes upon volumes of
denunciations which had been uttered in the university and in
parliament, and which were piled upon the library shelves, were not
discovered. The scrap of paper sufficed. The college was immediately
confiscated, the inmates expelled from France, and after Jean Chastel
had been torn asunder by four horses, Father Guéret was stretched on the
rack and Father Guignard was hanged. This occurred at the end of
December, 1594.
Up to this Henry IV had not yet been reconciled to the Church, for the
Pope doubted his sincerity and refused to withdraw the excommunication
which the king had incurred at the time of his relapse. At last,
however, owing to the persistency of Father Possevin and of Cardinal
Toletus, he was absolved from his heresy, and could be acknowledged,
with a safe conscience by all Catholics, as the legitimate King of
France. The action of Toletus in this matter is all the more remarkable
from the fact that he was a Spaniard, and in espousing the cause of
Henry he was turning his back on his own sovereign, who was using all
his power to prevent the reconciliation. This service was publicly
recognized by Henry who thanked the Cardinal for his courageous act, and
when Toletus died elaborate obsequies were held by the king's orders in
the cathedrals of Paris and Rheims. Of course, the appeal of the
banished Jesuits was then readily listened to by the king. He restored
Clermont to them; gave them other colleges, including the royal
establishment of La Flèche, and was forever after their devoted helper
and friend. It must have been a great consolation for Father Aquaviva,
during the battle he was waging and from which he was to emerge
triumphant, to be told of this support of Henry; and also to hear of the
welcome the Society had received in loyal Belgium in spite of the
persistent animosity of Louvain. Almost every city had been asking for a
college.
About this time, the Jesuits lost a devoted friend in the person of St.
Charles Borromeo, who died in 1584. It is a calumny to say that he had
turned against them and had taken the seminary of Milan from their
direction. It was they themselves who had asked to be relieved of the
responsibility, for he had so multiplied their colleges in his diocese,
that it was impossible to give the seminary the attention it required.
It is true that he was grievously offended by one individual Jesuit who
injected himself into a controversy that was going on between the
governor and the archbishop, and assailed the great prelate in the
pulpit of the very church which had been given to the Society by
Borromeo; but Aquaviva quickly brought him to the cardinal's feet to ask
forgiveness, and then suspended him for two years from preaching. That
incident, however, in no way diminished the affection of the saint for
the Society. His last Mass was said in the Jesuit novitiate which he had
founded, and he died in the arms of his Jesuit confessor, Father Adorno,
two days afterwards.
Seven years later, on June 21, 1591, another saint died, the young
Aloysius Gonzaga. Borromeo knew him well, and had given him his first
Communion. This boy saint was not only an angel of purity, but also a
martyr of charity, for he died of a fever he had caught from the victims
of a plague whom he was attending during a pestilence that devastated
Italy. The venerable Bellarmine was his confessor and spiritual father,
and, later, when he was about to expire, he said to those around him:
"Bury me at the feet of Aloysius Gonzaga."
There was still another trouble before Aquaviva, for while the
disturbances were going on in France and Spain, a storm arose in Venice.
The Society had been expelled from the republic; but it is to its credit
to have been hated by the government that ruled Venice at that time. The
republic had become embroiled with the Holy See, and war was imminent.
The Pope put the city under interdict, and as the Jesuits who were
established there submitted to the injunction, they were all exiled;
their property was confiscated, and they were forbidden ever to return.
This treatment was in keeping with the traditions of the government of
"a republic," as some one had said, "which in reality was a monarchy
tempered by assassination." Hallam (Hist. of Europe during the Middle
Ages, iii, 144) insists that "it had all the pomp of a monarchy; and
its commerce with the Mohammedans had deadened its sense of religious
antipathy." Its action in this instance is ascribed to the influence of
the Servite friar, Paolo Sarpi, whom the apostate Bishop de Dominis and
Duplessis-Mornay, the chief of the French Huguenots at that time,
describe as "another Calvin." He was in league with the Dutch and
English to create a schism by defying the Pope, and to convert Venice
into a Protestant republic. He is also the author of the virulent and
calumnious "History of the Council of Trent."
Henry IV of France interested himself in this quarrel, and finally
succeeded in having the papal and Venetian representatives meet to
discuss their grievances. After protracted negotiations, the republic
finally came to terms, but on one condition, namely that the Jesuits
should not be allowed to return. As both the Pope and Henry absolutely
refused to admit that clause, a deadlock ensued, until Aquaviva declared
himself unwilling to allow any such difficulty to stand in the way of
reconciliation: and as a consequence, the Society did not return to
Venice until after fifty years of exile. Henry, however, had his revenge
on Sarpi. He intercepted a letter written by a minister of Geneva to a
Calvinist in Paris which revealed the fact that the Doge and several
senators had already made arrangements to introduce the Reformation into
Venice; and that Sarpi and his associate, Fulgenzio, had formed a secret
society of more than a thousand persons, among whom were three hundred
patricians, who were merely awaiting the signal to abandon the Church
(Daru, Hist. de la république de Venise). The letter was read in the
Senate, and many a guilty face grew pale. That was the end of Sarpi's
influence. It was, probably also Henry IV who prevented him from going
to England when the friar wrote to Casaubon to provide him a home there
in case he had to leave Venice. In view of all that Henry IV had done
for the Society, the sixth general congregation voted unanimously and
enthusiastically to establish a French assistancy in the Society as an
expression of gratitude to the monarch.
In Mexico the storm evoked by Palafox did not, it is true, result in
expulsions, confiscations and executions as elsewhere, nevertheless it
was deadly in its effects; and a century later it furnished the
Jansenists of Europe with an exhaustless supply of calumnies against the
Society. Its arraignment by Palafox was particularly efficacious because
it expressed the mind of a distinguished functionary of the Church who
was held by some to be a saint and whose canonization was insisted on by
the politicians and nobility of Spain.
The character of this extraordinary personage has always been a mystery,
and perhaps it would have been better or, at least, more comfortable to
have left it in its shroud instead of revealing the truth about his
life. He tells us himself in his "Vida interior" that his university
days were wild; but though the text is explicit enough, it may be a
pious exaggeration. In 1628 occurred what he calls his conversion. He
made a general confession and determined to embrace an ecclesiastical
career. His preparation for it was amazingly brief, and we find him soon
occupying the post of grand almoner of the Princess Mary, whom he
accompanied to Germany. On his return to Spain, he resumed his
occupation as fiscal, and in 1639 was consecrated Bishop of Puebla in
Mexico and, in the following year, was sent to America with the most
extravagant plenipotentiary powers. Besides being Bishop of Puebla, he
was simultaneously administrator of the vacant see of the city of Mexico
and visitor of the _audiencia_ of the colony, with the absolute right
to depose any civil official whom he judged unsuitable.
He did not wait long to exercise his power, and in 1641, to the
consternation of everyone, he flung out of office no less a personage
than the viceroy himself who was universally esteemed for his upright
and virtuous life. By this extraordinary act, Palafox became practically
viceroy and captain general, while retaining his ecclesiastical
dignities. In a few months, however, the new viceroy, Salvatierra,
arrived. Palafox was soon to clash with him also, by blocking all the
official work of the audiencia; holding up despatches, delaying
decisions, absenting himself from the city, etc. For five years
complaints against him poured into Spain but without effecting any
change. Salvatierra even accused him of malversation in office,
particularly in its finances and added that his whole occupation seemed
to consist in writing the Life of St. Peter. His ecclesiastical
government was no less disorderly. To gain the favor of those around him
he transformed the Indian missions into parishes and put them in charge
of priests who were absolutely ignorant both of the habits and language
of the natives. The motive back of this change was that as mere mission
posts the Indian settlements paid no tithes.
During all this time he continued to proclaim himself a friend of the
Jesuits, but in 1641 when a canon of the cathedral wanted to make over a
farm to the College of Vera Cruz, he was forbidden to do so under pain
of excommunication unless the property was made subject to tithes. When
the canon submitted the case to the audiencia he of course, lost it,
because Palafox was the visitor of that tribunal. A further appeal was
then made to the council of the Indies, but after two years of
litigation the case was dropped without a decision. In the course of
this contest, Palafox wrote in his plea that the Jesuits were
enormously wealthy, while the cathedral of Puebla was destitute of
resources. When Father Calderón refuted these assertions, the bishop was
wrought up to fury and laid down as a diocesan rule that, under pain of
excommunication, no property transfers could be made to religious orders
unless this tithe clause was inserted, and he enjoined that the sick and
dying should be admonished of that censure. He followed this up by
sending an order to all the Jesuits to deliver up their faculties for
inspection within twenty-four hours, under penalty of excommunication.
Their reply was that they would have to refer the matter to the
provincial. This was, according to Astrain, a grave act of imprudence on
the part of the Fathers, and such, later on, was the ruling of the Roman
Congregation and of the Pope himself.
Of course, in the rigor of the law the bishop had an absolute right to
demand the faculties of all the priests of his diocese, but in the
concrete it is hard to blame the action of the Fathers in this instance.
They did not refuse, but merely wanted time to lay the case before their
superior. Moreover, the action of the bishop was altogether out of the
ordinary. Up to that time, his own confessor was a Jesuit, and faculties
had been issued by the bishop to several others of the Society; during
his incumbency he had employed them in various missions of the diocese,
he had invited them to preach in his cathedral; and, indeed, they had
been using their faculties to confess and preach ever since 1572. It is
true that some of their original privileges had been modified or
curtailed, but in these two principal functions no radical change had
been made. Might they not then have thought that, in view of what the
bishop had already done both in civil and ecclesiastical matters, he was
mentally deranged? The average man of the world would have arrived at
that conclusion.
At all events, the faculties were not forthcoming within the twenty-four
hours, and all the Jesuit priests of Puebla not only found themselves
dishonored and disgraced by being held up to the people as
excommunicated, but by this act of the bishop doubt was thrown upon the
validity of all the absolutions they had given in the administration of
the sacrament of Penance. Astrain tells us that Father Legaspi attempted
to preach in the Jesuit church, and when forbidden to do so by a
messenger from the bishop's palace, refused to obey, but apart from the
fact that this would be in absolute contradiction with the traditional
instincts and training of any Jesuit, Astrain himself relates in the
following chapter that the Roman Congregation which examined the whole
miserable quarrel decided that Legaspi's sermon was delivered before and
not after the prohibition. Recourse was then had to a privilege accorded
to the Spanish colonies of constituting a commission of judges to
consider and decide the case. This also was subsequently condemned by
the Roman Congregation and by Innocent X, but on the other hand,
communication with Rome was difficult in those days, and the course
entered upon was taken with the approval of the heads of other religious
orders, of the viceroy and of the _cabildo_ or mayor. It is true that
efforts should have been made to placate the angry prelate, but the
documents show that the most humble supplications had been made to him
only to be repulsed with abuse.
It would have been futile to refer the case to the _audiencia_, for
Palafox controlled it absolutely. Moreover, it was urged that the plea
presented to the commission did not regard merely the wholesale
suspension and excommunication, but other grievances as well. There
were twenty-nine in all. The commission brought in a verdict against the
bishop, but he refused to recognize the authority and even
excommunicated the members of the court who, with what Father General
Caraffa described as an "exorbitancia grande," had excommunicated the
prelate. Then the whole city was in an uproar and Palafox rode through
the throngs of the excited populace conjuring them to keep the peace,
but at the same time preventing it by proceeding to the cathedral, and,
amid the most lugubrious ceremonies and in full pontificals,
excommunicating all his opponents. The Mexican Inquisition now
intervened and enjoined silence on all parties. Salvatierra, the
viceroy, also helped to quell the disturbance. Nevertheless, on June 6,
Palafox issued another proclamation declaring that his enemies had been
assembling arms in their houses, and were bent on getting control of the
country. He again made a public appearance in the streets of Mexico, but
two days afterwards he submitted the whole matter to the viceroy.
Salvatierra then implored him with the greatest respect and kindness to
restore tranquillity and peace to the distracted colony, but on June 15,
Palafox disappeared from the city; and no one knew whither he had gone.
It was officially reported later on, that he had betaken himself first
to the _hacienda_ of Juan de Vergus, but after two days had disappeared
again. For two months his whereabouts could not be ascertained, but in a
letter to the Pope, he described himself as wandering for ten days in
the forest and mountains without shelter or food, and exposed to death
from serpents and wild beasts. He called himself another Athanasius.
Finally he returned to the original _hacienda_ and remained there until
November. Before his departure, he had empowered the _cabildo_ to have
the diocese administered by three ecclesiastics whom he designated; but
one of them was imprisoned by the viceroy, and the two others refused to
serve. Whereupon, the _cabildo_ called a meeting at the city hall.
Alonzo Salazar de Baraona presided and the Jesuits were ordered to
display their faculties, which they did; they were then declared
rightful ministers of the sacraments.
During his retirement Palafox had received two letters from Spain, one
deposing him from his office of visitor, and another announcing the
transfer of Salvatierra to Peru. The first was the reverse of pleasant,
but the second was a source of great satisfaction for, if we are to
believe Salvatierra, Palafox had aspirations for the viceregal office.
Possibly with that in view, he willingly assented to the conditions on
which he was to be allowed to re-enter his diocese, namely to regard as
binding all that had been done in his absence. It was fully nine months
before Salvatierra left Mexico, and during all that time there was peace
in Puebla; but hostilities were resumed immediately afterwards. Palafox
refused to be bound by his contract with Salvatierra; he declared the
acts of the commission to be null and void, reasserted the invalidity of
the Jesuit faculties, and put three of his own canons in jail. In
September, he received a brief from the Pope which he regarded as a
justification of all that had been done. In the main, the document
asserted the fundamental right of the bishop to examine the faculties of
the priests and condemned the proceedings of the commission. Whereupon
twelve of the Fathers submitted their faculties to the bishop. But that
did not satisfy him. He insisted on the Jesuits appearing in public in a
penitential garb, as at an auto-da-fé, and receiving from him a solemn
absolution from their excommunication. He also made it a matter of
confession for the faithful to have been absolved by Jesuits or to have
listened to their sermons.
From this odious ruling an appeal was taken to the royal council;
whereupon Palafox despatched three letters to the Pope. The first was
about the parochial rights of the other religious orders; the second
complaining of the silver mines, vast _haciendas_ and wealth of the
Jesuits, and the third consisting of fifty-eight pages of the most
atrocious calumnies ever written by a Catholic, and asking finally that
they should be made like other religious orders with choir, cloister,
etc. Ten years later, the General of the Discalced Carmelites inquired
of Palafox why he wrote these letters. "I did so," he says, "because I
was incensed against the Jesuits for not treating me with proper
respect, but I am surprised that I have lost their affection and was not
aware of it till now." At last, wearied of it all, Philip IV ordered him
to return to Spain immediately, but he obeyed in a very leisurely
fashion. In Rome, the case dragged on for four more years and finally a
verdict was rendered affirming among other things that the Fathers had
been properly provided with faculties, and had ceased to preach and hear
confessions when ordered to do so. The only censure they received was
for having convoked the commission to judge the case in the absence of
the bishop. The trouble had lasted for sixteen years, but it created a
deep prejudice against the Society a century later.
CHAPTER VIII
THE ASIATIC CONTINENT
The Great Mogul--Rudolph Aquaviva--Jerome Xavier--de Nobili--de
Britto--Beschi--The Pariahs--Entering Thibet--From Peking to
Europe--Mingrelia, Paphlagonia and Chaldea--The Maronites--
Alexander de Rhodes--Ricci enters China--From Agra to Peking--
Adam Schall--Arrival of the Tatars--Persecutions--Schall
condemned to Death--Verbiest--de Tournon's Visit--The French
Royal Mathematicians--Avril's Journey.
At the very time that Queen Elizabeth was putting Jesuits to death in
England, there was a remarkable pagan monarch reigning in what is now
part of English India, who was inviting Jesuits to his court and making
them his friends. His name was Akbar, and he is known in history as the
Great Mogul. He was born in 1542, and ruled four years longer than the
forceful Eliza. She was queen from 1558 to 1603; he was king from 1556
to 1605. Akbar appears first as the ruler of the Punjab and the country
around Delhi and Agra; but in 1572 he drove the Afghans out of Bengal,
and reunited the lower valley of the Ganges to Hindostan. Later, he
annexed Cabul, Kashmir, Sind and Kandahar. He was a mighty warrior, but
remarkable likewise as a civil ruler, the proof in this case being that
he levied more money in taxes than England extracts at the present day
from the same territory. He was very much interested in religious
matters, and Christianity appealed to him, because one of his numerous
wives had been a Christian; but he fancied that it was part of a general
system which could be incorporated in a new cult which he had devised to
conciliate the conflicting creeds of his realm. His own personal
devotion was sun-worship, and he appeared every morning in public,
devoutly offering up his orisons to the god of day. He fancied it was
the world-soul that animates all things, a concrete form of one of the
illusions of the present time.
At the invitation of Akbar, Rudolph Aquaviva, accompanied by Anthony
Montserrat and Francisco Henriques, left Goa in 1579, to present himself
at his court for the purpose of explaining to him the doctrines of the
Christian Faith. He listened with pleasure and intelligence, but his
interest was purely academic. As with other Oriental despots, nothing
practical could be hoped for, on account of the harem. Seeing that it
was lost time to remain there, Aquaviva returned to Goa, and was then
sent down to the peninsula of Salsette, as superior of the mission
established at that place. His stay there was not a long one, for on
July 15, 1583, he and Alfonso Pacheco were attacked by the natives and
cut to pieces. Fathers Pietro Berno, Antonio Francisco and Francisco
Aranha, a lay-brother, together with twenty of their neophytes were
included in the massacre.
Hearing of the tragedy, the Great Mogul despatched an embassy to the
viceroy and to the superior of the Jesuits to express his sympathy, and
also to urge that other missionaries might be sent to instruct his
people. In compliance with the request, Jerónimo Xavier, a nephew of St.
Francis Xavier, was sent there in 1595 and succeeded in winning the
favor of Akbar. The "Encyclopedia Britannica" informs us that Jerónimo,
at the suggestion of the monarch, translated the four Gospels into
Persian. Ranke adds in his "History of the Popes" that "while the Jesuit
was there the insurrections of the Mahometans contributed to dispose the
emperor towards the Christians, for in the year 1599 Christmas was
celebrated at Lahore with the utmost solemnity. The manger and the
leading facts of the Nativity were represented for twenty days
consecutively, and numerous catechumens proceeded to the Church with
palms in their hands to receive baptism. The emperor read, with great
pleasure, a 'Life of Christ' composed in Persian, and a picture of the
Virgin, copied from the Madonna del Popolo in Rome, was by his orders
taken to the palace that he might show it to the women of his household.
It is true that the Christians drew more favourable conclusions from
these things than the facts justified; still, great progress was really
made. Indeed, after the death of Akbar, three princes of the blood royal
were solemnly baptized. They rode to the church on white elephants, and
were received with the sound of trumpets, kettle-drums and martial
music. This took place in 1610, so that Christianity seemed gradually to
acquire a position of a fixed character, although suffering from certain
vicissitudes and the prevalence of fickleness in the matter of religious
opinion. Political considerations, also, largely affected the public
mind. In 1621 a college was founded in Agra, and a station established
at Patna. In 1624 hopes were entertained that the Emperor Jehanguire
would himself become a Christian."
Shortly after Jerónimo Xavier had settled down in the court of the Great
Mogul, Father Robert de Nobili, a nephew of Cardinal Bellarmine, broke
through the caste barrier in India in a way that, for a time, gave
considerable scandal. He had gone to the mission of Madura, a territory
somewhat in the interior towards the northeast of the Fisheries, and
found there that Father Fernandes, a very pious and energetic missioner
who had been living for fourteen years among his pagans, had never made
a convert, as he could not get in touch with the influential people of
the country. Two difficulties stood in the way: first, he was a
Portuguese or a Prangui, and the Prangui were held in abhorrence,
because they ate meat and drank wine; secondly, he mingled with the most
degraded castes of India.
De Nobili determined to get rid of these obstacles. First, he insisted,
that he was not a Prangui but a Roman nobleman in name and in fact;
secondly, with regard to wine and meat, he would abstain from them and
live on rice; thirdly, he would become a Brahmin, as far as their manner
of life and dress was concerned, and, moreover, he would outdo them in
the knowledge of their own language, literature and religion. Indeed,
within a year, he was master of Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit. He was now
equipped for his work, and in 1606 he bade good-bye to Fernandes, and
shut himself up in a hut which, for a long time, no one was allowed to
enter. He wanted the news to spread among the natives that a great
European Brahmin had made his appearance. Curiosity, he said, would do
the rest, for his rigid seclusion would make them all the more intent on
seeing him. The scheme succeeded, and when, at last, visitors were
admitted to speak to him, they found him to be even holier in appearance
than they had imagined him to be, and were amazed to hear him converse
in Tamil, and show a perfect acquaintance with the literature of the
language. He made it a point, also, to recite and even to sing the songs
of their poets, for he was an able musician and had a good voice.
When his reputation was established he began to discuss some of the
truths of fundamental theology, not as coming from himself, but which,
as he showed them, were actually set down in their own Vedas. His
knowledge of Sanskrit--perhaps he was the first European to venture into
that field--had given him a more thorough knowledge of the sacred books
than was possessed by any of the Brahmins themselves, and hence it
happened that, before a year had passed, he had baptized several persons
who were conspicuous both for their nobility and learning. He permitted
his converts to continue to besmear their foreheads with sandal-wood
paste, to cultivate the tuft of hair on the top of their heads, and to
wear a string on the left shoulder. He did this after he had thoroughly
convinced himself that there was no superstition in such practices.
Meantime he was living on milk, rice, herbs and water, which were handed
to him once a day by the servant of a Brahmin. It was a precaution to
forestall any suspicion that other food was supplied surreptitiously.
In the second year, his flock was so numerous that the hut he lived in
was insufficient to contain them all, and he had to build a church.
That, of course, caused some alarm among the Brahmins, but it was
nothing in comparison to the storm that de Nobili's life excited in
Europe. Cardinal Bellarmine, his uncle, thought he had apostatized, and
wrote him an indignant letter, and the General of the Society added to
it a very severe reprehension. His brother Jesuit, Fernandes, had
denounced him as a traitor, because of his rejection of the name
"Prangui," or Portuguese, and also of his connivance at idolatry in
allowing his neophytes to retain their heathenish customs. This was the
origin of the famous question of the "Malabar Rites" which created such
a stir in the Church, one hundred years later. These charges gave de
Nobili a great deal of trouble for some time, but at last everything was
satisfactorily explained, and the cardinal, the General and the Pope
told the innovating missionary to continue as he had begun. Hence in
order to obviate the apparent neglect and even contempt of the lower
castes, other priests were assigned to that work, and de Nobili
restricted himself to his peculiar vocation for forty-two years. He then
lost his sight and was sent to Jafanapatam in Ceylon, and afterwards to
Mylapore, where he died on January 16, 1656.
The mission had prospered. About the time de Nobili ended his labours,
it had an average of 5000 converts a year, and it never dropped below
3000, even in the times of persecution. At the end of the seventeenth
century its territory had extended beyond Madura to Mysore, Marava,
Tanjore and Gingi, and the Christians of the entire Madura Mission, as
it was called, amounted to 150,000 souls. Besides being a field for
apostolic zeal, the mission also produced eminent scholars in Tamil and
Sanskrit, like Beschi, Coeurdoux, and others. In 1700 it reached into
the Carnatic and probably took in what Christians had been left there by
the missionaries among the Moguls. This mission glories in its great
martyr, John de Britto, who arrived there twelve years after the death
of de Nobili. He, too, adopted the manners of a Saniassi, and labored as
such for twenty-one years. It was a life of continual and horrible
martyrdom. He was finally put to death as a magician, because of the
multitudes of people attracted to the Faith by his holiness and
teaching. Like his predecessor de Nobili, he did not worry his converts
about their tufts of hair or the cotton cords on their shoulders, and it
is noteworthy that long after his death, and just while the process of
his beatification was going on, the theologians were hotly discussing
the liceity of the Malabar Rites. If they were condemned, how would the
decision affect de Britto's canonization? Pope Benedict XIV decided that
it would not stand in the way, and so de Britto was placed among the
Blessed.
The companions of de Nobili and de Britto went everywhere in Hindostan,
they even reconciled to the Church the community of natives who called
themselves the Christians of St. Thomas the Apostle, but who were in
reality commonplace Nestorians. They built the first Church of Bengal,
and penetrated into the kingdoms of Arracan, Pegu, Cambogia, and Siam,
all the time busy avoiding the Dutch pirates who were prowling along the
coast.
The most dazzling of these picturesque missionaries was undoubtedly the
Italian, Constant Beschi, who arrived in Madura in 1700, one hundred
years after de Nobili, and twenty-eight after de Britto. He determined
to surpass all the other Saniassis or Brahmins in the austerity of his
life. He remained in his house most of the time, and would never touch
anything that had life in it. On his forehead was the pottu of Sandanam,
and on his head the coulla, a sort of cylindrical head dress made of
velvet. He was girt with the somen, was shod with the ceremonious wooden
footgear, and pearls hung from his ears. He never went out except in a
palanquin, in which tiger skins had to be placed for him to sit on,
while a servant stood on either side, fanning him with peacock feathers,
and a third held above his head a silken parasol surmounted by a globe
of gold. He was called "the Great Viramamvuni", and like Bonaparte, he
sat "wrapped in the solitude of his own originality." Not even a Jesuit
could come near him or speak to him. A word of Italian never crossed his
lips, but he plunged into Sanskrit, Telugu, and Tamil, studied the poets
of Hindostan, and wrote poems that conveyed to the Hindoos a knowledge
of Christianity. For forty years he was publicly honored as the Ismat
Saniassi, that is, the penitent without stain. The Nabob of Trichinopoli
was so enthusiastic about him that Beschi had to accept the post of
prime minister, and thenceforth he never went abroad unless accompanied
by thirty horsemen, twelve banner-bearers, and a band of military music,
while a long train of camels followed in the rear. If, on his way, any
Jesuit who was looking after the Pariahs came across his path, there was
no recognition on either side, but both must have been amused as the
Jesuit in rags prostrated himself in the dust before the silk-robed
Jesuit in the cavalcade, the outcast not daring even to look at the
great official, though, perhaps, they were intimate friends.
Numbers of Jesuits were, meantime, besieging the General with petitions
to be made missionaries among the Pariahs, for few could act the part
that Beschi was playing. To be a Pariah was easy, and attempts to
evangelize that class continued to be made in Madura up to the time of
the Suppression. Conversions were numerous, and Bouchet, a contemporary
of Beschi, heard as many as 100,000 confessions in a single year. It is
said that the particularly fervent converts among the Brahmins used to
cut off their hair as a sacrifice, when they were baptized, and a great
number of locks, some of which were four and five feet long, adorned
Beschi's church in Tiroucavalor.
But these conversions connoted persecution. Bouchet, who was Beschi's
successor among the high-class Brahmins, was several times arrested and
condemned to death. On one occasion, when he was sentenced to be burned
alive and was being covered with oil to make the flames more active, the
executioners were so startled by his apparent unconcern that they
dropped the work and set him free. Bouchet thought that the Church of
Madura was specially blessed by being persecuted, and that explained for
him how he was able to baptize 20,000 Hindoos. He had the care of thirty
churches, which meant untold labor. About the trifles of never eating
meat, fresh eggs or fish, living in straw-covered cabins without beds,
seats or furniture, and never having the luxury of a table or spoon or
knife or fork at meal times,--that never gave the missionaries a
thought. The consolation for these privations was that at times they
would hear the confessions of entire villages and never have to deal
with a mortal sin. Probably Simon Carvalho,--Marshall calls him
Laynez--who had received 10,000 people into the Church, and was at one
time almost torn to pieces by a mob, and at another hunted for five
months to be put to death, would have preferred this work, in which he
had been employed for thirty years, to that of administering the diocese
of Mylapore, of which Clement XI made him bishop later.
"They were giants," wrote the Abbé Dubois who was a missionary in India
in modern times, "and they triumphed in their day, because neither the
world nor the devil could resist the might that was in them. Possessing
for the most part the rarest mental endowments, so that if they had
aimed only at human honors they would have encountered scarcely a rival
in their path, versed in all the learning of their age, and conspicuous
even in that great Society, which attracted to itself for more than a
century the noblest minds of every country in Europe, they had acquired
in addition to their natural gifts such a measure of Divine grace and
wisdom, such perfection of evangelical virtue, that the powers of
darkness fled away from before their face, and the Cross of Christ
wherever they lifted it up, broke in pieces the idols of the Gentiles."
And Perrin in his "Voyage dans l'Indoustan," II, 166, writes: "I confess
that I have criticized the Jesuits of Hindostan with critical, perhaps
with malignant temper. I have changed my mind now, and if I spoke ill of
them, all India would tax me with imposture."
The hermit kingdom of Thibet was first entered by Father Antonio de
Andrada. He was one of the missionaries in the kingdom of the Great
Mogul, and started from Agra in 1624 to cross the Himalayas and enter,
if possible, the Grand Lama's mysterious domain. He joined a troop of
idolaters who were going to present their offerings at the celebrated
pagoda of Barrinath, whither thousands flocked from all the kingdoms of
India and even from the island of Ceylon. "That part of the trip," he
says in his narrative, "was the easiest, although in ascending the
valley of the Ganges I had often to creep along a narrow path cut in the
face of the rock, sometimes scarcely a palm in breadth, while far below
me were roaring torrents into which, from time to time, some unfortunate
traveller would be hurled. Here and there we had to pass rivers with the
help of ropes strung across the stream, or perhaps on heaps of snow
which the avalanches had piled up in the valley, but which were
especially perilous, for the mountain torrents were all the while eating
through them at the base. If there was a cave-in the whole party would
disappear in the depths. It was dreadful work, but when I saw my
companions, many of them old men, keeping up their courage by repeating
the name of Barrinath, I was ashamed not to do more for Jesus Christ
than these poor pagans for their idols and pagodas."
After the shrine was reached, the valiant missionary continued his
journey, and arrived at the town of Manah, the last habitation of the
mountaineers on the India slope. "Before us was a desert of snow,
inaccessible for any living creature for ten months of the year, and
which called for a twenty days' march, without shelter and without a bit
of wood to make a fire. With me were two natives and a guide. However, I
had put my trust in God, for whom alone I was attempting this dangerous
task. Each step costs incredible struggles, for every morning there was
a new layer of snow, knee-deep or up to the waist or even to the
shoulders. In some places, to get across the drifts, we had to go
through the motions of a swimmer; and to avoid being smothered at night,
we were compelled to remove the snow, at least every hour." He finally
arrived at his destination and was well received by the Lama. He was
given leave to establish a mission in the country, he then made haste to
return to Agra and in the following year he established a base at
Chaparang. But he himself was not to remain in the country which he had
so gloriously opened to the world. He was named provincial of the
Indies, and had to set out for Goa immediately. Nine years later, on
March 19, 1634, he was poisoned by the Jews. Meantime the Thibet mission
tottered and fell.
In 1661 Father Johann Gruber, one of Schall's assistants in Pekin,
reached Thibet on his way to Europe. He could not go by sea, for the
Dutch were blockading Macao, so he made up his mind to go overland by
way of India and Thibet. With him was Father d'Orville, a Belgian. After
reaching Sunning-fu, on the confines of Kuantsu, they crossed Kukonor
and Kalmuk Tatary to the Holy City of Lhasa in Thibet, but did not
remain there. They then climbed the Himalayas and from Nepal journeyed
over the Ganges plateau to Patna and Agra. At the latter city d'Orville
died, he was replaced by Father Roth, and the two missionaries tramped
across Asia to Europe. Gruber had been two hundred and fourteen days on
the road. In 1664 he attempted to return to China by way of Russia, but
for some reason or other failed to get through that country. He then
made for Asia but fell ill at Constantinople, finally he died either in
Italy at Florence or at Patak in Hungary. Fortunately he had left his
"Journal" and charts in the hands of the great Athanasius Kircher, who
published them in his famous "China Illustrata."
Other missionaries entered Mingrelia, Paphlagonia, and Chaldea; in the
latter place they brought the Nestorians back to the Church. Besides
laboring in nearby Greece and Thessaly, at Constantinople, they were in
Armenia and at Ephesus, Smyrna, Damascus, Aleppo, at the ruins of
Babylon, and on the shores of the Euphrates and the Jordan, and they
founded the missions of Antourah for the Maronites of Libanus, whom
Henry IV of France took under his protection.
The origin of these Maronite missions reads like a romance. It is found
in the French "Menology" of October 12 which tells us that one day, at a
meeting of his sodalists in Marseilles, Father Amien was talking about
the propagation of the Faith and incidentally mentioned Persia, which
only one missionary had as yet entered. Among his hearers was a rich
merchant named François Lambert, who, excited by the sermon, determined
to go and put himself at the disposal of that solitary Persian apostle.
He crossed the Arabian desert, reached Bagdad, embarked on the
Euphrates, with the intention of getting to Ispahan in Persia and when
he failed in this, he turned towards Ormuz on the straits connecting the
Persian Gulf with the Arabian Sea. That place, however, could not keep
him; it was too luxurious and too licentious; so he went over to upper
Hindostan, where the Great Mogul was enthroned. He passed through Surate
and Golconda, but from Mylapore, which holds the tomb of St. Thomas, he
could not tear himself away for several weeks. Finally, he boarded a
ship which was wrecked on the shores of Bengal, and twice he came within
an inch of disappearing in the deep. After two days and two nights on
the desolate sands, he and five other castaways sang the Te Deum to
make them forget their sorrow. They must have struck inland after that
for we are told that later they built a raft and floated down one of the
great rivers of India. It was a journey of thirty-five days, and several
of the poor wanderers died of hunger on the way. At last they reached a
native settlement and were led to the nearest Portuguese post.
Unfortunately, the geography at this part of Lambert's narrative is too
vague for us to be sure of the places he saw on his journey.
From India he made his way to Rome, where he entered the Jesuit
novitiate of San Andrea, and from there, after his ordination, he was
sent to Syria. Again he was shipwrecked, and when picked up on the beach
he was taken for a pirate and brought in chains to the chief of the
mountaineer clan. Happily they were the Maronites of Libanus, and there
Lambert remained till the end of his days, helping the persecuted people
to keep their faith against their furious Mussulman neighbours. These
Maronites had been represented, by postulatory letters at the Lateran
Council as early as 1516, and later Pope Gregory XIII built for them in
Rome a hospital and a college which produced some very eminent scholars.
In 1616 Clement VIII sent the Jesuit, Girolamo Dandini, to preside at
the Maronite council, for the purpose of introducing certain liturgical
reforms; but it was the wanderer Lambert who was the first to remain
permanently among this heroic people. He lived only three years after
his arrival; it was long enough, however, to prepare the way for the
five mission centres which were subsequently established there.
Alexandre de Rhodes, who appears at this juncture, is another of the
picturesque figures in the history of the Society. According to Fénelon,
it is he who inspired the formation of the great association of the
Missions Etrangères, which has sent so many thousands of glorious
apostles, many of whom were martyrs, to evangelize the countries from
which he had come in a most unexpected and extraordinary fashion. He was
born in Avignon, the old French City of the Popes, and was called by his
contemporaries the "Francis Xavier of Cochin-China and Tonkin." He left
Rome for the Indies when he was only twenty-six years of age, and began
his missionary work in the East by looking after the slaves and
jailbirds of Goa. On his way from that city to Tuticorin he baptized
fifty pagans on shipboard, his eloquence being helped by the furious
tempest that threatened to send the frail bark to the bottom. While
waiting at Malacca for the ship to get ready, he and his companion
captured another two thousand souls for the Lord, and when he arrived at
his destination, other thousands came into the fold, among them the king
and eighteen members of the royal household, and two hundred of the
priests of the pagan temples. Nor did this rapidity denote instability,
for twenty-five years later the Church of Tuticorin which he founded
could count at its altars no less than 300,000 Christians.
It is said that he had even the power of making thaumaturgists out of
his catechumens. By the use of holy water or the relic of the cross,
they restored people to health, and as many as two hundred and seventy
sufferers from various maladies were the recipients of such favors. When
he was thrown into prison and loaded with fetters, as he often was, he
converted his jailers and others besides. When carried off in a ship to
be ejected from the country, he baptized the captain and crew and got
them to put him ashore in a desolate place where he began a new
apostolate. Fifteen times, in his journeys to Tonkin and Cochin-China,
he crossed the Gulf of Tonkin, which had a terrible record of tempests
and shipwrecks, and finally he started on his famous overland tramp to
Europe in search of evangelical laborers. He achieved his purpose,
though it took him three years and a half to do it.
On that memorable journey he risked his life at every step, for he had
to travel through countries whose language he did not understand, and
where he could expect nothing but suspicion, ill-treatment and, if he
escaped death, privations and sufferings of every description. On his
way to Rome the Dutch in Java threw him in jail, but he converted his
keepers, and was segregated in consequence and put in solitary
confinement; he regarded that seclusion only as a splendid chance to
make his annual retreat, and when he was let out he resumed his
pilgrimage through India and Asia. As he said himself, he was carried on
the wings of Divine Providence, through storms and shipwrecks, and
cities and deserts, and barbarians and pagans, and heretics and Turks.
He finally reached Rome in 1648, and told the Father General and the
Pope what was needed in the far-away Orient. The purpose of this voyage,
so replete with adventure, was of very great importance.
It was chiefly by the help of Portugal, which was then at the most
brilliant epoch of its history, that missions had been extended for
thousands of miles in the East, beginning at Goa and Malabar, and
stretching round the Peninsula of Hindostan to Cochin-China, Corea, and
Japan, in many of which splendid ecclesiastical establishments had been
founded. They were all begun, supported and protected by Portugal. But
unfortunately, Christianity and Portugal were so inextricably entangled,
mixed and confused with one another that the religion taught by the
missionaries came to be considered by the people not so much the
religion of Christ as the religion of the Portuguese. Another
consequence was that a quarrel between any little Portuguese official or
merchant with an Oriental potentate meant a persecution of the Church.
Furthermore, as Portugal's possession of the country was so exclusive
that not even the most humble missionary could leave Europe unless he
was acceptable to the Government, it amounted to an actual enslavement
of the Church. Finally, as every other nation was debarred from
commercial rights in the East, it became the practice of rivals to
represent to the natives that the missionaries were merely Portuguese
spies or advance agents who were preparing for invasion and conquest.
Unfortunately, in return for all that Portugal had done and was to do
for the advancement of Christianity in those newly discovered lands, an
arrangement had been made with the Pope that no bishop in all that vast
territory could take his see unless Portugal accepted him; no new
diocese could be created unless Portugal were consulted; no papal bull
was valid unless passed upon by the Portuguese kings. To put an end to
all that, was the reason why de Rhodes went to Europe. But he did not
dare to appear before the Pope as a Jesuit, for if it were known what
his mission was every Jesuit house in the Portuguese possessions would
have been immediately closed, as happened later. Hence it was that he
had to wait in Rome for three whole years until 1651 before he could
even get his petition considered, and this explains also why he made the
extravagant demand for "a patriarch, three archbishops, and twelve
bishops." By asking much he thought he might at least get something.
The Pope wanted de Rhodes himself to be a bishop; he refused the honor,
and then was told to go and find some available candidates. For that
purpose he addressed himself to a group of ecclesiastics at Paris whom
the Jesuit Father Bagot was directing in the ways of the higher
spiritual life, and who were often spoken of as the Bagotists. Among
them were Montmorency de Laval, the future Bishop of Quebec, and M.
Olier, who was, later on, to found the Society of St. Sulpice. His
appeal had no immediate result, and he then prepared to return to
Tonkin, but he received an order to go elsewhere. Probably no Portuguese
vessel would take him back, for the purpose of his visit to Europe must
have by that time got abroad. He was, therefore, sent to Persia,
although he was then over sixty years old; so to Persia he went, and we
find him studying the language on his way thither, and, when travelling
through the streets of Ispahan, making a fool of himself in trying to
stammer out the few words he had learned, but always making light of the
laughter and sometimes of the kicks and cuffs and even threats of death
that he received. He was planning new missionary posts in Georgia and
Tatary when death called him to his reward. But he had already won the
admiration of Ispahan, and the city never saw a costlier funeral than
the one which, on November 7, 1660, conveyed to the grave the mortal
remains of the glorious Alexandre de Rhodes.
This journey of the great missionary is a classic in its emphasis of the
earnestness the Society has always shown to have the episcopacy
established in its missions. It is idle to pretend that this project of
de Rhodes was due to his own initiative, and was not sanctioned by his
superiors. He may, indeed, have suggested it, but no one in the Society
undertakes a work from which he may be withdrawn at any moment, except
he is assigned to it. Now de Rhodes continued at his task for several
years, and evidently with the approval of his superiors.
Apparently unsuccessful though his effort was, it brought about some
results. Mme. d'Aiguillon, the niece of Cardinal Richelieu, took the
matter up, but even she, with her great influence, could induce the
ecclesiastical authorities to do no more than create one little
vicariate Apostolic. It was a far cry from the great hierarchical scheme
of de Rhodes. One of the Bagotists, Pallu, was appointed, though, for a
time there was a question of sending Laval also to the East; but the
necessity of having a bishop in Quebec was so urgent that Pallu was sent
alone to Tonkin.
Portugal, however, refused to carry him thither, although Louis XIV
asked it as a special favor. In 1658 when Pallu attempted to go out at
his own risk he reached not Cochin-China but Siam. He was back again in
France in 1665, begging protection against the Portuguese, who were
arresting his priests and putting them in jail at Goa and Macao. In 1674
he was shipwrecked in the Philippines and carried off a prisoner to
Spain, and was liberated only by the united efforts of the Pope and
Louis XIV. He set sail again, but was driven ashore on the Island of
Formosa and never reached Tonkin.
Meantime the Jesuits had not forgotten Francis Xavier's dream about
China. The Dominican Gaspar de la Cruz had found his way through its
closed gates, four years after Xavier expired on the island opposite
Canton, but he was promptly expelled. It was only in 1581, fully
thirty-six years subsequent to the attempt of de la Cruz, that the
Jesuits finally succeeded. All that time they had been waiting at
Macao,--a settlement granted to the Portuguese in return for the
assistance given to China in beating off a fleet of plundering
sea-rovers. They had long since seen the folly of attempting to enter a
new country under the shadow of some pretentious embassy, for
inevitably a suspicion was left lurking in the minds of both the
governments and the people that there was an ulterior political motive
back of the preaching of the priests. Hence it was that Valignani,
though in general believing in embassies to kings and rulers, after the
new religion was well understood and accepted in a country, had become
convinced that it was unwise to begin the work in that ostentatious
fashion. He, therefore, took three clever young Italians, Michele
Ruggieri, Francesco Pasio and Matteo Ricci, and after training them
thoroughly in mathematics and in all the branches of the natural
sciences, ordered them not only to master the Chinese language, but also
to familiarize themselves with the literature and the history of the
country. Ricci was available especially as a mathematician, having been
the favorite pupil of Father Clavius, who was one of the chief
constructors of the Gregorian Calendar.
According to Huc (p. 40) they gained access to the forbidden land by
taking part in a comedy. A viceroy, he tells us, who lived near Canton,
summoned to his tribunal on some charge or other both the bishop and the
governor of Macao. This was a grievous insult to those dignitaries, but
on the other hand if they refused to appear, the result might be
disastrous for the whole Portuguese colony. To extricate themselves from
the dilemma a trick was resorted to--one which was quite in keeping with
Chinese methods. Instead of going themselves, they sent two persons who
pretended to be the bishop and governor. For the former Father Ruggieri
was chosen, for the latter, a layman. On the face of it, the story is
absurd. It would be impossible to impersonate two such well-known
functionaries as a bishop and a governor, and the discovery of such a
fraud would inevitably entail condign punishment. Most probably
Ruggieri and his companion went simply as representatives of the two
functionaries. They were well provided with presents, which had the
desired effect of making the viceroy forget his grievances, if he had
any. He accepted everything very graciously and suggested a second
visit. Then Ruggieri apprised him of the longing he had always
entertained of passing his whole life in the wonderful land of China,
with its marvellously intellectual people, and was assured that his wish
might possibly be gratified later on. But when a hint was thrown out
about a wonderful clock which the missionary possessed and was extremely
anxious to show such an important personage as the viceroy, every
difficulty about a permanent residence immediately disappeared.
The party was conducted back to the boat with great ceremony; and when
Ruggieri's return was delayed by an attack of sickness, the viceregal
junk was sent to the Island to convey him to Tchao-King; and also to
deliver into his hands a formal authorization to establish a house in
the town. Valignani, who was then at Macao, hesitated for a time about
accepting the offer, but finally consented. On December 18 Ruggieri
embarked, taking with him Father Pasio and a scholastic, along with
several Chinese. This addition to the party somewhat surprised the
viceroy, but Ruggieri told him that being a priest, it was in keeping
with his dignity to have an attendant. The others were only servants,
but the clock did the work, and the audacious apostles received a
Buddhist temple outside the town as their place of residence, and were
the recipients of frequent favors in the way of food from the delighted
viceroy. He even granted permission to Ruggieri to call Ricci from
Macao. Their temple-residence soon became famous, and every one in
Tchao-King, from the highest civil and military functionaries down to
what we now call coolies, came out to see the occupants.
Unfortunately, the viceroy was deposed and his successor, objecting to
the presence of the foreigners, ordered the whole party to return to
Macao. They did not obey, but made an attempt to reach Canton, which the
former official had given them authority to enter. They succeeded by
purposely getting themselves arrested in Hong-Kong. But in Canton no
attention was paid to the document they had with them, and so they made
their way back to Macao, convinced that there was no hope of remaining
in China under the new incumbent. Yet to their great surprise, the very
man they feared sent an envoy over to Macao to bring the three
missionaries back to Tchao-King. He welcomed them effusively and gave
them a beautiful site for their residence, quite close to a famous
porcelain tower, which had just been erected and was considered a
monument of Chinese architecture. This was the cradle of Christianity in
China.
In 1589, however, there arrived a new viceroy who took a fancy to their
residence, and without any ceremony dispossessed them. But as they had
already won such favor by their maps and globes and astronomical
instruments, when they came to Tchao-Tcheou looking for a house, they
were received with the wildest demonstrations of joy. They grew more
popular every day, and soon the mandarins of Canton invited Ricci to
speak in their assemblies. He availed himself of all these opportunities
afforded him to inject into his scientific discourses something about
religion, and he noted that they showed greater attention when he
broached such topics than when he restricted himself to purely human
science. Troubles occurred from time to time, but the number of
neophytes increased daily, and Ricci, who up to that time had worn the
dress of a bonze now discarded it and assumed the garb of a Chinese man
of letters.
In 1595 the news came that the Japanese emperor, Taicosama was preparing
an expedition against Corea, whereupon, the general-in-chief of the
Chinese troops came down to Tchao-Tcheou to consult Ricci. But it was
not so much to discuss the military situation as to get him to restore a
favorite child to health. Ricci promised to pray for the boy, and in
return asked to accompany the general back to Pekin for he was convinced
that if he could once convert the educated classes of the capital the
rest of his work would be easy. The request was granted, and Ricci was
thus, very probably, the first white man to travel through the interior
of China and to see the people of the cities and country at close range.
At Nankin, however, he noted the deep suspicion entertained for
foreigners, and although he went as far as Pekin itself, he thought it
wiser not to enter the city, and consequently he returned by the Yellow
River to Tchao-Tcheou.
Taicosama's expedition from Japan proved a failure, and the public
anxiety about foreigners ceased to be acute. This lull enabled Ricci to
establish himself at Nankin, which seemed to have struck his fancy as he
passed through it on his way to Pekin. The city was in a fever about the
study of astronomy and astrology, and he found a hearty welcome among
its learned men. He taught them in his daily intercourse many of the
doctrines of the Faith, and got in return from them the real meaning of
their ancestor-worship and ceremonies. Hence, he had no scruples at all
about taking part in the honors paid to Confucius, who was the great
legislator and teacher of China, and he never suspected that there
would be later a hue and cry in the Church about the alleged idolatry of
these very ceremonies.
Meantime he forwarded information about the observatory of Nankin that
quite astounded scientific Europe. Nankin, however, did not satisfy him,
and he made constant but unavailing efforts to reach the imperial city
of Pekin. Finally, in 1600, after seventeen years of patient waiting, he
succeeded. His coming produced a great sensation. He was even admitted
to the palace, but really never saw the emperor, though the people at
large fancied he had been accorded that privilege. However, it amounted
almost to the same thing, for the effect produced and his real
missionary success dated from that moment. The greatest mandarin of the
court became a Christian and almost a saint, though his name was Sin.
Later, Sin went about preaching Christianity. His conversion itself was
a sermon, and was the beginning of many others. Meantime the five
Jesuits at Canton drew multitudes around them. The upper classes flocked
to hear their discourses, and began to take pride in being considered
Christians, but it was hard for them to understand why the Gospel was
not exclusively restricted to their set. They could not yet grasp the
fact, even after baptism, that the lower classes had the same privilege
of salvation as themselves. To the Chinese mind it was a social
revolution, and they were right, but they were wrong in objecting to it.
Here an interesting episode occurs. Associated with Father Geronimo
Aquaviva in the court of the Grand Mogul at Agra was a Portuguese
lay-brother named Benedict Goes. Although engaged only in domestic
service, he was in great favor with the barbarian monarch, and if the
Viceroy of India was saved from disaster, it was due to Goes, who not
only persuaded the Grand Mogul to desist from war with the Portuguese,
but succeeded in having himself sent down to Goa with all the children
who had been captured in the various raids of Akbar's armies into
Portuguese territory. While he was at Agra, reports had been coming in
that the Fathers had at last entered China--the Cathay of the old
Franciscans of the thirteenth century, and it was deemed advisable to
try to establish communications with them. Goes was chosen to carry out
the project, and, in 1602, he started from Agra, which lies in the
northern part of Hindostan, about south of Delhi and west of Lucknow. It
meant a journey from the centre of Hindostan, across the whole of Thibet
and China, among absolutely unknown nations, savage and semi-civilized,
Mohammedans and idolaters, through trackless forests and over snow-clad
mountains, facing the dangers of starvation and sickness and wild beasts
at every step. But all that was not thought to be beyond the powers of
the courageous brother. Disguised as an Armenian, he had a hard time of
it from robber chiefs and barbarian princes. He was ill-treated by most
of them, for he openly professed that he was a Christian. When he
refused to pay respect to Mohammed, he was sentenced to be trampled to
death by elephants, but he was finally pardoned and allowed to resume
his journey. On he plodded for five years, and just as he was nearing
the goal his strength gave out. Fortunately Father Ricci, at Pekin, had
heard of his coming, and sent Father Fernandes to meet him. When
Fernandes arrived, Goes was breathing his last in the frontier town of
Su-Chou. It was then 1607, and the dying man told his brother Jesuit:
"For five years I have been without the sacraments, but I do not
remember any serious sin since I set out from Agra." He died on April 7,
1607.
In 1606 there was worry in China about certain reports originating in
Macao, where the Portuguese were stationed. The Jesuits were accused of
aspiring to nothing else than the imperial throne; to prove it,
attention was called to the fact that all their houses were built on
hills, and could be easily transformed into citadels in time of war. It
was said, too, that a Dutch fleet in the offing was at their service,
and that arrangements had been made with the Japanese for an invasion.
The result was a general panic throughout the empire and not a few
apostacies. Threats to kill the missionaries also began to be heard.
Coincident with this, came an unwise act on the part of the
Vicar-General of Macao, who, because of a decision against him in a
dispute he had with the Franciscans, put the whole island under
interdict. The result was that the political situation became still more
threatening, and Father Martines was arrested at Canton, tortured in the
most horrible fashion, and finally executed. This death, however, marked
as it was by the heroic courage of the victim, his affirmations in the
midst of his sufferings of his own innocence and that of his brethren,
quelled the storm. Ricci's influence, also, contributed to calm the
excited people, and he became greater than ever in their estimation. He
was called another Confucius, and was even empowered by the authorities
to establish a novitiate at Pekin. Ricci was well on in years by that
time, but continued valiantly at his work, making saints as well as
great littérateurs and mathematicians out of his Jesuit associates; he
wrote treatises in Chinese on Christian ethics, while continuing his
mathematical works, and all day long he was busy with the great
mandarins who came to consult him. In 1610 he succumbed under these
accumulated labors, and his obsequies were such as had never been
accorded to any other foreigner. The funeral procession, preceded by the
cross, traversed the entire city, and by order of the emperor his
remains were laid in a temple, which was thenceforth transformed into a
Christian church.
Mr. Gutzlaff, a Protestant missionary in China of modern times, says
that "Ricci had spent only twenty-seven years in China but when he died
there were more than three hundred churches in the different provinces."
Gutzlaff's testimony is all the more precious, because, according to
Marshall, his own associates describe him as "more occupied in amassing
wealth than in making Christians." Referring to the scientific labors of
Ricci and his successors, Thornton (History of China, Preface, p. 13)
says: "The geographical labors performed in China by the Jesuits and
other missionaries of the Roman Catholic Faith will always command the
gratitude and excite the wonder of all geographers. Portable
chronometers and aneroid barometers, sextants and theodolites,
sympiesometers and micrometers, compasses and artificial horizons are,
notwithstanding all possible care, frequently found to fail, yet one
hundred and fifty years ago a few wandering European priests traversed
the enormous state of China Proper, and laid down on their maps the
positions of cities, the direction of rivers and the height of mountains
with a correctness of detail and a general accuracy of outline that are
absolutely marvellous. To this day all our maps are based on their
observations." "Whatever is valuable in Chinese astronomical science,"
adds Mr. Gutzlaff, "has been borrowed from the treatises of Roman
Catholic missionaries."
Ricci's death was a calamity to the Church, for in the following year a
mandarin who was in charge at Nankin started a genuine persecution. The
missionaries were summoned to his tribunal, publicly scourged and sent
back to Macao--and all this with the authorization of the emperor.
Matters grew worse, but at the emperor's death in 1620, there was a
lull, for the Tatars were invading China and the help of the Portuguese
had to be invoked; as that, however, could not be done unless the
Europeans were placated by recalling the missionaries, the exiles
returned to their posts. The emperor overcame the Tatars, and the
tranquillity and good feeling that followed allowed the Fathers, who
were scattered all over the empire, some of them 800 leagues from Pekin,
to get together and decide on uniformity of methods in treating with
their converts. In that congregation the doubts which met them at every
step as to what they were to tolerate and what to forbid were settled.
They knew the people thoroughly by this time, their ideas, their
customs; and their scrupulous love of the Faith guided them in their
decisions.
About this time the great Adam Schall arrived. He was a worthy successor
of Ricci. His reputation had preceded him as a mathematician, and he was
immediately employed by the emperor to reform the Chinese calendar. His
influence, in consequence of this distinction, was unbounded in
extending the field of missionary work. The pagans themselves built a
church at his request in Sin-gan-fou, and he obtained an edict from the
emperor which empowered the Jesuits to preach throughout the empire. The
extraordinary success of Schall was the talk of Europe; and applications
poured in on the General from all sides to be sent out to share the
labors and the triumphs of the mission. Great numbers of Jesuits were
sent there, but many perished on the way out, for shipwrecks were very
common in those unknown seas, and the crowded and unhealthy ships as
well as the long and difficult journey claimed throngs of victims.
The work soon became too great for the laborers and then there came a
reinforcement from the Philippines, largely from the other religious
orders who had been long waiting to enter China, and who now devoted
themselves to the work. Not knowing the country, however, they were
horrified to see that many of the practices of Confucianism were still
retained by the Chinese Christians, and they denounced as idolatry what
the old Jesuits had decided, after years of close scrutiny, to be
nothing but a ceremonial which had been thoroughly and scrupulously
purified from all taint of superstition. But the newcomers would not
look at it in that light. They immediately wrote to the Archbishop of
Manila and to the Bishop of Cebú that the Jesuits not only concealed
from their converts the mysteries of the Cross, but permitted them to
prostrate themselves before the idol of Chin-Hoam, to honor their
ancestors with superstitious rites, and to offer sacrifices to
Confucius. Rome was then informed of it, but some years later, namely in
1637, both the archbishop and the bishop wrote to Urban VIII that on
examining the matter more carefully, they had arrived at the conclusion
that the Jesuits were right. It was then too late. A series of bloody
persecutions had already begun. The first explosion of wrath occurred
when one of the new preachers, speaking through an interpreter, told his
congregation that Confucius and all their pagan ancestors were in hell,
and that the Jesuits had not taught the Chinese the truth. Public
indignation followed on this unwise utterance and expulsions began.
Fortunately, the persecutions were checked for a while by fresh attempts
of the Tatar element in China to seize the imperial crown. The Jesuits
kept out of the strife by pronouncing for neither party. Happily, the
Tatar element took a fancy to Schall, while Father Coeffler baptized the
Chinese empress, giving her the Christian name of Helen and calling her
infant son Constantine. The Tatars finally prevailed, and Schall was
made a mandarin and president of the board of mathematics of the empire.
He was given access to the emperor at all times, and might have made him
a Christian had not the empress induced him to resume the pagan
practices from which Schall had weaned him. Nor did the death of the
troublesome lady mend matters; on the contrary, her disconsolate husband
lapsed into melancholia, and in 1661 died, leaving a child of eight as
his successor. In pursuance of the emperor's command, Schall was
appointed instructor of the prince, but, as was to be expected, that
arrangement aroused the fury of the people and especially of the bonzes.
They maintained, rightfully from their point of view, that if Schall
were left in position during the long minority of the prince, he would
be absolute master of the future emperor--a result that must be
prevented by crushing out Christianity. Forthwith all the missionaries
were summoned to Pekin and thrown into prison. There was now no longer
any discussion about the worship of Confucius, for the disputants were
all in the dungeons of Pekin or elsewhere waiting for death.
The Christians were without pastors, but Father Gresson, who was in
China at that time, tells us in his "History of China under the Tatars"
that, during the persecution, the catechists baptized 2000 converts. It
is not surprising, for before the outbreak of the persecution, the
Jesuits had one hundred and fifty-one churches and thirty-eight
residences in China; the Dominicans twenty-one churches and two
residences, and the Franciscans one establishment. The total Christian
population amounted to 250,000. Up to that time the Fathers of the
Society had written one hundred and thirty-one works on religious
subjects, one hundred and three on mathematics, and fifty-five on
physics.
While the missionaries lay in chains expecting death at every moment, a
Dominican named Navarrete succeeded in making his escape. It was lucky
for him in one respect, but in all probability it would mean as soon as
it was discovered the massacre of all the other prisoners; to avert this
calamity, the illustrious Jesuit, Grimaldi, took his place in the
prison. Unfortunately, Navarrete had no sooner reached Europe than he
began an attack on the methods of the Jesuits in dealing with the
Chinese rites. It caused great grief to his fellow Dominicans, and when
the news of the publication of his "Tratados históricos" reached China
in 1668, the Dominican Father Sarpetri sent a solemn denunciation of it
to Rome, declaring that the practice of the Jesuits in permitting such
rites was not only irreproachable under every point of view, but most
necessary in propagating the Gospel. He denied under oath that the
Jesuits refused to explain the mysteries of the Passion to the Chinese,
and affirmed that his protest against the charge was not in answer to an
appeal, but was prompted by the pure love of truth. Another Dominican,
Gregorio López, who was Bishop of Basilea and Vicar-Apostolic of
Nan-King, sent the Sacred Congregation a "memoir" in favor of the
Jesuits. Navarrete atoned for his act of mistaken judgment later; for
when he was Archbishop of Santo Domingo he asked leave of the king and
viceroy to establish a Jesuit college in his residential city, and he
paid a glowing tribute to the Society.
When Schall was brought up for trial there was, at his side, another
Jesuit named Ferdinand Verbiest, a native of Pilthem near Courtrai in
Belgium. He had come out to China when he was thirty-six years old, and
was first engaged in missionary work in Shen-si. In 1660 he was summoned
to Pekin to assist Father Schall, and in 1664 was thrown into prison
with him. In the court-room, Verbiest was the chief spokesman, for
Schall, being then seventy-four years of age and paralyzed, was unable
to utter a word. The charges against the old missionary had been trumped
up by a Mohammedan who claimed to be an astronomer. They were: first,
that Schall had shown pictures of the Passion of Jesus Christ to the
deceased emperor; secondly, that he had secured the presidency of the
board of mathematics for himself in order to promote Christianity;
thirdly, that he had incorrectly determined the day on which the funeral
of one of the princes was to take place. It was an "unlucky" day.
Verbiest had no difficulty in proving that the accused had been ordered
by the emperor to be president of the board of mathematics, and
furthermore, that he never had anything to do with "lucky" or "unlucky"
days. The charge about the pictures of the Passion was admitted, and
that may have been the reason why, in spite of the eloquence of
Verbiest, who was loaded with chains while he was pleading, Father
Schall was condemned to be hacked to pieces. In this trouble, however,
the Lord came to the rescue: a meteor of an extraordinary kind appeared
in the heavens, and a fire reduced to ashes that part of the imperial
palace where the condemnation was pronounced. The sentence was revoked,
and the missionaries were set free. Father Schall lingered a year after
recovering his freedom. When Kang-hi came to the throne in 1669, an
official declaration was made denouncing both the trial and the sentence
as iniquitous, and although Schall had then been three years dead,
unusually solemn funeral services were ordered in his honor. His remains
were laid beside those of Father Ricci. The emperor himself composed the
eulogistic epitaph which was inscribed on the tomb.
Schall had given forty-four years of his life to China, when at the age
of seventy-five, he breathed his last in the arms of Father Rho, who,
like him, was to hold a distinguished position as mathematician in the
imperial court. Rho had preluded his advent to China by organizing the
defense of the Island of Macao against a Dutch fleet. He had new
ramparts constructed around the city; he planted four pieces of
artillery on the walls, and when the Dutchmen landed for an assault he
led the troops in a sortie and drove the enemy back to their ships. In
his "Promenade autour du Monde" (II, 266), Baron de Hübner gives an
enthusiastic description of the Jesuit Observatory at Pekin.
"Man's inhumanity to man" is cruelly exemplified in a foul accusation
urged against the venerable Schall, a century after he was buried with
imperial honors in Pekin. In 1758 a certain Marcello Angelita, secretary
of Mgr. de Tournon, the prelate who was commissioned to pass on the
question of the Malabar Rites, published a story, which was repeated in
many other books, that Schall had spent his last years "separated from
the other missionaries, removed from obedience to his superiors, in a
house which had been given him by the emperor, and with a woman whom he
treated as his wife, and who bore him two children. After having led a
pleasant life with his family for some years, he ended his days in
obscurity." If there was even the shadow of truth in these accusations
the Dominican Navarrete, who knew Schall personally, and who wrote
against him and his brethren so fiercely in 1667, would not have failed
to mention this fact to confirm his charges about the Chinese Rites. But
he does not breathe a word about any misconduct on the part of the great
missionary. Moreover, it is inconceivable that the vigorous Father
General Oliva, who governed the Society at that time, would have
tolerated that state of things for a single instant.
The foundation upon which the charge was built appears to be that the
old missionary used to call a Chinese mandarin his "adopted grandson"
and had helped to advance him to lucrative positions in the empire. The
libel was written forty years after Schall's death, and was largely
inspired by the infamous ex-Capuchin Norbert.
Possibly the mental attitude of Angelita's master, de Tournon, may also
account in part for the publication of this calumny. De Tournon was
known to be a bitter enemy of the Society, and he took no pains to
conceal it when sent to the East to decide the vexed question of the
Rites. Although on his arrival at Pondicherry in 1703, the Fathers met
him on the shore and conducted him processionally to the city, he
interpreted these marks of respect and the lavish generosity with which
they looked after all his needs as nothing but policy. Not only did he
refuse to give them a hearing on their side of the controversy, but he
hurried off elsewhere as soon as he had formulated his decree. When he
arrived in Canton, the first words he uttered were: "I come to China to
purify its Catholicity," and before taking any information whatever, he
ordered the removal of all the symbols which he considered
superstitious. The act created an uproar, as it was only through the
influence of the Fathers that de Tournon was permitted to go to Pekin;
and although they managed to make his entrance into the imperial city
unusually splendid, he immediately informed the emperor of a plan he
had made to reconstruct the missions but, expressed himself in such an
offensive fashion that the emperor immediately dismissed him. He then
repaired to Canton, and on January 28, 1707, issued the famous order
forbidding the cult of the ancestors, with the result that the emperor
sent down officials to conduct him to Macao, where he was reported to
have died in prison, on June 8, 1710.
The Mohammedan mandarin, Yang, who had trumped up the astronomical
accusations against Schall, had meantime succeeded to the post as head
of the mathematical board, but the young emperor was not satisfied with
the results obtained, and he ordered a public dispute on the relative
merits of Chinese and European astronomy. Verbiest was on one side, and
Yang on the other. The test was to be first, the determination, in
advance, of the shadow given at noon of a fixed day by a gnomon of a
given height; second, the absolute and relative position of the sun and
the planets on a date assigned; third, the time of a lunar eclipse. The
result was a triumph for Verbiest. He was immediately installed as
president, and his brethren were allowed to return to their missions.
Verbiest's career, at Pekin, was more brilliant than that of either
Ricci or Schall. There is no end of the things he did. The famous bronze
astronomical instruments which figured so conspicuously in the Boxer
Uprising of 1900 were of his manufacture; he built an aqueduct also, and
cast as many as one hundred and thirty-two cannon for the Chinese army.
The emperor followed his astronomical classes, appointed him to the
highest grade in the mandarinate, and gave him leave to preach
Christianity anywhere in the empire. Innocent XI, to whom he dedicated
his Chinese Missal, sent him a brief in 1681, which contained the
greatest praise for "using the profane sciences to promote
Christianity," a commendation which was more than welcome at that time,
when the book of Navarrete was doing its evil work against the Society.
In 1677 when Verbiest was appointed vice-provincial, he appealed for new
laborers from Europe. He even advocated the use of the native language
in the liturgy in order to facilitate the ordination of Chinese priests.
It was a bold petition to make when the memory of Luther and his German
liturgy was still so fresh in the mind of Europe. The reason for the
petition was that otherwise the conversion of China was impossible.
Brucker in his history of the Society tells us that for one hundred
years no native had been ordained a priest in China. He gives as a
reason for this, the disgust of the Portuguese government at the failure
met with in Hindostan, where the formation of a native clergy was
attempted. That alone would be sufficient to acquit the Society of any
guilt in this matter; but he gives facts to his readers which go to show
very plainly that this failure to create a native Chinese priesthood
clearly evidences the Society's desire to have one at any cost. It is
paradoxical, but it is true.
The great lapse of time that passed without any ordinations need cause
no alarm. There are instances of greater delay with less excuse very
near home. For instance, there were secular priests and religious in
Canada as early as 1603, but there was no seminary there till 1663,
although the colony had all the power of Catholic France back of it.
There were Catholics in Maryland in 1634, yet there was no theological
seminary until 1794, that is for a space of 160 years. After a few
years' struggle with only five pupils, and in some of these years none,
it was closed and was not re-opened until 1810, which is a far cry from
1634. New York did not attempt to found a seminary until the time of its
fourth bishop. The house at Nyack was burned down before it was
occupied; the Lafargeville project also proved a failure and it was not
until 1841 that the diocesan seminary was opened at Fordham.
Moreover, in none of these seminaries was there the remotest thought of
forming a _native_ clergy in the sense of the word employed in the
anti-Jesuit indictment. The seminarians were all foreigners or sons of
foreigners. There were no native Indians in these establishments, as
that, apart from intellectual and moral reasons, would have been a
physiological impossibility. Nature rebels against the transplanting of
a creature of the woods and mountains to the confinement of a lecture
hall. The old martyr of Colonial times, Father Daniel, brought a number
of Indian boys from Huronia to Quebec to educate them, but they fled to
the forests, while the Indian girls, who were lodged with the Ursulines,
died of consumption. Even in our own times, Archbishop Gillow of Oaxaca,
Mexico, brought a number of pure-blooded Indians to Rome, in the hope of
making them priests, but they all died before he attained any results.
In brief, we in America have never formed a _native_ clergy.
Moreover, this century-stretch of failure in China is cut down
considerably when we recall the fact that for a considerable time there
were only two or, at most, three Jesuits in that vast empire, and that
they contrived to remain there only because they interested the learned
part of the populace by their knowledge of mathematics and astronomy,
never daring to broach the subject of religion, though they succeeded
under the pretence of science in circulating everywhere a catechism
which enraptured the _literati_. It was only in the year 1601 that
permission was given to them to preach. Hence, the figure 100 has to be
cut down to 83. In two years time, namely in 1617, there were 13,000
Christians in China. How were the rest to be reached? No help could be
expected from Europe, which was being devastated by the Thirty Years War
(1618-1648). Independently of that, the caste system prevailed in China,
and the learned, even those who were converted, found it difficult to
understand why the wonderful truths of Christianity should be
communicated to the common people, yet it is from the people that
ecclesiastical vocations usually come. Thirdly, the Chinaman has an
instinctive horror of anything foreign. Yet here was a foreign creed
which, moreover, could be thoroughly learned only by a language which
was itself foreign even to the priests who taught it.
The audacious project was then formed to petition the Pope to have the
liturgy, even the Mass, in Chinese. No other modern mission ever dared
to make such a request. As early as 1617, the petition was presented,
and although Pope Paul V favored the scheme, yet the undertaking was so
stupendous and the project so unusual that he withheld any direct or
official recognition. Whereupon the missionaries began the work of
translating into Chinese not only the Missal and Ritual, but an entire
course of moral theology with the cases of conscience. In addition a
large part of the "Summa" of St. Thomas along with many other books
which might be useful to the future priest were rendered into the
vernacular. The work was begun by Father Trigault in 1615 and was
continued by others up to 1682, when the Pope while accepting the
dedication of a Chinese Missal by Verbiest, finally concluded that it
would be impolitic to grant permission for a liturgy in Chinese. This
gigantic undertaking ought of itself to be a sufficient answer to the
charge that the Jesuits were averse to the formation of a native clergy.
The scheme failed, it is true, but the attempt is a sufficient answer to
the hackneyed charge against the Society.
It might be asked, however, why did they not foresee the possible
failure of their request and provide otherwise for priests? In the first
place, there were Dominicans and Franciscans in China, and it might be
proper to ask them why they excluded the Chinese from the ministry?
Secondly, the Jesuits had all they could do to defend themselves from
the charge of idolatry for sanctioning the Chinese Rites. Thirdly when
Schall arrived in 1622 there were no missionaries to be met
anywhere--they were in prison or in exile. Fourthly, in 1637 there was a
bloody persecution. Fifthly, in 1644 the Tatar invasion occurred with
the usual havoc, and the Manchu dynasty was inaugurated. Sixthly, in
1664 Schall hitherto such a great man in the empire was imprisoned and
condemned to be hacked to pieces and Verbiest was lying in chains. It is
quite comprehensible, therefore, that in such a condition of things,
quiet seminary life was impossible, and as the Jesuits were suspected of
leaning to Confucianism it would have been quite improper to entrust to
them the formation of a secular clergy.
When Verbiest wrote home for help, numbers of volunteers left Europe for
China. Louis XIV was especially enthusiastic in furthering the movement,
and, among other favors he conferred the title of "Fellows of the
Academy of Science and Royal Mathematicians" on six Jesuits of Paris,
and sent them off to Pekin. But when they arrived, Verbiest was dead.
They were in time, however, for his funeral, which took place on March
11, 1688, with the same honors that had been accorded to Ricci and
Schall. He was laid to rest at their side. His successors began their
work by establishing what was called the French Mission of China, which
lasted until the suppression of the Society. The great difficulty in
sending missionaries thither by sea had long exercised the minds of the
superiors of the Society, especially after a startling announcement was
made by Father Couplet, who, after passing many years in China, had
returned home, shattered in health and altogether unable to continue his
work. He said that, after a very careful count, he had found that of the
six hundred Jesuits who had attempted to enter China from the time that
Ruggieri and Ricci had succeeded in gaining an entrance there, as many
as four hundred had either died of sickness on the way or had been lost
at sea. De Rhodes had shown that an overland route was possible from
India to Europe; the lay-brother Goes had succeeded in getting to China
from the land of the Great Mogul, Gruber had reversed the process, and
in 1685 an attempt was made by Father Avril, to reach it by the way of
Russia, but he failed.
Avril's account of his journey has been shockingly "done out of French"
by a translator who prudently withheld his name. It was "published in
London, at Maidenhead, over against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet
Street." Its date is 1693. From it we learn that Father Avril started
from Marseilles and made for Civita Vecchia, after paying his respects
in Rome to Father General de Noyelle, he went to Leghorn, where he took
ship on a vessel that was convoyed by a man-of-war called the
"Thundering Jupiter." Passing by Capraia, Elba, Sardinia, and nearly
wrecked off the "Coast of Candy," his ship dropped anchor in the Lerneca
roadstead after three days' voyage, but without the "Thundering
Jupiter." It was still at sea. He touched at Cyprus and Alexandretta,
then proceeded to Aleppo, crossing the plain of Antioch in a caravan.
He was fleeced by an Armenian who professed to be a friend of the
Jesuits, then he crossed the Tigris or Tiger, and arrived at Erzerum in
time for an earthquake. Continuing his journey through the intervening
territory to what he calls the "Caspian Lake", he finally reached
Moscow, after being almost burned to death on the Volga, when his ship
took fire. At Moscow he was welcomed by the German Jesuits who had a
house there, for Prince Gallichin (Galitzin) was then prime minister. He
was soon bidden to depart, and crossed a part of Muscovy, Lithuania and
White Russia, reaching Warsaw on March 12, 1686. It was eighteen months
since he had left Leghorn. He made effort after effort to get back to
Muscovy, but in vain. Ambassadors and princes and even Louis XIV found
the Czar obdurate, and so, after two years of unsuccessful endeavor,
Avril arrived at Constantinople, after being imprisoned by the Turks on
his way thither. Finally, he reached Marseilles, having proved, at
least, that the road through Russia would have to be abandoned; hence,
it was determined to make those overland journeys in the future through
the territory of the Shah of Persia.
CHAPTER IX
BATTLE OF THE BOOKS
Aquaviva and the Spanish Opposition--Vitelleschi--The "Monita
Secreta"; Morlin--Roding--"Historia Jesuitici Ordinis"--
"Jesuiticum Jejunium"--"Speculum Jesuiticum"--Pasquier--Mariana
--"Mysteries of the Jesuits"--"The Jesuit Cabinet"--"Jesuit
Wolves"--"Teatro Jesuítico"--"Morale Pratique des Jésuites"--
"Conjuratio Sulphurea"--"Lettres Provinciales"--"Causeries du
Lundi" and Bourdaloue--Prohibition of publication by Louis XIV--
Pastoral of the Bishops of Sens--Santarelli--Escobar--Anti-Coton
--"Les Descouvertes"--Norbert.
Father Claudius Aquaviva died on January 31, 1615, after a generalship
of thirty-four years. To him are to be ascribed not only all of the
great enterprises inaugurated since 1580, but, to a very considerable
extent, the spirit by which the Society has been actuated up to the
present time and which, it is to be hoped, it will always retain. The
marvellous skill and the serene equanimity with which he guided the
Society through the perils which it encountered from kings and princes,
from heretics and heathens, from great ecclesiastical tribunals and
powerful religious organizations, and most of all from the machinations
of disloyal members of the Institute, entitle him to the enthusiastic
love and admiration of every Jesuit and the unchallenged right to the
title which he bears of the "Saviour of the Society." Far from being
rigid and severe, as he is sometimes accused of being, he was amazingly
meek and magnanimously merciful. The story about forty professed fathers
having been dismissed in consequence of their connection with the
sedition of Vásquez is a myth. The entire number of plotters on this
occasion did not exceed twenty-eight, and only a few of those were
expelled. In any case, whatever penalty was meted out to them was the
act of the congregation and not of Aquaviva. Indeed, Aquaviva's methods
are in violent contrast with those of Francis Xavier, who gave the power
of expulsion to even local Superiors, and we almost regret that Xavier
had not to deal with his fellow-countrymen at this juncture. It must
also be borne in mind that the great exodus from the Society which
occurred in Portugal antedated Aquaviva's time, and was due to the
mistaken methods of government by Simon, Rodriguez.
The congregation convened after his death met on November 5, 1615, and
the majority of its members must have been astounded to find the Spanish
claim to the generalship still advocated. Mutio Vitelleschi an Italian,
however, was most in evidence at that time; he was forty-five years old,
and had been already rector of the English College, provincial both of
Naples and Rome, and later assistant for Italy. As in all of those
positions of trust he had displayed a marvellous combination of
sweetness and strength which had endeared him to his subjects, the
possibility of his election, at this juncture, afforded a well-grounded
hope of a glorious future for the Society. Nevertheless some of the
Spanish delegates determined to defeat him, and with that in view they
addressed themselves to the ambassadors of France and Spain, to enlist
their aid; but the shrewd politicians took the measure of the plotters,
and, while piously commending them for their religious zeal and
patriotism, politely refused their co-operation. That should have
sufficed as a rebuke, but prompted by their unwise zeal they approached
the Pope himself and assured him that Vitelleschi was altogether unfit
for the position. The Pontiff listened to them graciously and bade them
be of good heart, for, if Vitelleschi were half what they said he was,
there could be no possibility of his election. The balloting took place
on November 15, and Mutio was chosen by thirty-nine out of seventy-five
votes. The margin was not a large one, and shows how nearly the
conspirators had succeeded. To-day an appeal to laymen in such a matter
would entail immediate expulsion.
Vitelleschi's vocation to the Society was a marked one. When only a boy
of eleven, he was dreaming of being associated with it, and before he
had finished his studies he bound himself by a vow to ask for
admittance, and, if accepted, to distribute his inheritance to the poor.
But as the Vitelleschi formed an important section of the Roman
nobility, such aspirations did not fit in with the father's ambition for
his son, and the boy was bidden to dismiss all thought of it. He was a
gentle and docile lad, but he possessed also a decided strength of
character, and like the Little Flower of Jesus in our own times, he
betook himself to the Pope to lay the matter before him. The father
finally yielded, and on August 15, 1583, young Mutio, after going to
Communion with his mother at the Gesù, hurried off to lay his request
before Father Aquaviva. His great desire was to go to England, which was
just then waging its bloody war against the Faith, but, as with Aquaviva
himself, his ignorance of the English language deprived him of the crown
of martyrdom.
Crétineau-Joly is of the opinion that the generalate of Vitelleschi was
_monotone de bonheur_. Whether that be so or not, it certainly had its
share in the monotony of calumny which has been meted out to the Society
from its birth. Thus, the beginning of Vitelleschi's term of office
coincided with the publication of the famous "Monita secreta" which,
with the exception of the "Lettres provinciales" is perhaps the
cleverest piece of literary work ever levelled against the Society. The
compliment is not a very great one, for nearly all the other books
obtained their vogue by being extravagant distortions of the truth. But
good or bad they never failed to appear.
The first in order was the diatribe of Morlin in 1568. This was a little
before Vitelleschi's time. It was directed against the schools, and
denounces the professors for having intercourse with the devil,
practising sorcery, initiating their pupils in the black art, anointing
them with some mysterious and diabolical compound which gave the masters
control of their scholars after long years of separation. "God's
gospel," they said, "was powerless before those creatures of the devil
whom hell had vomited forth to poison the whole German empire and
especially to do away with the Evangelicals who were the especial object
of Jesuitical hatred." The immediate expulsion of the "sorcerers" was
demanded, and even their burning at the stake, for "they not only deal
in witchcraft themselves, but teach it to others, and impart to their
pupils the methods of getting rid of their foes by poisons, incantations
and the like." It was asserted that "those who send their boys to be
educated by them are throwing their offspring into the jaws of wolves;
or like the Hebrews of old immolating them to Moloch."
In 1575 Roding, a professor of Heidelberg dedicated a book to the
elector, in which he denounces the Jesuit schools as impious and
abominable, and warns parents "not to give aid to the Kingdom of Satan
by trusting those who were enemies of Christianity and of God." "They
are wild beasts," he said, "who ought to be chased out of our cities.
Though outwardly modest, simple, mortified and urbane, they are in
reality furies and atheists--far worse indeed than atheists and
idolaters. The children confided to them are constrained to join with
their swinish instructors in grunting at the Divine Majesty" (Janssen,
VIII, 339). "They are not only poisoners but conspirators and assassins.
Their purpose is to slay all those who have accepted the Confession of
Augsburg. They have been seen in processions of armed men, disguised as
courtiers, dressed in silks, with gold chains around their necks, going
from one end of Germany to the other. They caused the St. Bartholomew
massacre; they killed King Sebastian; in Peru, they plunged red hot
irons into the bodies of the Indians to make them reveal where they hid
their treasures. In thirty years the Popes killed 900,000 people, the
Jesuits 2,000,000; the cellars of all the colleges in Germany are packed
with soldiers; and Canisius married an abbess." This latter story went
around Germany a hundred times and was widely believed.
The chief storehouse of all these inventions in Germany was the
"Historia jesuitici ordinis," which was published in 1593, and was
attributed by the editor, Polycarp Leiser, to an ex-novice, named Elias
Hasenmüller, who was then six years dead--a circumstance which ought to
have invalidated the testimony for ordinary people, but which did not
prevent the "Historia" from being an immense success. Its publication
was said to be miraculous, for it was given out as certain that any
member of the Order who would reveal its secrets was to be tortured,
poisoned or roasted alive. It was only by a special intervention of the
Lord that Hasenmüller escaped. The readers of the "Historia" were
informed that the Order was founded by the devil, who was the spiritual
father of St. Ignatius. Omitting the immoralities detailed in the
volume, "the Jesuits were professional assassins, wild boars, robbers,
traitors, snakes, vipers, etc. In their private lives they were
lecherous goats, filthy pigs." Even Carlyle says this of St.
Ignatius--"The Pope had given them full power to commit every excess. If
we knew them better we would spit in their faces, instead of sending
them boys to be educated. Indeed it would not be well to trust them with
hogs." There were other productions of the same nature, such as the
"Jesuiticum jejunium" and "Speculum jesuiticum." Some of these
"histories" denounced Father Gretser as "a vile scribbler, an open
heretic and an adulterer who carried the devil around in a bottle."
Bellarmine was "an Epicurean of the worst type, who had already killed
1642 victims; 562 of whom were married women. He used magic and poison,
and pitched the corpses of his victims into the Tiber. He died the death
of the damned, and his ghost was seen in the air in broad daylight
flying away on a winged horse," and so on.
Etienne Pasquier was the leader of the French pamphleteers. It was he
who had acted as advocate against the Jesuits of the College of
Clermont. The _plaidoyer_ presented to the court on that occasion was
embodied in his "Recherches," and, in 1602, when he was seventy-three
years of age, he published "Le Catéchisme des jésuites, ou examen de
leur doctrine." He finds that the Order, besides being Calvinistic, is
also spotted with Judaism. Ignatius was worse than Luther or Julian the
Apostate; he was a sort of Don Quixote, who laughed at the vows he made
at Montmartre; he was a trickster, a glutton, a demon incarnate, an ass.
The first chapter in book II is entitled "Anabaptism of the Jesuits in
their vow of blind obedience." Chapter 2 is on the execution of the
Jesuit, Crichton, for attempting to kill the Scotch chancellor, of which
he had been accused by "Robert de Bruce." In chapter 3, a Mr. Parry is
sent by the Jesuits to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. In chapter 4,
another attempt is made by the same person, in 1597, etc. Father Garasse
wrote an answer to the book, and though he found no difficulty in
showing its absurdities, yet his language was rough and abusive and
quite out of keeping with the dignity of his state; besides, it centred
public attention on him to such extent that later when, three pamphlets
with which he had had nothing to do were written against Cardinal
Richelieu, he was accused of being the author of them and had to swear
in the most solemn manner that he knew nothing whatever about them. This
charge against Garasse came near alienating Louis XIII from the Society.
Much harm had also been done by Mariana's alleged doctrine on regicide.
On the face of it, the book could not have been seditious, for it was
written as an instruction for the heir of Philip II, and it is
inconceivable that an autocrat, such as he was, should not only have put
a book teaching regicide in the hands of his son, but should have paid
for its publication. As a matter of fact, the king conjured up by
Mariana as a possible victim of assassination is a monster who could
have scarcely existed. In other circumstances the book would have passed
unnoticed, but it served as a pretext to attack the Society by ascribing
Mariana's doctrine to the whole Society.
Now, Mariana never was and never could be a representative of the
Society, for: first sixteen years before the objectionable book
attracted notice in France, namely in 1584, Mariana had been solemnly
condemned by the greatest assembly of the Society, the general
congregation, as an unworthy son; a pestilential member who should be
cut off from the body, and his expulsion was ordered. He was one of the
leaders of the band of Spanish conspirators who did all in their power
to destroy the Society. Secondly, his expulsion did not take place,
possibly because of outside political influence like that of Philip II
and the Inquisition. Nevertheless in 1605, that is five years before the
French flurry, he wrote another book entitled, "De defectibus
Societatis" (i. e. the Weak Points of the Society), which was condemned
as involving the censure of the papal bull "Ascendente Domino." Instead
of destroying the MS., as he should have done, if he had a spark of
loyalty in him, he kept it, and when in 1609, he was arrested and
imprisoned by the Spanish authorities for his book on Finance which
seemed to reflect on the government, that MS. was seized, and
subsequently served as a strong weapon against the Society. Why should
such a man be cited as the representative of a body from which he was
ordered to be expelled and which he had attempted to destroy?
Another harmful publication was the "Monita secreta," which represented
the Jesuit as a sweet-voiced intriguer; a pious grabber of inheritances
for the greater glory of God; enjoying a vast influence with conspicuous
personages; working underhand in politics, and revealing himself in
every clime, invariably the same, and always monstrously rich. The
"Monita" appeared in Poland in the year 1612. It was printed in a place
not to be found on any map: namely Notobirga, which suggests
"Notaburgh," or "Not a City." It purported to be based on a Spanish
manuscript, discovered in the secret archives of the Society at Padua.
It was translated into Latin, and was then sent to Vienna, and
afterwards to Cracow, where it was given to the public. It consists of
sixteen short chapters, of which we give a few sample titles: "I. How
the Society should act to get a new foundation. II. How to win and keep
the friendship of princes and important personages. III. How to act
with people who wield political influence or those who, even if not
rich, may be serviceable. VI. How to win over wealthy widows. VII. How
to induce them to dispose of their property. VIII. How to induce them to
enter religious communities, or at least to make them devout."
To achieve all this the Jesuits were to wear outwardly an appearance of
poverty in their houses; the sources of revenue were to be concealed;
purchases of property were always to be made by dummies; rich widows
were to be provided with adroit confessors; their family physicians were
to be the friends of the Fathers; their daughters were to be sent to
convents, their sons to the Society, etc. The vices of prominent
personages were to be indulged; quarrels were to be entered into, so as
to get the credit of reconciliation; the servants of the rich were to be
bribed; confessors were to be very sweet; distinguished personages were
never to be publicly reprehended, etc., etc. As the phraseology of these
"Monita secreta" was a clever imitation of the official document of the
Society known as the "Monita generalia," the forgery scored a perfect
success in being accepted as genuine. It was such a cleverly devised
instrument of warfare in a country like Poland, for instance, with its
mixed Protestant and Catholic population, that it would be sure to
strengthen the Protestants, and, at the same time, shame the Catholics,
by discrediting the Jesuits, who were then in great favor. It was
anonymous, but was finally traced to Jerome Zahorowski, who had been
dismissed from the Society. When charged by the Inquisition with being
the author, he denied it, and said he had no complaint against his
former associates. The book was put on the Index, and Zahorowski's
declaration that he was not the author was believed. Later, however, it
was publicly declared by those who had the means of knowing the facts
that he was really the guilty man. Indeed, just before he died, he
confessed the authorship and bitterly regretted the crime he had
committed. He recanted all that he had said in the book, but it was too
late; the mischief had been done and the evil work has continued. There
were twenty-two editions of it, issued during the seventeenth century,
and it was translated into many languages. Its title was changed from
time to time and it was called: "The Mysteries of the Jesuits;" "Arcana
of the Society;" "Jesuit Machiavelism;" "The Jesuit Cabinet;" "Jesuit
Wolves;" "Jesuit Intrigues," and so on. There appeared also a huge
publication of six or seven bulky volumes entitled "Annales des
soi-disants Jésuites," which is an encyclopedia of all the accusations
ever made against the Society.
Another ex-Jesuit named Jarrige perpetrated the libel known as "The
Jesuits on the Scaffold, for their Crimes in the Province of Guyenne."
He, too, like Zahorowski, when he came to his senses, repented and tried
ineffectually to make amends. The "Teatro jesuítico" was also a source
from which the assailants of the Society drew their ammunition. It was
condemned by the Inquisition on January 28, 1655, and the Archbishop of
Seville burned it publicly. Arnauld borrowed from it most of his
material for the "Morale pratique des Jésuites," and to give it
importance, he ascribed its authorship to the Bishop of Malaga,
Ildephonse of St. Thomas. Whereupon the bishop Wrote to the Pope
complaining that "an infamous libel, unworthy of the light of day, and
composed in the midst of the darkness of hell and bearing the title:
'Morale pratique des Jésuites' has fallen into my hands, and I am said
to be the author of it,--a feat which would have been impossible, for it
was published in 1654, when I was yet a student, and in ill-health."
Although this solemn denial was published all through Europe, Pascal and
his friends continued to impute it to the bishop, according to
Crétineau-Joly; but Brou says that the mistake or the deceit was
admitted. The book, however, was not withdrawn, and continued to do its
evil work.
It was the Gunpowder Plot that inflicted on the English language a great
number of absurdities about Jesuits. King James I of England led the way
by writing a book with the curious title: "Conjuratio sulphurea, quibus
ea rationibus et authoribus coeperit, maturuerit, apparuerit; una cum
reorum examine," that is "The sulphureous or hellish conjuration, for
what reasons and by what authors it was begun, matured and brought to
light; together with the examination of the culprits." He also published
a "Defence of the Oath of Allegiance" which he had exacted of Catholics.
This elucubration was called: "Triplici nodo triplex cuneus," which
probably means "A triple pry for the triple knot." In it he charges the
Pope with sending aid to the conspirators "his henchmen the Jesuits who
confessed that they were its authors and designers. Their leader died
confessing the crime, and his accomplices admitted their guilt by taking
flight."
Such a charge formulated by a king against the Sovereign Pontiff aroused
all Europe, and Bellarmine under the name of "Matthæus Tortus" descended
into the arena. Dr. Andrews replied with clumsy humor by another book
entitled, "Tortura Torti;" that is "The Tortures of Tortus," for which
he was made a bishop. Then Bellarmine retorted in turn and revealed the
fact that his majesty had written a personal letter to two cardinals,
himself and Aldobrandini, asking them to forward a request to the Pope
to have a certain Scotchman, who was Bishop of Vaison in France, made a
cardinal, "so as to expedite the transaction of business with the Holy
See." The letter was signed: "Beatitudinis vestræ obsequentissimus
filius J. R." (Your Holiness' most obsequious son, James the King.) This
sent James to cover and now quite out of humor with himself, because of
the storm aroused in England by the disclosure of his duplicity, he
handed over new victims to the pursuivants, "so that," as he said, "his
subjects might make profit of them," that is by the confiscation of
estates. He then got one of his secretaries to take upon himself the
odium of the letter to Bellarmine, by saying that he had signed the
king's name to it. Every one, of course, saw through the falsehood.
A most unexpected and interesting defender of Father Garnet, who had
been put to death by James, appeared at this juncture. He was no less a
personage than Antoine Arnauld, the famous Jansenist, who was at that
very moment tearing Garnet's brethren to pieces in France. "No
Catholic," he said, "no matter how antagonistic he might be to Jesuits
in general, would ever accuse Garnet of such a crime, and no Protestant
would do so unless blinded by religious hate" (Crétineau-Joly, III, 98).
James I and Bellarmine came into collision again on another point not,
however, in such a personal fashion.
A Scotch lawyer named Barclay had written a book on the authority of
kings, in which he claimed that their power had no limitations whatever;
at least, he went to the very limit of absolutism. Strange to say,
Barclay, who was a Catholic, had Jesuit affiliations. He was professor
of law in the Jesuit college of Pont-à-Mousson, in France, where his
uncle, Father Hay, was rector. For some reason or another he went over
to England shortly after the accession of James I, whom he greatly
admired, possibly because he was a Scot. There is no other reason
visible to the naked eye. He was received with extraordinary honor at
court and offered very lucrative offices if he would declare himself an
Anglican. He spurned the bribe and returned to France where he resumed
his office of teaching. Cardinal Bellarmine then appeared, refuting
Barclay's ideas of kingship. The peculiarity of Bellarmine's work was
that it had nothing new in it. It was merely a collation of old
authorities, chiefly French jurists who cut down the royal power
considerably. This threw the Paris parliament into a frenzy, for they
had all along been persuading their fellow countrymen that the autocracy
they claimed for their monarchs was the immemorial tradition of France.
To hide their confusion, they ascribed to the illustrious cardinal all
sorts of doctrines, such as regicide and the right of seizure of private
property by the Pope, and they demanded not only the condemnation but
the public burning of the book.
The matter now assumed an international importance. Bellarmine was a
conspicuous figure in the Church, and his work had been approved by the
Pope, whose intimate friend he was. To condemn him meant to condemn the
Sovereign Pontiff, and would thus necessarily be a declaration of a
schism from Rome. Probably that is what these premature Gallicans were
aiming at. Ubaldini, the papal nuncio, immediately warned the queen
regent, Mary de'Medici, that if such an outrage were committed, he would
hand in his papers and leave Paris. Parliament fought fiercely to have
its way, and the battle raged with fury for a long time until, finally,
Mary saw the peril of the situation and quashed the parliamentary decree
which had already been printed and was being circulated.
In the midst of it all, the theory of Suárez on the "Origin of Power"
came into the hands of the parliamentarians, and that added fuel to the
flame; Ubaldini wrote to Rome on June 17, 1614, that "the lawyer Servin,
who was like a demon in his hatred of Rome, made a motion in parliament,
first, that the work of Suárez should be burned before the door of the
three Jesuit houses in Paris, in presence of two fathers of each house;
secondly, that an official condemnation of it should be entered on the
records; thirdly, that the provincial, the superior of the Paris
residence and four other fathers should be cited before the parliament
and made to anathematize the doctrine of Suárez, and fourthly, if they
refused, that all the members of the Society should be expelled from
France." The measure was not passed.
The book which did most harm to the Society in the public mind was the
"Lettres provinciales" by Pascal, though the "Lettres" were not intended
primarily or exclusively as an attack on the Jesuits. Their purpose was
to make the people forget or condone the dishonesty of the Jansenists in
denying that the five propositions, censured by the Holy See, were
really contained in the "Augustinus" of Jansenius. At the suggestion of
Arnauld, Pascal undertook to show that other supposedly orthodox
writers, including the Jesuits, had advanced doctrines which merited but
had escaped censure. The letters appeared serially and were entitled:
"Les Provinciales, ou Lettres écrites par Louis de Montalte à un
Provincial de ses amis, et aux RR. PP. Jésuites, sur la morale et la
politique de ces Pères." They took the world by storm, first because
they revealed a literary genius of the first order in the youthful
Pascal, who until then had been engrossed in the study of mathematics,
and who was also, at the time of writing, in a shattered state of
health. Secondly, because they blasted the reputation of a great
religious order, and reproduced in exquisite language the atrocious
calumnies that had been poured out on the world by the "Monita secreta,"
the "Historia jesuitici ordinis," Pasquier's "Catechism" and the rest.
The doctrinal portion of the letters was evidently not Pascal's; that
was supplied to him by Arnauld and Quinet, for Pascal had neither the
time nor the training necessary even to read the deep theological
treatises which he quotes and professes to have read.
To be accused of teaching lax morality by those who were intimately
associated with and supported by such an indescribable prelate as the
Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, Gondi, was particularly galling to the
French Jesuits, and unfortunately it had the effect of provoking them to
answer the charges. "In doing so," says Crétineau-Joly, "the Jesuits
killed themselves;" and Brou, in "Les Jésuites et la légende," is of the
opinion that "more harm was done to the Society by these injudicious and
incompetent defenders than by Pascal himself. It would have been better
to have said nothing." On the other hand, Petit de Julleville, in his
"Histoire de la langue et de la littérature française," tells us that
one of these Jesuit champions induced Pascal to discontinue his attacks,
just at the moment that the world was rubbing its hands with glee and
expecting the fiercest kind of an onslaught. "I wish," said Morel,
addressing himself to Pascal, "that after a sincere reconciliation with
the Jesuits, you would turn your pen against the heretics, the
unbelievers, the libertines, and the corruptors of morals." The fact is
that although Pascal did not seek a reconciliation with the Jesuits, he
suddenly and unaccountably stopped writing against them; and in 1657 he
actually turned his pen against the libertines of France, as he had
been asked (IV, 604). Mère Angélique, Arnauld's sister, is also credited
with having had something to do with this cessation of hostilities, when
she wrote: "Silence would be better and more agreeable to God who would
be more quickly appeased by tears and by penance than by eloquence which
amuses more people than it converts."
Perhaps the entrance of the great Bourdaloue on the scene contributed
something to this change of attitude on the part of the Jansenist. As
court preacher, he had it in his power to refute the calumnies of
Arnauld and Pascal, and he availed himself of the opportunity with
marvellous power and effect. In the "Causeries du Lundi" Sainte-Beuve,
who favored the Jansenists, writes: "In saying that the Jesuits made no
direct and categorical denial to the _Provinciales_, until forty years
later, when Daniel took up his pen, we forget that long and continual
refutation by Bourdaloue in his public sermons in which there is nothing
lacking except the proper names; but his hearers and his contemporaries
in general, who were familiar with the controversies and were partisans
of either side, easily supplied these. Thus in his Sermon on 'Lying' he
paints that vice with most exquisite skill, adding touch after touch,
till it stands out in all its hideousness. As he speaks, you see it
before you with its subtle sinuosities from the moment it begins the
attack, under the pretence of an amicable censorship, up to the moment
when the complete calumny is reiterated under the guise of friendship
and religion." The following extract is an example of this method.
"One of the abuses of the age," says Bourdaloue, "is the consecration of
falsehood and its transformation into virtue; yea, even into one of the
greatest of virtues: zeal for the glory of God. 'We must humiliate those
people;' they say, 'it will be helpful to the Church to blast their
reputation and diminish their credit.' On this principle they form their
conscience, and there is nothing they will not allow themselves when
actuated by such a charming motive. So, they exaggerate; they poison;
they distort; they relate things by halves; they utter a thousand
untruths; they confound the general with the particular; what one has
said badly, they ascribe to all; and what all have said well they
attribute to none. And they do all this--for the glory of God. This
forming of their intention justifies everything; and though it would not
suffice to excuse an equivocation, it is more than sufficient in their
eyes to justify a calumny when they are persuaded that it is all for the
service of God."
"If Bourdaloue," continues Sainte-Beuve, "while detailing, in this
exquisite fashion, the vice of lying, had not before his mind Pascal and
his _Provinciales_, and if he was not painting, feature by feature,
certain personalities whom his hearers recognized; and if while he was
doing it, they were not shocked, even though they could not help
admiring the artist, then there are no portraits in Saint-Simon and La
Bruyère.... It would not be hard to prove that the preaching of
Bourdaloue for thirty years was a long and powerful refutation of the
_Provinciales_, an eloquent and daily drive at Pascal."
It must have been an immense consolation for the Jesuits of those days,
wounded as they were to the quick by the misrepresentation and calumnies
of writers like Arnauld, Pascal, Nicole and others, to have the saintly
Bourdaloue, the ideal Jesuit, occupying the first place in the
public eye, thus defending them. Bourdaloue had entered the Society at
fifteen, and hence was absolutely its product. He was a man of prayer
and study, and when not in the pulpit he was in the confessional or at
the bedside of the sick and dying poor. He was naturally quick and
impulsive, but he had been trained to absolute self-control; he was even
gay and merry in conversation, and his eyes sparkled with pleasure as he
spoke. The story that he closed them while preaching is, of course,
nonsense, and the picture that represents him thus was taken from a
death masque. He labored uninterruptedly till he was seventy-two and
died on May 13, 1704. Very fittingly his last Mass was on Pentecost
Sunday.
An excellent modern discussion of the Letters appeared in the Irish
quarterly "Studies" of September, 1920. The writer, the noted author
Hilaire Belloc, reminds his readers of certain important facts. First,
casuistry is not chicanery nor is it restricted to ecclesiastics; it is
employed by lawyers, physicians, scientific, and even business men, in
considering conditions which are without a precedent and have not yet
reached the ultimate tribunal which is to settle the matter. Secondly,
as in the discussion of ecclesiastical "cases," the terms employed are
technical, just as are those of law, medicine, science; and as the
language is Latin, no one is competent to interpret the verdict arrived
at, unless he is conversant both with theology and the Latin language.
"I doubt," he says, "if there is any man living in England to-day--of
all those glibly quoting the name of Pascal against the Church--who
could tell you what the _Mohatra_ Contract was"--one of the subjects
dragged into these "Lettres." Thirdly, the "Lettres" are not so much an
assault on the Society of Jesus, as on the whole system of moral
theology of the Catholic Church. There are eighteen letters in all, and
it is not until the fifth that the Jesuits are assailed. The attack is
kept up until the tenth and then dropped. From the thousands of
decisions advanced by a vast number of professors 'regular and secular'
Pascal brings forward only those of the Jesuits; and of the many
thousands of "cases" discussed he selects only one hundred and
thirty-two, which, if the repetitions be eliminated, must be reduced to
eighty-nine.
Of these eighty-nine cases three are clearly misquotations--for Pascal
was badly briefed. Many others are put so as to suggest what the casuist
never said, that is a special case is made a general rule of morals.
Many more are frivolous, and others are purely domestic controversy upon
points of Catholic practice which cannot concern the opponents of the
Jesuits, and in which they cannot pretend an active interest on Pascal's
or the Society's side. When the whole list has been gone through there
remain fourteen cases of importance. In eight of these, relating to
duelling and the risk of homicide, the opinions of some casuists were
subsequently, at one time or another, condemned by the Church (seven of
the decisions had declared the liceity of duelling under very
exceptional circumstances, when no other means were available to protect
one's honor or fortune). Pascal was right in condemning the opinions,
but was quite wrong in presenting them as normal decisions, given under
ordinary circumstances by Jesuits generally. Three of the remaining six
decisions have never been censured; but Pascal by his tricky method of
presenting them out of their context has caused the solutions to be
confused with certain condemned propositions.
A just analysis leaves of the one hundred and thirty-two decisions
exactly three--one on simony, one on the action of a judge in receiving
presents, and the third on usury--all three of which are doubtful and
matters for discussion. There is besides these, the doctrine of
equivocation, which is a favorite shaft against the Society. Of this
Belloc says: "This specifically condemned form of equivocation (that
is, equivocation involving a private reservation of meaning), moreover,
was not particularly Jesuit. It had been debated at length, and
favorably, long before the Jesuit Order came into existence, and within
the great casuist authorities of that Order there were wide differences
of opinion upon it. Azor, for instance, condemns instances which Sánchez
allows. Of all this conflict Pascal allows you to hear nothing."
Finally, it may be noted that the "Provincial Letters" were not a plea
for truth, but a device to distract the public mind from the chicanery
of the Jansenists, who, when the famous "five propositions" were
condemned, pretended that they were not in the "Augustinus" written by
Jansenius.
Perhaps the commonest libel formulated against the Society is the
accusation that it is the teacher, if not the author, of the immoral
maxim: "the end justifies the means", which signifies that an action,
bad in itself, becomes good if performed for a good purpose. If the
Society ever taught this doctrine, at least it cannot be charged with
having the monopoly of it. Thus, for instance, the great Protestant
empire which is the legitimate progeny of Martin Luther's teaching,
proclaimed to the world that the diabolical "frightfulness" which it
employed in the late war was prompted solely by its desire for peace. On
the other side of the Channel, an Anglican prelate informed his
contemporaries that "the British Empire could not be carried on for a
week, on the principles of the 'Sermon on the Mount'" (The Month, Vol.
106, p. 255). The same might be predicated of numberless other powers
and principalities past and present. The ruthless measures resorted to
in business and politics for the suppression of rivalry are a matter of
common knowledge. Finally, every unbiased mind will concede that the
persistent use of poisonous gas by the foes of the Society is nothing
else than a carrying out of the maxim of "the end justifies the means."
It has been proved times innumerable that this odious doctrine was never
taught by the Society, and the average Jesuit regards each recrudescence
of the charge as an insufferable annoyance, and usually takes no notice
of it; but, in our own times, the bogey has presented itself in such an
unusual guise, that the event has to be set down as one more item of
domestic history. It obtruded itself on the public in Germany in 1903,
when a secular priest, Canon Dasbach, an ardent friend of the Society,
offered a prize of 2000 florins to any one who would find a defense of
the doctrine in any Jesuit publication. The challenge was accepted by
Count von Hoensbroech, who after failing in his controversy with the
canon, availed himself of a side issue to bring the question before the
civil courts of Trèves and Cologne.
Apparently von Hoensbroech was well qualified for his task. He was an
ex-Jesuit and had lived for years in closest intimacy with some of the
most distinguished moralists and theologians of the Order: Lehmkuhl,
Cathrein, Pesch and others, in the house of studies, at Exaeten in
Holland; so that the world rubbed its hands in glee, and waited for
revelations. He was, however, seriously hampered by some of his own
earlier utterances. Thus, when he left the Society in 1893, he wrote in
"Mein Austritt aus dem Jesuitenorden," as follows: "The moral teachings,
under which members of the Society are trained, are beyond reproach, and
the charges so constantly brought against Jesuit moralists are devoid of
any foundation." Over and above this, he was somewhat disqualified as a
witness, inasmuch as he not only had left the Society but had
apostatized from the Faith, and, though a priest, had married a wife; he
was, moreover, notorious as a rancorous Lutheran (Civiltà Cattolica,
an. 56, p. 8.) But the lure of the florins led him on, only to have the
case thrown out by one court, as beyond its jurisdiction, and decided
against him in the other; the verdict was also heartily endorsed by
conspicuous Protestants and Freethinkers. Hoensbroech is dead, but the
spectre of "the end justifying the means" still stalks the earth, and
may be heard from at any moment.
Pascal's "Provincial Letters" were not the only source of worry for the
Jesuits in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Many other
calumnious publications appeared, such as "La morale des jésuites,"
"Disquisitions," "Nullités" etc., all of which had the single purpose of
poisoning the public mind. The battle continued until an enforced peace
was obtained by a joint order of the Pope and king prohibiting any
further issues of that character from the press. That, however, did not
check the determination of the Jansenists to crush the Society in other
ways. Thus, as early as 1650, the Archbishop of Sens, who was strongly
Jansenistic, forbade the Jesuits to hear confessions in his diocese at
Easter-time, and three years later, he declared from the pulpit that the
theology of the Jesuits was taken from the Koran rather than from the
Gospels, and that their philosophy was more pagan than Christian. He
called for their expulsion as schismatics, heretics and worse, and
declared that all confessions made to them were invalid and
sacrilegious. Finally, he proceeded to excommunicate them with bell,
book and candle. They withdrew from his diocese but were brought back by
the next bishop a quarter of a century later.
Another enemy of the Society was Cardinal Le Camus of Grenoble, who
forbade them to teach or preach; and when Saint-Just, who had been
fifteen years rector of the college, complained of it to some friends,
he was suspended and accused of a grievous crime of which he was
absolutely innocent. When he brought the matter to court, Father General
Oliva censured him for doing so and removed him from office. Santarelli,
an Italian Jesuit, launched a book on the public which produced a great
excitement. He proposed to prove that the Pope had the power of deposing
kings who were guilty of certain crimes, and of absolving subjects from
their allegiance. In Paris it was interpreted as advocating regicide,
and was immediately ascribed to the whole Society; and it was condemned
by the Sorbonne. Richelieu was especially wrought up about it. Poor
Father Coton, the king's confessor, who was grievously ill at the time,
almost collapsed at the news of its publication. The author had not
perceived that the politics of the world were no longer those of the
Middle Ages.
The "Manual of Cases of Conscience" of Antonio Escobar y Mendoza, the
Spanish theologian, furnished infinite material for the Jansenists of
France to blacken the name of the Society. Necessarily, every enormity
that human nature can be guilty of is discussed in such treatises, but
it would be just as absurd to charge their authors with writing them for
the purpose of inculcating vice, as it would be to accuse medical
practitioners of propagating disease by their clinics and dissecting
rooms. The purpose of both is to heal and prevent, not to communicate
disease, whether it be of the soul or body. In both cases, the books
that treat of such matters are absolutely restricted to the use of the
profession, and as an additional precaution, in the matter of moral
theology, the treatises are written in Latin, so that they cannot be
understood by people who have nothing to do with such disagreeable and
sometimes disgusting topics. To accuse the men who condemned themselves
to the study of such subjects solely that they might lift depraved
humanity out of the depths into which it descends, is an outrage.
This literary war crossed the ocean to the French possessions of Canada,
and much of the religious trouble that disturbed the colony from the
beginning may be traced to the editorial activity of the Jansenists of
France. Thus, when Brébeuf, Charles Lalemant and Massé came up the St.
Lawrence, after a terrible voyage across the Atlantic, they were
actually forbidden to land. The pamphlet known as "Anti-Coton" had been
distributed and read by the few colonists who were then on the Rock of
Quebec, and they would have nothing to do with the associates of a man
who like Coton, was represented as rejoicing in the assassination of
Henry IV. It did not matter that Father Coton and the king were not only
intimate but most affectionate friends, and that assassination in such
circumstances would be inconceivable; that it was asserted in print was
enough to cause these three glorious men, who were coming to die for the
Catholic Faith and for France, to be forbidden to land at Quebec. This
anti-Coton manifestation in the early days of the colony was only a
prelude to the antagonism that runs all through early Canadian history.
It was kept up by a clique of writers in France, chief of whom were the
Jansenist Abbés Bernou and Renaudot. Their contributions may be found in
the voluminous collection known as Margry's "Découvertes," which Parkman
induced the United States government to print in the language in which
they were written. They teem with the worst kind of libels against the
Society. Some of them pretend to have been written in America, but are
so grotesque that the forgery is palpable. Indeed, among them is a
letter from Bernou to Renaudot which says: "Get La Salle to give me
some points and I will write the Relation."
The missionary labors of de Nobili, de Britto, Beschi and others in
Madura, a dependency of the ecclesiastical province of Malabar, had been
so successful that they evoked considerable literary fury, both inside
and outside the Church, chiefly with regard to the liceity of certain
rites or customs which the natives had been allowed to retain after
baptism. In 1623 Gregory XV had decided that they could be permitted
provisionally, and the practice was, therefore, continued by Beschi,
Bouchet and others who had extended their apostolic work into
Pondicherry and the Carnatic. But about the year 1700 the question was
again mooted, in consequence of the transfer of the Pondicherry
territory to the exclusive care of the Jesuits. The Capuchins who were
affected by the arrangement appealed to Rome, adding also a protest
against the Rites. The first part of the charge was not admitted, but
the latter was handed over for examination to de Tournon, who was
titular Patriarch of Antioch.
As soon as he arrived at Pondicherry, without going into the interior of
the country, he took the testimony of the Capuchins, questioned the
Jesuits only cursorily, and also a few natives through interpreters. He
then condemned the Rites and forbade the missionaries under heavy
penalties to allow them. His decree was made known to the Jesuit
superior only three days before he left the place, and hence there was
no possibility of enlightening him. The Pope then ordered de Tournon's
verdict to be carried out, qualifying it, however, by adding "in so far
as the Divine glory and the salvation of souls would permit." The
missionaries protested without avail, and the question was discussed by
two successive pontiffs. Finally, Innocent XIII insisted on de Tournon's
decree being obeyed in all its details, but it is doubtful if the
document ever reached the missions. Benedict XIII reopened the question
later, and ruled upon each article of de Tournon's decision, and a Brief
was issued to that effect in 1734.
Into this question the Jansenists of France injected themselves so
vigorously that even the bibliography for and against the Rites is
bewildering in its extent. One contribution consists of eight volumes in
French and seven in Italian. In his history of Jansenism in "The
Catholic Encyclopedia" Dr. Forget of the University of Louvain says:
"The sectaries [in the middle of the eighteenth century] began to detach
themselves from the primitive heresy, but they retained unabated the
spirit of insubordination and schism, the spirit of opposition to Rome,
and above all a mortal hatred of the Jesuits. They had vowed the ruin of
that order, which they always found blocking their way, and in order to
attain their end they successively induced Catholic princes and
ministers in Portugal, France, Spain, Naples, the Kingdom of the Two
Sicilies, the Duchy of Parma, and elsewhere to join hands with the worst
leaders of impiety and philosophism." Besides the Jansenists, "every
Protestant writer of distinction with two or three exceptions," says
Marshall (Christian Missions, I, 226), "has ascribed the success of the
mission of Madura and its wonderful results to a guilty connivance with
pagan superstition. La Croze, Geddes, Hough and other writers of their
class in a long succession luxuriate in language of which we need not
offer a specimen, and direct against de Nobili and his successors
charges of forgery, imposture, superstition, idolatry, and various other
crimes."
"There is one name," continues the same writer, "which invariably occurs
in the writings referred to; one witness whom they all quote and to whom
the whole history is to be traced. That witness is Father Norbert,
ex-Capuchin and ex-missionary of India." In a work published by this
person in 1744, all the fables which have since been repeated as grave
historical facts are found. He is quoted, apparently without suspicion,
by Dr. Grant in his "Bampton Lectures," yet a very little inquiry and
even a reference to so common a book, as the "Biographie universelle"
would have revealed to him the real character of the witness by whose
help he has not feared to defame some of the most heroic and evangelical
men who ever devoted their lives to the service of God, and the
salvation of their fellow creatures.
"Norbert," says Marshall, "was one of those ordinary missionaries who
had utterly failed to convert the Hindoo by the usual methods, and who
was as incapable of imitating the terrible austerities by which the
Jesuits prepared their success, as he was of rejoicing in triumphs of
which he had no share. Stung with mortal jealousy and yielding to the
suggestions of a malice which amounted almost to frenzy, he attacked the
Jesuits with fury even from the pulpit. The civil power was forced to
interfere, and Dupleix, the Governor of Pondicherry, though he had been
his friend, put him on board ship and sent him to America. There he
spent two years less occupied in the work of the missions than in
planning schemes to revenge himself on the Jesuits. The publication of
the mendacious work in which he treated the Society of Jesus as a band
of malefactors was prohibited by the authorities; but he quitted Rome
and printed it secretly.
"Condemned by his Order, though he affected to vindicate it from the
injuries of the Jesuits, he fled to Holland and thence to England, in
both of which countries he found congenial spirits. In the latter, he
established first a candle and afterwards a carpet factory, under the
patronage of the Duke of Cumberland. Thence he wandered into Germany,
and subsequently, having obtained his secularization and put off the
religious habit which he had defiled, he went to Portugal. Here remorse
seems to have overtaken him and he was permitted by an excess of charity
to assume once more the habit of a Capuchin, which he a second time laid
aside. Finally, after having attempted to deceive the Sovereign Pontiff,
he died in a wretched condition in an obscure village of France." The
"Biographie universelle" gives some more details which are useful as a
matter of history. After Benedict XIV had forbidden Norbert to print his
book, he brought it out either at Lucca or Avignon; in England he
assumed his old name of Peter Parisot; when he landed in Germany he was
known as Curel, and when in France his pen-name was Abbé Platel.
According to the "Biographie," "Norbert was dull and heavy, without
talent or style and would have been incapable of writing a single page
if he were not actuated by hate. All of his works have passed into
oblivion."
Americans have not been troubled to any extent by such publications,
except, perhaps in one instance, when a certain R. W. Thompson, who had
been Secretary of the Navy, though he lived 1000 miles from the sea,
warned his fellow-countrymen in 1894 that the one danger for the
Constitution of the United States was the teaching of the Jesuits. Even
the Church is in peril, because "their system of moral theology is
irreconcilable with the Roman Catholic religion." "I refrain from
discussing it," he says, "because that has been sufficiently done by
Pascal and Paul Bert." No one was excessively alarmed by the "Footprints
of the Jesuits."
CHAPTER X
THE TWO AMERICAS
1567-1673
Chile and Peru--Valdivia--Peruvian Bark--Paraguay Reductions--
Father Fields--Emigration from Brazil--Social and religious
prosperity of the Reductions--Martyrdom of twenty-nine
missionaries--Reductions in Colombia--Peter Claver--French West
Indies--St. Kitts--Irish Exiles--Father Bath or Destriches--
Montserrat--Emigration to Guadeloupe--Other Islands--Guiana--
Mexico--Lower California--The Pious Fund--The Philippines--
Canada Missions--Brébeuf, Jogues, Le Moyne, Marquette--Maryland
--White--Lewger.
In 1567 Philip II asked for twenty Jesuits to evangelize Peru. The
request was granted, and in the Lent of 1568 the first band arrived at
Callao and made its way to Lima. They were so cordially welcomed, says
Astrain, that the provincial found it necessary to warn his men that
much would have to be done to live up to the public expectation. Means
were immediately put at their disposal, and they set to work at the
erection of a college. While the college was being built they heard
confessions, visited the jails and hospitals, gave lectures on canon law
to the priests of the cathedral, and started their great training school
on Lake Titicaca, to which we have already referred. There the novices
were set to learn the native languages to prepare them for their future
work. For the moment the population of the city also gave them plenty to
do. It was made up of three classes of people: negroes, half-breeds, and
wealthy Spaniards. Father López looked after the negroes, and by degrees
succeeded in putting a stop to their orgies and indecent dances. Others
were, meantime, taking care of the whites and mestizos. The usual
Jesuit sodalities were put in working order, and soon it was a common
thing to see the young fashionables of the city laying aside their
cloaks and swords, and helping the sick in the hospitals, going around
to the huts of the poor or visiting criminals in the jails.
A new detachment of missionaries arrived in the following year with the
Viceroy Toledo, who evidently took to them too kindly on the way over,
for besides their normal duties, he wanted them to assume the office of
parish priests, and he immediately wrote to Philip II to that effect.
They refused, of course, with the consequence of an unpleasant state of
feeling in their regard on the part of the authorities. Indeed, the
pressure became so great that the superior finally yielded to a certain
extent, and even assigned some of his professed to the work, but he was
promptly summoned to Europe for his weakness. Meantime novices came
swarming in, among them Bernardin d'Acosta, whose virtues merited for
him, later on, a place in the "Menology." There was also little Oviando,
called the Stanislaus of Peru. He was an abandoned child whose parents
had come out to America and had lost him or had died, and he was begging
his bread in the streets of Lima when the Fathers picked him up. They
sent him to the college and helped him to become a saint.
The great man of Peru and, subsequently, of Chile, was Father Luis de
Valdivia, who was hailed by both Indians and whites as "the apostle,
pacificator and liberator of Peru." The Indians had fascinated him, and
he learned their language in a month or so. When he saw that the only
difficulty in making them Christians was the slavery to which they were
subjected, coupled with the immorality of their Spanish masters, he got
himself named as the representative of the colonial authorities, and
started to Spain to lay before Philip III the degraded condition of his
overseas possessions. The king received him cordially, enacted the most
stringent laws against the abuses, and appointed him royal visitor and
administrator of Chile, where similar disorders were complained of. He
also wanted to make him a bishop, but Valdivia refused. Returning to
Peru from Spain, he gave 10,000 Indians their freedom. When that got
abroad among the savages, all the tribes that were then in rebellion
immediately came to terms, and on December 8, 1612, the grand chief
Utablame, with sixty caciques and a half-a-score of pagan priests, all
of them wearing wreaths of sea-weed on their heads, and holding green
branches in their hands, descended from their fastnesses and the grand
chief, their spokesman, addressed Valdivia as follows: "It is not fear
that makes me accept the peace. Since my boyhood I have not ceased to
defy the Spaniards, and I have withstood sixteen governors one after
another. I yield now only to you, good and great Father, and to the King
of Spain, because of the benefits you have bestowed upon me and my
people."
In spite of the difficulties and dangers of the work, as well as the
calumnies of the slave-hunters and even the wrong impressions of some of
his brethren, Valdivia succeeded in establishing four great central
Indian missions, which evoked the commendation of successive kings of
Spain. Before Valdivia went to Chile, Viga, who had been there since
1593, had already compiled a dictionary and grammar in Araucanian, and
Valdivia followed his example by writing other books to facilitate the
work of the missionaries. The colleges founded at Arauco and also at
Valdivia--a town named not after the missionary, but to honor his
namesake, the governor of the province--furnished a base of operations
among the Araucanian savages, a fierce and, for a long time, indomitable
people, who were united against the Spaniards in a league composed of
forty different tribes. The work among them was slow and hard, and three
of the priests were killed by them in the wilderness. Their success also
aroused the colonists to fury, and a war of extermination of the Indians
was resolved upon, but Valdivia opposed it, and not only succeeded in
getting the Araucanians to agree to terms of peace, but brought in the
Guagas, and persuaded them to lay down their arms. The great missionary
was eighty-two years of age when called to his reward.
The famous Peruvian bark was brought to Europe about this time, but it
was regarded with extreme suspicion because of its sponsors, and the
wildest stories were told of it. Medical treatises teemed with
discussions about its properties, some condemning, others commending it.
Von Humboldt says: "It almost goes without saying that, among Protestant
physicians, hatred of the Jesuits and religious intolerance were at the
bottom of the long conflict over the good or evil effected by the drug."
The illustrious physician, Bado, gave as his opinion that "it was more
precious than all the gold and silver which the Spaniards obtained in
South America."
It was in 1586, eighteen years after their arrival in Peru, that the
work of the Jesuits in Paraguay was inaugurated. Francisco de Victoria,
Dominican Bishop of Tucumán had invited them to his diocese, which lay
east of the Andes, and his brother in religion, Alonso Guerra, Bishop of
Asunción, which was on the Rio de la Plata or Paraná River, also
summoned them to his aid, both for the whites and Indians of his flock.
They obeyed, and without delay colleges, residences, and retreats for
the Spiritual Exercises were instituted in Santiago del Estero,
Asunción, Córdoba, Buenos Aires, Corrientes, Tarija, Salta, Tucumán,
Santa Fe and elsewhere. These were for the civilized portion of the
community, while a new system was devised to save the Indians from their
white oppressors. These poor wretches knew the colonists only as
slave-dealers and butchers; hence, every attempt to teach them a
religion which the whites were alleged to follow was futile.
On the other hand, when it was represented to the authorities that
Indian slavery had to cease before the natives could be pacified, angry
protests were heard on all sides, even from some of the resident priests
who maintained that the proper thing for a savage was to be a Spaniard's
slave. The missionaries took the matter in their own hands, as they had
done in Peru. They went to Spain and applied for royal protection. They
obtained what they wanted, so without waiting for the edict to arrive,
began their work by plunging into the woods, where cougars, pumas,
serpents and savages met them at every step. But this vigorous act only
enraged the colonists the more, and the inhuman method of cutting off
the missionaries' food-supplies was resorted to in order to force them
into submission.
In this group of heroic apostles there was, curiously enough, an Irish
Jesuit whom Crétineau-Joly calls Tom Filds, which is probably a Spanish
or French attempt at phonetics for Tom Fields, or O'Fihily, or O'Fealy,
a Limerick exile. Paraguay was the second field of his missionary
labors, for he had previously been associated with the Venerable José
Anchieta in the forests of Brazil. He had left Ireland when very young,
and after studying at Paris, Douay and Louvain, had gone to Rome to
begin his novitiate. Six months of trial were sufficient to prove the
solidity of his virtue, and he then walked all the way from Rome to
Lisbon, to take ship for America. He reached the Bay of All Saints in
1577, and spent ten years in the wilderness, with sufferings, privations
and danger of death at every step. From thence he was sent to Paraguay,
but was captured by pirates at the mouth of the Rio Plata, and then,
loaded with chains, he and his companion, Manuel de Ortega were cast
adrift in a battered hulk which drifted ashore at Buenos Aires, where
their help as missionaries was gladly welcomed. He was at Asunción when
the plague broke out, and the way in which he faced his duty won "Father
Tom" as great a reputation among the white men as he had already
acquired among his copper-colored brethren. When the plague was over, he
again became a forest ranger, and in 1602 found himself all alone among
the Indians, his companion, Father de Ortega, having been cited before
the Inquisition on some ridiculous charge or other. O'Fealy finally died
at Asunción on May 8, 1624, at the good old age of seventy-eight, after
fifty hard years as a South American missionary--ten in Brazil and forty
in Paraguay.
These journeys among the wandering tribes in the wilderness gave
occasion, it is true, for extraordinary heroism, and saved many a soul,
but the results were far from being in proportion to the energy
expended. Hence, at the suggestion of Father Aquaviva, the missionaries
all met at Saca, far out under the Andes, and determined to gather the
Indians together in separate colonies which no white man, except the
government officials, would be allowed to enter. Such was the origin of
the "Paraguay Reductions," which have won such enthusiastic admiration
from writers like Chateaubriand, Buffon, de Maistre, Haller,
Montesquieu, Robertson, Mackintosh, Howitt, Marshall, Muratori,
Charlevoix, Schirmbeck, Grasset, Kobler, du Graty, Gothain, and even
Voltaire. The most recent eulogist of all is Cunninghame-Graham in his
"Vanished Arcadia." The villages in which these converted Indians lived
were called "reductions," because the natives had been brought back
(_re, ducir_) from the wilds and forests by the preaching of the
missionaries to live there in organized communities under Christian
laws.
The first reduction was begun in 1609, in the province of Guayará,
approximately the present Brazilian territory of Paraná. In 1610 another
was inaugurated on the Rio Paranapanema; in 1611 the Reduction of San
Ignacio-miní, and, between that year and 1630, eleven others with a
total population of about 10,000 Indians. The savages flocked to them
from all quarters, for these reservations afforded the only protection
from the organized bands of man-hunters who scoured the country--the
Mamelukes, as they were called because of their relentless ferocity.
They were also described as "Paulistas," probably because they generally
foregathered in the district of lower Brazil, known as St. Paul. These
wretches, half-breeds or the offscourings of every race, made light of
royal decrees or the angry fulminations of helpless governors, and when
they could find no victims in the forests, did not hesitate to attack
the Reductions themselves. These raids began in 1618. In 1630 alone,
according to Huonder (in the Catholic Encyclopedia) no less than 30,000
Indians were either murdered or carried off into slavery in what is now
the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.
This led to the great exodus. Father Simon Maceta abandoned the northern
or Guayará mission altogether, and taking the survivors of the
massacres, along with the Indians who were every day hurrying in from
the forests, led them to the stations on the Paraná and Uruguay. It was
a difficult journey, and only 12,000 reached their destination, but
they served to reinforce the population already there, and in 1648 the
Governor of Buenos Aires reported that in nineteen Reductions there was
a population of 30,548; by 1677 it had risen to 58,118. He found also
that they had determined to live no longer as sheep, waiting to be
devoured by the first human wolves that might descend on them, but were
fully armed and disciplined by their Jesuit preceptors. Indeed, in 1640
ten years after the Guaraní massacre, they could put a well-trained army
in the field, not only against the Mamelukes, but against the
Portuguese, who, from time to time, attempted an invasion of Spanish
territory from Brazil. This military formation was not only permitted
but encouraged by the king. He repeatedly sent the Indians muskets and
ammunition, and later they built an armory themselves, and made their
own powder. They had their regular drills and sham battles, with both
infantry and cavalry, which did splendid service year after year in
repelling invasions and suppressing rebellions. Nor did they ever cost
the crown a penny for such services. Loyalty to the king was inculcated,
and Philip V declared in a famous decree that he had no more faithful
subjects than the Indians of Paraguay.
The Indians of the Reductions were taught all the trades, and became
carpenters, joiners, painters, sculptors, masons, goldsmiths, tailors,
weavers, dyers, bakers, butchers, tanners etc., and their artistic
ability is still seen in the ruins of the missions. They were also
cultivators and herdsmen, and some of the stations could count as many
as 30,000 sheep and 100,000 head of cattle. They built fine roads
leading to the other Reductions, and, on the great waterways of the
Paraná alone, as many as 2000 boats were employed transporting the
merchandise of the various centres. They were, above all, taught their
religion, and their morals were so pure that the Bishop of Buenos Aires
wrote to the king that he thought no mortal sin was ever committed in
the Reductions. The churches occupied the central place in the villages,
and their ruins show what architectural works these men of the forest
were capable of accomplishing. The streets were laid out in parallel
lines, and the principal ones were paved. In course of time the
primitive huts were replaced by solid stone houses with tiled roofs, and
were so constructed that connecting verandas enabled the people to walk
from house to house, under shelter, from one end to the other of the
settlement.
The Reductions extended as far as Bolivia on one side, and to northern
Patagonia on the other, and from the Atlantic to the Andes. Altogether
there were about a hundred of them, and as their formation required the
subduing and transforming of the wildest type of savage into a civilized
man, it is not surprising that in effecting this stupendous result as
many as twenty-nine Jesuits suffered death by martyrdom.
In 1598 the Jesuits Medrano and Figuero were in Nueva Granada or what is
now called The United States of Colombia. They also buried themselves in
the forests, after having done their best to reform the morals of the
colonists at Bogotá. Not that they had abandoned the city; on the
contrary, they established a college there in 1604, and others later in
Pamplona, Mérida and Honda. At first the natives fled from them in
terror, but little by little, the presents which these strange white men
pressed on them won their confidence, and helped to persuade them to
settle in Reductions. Three of the Fathers lost their lives in that
work, devoured by cougars or stung by venomous serpents. Unfortunately,
the bishop was persuaded that the Indian settlements were merely
mercantile establishments gotten up by the Jesuits for money-making,
and all the fruit of many years of dangers and hardships was taken out
of their hands and given to others.
There was no one, however, to covet the place of Peter Claver, who was
devoting himself to the care of the filthy, diseased, and brutalized
negroes who were being literally dumped by tens of thousands in
Cartagena, to be sold into slavery to the colonists. He had come out
from Spain in 1610, after the old lay-brother, Alfonso Rodriguez, had
led him to the heights of sanctity and determined his vocation in the
New World. His work was revolting, but Claver loved it, and as soon as a
vessel arrived he was on hand with his interpreters. They hurried down
into the fetid holds with food, clothing and cordials, which had been
begged from the people in the town. It did not worry Claver that the
poor wretches were sick with small pox or malignant fevers; he would
carry them out on his back, nurse them into health, and even bury them
with his own hands when they died. The unfortunate blacks had never seen
anything like that before, and they eagerly listened to all he had to
say about God, and made no difficulty about being baptized, striving as
well as they could to shape their lives along the lines of conduct he
traced out for them.
He was on his feet night and day, going from bed to bed in the rude
hospitals, with supplies of fruit and wine for the sick. He even brought
bands of music to play for them, and showed them pictures of holy scenes
in the life of Christ to help their dull intellects to grasp the meaning
of his words. No wonder that often when he was among the lepers, who
were his especial pets, people saw a bright light shine round him. His
biographers tell us that he did not find these ordinary sufferings
enough for him, and though he wore a hair-shirt and an iron cross with
sharp points all day long, he was scourging himself to blood at night
and praying for hours for his negroes. He died on September 8, 1654, and
is now ranked among the saints, like his old master, Brother Alfonso.
To the long line of islands, alternately French and English, which form,
as it were, the eastern wall of the Caribbean Sea, and are known as the
Lesser Antilles, the French Jesuits were sent in 1638. They are
respectively Trinidad, Grenada, Saint-Vincent, Martinique, Guadeloupe,
and near the northern extremity of the line, one that is of peculiarly
pathetic interest, Saint Christopher, or, as it is sometimes popularly
called, Saint Kitts. When the French expedition under d'Esnambuc landed
at Saint Kitts in 1625, they found the English already in possession,
but like sensible men, instead of cutting each other's throats, the two
nationalities divided the island between them and settled down quietly,
each one attending to its own affairs. In 1635 the French annexed
Guadeloupe and Martinique, and, later still, Saint-Croix, Saint-Martin
and a few others.
The population of these islands consisted of white settlers and their
negro and Indian slaves. They were cared for spiritually by two
Dominicans, one of whom, Tertre, has written a history of the islands.
But these priests had no intercourse with the savages, whose languages
they did not understand, and hence to fill the gap, three Jesuits, one
of them a lay-brother, were sent to Martinique, arriving there on Good
Friday, 1638. They began in the usual way, namely by martyrdom. Two of
them were promptly killed by the savages. Others hurried to carry on
their work but many succumbed to the climate, and others to the
hardships inseparable from that kind of apostolate. An interesting
arrival, though as late as 1674, was that of Father Joseph-Antoine
Poncet, one of the apostles of Canada, who is remembered for having
brought the great Ursuline, Marie de l'Incarnation, to Quebec, and also
for having been tortured by New York Mohawks at the very place where
Isaac Jogues had suffered martyrdom a few years before. Poncet was old
when he went to Martinique and he died there the following year. The
names of de la Barre, Martinière, de Tracy and Iberville, all of them
familiar to students of Canadian history, occur in the chronicles of the
Antilles.
For people of Irish blood these islands, especially Saint Kitts and
Montserrat, are of a thrilling interest. On both of them were found
numbers of exiled Irish Catholics held as slaves. As early as 1632
Father White on his way to Maryland saw them at Saint Kitts. He tells us
in his "Narrative" that he "stopped there ten days, being invited to do
so in a friendly way by the English Governor and two Catholic captains.
The Governor of the French colony on the same island treated me with the
most marked kindness." He does not inform us whether or not he did any
ministerial work with them but in all likelihood he did. He is equally
reticent about Montserrat, and contents himself with saying that "it is
inhabited by Irishmen who were expelled from Virginia, on account of
their Catholic Faith." He remained at Saint Kitts only a day, and on
this point his "Relation" is very disappointing. In 1638 the Bishop of
Tuam sent out a priest to the island, but he died soon after. He was
probably a secular priest, for in the following year the bishop was
authorized by Propaganda to send out some religious. But there is no
information available about what was done until 1652, when an Irish
Jesuit was secured for them. In the "Documents inédits" of Carayon he is
called Destriches, which may have been Stritch, but there is no mention
of either name in any of the menologies; Hughes, in his "History of the
Society of Jesus in North America" (I, 470), calls him Christopher
Bathe. He was not, however, the first choice. A Father Henry Malajon had
been proposed, but the General did not allow him to go. A Welshman named
Buckley was then suggested, but though his application was ratified he
never left Europe. Next a Father Maloney offered himself, but was kept
in Belgium; finally, however, Father Christopher Bathe or Stritch
arrived.
The missionary found there a very great multitude of enslaved Irish
exiles, for on April 1, 1653, the London Council gave "license to Sir
John Clotworthie to transport to America 500 _natural_ Irishmen." On
September 6, 1653, he asked leave to transport 400 Irish children. Ten
days later liberty was granted to Richard Netherway of Bristol to
transport from Ireland one hundred _Irish tories_. When Jamaica was
captured by the English in 1655, one thousand Irish girls and a like
number of Irish boys were sent there. The earlier throngs had been sent
first to Virginia, but had been driven over to the islands, as we learn
from White's "Narrative." The English authorities in Ireland wrote to
Lord Thurlow: "Although we must use force in taking them up, yet it
being so much for their own good and likely to be of great advantage to
the public, it is not the least doubted but that you may have as many as
you wish." He offers to send 1500 or 2000 boys. "They will thus," he
said, "be made good Christians." The first of these "good Christians"
were found by Father Bathe when he arrived in Saint Kitts in 1652 and
they eagerly came to the little chapel which he built on the dividing
line between the English and French settlements. For three months he was
busy from dawn till nightfall saying Mass, hearing confessions,
baptizing babies and preaching. After that he started for Montserrat
which was entirely under English control and hence he was compelled to
go there disguised as a lumber merchant who was looking for timber. As
soon as he landed he passed the word to the first Irishman he met and
the news spread like wildfire. A place of meeting was chosen in the
woods where every day Mass was said and the people went to confession
and communion. That took up the whole morning, and in the afternoon they
began chopping down the trees so as to carry out the deception.
Unfortunately, the Caribs found them one day, and killed some of them,
but we have no more details of the extent of the disaster.
By the time Father Bathe got back to Saint Kitts, the English had taken
alarm and had forbidden their Irish slaves ever to set foot on the
French territory. But there must have been disobedience to the order,
for one night, after they had returned home, a descent was made upon
their houses, and one hundred and twenty-five of the most notable among
them were flung into a ship and cast on Crab Island, two hundred leagues
away, where they were left to starve, while those who remained behind at
Saint Kitts were treated with the most frightful inhumanity. One
instance is cited of a young girl who, for having refused to go to the
Protestant church, was dragged by the hair of her head along the road,
and treated with such brutality that some of the more timid of the
victims were terrified and obeyed the order about keeping away from the
chapel. The greater number, however, came to Mass secretly, walking all
night through dense forests and at the edge of precipices, so as to
escape the sentries posted along the ordinary road. Two very old men
were conspicuous in this display of faith.
The castaways on Crab Island kept life in their bodies for a few days by
eating what grass or roots they could find or by gathering the
shell-fish on the beach. At last to their great delight a ship was
sighted in the distance and when they hailed it, came to take them off.
Unfortunately, however, it was too small for such a crowd, and only as
many as it was safe to receive were allowed on board. The rest had to be
abandoned to their fate. What became of them nobody ever knew. It is
supposed that they made a raft and were lost somewhere out on the ocean.
Even those who sailed away came to grief. When they reached Santo
Domingo, they were not permitted to land, because they came from Saint
Christopher, which made the Spaniards in the fort suspect a trick. Then
they were caught by a tornado and carried four hundred leagues away. At
one time hunger had brought them so low that they were on the point of
casting lots to see who should be killed and eaten, but fortunately they
caught some fish and that sustained them till they reached the land.
What land it was we do not know.
A characteristic example of Irish feminine virtue is recorded in this
very interesting account, which is worth repeating here. A young girl,
for her better protection, had been disguised as a boy by her father
when both were exiled. After he died, she obtained work in the household
of a respectable family where her efficiency so charmed the mistress of
the household that the husband grew jealous of the friendship of his
wife for this estimable man-servant. To avert a domestic disaster, the
good girl had to make known her identity and she was then more esteemed
than ever. What became of her ultimately is not recorded. Meantime,
Father Bathe had gathered what was left of his poor people and carried
them off to Guadeloupe, where there were no English. God spared him for
five years more, and he went from island to island under all sorts of
disguises, if there was danger of meeting the English. He even succeeded
in converting not a few of the persecutors.
Hughes informs us further that in 1667 an Irish priest named John Grace
returned to Europe from the islands, and reported on the deplorable
condition of his compatriots in the Caribbean. Passing through
Martinique, Guadeloupe and Antigua he heard the confessions of more than
three hundred of them. He related, also, that fifty of the three hundred
had died while he was there. In Barbadoes there were many thousands who
had no priests and were conforming to Protestantism. In St. Bartholomew,
there were four hundred Irish Catholics who had never seen a priest. At
Montserrat, however, Governor Stapleton was an Irishman and a Catholic,
and consequently there was no difficulty in having a priest go there.
There were as many as four hundred Catholics at that place and they
formed six to one of the population. These islands of the Caribbean were
the favorite hiding places of the "filibusteros," a set of abandoned men
of various nationalities, French, Dutch and English, who were lying in
wait for the rich galleons of Spain, on their way from the silver mines
of Peru to the palaces of Madrid. Their life was a continued series of
daring adventures, robberies, massacres and wild debauchery. They were
ready for any expedition and against any foe. With them nothing could be
done, but with the great numbers of negro slaves who were sold at
Martinique and elsewhere there was ample opportunity for apostolic work.
It was a most revolting task; the whites, regarded them as devils, but
the Fathers took care of them and sent many of them to heaven.
It was from the Antilles that the French Jesuits went to Guiana. Its
conversion had been attempted in 1560 by two Dominicans, but they were
both martyred almost on their arrival. No other effort was made until
late in the following century, when in 1643 two Capuchins essayed it,
only to be killed. Four years before that, however, the Jesuits Meland
and Pelliprat entered the country at another point and succeeded in
subduing the savage Galibis, who were particularly noted for ferocity.
In 1653 Pelliprat published a grammar and a dictionary of their
language; in the following year Aubergeon and Gueimu were killed; then
the Dutch took possession of the country, expelled the Jesuits and
obliterated every vestige of Catholicity. Nevertheless, the missionaries
returned later and renewed their work with the intractable natives. In
1674 Grillet and Béchamel started for the interior, and were followed
later by Lombard, who, after fifteen years of heroic toil, erected a
church at the mouth of the River Kourou to the northwest of Cayenne.
There he labored for twenty-three years, and in 1733 was able to report
to his fellow missionary, de la Neuville: "Acquainted as you are with
the fickleness of our Indians, you will no doubt be surprised to hear
that their inconstancy has been overcome. The horror with which they now
regard their former superstitions, their regularity in frequently
approaching the sacraments, their assiduity in assisting at the Divine
service, the profound sentiments of piety which they manifest at the
hour of death, are effectual proofs of a sincere and lasting
conversion."
Father Grillet's story of the capture of the French fort in Guiana makes
interesting reading. He went out with the garrison to meet the English
who were landing from their ships, but the French commander was killed
and his men fled. Grillet, with some others, made his way to the forests
and swamps of the interior, but was finally captured at the point of the
pistol. He was ordered to hand over his money, but as he had none, he
would probably have been killed had not a party of English officers
recognized him as the priest who had rendered them some service over in
the Antilles some time before. They led him to Lord Willoughby the
governor, who showed him every attention. It will be of interest to know
that these gentlemen carried on their conversation with the priest, in
French and Latin. When the ship arrived at Barbadoes, Grillet was lodged
with a Scotch gentleman whose son-in-law was a Protestant minister; "a
clever man, a good philosopher and well up in his theology," says
Grillet. They discussed religious questions amicably, and on Sunday the
priest had the satisfaction to hear that the parson told his
congregation how he "wished they had the same sorrow for their sins as
Catholics have when they go to confession."
Grillet remained a month with his Protestant friends, Lord Willoughby
coming occasionally to visit him. From Barbadoes he was conducted to
Montserrat, where "Milord, after celebrating Christmas ten days later
than we do," notes Grillet, "for the English did not accept the
Gregorian Calendar," then handed him over to a Catholic colonel of a
Yorkshire regiment, who finally delivered him safe and sound to the
French Governor de la Barre. This was the de la Barre who was afterwards
to figure in Canadian history. Grillet then returned to his old mission
work at Cayenne, for the English had abandoned it, and with Father
Béchamel set out to explore the interior, with a view to future
missionary establishments. With no other provision than a little cassava
bread, and no other escort than a negro and a few Indians, they began a
journey of 1920 miles, through forests and swamps and across mountains
and down rivers which were continually broken by cataracts merely to
find where the Indians were living, so as to send them missionaries
later. They had started from Cayenne on January 25, 1674, and returned
there on June 27. Both died shortly after.
Along both banks of the Oyapoch, throughout its whole course, missions
were established by other valiant apostles who, as a French historian
relates, had formed the gigantic project of uniting by a chain of
stations both extremities of Guiana. Indeed, the church on the Kourou
was only an incident in this work. Eleven years before that, Arnaud
d'Ayma had fought his way to the Pirioux, the remotest of all the known
tribes. There he lived like the savages in a miserable hut, spending
every moment among them in studying their language and teaching them in
turn the truths of salvation. He then founded a mission on the Oyapoch
where he collected the entire tribe of the Caranes. Meantime, D'Ausillac
looked after the Toeoyenes, the Maowrioux, and the Maraxones on the
Ouanari. Up to the time when de Choiseul, minister of Louis XV, drove
the Jesuits out of Guiana, one hundred and eleven of them had devoted
their lives to the evangelization of that country.
Bandelier, writing in "The Catholic Encyclopedia" (IV-123), tells us
that in the district in which Cartagena was situated, "the religious of
the Society of Jesus were the first during the Colonial period to found
colleges for secondary instruction; eight or ten colleges were opened in
which the youth of the country and the sons of Spaniards were educated.
In the Jesuit College of Bogotá the first instruction in physics and
mathematics was given. In the expulsion of the Jesuits by Charles III
the Church in New Granada lost her principal and most efficacious aid to
the civilization of the country.... To this day the traveller may see
the effects of this arbitrary act, in the immense plains of the regions
of Casanare, converted in the space of one century into pasture lands
for cattle, but which were once a source of great wealth, and which
would have been even more so. It is only within the last ten years that
the Catholic Church, owing to the peace and liberty which she now
enjoys, has turned her eyes once more to Casanare; a vicariate Apostolic
has been erected there, governed by a bishop of the Order of St.
Augustine, who with the members of his order labours among the savages
and semi-savages of these plains."
The first Jesuits, as we have already said, arrived in Mexico in
September, 1572. They were sent out at the expense of the king, but as
he did nothing more, a wealthy benefactor immediately put his money at
their disposal and gave them a site for a college and church. The latter
was erected with amazing expedition at a trifling expense, for three
thousand Indians who had heard that the Fathers were going to take care
of their spiritual welfare worked at it for three months. The structure
was declared to be _muy hermoso por dentro_, but as much could not be
said of the exterior. It was simply a thatched structure and was long
known by the name of Japalteopan. Their college, which took more time,
was called St. Ildefonso. Guadalajara, Zacatecas and Oaxaca also became
Jesuit centres, while Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Sonora, and, later Lower
California were their fields of labor among the savages. It may be noted
here that Father Sánchez was one of the presiding engineers in the work
of the Nochistongo tunnel on which 471,154 men were employed. The
purpose of the work was to drain the valley of Mexico.
Among the very early missionaries of Mexico was an Irish Jesuit named
Michael Wadding, though he was known among the Spaniards as Miguel
Godinez. He was born at Waterford in 1501, but his mother was a
Frenchwoman, named Marie Valois. He made his studies in Salamanca and
entering the Society April 15, 1609 was sent to Mexico in the following
year. He labored for a long time in the rude missions of Sinaloa and won
to the Faith the whole tribe of the Basirvas, and then taught for
several years in the colleges. He was famous as a director of souls, and
wrote a "Teologia mística" which, was not published until forty years
after his death; however, it made up for the delay by going through ten
editions. His editor, Manuel La Reguera, S. J., says that he also wrote
a "Life of Sister Mary of Jesus," a holy religious whom he was directing
in the way of perfection.
The Jesuit mission work in Mexico which has attracted most attention is
that of Fathers Kino, Salvatierra, Ugarte and their associates. They
were engaged mostly in the evangelization of the Peninsula of Lower
California and the vast northern district of Mexico, known as the
Pimería, or land of the Pima Indians, which extended into what is now
the State of Arizona. The success achieved there and the resources of
the "Pious Fund" which Salvatierra had gathered made the work of
Junípero Serra and the Franciscans in Upper California possible in later
days.
Gilmary Shea (Colonial Days, p. 527) maintains that Eusebio Kino is one
of the greatest of American missionaries. Many historians claim that he
was a German and say that his name "Kino" was an adaptation of Kühn.
That such is not the case is shown by Alegre in his history of the
Jesuits in Mexico; by Sommervogel in his "Bibliothèque des écrivains"
and by Bolton, who has just published Kino's long lost "Autobiography."
Hubert Bancroft pronounces for Kühn, but he publishes an autograph map
which is signed "carta autoptica a Patre Eusebio Chino;" Huonder, in
"The Catholic Encyclopedia," declares him to be a German of Welch Tyrol,
but the "Welch" Tyrol is precisely that part of the country where there
are no Germans. The Chino family still exists, near Trent and has never
spoken anything but Italian. The change from _Ch_ to _K_ had to be made
to prevent the Spaniards from thinking he was a Chinaman; furthermore
the _ch_ in Spanish being always soft would not represent the Italian
letters when they are pronounced _k_.
Kino was born on August 10, 1644, and entered the Society of Jesus in
Bavaria on November 20, 1665. He subsequently taught mathematics at
Ingolstadt, and while occupying that post applied for the foreign
missions. He left the university in 1678, but did not reach Mexico until
late in 1681. The reason of the delay was his assignment as an observer
of the famous comet of 1680 and 1681. During that time, he lived in
Cadiz, but he did not publish the result of his observations until after
his arrival in Mexico. The book has a very portentous title and is
listed in Sommervogel as: "Exposicion Astronomica de el Cometa, que el
año de 1680, por los meses de Noviembre y Diziembre, y este año de 1681
por los meses de Enero y Febrero, se ha visto en todo el mondo, y le ha
observado en Ciudad de Cadiz el P. Eusebio Francisco Kino, de la Compañi
de Jesus, con licencia en Mexico por Francisco Rodriguez Lupercio,
1681." Possibly this pompous announcement was intended as an apology for
Kino's audacity in questioning the findings of a famous astronomer of
the period who rejoiced in the name and title Don Carlos de Sigüenza y
Gongora, Cosmógrafo y Mathemático Regio en la Academia Mexicana.
The settlement of Lower California had been attempted as early as 1535
by a Franciscan who landed with Cortes at Santa Cruz Bay near the
present La Paz. "After a year of privations", says Engelhardt, "which
had cost the famous conqueror $300,000, the project had to be abandoned.
Another effort was made in 1596, but the mission did not last a single
year. Almost a century later, namely in 1683, the Jesuit Fathers Kino
and Goni, along with Fray José Guijosa of the Order of St. John of God,
accompanied Admiral Otondo on an expedition to that unhappy country."
They embarked on the "Limpia Concepción" and the "San José y San
Francisco Javier" and set sail on January 18. A sloop with provisions
was to accompany them, but it never left port. The voyage lasted until
March 30, and on that day they entered the harbor of La Paz, but not
until April 5 did the admiral set foot on shore to take solemn
possession of the land. The mission, however, lasted only a short time;
and thus Spain failed for the third time to establish a post in desolate
Lower California. Kino then applied for work among the Pima Indians. His
offer was welcomed by the provincial, who would have sent him thither
immediately, if a government permission as well as a royal assignment of
funds had not been prerequisites. Neither difficulty dismayed Kino; he
immediately interviewed the viceroy and was so eloquent in his plea that
he received not only permission and financial aid to work in the new
field, but authorization for whatever post he might choose among the
Seris of Sonora. When that much was accomplished, he set off for
Guadalajara, where the royal audiencia was in session, to address it on
another matter which was very close to his heart, namely the abrogation
of the stupid policy of imposing labor on the convert Indians in the
mines and haciendas, while the others who refused to be Christians were
allowed to go scot free. It was putting a premium on paganism. All that
he could get, however, from the audiencia was a five-year exemption, in
spite of the fact that as far back as 1607 Philip III had ruled that for
ten years after baptism every convert should be exempt from compulsory
labor. The same royal order had been renewed in 1618, and was most
faithfully observed where there were no mines or haciendas to put the
converts at work.
In 1764 the Pimería was the northern limit of Spain's possessions, about
400 leagues from the city of Mexico and about 130 from Sinaloa. On the
east a mountain range separated it from Taurumara, and on the west the
Gulf of California bathed its shores from the Yaqui River to the
Colorado. Its northern boundary was the Hila, Gila, or Xila River, and
its southern, the Yaqui. According to Alegre "the soil is rich, there is
no end of game, such as lions, tigers, bears, deer, boars, rabbits and
squirrels. The woods are full of serpents, poisonous or otherwise, but
there are herbs and plants innumerable," which possessed most wonderful
healing powers. The birds were numerous and "two-headed eagles," the
reader is assured, "were not rare." Kino, as far as we can find, makes
no mention of "two-headed eagles."
The people were robust and lived to an extreme old age, except where the
fogs of the lowland prevailed. There all sorts of ailments occur. The
Pimas were composed of a number of tribes such as the Opas,
Cocomaricopas, Hudcoacanes, and the Yumas. They lived on both sides of
the Gila River in rancherias, which the missionaries united into
pueblos. They numbered in all about 30,000. The Seris who were found
along the Gulf coast were mostly identified with the Giuamas. To the
north were the savage Apaches.
None of these people had any means of recording the doings of the past,
such as the hieroglyphics of the Mexicans, but they made much of certain
traditions which they refused to impart to strangers. As far as could
be ascertained, they had no sacrifice or idols, no land of worship and
no priests except the wizards, whom they regarded with abject terror.
Tatooing around the eyes was universal, even for children. At birth a
sort of sponsor for the child was summoned, and he was given more
authority than the parent. At death all the trappings and household
belongings of the departed were buried with him. They believed in
divinations like the ancient Greeks and Romans, with the difference that
the creature inspected was not a bird but a lobster. Statues and emblems
were placed on the roadsides, before which every passer-by had to leave
an offering. Alegre gives a long list of their superstitions, some of
which Bancroft denounces as hideously obscene. The initiation of the
warrior resembled the horrible ritual common among the northern Mandans,
and the torture of captives, even of little children, by old squaws, was
as fiendish as similar practices among the Iroquois.
The Jesuit missions among these people were inaugurated as early as 1637
or 1638, by Father Castano, who had been trained in the Sonora district
by Méndez, but the Pima section to which Kino betook himself was a new
field. He called his first post Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, and it
may be found on the map just north of Cucurpé at the source of the river
called Horcasitas or San Miguel. From there he developed dependent
stations, and before 1691, he had three at San Ignacio, Remedios, and
San José, in each of which he built a fine church.
"The work which Father Kino did as a ranchman or stockman," says Bolton,
"would alone stamp him as an unusual business man and make him worthy of
remembrance. He was easily the cattle king of his day and region. The
stock raising industry of nearly 20 places on the modern map owes its
beginnings to this indefatigable man. And it must not be supposed that
he did this for private gain for he did not own a single animal. It was
to furnish a food supply for the Indians of the missions established and
to be established and to give these missions a basis of economic
prosperity and independence. Thus we find Saeta thanking him for the
gift of 115 head of cattle, and as many sheep to begin a ranch at
Caborca. In 1700 when San Xavier was founded, Kino rounded up 1400 head
of cattle on the ranch of his own mission at Dolores, and dividing them
into droves, sent one of them under his Indian overseer to San Xavier.
In the same year he took 700 cattle from his own ranch, and sent them to
Salvatierra, across the Gulf at Loreto--a transaction which was several
times repeated."
Kino had often spoken to Salvatierra about the failure of the attempt to
evangelize Lower California, to which his heart still clung, and he
suggested to his companion that in his capacity of official visitor he
might make another effort to redeem the unfortunate people who lived
there. It was true, he admitted, that the country was so barren that it
could not be self-sustaining, but he was convinced that it would be an
easy matter to convey provisions from fertile Pimería to the starving
Californians if a ship could be constructed to transport to the other
side of the Gulf whatever the future missionaries and people might need.
Salvatierra took fire at the idea, and, before they parted, ordered Kino
to build the barque at any point he might select along the west coast of
Mexico and assured him that he himself would further the project with
all the power at his disposal.
It was not until 1694 that Kino attempted to build the ship. He was then
among the Sobas on the Gulf, and with him were Father Campo and Captain
Manje, the latter of whom has left a diary of that journey. He began to
cut his timber on March 16, 1694, but he was informed that Lower
California was not an island, but a peninsula, and he then inaugurated a
series of amazing overland journeys to reach the head of the Gulf. His
companion Captain Manje had told him of the wonderful structures on the
Gila River and thither he directed his steps. He is said to have
celebrated Mass in the largest of those ruined buildings, the famous
Casa Grande. It was quadrilateral in form and four stories high. The
rafters were of cedar and the walls of solid cement and masonry. It was
divided into various compartments, some of them spacious enough for a
considerable assembly. The tradition among the people was that
Montezuma's predecessors built it on the way from the north to the
southern countries where they ultimately settled.
At a distance of three leagues from this Casa and on the other side of
the river are the ruins of another edifice, which appears to have been
still more sumptuous. Indeed the ruins at that place would indicate that
at one time there had been not merely a palace but a whole city, and the
natives assured the missionaries that there were other buildings further
north which were marvelous for their symmetry and arrangements. Among
them was a labyrinth which appears to have been a pleasure house of some
great king. Excavators have discovered in various places, sometimes
leagues away from these great buildings, shapely and variously colored
slabs, and two leagues from the Casa Grande there was found the basin of
a reservoir large enough to supply a populous city and to irrigate the
fertile plains around for great distances; while to the west was a
lagoon which was emptied by a narrow sluice. The regularity of the
circular form of this lagoon and its rather contracted dimensions would
suggest that it was the work of men were it not for its extraordinary
depth. Holes had been cut into the solid rock which subsequently were
found large enough to be used as storehouses for provisions for troops.
These ruins, however, do not appear to have interested Kino to any great
extent. There were other ruins that worried him about that time. His own
missions seemed to be facing universal destruction. He himself was being
denounced in Mexico as conveying false information to the government
about his Indians; they were accused of being in secret alliance with
the Apaches, who were destroying the country and defying the Spaniards.
Kino again and again had denied the truth of these charges, but he was
not only not believed but was held up as a deliberate liar.
On March 29, 1695, the Pimas of Tubutama burned the priest's house and
church, profaned the sacred vessels and then, starting down the river to
Caborca, had, after murdering Father Saeta and desecrating the church,
killed four servants of the mission. An armed force was quickly sent
after them and succeeded in killing a certain number in the battle that
ensued. Fifty of them then gave themselves up on a promise of immunity,
but on arriving in camp they were brutally murdered. The troops then
hastened to Cocospera, fancying that they had restored peace, but they
were no sooner out of sight than the Pimas laid waste the whole Tubutama
Valley and destroyed every town on the San Ignacio River. Where was Kino
all this time? Quietly waiting to be killed at Dolores. He had concealed
the sacred vessels in a cave and was kneeling in prayer, expecting the
tomahawk or a poisoned arrow. But no one came. He was too much beloved
by all the Indians to be injured in the least, even in their wildest
excess of fury.
Of course the Spaniards ultimately won. They ravaged the whole country
and slaughtered the savages until the entire tribe was terror-stricken
and forced by hunger or fear of annihilation to sue for peace. Through
the influence of the missionaries, a general pardon was granted, and
then the work of reconciling the red men to the terrible whites had to
be begun all over again. When Kino returned to Dolores, he was received
with the utmost enthusiasm by his people. Not only the Pimas, but the
Sobas and Sobaipuris came out to welcome him. They loaded him with gifts
and made all sorts of promises of future good behavior, and he then set
himself to the task of rebuilding the devastated rancherias.
Notwithstanding this return, however, to normal conditions and the great
increase of his influence over the Indians, Kino still longed to devote
himself to the regeneration of the degraded Californians, and he asked
to be associated with Salvatierra, who had gone thither in 1697, but
owing to the protest of the Pimas, the Mexican government positively
refused to permit him to leave the district where his presence was so
essential for peace.
After endless journeys up and down the country, providing for the
material and spiritual wants of his own flock, but ever keeping in his
mind the great project of reaching Lower California by land, Kino at
last climbed the mountain of Santa Brigida and saw quite near to him the
Gulf of California with a port or bay which, because it was in latitude
about 31° 36' must have been what the old cosmographers called the Santa
Clara range. "From its summit," says Kino himself, "I clearly descried
the beach at the mouth of the Colorado, but as there was a fog on the
sea I could not make out the California coast." On another occasion,
however, namely in 1694, he and Juan Mates had seen the other side from
Mt. Nazarene de Caborca, lower down the coast. A point of
identification left by Kino was that the mountain on which he stood in
1698, had been once a volcano. The marks of it were all around him.
Kino could not then pursue his exploration to the mouth of the river.
His guides and companions refused to go any farther, so he had to turn
homeward. On the way back, however, he was consoled by discovering more
than "4,000 souls," to use Alegre's expression, "in rancherias which
were until then unknown to him. He baptized about four hundred babies
and sent little presents to his Indian friends along the Colorado and
Gila," or, as Kino spells it, Hila. After making arrangements for future
explorations he set out for Dolores, which he reached on October 18
after a journey of three hundred leagues. In 1699 he was joined by his
friend Captain Manje, and they resolved to reach the Colorado itself and
go down the stream to the mouth. But they failed to find guides, for it
was an unfriendly country, and so the disappointed men again returned to
Dolores. Kino was seriously ill on his arrival, but was on his feet
again in October when the visitor, Father Leal, wanted to inspect the
country. The official got no farther than Bac, while Kino and Manje
started west, but they did not succeed in going far, and were at the
mission again in November.
On September 24, 1700, Kino attempted a new route. Striking the Gila
east of the bend, he followed its course down to the Yuma country. After
settling a quarrel between the Yumas and their neighbors, he climbed a
high hill to explore, but saw only land. He then crossed to the north
bank of the Gila with some Yumas and journeyed on to their principal
rancheria, which he called San Dionisio, because he arrived there on the
feast of that saint, October 9. There he ascended another mountain and
this time he was rewarded. The sun was setting as he reached the
summit, but he clearly saw the river running ten leagues west of San
Dionisio and, after a course of twenty leagues south, emptying into the
Gulf. From another hill to the south he saw before his eyes the sandy
stretches of Lower California. The wonderful old man, however, was not
yet satisfied. He would make one more attempt and with Father González,
a new arrival in the missions, he set his face to the west, reaching San
Dionisio by the way of Sonoito and from there went down to Santa Isabel.
"From this point," says Bancroft (XV, p. 500), "they were in new
territory. Going down the river they reached tide-water on March 5,
1702, and on the 7th, the very mouth of the river. Nothing but land
could be seen on the south, west and north. Surely, they thought there
can be no estrecho, and California is a part of America."
According to Clavigero these journeys totalled about twenty thousand
miles. It is almost incredible, but Bolton tells us that "Kino's
endurance in the saddle was worthy of a seasoned cowboy." Thus when he
went to the City of Mexico in 1695, he travelled on that single journey
no less than 1500 miles; and he accomplished it in fifty-three days. Two
years later, when he reached the Gila on the north, he did seven or
eight hundred miles in thirty days. In 1699, on his trip to and from the
Gila he made seven hundred and twenty miles in thirty nine days; in
1700, a thousand miles in twenty-six days; and in 1701, eleven hundred
miles in thirty-five days. He was then nearly sixty years of age.
Meantime, Salvatierra had been painfully establishing missions all along
the barren peninsula, but was so woefully discouraged that he was on the
point of returning to Mexico. At this juncture Father Juan Ugarte
arrived on the scene. He had been Salvatierra's agent in Mexico for
collecting funds, but when he heard of the threatening condition of
things in California he had himself relieved of his rectorship in San
Gregorio and became a missionary. It was really he who saved the whole
enterprise from destruction. He was born in Honduras about the year
1660, and entered the Society at Tapozotclan. As soon as he set foot on
the Peninsula, he began a reorganization of the whole economic system of
the missions. With St. Paul, he believed that a man who did not work
should not eat, and consequently that Salvatierra's benignant method of
feeding every savage who would come to the "doctrina," or catechism, was
psychologically, religiously and economically wrong. Hence, when he
found himself fixed at San Javier, he taught the natives how to
cultivate the land, to dig ditches for irrigation, to plant trees, to
trim vines and to raise live stock.
Of course, the savages were surprised at the new system, but although
Ugarte was very kind, he was very positive and his bodily strength
astounded and appalled his neophytes. The result was that while other
missions were starving, San Javier had fields of corn, rich pastures and
great herds of cattle. It took a long time to make this system
acceptable everywhere on the Peninsula; when it was adopted it was
difficult to make it a success--even Ugarte's own fields were devastated
and his cattle stolen. Indeed, conditions grew so desperate in 1701,
that Salvatierra at last determined to abandon California and go back to
Mexico. Ugarte stood out against it and protested that he would never
give up until his superiors called him back. To show that he meant what
he said, he went to the church and laid a vow to that effect on the
altar.
Just when the sky was darkest, information came that Philip V had
ordered 6000 pesos a year to be allotted to the missions. The first
payment however, was made with extreme reluctance by the viceroy. But
the royal example stimulated the piety of others, with the result that
the Marquis of Villapuente gave an estate of 30,000 pesos for three
missions; Ortega and his wife came forward with 10,000; and other
friends hastened with their contributions. In 1704 Salvatierra went over
to Mexico to collect the usual subsidy. He was rejoiced at being told on
his arrival that not only would he receive the stipend, but that his
majesty had ordered that the churches should be supplied with whatever
was necessary for Divine services, that a seminary was to be founded in
California, that a presidial force of thirty men was to be stationed on
the coast to protect a galleon, a sort of mission ship for provisions
and exploration, and that 7000 pesos a year were to be added to the
former allowance. It was a splendid example of royal munificence;
however, not only were none of these royal orders carried out, but even
the original grant of 6000 pesos could not be collected. "It may be
fairly stated," says Bancroft (XV, 432) "that the missions of California
were from the first to the last founded and supported by private persons
whose combined gifts formed what is known as the Pious Fund."
Salvatierra was absent from California for a little over two years while
filling the office of provincial, "a flattering honor," says Bancroft,
"that would be gladly accepted by most Jesuits." Before the end of his
term, however, he hastened back to labor in the land of desolation to
which he had consecrated his life. He lasted only a short time, and died
in 1717 in Guadalajara. "His memory," says Bancroft, "needs no
panegyric; his deeds speak for themselves, and in the light of these,
the bitterest enemies of his religion or of his Order cannot deny the
beauty of his character and the disinterestedness of his devotion to
California. The whole city assembled at his funeral and his remains were
deposited amidst ceremonies rarely seen at the burial of a Jesuit."
Meantime, Ugarte's methods were being followed elsewhere than in San
Javier, and a new impetus was given to them when he succeeded
Salvatierra as general superior. It must have been hard to keep the pace
that he set; thus, for instance, he used 40,000 loads to make a road
from San Javier to one of the out-lying missions; he built a reservoir
there and carted to it 160,000 loads of earth to make a garden and
executed many similar works. He was also very eager to carry out
Salvatierra's purpose of exploring the coast, but he was not satisfied
with the antiquated ships which had been in use up to that time--"worn
out and rotten old hulks," he said, "only fit to drown Jesuits in." He
determined to have a ship of his own built in California and after his
own ideas. For that purpose he hired shipwrights from the other side of
the Gulf, where also he proposed to get his timber. But hearing of some
large trees thirty leagues above Mulege he went thither in 1718 to look
them over. He found the trees, but they were in such inaccessible
ravines that the shipbuilder declared it was impossible to get them.
Ugarte was not swayed from his purpose by this difficulty; he went down
to Loretto and returned with three mechanics and all the Indians he
could induce to follow him. After four months of hard work he not only
had all the trees felled and shaped, but he had opened a road for thirty
leagues over the mountains and with oxen and mules hauled his material
to the coast. He built his "Triumph of the Cross," as he called it, in
four months. The provincial was told meanwhile, that it was going to be
used for pearl fishing, and sent the supposed culprit a very sharp
letter in consequence. No doubt he made amends for this when he was
disabused. The "Triumph of the Cross" was not to carry a cargo of pearls
but was intended to explore the upper Gulf, so as to realize the dream
of Kino and Salvatierra.
The good ship left Loretto on May 15, 1721, with twenty men, six of whom
were Europeans, the captain being a William Stafford. It was followed by
the "Santa Barbara," a large open boat carrying five Californians, two
Chinese and a Yaqui. They made their first landing at Concepción Bay,
and then, after creeping along the shore northward, crossed the Gulf to
Santa Sabina and San Juan Bautista on the Seri coast. The sight of the
cross on the bow-sprit delighted the natives and assured the travellers
of a hearty welcome. Tiburon was the next stop, and while there Ugarte
felt his strength giving out; but despite his sixty-one years he
continued his voyage, and headed the "Triumph" for the mouth of the
Colorado, while the "Santa Barbara" hugged the shore. Meantime, a few
men were landed and made for the nearest mission. They found the trail
to Caborca and soon the Jesuits of that place and of San Ignacio hurried
down with provisions for the travellers.
While the "Santa Barbara" was being loaded, the "Triumph" was nearly
stranded at the mouth of the river, so it was decided to cross to the
other side, which they reached only after a hard three days' sail. There
the "Santa Barbara" met them and both ships pointed north, crossing and
recrossing the gulf until finally they anchored at the mouth of the
river on the Pimería side. There was some talk of going up the stream,
but the ship's position in the strong current was dangerous, the
weather was threatening, and besides, Ugarte had achieved his purpose;
he had seen the river from the Gulf and had added a convincing proof to
Kino's assertion that California was a peninsula. On July 16 they
started south; the storm they had feared broke over them and the sloop
nearly went to the bottom. The sailors, who were nearly all sick of the
scurvy, got confused in the Salsipuedes channel, and it was only on
August 18 that they cleared that passage so aptly called "Get out if you
can." But a triple rainbow in the sky that day comforted them, just as
they had been cheered when the St. Elmo's fire played around the mast
head during the gale. But they were not free yet. Another storm overtook
them and they had great difficulty in dodging a waterspout, but they
finally reached Loretto in the month of September.
Besides its original purpose, this voyage resulted in furnishing much
valuable information about the shores, ports, islands and currents of
the Upper Gulf. The original account of the journey with maps and a
journal kept by Stafford was sent to the viceroy for the king, but
Bancroft says they have not been traced. Ugarte lived only eight years
after this eventful journey. Picolo, Salvatierra's first companion had
preceded him to the grave, dying on February 22, 1729, at the age of 79,
whereas Ugarte's life-work did not cease till the following December 29.
Perhaps Lower California owes more to him than to the great Salvatierra.
A classic example of the influence of ignorance in the creation of many
of the false statements of history is furnished by a publication about
these missions in the "Montreal Gazette" of 1847, under the title of
"Memories of Mgr. Blanchet." "The failure of the Jesuits in Lower
California," he says, "must be attributed to their unwillingness to
establish a hierarchy in that country. Had they been so disposed, they
might have had a metropolitan and several suffragans on the Peninsula.
They failed to do so, until at last, in 1767, word came from generous
Spain to hand over their work to some one else." In the first place,
"generous Spain" had not the slightest desire to establish a hierarchy
on that barren neck of land when it expelled the Jesuits in 1767. Again
as "generous Spain" appointed even the sacristans in its remotest
colonies, the Society must be acquitted of all blame in not giving an
entire hierarchy to Lower California. Finally, one hundred and fifty-one
years have elapsed since the last Jesuits left both Mexico and Lower
California and there is nothing there yet, but the little Vicariate
Apostolic of La Paz down at the lower end of the Peninsula.
In describing the work of the Jesuits in Mexico, Bancroft (XI, 436)
writes as follows: "Without discussing the merits of the charges
preferred against them, it must be confessed that the service of God in
their churches was reverent and dignified. They spread education among
all classes, their libraries were open to all, and they incessantly
taught the natives religion in its true spirit, as well as the mode of
earning an honest living. Among the most notable in the support of this
last assertion are those of Nayarit, Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua and
lower California, where their efforts in the conversion of the natives
were marked by perseverance and disinterestedness, united with love for
humanity and prayer. Had the Jesuits been left alone, it is doubtful
whether the Spanish-American province would have revolted so soon, for
they were devoted servants of the crown and had great influence with all
classes--too great to suit royalty, but such as after all might have
saved royalty in these parts." Indeed, when the Society was
re-established in 1814, Spain had already lost nearly all of its
American colonies. The punishment had rapidly followed the crime.
Although Mexico and the Philippines are geographically far apart, yet
ecclesiastically one depended on the other. Legaspi, who took possession
of the islands in 1571, built his fleet in Mexico, and also drafted his
sailors there. Andrés de Urdaneta, the first apostle of the Philippines,
was an Augustinian friar in Mexico who accompanied Legaspi as his
chaplain. Twenty years after that expedition, the Jesuits built their
first house in Manila, and Father Sánchez, who was, as we have said, one
of the supervisors of the great tunnel, was sent as superior from Mexico
to Manila. One of his companions, Sedeño, had been a missionary in
Florida, and it was he who opened the first school in the Philippines
and founded colleges at Manila and Cebú. He taught the Filipinos to cut
stone and mix mortar, to weave cloth and make garments. He brought
artists from China to teach them to draw and paint, and he erected the
first stone building in the Philippines, namely the cathedral, dedicated
in honor of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. His
religious superior, Father Sánchez had meanwhile acquired such influence
in Manila as to be chosen in 1585, by a unanimous vote of all the
colonists, to go to arrange the affairs of the colony with Philip II and
the Pope. He brought with him to Europe a Filipino boy who, on his
return to his native land, entered the Society, and became thus the
first Filipino Jesuit.
The college and seminary of San José was established in Manila in 1595.
It still exists, though it is no longer in the hands of the Society;
being the oldest of the colleges of the Archipelago, it was given by
royal decree precedence over all other educational institutions. During
the first hundred years of its educational life, it counted among its
alumni, eight bishops and thirty-nine Jesuits, of whom four became
provincials. There were also on the benches eleven future Augustinians,
eighteen Franciscans, three Dominicans, and thirty-nine of the secular
clergy. The University of St. Ignatius, which opened its first classes
in 1587, was confirmed as a pontifical university in 1621 and as a royal
university in 1653. Besides these institutions, the Society had a
residence at Mecato and a college at Cavite, and also the famous
sanctuary of Antipole. They likewise established the parishes of Santa
Cruz and San Miguel in Manila.
France began its colonization in North America by the settlement of
Acadia in 1603. De Monts, who was in charge of it, was a Huguenot and,
strange to say, had been commissioned to advance the interests of
Catholicity in the colony. Half of the settlers were Calvinists, and the
other half Catholics more or less infected with heresy. A priest named
Josué Flesché was assigned to them; he baptized the Indians
indiscriminately, letting them remain as fervent polygamists as they
were before. The two Jesuit missionaries, Pierre Biard and Enemond
Massé, who were finally forced on the colonists, had to withdraw, and
they then betook themselves, in 1613, to what is now known as Mount
Desert, in the state of Maine, but that settlement was almost
immediately destroyed by an English pirate from Virginia. Two of the
Jesuits were sentenced to be hanged in the English colony there, but
thanks to a storm which drove them across the Atlantic, they were able,
after a series of romantic adventures, to reach France, where they were
accused of having prompted the English to destroy the French settlement
of Acadia.
Meantime, Champlain, who had established himself at Quebec in 1608,
brought over some Recollect Friars in 1615. It was not until 1625 that
Father Massé, who had been in Acadia, came to Canada proper with
Fathers de Brébeuf, Charles Lalemant, and two lay-brothers. With the
exception of Brébeuf, they all remained in Quebec, while he with the
Recollect La Roche d'Aillon went to the Huron country, in the region
bordering on what is now Georgian Bay, north of the present city of
Toronto. The Recollect returned home after a short stay, and Brébeuf
remained there alone until the fall of Quebec in 1629. As the English
were now in possession, all hope of pursuing their missionary work was
abandoned, and the priests and brother returned to France. Canada,
however, was restored to its original owners in 1632, and Le Jeune and
Daniel, soon to be followed by Brébeuf and many others, made their way
to the Huron country to evangelize the savages. The Hurons were chosen
because they lived in villages and could be more easily evangelized,
whereas the nomad Algonquins would be almost hopeless for the time
being.
The Huron missions lasted for sixteen years. In 1649 the tribe was
completely annihilated by their implacable foes, the Iroquois, a
disaster which would have inevitably occurred, even if no missionary had
ever visited them. The coming of the Jesuits at that particular time
seemed to be for nothing else than to assist at the death agonies of the
tribe. The terrible sufferings of those early missionaries have often
been told by Protestant as well as Catholic writers. At one time, when
expecting a general massacre, they sat in their cabin at night and wrote
a farewell letter to their brethren; but, for some reason or other, the
savages changed their minds, and the work of evangelization continued
for a little space. Meantime, Brébeuf and Chaumonot had gone down as far
as Lake Erie in mid-winter and, travelling all the distance from Niagara
Falls to the Detroit River, had mapped out sites for future missions.
Jogues and Raymbault, setting out in the other direction, had gone to
Lake Superior to meet some thousands of Ojibways who had assembled there
to hear about "the prayer."
The first great disaster occurred on August 3, 1642. Jogues was captured
near Three Rivers, when on his way up from Quebec with supplies for the
starving missionaries. He was horribly mutilated, and carried down to
the Iroquois country, where he remained a prisoner for thirteen months,
undergoing at every moment the most terrible spiritual and bodily
suffering. His companion, Goupil was murdered, but Jogues finally made
his escape by the help of the Dutch at Albany, and on reaching New York
was sent across the ocean in mid-winter, and finally made his way to
France. He returned, however, to Canada, and in 1644 was sent back as a
commissioner of peace to his old place of captivity. It was on this
journey that he gave the name of Lake of the Blessed Sacrament to what
is called Lake George. In 1646 he returned again to the same place as a
missionary, but he and his companion Lalande were slain; the reason of
the murder being that Jogues was a manitou who brought disaster on the
Mohawks. Two other Jesuits, Bressani and Poncet, were cruelly tortured
at the very place where Jogues had been slain, but were released.
In 1649 the Iroquois came in great numbers to Georgian Bay to make an
end of the Hurons. Daniel, Gamier and Chabanel were slain, and Brébeuf
and Lalemant were led to the stake and slowly burned to death. During
the torture, the Indians cut slices of flesh from the bodies of their
victims, poured scalding water on their heads in mockery of baptism, cut
the sign of the cross on their flesh, thrust red-hot rods into their
throats, placed live coals in their eyes, tore out their hearts, and ate
them, and then danced in glee around the charred remains. This double
tragedy of Brébeuf and Lalemant occurred on the 16th and 17th of March,
1649. After that the Hurons were scattered everywhere through the
country, and disappeared from history as a distinct tribe.
As early as 1650 there was question of a bishop for Quebec. The queen
regent, Anne of Austria, the council of ecclesiastical affairs, and the
Company of New France all wrote to the Vicar-General of the Society
asking for the appointment of a Jesuit. The three Fathers most in
evidence were Ragueneau, Charles Lalemant and Le Jeune. All three had
refused the honor and Father Nickel wrote to the petitioners that it was
contrary to the rules of the Order to accept such ecclesiastical
dignities. The hackneyed accusation of the supposed Jesuit opposition to
the establishment of an episcopacy was to the fore even then in America.
The refutation is handled in a masterly fashion by Rochemonteix (Les
Jésuites et la Nouvelle France, I, 191). Incidentally the prevailing
suspicion that Jesuits are continually extolling each other will be
dispelled by reading the author's text and notes upon the
characteristics of the three nominees which unfitted them for the post.
"Le Jeune," he says, "would be unfit because he was a converted
Protestant who had never rid himself of the defects of his early
education." It was not until 1658 that Laval was named.
Meantime in 1654, through the efforts of Father Le Moyne to whom a
monument has been erected in the city of Syracuse, a line of missions
was established in the very country of the Iroquois. It extended all
along the Mohawk from the Hudson to Lake Erie. Many of the Iroquois were
converted such as Garagontia, Hot Ashes and others, the most notable of
whom was the Indian girl, Tegakwitha, who fled from the Mohawk to
Caughnawaga, a settlement on the St. Lawrence opposite Lachine which the
Fathers had established for the Iroquois converts. The record of her
life gives evidence that she was the recipient of wonderful supernatural
graces. These New York missions were finally ruined by the stupidity and
treachery of two governors of Quebec, de la Barre and de Denonville, and
also by the Protestant English who disputed the ownership of that
territory with the French. By the year 1710 there were no longer any
missionaries in New York, except an occasional one who stole in,
disguised as an Indian, to visit his scattered flock. There were three
Jesuits with Dongan, the English governor of New York during his short
tenure of office, but they never left Manhattan Island in search of the
Indians.
Attention was then turned to the Algonquins, and there are wonderful
records of heroic missionary endeavor all along the St. Lawrence from
the Gulf to Montreal, and up into the regions of the North. Albanel
reached Hudson Bay, and Buteux was murdered at the head-waters of the
St. Maurice above Three Rivers. The Ottawas in the West were also looked
after, and Garreau was shot to death back of Montreal on his way to
their country, which lay along the Ottawa and around Mackinac Island and
in the region of Green Bay. The heroic old Ménard perished in the
distant swamps of Wisconsin; Allouez and Dablon travelled everywhere
along the shores of Lake Superior; a great mission station was
established at Sault Ste. Marie, and Marquette with his companion Joliet
went down the Mississippi to the Arkansas, and assured the world that
the Great River emptied its waters in the Gulf of Mexico. A statue in
the Capitol of Washington commemorates this achievement and has been
duplicated elsewhere.
The beatification of Jogues, Brébeuf, Lalemant, Daniel, Gamier, Chabanel
and the two _donnés_, Goupil and Lalande, is now under consideration at
Rome. Their heroic lives as well as those of their associates have given
rise to an extensive literature, even among Protestant writers, but the
most elaborate tribute to them is furnished by the monumental work
consisting of the letters sent by these apostles of the Faith to their
superior at Quebec and known the world over as "The Jesuit Relations."
It comprises seventy-three octavo volumes, the publication of which was
undertaken by a Protestant company in Cleveland. (See Campbell, Pioneer
Priests of North America.)
On March 25, 1634, the Jesuit Fathers White and Altham landed with
Leonard Calvert, the brother of Lord Baltimore, on St. Clement's Island
in Maryland. With them were twenty "gentlemen adventurers," all of whom,
with possibly one exception, were Catholics. They brought with them two
hundred and fifty mechanics, artisans and laborers who were in great
part Protestants. It took them four months to come from Southampton and,
on the way over, all religious discussions were prohibited. They were
kindly received by the Indians, and the wigwam of the chief was assigned
to the priests. A catechism in Patuxent was immediately begun by Father
White, and many of the tribe were converted to the Faith in course of
time, as were a number of the Protestant colonists. Beyond that, very
little missionary work was accomplished, as all efforts in that
direction were nullified by a certain Lewger, a former Protestant
minister who was Calvert's chief adviser. The adjoining colony of
Virginia, which was intensely bitter in its Protestantism, immediately
began to cause trouble. In 1644 Ingle and Claiborne made a descent on
the colony in a vessel, appropriately called the "Reformation." They
captured and burned St. Mary's, plundered and destroyed the houses and
chapels of the missionaries, and sent Father White in chains to England,
where he was to be put to death, on the charge of being "a returned
priest." As he was able to show that he had "returned" in spite of
himself, he was discharged.
Calvert recovered his possessions later, and then dissensions began
between him and the missionaries because of some land given to them by
the Indians. In 1645 it was estimated that the colonists numbered
between four and five thousand, three-fourths of whom were Catholics.
They were cared for by four Jesuits. In 1649 the famous General
Toleration Act was passed, ordaining that "no one believing in Jesus
Christ should be molested in his or her religion." As the reverse of
this obtained in Virginia, at that time, a number of Puritan
recalcitrants from that colony availed themselves of the hospitality of
Maryland, and almost immediately, namely in 1650, they repealed the Act
and ordered that "no one who professed and exercised the Papistic,
commonly known as the Roman Catholic religion, could be protected in the
Province." Three of the Jesuits were, in consequence, compelled to flee
to Virginia, where they kept in hiding for two or three years. In 1658
Lord Baltimore was again in control, and the Toleration Act was
re-enacted. In 1671 the population had increased to 20,000, but in 1676
there was another Protestant uprising and the English penal laws were
enforced against the Catholic population. In 1715 Charles, Lord
Baltimore, died. Previous to that, his son Benedict had apostatized and
was disinherited. He died a few months after his father. Benedict's son
Charles, who was also a turncoat, was named lord proprietor by Queen
Ann, and made the situation so intolerable for Catholics that they were
seriously considering the advisability of abandoning Maryland and
migrating in a body to the French colony of Louisiana. As a matter of
fact many went West and established themselves in Kentucky.
Of the Jesuits and their flock in Maryland, Bancroft writes: "A
convention of the associates for the defence of the Protestant religion
assumed the government, and in an address to King William denounced the
influence of the Jesuits, the prevalence of papist idolatry, the
connivances of the previous government at murders of Protestants and the
danger from plots with the French and Indians. The Roman Catholics in
the land which they had chosen with Catholic liberality, not as their
own asylum only, but as the asylum of every persecuted sect, long before
Locke had pleaded for toleration, or Penn for religious freedom, were
the sole victims of Protestant intolerance. Mass might not be said
publicly. No Catholic priest or bishop might utter his faith in a voice
of persuasion. No Catholic might teach the young. If the wayward child
of a Catholic would become an apostate the law wrested for him from his
parents a share of their property. The disfranchisement of the
Proprietary related to his creed, not to his family. Such were the
methods adopted to prevent the growth of Popery. Who shall say that the
faith of the cultivated individual is firmer than the faith of the
common people? Who shall say that the many are fickle; that the chief is
firm? To recover the inheritance of authority Benedict, the son of the
Proprietary, renounced the Catholic Church for that of England, but the
persecution never crushed the faith of the humble colonists."
The extent of the Jesuit missions in what is now Canada and the United
States may be appreciated by a glance at the remarkable map recently
published by Frank F. Seaman of Cleveland, Ohio. On it is indicated
every mission site beginning with the Spanish posts in Florida, Georgia
and Virginia, as far back as 1566. The missions of the French Fathers
are more numerous, and extend from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson Bay, and
west to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. Not only are the mission
sites indicated, but the habitats of the various tribes, the portages
and the farthest advances of the tomahawk are there also. Lines starting
from Quebec show the source of all this stupendous labor.
CHAPTER XI
CULTURE
Colleges--Their Popularity--Revenues--Character of education:
Classics; Science; Philosophy; Art--Distinguished Pupils--Poets:
Southwell; Balde; Sarbievius; Strada; Von Spee; Gresset; Beschi.
--Orators: Vieira; Segneri; Bourdaloue.--Writers: Isla;
Ribadeneira; Skarga; Bouhours etc.--Historians--Publications--
Scientists and Explorers--Philosophers--Theologians--Saints.
To obviate the suspicion of any desire of self-glorification in the
account of what the Society has achieved in several fields of endeavor
especially in that of science, literature and education it will be safer
to quote from outside and especially from unfriendly sources.
Fortunately plenty of material is at hand for that purpose.
Böhmer-Monod, for instance, in "Les Jésuites" are surprisingly generous
in enumerating the educational establishments possessed by the Society
at one time all over Europe, though their explanation of the phenomenon
leaves much to be desired. In 1540, they tell us, "the Order counted
only ten regular members, and had no fixed residence. In 1556 it had
already twelve provinces, 79 houses, and about 1,000 members. In 1574
the figures went up to seventeen provinces, 125 colleges, 11 novitiates,
35 other establishments of various kinds, and 4,000 members. In 1608
there were thirty-one provinces, 306 colleges, 40 novitiates, 21
professed houses, 65 residences and missions, and 10,640 members. Eight
years afterwards, that is a year after the death of its illustrious
General Aquaviva, the Society had thirty-two provinces, 372 colleges, 41
novitiates, 123 residences, 13,112 members. Ten years later, namely in
1626, there were thirty-six provinces, 2 vice-provinces, 446 colleges,
37 seminaries, 40 novitiates, 24 professed houses, about 230 missions,
and 16,060 members. Finally in 1640 the statistics showed thirty-five
provinces, 3 vice-provinces, 521 colleges, 49 seminaries, 54 novitiates,
24 professed houses, about 280 residences and missions and more than
16,000 members."
Before giving these "cold statistics," as they are described, the
authors had conducted their readers through the various countries of
Europe, where this educational influence was at work. "Italy," we are
informed, "was the place in which the Society received its programme and
its constitution, and from which it extended its influence abroad. Its
success in that country was striking, and if the educated Italians
returned to the practices and the Faith of the Church, if it was
inspired with zeal for asceticism and the missions, if it set itself to
compose devotional poetry and hymns of the Church, and to consecrate to
the religious ideal, as if to repair the past, the brushes of its
painters and the chisels of its sculptors, is it not the fruit of the
education which the cultivated classes received from the Jesuits in the
schools and the confessionals? Portugal was the second fatherland of the
Society. There it was rapidly acclimated. Indeed, the country fell, at
one stroke, into the hands of the Order; whereas Spain had to be won
step by step. It met with the opposition of Spanish royalty, the higher
clergy, the Dominicans. Charles V distrusted them; Philip II tried to
make them a political machine, and some of the principal bishops were
dangerous foes, but in the seventeenth century the Society had won over
the upper classes and the court, and soon Spain had ninety-eight
colleges and seminaries richly endowed, three professed houses, five
novitiates, and four residences, although the population of the country
at that time was scarcely 5,000,000.
"In France a few Jesuit scholars presented themselves at the university
in the year 1540. They were frowned upon by the courts, the clergy, the
parliament, and nearly all the learned societies. It was only in 1561,
after the famous Colloque de Poissy, that the Society obtained legal
recognition and was allowed to teach, and in 1564 it had already ten
establishments, among them several colleges. One of the colleges, that
of Clermont, became the rival of the University of Paris, and
Maldonatus, who taught there, had a thousand pupils following his
lectures. In 1610 there were five French provinces with a total of
thirty-six colleges, five novitiates, one professed house, one mission,
and 1400 members. La Flèche, founded by Henry IV, had 1,200 pupils. In
1640 the Society in France had sixty-five colleges, two academies, two
seminaries, nine boarding-schools, seven novitiates, four professed
houses, sixteen residences and 2050 members.
"In Germany Canisius founded a boarding school in Vienna, with free
board for poor scholars, as early as 1554. In 1555 he opened a great
college in Prague; in 1556, two others at Ingolstadt and Cologne
respectively, and another at Munich in 1559. They were all founded by
laymen, for, with the exception of Cardinal Truchsess of Augsburg, the
whole episcopacy was at first antagonistic to the Order. In 1560 they
found the Jesuits their best stand-by, and in 1567 the Fathers had
thirteen richly endowed schools, seven of which were in university
cities. The German College founded by Ignatius in Rome was meantime
filling Germany with devoted and learned priests and bishops, and
between 1580 and 1590 Protestantism disappeared from Treves, Mayence,
Augsburg, Cologne, Paderborn, Münster and Hildesheim. Switzerland gave
them Fribourg in 1580, while Louvain had its college twenty years
earlier.
"In 1556 eight Fathers and twelve scholastics made their appearance at
Ingolstadt in Bavaria. The poison of heresy was immediately ejected, and
the old Church took on a new life. The transformation was so prodigious
that it would seem rash to attribute it to these few strangers; but
their strength was in inverse proportion to their number. They captured
the heart and the head of the country, from the court and the local
university down to the people; and for centuries they held that
position. After Ingolstadt came Dillingen and Würzburg. Munich was
founded in 1559, and in 1602 it had 900 pupils. The Jesuits succeeded in
converting the court into a convent, and Munich into a German Rome. In
1597 they were entrusted with the superintendence of all the primary
schools of the country, and they established new colleges at Altoetting
and Mindelheim. In 1621 fifty of them went into the Upper Palatinate,
which was entirely Protestant, and in ten years they had established
four new colleges.
"In Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola there was scarcely a vestige of the
old Church in 1571. In 1573 the Jesuits established a college at Grätz,
and the number of communicants in that city rose immediately from 20 to
500. The college was transformed into a university twelve years later,
and in 1602 and 1613 new colleges were opened at Klagenfurth and Leoben.
In Bohemia and Moravia they had not all the secondary schools, but the
twenty colleges and eleven seminaries which they controlled in 1679
proved that at least the higher education and the formation of
ecclesiastics was altogether in their hands, and the seven
establishments and colleges on the northern frontier overlooking
Lutheran Saxony made it evident that they were determined to guard
Bohemia against the poison of heresy." The writer complains that they
even dared to dislodge "Saint John Huss" from his niche and put in his
place St. John Nepomucene, "who was at most a poor victim, and by no
means a saint." Böhmer's translator, Monod, adds a note here to inform
his readers that the Jesuits invented the legend about St. John
Nepomucene, and induced Benedict XIII to canonize him.
Finally, we reach Poland where, we are informed that "the Jesuits
enjoyed an incredible popularity. In 1600 the college of Polotsk had 400
students, all of whom were nobles; Vilna had 800, mostly belonging to
the Lithuanian nobility, and Kalisch had 500. Fifty years later, all the
higher education was in the hands of the Order, and Ignatius became,
literally, the _preceptor Poloniæ_, and Poland the classic land of the
royal scholarship of the north, as Portugal was in the south.
"In India, there were nineteen colleges and two seminaries; in Mexico,
fourteen colleges and two seminaries; in Brazil, thirteen colleges and
two seminaries; in Paraguay, seven colleges," and the authors might have
added, there was a college in Quebec, which antedated the famous Puritan
establishment of Harvard in New England, and which was erected not "out
of the profits of the fur trade," as Renaudot says in the Margry
Collection, but out of the inheritance of a Jesuit scholastic.
After furnishing their readers with this splendid list of houses of
education, the question is asked: "How can we explain this incredible
success of the Order as a teaching body? If we are to believe the sworn
enemies of the Jesuits, it is because they taught gratuitously, and thus
starved out the legitimate successors of the Humanists. That might
explain it somewhat, they say, especially in southern Italy, where the
nobleman is always next door to the lazzarone, but it will by no means
explain how so many princes and municipalities made such enormous
outlays to support those schools; for there were other orders in
Catholic countries as rigidly orthodox as the Jesuits. No; the great
reason of their success must be attributed to the superiority of their
methods. Read the pedagogical directions of Ignatius, the great
scholastic ordinances of Aquaviva, and the testimony of contemporaries,
and you will recognize the glory of Loyola as an educator. The expansion
is truly amazing; from a modest association of students to a world-wide
power which ended by becoming as universal as the Church for which it
fought; but superior to it in cohesion and rapidity of action--a world
power whose influence made itself felt not only throughout Europe, but
in the New World, in India, China, Japan; a world power on whose service
one sees at work, actuated by the same spirit, representatives of all
races and all nations: Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, French, Germans,
English, Poles and Greeks, Arabians, Chinamen and Japanese and even red
Indians; a world power which is something such as the world has never
seen."
Another explanation is found in the vast wealth which "from the
beginning was the most important means employed by the Order." We are
assured that the Jesuits have observed on this point such an absolute
reserve that it is still impossible to write a history or draw up an
inventory of their possessions. But, perhaps it might be answered that
if an attempt were also made to penetrate "the absolute reserve" of
those who have robbed the Jesuits of all their splendid colleges and
libraries and churches and residences which may be seen in every city
of Europe and Spanish America, with the I.H.S. of the Society still on
their portals, some progress might be made in at least drawing up an
inventory of their possessions.
As a matter of fact the Jesuits have laid before the public the
inventories of their possessions and those plain and undisguised
statements could easily be found if there was any sincere desire to get
at the truth. Thus Foley has published in his "Records of the English
Province" (Introd., 139) an exact statement of the annual revenues of
the various houses for one hundred and twenty years. Dühr in the
"Jesuiten-fabeln" (606 sqq.) gives many figures of the same kind for
Germany. Indeed the Society has been busy from the beginning trying to
lay this financial ghost. Thus a demand for the books was made as early
as 1594 by Antoine Arnauld who maintained that the French Jesuits
enjoyed an annual revenue of 1,200,000 livres, which in our day would
amount to $1,800,000. Possibly some of the reverend Fathers nourished
the hope that he might be half right, but an official scrutiny of the
accounts revealed the sad fact that their twenty-five colleges and
churches with a staff of from 400 to 500 persons could only draw on
60,000 livres; which meant at our values $90,000 a year--a lamentably
inadequate capital for the gigantic work which had been undertaken.
Arnaulds under different names have been appearing ever since.
How this "vast wealth" is accumulated, might also possibly be learned by
a visit to the dwelling-quarters of any Jesuit establishment, so as to
see at close range the method of its domestic economy. Every member of
the Society, no matter how distinguished he is or may have been,
occupies a very small, uncarpeted room whose only furniture is a desk, a
bed, a wash-stand, a clothes-press, a prie-dieu, and a couple of
chairs. On the whitewashed wall there is probably a cheap print of a
pious picture which suggests rather than inspires devotion. This room
has to be swept and cared for by the occupant, even when he is advanced
in age or has been conspicuous in the Society, "unless for health's sake
or for reasons of greater moment he may need help." The clothing each
one wears is cheap and sometimes does service for years; there is a
common table; no one has any money of his own, and he has to ask even
for carfare if he needs it. If he falls sick he is generally sent to an
hospital where, according to present arrangements, the sisters nurse him
for charity, and he is buried in the cheapest of coffins, and an
inexpensive slab is placed over his remains.
Now it happens that this method of living admits of an enormous saving,
and it explains how the 17,000 Jesuits who are at present in the Society
are able not only to build splendid establishments for outside students,
but to support a vast number of young men of the Order who are pursuing
their studies of literature, science, philosophy, and theology, and who
are consequently bringing in nothing whatever to the Society for a
period of eleven years, during which time they are clothed, fed, cared
for when sick, given the use of magnificent libraries, scientific
apparatus, the help of distinguished professors, travel, and even the
luxuries of villas in the mountains or by the sea during the heats of
summer. It will, perhaps, be a cause of astonishment to many people to
hear that this particular section of the Order, thanks to common life
and economic arrangements, could be maintained year after year when
conditions were normal at the amazingly small outlay of $300 or $400 a
man. Of course, some of the Jesuit houses have been founded, and devoted
friends have frequently come to their rescue by generous donations, but
it is on record that in the famous royal foundation of La Flèche,
established by Henry IV, where one would have expected to find plenty of
money, the Fathers who were making a reputation in France by their
ability as professors and preachers and scientific men were often
compelled to borrow each other's coats to go out in public. Such is the
source of Jesuit wealth. "They coin their blood for drachmas."
Failing to explain the Jesuits' pedagogical success by their wealth, it
has been suggested that their popularity in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries arose from the fact that it was considered to be
"good form" to send one's boys to schools which were frequented by
princes and nobles; but that would not explain how they were,
relatively, just as much favored in India and Peru as in Germany or
France. Indeed there was an intense opposition to them in France,
particularly on the part of the great educational centres of the
country, the universities: first, because the Jesuits gave their
services for nothing, and secondly because the teaching was better, but
chiefly, according to Boissier, who cites the authority of three
distinguished German pedagogues of the sixteenth century--Baduel, Sturm,
and Cordier--"because to the disorder of the university they opposed the
discipline of their colleges, and at the end of three or four years of
higher studies, regularly graduated classes of upright, well-trained
men." (Revue des Deux Mondes, Dec., 1882, pp. 596, 610).
Compayré, who once figured extensively in the field of pedagogical
literature, finds this moral control an objection. He says it was making
education subsidiary to a "religious propaganda." If this implies that
the Society considers that the supreme object of education is to make
good Christian men out of their pupils, it accepts the reproach with
pleasure; and, there is not a Jesuit in the world who would not walk
out of his class to-morrow, if he were told that he had nothing to do
with the spiritual formation of those committed to his charge.
Assuredly, to ask a young man in all the ardor of his youth to sacrifice
every worldly ambition and happiness to devote himself to teaching boys
grammar and mathematics, to be with them in their sports, to watch over
them in their sleep, to be annoyed by their thoughtlessness and
unwillingness to learn; to be, in a word, their servant at every hour of
the day and night, for years, is not calculated to inflame the heart
with enthusiasm. The Society knows human nature better, and from the
beginning, its only object has been to develop a strong Christian spirit
in its pupils and to fit them for their various positions in life. It is
precisely because of this motive that it has incurred so much hatred,
and there can be no doubt that if it relinquished this object in its
schools, it would immediately enjoy a perfect peace in every part of the
world.
Nor can their educational method be charged with being an insinuating
despotism, as Compayré insists, which robs the student of the most
precious thing in life, personal liberty; nor, as Herr describes it, "a
sweet enthrallment and a deformation of character by an unfelt and
continuous pressure" (Revue universitaire, I, 312). "The Jesuit," he
says, "teaches his pupils only one thing, namely to obey," which we are
told, "is, as M. Aulard profoundly remarks, the same thing as to please"
(Enquête sur l'enseignement secondaire, I, 460). In the hands of the
Jesuit, Gabriel Hanotaux tells us, the child soon becomes a mechanism,
an automaton, apt for many things, well-informed, polite,
self-restrained, brilliant, a doctor at fifteen, and a fool ever after.
They become excellent children, delightful children, who think well,
obey well, recite well, and dance well, but they remain children all
their lives. Two centuries of scholars were taught by the Jesuits, and
learned the lessons of Jesuits, the morality of the Jesuits, and that
explains the decadence of character after the great sixteenth century.
If there had not been something in our human nature, a singular resource
and things that can not be killed, it was all up with France, where the
Order was especially prosperous.
As an offset to this ridiculous charge, the names of a few of "this army
of incompetents," these men marked by "decadence of character," might be
cited. On the registers of Jesuit schools are the names of Popes,
Cardinals, bishops, soldiers, magistrates, statesmen, jurists,
philosophers, theologians, poets and saints. Thus we have Popes Gregory
XIII, Benedict XIV, Pius VII, Leo XIII, St. Francis of Sales, Cardinal
de Bérulle, Bossuet, Belzunce, Cardinal de Fleury, Cardinal Frederico
Borromeo, Fléchier, Cassini, Séquier, Montesquieu, Malesherbes, Tasso,
Galileo, Corneille, Descartes, Molière, J. B. Rousseau, Goldoni,
Tournefort, Fontenelle, Muratori, Buffon, Gresset, Canova, Tilly,
Wallenstein, Condé, the Emperors Ferdinand and Maximilian, and many of
the princes of Savoy, Nemours and Bavaria. Even the American
Revolutionary hero, Baron Steuben, was a pupil of theirs in Prussia, and
omitting many others, nearly all the great men of the golden age of
French literature received their early training in the schools of the
Jesuits.
It is usual when these illustrious names are referred to, for someone to
say: "Yes, but you educated Voltaire." The implied reproach is quite
unwarranted, for although François Arouet, later known as Voltaire, was
a pupil at Louis-le-Grand, his teachers were not at all responsible for
the attitude of mind which afterwards made him so famous or infamous.
That was the result of his home training from his earliest infancy. In
the first place, his mother was the intimate friend of the shameless and
scoffing courtesan of the period, Ninon de l'Enclos, and his god-father
was Chateauneuf, one of the dissolute abbés of those days, whose only
claim to their ecclesiastical title was that, thanks to their family
connections, they were able to live on the revenues of some
ecclesiastical establishment. This disreputable god-father had the
additional distinction of being one of Ninoñ's numerous lovers. It was
he who had his _fileul_ named in her will, and he deliberately and
systematically taught him to scoff at religion, long before the
unfortunate child entered the portals of Louis-le-Grand. Indeed,
Voltaire's mockery of the miracles of the Bible was nothing but a
reminiscence of the poem known as the "Moïsade" which had been put in
his hands by Chateauneuf and which he knew by heart. The wonder is that
the Jesuits kept the poor boy decent at all while he was under their
tutelage. Immorality and unbelief were in his home training and blood.
Another objection frequently urged is that the Jesuits were really
incapable of teaching Latin, Greek, mathematics or philosophy, and that
in the last mentioned study they remorselessly crushed all originality.
To prove the charge about Latin, Gazier, a doctor of the Sorbonne,
exhibited a "Conversation latine, par Mathurin Codier, Jésuite."
Unfortunately for the accuser, however, it was found out that Codier not
only was not a Jesuit, but was one of the first Calvinists of France.
Greek was taught in the lowest classes; and in the earliest days the
Society had eminent Hellenists who attracted the attention of the
learned world, such as: Gretser, Viger, Jouvancy, Rapin, Brumoy, Grou,
Fronton du Duc, Pétau, Sirmond, Garnier and Labbe. The last mentioned
was the author of eighty works and his "Tirocinium linguæ græcæ" went
through thirteen or fourteen editions. At Louis-le-Grand there were
verses and discourses in Greek at the closing of the academic year.
Bernis says he used to dream in Greek. There were thirty-two editions of
Gretser's "Rudimenta linguæ græcæ," and seventy-five of his
"Institutiones." Huot, when very young, began a work on Origen, and
Bossuet, when still at college, became an excellent Greek scholar. They
were both Jesuit students.
"The Jesuits were also responsible for the collapse of scientific
studies," says Compayré (193,197). The answer to this calumny is easily
found in the "Monumenta pedagogica Societatis Jesu" (71-78), which
insists that "First of all, teachers of mathematics should be chosen who
are beyond the ordinary, and who are known for their erudition and
authority." This whole passage in the "Monumenta," was written by the
celebrated Clavius. Surely it would be difficult to get a man who knew
more about mathematics than Clavius. It will be sufficient to quote the
words of Lalande, one of the greatest astronomers of France, who, it may
be noted incidentally, was a pupil of the Jesuits. In 1800 he wrote as
follows: "Among the most absurd calumnies which the rage of Protestants
and Jansenists exhale against the Jesuits, I found that of La Chalotais,
who carried his ignorance and blindness to such a point as to say that
the Jesuits had never produced any mathematicians. I happened to be just
then writing my book on 'Astronomy,' and I had concluded my article on
'Jesuit Astronomers,' whose numbers astonished me. I took occasion to
see La Chalotais, at Saintes, on July 20, 1773, and reproached him with
his injustice, and he admitted it."
"As for history," says Compayré, "it was expressly enjoined by the
'Ratio' that its teaching should be superficial." And his assertion,
because of his assumed authority, is generally accepted as true,
especially as he adduces the very text of the injunction which says:
"Historicus celerius excurrendus," namely "let historians be run through
more rapidly." Unfortunately, however, the direction did not apply to
the study of history at all, but to the study of Latin, and meant that
authors like Livy, Tacitus, and Cæsar were to be gone through more
expeditiously than the works of Cicero, for example, who was to be
studied chiefly for his exquisite style. In brief, the charge has no
other basis than a misreading, intentional or otherwise, of a school
regulation.
The same kind of tactics are employed to prove that no philosophy was
taught in those colleges, in spite of the fact that it was a common
thing for princes and nobles and statesmen to come not only to listen to
philosophical disputations in the colleges, in which they themselves had
been trained, but to take part in them. That was one of Condé's
pleasures; and the Intendant of Canada, the illustrious Talon, was fond
of urging his syllogisms against the defenders in the philosophical
tournaments of the little college of Quebec. Nor were those pupils
merely made to commit to memory the farrago of nonsense which every
foolish philosopher of every age and country had uttered, as is now the
method followed in non-Catholic colleges. The Jesuit student is
compelled not only to state but to prove his thesis, to refute
objections against it, to retort on his opponents, to uncover sophisms
and so on. In brief, philosophy for him is not a matter of memory but of
intelligence. As for independence of thought, a glance at their history
will show that perhaps no religious teachers have been so frequently
cited before the Inquisition on that score, and none to whom so many
theological and philosophical errors have been imputed by their enemies,
but whose orthodoxy is their glory and consolation.
Their failure to produce anything in the way of painting or sculpture
has also afforded infinite amusement to the critics, although it is like
a charge against an Academy of Medicine for not having produced any
eminent lawyers, or vice versa. It is true that Brother Seghers had
something to do with his friend Rubens, and that a Spanish coadjutor was
a sculptor of distinction, and that a third knew something about
decorating churches, and that two were painters in ordinary for the
Emperor of China, but whose masterpieces however have happily not been
preserved. Hüber, an unfriendly author, writing about the Jesuits, names
Courtois, known as Borgognone, by the Italians, who was a friend of
Guido Reni; Dandini, Latri, Valeriani d'Aquila and Castiglione, none of
whom, however, has ever been heard of by the average Jesuit. An eminent
scholar once suggested that possibly the elaborate churches of the
Compañía, which are found everywhere in the Spanish-American
possessions, may have been the work of the lay-brothers of the Society.
But a careful search in the menologies of the Spanish assistancy has
failed to reveal that such was the case. That, however, may be a piece
of good fortune, for otherwise the Society might have to bear the
responsibility of those overwrought constructions, in addition to the
burden which is on it already of having perpetrated what is known as the
"Jesuit Style" of architecture. From the latter accusation, however, a
distinguished curator of the great New York Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke, in an address to an assembly of artists and
architects, completely exonerated the Society. "The Jesuit Style," he
said, "was in existence before their time, and," he was good enough to
add, "being gentlemen, they did not debase it, but on the contrary
elevated and ennobled it and made it worthy of artistic consideration."
So, too, the Order has not been conspicuous for its poets. One of them,
however, Robert Southwell, was a martyr, and wore a crown that was
prized far more by his brethren than the laurels of a bard. He was born
at Norfolk on February 21, 1561, and entered the Society at Rome in
1578. Singularly enough, the first verses that bubbled up from his
heart, at least of those that are known, were evoked by his grief at not
being admitted to the novitiate. He was too young to be received, for he
was only seventeen, and conditions in England did not allow it; but his
merit as a poet may be inferred from an expression of Ben Jonson that he
would have given many of his works to have written Southwell's "Burning
Babe," and, according to the "Cambridge History of Literature" (IV,
129), "though Southwell may never have read Shakespeare, it is certain
that Shakespeare read Southwell." Of course, his poems are not numerous,
for though he may have meditated on the Muse while he was hiding in out
of the way places during the persecutions, he was scarcely in a mood to
do so when he was flung into a filthy dungeon, or when he was stretched
on the rack thirteen different times as a prelude to being hanged, drawn
and quartered at Tyburn.
Eleven years after that tragedy, Jacob Balde was born in the imperial
free town of Ensisheim in Alsace. He studied the classics and rhetoric
in the Jesuit college of that place, and philosophy and law at
Ingolstadt, where he became a Jesuit on July 1, 1624. To amuse himself,
when professor of rhetoric, he wrote his mock-heroic of the battle of
the frogs and mice, "Batrachomyomachia." His mastery of classical Latin
and the consummate ease with which he handled the ancient verse made him
the wonder of the day. "His patriotic accents," says Herder, "made him a
German poet for all time." The tragedies of the Thirty Years War urged
him to strive to awaken the old national spirit in the hearts of the
people. He was chiefly a lyrist, and was hailed as the German Horace,
but he was at home in epic, drama, elegy, pastoral poetry and satire. Of
course, he wrote in Latin, which was the language of the cultured
classes, for German was then too crude and unwieldy to be employed as a
vehicle for poetry. His works fill eight volumes.
No less a personage than Isaac Watts, the English hymnologist, makes
Mathias Sarbiewski (Sarbievius), the Pole, another Horace, though his
poetry was mostly Pindaric. Grotius puts him above Horace (Brucker,
505). He was a court preacher, a companion of the king in his travels, a
musician and an artist. He wrote four books of lyrics, a volume of
epodes, another of epigrams, and there is a posthumous work of his
called "Silviludia." His muse was both religious and patriotic, and
because of the former, he was called by the Pope to help in the revision
of the hymns of the Breviary; and for that work he was crowned by King
Wladislaw. His prose works run into eight volumes. There are twenty-two
translations of his poems in Polish, and there are others in German,
Italian, Flemish, Bohemian, English and French.
Gosse in his "Seventeenth Century Studies" says that Famian Strada who
wrote "The Nightingale" was not professedly a poet but a lecturer on
rhetoric. "The Nightingale" was first published in Rome in 1617 in a
volume of "Prolusiones" on rhetoric and poetry, and occurs in the sixth
lecture of the second course. "This Jesuit Rhetorician," Gosse informs
us, "had been trying to familiarize his pupils with the style of the
great Classic poets, by reciting to them passages in imitation of Ovid,
Lucretius, Lucian and others. 'This,' he told them 'is an imitation of
the style of Claudian,' and so he gives us the lines which have become
so famous. That a single fragment in a schoolbook should so suddenly
take root and blossom in European literature, when all else that its
voluminous author wrote and said was promptly forgotten, is very curious
but not unprecedented." In England, the first to adopt the poem was John
Ford in his play of "The Lover's Melancholy" in 1629; Crashaw came next
with his "Music's Duel," Ambrose Philips essayed it a century later; and
in our own days, François Coppée introduced it with charming effect in
his "Luthier de Crémone."
The French Jesuit Sautel was a contemporary of Strada and Balde. He was
considered the Ovid of his time, and was as remarkable for the holiness
of his life as for his unusual poetical ability.
About this time, there was a German Jesuit, named Jacob Masen or
Masenius, who was a professor of rhetoric in Cologne, and died in 1681.
Among his manuscripts found after his death were three volumes, the
first of which was a treatise on general literature, the second a
collection of lyrics, epics, elegies etc., and the third a number of
dramas. In the second manuscript was an epic entitled "Sarcotis." The
world would never have known anything about "Sarcotis" had not a
Scotchman, named Lauder, succeeded in finding it, somewhere, about 1753,
i. e. seventy-two years after Masen's death. He ran it through the press
immediately, to prove that Milton had copied it in his "Paradise Lost."
Whereupon all England rose in its wrath to defend its idol. Lauder was
convicted of having intercalated in the "Sarcotis," a Latin translation
of some of the lines of "Paradise Lost," and had to hide himself in some
foreign land to expiate his crime against the national infatuation. Four
years later (1757), Abbé Denouart published a translation of the genuine
text of "Sarcotis." The poem was found to be an excellent piece of work,
and like "Paradise Lost," its theme was the disobedience of Adam and
Eve, their expulsion from Paradise, the disasters consequent upon this
sin of pride. Whether Milton ever read "Sarcotis" is not stated.
Frederick von Spee is another Jesuit poet. He was born at Kaiserwerth on
the Rhine on February 25, 1591, entered the Society in 1610, and
studied, taught and preached for many years like the rest of his
brethren. An attempt to assassinate him was made in 1629. He was in
Treves, when it was stormed by the imperial forces in 1635, witnessed
all its horrors, and died from an infection which he caught while
nursing the sick and wounded soldiers in the hospital. It was only in
the stormy period of his life that he wrote in verse. Two of his works,
the "Goldenes Tugendbuch," and the "Trutznachtigal" were published after
his death. The former was highly prized by Leibniz as a book of
devotion. The latter, which has in recent times been repeatedly
reprinted and revised, occupies a conspicuous place among the lyrical
collection of the seventeenth century. His principal work, however, the
one, in fact, which gave him a world-wide reputation, (a result he was
not aiming at, for the book was probably published without his consent),
is the "Cautio Criminalis," which virtually ended the witchcraft trials.
It is written in exquisite Latin, and describes with thrilling vividness
and cutting sarcasm the horrible abuses in the prevailing legal
proceedings, particularly the use of the rack. The moral impression
produced by the work soon put a stop to the atrocities in many places,
though many a generation had to pass before witch-burning ceased in
Germany.
Perhaps it may be worth while to mention the wonderful Beschi, a
missionary in Madura, whose Tamil poetry ordinary mortals will never
have the pleasure of enjoying. Besides writing Tamil grammars and
dictionaries, as well as doctrinal works for his converts, not to speak
of his books of controversy against the Danish Lutherans who attempted
to invade the missions, he wrote a poem of eleven hundred stanzas in
honor of St. Quiteria, and another known as the "Unfading Garland,"
which is said to be a Tamil classic. It is divided into thirty-six
cantos, containing in all 3615 stanzas. Baumgartner calls it an epic
which for richness and beauty of language, for easy elegance of metre,
true poetical conception and execution, is the peer of the native
classics, while in nobility of thought and subject matter it is superior
to them as the harmonious civilization of Christianity is above the
confused philosophical dreams and ridiculous fables of idolatry. It is
in honor of St. Joseph. His satire known as "The Adventures of Guru
Paramarta" is the most entertaining book of Tamil literature. Beschi
himself translated it into Latin; it has also appeared in English,
French, German and Italian.
These are about the only poets of very great prominence the Society can
boast of; but though she rejoices in the honor they won, she regards
their song only as an accidental attraction in the lives of those
distinguished children of hers. What she cherishes most is the piety of
Sarbiewski and Balde, the martyrdom of charity gladly accepted by von
Spee, the missionary ardor of Beschi, and the blood offering made by
Southwell to restore the Faith to his unhappy country.
Apart from these, Gresset also may be claimed as a Jesuit poet, but
unfortunately it was his poetry that blasted his career as an apostle,
for the epicureanism of one of his effusions compelled his dismissal
from the Society. His brilliant talents counted for nothing in such a
juncture. He left the Order with bitter regret on his part, but never
lost his affection for it, and never failed to defend it against its
calumniators. His "Adieux aux Jésuites" is a classic. In vain Voltaire
and Frederick the Great invited him to Potsdam. He loathed them both,
and withdrew to Amiens, where he spent the last eighteen years of his
life in seclusion, prayer and penance, never leaving the place except
twice in all that time. On both occasions it was to go to the French
Academy, of which his great literary ability had made him a member. In
1750 he founded at Amiens the Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters
which still exists. It is said that before he died he burned all his
manuscripts, and one cannot help regretting that instead of publishing
he had not committed to the flames the poem that caused his withdrawal
from the Society. For Gresset the Jesuits have always had a great
tenderness, and it might be added here that he is a fair sample of most
of those who, for one reason or another, have severed their connection
with the Society. There have been only a few instances to the contrary,
and even they repented before they died.
In the matter of oratory, the Society has had some respectable
representatives as for example, that extraordinary genius, Vieira, the
man whose stormy eloquence put an end to the slavery of the Indians in
Brazil, and whose "Discourse for the success of the Portuguese arms,"
pronounced when the Dutch were besieging Bahia in 1640, was described by
the sceptical Raynal to be "the most extraordinary outburst of
Christian eloquence." He is considered to have been one of the world's
masters of oratory of his time, and to have been equally great in the
cathedrals of Europe and the rude shrines of the Maranhão. He was
popular, practical, profoundly original and frequently sublime. He has
left fifteen volumes of sermons alone. Though brought up in Brazil he is
regarded as a Portuguese classic.
Paolo Segneri, who died in 1694, is credited with being, after St.
Bernardine of Siena and Savonarola, Italy's greatest orator. For
twenty-seven years he preached all through the Peninsula. His eloquence
was surpassed only by his holiness, and to the ardor of an apostle he
added the austerities of a penitent. He has been translated into many
languages, even into Arabic.
Omitting many others, for we are mentioning only the supereminently
great, there is a Bourdaloue, who is entitled by even the enemies of the
Society the _prédicateur des rois et le roi des prédicateurs_ (the
preacher of kings and the king of preachers.) For thirty-four years he
preached to the most exacting audience in the world, the brilliant
throngs that gathered around Louis XIV, and till the end, it was almost
impossible to approach the church when he was to occupy the pulpit.
Lackeys were on guard days before the sermon. The "Edinburgh Review" of
December, 1826, says of him: "Between Massillon and Bossuet, at a great
distance certainly above the latter, stands Bourdaloue, and in the vigor
and energy of his reasoning he was undeniably, after the ancients,
Massillon's model. If he is more harsh, and addressed himself less to
the feelings and passions, it is certain that he displays a fertility of
resources and an exuberance of topics, either for observation or
argument, which are not equalled by any orator, sacred or profane. It is
this fertility, this birthmark of genius, that makes us certain of
finding in every subject handled by him, something new, something which
neither his predecessors have anticipated nor his followers have
imitated."
To this Protestant testimony may be added that of the Jansenist
Sainte-Beuve in his "Causeries du Lundi." His estimate of Bourdaloue is
as follows: "I know all that can be said and that is said about Bossuet.
But let us not exaggerate. Bossuet was sublime in his 'Funeral
Orations', but he had not the same excellence in his sermons. He was
uneven and unfinished. In that respect, even while Bossuet was still
living, Bourdaloue was his master. That was the opinion of their
contemporaries, and doubtless of Bossuet himself. Unlike Bossuet,
Bourdaloue did not hold the thunders in his hand, nor did the lightnings
flash around his pulpit, nor, like Massillon, did he pour out perfumes
from his urn. But he was the orator, such as he alone could have been,
who for thirty-four years in succession could preach and be useful. He
did not spend himself all at once, did not gain lustre by a few
achievements, nor startle by some of those splendid utterances which
carry men away and evoke their plaudits; but he lasted; he built up with
perfect surety; he kept on incessantly, and his power was like an army
whose work is not merely to gain one or two battles, but to establish
itself in the heart of the enemy's country and stay there. That is the
wonderful achievement of the man whom his contemporaries called 'The
Great Bourdaloue', and whom people obstinately persist in describing as
'the judicious and estimable Bourdaloue.'
"He had what was called the _imperatoria virtus_, that sovereign quality
of a general who rules every alignment and every step of his soldiers,
so that nothing moves them but his command. Such is the impression
conveyed by the structure of his discourses; by their dialectical form,
by their solid demonstrations, which move forward from the start, first
by pushing ahead the advance corps, then dividing his battalions into
two or three groups, and finally establishing a line of battle facing
the consciences of his hearers. On one occasion, when he was about to
preach at St. Sulpice there was a noise in the church because of the
crowd, when above the tumult the voice of Condé was heard, shouting, as
Bourdaloue entered the pulpit: 'Silence! Behold the enemy!'"
We may subjoin to these two appreciations the judgment of the Abbé
Maury, himself a great orator. He is cited by Sainte-Beuve: "Bourdaloue
is more equal and restrained than Bossuet in the beauty and incomparable
richness of his designs and plans, which seem like unique conceptions in
the art and control of a discourse wherein he is without a rival; in his
dialectic power, in his didactic and steady progress, in his ever
increasing strength, in his exact and serried logic, and in the
sustained eloquence of his ratiocination, in the solidity and opulence
of his doctrinal preaching he is inexhaustible and unapproachable."
Sainte-Beuve adds to this eulogy: "Bourdaloue's life and example
proclaim with a still louder emphasis, that to be eloquent to the end,
to be so, both far and near, to wield authority and to compel attention,
whether on great or startling, simple or useful themes, you must have
what is the principle and source of it all, the virtue of Bourdaloue."
With the exception of Padre Isla, the satirist, and Baltasar Gracián,
author of "Worldly Wisdom" and of "El Criticón," which seems to have
suggested Robinson Crusoe to Defoe, the Society has not produced any
very remarkable prose writer in the lighter kind of literature, and
perhaps even their style in other kinds of writing may have suffered
because of the intensity and rapidity with which they were compelled to
work. Nevertheless some of them are said to be classics in their
respective languages as, for instance, Vieira in Portuguese, Ribadeneira
in Spanish, and Skarga in Polish. The Frenchman, Dominique Bouhours, is
perhaps the one who is most remarkable in this respect. Petit de
Julleville in his "Histoire de la langue et de la littérature française"
says that "Bouhours was incontestably the master of correct writing in
his generation. The statutes of the Jesuits prevented him from being an
Academician, but he 'was something better,' as someone said when the
Father was striving to evade him: 'Academiam tu mihi solus facis--For me
you constitute the Academy.' Not only in his Order was he considered the
official censor, under whose eyes all sorts of writings had to pass,
even those of Maimbourg and Bourdaloue, but people came from all parts
of the literary world to consult him. Saint-Evremond and Bossuet were
only too glad to be guided by him. The President Lamoigno submitted to
him his official pronouncements, and Racine sent his poems with the
request to 'mark the faults that might have been made in the language of
which you are one of the most excellent judges.' In the history of the
French language Bouhours left no date--he made an epoch."
The Jesuits were also literary arbiters in countries and surroundings
where there was no Bouhours. Thus the Society had four or five hundred
grammarians and lexicographers of the languages of almost every race
under the sun. Wherever the missionaries went, their first care was to
compile a dictionary and make a grammar of the speech of the natives
among whom they were laboring, and if the learned world at present knows
anything at all of the language of vast numbers of aboriginal tribes
who have now vanished from the earth, it is due to the labors of the
Jesuit missionaries.
But this was only an infinitesimal part of their literary output. In his
"Bibliothèque des écrivains de la compagnie de Jésus," which is itself a
stupendous literary achievement, Sommervogel has already drawn up a list
of 120,000 Jesuit authors and he has restricted himself to those who
have ceased from their labors on earth and are now only busy in reading
the book of life. Nor do these 120,000 authors merely connote 120,000
books; for some of these writers were most prolific in their
publications. The illustrious Gretser, for instance, "the Hammer of
Heretics," as he was called, is credited with two hundred and
twenty-nine titles of printed works and thirty-nine MSS. which range
over the whole field of erudition open to his times: archæology,
numismatics, theology, philology, polemics, liturgy, and so on. Kircher,
who died in 1680, wrote about everything. During the time he sojourned
in Rome, he issued forty-four folio volumes on subjects that are
bewildering in their diversity and originality: hieroglyphics,
astronomy, astrology, medico-physics, linguistics, ethnology, horoscopy,
and what not else besides. We owe to him the earliest counting-machine,
and it was he who perfected the Aeolian harp, the speaking tube, and the
microscope.
We have chosen these great men merely as examples of the literary
activity of the Society during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Indeed, this inundation of books grew so alarming in its proportions
that the enemies of the Church complained that it was a plot of the
Jesuits who, being unable to suppress other books, had determined to
deluge the world with their own publications.
In the domain of church history they have, it is true, nothing to
compare, in size, with the thirty volumes of the Dominican Natalis
Alexander; the thirty-six of Fleury; or the twenty-eight of the "España
Sagrada" of the Augustinian Flórez, which, under his continuator, Risco,
reached forty volumes. Bérault-Bercastel, indeed, wrote twenty-eight,
but it was after the Society was suppressed. Perhaps they refrained from
entering that field because they regarded it to be sufficiently covered,
or because, in order to devote one's self to historical work, one needs
leisure, great libraries, and security of possession. Their absorbing
pedagogical and missionary work left leisure to but a few Jesuits in
those stirring times, and they were besides being continually despoiled
of the great libraries they had gathered, and never sure of having a
roof over their heads the day after a work might be begun. Seizures and
expulsions form a continual series in the Society's history. On the
other hand, they were making history by their explorations, and the
letters they sent from all parts of the world which according to rule
they were compelled to write, furnish to-day and for all time, the most
invaluable historical data for every part of the globe. As a matter of
fact, they had not even time to write an account of their own Order.
Cordara, Orlandini, Jouvancy, and Sacchini cover only limited periods,
and as has been remarked above, it was not until Father Martín ordered a
complete series of histories of the various sections of the Society that
the work was undertaken. This is planned on a much vaster scale than the
older writers ever dreamt of, and some of the volumes have already been
published.
In profane history, however, the versatile Famian Strada distinguished
himself in 1632 by his "Wars of Flanders," and the work was continued by
two of his religious brethren, Dondini and Gallucio. Clavigero's
"Ancient History of Mexico," in three quarto volumes, published after
the Suppression, is a notable work, as are also his "History of
California," and a third on the "Spanish Conquest." Alegre's three
volumes, "History of the Society of Jesus in New Spain" is of great
value. Mariana's complete "History of Spain," in twenty-five books, is
still recognized as an authority, and it will be of interest to know
that as late as 1888 a statue was erected at Talavera, in honor of the
same tumultuous writer, who was incarcerated for his book on "Finance."
Charlevoix's voluminous histories of New France, of Japan, of Paraguay,
and of Santo Domingo are also worthy of consideration. Bancroft
frequently refers to him as a valuable historian, and John Gilmary Shea
insists that he is too generally esteemed to need commendation.
There is, however, an historical work of the Society which has no peer
in literature: the great hagiological collection known as the "Acta
Sanctorum" of the Bollandists, which was begun in the first years of the
seventeenth century, and is still being elaborated. It consists at
present of sixty-four folio volumes. This vast enterprise was conceived
by the Belgian Father Rosweyde, but is known as the work of the
Bollandists, from the name of Rosweyde's immediate successor, Bollandus.
When the first volume, which was very diminutive when compared with the
present massive tomes, was sent to Cardinal Bellarmine, he exclaimed:
"this man wants to live three hundred years." He regarded the plan as
chimerical, but it has been realized by a self-perpetuating association
of Jesuits living at Brussels. When one member is worn out or dies,
someone else is appointed to fill the gap, and so the work goes on
uninterruptedly. The two first volumes, containing pages, which appeared
in 1643, aroused the enthusiasm of the scientific world, and Pope
Alexander VII publicly testified that "there had never been undertaken
a work more glorious or more useful to the Church."
In other fields of work the Society has not been idle. Even the acrid
"Realencyclopädie fur protestantische Theologie und Kirche" says (VIII,
758), "the Order has not lacked scholars. It can point to a long series
of brilliant names among its members, but they have only given real aid
to the advancement of science in those spheres which have close
connection with the doctrines of the Church, such as mathematics, the
natural sciences, chronology, explanation of classical writers and
inscriptions. The service of Jesuit astronomers like Christopher
Schlüssel (Clavius), the corrector of the calendar; Christopher
Schreiner, the discoverer of the sun spots; Francesco Da Vico, the
discoverer of a comet and observer of the transit of Venus; Angelo
Secchi, the investigator of the sun, and a meteorologist, are
universally acknowledged. And no less credit is given to the services of
the Order afforded by the optician Grimaldi; and that much praised
all-round scholar and universal genius (Doctor centum artium) Athanasius
Kircher. Among the classical writers is Angelo Mai."
This is certainly not a bad list from an unfriendly source, and possibly
might be helped out by a few suggestions. Thus Otto Hartig, the
Assistant Librarian of the Royal Library of Munich, tells us in "The
Catholic Encyclopedia" that Ritter very justly traces the source and
beginning of modern geography to the "Acta Sanctorum" of the Jesuit
Bollandists, who gathered up the crude notes of the journeys of the
early missionaries with their valuable information about the customs,
language and religion of the inhabitants on the frontiers of the Roman
Empire, along the Rhine and Danube, of the British Isles, Russia,
Poland, the Faröe Islands, Iceland and the Far East. Another signal
contribution to geography was the "Historia natural y moral de las
Indias" of José d'Acosta, one of the most brilliant writers on the
natural history of the New World and the customs of the Indians. The
first thorough exploration of Brazil was made by Jesuit missionaries led
by Father Ferre (1599-1632). The Portuguese priests, Alvares and
Bermudes, who went to Abyssinia on an embassy to the king of that
country, were followed by the Jesuits. Fernandes crossed southern
Abyssinia in 1613, and set foot in regions which until recently were
closed to Europeans. Páez and Lobo were the first to reach the sources
of the Blue Nile, and as early as the middle of the seventeenth century,
they with Almeida, Menendes and Teles drew up a map of Abyssinia which
is considered the best produced before the time of Abbadie (1810-97).
The Jesuit missionaries, Machado, Affonso and Paiva, in 1630 endeavored
to establish communications between Abyssinia and the Congo; Ricci and
Schall, both of whom were learned astronomers, made a cartographic
survey of China. Ricci is commonly known as the Geographer of China, and
is compared to Marco Polo. Andrada was the first to enter Tibet, a feat
which was not repeated until our own times. The Jesuits of Canada, among
whom was Marquette, were the first to furnish the learned world with
information about upper North America; Mexico and California as far as
the Rio Grande, were travelled by Kino (1644-1711), Sedlmayer (1703-79)
and Baegert (1717-77); and the Jesuit, Wolfgang Beyer, reached Lake
Titicaca between 1752 and 1766--eighty years before the celebrated
globe-navigator Meyer arrived there. Ramion sailed up the Cassiquiare,
from the Río Negro to the Orinoco in 1744, and thus anticipated La
Condamine, Humboldt, and Bonpland. Samuel Fritz in 1684 established the
importance of the Maranhão as the main tributary of the Amazon, and drew
the first map of the country. Techo (1673), Harques (1687), and Durán
(1638) told the world all about Paraguay, and d'Ovaglia (1646) about
Chile. Gruber and d'Orville reached Lhasa from Pekin, and went down into
India through the Himalaya passes.
Possibly it is worth while here to give more than a passing notice to
the ascent of the Nile in the seventeenth century, made by the noted
Pedro Páez, a Spanish Jesuit. He left an account of it which Kircher
published in his "OEdipus Ægyptiacus" but which James Bruce angrily
described as an invention. Bruce claims that he himself was the first to
explore the river. But Bruce followed Páez by at least 150 years. The
question is discussed at length by two writers in the "Biographie
universelle," under the titles "Bruce" and "Paez."
Páez was born at Olmeda in 1564. He entered the Society when he was
eighteen years of age and was sent to Goa in 1588. He was assigned to
attempt an entry of Abyssinia; to facilitate his work, he assumed the
dress of an Armenian. He had to wait a year for a ship at Ormuz, and
when, at last, he embarked he was captured by an Arab pirate,
ill-treated and thrown into prison. As he was unable to procure a
ransom, he spent seven years chained to the oar as a galley slave, but
was finally set free and reached Goa in 1596. He was then employed in
several missions of Hindostan, but again set out for Abyssinia which he
reached in 1603. To acquaint himself with the language of the people he
buried himself in a monastery of Monophysite monks, and then began to
give public lessons in the city. His success as a teacher attracted
attention, and he was finally called before the emperor, where his
eloquence and correctness of speech captivated and ultimately helped to
convert the monarch. A grant of land was given him at Gorgora where he
built a church. The question of the sources of the Nile was frequently
discussed, and in 1618 Páez ascended the river. He was thus the first
modern European to make the attempt. He told the story in the two large
octavos, which at the time of the Suppression could be found in most of
the libraries of the Society. Bruce asserts, however, that nothing is
said in these volumes about the discovery, and he accuses Kircher of
imposture. But, says the writer in the "Biographie universelle," the
fact is that between the account of Páez and that of Bruce there is
scarcely any difference except in a few insignificant details; so that
if Bruce is right, so also are Páez and Kircher. Páez explored the river
as early as 1618, whereas Bruce arrived there only in 1772, that is 154
years later. "Bruce," says another writer "makes it clear that someone
had preceded him and displays his temper in every line."
The great English work, "The Dictionary of National Biography," handles
Bruce more severely. "He was in error," it says, "in regarding himself
as the first European who had reached these fountains. Pedro Páez, the
Jesuit, had undoubtedly done so in 1615, and Bruce's unhandsome attempt
to throw doubt on the fact only proves that love of fame is not
literally the last infirmity of noble minds, but may bring much more
unlovely symptoms in its train. He was endowed with excellent abilities,
but was swayed to an undue degree by self-esteem and thirst for fame. He
was uncandid to those he regarded as rivals, and vanity and the passion
for the picturesque led him to embellish minor particulars and perhaps
in some instances to invent them. He delayed for twelve years the
composition of his narrative and then dictated it to an amanuensis,
indolently omitting to refer to the original journals and hence
frequently making a lamentable confusion of facts and dates. His report
is highly idealised and he will always be the poet of African travel."
The book did not appear till 1790. The missionary success of Páez
consisted in uniting schismatical Abyssinia to Rome in 1624. He died
shortly afterwards, and, when the depraved Emperor Basilides mounted the
throne in 1634, the Jesuit missionaries were handed over to the axe of
the executioner. Páez, it may be remarked, was not the only one whom
Bruce vilified. After Páez came the Portuguese Jesuit Jeronimo Lobo, a
very interesting and lengthy account of whose daring missionary work may
be found in the "Biographie universelle." The writer tells us that Lobo
published his narrative in 1659, and that it was again edited by the
Royal Society of London in 1688. Legrand translated it into French in
1728, and Dr. Samuel Johnson gave a compendious translation of it in
1734. The complete book was reprinted in 1798, and in the preface the
editors take Bruce to task for his treatment of both Páez and Lobo. It
is worthy of remark that the notice of "Bruce" in the "Encyclopedia
Britannica" (ninth edition) does not say a single word either of Páez or
Lobo, although both had attracted so much notice in the modern literary
world.
It was due to the Jesuits that France established subventions for
geographical research. In 1651 Martino Martini, kinsman of the
celebrated Eusebio Kino, published his "Atlas Sinensis", which Richtoven
described as "the fullest geographical description of China that we
have." Kircher published his famous "China illustrata" in 1667. Verbiest
was the imperial astronomer in China, and so aroused the interest of
Louis XIV that he sent out six Jesuit astronomers at his own expense
and equipped them with the finest instruments. One of these envoys,
Gerbillon, explored the unknown regions north of China, and he, with
Buvet, Régis and Jarton and others, made a survey of the Great Wall, and
then mapped out the whole Chinese empire (1718). Manchuria and Mongolia
as far as the Russian frontier and Tibet to the sources of the Ganges
were included. The map ranks as a masterpiece even to-day. It consists
of 120 sheets, and it has formed the basis of all the native maps made
since then. De Halde edited all the reports sent to him by his brethren,
and published them in his "Description géographique, historique,
politique, physique et chronologique de l'empire de Chine et de la
Tartarie chinoise." The material for the maps in this work was prepared
by d'Anville, the greatest geographer of the time, but he was not a
Jesuit. In addition to these works, were written fifteen volumes by the
missionaries of Pekin about the history and customs of the Chinese, and
published in Paris.
These Jesuit astronomers and geographers were associate members of all
the learned societies of Europe, and were especially serviceable to
those bodies in being able to determine the longitude and latitude of
the places they described. Between 1684 and 1686 they fixed the exact
position of the Cape of Good Hope and of Louveau in Siam. As early as
1645 Riccioli attempted to determine the length of a degree of
longitude. Similar work was done by Thoma in China, Boscovitch and Maire
in the Papal States, Leisganig in Austria; Mayer in the Palatinate, and
Beccaria and Canonica in northwestern Italy. Veda published the first
map of the Philippines about 1734. Mezburg and Guessman made maps of
Galicia and Poland, Andrian of Carinthia, and Christian Meyer of the
Rhine from Basle to Mainz. Riccioli, a distinguished reformer of
cartography, published his "Almagestum novum", and his "Geographia et
hydrographia reformata" as early as 1661. Kircher gave the world his
"Arsmagnetica" and "Mundus subterraneus" about the same time, and made
the ascent of Etna and Stromboli at the risk of his life, to measure
their craters. His theory of the interior of the earth was accepted by
Leibniz and by the entire Neptunist school of geology. He was the first
to attempt to chart the ocean currents. Heinrich Scherer of Dillingen
(1620-1704) devoted his whole life to geography, and made the first
orographical and hydrographical synoptic charts. Johann Jacob Hemmer was
the founder of the first meteorological society, which had contributors
from all over the world. This list is sufficiently glorious.
Perhaps it might be noted here that these eminent men were not primarily
seeking distinction or aiming at success in the sciences to which they
devoted themselves. That consideration occupied only a secondary place
in their thoughts and the glory they achieved was sought exclusively to
enable them the more easily to reach the souls of men. But on the other
hand, that motive inspired them with greater zeal in the prosecution of
their work than a merely human purpose would have done. Assuredly, it
would have been much more comfortable for Ricci and Schall and Verbiest
and Grimaldi to be looking through telescopes in the observatories of
Europe than at Canton or Pekin, where every moment they were in danger
of having their heads cut off. As a matter of fact, after more than
forty years of service for China's education in mathematics and
astronomy, the only reward that Father Schall reaped was, as we have
seen, to be dragged to court, though he was paralyzed and speechless,
and to be condemned to be hacked to pieces.
It is quite true that the philosophers of the Society have never evolved
any independent philosophical or theological thought, in the modern
acceptation of that term. That is, they have never acted like the
captain of a ship who would throw his charts and compass overboard, and
insist that North is South because he thinks it so. The aim of
philosophy is intellectual truth and not the extravagances of a
disordered imagination. Contrary to the modern superstition, Catholic
philosophers are not hampered in their speculations by authority, nor
are they compelled in their study of logic, metaphysics and ethics to
draw proofs from revelation. Philosophy is a human not a divine science,
but on the other hand, Catholic philosophy is prevented from going over
the abyss by the possession of a higher knowledge than unassisted human
reason could ever attain. Thus protected, it speculates with an
audacity, of which those who are not so provided can have no conception.
For them philosophy runs through the whole theological course, and when
Holy Scripture, the pronouncements of the Church, and the utterances of
the Fathers have established the truth of the particular doctrine which
is under consideration, then reason enters, and elevated, ennobled,
fortified and illumined, it walks secure in the highest realms of
thought. Three entire years are given to the explicit study of it, in
the formation of the Jesuit scholastic, and it continues to be employed
throughout his four or five years of theology. Both sciences are
fundamental in the Society's studies, and it has not lacked honor in
either. But as philosophy is subsidiary and ancillary, it will be
sufficient to set forth what is said about the Society's theologians.
Dr. Joseph Pohle writing in "The Catholic Encyclopedia" tells us that
controversial theology was carried to the highest perfection by Cardinal
Bellarmine. Indeed, there is no theologian who has defended almost the
whole of Catholic theology against the attacks of the Reformers with
such clearness and convincing force. Other theologians who were
remarkable for their masterly defence of the Catholic Faith were the
Spanish Jesuit Gregory of Valencia (d. 1603) and his pupils Adam Tanner
(d. 1635) and Jacob Gretser (d. 1625). Nor can there be any question
that Scholastic theology owes most of its classical works to the Society
of Jesus. Molina was the first Jesuit to write a commentary on the
theological "Summa" of St. Thomas, and was followed by Cardinal Toletus
and those other brilliant Spaniards, Gregory of Valencia, Suárez,
Vasquez, and Didacus Rúiz. Suárez, the most prominent among them, is
also the foremost theologian the Society of Jesus has produced. His
renown is due not only to the fertility and wealth of his literary
productions, but also to his clearness, moderation, depth and
circumspection. He had a critic, both subtle and severe, in his
colleague, Gabriel Vásquez. Didacus Rúiz wrote masterly treatises on God
and the Trinity, as did Christopher Gilles; and they were followed by
Harruabal, Ferdinand Bastida, Valentine Herice, and others whose names
will be forever linked with the history of Molinism. During the
succeeding period, John Præpositus, Caspar Hurtado, and Antonio Pérez
won fame by their commentaries on St. Thomas. Ripalda wrote the best
treatise on the supernatural order. To Leonard Lessius we owe some
beautiful treatises on God and his attributes. Coninck made the Trinity,
the Incarnation, and the Sacraments his special study. Cardinal John de
Lugo, noted for his mental acumen and highly esteemed as a moralist,
wrote on the virtue of Faith and the Sacraments of Penance and the
Eucharist. Claude Tiphanus is the author of a classical monograph on
the notions of personality and hypostasis, and Cardinal Pallavicini,
known as the historiographer of the Council of Trent, won repute as a
dogmatic theologian by several of his writings (XIV, 593-94).
With regard to moral theology, Lehmkhul tells us that in the middle of
the eighteenth century there arose a man who was, so to say, a blessing
of Divine Providence. Owing to the eminent sanctity which he combined
with solid learning, he definitely established the system of moral
theology which now prevails in the Church. That man was St. Alphonsus
Maria Liguori, who was canonized in 1839, and declared a Doctor of the
Church in 1871. In his youth he was imbued with the stricter principles
of moral theology, but as he himself confesses, the experience of
fifteen years of missionary life and careful study brought him to
realize the falseness and the evil consequences of the system in which
he had been educated, and the necessity of a change. He, therefore, took
the "Medulla" of the Jesuit, Hermann Busembaum, subjected it to a
thorough examination, confirmed it by internal reasons and external
authority, and then published a work which was received with universal
applause, and whose doctrine is entirely on Probabilistic principles.
This approval and appropriation of Busembaum's teaching by one who has
been made a Doctor of the Church is a sufficient vindication of the
doctrine of Probabilism, for which the Society suffered so much, and is
at the same time a magnificent tribute to the greatness of Busembaum,
"whose book," Lehmkuhl contents himself with saying, "was widely used,"
whereas forty editions of it had been issued during the author's own
life, which happened to be an entire century before the publication of
Liguori's great work. Busembaum's "Medulla" was printed in 1645, and
Liguori's "Moral Theology" in 1748. Up to 1845, there were 200 editions
of Busembaum; that is, one edition for every year of its existence. In
the history of moral theology Sánchez, Layman, Azor, Castro Palao,
Torres, Escobar also may be cited as leading lights.
In Scripture there are the illustrious names of Maldonado, Ribera,
Prado, Pereira, Sancio and Pineda. Of the saintly Cornelius a Lapide
(Vanden Steen) a Protestant critic, Goetzius, said in 1699: "He is the
most important of Catholic Scriptural writers." His "Commentary of the
Apocalypse" has been translated into Arabic. In ascetical theology, St.
Ignatius is a leader in modern times; and his "Spiritual Exercises" form
a complete system of asceticism. With him are a great number of his
sons, whose names are familiar in every religious house, such as
Bellarmine, Rodríguez, Alvarez de Paz, Gaudier, da Ponte, Lessius,
Lancicius, Surin, Saint-Jure, Neumayr, Dirckink, Scaramelli, Nieremberg
and many others. Finally, it can not be denied that the Society has
hearkened to the second rule of the Summary of its Constitutions, which
is read publicly and with an unfailing regularity every month of the
year, in every one of its houses throughout the world, namely: that "the
End of this Society is not only to attend to the salvation and
perfection of our own souls, with the divine grace, but with the same,
seriously to employ ourselves in procuring the salvation and perfection
of our neighbor."
The canonization of saints proceeds very slowly in the modern Church.
Years and years are spent in preliminary investigations of the life, the
holiness, the doctrines, and the miracles of the one who is to be
presented to the public recognition of the Church. Theologians and
canonists have to pass on all those points and those who testify speak
only under the most solemn oaths and the threat of dire censure if they
witness to what they know to be false. Infinite labor has been expended
before the question is presented to the Holy See. Very many of these
causes never reach even that stage, for everywhere, in its progress,
stands an official called the Promoter of the Faith, but popularly known
as the "Devil's Advocate," whose work consists in doing his utmost to
throw obstacles in the way of the canonization. Nevertheless, the
Society has a sufficient number on its roll of fame, in spite of its
comparatively brief and perpetually perturbed existence, to convince the
world that it is not the maleficent organization that it is credited
with being.
At the head of the list come the two friends, Ignatius and Xavier, dying
within four years of each other: the latter in 1552, the former in 1556.
The third is Borgia, who died in 1572. He had set aside all the honors
of the world, except that of actual royalty, in order to take the lowest
place in the Society, but he became its chief. In charming contrast with
these three great men, are the three boy saints: Stanislaus, Aloysius,
and Berchmans, dying respectively in 1568, 1591 and 1621. Stanislaus,
the little Polish noble, travelled all the way from Vienna to Rome on
foot, a distance of 1500 miles, to enter the novitiate. He had no money,
or guide, or friends, but he arrived safely, for the angels gave him
Communion on his journey, and he has ever since been the darling of the
beginners in religious life. Aloysius was of princely blood, but died
nursing the sick in the hospital. He is the patron of youthful purity,
and was never a priest, though an unwise writer makes a missionary of
him. The third, John Berchmans, was neither prince nor noble. On the
contrary, it used to be the delight of foreigners, when rambling through
the little Flemish town of Diest, to see the name of "Berchmans" on the
humble shops of hucksters and grocers, and to fancy that some of the
little lads who clattered about in their sabots, on their way to school,
were relatives of his. His sanctity has made his family name famous in
the world. His beatification was especially welcome, because, as
Berchmans was the very incarnation of the Jesuit rule, the Order cannot
have been the iniquitous organization it is frequently said to be.
Then there are three Japanese Jesuits who were crucified at Nagasaki in
1597; and in 1616 came Alfonso Rodríguez, who had prepared Peter Claver
to be the Apostle of the negro slaves in America, and who went quietly
from his post at the gates of the College of Minorca to the gates of
heaven. Peter Claver had to wait for thirty-eight years before going to
join his venerable friend. Besides the two St. Francises of the early
days, there are two more of that name in the Society: the Frenchman,
John Francis Regis, who died in 1640, and the Italian, Francis
Hieronymo, whose work ended in 1716. They were both preachers to the
most abandoned classes. Hieronymo could gather as many as 15,000 men to
a regular monthly Communion, and when he entered the royal convict
ships, he converted those sinks of iniquity into abodes of peace and
resignation.
It may be noted here that St. Francis Regis had a distinction peculiarly
his own. Long after his canonization as a saint, he was proclaimed to
have been actually expelled from the Society, and that the public
disgrace was prevented only by his death, which occurred before the
official papers arrived from Rome. This accusation is trident-like in
its wounding power or purpose. It transfixes Regis, and kills his
reputation for virtue; then it inflicts a gash on the Society by making
it present to the Church, as worthy of being raised to the altars, a
man whom it was unwilling to keep in its own houses; finally, it assails
the Church and attempts to show that no respect should be had for its
decrees of canonization. It was almost unnecessary for the learned
Bollandist, Van Ortroy, to show that there is no foundation whatever for
this story of the dismissal of St. John Francis Regis from the Society
of Jesus.
Such are the canonized Jesuits. The Blessed are more numerous. There are
ninety-one of them. First in time are the forty Portuguese martyrs under
Ignatius de Azevedo, who were slain by the French Huguenots in a harbor
of the Azores in the year 1570. Then follow the English witnesses to the
Truth. The first to die was Thomas Woodhouse, who was executed in 1573.
Between that date and 1582 four others were put to death; among them the
illustrious Edmund Campion. Of those who died in the persecutions of
Japan, between 1617 and 1627, there are thirty-one Japanese as well as
European Jesuits. Rudolf Aquaviva was put to death in Madura in 1583,
and John de Britto in 1693. Two Hungarians, Melchior Grodecz and Stephen
Pongracz were slain in Hungary in 1619, and Andrew Bobola was butchered
by the Cossacks in 1657. There are others among the Society's Blessed
who were not martyred, but would have been willing to win their crown in
that way, if God so wanted. They are Peter Faber, the first priest of
the Society; Peter Canisius, the Apostle of Germany; and the Italian
Antonio Baldinucci, a great missionary who used to whip himself to
blood, to move the hearts of the hardened sinners around him, and who
lighted bonfires of bad books and pictures and playing cards in the
public squares to impress his excitable fellow-countrymen. His
missionary methods were somewhat like those of Savonarola.
Those who are ranked as Venerable are fifty in number, including Claude
de la Colombiére, the Apostle of the devotion to the Sacred Heart;
Cardinal Bellarmine; Nicholas Lancicius, the well-known ascetical
writer; Julien Maunoir, the apostle of his native Brittany; and José
Anchieta, the thaumaturgus of Brazil. There are, however, a great many
others under consideration, among them being the heroes of North
America--Jogues, Goupil, Lalande, Brébeuf, Lalemant, Garnier, Daniel,
Chabanel--who were slain by the Iroquois. In the conclaves of 1605,
which elected Clement VIII and Leo XI, Bellarmine was very seriously
considered as a possible pope, but the fact that he was a Jesuit was an
obstacle in the eyes of many. When he died in 1621, there was a general
expectation that he would be canonized for his extraordinarily holy
life. In fact, Urban VIII who was so rigid in such matters placed him
among the "Venerable" six years after his death. His case was
re-introduced for beatification in 1675, 1714, 1752 and 1832, but
nothing was done chiefly because it would have angered the French
regalist politicians, as his name was associated with a doctrine most
obnoxious to them. In 1920 the case was again taken up.
We omit the countless thousands of Jesuits who ever since the Society
was established have striven in every possible way to realize its
ideals; the heroes who have hurried with delight to the most disgusting
and dangerous missions they could find in the farthermost parts of the
world; who have died by thousands of disease and exhaustion in the
pest-laden ships that carried them to their destination or flung them
dead on some desolate coast; or those who have been slain by savages or
devoured by wild beasts; or who died of starvation in the forests and
deserts where they were hunting for souls; or have given their lives
with joy for the privilege of ministering to the plague-stricken. Nor
do we mention here the great phalanxes of the unknown who, without a
single regret for what they might have been in the world, have
endeavored to obey, to some extent, at least, that startling admonition
that they hear so often: _Ama nesciri et pro nihilo reputari_: "Love to
be unknown and to be reputed as nothing,"--the men who have truly lived
up to that ideal in the repulsiveness of hospitals and jails and
asylums, or in the ceaseless drudgery and obscurity of the class-room
and the unchanging routing of household occupations.
These men have seen themselves time and time again robbed of all their
possessions, hounded out of their own countries and cities as if they
were criminals, their names branded with infamy and a by-word for all
that is vile, and they understood better and better, as time went on,
what is meant by that page which stares at them from their rule book and
which is entitled: "The Sum and Scope of Our Constitutions," and which
tells them: "We are men crucified to the world, and to whom the world is
crucified; new men who have put off their own affections to put on
Christ, dead to themselves to live to justice; who, with St. Paul, in
labors, in watching, in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in
long-suffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Ghost, in charity unfeigned,
in the word of truth, shew themselves ministers of God; and, by the
armor of justice, on the right hand and on the left, by honor and
dishonor, by evil report and good report, by good success and ill
success, press forward with great strides to their heavenly country, and
by all means possible, and with all zeal, urge on others also, ever
looking to God's greatest glory."
CHAPTER XII
FROM VITELLESCHI TO RICCI
1615-1773
Pupils in the Thirty Years War--Caraffa; Piccolomini; Gottifredi
--Mary Ward--Alleged decline of the Society--John Paul Oliva--
Jesuits in the Courts of Kings--John Casimir--English
Persecutions. Luzancy and Titus Oates--Jesuit Cardinals--
Gallicanism in France--Maimbourg--Dez--Troubles in Holland. De
Noyelle and Innocent XI--Attempted Schism in France--Gonzáles
and Probabilism--Don Pedro of Portugal--New assaults of
Jansenists--Administration of Retz--Election of Ricci--The
Coming Storm.
As Mutius Vitelleschi's term of office extended from 1615 to 1645, it
coincided almost exactly with the Thirty Years War. Of course, the
colleges, which had been established in almost every country in Europe,
felt the effects of this protracted and devastating struggle, but, on
the other hand, comfort was found in the fact that many of the great
statesmen and soldiers of that epoch had been trained in those schools.
There was, for instance, the Emperor Ferdinand, of whom Gustavus
Adolphus used to say, "I fear only his virtues," and associated with him
was Maximilian, the Great, who was so ardent in the practice of his
religion that Macaulay describes him as, "a fervent missionary wielding
the powers of a prince." He appointed the Jesuit poet, Balde, as his
court preacher, and called to Ingolstadt the Jesuit astronomer,
Scheiner, who disputed with Galileo the discovery of the sun-spots--as a
matter of fact, the discoveries of both synchronized with each other,
but Fabricius is asserted to have anticipated both. Scheiner suggested
and planned the optical experiment which bears his name, and also
invented the pantograph.
Tilly, one of the greatest warriors of his time, had first thought of
entering the Society, but, on the advice of his spiritual guides, took
up the profession of arms. According to Spahn "he displayed genuine
piety, remarkable self-control and disinterestedness and seemed like a
monk in the garb of a soldier" (The Catholic Encyclopedia, XIV, 724). As
he was in command of the league of the Catholic states, and was ordered
to restore the lands which had been wrested from their Catholic owners,
of course, he gained the reputation of being a bitter foe of
Protestantism--an attitude of mind which was attributed to his education
at Cologne and Chatelet. Wallenstein, his successor, was educated at the
Jesuit college of Olmütz and was a liberal benefactor of his old masters
in the work of education. The fact that in 1633 they saved from the fury
of a Vienna mob their rancorous enemy, the famous Count de Thurn, when
he was taken prisoner by Wallenstein in the Bohemian uprising, ought to
count for something in dissipating the delusion that Jesuits are
essentially persecutors. When the Emperor Mathias sent them back to
Bohemia and founded a college for them at Tirnau and affiliated it to
the University of Prague, they showed their gratitude by sacrificing a
number of their men in the pestilence which was then raging.
Richelieu, who was prominent in what was called the French period of the
war, was particularly solicitous in protecting the interests of his
former teachers. Although politically supporting the Protestant cause,
he invariably stipulated in his treaties that the Jesuits should be
protected in the territories handed over to Protestant control, even
when they opposed him, as for instance, in the Siege of Prague, where
Father George Plachy, a professor of sacred history in the university,
led out his students in a sortie and drove back the foe--an exploit
which merited for him a mural crown from the city while Emperor
Ferdinand III sent an autograph letter to the General of the Society to
thank him for the patriotism displayed by Plachy. Indeed, when the
Protestant ministers of Charenton wanted Richelieu to suppress the
Jesuits, he answered that "it was the glory of the Society to be
condemned by those who attack the Church, calumniate the saints, and
blaspheme Christ and God. For many reasons, the Jesuits ought to be
esteemed by everyone; indeed there are not a few who love them precisely
because men like you hate them."
There is one of their pupils who, at this time, though a man of unusual
ability, brought sorrow not only on the Society but also on the
universal Church: Marc Antonio de Dominis. He was a Dalmatian, whose
family had given a Pope and many illustrious prelates to the Church. He
followed the course of the Jesuit college in Illyria, and amazed his
masters by the brilliancy of his talents. He entered the novitiate, and
contrary to the practice of the Society was immediately made a professor
of sacred eloquence, philosophy and mathematics. Crowds flocked to hear
him; meantime he distinguished himself in the pulpit. Apparently he was
a priest when he became a novice. The fame he acquired, however, turned
his head and he left the Society to become a bishop, and later an
archbishop, in Dalmatia. But his utterances soon showed that he was at
odds with the Church. He was with Venice in its quarrel with the Pope,
and then relinquishing his archbishopric, he fled to England, where he
was received with enthusiasm by James I, who kept him at court, showered
rich benefices on him and made him Dean of Windsor. There he wrote a
book entitled "De republica christiana" (1620), which denied the primacy
of the Pope. Pursued by remorse he went to Rome and at the feet of
Gregory XV implored forgiveness for his apostasy. But his repentance was
feigned. His letters to certain individuals showed that he was still a
heretic, and he was imprisoned in Sant' Angelo, where he died in 1624,
giving signs at the last moment of genuine repentance.
The long Generalate of Vitelleschi was clouded by one disaster: the
expulsion of the Jesuits from the Duchy of Lorraine. They had opposed
the bigamous marriage of the duke, but his confessor, Father Cheminot,
claimed that there were sufficient grounds for invalidating the first
marriage, and took the opposite side. He was expelled from the Society
or left it.
During Vitelleschi's time, the famous English nun, Mary Ward, appeared
in Rome. She had been a Poor Clare, but found that it was not her
vocation to be a contemplative, and she, therefore, proposed to
establish a religious congregation which would do for women in their own
sphere what the Jesuits were doing for men. For that end she asked for
dispensation from enclosure, choir duty, the religious habit and also
freedom from diocesan control. As all this was an imitation of the
Society's methods, she and her companions began to be called by their
enemies "Jesuitesses." Their demands, of course, evoked a storm, but
Father Vitelleschi encouraged them, and Suárez and Lessius were deputed
to study the constitutions of the new congregation. Nevertheless,
although the women were the recipients of very great consideration from
three Popes, Paul V, Gregory XV, and Urban VIII, the committee of
cardinals to whom the matter was referred, refused in 1630 to approve of
their rules. In 1639 the little group returned to England where, under
the protection of Queen Henrietta Maria, they began their work, and were
approved by the Holy See. At first, they were known in Rome as "The
English Ladies." In Ireland and America they are "The Loretto Nuns" (A
masterly review of this incident may be found in Guilday's "English
Refugees," I, c. vi).
Vitelleschi died in February, 1645, and was followed in rapid succession
by Fathers Caraffa, Piccolomini, Gottifredi and Nickel, whose collective
terms amounted only to seventeen years. Caraffa governed the Society for
three years; Piccolomini for two; and Gottifredi died before the
congregation which elected him had terminated its work. Nickel was
chosen in 1652. He was old and infirm and after nine years, felt
compelled to ask for a Vicar-General to assist him in his work. The one
chosen for this office was John Paul Oliva. He served three years in
that capacity, but as he had been made Vicar with the right of
succession, he became General automatically when Father Nickel died on
July 31, 1664. This departure from usage had been allowed with the
approval of Pope Alexander VII. Oliva was a Venetian and two of his
family, his grandfather and uncle, had been Doges of the Republic.
Before his election to the office of General he had been ten years
master of novices and had also been named rector of the Collegium
Germanicum. He was on terms of intimacy with Condé and Turenne; and
Innocent X died in his arms. His election evidently gave great
satisfaction. Princes and cardinals began to multiply the colleges of
the Society throughout Italy, where they already abounded. Milan,
Naples, Cuneo, Monbasileo, Volturna, Genoa, Turin, Savigliano, Brera and
other cities all wanted them.
It is this period from 1615 to 1664, which, for some undiscoverable
reason, is described both by Ranke and Böhmer-Monod as marking the
deterioration and decay of the Society. An examination of this
indictment is, of course, imperative; and though it must necessarily be
somewhat polemical, it may be helpful to a better understanding of the
situation and give a more complete knowledge of facts. Ranke begins his
attack by throwing discredit on Vitelleschi, describing him as a man of
"little learning," adducing as his authority for this assertion a phrase
in some Italian writer who says that Vitelleschi was a man "_di poche
lettre ma di santità di vita non ordinaria_." Now the obvious meaning of
this is, not that he was a man of "little learning," but that "he wrote
very few letters." As he belonged to an unusually illustrious family of
princes, cardinals, and popes; and as he had not only made the full
course of studies in the Society, but had taught philosophy and theology
for several years and was subsequently appointed to be the Rector of the
Collegium Maximum of Naples, which was the Society's house of advanced
studies, and as he was, besides, the author of several learned works, it
is manifestly ridiculous to class him with the illiterates. As a matter
of fact, Mutius Vitelleschi was a far better educated man than Leopold
von Ranke.
Father Nickel, in turn, is set down as "rude, discourteous, and
repulsive; to such an extent that he was deposed from his office by the
general congregation, which explicitly declared that he had forfeited
all authority."
It would be hard to crowd into a whole chapter as many false statements
as this much and perhaps over-praised historian contrives to condense in
a single sentence. For apart from the inherent impossibility of anyone
who was "rude, repulsive and discourteous" arriving at the dignity of
General of the Society, it is absolutely false that Father Nickel "was
deposed from his office and was explicitly told that he had forfeited
his authority." Far from this being the case, it was he who had summoned
the congregation in order to lay before it the urgent necessity of his
being relieved from the heavy burden of his office. On its assembling,
the first thing he did was to ask for a Vicar because his infirmities
and his age--he was then seventy-nine years old--made it impossible for
him to fulfill the duties of his office, or even to take part in the
proceedings of the congregation. Moreover, it is absolutely calumnious
to say that the congregation explicitly declared that he had forfeited
all his authority. Even Ranke, who makes the charge, declares that he
was guilty of no transgression; nor was the action of the congregation
in defining the Vicar's position as "not being in conjunction with that
of the retiring General," anything else than a desire to avoid having
the Society governed by two heads. Nor did this denote "a change in the
Society's methods;" for there had been a provision in the constitution
from the very beginning for even the deposition of a general. Again, far
from being repulsive in his manners, the congregation proclaimed him to
have been the very opposite. Indeed, all his brethren sympathized with
him, especially at that moment, because, besides the usual burden of his
office and his age, he was afflicted by the sad news which had just
reached him that three of the Fathers who were delegates to the
congregation--the Vice-Provincial of Sardinia and his two
associates--had been shipwrecked at the mouth of the Tiber. The words of
the congregation's acceptance of his withdrawal denote nothing but the
deepest reverence and affection. They are: _Congregatio obsequendum
duxit voluntati charissimi optimeque meriti Parentis_, that is, "The
congregation deemed it proper to comply with the desire of the most
beloved and most deserving Father."
Böhmer-Monod, likewise, in spite of their joint claim to sincerity and
lack of bias, are especially denunciatory of the character of the
Society at this juncture. "It is no longer," they say, "an autocracy,
but a many-headed oligarchy, which defends its rights against the
General as jealously as did the Venetian nobles against the doges. The
military and monastic spirit has relaxed and a spirit of luxurious
idleness and greed of worldly possessions has taken its place. Not only
the writings of the enemies of the Jesuits, but the letters of their own
Generals go to prove it. Thus, Vitelleschi wrote, in 1617, that the
reproach of money-seeking was a universal one against the Society.
Nickel also sent a grand circular letter to recall the Order to the
observance of Apostolic poverty. Indeed, John Sobieski, a devoted friend
of the Order, could not refrain from writing to Oliva: 'I remark with
great grief that the good name of the Society has much to suffer from
your eagerness to increase its fortune without troubling yourselves
about the rights of others. I feel bound, therefore, to warn the Jesuits
here against their passion for wealth and domination, which are only too
evident in the Jesuits of other countries. Rectors seek to enrich their
colleges in every way. It is their only thought.' But these reproaches
made no impression on Oliva who was a sybarite leading an indolent life
at the Gesù or in his beautiful villa of Albano. Even if he were the
proper kind of man, he would have been powerless, for, in 1661 Goswin
Nickel was deposed solely because of his rigidity towards the most
influential members of the Order. The Constitution of the Order was
changed, for Oliva was made General because he had humored the nepotism
of the Pope."
The answer to this formidable arraignment is:--First, the General of the
Society cannot be an autocrat. He must rule according to the
Constitutions; failing in this, he may be deposed by the general
congregation. Secondly, the society can never be ruled by an oligarchy,
especially by "an oligarchy with many heads" which is a contradiction in
terms. The only oligarchy possible would be the little group around the
General known as the assistants, representing the different national or
racial sections of the Society. But they are invested with no authority
whatever. They are merely counsellors, are elected by the Congregation,
and _ipso facto_ lose their office at the death of the General, though
of course they hold over until the election of his successor. The
metaphor of the Venetian nobles and the doges has no application in the
Society of Jesus.
Nor is it true that after Vitelleschi's death, "it lost its monastic
spirit" for the simple reason that it never had that spirit. The Jesuits
are not monks and their official designation in ecclesiastical documents
is _Clerici Regulares Societatis Jesu_ (Clerks, or Clerics, Regular of
the Society of Jesus). It is precisely because they broke away from old
monastic traditions and methods that they were so long regarded with
suspicion by the secular and regular or monastic clergy, especially as
the innovation was made at the very time that Martin Luther was
furiously assailing monastic orders. If, however, by "the monastic
spirit" is meant the religious spirit, and that is possibly the meaning
of the writers, it will not be difficult to show that piety and holiness
of life had not departed from the Society. For instance, some of the
greatest modern ascetic writers appeared just at that time in the
Society. Thus, Suárez died in 1617, and Lessius in 1623, both of whom
may some day be canonized saints. To the latter, St. Francis de Sales
wrote to acknowledge his spiritual indebtedness to the Society. Living
at that time also were Bellarmine, Petavius, Nieremberg, Layman, Castro
Palao, Surin, Nouet, de la Colombiére, and others equally spiritual.
Álvarez de Paz died in 1620, Le Gaudier in 1622, Drexellius in 1630,
Louis Lallemant in 1635, Lancisius in 1636, de Ponte in 1644, Saint-Jure
in 1657. Meantime, the famous work on "Christian Perfection" by
Rodríguez, who died in 1616, had been making its way to every religious
house in Christendom. There was also a great number of holy men in the
Society at that moment. Had that not been the case, Cardinal Orsini, who
died in 1627, would not have asked for admission; nor Charles de
Lorraine, Prince Bishop and Count of Verdun, who had entered a few years
before; nor would the Pope have made the great Hungarian Pazmany a
cardinal in 1616, and Pallavicini in 1659. Blessed Bernardino Realini
was not yet dead; St. John Berchmans was living in 1621; and St. Peter
Claver died in 1654, before his adviser St. Alphonsus Rodríguez; St.
John Francis Regis made his first vows in 1633, and Vitelleschi himself
is admitted to have been a man of extraordinary sanctity. A religious
order with such members is the reverse of decadent.
The "military spirit" which the Society was reproached with having lost
was no doubt the daring "missionary spirit" which won her so much glory
in the early days. But it was by no means lost. Andrada made his famous
journey to Tibet in 1624; de Rhodes started about 1630 on his famous
overland trip from India to Paris, and then set off for Persia where he
died; the missionaries of North America were exploring Hudson Bay and
the Great Lakes and searching for the Mississippi; those of South
America were following the wonderful Vieira through thousands of miles
of forests and along endless rivers in Brazil; others were searching the
Congo or Gold Coast or Abyssinia for souls; Jerónimo Xavier and de
Nobili were in India; others again in Persia and the Isles of Greece;
and Ricci and Schall and their companions were converting China. There
were martyrdoms all over the world, like those of Brébeuf and his
companions in Canada; Jesuits were laying down their lives in Mexico,
Paraguay, the Caribbean Islands, the Philippines, Russia, England,
Hungary, and above all in Japan, where every member of the Society was
either butchered or exiled; while thousands of their brethren in Europe
were clamoring to take their places in the pit or at the stake. That
condition of things would not seem to connote degeneracy or decadence.
As for the "grand circular letter," which Father Nickel sent out to the
whole Society, that document was nothing but an academic disquisition on
the relative importance of poverty as against the two other vows. It was
not a censure of the Society for its non-observance of poverty. With
regard to Sobieski, it is impossible to imagine that he ever uttered
such a calumny against his most devoted friends. They had trained him
intellectually and spiritually; just before the great battle with the
Tatars, he spent the whole night in prayer with his Jesuit confessor,
Przeborowski, and in the morning he and all his soldiers knelt to
receive the priest's blessing. Finally, when the bloody battle was won,
they knelt before the altar, at the feet of the same priest, and intoned
a hymn of thanksgiving to God for the glorious victory. When
Przeborowski died, Father Vota took his place, and it was he who induced
the hero to join the League of Augsburg, thus helping him to win the
glory of being regarded as the saviour of Europe, when on September 12,
1683, he drove back the Turks from the gates of Vienna. As Sobieski died
in Vota's arms, it is not very likely that he ever regarded his
affectionate friends as "greedy and rapacious."
What Böhmer-Monod says regarding Vitelleschi's encyclical to the Society
on the occasion of his election is equally unjustifiable. Not only does
the General not denounce the Society for its degeneracy, but he
explicitly says, "Although I am fully aware that there is still in the
body of the Society the same spirit that animated it at the beginning,
and moreover, that this spirit not only actually persists, but is
conspicuously robust and full of life and vigor; nevertheless, as each
one desires to see what he loves absolutely and in every respect
perfect, we should all, from the highest to the lowest, strive to the
utmost to have it free from the slightest stain or wrinkle. To urge this
is the sole purpose of this epistle." Later on he says, "There are three
things which help us to conserve this spirit: prayer, persecution and
obedience." The second, at least, has never failed the Society.
That there was no such decadence or degeneracy later is placed beyond
all possibility of doubt by a man whose integrity cannot for a single
moment be questioned: Father John Roothaan, General of the Society, who
wrote to all his brethren throughout the world concerning the third
century in the life of the Order. Had he made any misstatement, he would
have been immediately contradicted. As for his competency in the
premises it goes without saying that no one had better means than he for
becoming acquainted with the condition of the Society at that period. He
testifies as follows:
"When the Society began its third centenary, it was flourishing and
vigorous as it always has been in literature, theology, and eloquence;
it engaged in the education of youth with distinguished success, in some
countries without rivals; in others it was second almost to no other
religious order; its zeal for souls was exercised in behalf of men of
every condition of life not only in the countries of Europe, Catholic
and Protestant alike, but among the savages of the remotest part of the
world, nor was the commendation awarded them less than the fruit they
had gathered; and what is most important, amid the applause they won and
the favors they were granted, their pursuit of genuine piety and
holiness was such, that although in the vast number of more than twenty
thousand then in the Society there may have been a few, a very few, who
in their life and conduct were not altogether what they should have
been, and who in consequence brought sorrow on that best of mothers, the
Society, nevertheless there were very many in every province who were
conspicuous for sanctity and who diffused far and wide the good odor of
Jesus Christ. It waged a bitter war against error and vice; it fought
strenuously in defence of Holy Church and the authority of the See of
Peter; it displayed a ceaseless vigilance in detecting the new errors
which then began to show themselves, and whose object was to overturn
the thrones of kings and princes and to revolutionize the world; and it
bent every one of its energies of voice, pen, counsel and teaching to
refute and as far as possible to destroy those pernicious doctrines.
Hence it was sustained and favored by the Sovereign Pontiffs and by the
hierarchy of the Church and its authority was held in the highest esteem
by princes and people alike. It seemed like a splendid abiding-place of
science and piety and virtue; an august temple extending over the earth,
consecrated to the glory of God and the salvation of souls."
The characterization of Oliva, by Böhmer-Monod as "a sybarite leading an
indolent life at the Gesù or in his beautiful villa at Albano," is
nothing else than an outrage. Sybarites do not live till the age of
eighty-one; nor are they summoned to fill the office of "Apostolic
Preacher" by four successive Popes--Innocent X, Alexander VI, Clement
IX, and Clement X; nor do they write huge folios of profound theology;
nor do they act as advisers to popes, kings, and princes; nor could they
govern fifteen or twenty thousand men scattered all over the world, all
of whom looked up to them as saints. Such in fact was this really great
man, and falsehood could scarcely go further, than to pillory him in
history as a degraded voluptuary. As for his luxurious villa, it will
suffice to say that the individual who conceived that idea of a Jesuit
country-house, never saw one. It is never luxurious; but always shabby,
bare and poor.
The whole available income of the English province at this period
(1625-1743) may be found in Foley's "Records" (VII, pt. I, xviii), and
is quoted in Guilday's "English Refugees" (I, 156). "The entire revenue
in 1645 for colleges, residences, seminaries under their charge, as well
as fourteen centres in England and Wales is recorded at something like
£3915. This sum maintained 335 persons, which at the present rate of
money would be at £34.10 per head. In 1679 after the Orange Rebellion
this sum was reduced." What was true of the English province, may also
in great measure be predicated of the rest, especially of the one in
which the General resided.
Another curious instance of this systematic calumniation is found in the
preface of a volume of poems of Urban VIII, edited in 1727 by a
professor of Oxford, who was prompted to publish them, we are informed,
"because the poems would be an excellent corrective of the obscenity and
unbridled licentiousness of the day." But while thus extolling the Pope,
this heretical admirer of His Holiness, goes on to say that the Pontiff
was particularly beloved by Henry IV, and when that monarch was attacked
by an assassin, "the Jesuits, the authors of the execrable deed, were
expelled from the kingdom, and a great pillar was erected to perpetuate
their infamy. Whereupon Urban, who was then Cardinal Barberini, was sent
to France, and induced Henry to destroy the pillar, and recall the
Jesuits without inflicting any punishment on them."
For a person of ordinary intelligence, the conclusion would be that
Barberini recognized that the Society had been grossly calumniated; if
not, he had a curious way of showing his affection for the King by
bringing back his deadly enemies and destroying the pillar. The author
of this effusion also fails to inform his readers that Pope Urban VIII
was a pupil of the Jesuits; that during all his life he was particularly
attached to the Order; that one of his first acts after ascending the
pontifical throne was to raise Francis Borgia to the ranks of the
beatified; that the Jesuit, Cardinal de Lugo, was his particular
adviser, and that in the reform of the hymnody of the Breviary, he
entrusted the work exclusively to the Jesuits. With regard to the
expulsion of the Society from France, Henry IV had no hand in it
whatever. That injustice is to be laid to the score of the parliament of
Paris over which Henry had no control. Far from being an enemy he was
the devoted and affectionate friend of the Society, as well he might be,
for it was the influence of the Spanish Jesuit, Cardinal Toletus, that
made it possible for him to ascend the throne of France.
Long before his election as General, Oliva had achieved considerable
reputation as an orator; and, as his correspondence shows, he was held
in the highest esteem by many of the sovereigns of Europe for his wisdom
as a counsellor. Unfortunately, however, nearly all the trouble that
occurred in his time originated in the courts of kings. Thus in France,
Louis XIV made his confessor, Father François Annat, a member of his
council on religious affairs, with the result that when the king fell
out with the Pope, Annat's position became extremely uncomfortable; but
it is to his credit that he effected a reconciliation between the king
and the Pontiff. After Annat, François de Lachaise was entrusted with
the distribution of the royal patronage, and, of course, stirred up
enmity on all sides. In Portugal, Don Pedro insisted upon Father
Fernandes being a member of the Cortes; but Oliva peremptorily ordered
him to refuse the office. In Spain, the queen made Father Nithard, her
confessor, regent of the kingdom, and, German though he was, grand
inquisitor and councillor of state. When he resisted, she appealed to
the Pope, and the poor man was obliged to accept both appointments. Of
course he aroused the opposition of the politicians and resigned. The
queen then sent him as ambassador to Rome, and on his arrival there, the
Pope made him a cardinal. He wore the purple for eight years and died in
1681. The saintly Father Claude de la Colombiére, the spiritual director
of the Blessed Margaret Mary, also enters into the category of "courtier
Jesuits." He was sent to England as confessor of the young Duchess of
York, Mary Beatrice of Este, and though he led a very austere and
secluded life in the palace, he was accused of participation in the
famous Titus Oates plot, about which all England went mad; and although
there was absolutely no evidence against him, he was kept in jail for a
month, and in 1678 was sent back to France.
It was Father Petre's association with James II of England that gave
Oliva most trouble. He was not the confessor, but the friend of the
king, who had taken him out of the prison to which Titus Oates had
consigned him. James wanted to make him grand almoner, and when Oliva
protested, Castlemain, the English ambassador at Rome, was ordered to
ask the Pope to make him a bishop and a cardinal. When that was
prevented an attempt was made to give him a seat in the privy councils.
Crétineau-Joly not only questions Petre's sincerity in these various
moves, but accused the English provincial of collusion. Pollen, however,
who is a later and a better authority, insists that, if we cannot aquit
Petre of all blame, it is chiefly because first-hand evidence is
deficient. Petre made no effort to defend himself but the king
completely exonerated him. The king's evidence, however, counted for
nothing in England with his Protestant subjects. The feeling against
Petre was intense and William of Orange fomented it for political
reasons, and the most extravagant stories were accepted as true; such,
for instance, as that the Jesuits were going to take possession of
England, or that the heir-apparent was a supposititious infant. Finally,
when James fled to France, Petre followed him and remained by his side
till the end. "He was not a plotter," says Pollen, "but an easy-going
English priest who was almost callous to public opinion." It is
perfectly clear that he had nothing to do with the foolish policies of
James. On the contrary, he had done everything in his power to thwart
them. "Had I followed his advice," James admitted to Louis XIV, "I would
have escaped disaster."
A romantic figure appears at this time in the person of John Casimir,
who after many adventures ascended the throne of Poland. In spite of the
remonstrances of his mother he not only refused to dispute the claim of
his elder brother, but espoused his cause, fought loyally for his
election and was the first to congratulate him when chosen. He then
withdrew from Poland and we find him, first, as an officer in the
imperial army, and at the head of a league against France. Afterwards,
while in command of a fleet in the Mediterranean, he was driven ashore
near Marseilles by a storm; he was recognized and kept in prison for two
years, but was finally released at the request of his brother. In
passing by Loreto, on his way home, the fancy of becoming a Jesuit
seized him. He applied for admission and was received, but left three or
four years afterwards, and, though not in orders, was made a cardinal.
When the news of his brother's death arrived, he returned the red hat to
the Pope and set out for Poland to claim the crown, and simultaneously
that of Sweden. The latter pretence, of course, meant war with Gustavus
Adolphus, who forthwith invaded Poland, but Casimir drove him out and
also expelled the Prussians from Lithuania. Probably on account of the
dissensions in his own country which gave him occupation enough, he
ceased to urge his rights to the throne of Sweden, and after some futile
struggles relinquished that of Poland likewise.
In the Convocation of Warsaw where he pronounced his abdication, he is
said to have made the following utterance which sounds like a prophecy
but which may have been merely a clever bit of political foresight.
"Would to God," he exclaimed "that I were a false prophet, but I foresee
great disasters for Poland. The Cossack and the Muscovite will unite
with the people who speak their language and will seize the greater part
of Lithuania. The frontiers of Greater Poland will be possessed by the
House of Brandenburg; and Prussia, either by treaty or force of arms,
will invade our territory. In the dismemberment of our country, Austria
will not let slip the chance of laying hands on Cracow." John was the
last representative of the House of Vasa. He was succeeded by Michael,
who reigned only three years (1669-72) and then the great Sobieski was
elected after he and his 20,000 Poles had routed an army of 100,000
Tatars--an exploit which made him the country's idol as well as its
king.
In becoming General, Oliva inherited the suffering inflicted on the
Society by the English persecutions which had been inaugurated by
Elizabeth and continued by James I. A lull had occurred during the reign
of Charles I, probably because the queen, Henrietta Maria, was a
Catholic; and in 1634 there were as many as one hundred and sixty
Jesuits in the British dominions; but Cromwell was true to his
instincts, and, between the time of the Long Parliament and the
Restoration of the Stuarts, twenty-four Catholics died for the Faith.
Naturally, the Jesuits came in for their share. Thus Father James Latin
was put in jail on August 3, 1643, and was never heard of afterwards.
"From which," says O'Reilly, "it is easy to conjecture his fate."
William Boyton was one of the victims in a general massacre that took
place in 1647, in the Cashel Cathedral; and two years afterwards, John
Bathe and Robert Netterville were put to death by the Cromwellians in
Drogheda. Bathe was tied to a stake and shot, while Netterville, who was
an invalid, was dragged from his bed, beaten with clubs and flung out on
the highway. He died four days afterwards.
The Stuarts were restored in 1660, but the easy-going Charles II made no
serious effort to erase the laws against Catholics from the
statute-book, and from time to time proclamations were issued ordering
all priests and Jesuits out of the realm. Two occasions especially
furnished pretexts for these expulsions. One was the "Great Plague," and
the other was the "Great Fire," for both of which the Jesuits were held
responsible. No one knew what was going to happen next, when there
appeared in England an individual to whom Crétineau-Joly devotes
considerable space, but who receives scant notice from English writers.
He announced himself as Hippolyte du Chatelet de Luzancy. He was the son
of a French actress, and was under indictment for forgery in his native
country; added to these attractions, founded or not, he claimed to be an
ex-Jesuit. Of course, he was received with great enthusiasm by the
prelates of the Established Church, for he let it be known he was quite
willing to accept any religious creed they might present to him. The
Government officials also welcomed him. His first exploit was to accuse
Father Saint-Germain, the Duchess of York's confessor, of entering his
apartment with a drawn dagger and threatening to kill him. Whereupon all
England was startled and the House of Lords passed a bill consigning all
priests and Jesuits to jail. Saint-Germain was the first victim. Luzancy
was then called before the privy council and told a blood curdling story
of a great conspiracy that was being hatched on the Continent. It
implicated the king and the Duke of York. The story was false on the
face of it, but Luzancy was taken under the protection of the Bishop of
London; he was given the degree of Master of Arts by Oxford and was
installed as the Vicar of Dover Court, Essex. A most unexpected defender
of the Society appeared at this juncture in the person of Antoine
Arnauld, the fiercest foe of the Jesuits in France. He denounced Luzancy
as an imposter, and berated the whole English people for accepting the
conspiracy myth. His indignation, however, was not prompted by any love
of the Society, but because Luzancy claimed to have lived for a
considerable time with the Jansenists and with Arnauld, in particular,
at Port-Royal.
It was probably the success achieved by Luzancy that suggested the
greater extravagances of Titus Oates. Titus Oates was a minister of the
Anglican Establishment, and first signalized himself in association
with his father, Samuel, who also wore the cloth, by trumping up an
abominable charge against a certain Protestant schoolmaster, for which
the father lost his living, and the son was sent to prison for trial.
Escaping from jail, Titus became a chaplain on a man-of-war, but was
expelled from the navy in a twelve-month. He then succeeded in being
appointed Protestant chaplain in the household of the Duke of Norfolk
and was thus brought into contact with Catholics. He promptly professed
to be converted and was baptized on Ash-Wednesday 1677. The Jesuit
provincial was induced to send him to the English College at Valladolid,
but the infamous creature was expelled before half a year had passed.
Nevertheless, he was granted another trial and was admitted to the
Seminary of St. Omers, which soon turned him out of doors.
Coming to London, he took up with Israel Tonge who is described as a
"city divine and a man of letters," and together they devised the famous
"Popish Plot," each claiming the credit of being its inventor. It
proposed: first, to kill "the Black Bastard," a designation of Charles
II which they said was in vogue among Catholics. His majesty was to be
shot "with silver bullets from jointed carbines." Secondly, two
Benedictines were to poison and stab the queen's physician, "with the
help," as Titus declared, "of four Irish ruffians who were to be hired
by Doctor Fogarthy." The Prince of Orange, the Lord Bishop of Hertford
and several minor celebrities were also to be put out of the way.
Thirdly, England, Ireland and all the British possessions were to be
conquered by the sword and subjected to the Romish obedience. To achieve
all this, the Pope, the Society of Jesus and their confederates were to
send an Italian bishop to England to proclaim the papal programme.
Subsequently, Cardinal Howard was to be papal legate. Father White, the
Jesuit provincial, or Oliva, Father General of the Order, would issue
commissions to generals, lieutenant generals, naval officers. When the
king was duly assassinated, the crown was to be offered to the Duke of
York, after he had approved of the murder of his royal brother as well
as the massacre of all his Protestant subjects. Whereupon the duke
himself was to be killed and the French were to be called in. The Jesuit
provincial was to be made Archbishop of Canterbury, and so on.
No more extravagant nonsense could have been conceived by the
inhabitants of a madhouse. Nevertheless, "all England," says Macaulay,
"was worked up into a frenzy by it. London was placed in a state of
siege. Train bands were under arms all night. Preparations were made to
barricade the main thoroughfares. Patrols marched up and down the
streets, cannon were planted in Whitehall. Every citizen carried a
flail, loaded with lead, to brain the popish assassins, and all the
jails were filled with papists. Meantime Oates was received in the
palaces of the great and hailed everywhere as the saviour of the
nation." The result of it all was that sixteen innocent men were sent to
the gallows, among them seven Jesuits: William Ireland, John Gavan,
William Harcourt, Anthony Turner, Thomas Whitebread, John Fenwick and
David Lewis, besides their illustrious pupil, Oliver Plunket, Archbishop
of Armagh. As the saintly prelate has been beatified by the Church as a
martyr for thus shedding his blood, inferentially one might claim a
similar distinction for all his companions. On the list are one
Benedictine, one Franciscan and six secular priests. The Earl of
Stafford who was sentenced like the rest to be hanged, drawn and
quartered was graciously permitted by his majesty to be merely beheaded.
For these murders Oates was pensioned for life, but in 1682 Judge
Jeffries fined him one hundred thousand pounds for _scandalum magnatum_
and condemned him to be whipped, pilloried, degraded and imprisoned for
life. "He has deserved more punishment," said the judge, "than the law
can inflict." But when William of Orange came to the throne he pardoned
the miscreant and gave him a pension of three hundred pounds.
In his "Popish Plot," Pollock continually insists, by insinuation rather
than by direct assertion, that Oates was a novice of the Society. Thus,
we are told that he was sent to the "Collegio de los Ingleses at
Valladolid to nurse into a Jesuit;" and subsequently "the expelled
novice was sent to complete his education at St. Omers." But, in the
first place, a "Collegio" at Valladolid or anywhere else can never be a
novitiate, for novices are forbidden all collegiate study; secondly, St.
Omers in France was a boys' school and nothing else; thirdly, the
description of Oates by the Jesuit Father Warner absolutely precludes
any possibility of his ever having been admitted as a novice or even as
a remotely prospective candidate.
Warner's pen picture merits reproduction. Its general lines are: "Mentis
in eo summa stupiditas; lingua balbutiens; sermo e trivio; vox stridula,
et cantillans, plorantis quam loquentis similior. Memoria fallax, prius
dicta numquam fideliter reddens; frons contracta; oculi parvi et in
occiput retracti; facies plana, in medio lancis sive disci instar
compressa; prominentibus hic inde genis rubicundus nasus; os in ipso
vultus centro, mentum reliquam faciem prope totam æquans; caput vix
corporis trunco extans, in pectus declive; reliqua corporis hisce
respondentia; monstro quam homini similiora." In English this means
that the lovely Oates "was possessed of a mind in which stupidity was
supremely conspicuous, a tongue that stuttered in vulgar speech; a voice
that was shrill, whining, and more of a moan than an articulate
utterance; a faulty memory that could not recall what had been said; a
narrow forehead, small eyes, sunk deep in his head; a flat face
depressed in the middle like a plate or a dish; a red nose set between
puffy cheeks; a mouth so much in the centre of his countenance that the
chin was almost as large as the rest of the features; his head bent
forward on his chest; and the rest of his body after the same build,
making him more of a monster than a man." If the English provincial
could for a moment have ever dreamed of admitting such an abortion into
the Society, he would have verified his name of Father Strange. On the
other hand it was natural for the fanatics of that time to adopt Oates.
During Oliva's administration, and in spite of his protests, Father
Giovanni Salerno and Francisco Cienfuegos were made cardinals; under
Peter the Great a few Jesuits were admitted to Russia, but the terrible
Czar was fickle and drove out his guests soon after. There was also some
missionary success in Persia, where 400,000 Nestorians were converted
between the years 1656 and 1681, the date of Oliva's death.
Charles de Noyelle, a Belgian, was now appointed Vicar; and at the
congregation which assembled in 1682 he was elected General, receiving
every vote except his own. He was then sixty-seven years old. His first
task was to adjust the difficulty between Innocent XI and Louis XIV on
the question of the _régale_, or the royal right to administer the
revenues of a certain number of vacant abbeys and episcopal sees claimed
by the kings of France. Such invasions of the Church-rights by the State
were common extending as far back as the times of St. Bernard. By 1608
the French parliament had extended this prerogative to the whole of
France; but the upright Henry IV, half Protestant though he was, refused
to accept it; whereas later on the Catholic Louis XIV had no scruples
about the matter, and issued an edict to that effect. The Pope protested
and refused to send the Bulls to the royal nominees for the vacant
dioceses, with the result that at one time there were thirty sees in
France without a bishop. Only two prelates stood out against the king
and, strange to say, one of them was Caulet, the Jansenist Bishop of
Pamiers; who, stranger still, lived on intimate terms with the Jesuits.
So far the Jesuits had kept out of the controversy, but, unfortunately,
Father Louis Maimbourg published a book in support of the king, and,
eminently distinguished though he was in the field of letters,
especially in history, he was promptly expelled from the Society. The
king angrily protested and ordered Maimbourg not to obey, but the
General stood firm and Maimbourg severed his connection with his former
brethren. As substantially all the bishops were arrayed against the
Pope, copies of the Bull against Louis were sent to the Jesuit
provincials for distribution. The situation was most embarrassing, but
before the copies were delivered, they were seized by the authorities.
In retaliation for the Bull, the king took the principality of
Benevento, which was part of the patrimony of the Church, and thus drew
upon himself a sentence of excommunication. As this document would also
have been refused by the bishops, it was entrusted to a Jesuit Father
named Dez, who was on his way from Rome to France.
For a Frenchman to be the bearer of a Bull excommunicating his king,
especially such a king as Louis XIV, was not without danger; but Dez was
equal to the task. He directed his steps in such a leisurely fashion
towards Paris that his brethren in Italy had time to appeal to the Pope
to withdraw the decree. Fortunately the Pope yielded, and the
excommunication was never pronounced; much to the relief of both sides.
It would probably have ended in a schism; as a matter of fact it
provoked the famous Assembly of the Clergy of 1682 which formulated the
Four Articles of the Gallican Church. These Articles were then approved
by the king and ordered to be taught in all theological schools of
France--a proceeding which again angered the Sovereign Pontiff, who
refused to confirm any of the royal nominees for the vacant bishoprics.
The contest now became bitter, and it is said that Father Lachaise,
whether prompted by the king or not, wrote to the General asking him to
plead with the Pope to transmit the Bulls. That brought down the Papal
displeasure not only on Lachaise personally but on all the Jesuits of
France.
In 1689 the Pope died, and the king, who was by this time alarmed at the
lengths to which he had gone, suggested that each of the bishops whom he
had named should write a personal letter to the new Pontiff, Alexander
VIII, disclaiming the acts of the Assembly of the Clergy of 1682.
Subsequently, the king himself sent an expression of regret for having
made the Four Articles obligatory on the whole kingdom; he thus
absolutely annulled the proceedings of the famous gathering. The régale,
however, was and is still maintained as a right in France whether it
happens to be monarchical or republican. At present, it holds all church
property but has nothing to say about episcopal appointments.
In 1685 the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes was issued. It cancelled
all the privileges granted to the Huguenots by Henry IV, and Protestants
were given the choice either of renouncing their creed or leaving the
country. The result was disastrous industrially, as France was thus
deprived of a great number of skilled workmen and well-to-do merchants;
in addition fictitious conversions were encouraged. As usual, the
Jesuits were blamed for this measure by the Calvinists and Jansenists,
and in retaliation the states general of Holland imposed the most
outrageous taxes on the forty-five establishments which the Society
possessed in that little country, hoping thereby to compass their ruin.
But the sturdy Netherlanders drew up a formal protest and demanded from
the government an explanation of why men of any religious views, even
foreigners, should find protection in Holland while native Dutchmen were
so unfairly treated. The claim was allowed, but the antagonism of the
government, inspired as it was by William of Orange, who recognized that
hostility to the Order was a good recommendation to his English
subjects, was not laid aside. It was vigorous twenty years later.
The Vicar-Apostolic of Holland, who was titular Archbishop of Sebaste,
had long been scandalizing the faithful by his heretical teachings. He
was finally removed by the Holy See; but against this act the government
of the states general protested, and ordered the Jesuits to write to
Rome and ask for the rehabilitation of the vicar. The plea was that by
doing so, they would restore peace to the country which was alleged to
have been very much disturbed by the Papal document. The refusal to do
so, they were warned, would be regarded as evidence of hostility to the
government. De Bruyn, the superior, wrote to the Pope in effect, but
instead of asking for the vicar's rehabilitation, he thanked the Holy
Father for removing him. The consequence was that on June 20, 1705,
three months after they had been told to write, the forty-five Jesuit
houses in Holland were closed, and the seventy-four Fathers took the
road of exile, branded as disturbers of the public peace.
It was during the Generalate of Father de Noyelle, that Innocent XI is
said to have determined to suppress the Society by closing the
novitiates. This is admitted, even by Pollen, and is flourished in the
face of the Jesuits by their enemies as a mark of the disfavor in which
they are held by that illustrious Pontiff. The assertion is based on a
Roman document, the condemnatory clause of which runs as follows: "The
Father General and the whole Society should be forbidden in the future
to receive any novices, or to admit anyone to simple or solemn vows,
under pain of nullity or other punishment, according to the wish of His
Holiness, until they effectually submit and prove that they have
submitted to the decree issued with regard to the aforesaid missions."
Crétineau-Joly or his editor points out in a note that this is not a
papal document at all. The Pope would never address himself as "His
Holiness," nor tell himself what he should do. It was simply an
utterance of the Propaganda, in which body the Society did not lack
enemies. It was dated 1684, and in the very next year its application
was restricted by the Propaganda itself to the provinces of Italy. It
was never approved by the Holy See, and when it was presented to
Innocent XI under still another form, namely to prevent the reception of
novices in Eastern Asia, he flatly rejected it.
Louis XIV had lost the Netherlands to Spain and in a fit of childish
petulance he insisted that the Jesuit province there on account of being
half Walloon should be annexed to the French assistancy. When this
demand was disregarded he ordered the French Jesuits who were in Rome to
return to France, as he proposed to make the French part of the Society
independent of the General. He was finally placated by a promise that
men who had been superiors in France proper, should be chosen to fill
similar positions in the Walloon district. It was a very silly
performance.
Tirso González, a Spaniard, was chosen as the successor of de Noyelle in
1687. He had taught theology at Salamanca for ten years, and had been a
missionary for eleven. He is famous for his antagonism to the doctrine
known as Probabilism, as he advocated Probabiliorism. Probabilism is
that system of morals according to which, in every doubt that concerns
merely the lawfulness or unlawfulness of an action, it is permissible to
follow a solidly probable opinion, in favor of liberty, even though the
opposing view is more probable. This freedom to act, however, does not
hold when the validity of the sacraments, the attainment of an
obligatory end, or the established rights of another are concerned.
González maintained with considerable bitterness that, even apart from
the three exceptions, it was permitted to follow only the more probable
opinion--a doctrine which is now almost universally rejected.
During the Generalate of Oliva, González had written a book on the
subject, which was twice turned down by all the censors; whereupon, he
appealed to Pope Innocent XI in 1680 asking him to forbid the teaching
of Probabilism. The Pope did not go so far, but he permitted it to be
attacked. Of course, González strictly speaking had a right to appeal to
the Sovereign Pontiff, but it was a most unusual performance for a
Jesuit, especially as the doctrine in question was only a matter of
opinion, with all the great authorities of the Society against him. It
must have been with dismay that his brethren heard of his election as
General by the thirteenth general congregation. It appears certain,
says Brucker in his history of the Society (p. 529), that on the eve of
the election the Pope expressed his opinion that González was the most
available candidate. That evidently determined the suffrage, though
González seems to have had no experience as an administrator.
One of the first things the general did was to start a campaign against
the doctrines of Gallicanism, as formulated in the famous Assembly of
1682, which every one thought was already dead and buried. His friend,
Pope Innocent XI, died in August, 1689, and his successor Alexander VIII
ordered González to call in all the copies that had been printed. In
1691 González began to print his book which Oliva had formerly
forbidden. It was run through the press in Germany without the knowledge
of his assistants; copies appeared in 1694, and threw the Society into
an uproar, especially as González's appeared on the title page as
"Former Professor of Salamanca and actual General of the Society of
Jesus." Nevertheless, at the general congregation which met in 1697
Father González was treated with the profoundest consideration. Not a
word was uttered about his doctrine and assistants who were most
acceptable to him were elected. Although a few more probabiliorists
subsequently appeared, the Society, nevertheless, remained true to the
teaching of Suárez, Lugo, Laymann, and their school.
A quarrel then arose between Don Pedro II of Portugal and Cardinal
Conti, the papal nuncio, about the revenues of certain estates. The
question was referred to González, who decided in favor of the Pope,
whereupon Pedro's successor, John V, closed all the Jesuit novitiates in
Portugal and banished some of the Fathers from the country. González
died before this affair was settled. He passed away on October 27,
1705, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. He had been a Jesuit for
sixty-three years, and during nineteen years occupied the post of
General.
Father Michael Angelo Tamburini was the fourteenth General; his tenure
of office extended from January 30, 1706, till his death on February 28,
1730. He was a native of Modena, and had filled several important
offices with credit, before he was chosen to undertake the great
responsibility of governing the entire Order, at the age of fifty-eight.
The troubles in France were increasing. For although the implacable
leaders of the Jansenist party, Arnauld and Nicole, had disappeared from
the scene--Arnauld dying at Malines, a bitter old man of eighty-three,
and Nicole soon following him to the grave--yet the antagonism created
by them against the Society still persisted and was being reinforced by
the atheists, who now began to dominate France.
Quesnel, who succeeded Arnauld and Nicole, wrote a book entitled "Moral
Reflections on the New Testament", the style of which quite captivated
de Noailles, Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne, and without adverting to its
Jansenism he gave it his hearty approval. Later however, when he became
Archbishop of Paris, he condemned another Jansenist publication whose
doctrine was identical with the one he had previously recommended;
whereupon an anonymous pamphlet calling attention to the contradiction
was published; in it the cardinal was made to appear in the very
unpleasant attitude of stultifying himself in the eyes of the learned.
He accused the Jesuits of the pamphlet, whereas, it was the work of
their enemies, and was written precisely to turn him against the
Society. The situation became worse when other members of the hierarchy
began to comment on his approval of the Jansenistic publication, and he
was exasperated to such an extent that he suspended every Jesuit in the
diocese. The Jansenists were naturally jubilant over their success, and
began to look forward hopefully to the approaching death of Louis XIV,
who had never wavered in his defense of the Society. His successor, the
dissolute Philip of Orléans, could be reckoned on as their aid, they
imagined, but they were disappointed. He began by refusing their
petition to revoke the university rights of the Jesuits and although he
dissolved all the sodalities in the army, he lodged a number of
Jansenists in jail for an alleged conspiracy against the government, a
measure which they, of course, attributed to the machinations of the
Society.
It was during this Generalate that the Paraguay missions reached their
highest degree of efficiency. In a single year no fewer than
seventy-seven missionaries left Europe to co-operate in the great work.
Meantime, Francis Hieronymo and Anthony Baldinucci were astonishing
Italy by their apostolic work, as was Manuel Padial in Spain--all three
of whom were inscribed later on the Church's roll of honor. Finally, the
canonization of Aloysius and Stanislaus Kostka along with the
beatification of John Francis Régis put the stamp of the Church's most
solemn approval on the Institute of Ignatius Loyola. Father Tamburini
died at the age of eighty-two. He had lived sixty-five years as a
Jesuit; and at his death, the Society had thirty-seven provinces with
twenty-four houses of professed, 612 colleges, 340 residences, 59
novitiates, 200 mission stations, and 157 seminaries. Assuredly, it was
doing something for the Church of God.
Francis Retz, a Bohemian, was the next General. His election, which took
place on March 7, 1730, was unanimous; and his administration of twenty
years gave the Society a condition of tranquillity such as it had never
enjoyed in its entire history. Perhaps, however, there would have been
a shade of sorrow if the future of one of the Jesuits of those days
could have been foreseen. Father Raynal left the Society in 1747 and
joined the Sulpicians. Subsequently he apostatized from the Faith,
became the intimate associate of Rousseau, Diderot and other atheists
and died at an advanced age apparently impenitent. Before Father Retz
expired, two more provinces had been added to the thirty-seven already
existing; the colleges had increased to 669; the seminaries to 176 and
there were on the registers 22,589 members of whom 11,293 were already
priests. During this period several great personages, who were to have
much to do with the fortunes of the Society, began to assume prominence
in the political world. They were Frederick the Great of Prussia, Maria
Theresa of Austria, the Duc de Choiseul in France, and Carvalho, Marquis
de Pombal in Portugal.
Eight months after the death of Father Retz which occurred on November
19, 1750, the Society chose for its General Ignatius Visconti, a
Milanese. He was at that time sixty-nine years of age and survived only
two years. He was succeeded by Father Louis Centurione, who, besides the
burden of his seventy years of life, had to endure the pain of constant
physical ailments. In two years time, on October 2, 1757, he breathed
his last, and on the 21st of May following, Lorenzo Ricci was elected.
According to Huonder, the choice was unanimous, but the digest of the
nineteenth congregation states that he was elected by a very large
majority.
Who was Ricci? He was a Florentine of noble blood, and was born on
August 3, 1703. He was, therefore, fifty-three years of age when placed
at the head of the Society, whose destruction he was to witness fifteen
years later. From his earliest youth, he had attracted attention by his
unusual intellectual ability as well as by his fervent piety. He had
been professor of Rhetoric at the colleges of Siena and Rome to which
only brilliant men were assigned, and at the end of his studies he was
designated for what is called the "Public Act," that is to say an
all-day defense of a series of theses covering the entire range of
philosophy and theology. He subsequently taught theology for eleven
years and was spiritual father at the Roman College. The latter office
brought him in contact with the most distinguished prelates of the
Church, who chose him as the guide of their consciences. In 1755 Father
Centurione called him to the secretaryship of the Society, and he was
occupying that post when elected General. The regret is very often
expressed that a General of the stamp of Aquaviva was not chosen at that
time; one who might have been equal to the shock that was to be met.
Hence, the choice of a man who had never been a superior in any minor
position is sometimes denounced as fatuous. One distinguished enemy is
said to have exclaimed when he heard the result of the balloting:
"Ricci! Ricci! Now we have them."
It must not, however, be forgotten that the battle which brought out
Aquaviva's powers bears no comparison with that which confronted Father
Ricci. Against Aquaviva were ranged only the Spanish Inquisition, a
small number of recalcitrant Spanish Jesuits, and to a certain extent,
Philip II. But in the first place, the Spanish Inquisition had no
standing in Rome; in the second, the Jesuits who were in opposition had
all of them a strain in their blood, which their fellow countrymen
disliked; and, finally, though Philip II would have liked to have had
his hand on the machinery of the Society he was at all times a staunch
Catholic. Against this coalition, Aquaviva had with him as enthusiastic
supporters all the Catholic princes of Germany and they contributed
largely to his triumph. Father Ricci, on the contrary, found arrayed
against the Society the so-called Catholic kings: Joseph I of Portugal;
Charles III of Spain and Joseph II of Austria, all of them absolutely in
the power of Voltairean ministers like Pombal, de Choiseul, Aranda,
Tanucci and Kaunitz, who were in league, not only to destroy the
Jesuits, but to wreck the Church. The suppression of the Society was
only an incident in the fight; it had to be swept out of the way at any
cost. A thousand Aquavivas would not have been able to avert it. Two
Popes succumbed in the struggle.
Carayon, in his "Documents inédits," describes Father Ricci as "timid,
shy, and lacking in initiative." Among the instances of his timidity,
there is quoted his reprehension of Father Pinto, who had of his own
accord asked Frederick II to pronounce himself as a defender of the
Society. Of course, he was sternly reproved by Father Ricci and properly
so, for one cannot imagine a more incongruous situation than that of the
Society of Jesus on its knees to the half-infidel friend of Voltaire,
entreating him to vouch for the virtue and orthodoxy of the Order.
Frederick himself was very much amused by the proposition.
In any case, the fight was too far advanced to afford any hope of its
being checked. Eight years before that time, Pombal had made
arrangements with Spain to drive the Jesuits out of Paraguay, and had
extorted from the dying Benedict XIV the appointment of Saldanha to
investigate the Jesuits of Portugal. Indeed, it was soon discovered that
Pombal's performances were only a part of the general plot to destroy
the Society and the Church.
As soon as Benedict's successor ascended the papal throne, Father Ricci
laid a petition before him representing the distress and injury
inflicted on the Society by what was going on in Portugal. Crimes which
had no foundation were attributed to it, and all of the Fathers, whether
guilty or not, had been suspended from their priestly functions. The
petition could not have been more humble or more just, but it brought
down a storm on the head of Father Ricci. The sad feature of it was
that, although it was intended to be an absolutely secret communication,
it was immediately circulated with notes throughout Europe, and a fierce
_votum_, or protest, was issued against it by Cardinal Passionei, who
denounced it as an absolutely untruthful and subtle plea to induce the
Holy Father to hand over the rest of his flock to the ferocious wolves
(the Jesuits). The cardinal stated that the King of Portugal had
complained of the Jesuits, and that Cardinal Saldanha was a person
capable of obtaining the best information about the case, and was
absolutely without bias or animosity for any party, besides being known
for his ecclesiastical zeal and his submission to the head of the
Church.
Far from being influenced by this utterance of Passionei, Pope Clement
XIII appointed a congregation to examine the question; the report was
favorable to the Society, so that Pombal was momentarily checked. On the
other hand, it was very clear that the battle was not won. A false
report of the proceedings of the congregation was published, and
although the Pope ordered it to be burned by the public executioner, it
was, nevertheless, an open proclamation that the enemies of the Society
were willing to go to any lengths to gain their point. Portuguese gold
flowed into Rome and Mgr. Bottari was employed to revive all the ancient
calumnies against the Society. In a short time, he produced a work
called "Reflections of a Portuguese on the Memorial presented to His
Holiness Clement XIII by the Jesuits." When there was question of
putting the book on the Index, Almada, the Portuguese ambassador
declared that if such a proceeding were resorted to Portugal would
secede from the Church. Furthermore, when the Papal Secretary of State,
Achito, wrote a very mild and prudent letter to the nuncio in Lisbon,
instructing him to let the king know that the petition of the Jesuits
was very humble and submissive, he was denounced as issuing a
declaration of war against Portugal. Meantime, the author of the
"Reflections" continued to pour out other libellous publications in Rome
itself, and Papal prohibitions were powerless to prevent him.
CHAPTER XIII
CONDITIONS BEFORE THE CRASH
State of the Society--The Seven Years War--Political Changes--
Rulers of Spain, Portugal, Naples, France and Austria--
Febronius--Sentiments of the Hierarchy--Popes Benedict XIV;
Clement XIII; Clement XIV.
Just before its suppression, the Society had about 23,000 members. It
was divided into forty-two provinces in which there were 24 houses of
professed fathers, 669 colleges, 61 novitiates, 335 residences and 273
mission stations. Taking this grand total in detail, there were in Italy
3,622 Jesuits, about one-half of whom were priests. They possessed 178
houses. The provinces of Spain had 2,943 members (1,342 priests) and 158
houses; Portugal, 861 members (384 priests), 49 houses; France, 3,350
members (1,763 priests), 158 houses; Germany, 5,340 members (2,558
priests), 307 houses; Poland, 2,359 members; Flemish Belgium, 542
members (232 priests), 30 houses; French Belgian, 471 members (266
priests), 25 houses; England, 274 members; and Ireland, 28. Their
missions were in all parts of the world. In Hindostan, de Nobili, and de
Britto's work was being carried on; in Madura, there were forty-seven
missionaries. The establishments in Persia extended to Ispahan and
counted 400,000 Catholics. Syria, the Levant and the Maronites were also
being looked after. Although Christianity had been crushed as early as
1644, the name of the province of Japan was preserved, and in 1760 it
counted fifty-seven members. There were fifty-four Portuguese Fathers
attached to China at the time of the Suppression, and an independent
French mission had been organized at Pekin with twenty-three members
mostly priests. In South America, the whole territory had been divided
into missions, and there were 445 Jesuits in Brazil, with 146 in the
vice-province of Maranhão. The Paraguay province contained 564 members
of whom 385 were priests; they had 113,716 Indians in their care. In
Mexico, which included Lower California, there were 572 Jesuits, who
were devoting themselves to 122,000 Indians. New Granada had 193
missionaries; Chili had 242; Peru, 526; and Ecuador, 209.
In the United States, they were necessarily very few, on account of
political conditions. At the time of the Suppression, they numbered only
nine, two of whom Robert Molyneux and John Bolton survived until the
complete restoration of the Society. The French had missions in Guiana,
Hayti and Martinique; and in Canada, the work inaugurated by Brébeuf
among the Hurons, was kept up among the Iroquois, Algonquins, Abenakis,
Crees, Ottawas, Miamis and other tribes in Illinois, Alabama and Lower
Mississippi. At the time of the Suppression there were fifty-five
Jesuits in Canada and Louisiana.
This world-wide activity synchronized with the Seven Years War, which
was to change the face of the earth politically and religiously. The
unscrupulous energy of Lord Clive had, previous to the outbreak of
hostilities, given Bombay, Madras, Calcutta and the Carnatic to England.
Before war had been proclaimed, Boscawen, who was sent to Canada, had
captured two French warships and the feeble protest of France was
answered by the seizure of three hundred other vessels, manned by 10,000
seamen and carrying cargoes estimated to be worth 30,000,000 francs. In
1757 Frederick the Great won the battle of Rosbach against the French;
and in the same year triumphed over the imperial forces. In 1759 he
defeated the Russians, only to meet similar reverses in turn; but in
1760 when all seemed lost, Russia withdrew from the fight and became
Frederick's friend. In 1758 France scored some victories in Germany, but
in 1762 was completely crushed and consented to what a French historian
describes as "a shameful peace." Quebec fell in 1759, and Vaudreuil
capitulated at Montreal in 1760.
Peace was finally made by the treaties of Paris and Hubertsburg in 1763,
in virtue of which, France surrendered all her conquests of German
territory as well as the Island of Minorca. In North America, she gave
up Canada with its 60,000 French inhabitants. She also lost the River
and Gulf of St. Lawrence, the valley of the Ohio, the left bank of the
Mississippi, four islands in the West Indies, and her African
trading-post of Senegal. In return, she received the Islands of
Guadeloupe, Martinique, Marie-Galande, Désirade and St. Lucia. In Asia,
she was granted Pondicherry, Chandernagor and other places, but was
prohibited from fortifying them. Spain yielded Florida and Pensacola Bay
to England, in order to recover Cuba and the Philippines; and after a
while, France made her a present of Louisiana. Thus, New France was
completely effaced from the map of America; and France proper, while
losing almost all her other colonial possessions, saw her maritime
power, her military prestige and her political importance disappear. She
was now only in the second grade among the nations. On the same level
stood Spain, while Portugal had long since ceased to count. Austria had
declined and Protestant England and Prussia ruled, while schismatic
Russia was looming up in the North.
In Spain, Charles III had succeeded to the throne in 1759. He had
previously been King of Naples, where he had reigned not without honor.
It is true he made the mistake of accepting Choiseul's "Family Compact"
which united the fortunes of Spain with those of the degenerate
Bourbons, but he is nevertheless credited with being paternal in his
administrations and virtuous in his private life. Unfortunately while in
Naples, he had chosen as his minister of finance, the Marquis de
Tanucci, a Tuscan who had at an early stage inaugurated a contest with
the Holy See on the right of asylum. "But one seeks in vain anything on
which to build the exalted reputation which Tanucci enjoyed during life
and which clung to him even after death. His financial system was false;
for instead of encouraging the arts, perfecting agriculture, building
roads, opening canals, establishing manufactures in the fertile country
over which he ruled, he did nothing but make it bristle with
custom-houses. Men of science, jurists, archæologists, literary and
other distinguished men, he left in prison or allowed to starve"
(Biographie universelle).
Tanucci's moral character may be inferred from the fact that when
entrusted with the regency at Naples, he purposely neglected the
education of the crown prince, keeping him aloof from political life,
and giving him every opportunity to indulge his passions. He declared
war against the Holy See; he restricted the ancient rights of the
nuncios; diminished the number of bishoprics; suppressed seventy-eight
monasteries; named one of his henchmen Archbishop of Naples, and forbade
a ceremonial homage to be paid to the Pope which had been in use ever
since the time of Charles of Anjou. He governed the Two Sicilies for
fifty years and took with him to the grave the execration of the nobles
and the hatred of the people of the Two Kingdoms. Duclos said of him "he
was of all the men I ever knew the least fitted to govern."
The Spanish ministers were very numerous and very bad. There was Wall,
whom Schoell described as Irish, whereas Ranke deprives him of that
distinction by classing him among the political atheists of that time.
Of Squillace, little is said except that he was a Neapolitan and
probably belonged to one of the branches of the Borgia family. He is the
individual whose legislation caused a burlesque disturbance in Madrid
about cloaks and sombreros. The Jesuits were falsely accused of being
the instigators of the riot and suffered for it in consequence. Finally,
after many changes, there came the saturnine and self-sufficient Aranda,
"who," says Schoell, "sniffed with pleasure the incense which the French
Encyclopedists burned on his altar, and whose greatest glory was to be
rated as one of the enemies of the altar and the throne." A former
minister of Ferdinand V with the ominous title of the Duke of Alva was
his intimate and shared his many schemes in fomenting anti-Jesuitism.
Aranda is described as follows, by the Marquis de Langle in his "Voyage
en Espagne" (I, 27): "He is the only Spaniard of our time whose name
posterity can inscribe on its tablets. He is the man who wanted to cut
in the façade of every temple and unite on the same shield the names of
Luther, Calvin, Mahomet, William Penn and Jesus Christ; and to proclaim
from the frontiers of Navarre to the straits of Cadiz, that Torquemada,
Ferdinand and Isabella were blasphemers. He sold altar-furniture,
crucifixes and candelabra for bridges, wine-shops and public roads."
In France, conditions were still worse. During a reign of fifty-six
years, Louis XV trampled on all the decencies of public and private
life. He was the degraded slave of Pompadour, a woman who dictated his
policies, named his ministers, appointed his ambassadors, made at least
one of his cardinals, and even directed his armies. Her power was so
great that the Empress of Austria felt compelled to address her as "_ma
bonne amie_." She was succeeded by du Barry who was taken from a house
of debauch. The coarseness of this creature deprived her of much of the
power possessed by her predecessor, except that Louis was her slave. It
was Pompadour who brought Choiseul out of obscurity to reward him for
revealing a plot to make one of his own cousins supplant her in her
relations to the king. For that, he was made ambassador to Rome in 1754,
where during the last illness of Benedict XIV, he was planning with
other ambassadors to interpose the royal vetos in the election of
Benedict's successor. Before that event, however, he was sent to Vienna,
from which post, he rose successively until he had France completely in
his grasp. The "Family Compact" or union of all the Bourbon princes,
which was a potent instrument in the war against the Jesuits, was his
conception. He was a friend of La Chalotais, one of the arch-enemies of
the Society, and was an intimate of Voltaire, whose property at Ferney
he exempted from taxation. The spirit of his religious policy consisted
in what was then called "an enlightened despotism," or a systematic
hatred of everything Christian.
Crétineau-Joly describes him as follows: "He was the ideal gentleman of
the eighteenth century. He was controlled by its unbelief, its airs, its
vanity, its nobility, its dissoluteness, insolence, courage, and by a
levity which would have sacrificed the peace of Europe for an epigram.
He was all for show; settling questions which he had merely skimmed over
and sniffing the incense offered to him by the Encyclopedists, but
shuddering at the thought that they might fancy themselves his teachers.
He would admit no master either on the throne or below it. His life's
ambition was to govern France and to apply to that sick nation the
remedies he had dreamed would restore her to health. He could not do so
except by winning public opinion, and for that purpose, he flattered the
philosophers, captured the parliament, cringed to Madame de Pompadour
and made things pleasant for the king. When he had gathered everyone on
his side, he set himself to hunting the Jesuits."
On the throne of Portugal sat Joseph I, of whom, Father Weld in his
"Suppression of the Society of Jesus" (p. 91) writes: "Joseph I united
all those points of character which were calculated to make him a tool
in the hands of a man who had the audacity to assume the command and
astuteness to represent himself as a most humble and faithful servant.
Timid and weak, like Louis XV, he was easily filled with fear for the
safety of his own person, and, to a degree never reached by the French
king, was incapable of exerting his own will when advised by any one who
had succeeded in gaining his confidence. To this mental weakness, he
also added the lamentable failing of being a slave to his own voluptuous
passions. It required but little insight into human nature to see that a
terrible scourge was in store for Portugal. To the evils of misrule, it
pleased God to add other terrible calamities which overwhelmed the
country in misery that cannot be described. The licentious habits of his
father, John V had already impaired the national standard of morals. The
nobility had ceased to visit their estates and had degenerated into a
race of mere courtiers. The interests of the common people were
neglected by the Government, and almost their only friends were the
religious orders." (The Catholic Encyclopedia, XII, 304).
The real master of Portugal in those days was Don Sebastioa José
Carvalho, better known as Pombal--the gigantic ex-soldier who, despite
his herculean strength and reckless daring, was ignored when there was
question of promotion. He left the army in disgust, and by the influence
of the queen, Maria of Austria, and that of his uncle, the court
chaplain, was sent as ambassador to London and then to Vienna. In both
places he was a disastrous failure, probably on account of his brutal
manners. Returning to Lisbon, he paid the most obsequious attention to
churchmen, especially to the king's confessor, the Jesuit Carbone, who
kept continually recommending him until John V bade him never to mention
Carvalho's name. To the Marquis of Valenza, who also urged Carvalho's
promotion, John said: "that man has hairs in his heart and he comes from
a cruel and vindictive family." At the death of John and the retirement
of the aged Motta, the former prime minister, the queen regent, who was
fond of Carvalho's Austrian wife made Pombal prime minister: and
Moreira, another Jesuit confessor, was insistent in proclaiming his
wonderful ability. Never was departure from the principles and rules of
the religious state by meddling with things outside the sphere of duty
so terribly punished. Father Weld, however, when speaking of Moreira,
who was a prisoner in Jonquiera, has a note which says that "Moreira
protested to the end that he had never uttered a word in favor of
Carvalho."
No sooner was Carvalho in power than the violence of his character began
to display itself in the sanguinary measures he employed to suppress the
brigandage that was rife in the country and even in the capital itself.
The nobility, especially, were marked out for punishment; and when
public criticism began to be heard, he issued furious edicts against the
calumniators of the administration. He suppressed with terrible severity
a rising at Porto against a wine-company which he had established
there, and began a series of attacks on the most eminent personages of
the kingdom. He dismissed in disgrace the minister of the navy, Diego de
Mendoza; and de la Cerda, the ambassador to France; as well as John de
Braganza, the Marquis of Marialva and many others. He gave the highest
positions, ecclesiastical and political, to his relatives; forced the
king to sign edicts without reading them, some of which made criticism
of the government high treason, and he extended their application even
to the ordinances of his minister; he silenced the preachers who spoke
of public disasters as punishment of God; and forbade them to publish
anything without his approbation. Though he reorganized the navy, he
left the army a wreck, lest the nobles might control it. There was no
public press in Portugal during his administration, and the mails were
distributed only once a week. He encouraged commerce and organized
public works, but always to enrich himself and his family. He flung
thousands into prison without even the pretence of a trial, and at his
downfall in 1782 says the "Encyclopédie catholique," "out of the
subterraneous dungeons there issued eight hundred of his victims, the
remnants of the nine thousand who had survived their entombment; and a
government order was issued declaring that none of the victims living or
dead had been guilty of the crimes imputed to them." This was the man
who was declared by the Philosophers of the eighteenth century to be
"the illuminator of his nation."
Nor was there much comfort to be hoped for in Austria. Maria Theresa was
undoubtedly pious, kind hearted and devoted to her people, but as ruler
is very much overrated. Her advisers were commonly the men who were
plotting the ruin of all existing governments--Jansenists and
Freethinkers. Even her court physicians were close allies of the
schismatical Jansenist Archbishop of Utrecht, and they made liberal and
constant use of the great esteem they enjoyed at Vienna to foment
hostility to the Holy See. They even succeeded in persuading the
empress, though they were only laymen, to appoint a commission for the
reform of theological teaching in the seminaries; and one of their
friends, de Stock, was appointed to direct the work. The Jesuits were
removed from the professorships of divinity and canon law; lay
professors were appointed in their stead by the politicians, in spite of
the protests of the bishops; and books were published in direct
opposition to orthodox teaching. At this time appeared the famous
treatise known as "Febronius" by Hontheim, a suffragan bishop of Treves,
who thus prepared for the coming of Joseph II. The universities were
quickly infected with his doctrines; and new schools were established at
Bonn and Münster out of the money of suppressed convents in order to
accelerate the spread of the poison. When the University of Cologne
protested, it was punished for its temerity.
It goes without saying that if Maria Theresa, with her strong Catholic
instincts, was so easy to control, it was not difficult for the
statesmen who governed France, Spain, Portugal and Italy to carry out
their nefarious schemes against the Church. The Free-masons were hard at
work, and immoral and atheistic literature was spread broadcast. It had
already made ravages among the aristocracy and the middle classes, and
now the grades below were being deeply gangrened. Cardinal Pacca writing
about a period immediately subsequent to this, says: "In the time of my
two nunciatures at Cologne and Lisbon, I had occasion to become
acquainted with the greater part of the French _émigrés_, and I regret
to say that, with the exception of a few gentlemen from the Provinces,
they all made open profession of the philosophical maxims which had
brought about the catastrophe of which they were the first victims. They
admitted, at times, in their lucid moments, that the overturning of the
altar had dragged down the throne; and that it was the pretended
intellectuality of the Freethinkers that had introduced into the minds
of the people the new ideas of liberty and equality, which had such
fatal consequence for them. Nevertheless, they persisted in their errors
and even endeavored to spread them both orally and by the most
abominable publications. God grant that these seeds of impiety, flung
broadcast on a still virgin soil, may not produce more bitter and more
poisonous fruit for the Church and the Portuguese monarchy." The editor
of the "Memoirs" adds in a note: "They have only too well succeeded in
producing the fruit."
"I remember," continues Pacca, "that during my nunciature at Cologne,
some of these distinguished "_emigrés_" determined to have a funeral
service for Marie Antoinette, not out of any religious sentiment, but
merely to conform to the fashion followed in the courts of Europe. I was
invited and was present. The priest who sang the Mass preached the
eulogy of the dead queen. In his discourse which did not lack either
eloquence or solidity, he enumerated the causes of the French
Revolution, and instanced chiefly the irreligious doctrines taught by
the philosophy of the period. This undeniable proposition evoked loud
murmurs of discontent in the congregation, which was almost exclusively
composed of Frenchmen; and when the orator said that Marie Antoinette
was one of the first victims of modern philosophy, a voice was heard far
down in the church crying out in the most insulting fashion: 'That's not
true.'" When laymen who professed to be Catholics were so blind to
patent facts and would dare to conduct themselves so disgracefully in a
church at a funeral service for their murdered queen, there was no hope
of appealing to them to stand up for truth and justice in the political
world.
The hierarchy throughout the Church was devoted to the Society, but it
could only protest. And hence as soon as the first signs appeared of the
determination to destroy the Order, letters and appeals, full of tender
affection and of unstinted praise for the victims, poured into Rome from
bishops all over the world. There were at least two hundred sent to
Clement XIII, but many of them were either lost or purposely destroyed,
as soon as the great Pontiff breathed his last. Father Lagomarsni found
many of them which he intended to publish but, for one reason or
another, did not do so.
Some of these papers, however have been reproduced by de Ravignan, in
his "Clément XIII et Clément XIV." They fill more than a hundred pages
of his second volume, and he chose only those that came from the most
important sees in the Church, such as the three German Archbishoprics of
Treves, Cologne and Mayence, whose prelates were prince electors of the
empire. There are also appeals from Cardinal Lamberg the Prince-Bishop
of Passau, from the Primate of Germany, the Archbishop of Salzburg, the
Primates of Bohemia, of Hungary, and of Ireland. The Archbishop of
Armagh says "he lived with the Jesuits from childhood, and loved and
admired them." There are letters from the Cardinal Archbishop of Turin;
the Archbishops of Messina, Monreale, Sorrento, Seville, Compostella,
Tarragona, and even from the far north,--from Norway and Denmark, where
the vicar-Apostolic begs the Pope to save those distant countries from
the ruin which will certainly fall on them if the Jesuits are withdrawn.
They are all dated between the years 1758 and 1760. The Polish Bishop
of Kiew begs the Pope to stand "like a wall of brass" against the
enemies of the Society, which he calls a _religiosissimus cætus_. For
the Bishops of Lombez, it is the _dilectissima Societas Jesu, quæ
concussa, confugit in sinum nostrum_--"the most beloved Society of Jesus
which, when struck, rushed to our arms." The Bishop of Narbonne
declares: "It is known and admitted through all the world that the
Society of Jesus, which is worthy of all respect, has never ceased to
render services to the Church in every part of the world. There never
was an order whose sons have fulfilled the duties of the sacred ministry
with more burning, pure and intelligent zeal. Nothing could check their
zeal; and the most furious storm only displayed the constancy and
solidity of their virtue." Du Guesclin denounces the persecution as
"atrocious; the like of which was never heard of before." "I omit," says
the Archbishop of Auch, "an infinite number of things which redound to
their praise." The Bishop of Malaga recalls how Clement VIII described
them as "the right arm of the Holy See." The Archbishop of Salzburg
bitterly resents "the calumnious and defamatory charges against them."
And, so, in each one of these communications to the Holy Father, there
is nothing but praise for the victims and indignant denunciations of
their executioners.
The three Pontiffs who occupied the Chair of St. Peter at that period
were Benedict XIV, Clement XIII and Clement XIV. Benedict died on May 3,
1758, eighteen days before Father Ricci was elected General. Clement
XIII was the ardent defender of the Society during the ten stormy years
of his pontificate; and finally Clement XIV yielded to the enemy and put
his name to the Brief which legislated the Order out of existence.
Perhaps there never was a Pope who enjoyed such universal popularity as
the brilliant Benedict XIV. His attractive personality, his great
ability as a writer, his readiness to go to all lengths in the way of
concession, elicited praise even from heretics, Turks and unbelievers.
As regards his attitude to the Society, there can be no possible doubt
that he entertained for it not only admiration, but great affection. He
had been a pupil in its schools, and had always shown its members the
greatest honor. He defended it against its enemies, and lavished praise
again and again on the Institute. It is true that he re-affirmed the
Bulls of his predecessor condemning the Malabar and Chinese Rites, but
he denied indignantly that he was thereby explicitly condemning the
Jesuits. It is also true that he appointed Saldanha, at the request of
Pombal, to investigate the Jesuit houses in Portugal; but in the first
place, that permission was wrung from him when he was a dying man; and
there is no doubt whatever that in doing so, he was convinced that the
concession would propitiate Pombal and not injure the Jesuits, whose
conduct he knew to be without reproach. Moreover, he had put as a
proviso in the Brief that Saldanha who, though the Pope was unaware of
it, was an agent of Pombal, should not publish any grievous charge if
any such were to be formulated, but should refer it to Rome for
judgment. Finally, as the Brief was signed on April 1, 1758, and as the
Pope died on May 3, Saldanha's powers ceased. That however, did not
trouble him and he did everything that Pombal bade him to do, to defame
and destroy the Society. He was not Benedict's agent.
Far from being prejudiced against the Society, Benedict XIV did nothing
but bestow praise on it during all his long pontificate. In 1746 in the
Bull "Devotam," he says that "it has rendered the greatest services to
the Church and has ever been governed with as much success as prudence."
In 1748 the "_Præclairs_" declared that "these Religious are everywhere
regarded as the good odor of Jesus Christ, and are so in effect," and,
in the same year, the Bull "_Constantem_" affirmed that "they give to
the world examples of religious virtue and profound science." Benedict
died in the arms of the Jesuit, Father Pepe, his confessor and friend.
Clement XIII, whose name was Carlo della Torre Rezzonico, was born at
Venice, March 7, 1693; after studying with the Jesuits at Bologna, he
was appointed referendary of the tribunal known as the Segnatura di
Giustizia, and later became Governor of Rieti, cardinal-deacon and in
1743 Bishop of Padua. He was called a saint by his people; in spite of
the vast revenues of his diocese, he was always in want for he gave
everything to the poor, even the shirt on his back. On July 5, 1758, he
was elected Pope to succeed Benedict XIV. The first shock he received as
head of the Church was in 1758 from Pombal, who insulted him by sending
back an extremely courteous letter which the Pontiff had written in
answer to a demand for leave to punish three Jesuits who happened to
know a nobleman against whom a charge had been lodged of attempting to
assassinate the king. Pombal followed up the outrage by flinging all the
exiled Jesuits on the Papal States; and then, in 1760, by dismissing the
Papal ambassador from Lisbon. In 1761 Pope Clement wrote to Louis XV of
France, imploring him to stop the proceedings against the Jesuits: in
1762 he protested against the proposed suppression of the Society in
France; and in 1764 he denounced the government programme which he
declared was an assault upon the Church itself.
Spain was guilty of the next outrage when, in 1767, Charles III imitated
Pombal by expelling the Jesuits and deporting them to Civita Vecchia:
and then refusing to answer a letter of the Pope who asked for an
explanation of the proceeding. Naples and Parma insulted him in a
similar fashion. And to add injury to outrage, the Bourbon coalition
seized the Papal possessions of Avignon and Venaissin in France, and
Benevento and Montecorvo in Italy. Finally, when Spain, France and
Naples sent him a joint note demanding the universal suppression of the
Society, he died of grief on February 3, 1769. He was then seventy-five
years old, and had governed the Church for ten years, six months and
twenty-six days. Canova, one of the last of the Jesuit pupils, built his
monument, putting at the feet of the Pontiff two lions--one asleep, the
other erect and ready for the combat. It was a representation in the
mind of the sculptor portraying the meekness of Clement, combined with
an indomitable courage which defied the kings of Europe who were
attacking the Church.
De Ravignan says of him: "Not because I am a Jesuit, but independently
of that affiliation, I regard Clement XIII as endowed with the most
genuine traits of grandeur and glory that ever shone in the most
illustrious popes. He brings back to me the lineaments of Innocent III,
of Gregory VII, of Pius V, of Clement XI. Like them he had to fight;
like them he had to face the powers of earth in league against the
Church; like them he knew how to unite the most inflexible firmness with
the most patient moderation. Alone, as it were, in the midst of a
Christendom that was conspiring against the Chair of Peter, he suffered
and moaned, but he fought. He was not a politician; he was a Pope. As a
worthy successor of St. Peter, he stood solidly on the indestructible
rock. Always in the presence of God and his duty, when every earthly
interest and when the most appealing entreaties seemed to suggest to him
to be silent and to yield basely, he heard within his soul the strong
voice of the Church, which can never relinquish the rights with which
heaven has invested it; and neither threats, nor outrages, nor
spoliations nor sacrilegious assaults availed to bend his resolution to
resist, or induced him to display any suspicion of feebleness for a
single instant. Until he died, Clement fulfilled the august mission of a
Supreme Pontiff. He fought for the Church though it cost him his life.
His death was really that of a martyr."
The successor of Clement XIII was not so heroic. He was Lorenzo or
Giovanni Antonio Ganganelli. He was born at Sant' Archangelo near Rimini
on October 31, 1705; and received his education from the Jesuits at
Rimini and from the Piarists at Urbano. At the age of nineteen, he
entered the order of the Minor Conventuals, and changed his baptismal
name of Giovanni to Lorenzo. His talents and virtue raised him to the
dignity of definitor generalis of his order in 1741. Benedict XIV made
him consultor of the Holy Office, and Clement XIII gave him the
cardinal's hat at the instance, it is said, of Father Ricci, the General
of the Jesuits. On May 18, 1769, he was elected Pope by 46 out of 47
votes. By eliminating a great number of possible cardinals, the veto
power of the Catholic kings had restricted the choice of a Pope to four
out of the forty-seven in the Sacred College. In the beginning of his
career, Ganganelli was extremely favorable to the Jesuits: but when he
was made a cardinal, a change of disposition manifested itself, although
in giving him the honor, Clement XIII had said that he was "a Jesuit in
the disguise of a Franciscan." Once on the Papal throne, he refused
even Father Ricci an audience, possibly through fear of the Great
Powers; for, before Clement's accession the work of the destruction had
already begun, and the new Pope found himself in the centre of a
whirlwind. It was now clear that the Society could never weather the
storm.
CHAPTER XIV
POMBAL
Early life--Ambitions--Portuguese Missions--Seizure of the
Spanish Reductions. Expulsion of the Missionaries--End of the
Missions in Brazil--War against the Society in Portugal--The
Jesuit Republic--Cardinal Saldanha--Seizure of Churches and
Colleges--The Assassination Plot--The Prisons--Exiles--
Execution of Malagrida.
The first conspirator who set to work to carry out the plot to destroy
the Society, which had long been planned by the powers, was, as might be
expected, the ruthless Pombal. He was more shameless and savage than his
associates and would adopt any method to accomplish his purpose. The
insensate fury which possessed his whole being against the Society is
explained by Cardinal Pacca, who was Papal nuncio in Lisbon shortly
after Pombal's fall (Notizie sul Portogallo, 10). He writes: "Pombal
began his diplomatic career in Germany where he probably drank in those
principles of aversion to the Holy See and the religious orders, which,
when afterwards put in practice, merited for him from the irreligious
philosophers the title of a great minister, and an illuminator of his
nation; from good people, however, that of a vile instrument of the
sects at war with the Church. Having obtained the office of prime
minister, he made himself master of the mind of the king, Don Joseph;
and for a quarter of a century governed the kingdom as a despot.
"To wage war against the Holy See, and to oppress the clergy, he adopted
the measures and employed the arms which, in the hands of the
irreligious men of our time, have done and are still doing harm and
inflicting grievous wounds on the Church. He corrupted and perverted
public education in the schools and universities, especially in Coimbra
which soon became a centre of moral pestilence. He took from the hands
of the youth of the kingdom the sound doctrinal works which they had so
far been made to study; and substituted schismatical and heretical
publications such as Dupin's 'De antiqua ecclesia' which had been
condemned by Innocent XII; and Hontheim's 'Febronius' condemned by
Clement XIII. He also brought into Portugal the works of the régalists,
and excluded those writers who maintained the rights and authority of
the Holy See, in defence of which he would not allow a word to be
uttered. And to the horror of all decent people, he imprisoned in a
loathsome dungeon a holy and venerable bishop who had warned his flock
against those pernicious publications. Meantime the notorious Oratorian
Pereira, who was condemned by the Index, and others who flattered him
were remunerated for their writings and could print whatever they liked.
He was a Jansenist who, in the perfidious fashion of the sect, exalted
the authority of the bishops in order to diminish that of the Pope; and
enlarged the authority of kings in church matters to such an extent that
the system differed very little from that of the Protestant Anglican
Church. Queen Marìa, who succeeded Joseph on the throne, did much to
improve conditions; but did not undo all the harm that Pombal had
already inflicted on the nation. Disguised Anglicanism continued to
exist in Portugal."
Father Weld adds his own judgment to that of the cardinal, and tells us
that "the bias in Pombal's nature may be traced to his English
associations when he was ambassador in London." He advances this view,
probably because of a note of Pacca's, who says that he could venture
no opinion about the influence of England on Pombal, merely for want of
documents on that point. The author of the "Memoires pour servir à
l'histoire ecclésiastique du xviii^e siècle" assures us that Pombal's
purpose was to extend his reforms even into the bosom of the Church; to
change, to destroy; to subject the bishops to his will; to declare
himself an enemy of the Holy See; to protect authors hostile to the Holy
See; to encourage publications savoring of novelty; to favor in Portugal
a theological instruction quite different from what had been adopted
previous to his time; and finally to open the way to a pernicious
teaching in a country which until then had enjoyed religious peace.
This scheme did not restrict itself to a religious propaganda but got
into the domain of politics; for the author of the "Vita di Pombal" (I,
145) notes the report, which is confirmed by the "Memoria Catholica
secunda" that "Pombal had formed the design of marrying the Princess
Marìa to the Duke of Cumberland, the butcher of Culloden--but that this
was thwarted by the Jesuit confessor of the king." On this point the
Maréchal de Belle Isle writes (Testament politique, 108): "It is known
that the Duke of Cumberland looked forward to becoming King of Portugal,
and I doubt not he would have succeeded, if the Jesuit confessors of the
royal family had not been opposed to it. This crime was never forgiven
the Portuguese Jesuits."
Whatever the truth may be about these royal schemes, Pombal soon found
his chance to wreak his vengeance on the Society for balking his plans
of making Portugal a Protestant country. A scatter-brained individual,
named Pereira, who lived at Rio Janerio, raised the cry which may have
been suggested to him, that the Jesuits of the Reductions excluded
white intercourse with the natives because of the valuable gold mines
they possessed; and that it would be a proper and, indeed, a most
commendable thing in the interests of religion for the government to
seize this source of wealth, and thus compel the Jesuits who controlled
that territory to live up to the holiness of their profession. It was
also added that the missions were little else than a great commercial
speculation; and finally that the ultimate design of the Society was to
make a Republic of Paraguay, independent of the mother country.
These three charges had been reiterated over and over again ever since
the foundation of the Reductions, and had been just as often refuted and
officially denied after the most vigorous investigation. But there was a
man now in control of Portugal who would not be biased by any religious
sentiment or regard for truth, if he could injure the Society. The first
step was to transfer the aforesaid missions to Portuguese control. They
all lay on the east shore of the Uruguay, and belonged to Spain. Hence,
in 1750, a treaty was made between Spain and Portugal, to concede to
Spain the undisputed control of the rich colony of San Sacramento, at
the mouth of the River La Plata, in exchange for the territory, in which
lay the seven Reductions of St. Michael, St. Lawrence, St. Aloysius, St.
John, St. Francis Borgia, Holy Angels and St. Nicholas. According to the
treaty, it was stipulated that the Portuguese should take immediate
possession and fling out into the world, they did not care where, the
30,000 Indians who had built villages in the country, and were
peacefully cultivating their farms, and who by the uprightness and
purity of their lives were giving to the world and to all times an
example of what Muratori calls a _Cristianesimo felice_.
To add to the brutality of the act, the Fathers themselves were ordered
to announce to the Indians the order to vacate. Representations were
made by the Spanish Viceroy of Peru, the Royal Audiencia of Charcas and
various civil and ecclesiastical authorities of Spain that not only was
this seizure a most atrocious violation of justice which could not be
carried out except by bloodshed, no one could say to what extent, but
that it was giving up the property of the Indians to their bitterest
enemies, the Portuguese. For it was precisely to avoid the Mamelukes of
Brazil that the Reductions had been originally created. Moreover, it
would almost compel the Indians to conclude that the Fathers had
betrayed them, and that they were not only parties to, but instigators
of, the whole scheme of spoliation. Southey, in his "History of Brazil,"
denounces it as "one of the most tyrannical commands that were ever
issued, in the recklessness of unfeeling power," and says that "the weak
Ferdinand VI had no idea of the importance of the treaty."
The Jesuits appealed; but they were, of course, unheeded; and the Father
General Visconti ordered them to submit without a murmur. Unfortunately,
the commissioner Father Altamirano, whom he sent out was a bad choice.
He was hot-headed and imperious; and according to Father Huonder (The
Catholic Encyclopedia) actually treated his fellow Jesuits as rebels,
when they advised him to proceed with moderation. Perhaps the fact that
he was the representative of the king, as well as of the General,
affected him; at all events the Indians would have killed him if he had
not fled. Ten years would not have sufficed for a transfer of such a
vast multitude with their women and children, and the old and infirm,
not to speak of the herds and flocks and farming implements and
household furniture, yet they were ordered to decamp within thirty days.
Pombal would soon treat his Jesuit fellow countrymen as he had treated
the Indians.
When, at last, the cruel edict was published, all the savage instincts
of the Indians awoke, and it seemed for a time as if the missionaries
would be massacred. It speaks well for the solid Christian training that
had been given to these children of the forest that they at last
consented to consider the matter at all. Some of the caciques were
actually won over to the advisability of the measure, and started out
with several hundred exiles to find a new home in the wilderness. A
number of the children and the sick succumbed on the way. When, at last
they found a place in the mountains of Quanai, they were attacked by
hostile tribes. They resisted for a while, but finally returned in
despair to their former abode. To make matters worse, the Bishop of
Paraguay notified the Fathers that if they did not obey, they would be
_ipso facto_ suspended. "Whereas," says Weld, "if the Fathers really
wished to oppose the government, a single sign from them would have sent
an army of fifty thousand men to resist the Europeans; but owing to
their fidelity and incredible exertions, there were never as many as
seven hundred men in the field against the united armies of Spain and
Portugal when hostilities at last broke out."
During the year 1754, the Indians harassed the enemy by the skirmishes
and won many a victory; and they would have ultimately triumphed if they
had had a leader. At last in 1755, the combined forces of the enemy with
thirty pieces of artillery attacked them with the result that might have
been expected. The natives rushed frantically on their foes; but the
musketry and cannon stretched four hundred of them in their blood; and
the rest either fled to the mountains or relapsed into savage life; or
made their submission to the government, many becoming as bad as their
kindred in the forests because of the corruption they saw around them.
The Portuguese entered into possession of the seven Reductions, but
failed to find any gold. So great was their chagrin that, in 1761,
Carvalho wanted the rich territory which he had given to Spain returned
to Portugal; and when Spain naturally demurred, he prepared to go to war
for it. He finally gained his point, and on February 12, 1761, the
territories were restored to their original owners, but nothing was
stipulated, about restitution to the unfortunate natives and Jesuits who
had been the victims of this shameful political deal.
Some of the Indians who fled to the forests kept up a guerilla warfare
against the invaders; but the greater number followed the advice of the
Fathers and settled on the Paraná and on the right bank of the Uruguay.
In 1762 there were 2,497 families scattered through seventeen Reductions
or _doctrinas_, as they had begun to be called, a term that is
equivalent to "parish." But the expulsion of the Fathers which followed
soon after completed the ruin of this glorious work. The Indians died or
became savage again; and today only beautiful ruins mark the place where
this great commonwealth once stood. At the time of the Suppression, or
rather when Pombal drove the Jesuits out of every Portuguese post into
the dungeons of Portugal or flung them into the Papal States, the
Paraguay province had five hundred and sixty-four members, twelve
colleges, one university, three houses for spiritual retreats, two
residences, fifty-seven Reductions and 113,716 Christian Indians. The
leave-taking of the Fathers and Indians was heart-rending on both sides.
It is a long distance from the River La Plata to the Amazon; for there
are about thirty-five degrees of latitude between the two places. But
they were not too far apart to check Carvalho in his work of
destruction. After having done all he could for the moment at one end of
Brazil, he addressed himself to the Jesuit missions at the other. A
glance at the past history of these establishments will reveal the
frightful injustice of the brutal acts of 1754.
One hundred years before that time, Vieira had made his memorable fight
against his Portuguese fellow-countrymen for the liberation of the
Indians from slavery. By so doing, he had, of course, aroused the fury
of the whites, and they determined to crush him. They put him in prison;
and in 1660 sent him and his companions to Portugal, in a crazy ship to
be tried for disturbing the peace of the colony. Nevertheless, he won
the fight, although meantime three Jesuits had been killed by the
Indians, and their companions expelled from the colony, in spite of the
king's protection. In this act, however, the Portuguese had gone too
far. His majesty saw the truth and sent the missionaries back. That was
as early as 1680. In 1725 new complaints were sent to Portugal, but the
supreme governor of the Maranhão district wrote, as follows, to the
king: "The Fathers of the Society in this State of Maranhão are objects
of enmity and have always been hated, for no other reason than for their
strenuous defence of the liberty of the unfortunate Indians, and also
because they used all their power to oppose the tyrannical oppression of
those who would reduce to a degraded and unjust slavery men whom nature
had made free. The Fathers take every possible care that the laws of
your majesty on this point shall be most exactly observed. They devote
themselves entirely to the promotion of the salvation of souls and the
increase of the possessions of your majesty; and have added many sons
to the Church and subjects to the crown from among these barbarous
nations."
With regard to their alleged commerce, the governor says: "Whatever has
been charged against the Fathers by wicked calumniators who, through
hatred and envy, manufacture ridiculous lies about the wealth they
derive from those missions, I solemnly declare to your majesty, and I
speak of a matter with which I am thoroughly acquainted, that the
Fathers of the Society are the only true missionaries of these regions.
Whatever they receive from their labors among the Indians is applied to
the good of the Indians themselves and to the decency and ornamentation
of the churches, which, in these missions, are always very neat and very
beautiful. Nothing whatever that is required in the missions is kept for
themselves. As they have nothing of their own, whatever each missionary
sends is delivered to the procurator of the mission, and every penny of
it reverts to the use of the particular mission from whence it came.
Missioners of other orders send quite as much produce, but each one
keeps his own portion separate, to be used as he likes, so that the
quantity however great being thus divided, does not make much impression
on those who see it. But as the missionaries of the Society send
everything together to the procurator, the quantity, when seen in bulk,
excites the cupidity of the malevolent and envious."
About 1739, Eduardo dos Santos was sent by John V as a special
commissioner to Maranhão. After spending twenty months in visiting every
mission and examining every detail he wrote as follows: "The execrable
barbarity with which the Indians are reduced to slavery has become such
a matter of custom that it is rather looked on as a virtue. All that is
adduced against this inhuman custom is received with such repugnance
and so quickly forgotten that the Fathers of the Society in whose
charity these unfortunate creatures often find refuge and protection,
and who take compassion on their miserable lot, become, for this very
reason, objects of hatred to these avaricious men."
Such were the official verdicts of the conduct of the Jesuits on the
Amazon a few years before Pombal came into power. But in 1753 regardless
of all this he sent out his brother Francis Xavier Mendoza, a
particularly worthless individual, and made him Governor of Gran Para
and Maranhão, giving him a great squadron of ships and a considerable
body of troops with orders to humble the Jesuits and send back to
Portugal any of them who opposed his will. Everything was done to create
opposition. They were forbidden to speak or to preach to the Indians
except in Portuguese; the soldiers were quartered in the Jesuit
settlements, and were instructed to treat the natives with especial
violence and brutality.
In 1754 a council was held in Lisbon to settle the question about
expelling the Society from the missions of Maranhão. The order was held
up temporarily by the queen; but when she died, a despatch was sent in
June 1755 ordering their immediate withdrawal from all "temporal and
civil government of the missions." The instructions stated that it was
"in order that God might be better served." Unfortunately the bishop of
the place co-operated with Carvalho in everything that was proposed. He
suppressed one of the colleges, restricted the number of Fathers in the
others, to twelve, and sent the rest back to Portugal; and in order to
excite the settlers against the Society, he had the Bull of Benedict XIV
which condemned Indian slavery read from the pulpits, proclaiming that
it had been inspired by the Jesuits. Meantime, in the reports home, the
insignificant Indian villages where they labored were magnified into
splendid cities and towns all owned by the Society; two pieces of cannon
which had never fired a ball were described as a whole park of
artillery, and a riot among the troops was set down as a rebellion
excited by the Jesuits.
The first three Fathers to be banished from Brazil were José,
Hundertpfund and da Cruz. José was a royal appointee sent out to
determine the boundary line between the Spanish and Portuguese American
possessions. But that did not trouble Pombal; nor did the German
nationality of Hundertpfund, nor did he deign to state the precise
nature of their offenses. A fourth victim named Ballister had had the
bad taste to preach on the text: "Make for yourself friends of the
Mammon of iniquity." He was forthwith accused of attacking one of
Carvalho's commercial enterprises, and promptly ordered out of the
country. Again, when some mercantile rivals sent a petition to the king
against Carvalho's monopolies, Father Fonseca was charged with prompting
it, and he was outlawed though absolutely innocent. And so it went on.
Carvalho's brother was instructed to invent any kind of an excuse to
increase the number of these expatriations.
While these outrages were being perpetrated in the colonies, Lisbon's
historic earthquake of 1755 occurred. The city was literally laid in
ruins. Thousands of people were instantly killed; and while other
thousands lay struggling in the ruins, the rising flood of the Tagus and
a deluge of rain completed the disaster. Singularly enough, Carvalho's
house escaped the general wreck; and the foolish king considered that
exception to be a Divine intervention in behalf of his great minister,
and possibly, on that account, left him unchecked in the fury which even
the awful calamity which had fallen on his country did not at all
moderate. The Jesuits were praised by both king and patriarch for their
heroic devotion both during and after the great disaster, but those
commendations only infuriated Pombal the more. When one of the Fathers,
the holy Malagrida, had dared to say in the pulpit that the earthquake
was a punishment for the vice that was rampant in the capital, Pombal
regarded it as a reflection on his administration; and the offender,
though seventy years old and universally regarded as a saint, was
banished from the city as inciting the people to rebellion.
However, the furious minister meted out similar treatment to others,
even to his political friends. Thus, although the British parliament had
voted £40,000 for the relief of the sufferers, besides giving a personal
gift to the king and sending ships with cargoes of food for the people,
Pombal immediately ran up the tax on foreign imports, for he was
financially interested in domestic productions. Even in doling out
provisions to the famishing populace, he was so parsimonious that riots
occurred, whereupon he hanged those who complained. The author of the
"Vita" (I, 106) vouches for the fact that at one time there were three
hundred gibbets erected in various parts of Lisbon. The Jesuit
confessors at the court were especially obnoxious to him and he
dismissed them all with an injunction never to set foot in the royal
precincts again. The anger of their royal penitents did not restrain
him, so absolute was his power both then and afterwards. The plea was
that the priests were plotters against the king. To increase that
impression he pointed out to his majesty the number of offenders against
him; all members of the detested Order who were coming back in every
ship from Brazil. The General of the Society, Father Centurioni, wrote
to the king pleading the innocence of the victims; but the letter never
got further than the minister. The king did not even know it had been
sent.
The next step in this persecution was to publish the famous pamphlet
entitled: "A Brief Account of the Republic which the Jesuits have
established in the Spanish and Portuguese dominions of the New World,
and of the War which they have carried on against the armies of the two
Crowns; all extracted from the Register of the Commissaries and
Plenipotentiaries, and from other documents." A copy was sent to every
bishop of the country; to the cardinals in Rome, and to all the courts
of Europe. Pombal actually spent 70,000 crowns to print and spread the
work of which he himself was generally credited with being the author.
In South America it was received with derision; in Europe mostly with
disgust. Sad to say, Acciajuoli, the Apostolic nuncio at Lisbon,
believed the Brazilian stories; but he changed his mind, when on the
morning of June 15, 1760, just as he was about to say Mass, he received
a note ordering him in the name of the king to leave the city at once,
and the kingdom within four days; adding that to preserve him from
insult a military escort would conduct him to the frontier. Other
publications of the same tenor followed the "Brief Account." One
especially became notorious. It was: "Letters of the Portuguese Minister
to the Minister of Spain on the Jesuitical Empire, the Republic of
Maranhao; the history of Nicholas I." The Nicholas in question was a
Father named Plantico. To carry out the story of his having been crowned
king or Emperor of Paraguay, coins with his effigy were actually struck
and circulated throughout Europe. Unfortunately for the fraud, none of
the coins were ever seen in Paraguay where they ought to have been
current. Moreover, as Plantico was transported with the other Jesuits of
Brazil, he would have been hanged on his arrival in Portugal, if he had
tried to set up a kingdom of his own in Paraguay. On the contrary, he
went off to his native country of Croatia, and was Rector of the College
of Grosswardein when the general suppression of the Society took place.
Frederick II and d'Alembert used to joke with each other about "King
Nicholas I"; and in Spain, that and the other libels were officially
denounced and their circulation prohibited.
As for Carvalho, these hideous imaginings of his brain became realities;
and the list of Jesuitical horrors which his ambassador at Rome repeated
to the Pope, all, as he alleged, for the sake of the Church, almost
suggest that Pombal was a madman. Long extracts of the document may be
found in de Ravignan and Weld, but it will be sufficient here to mention
a few of the charges. They are, for instance, "seditious machinations
against every government of Europe; scandals in their missions so
horrible that they cannot be related without extreme indecency;
rebellion against the Sovereign Pontiff; the accumulation of vast wealth
and the use of immense political power; gross moral corruption of
individual members of the Order; abandonment of even the externals of
religion; the daily and public commission of enormous crimes; opposing
the king with great armies; inculcating in the Indian mind an implacable
hatred of all white men who are not Jesuits; starting insurrections in
Uruguay so as to prevent the execution of the treaty of limits;
atrociously calumniating the king; embroiling the courts of Spain and
Portugal; creating sedition by preaching in the capital against the
commercial companies of the minister; taking advantage of the earthquake
to attain their detestable ends; surpassing Machiavelli in their
diabolical plots; inventing prophecies of new disasters, such as
warnings of subterranean fires and invasions of the sea; calumniating
the venerable Palafox; committing crimes worse than those of the Knights
Templars, etc."
Unfortunately, Cardinal Passionei who was unfriendly to the Society,
exercised great power at Rome at that time. He was so antagonistic that
he would not allow a Jesuit book in the library, which made d'Alembert
say: "I am sorry for his library." He also refused to condemn the work
of the scandalous ex-monk Norbert, who was in the pay of Carvalho. To
make matters worse, Benedict XIV was then at the point of death. And a
short time previously, yielding to Carvalho's importunities, he had
appointed Cardinal Saldanha, who was Carvalho's tool, to investigate the
complaints and to report back to Rome, without however taking any action
on the premises. The dying Pontiff was unaware of the intimacy of
Saldanha with the man in Portugal or he would not have ordered him in
the Brief of appointment to "follow the paths of gentleness and
mildness, in dealing with an Order which has always been of the greatest
edification to the whole world; lest by doing otherwise he would
diminish the esteem which, up to that time, they have justly acquired as
a reward of their diligence. Their holy Institute had given many
illustrious men to the Church whose teachings they have not hesitated to
confirm with their blood." As the Pope died in the following month,
Saldanha made light of the instructions. His usual boast was that "the
will of the king was the rule of his actions; and he was under such
obligations to his majesty, that he would not hesitate to throw himself
from the window if such were the royal pleasure."
It was currently reported in Lisbon, says Weld (130), that the office of
visitor had been first offered to Francis of the Annunciation, an
Augustinian who had reformed the University of Coimbra; and on his
refusal he was sent to prison where he ended his days. But the obliging
Saldanha saw in it an opportunity for still further advancement; he
accepted the work and performed it in accordance with the wishes of
Pombal. Meantime, new dungeons were being made in the fortress of
Jonquiera in which the offending Jesuits were to be buried. Saldanha
began his work as Inquisitor on May 31, by going with great pomp to the
Jesuit Church of St. Roch. Seated on the throne in the sanctuary, he
gave his hand to be kissed by all the religious. When the provincial
knelt before him, the cardinal told him to have confidence--he would act
with clemency. When the ceremony was over, he departed abruptly without
asking any questions or making any examination. But a few days
afterward, the provincial received a letter bearing the date May 15,
that is sixteen days before this visit to the Church, declaring that the
Fathers in Portugal and in its dominions to the ends of the earth were,
on the fullest information, found to be guilty of a worldly traffic
which was a disgrace to the ecclesiastical state; and they were
commanded under pain of excommunication to desist from such business
transactions at the very hour the notification was made. The language
employed in the letter which was immediately spread throughout the
country was insulting and defamatory to the highest degree.
All the procurators were then compelled to hand over their books to the
government. And when the horrified people, who knew there was nothing
back of it all but Carvalho's hatred, manifested their discontent, it
was ascribed to the Jesuits. Hence on June 6, the cardinal patriarch, at
the instigation of the prime minister, suspended them all from the
function of preaching and hearing confessions throughout the
patriarchate. The cardinal had, at first, demurred, for he knew the
Jesuits in Lisbon to be the very reverse of Saldanha's description of
them, and he therefore demanded a regular trial. Whereupon Carvalho flew
into such a rage that out of sheer terror, and after a few hours'
struggle, he issued the cruel order. The poor cardinal, who was an
ardent friend and admirer of the Society, was so horrified at what he
had done that he fell into a fever, and died within a month. Before he
received the last sacraments, he made a public declaration that the
Society was innocent, and he drew up a paper to that effect; but
Carvalho never let it see the light. When the Archbishop of Evora heard
that the dying man had shed tears over his weakness, he said: "Tears are
not enough. He should have shed the last drop of his blood."
Saldanha was made patriarch in the deceased prelate's place; and though
his office of visitor had ceased _ipso facto_ on the death of the Pope,
he continued to exercise its functions nevertheless. He appointed
Bulhoens, the Bishop of Para, a notorious adherent of Carvalho, to be
his delegate in Brazil. Bulhoens first examined the Jesuits of Para, but
could find nothing against them. He then proceeded to Maranhão; but the
bishop of that place left in disgust; and the governor warned Bulhoens
that if he persisted, the city would be in an uproar. Not being able
to effect anything, he asked the Bishop of Bahia to undertake the
work of investigation. The invitation was promptly accepted; and
all the superiors were ordered to show their books under pain of
excommunication. They readily complied, and no fault was found with the
accounts. He then instituted a regular tribunal; received the
depositions of seventy-five witnesses, among them Saldanha's own brother
who had lived twenty-five years in Maranhão. Next he examined the tax
commissioner, through whose hands all contracts and bills of exchange
had to pass; and that official affirmed under oath that he had never
known or heard of any business transactions having been carried on by
Jesuits. The result was that the courageous bishop declared "it would be
an offence against God and his conscience and against the king's majesty
to condemn the Fathers." When his report was forwarded to Portugal,
Carvalho ordered the confiscation of his property; expelled him from his
palace, and declared his see vacant. The valiant prelate passed the rest
of his days in seclusion, supported by the alms of the faithful.
In September 1758, a charge was trumped up in Lisbon in a most tortuous
fashion, based on the alleged discovery of a plot to assassinate the
king. Those chiefly involved were the Duke de Averio and the Marquis de
Tavora, with his wife, his two sons, his two brothers and his two
sons-in-law, all of whom were seized at midnight on December 12. The
marchioness and her daughter-in-law were carried off to a convent in
their night-dresses; the men of the family, to dens formerly occupied by
the wild beasts of the city menagerie. De Aveiro, who was supposed to be
the assassin-in-chief, was not taken until next day. Several others were
included in this general round-up, some of them for having asserted that
the whole conspiracy was a manufactured affair. At the same time, some
of the domestic servants of the marquis, probably for having offered
resistance at the time of the arrest, were put to death so that they
could tell no tales. Not being able to have the accused parties tried
before any regularly constituted tribunal, because of the lack of
evidence, Carvalho drew up a sentence of condemnation himself, and
presented it to a new court which he had just established, called the
_inconfidenza_, and demanded the signatures of the judges who were all
his creatures. After being stormed at for a while, all, with one
exception, put their names to the paper. Then, as by the law of the land
no nobleman could be condemned to death except by his peers, he
constituted himself as a tribunal, along with his secretary of the Navy
and the secretary of Foreign Affairs, neither of whom had any difficulty
in complying with the wish of their master.
On January 11, 1759, three of the noblemen involved, Aveiro, Tavora and
Antongia, were led out to execution before the king's palace. Vast
multitudes had assembled in the public square; and to ensure order,
fresh regiments had been summoned from other parts of the kingdom. A
riot was feared, for the Tavoras were among the noblest families of the
realm. The accused had not even been defended and had been interrogated
on the rack. The execution was most expeditious, and the heads of the
three victims quickly rolled in the dust. That night, the marchioness
was taken from the convent to the new dungeons in the fort; and on
January 12, she heard the sentence of death passed on her by Carvalho
himself who was both judge and accuser. The scaffold was erected in the
square of Belem; and long before daylight of January 13 an immense
multitude had gathered to witness the hideous spectacle. The marchioness
advanced and took her seat in the chair. The axe quickly descended on
her neck--and all was over. She was despatched in this hurried fashion
because the interference of the king was feared. Indeed, the messenger
arrived just when the head had been severed from the body. The two sons
of the marchioness and her son-in-law were then stretched on the rack
and strangled. The father of the family, the old marquis followed next
in order. As a mark of clemency, his torture was brief but effective.
Four others were then executed; fire was set to the gibbet; and its
blood-stained timbers along with the bodies of the victims were reduced
to ashes and thrown into the Tagus. This was not a scene in a village of
savages, but in a great European capital which had just passed through a
terrible visitation of God but apparently had not understood its
meaning. Carvalho was thirsting for more blood, but the king held him
back; so he contented himself with destroying the palaces of the Aveiras
and Tavoras; sprinkling the sites with salt; forbidding anyone to bear
the names hitherto so illustrious, and even effacing them from the
monuments and the public archives. He was not allowed to commit any more
official murders for the moment; but at least he had thousands who were
dying in his underground dungeons.
What had the Jesuits to do with all this? Nothing whatever. They were
accused of being the spiritual advisers of the Tavora family which it
was impossible to disprove, because though the persons implicated by the
accusation were all arrested on the 11th, sentence of death had been
already passed on the 9th. There were twenty-nine paragraphs in the
indictment. The twenty-second said that "even if the exuberant and
conclusive proofs already adduced did not exist, the presumption of the
law would suffice to condemn such monsters." Of course, no lawyer in the
world could plead against such a charge, and it is noteworthy that in
the Brief of Suppression of the whole Society by Clement XIV which
brings together all the accusations against it, there is no mention
whatsoever, even inferentially, of any conspiracy of the Jesuits against
the life of the King of Portugal. Moreover, the Inquisition and all the
Bishops of Spain judged this Portuguese horror at its proper value, when
on May 3, 1759 they put their official stamp of condemnation on the
pamphlets with which the whole of Europe was flooded immediately after
Pombal's infamous act. They denounced the charges one by one as
"designed to foment discord, to disturb the peace and tranquillity of
souls and consciences, and especially to discredit the holy Society of
Jesus and religious who laudably labor in it to the benefit of the
Church; as is known throughout the world." Over and over again as each
book is specifically anathematised, the "holy Society of Jesus" is
spoken of with commendation and praise. The condemned publications were
then burnt in the market place. That exculpation ought to have been
sufficient, coming as it did not only from all the Spanish bishops but
from the Inquisition, which from the very beginning had been uniformly
suspicious of everything Jesuitical. Against this utterance Pombal was
powerless for it was the voice of another nation.
When the year 1759 began, three of the most conspicuous and most
venerable Fathers of Portugal were in jail under sentence of death. But
neither the king nor Carvalho dared to carry out the sentence of
execution. Something however had to be done; and therefore a royal
edict, which had been written long before, was issued. After reciting
all that had been previously said about Brazil, etc. it declared that
"these religious being corrupt and deplorably fallen away from their
holy institute, and rendered manifestly incapable by such abominable and
inveterate vices to return to its observances, must be properly and
effectually banished, denaturalized, proscribed and expelled from all
his majesty's dominions, as notorious rebels, traitors, adversaries and
aggressors of his royal person and realm; as well as for the public
peace and the common good of his subjects; and it is ordered under the
irremissible pain of death, that no person, of whatever state or
condition, is to admit them into any of his possessions or hold any
communication with them by word or writing, even though they should
return into these states in a different garb or should have entered
another order, unless with the King's permission." It is sad to have to
record that the Patriarch of Lisbon endorsed the invitation to the
Jesuits to avail themselves of this royal clemency.
The procurators of the missions who occupied a temporary house in Lisbon
had been already carried off to jail; and their money, chalices, sacred
vessels, all of which were intended for Asia and Brazil, were
confiscated. The Exodus proper began at the College of Elvas on
September 1. At night-fall a squadron of cavalry arrived; and taking the
inmates prisoners, marched them off without any intimation of whither
they were going. On the following day, Sunday, they were lodged in a
miserable shed, exhausted though they were by the journey, with nothing
but a few crusts to eat, after having suffered intensely from the heat
all day long. They were not even allowed to go to Mass. During the next
night and the following day, they continued their weary tramp and at
last arrived at Evora. There the young men were left at the college, and
the sixty-nine Professed were compelled to walk for six consecutive days
till they reached the Tagus. Many were old and decrepit and one of them
lost his mind on the journey. When they reached the river, they were put
in open boats and exposed all day long to the burning sun, with nothing
to eat or drink. They were then transferred to a ship which had been
waiting for them since the month of April. It was then late in
September.
Other exiles soon joined them, after going through similar experiences,
until there were one hundred and thirty-three in the same vessel. They
were all kept in the hold till they were out of sight of land. There
was no accommodation for them: the food was insufficient; the water was
foul; there were no dishes, so that six or seven had to sit around a tin
can, and take out what they could with a wooden spoon, and the same
vessel had to serve for the water they drank. The orders were to stop at
no port until they reached Civita Vecchia. However, after passing the
Straits of Gibraltar, it became evident that unless the captain wanted
to carry a cargo of corpses to Italy, he must take in supplies
somewhere: for many of the victims were sixty or seventy years of age.
There were even some octogenarians among them. Hence, on reaching
Alicante, in Spain, one of the Fathers went ashore. There was a college
of the Society in that city; and as soon as the news spread of the
arrival of the prisoners, the people rushed to the shore to supply their
wants, but the messenger was the only one allowed to be seen. They then
sailed away from Alicante. Off Corsica, a storm caught them and so
delayed their progress that a stop had to be made at Spezia for more
food. At last, on October 24, more than a month after they had left
Lisbon, they were flung haggard, emaciated and exhausted on the shores
of the Papal States at Civita Vecchia. Of course, they were received by
the people there with unbounded affection; and as Father Weld relates
"none exceeded the Dominican Fathers in their tender solicitude for the
sufferers." A marble slab in their church records their admiration for
these confessors of the Faith with whom the sons of St. Dominic declared
they were _devinctissimi_--"closely bound to them in affection."
On September 29, troops surrounded the College of Coimbra. The
astonished populace was informed that it was because the Fathers had
been fighting; that some were already killed and others wounded; and
the soldiers had been summoned to prevent further disorders. That night
amid pouring rain, the tramp of horses' hoofs was heard; and as the
people crowded to the windows, they saw the venerable men of the college
led away between squads of cavalry as if they were brigands or prisoners
of war. They arrived at the Tagus on October 7, where others were
already waiting. They numbered in all 121, and were crowded into two
small ships which were to carry them into exile. They had scarcely room
to move. Yet, when they arrived at Genoa, they were all packed into one
of the boats. At Leghorn, they were kept for a whole month in close
confinement on board the ship. When they started out, they were buffeted
by storms, and not until January 4, 1760 did they reach the papal
territory. They were in a more wretched state of filth and emaciation
than their predecessors.
These prisoners were the special criminals of the Society, namely--the
professed Fathers. The other Jesuits were officially admitted to be
without reproach and were exhorted, both by the civil and ecclesiastical
authorities, to abandon the Order and be dispensed from their vows. As
these non-Professed numbered at least three-fourths of the whole body,
the difficult problem presents itself of explaining how the Professed
who are looked up to by the rest of the Society for precept and example
should be monsters of iniquity and yet could train the remaining
three-fourths of the members in such a way as to make them models of
every virtue.
Pombal was convinced that he could separate the youth of the Society
from their elders; and he was extremely anxious to do so, because of the
family connections of many of them, and because of the loss to the
nation at one stroke of so much ability and talent. But he failed
egregiously. They were all gathered in the colleges of Coimbra and
Evora. No seclusion was observed. Everybody was free to visit them from
the world outside; and inducements of every kind were held out to them
to abandon the Society: family affection, worldly ambition, etc.--but
without avail. They had no regular superior, so they elected a
fourth-year theologian who had just been ordained a priest. Another was
made minister; and a third, master of novices. The house was kept in
excellent order; the religious discipline was perfect and the exercises
of the community went on with as much regularity as if nothing were
happening. Pombal sent commissioner after commissioner to shake the
constancy of the young men, but only two of the tempted ones weakened.
"Who is their superior?" he asked one day in a rage. The answer was:
"Joseph Carvalho--your namesake and relative." On October 20, a letter
from the cardinal was read in both houses. He expressed his astonishment
that these young Jesuits did not avail themselves of the royal favor to
desert; and he warned them that they were not suffering for their faith,
and that "their refusal of His Majesty's offer to release them from
their vows was not virtuous constancy but seditious obstinacy."
Finally, October 24 was fixed for their departure, and notice was given
that they could not expect to go to any civilized land, but would
probably be dropped on some desolate island off the African coast. That
shook the resolution of two of the band, but the rest stood firm. In the
morning, all went to Holy Communion and at an hour before sunset, the
word was given to start. They sang a Te Deum and then set out--130 in
all. They were preceded by a troop of cavalry; a line of foot soldiers
marched on either side; while here and there torches threw their glare
over this grim nocturnal procession. It took them four days to reach
Oporto, where they met their brethren from Braganza and Braga. There
were only ten from the former place, but sixty soldiers had been
detailed to guard them. Indeed, the troopers from Braga had to keep the
crowds back with drawn swords, so eager were the people along the road
to express their sympathy. At Oporto the young heroes had to witness the
desertion of four Professed Fathers; but that did not weaken their
resolution. They were all crammed into three small craft, but the
weather was too stormy to leave the port; and there they remained a
whole week, packed so close together that there was scarcely room to lie
side by side. The air became so foul that it was doubtful if they could
survive. Even their guards took sick, and, at last, a number of the
prisoners were transferred to a fort in the harbor.
At last to the number of 223 they sailed down the Douro. One of them
died, and his companions sang the Office of the Dead over him and buried
him in the sea. When the ship did not roll too much, Mass was said and
they went to Communion. All the exercises that are customary in
religious houses were scrupulously performed, and the Church festivals
were observed as if they were a community at home. They were quarantined
two weeks at Genoa without being permitted to go ashore. Then another
scholastic died, and they found that his earthly goods consisted of
nothing but a few bits of linen, that must have been foul by this time,
besides a discipline and a hair shirt. They cast anchor at Civita
Vecchia on February 7, having left inhospitable Portugal in October.
The band from Evora to the number of ninety-eight, of whom only three
were priests, had not such a rude experience except in the distress of
seeing some deserters, among them two Professed Fathers. The officer in
charge of the ship, unlike most of the government employees, was tender
and kind to them. How could he have been otherwise? His name was de
Britto--the same as that of the Portuguese martyr in India. It meant the
loss of his position, perhaps, but what did he care? When they reached
Lisbon, the nineteen who had been separated from the first detachment to
be kept in jail came aboard, and the little band numbered 115 all told,
when the ship hoisted anchor and made for the sea. They reached Civita
Vecchia where the two happy troops of valiant young Jesuits met in each
others arms. Their number was then 336. They were distributed among the
various establishments of Italy, the novices being sent to Sant' Andrea
in Rome. Two cardinals and a papal nuncio who were making their retreat
in the house at the time insisted on serving them at table, while the
Pope sent a message to the General to say: "These young men have
reflected great honor on the Society and have shown how well they have
been trained."
The fury of Pombal was not yet sated. Not an island of the Atlantic, not
a station in Africa or India, not a mission in the depths of the forests
of America that was not searched and looted by his commissioners, who
ruthlessly expelled the devoted missionaries who were found there. Men
venerable for age and acquirements were given over to brutal soldiers
who were ordered to shoot them if any attempt at escape was made. They
were dragged hundreds of miles through the wildest of regions, over
mountains, through raging torrents, amid driving storms; they were
starved and had nothing but the bare ground on which to rest; they were
searched again and again as if their rags held treasures; were made to
answer the roll call twice a day like convicts in jail; and then tossed
in the holds of crazy ill-provisioned ships with no place to rest their
weary heads, except on a coil of rope or in the filth of the cattle;
and when dead, they were to be flung to the sharks. When at last they
reached Lisbon they were forbidden to show themselves on deck, lest
their fellow-countrymen and their families might be shocked by their
degradation. They were then spirited away to the dungeons of St. Julian
and Jonquiera to rot, until death relieved them of their sufferings.
Those who were not placed in the crowded jails were sent in their rags
to find a refuge somewhere outside of their native land.
As has been said, there were two provinces in Portuguese South
America--Brazil and Maranhão. In the former, besides the Seminary of
Belem, the Society had six colleges and sixty-two residences with a
total of 445 members. Orders were given to the whole 445 to assemble at
Bahia, Pernambuco and San Sebastian. Everything was seized. At Bahia,
the novices were stripped of their habits and sent adrift, though the
families of some of them lived in far away Portugal. The rest were
confined in a house surrounded by armed troops while the bishop of the
city proclaimed that any one who would encourage the victims to
persevere in their vocation would be excommunicated. Then, one day,
without a moment's notice, all were ordered out of the house and sent to
jail in different places. There they remained for the space of three
months waiting for the missionaries from the interior to arrive. They
came in slowly, for some of them lived eight hundred miles away, and had
to tramp all that distance through the forests and over mountain ranges.
Before all had made their appearance, however, the first batches were
sent across to the mother country to make space. They started on March
16 and reached the Tagus on June 6. Those from Bahia had taken from
April to June, and it was fully three months before the convict ship
from Pernambuco arrived in port.
All this time the deported religious were kept between decks, and
soldiers stood at the gangway with drawn swords to prevent any attempt
to go up to get a breath of fresh air. Their food was nothing but
vegetables cooked in sea-water, for there was not enough of drinking
water even to slake their thirst. The result was that the ship had a
cargo of half-dead men when it anchored off Lisbon; but the unfortunate
wretches were kept imprisoned there for fifteen days with the port-holes
closed. They were then transferred to a Genoese ship and sent to Civita
Vecchia. It appears that the Provincial of these Brazilian Jesuits was
named Lynch; but strange to say, there is no mention of him in any of
the Menologies. The deportation from Pernambuco and San Sebastian were
repetitions of this organized brutality; and the same methods were
employed at Goa in India, and the other dependencies, such as Macao and
China. In the transportations from these posts in the Orient, the ships
had to stop at Bahia which had been witness of the first exportations;
but the victims in the China ships could learn nothing of what had
happened. Twenty-three of them died on one of the journeys from India.
It is noted that a Turk at Algiers and a Danish Lutheran sea-captain,
had shown the greatest humanity to the victims whose fellow countrymen
seemed transformed into savage beasts. The prisoners had been kept in
confinement twenty months before they left Goa; and when they arrived at
Lisbon on October 18, 1764, they were taken off in long boats at the
dead of night, and lodged in the foulest dungeons of the fortress of St.
Julian.
But these were not the only victims of Carvalho. There were prisoners
from every grade of society, and their number reached the appalling
figure of nine thousand. Among them were eminent ecclesiastics, bishops
and canons and some of the most distinguished laymen of the kingdom. A
description of the prisons in which they were confined for years or till
they died has been given to posterity by some of the victims. Father
Weld in his "Suppression of the Society in Portugal" quotes extensively
from their letters. The jails were six in number: Belem, Almeida,
Azeitano, St. George, Jonquiera and St. Julian. They had annexes, also,
along the African coasts or on the remote islands of the Atlantic.
Belem, the Portuguese name for Bethlehem, so called because it had once
been an abbey, was about four miles from Lisbon towards the ocean. It
had the distinction of keeping its prisoners behind iron bars, but
exposed to the public like wild beasts in a menagerie; so that the
public could come and look at them and feed them if so disposed. The
Portuguese criminals were given a pittance by the government, to
purchase food, but the foreigners had to beg from the spectators for the
means to support life. It was admirably contrived to induce insanity.
Jonquiera lay between Belem and Lisbon. The cells were numerous in this
place. Moreira, the king's former confessor, and Malagrida were among
the inmates. The Marquis de Lorna who was also confined there says
"there were nineteen cells, each about seven paces square, and so
tightly closed that a light had to be kept burning continually;
otherwise they would have been in absolute darkness. When the prisoners
were first put in them, the plaster was still wet and yielded to the
slightest pressure. The cold was intense. Worst of all for a Catholic
country, the sacraments were allowed the prisoners only once a year."
The Marquis says that during the sixteen years he spent there "he never
heard Mass." In these dungeons there were 221 Jesuits, 88 of whom died
in their chains. The Castle of St. Julian stood on the banks of the
Tagus and the walls were washed by the tide. In this place, there were
125 Jesuits of all nations; men of high birth, of great virtue and
intellectual ability. The cells were situated below the sea-level; and
were damp, unventilated, choked with filth and swarming with vermin.
Some of the Fathers passed nineteen years in those tombs. The drinking
water was putrid; the prisoners' clothes were in rags; often not
sufficient for decency; many had no under garments and no shoes; their
hair and beards were never cut; the food was scant and of the worst
quality, and was often carried off before there was time to eat it. The
oil of the single lamp in the cells was so limited that to save it, the
wick was reduced to two or three threads. The same conditions prevailed
in the other prisons. Meantime the jailers were making money on the
supplies supposed to be served to the prisoners. Such was prison life in
Portugal during the twenty years of Pombal's administration.
One of the particularly outrageous features of these imprisonments was
that Pombal preferred to hold foreigners rather than native Portuguese.
The foreigners, having no friends in the country, would not, in all
probability, be claimed by their relatives; and as the ministers of
nearly all the nations of Europe were of the same mind as himself, he
had no fear of political intervention. Thus we find in a letter of
Father Kaulen, a German Jesuit, which was published by Christopher de
Murr, that in one section of St. Julian, besides fifty-four Portuguese
Jesuits, there were thirteen Germans, one Italian, three Frenchmen, two
Spaniards, and three Chinese. These Chinese Jesuits must have made
curious reflections on the meaning of the term "Christian nations."
"There are others in the towers," adds Father Kaulen, "but I cannot find
out who they are, or how many, or to what country they belong."
The three Frenchmen, Fathers du Gad and de Ranceau along with Brother
Delsart were set free at the demand of Marie Leczinska, the wife of
Louis XV; it was through them that Father Kaulen was able to send his
letter to the provincial of the Lower Rhine. He himself was probably
liberated later by the intervention of Maria Theresa, but there is no
record of it. His letter is of great value as he had personal experience
of what he writes. His experience was a long one, for he entered the
prison in 1759; and this communication to his provincial is dated
October 12, 1766. In it he writes:--
"I was taken prisoner by a soldier with a drawn sword and brought to
Fort Olreida on the frontier of Portugal. There I was put in a frightful
cell filled with rats which got into my bed and ate my food. I could not
chase them away, it was so dark. We were twenty Jesuits, each one in a
separate cell. During the first four months we were treated with some
consideration. After that, they gave us only enough food to keep us from
dying of hunger. They took away our breviaries, medals, etc. One of the
Fathers resisted so vigorously when they tried to deprive him of his
crucifix that they desisted. The sick got no help or medicine.
"After three years they transferred nineteen of us to another place
because of a war that had broken out. We travelled across Portugal
surrounded by a troop of cavalry, and were brought to Lisbon; and after
passing the night in a jail with the worst kind of criminals, we were
sent to St. Julian, which is on the seashore. It is a horrible hole,
underground, dark and foul. The food is bad, the water swarming with
worms. We have half a pound of bread a day. We receive the sacraments
only when we are dying. The doctor lives outside but if we fall sick
during the night, he is not called. The prison is filled with worms and
insects and little animals such as I never saw before. The walls are
dripping wet, so that our clothes soon rot. One of the Fathers died and
his face was so brilliant that one of the soldiers exclaimed: 'That's
the face of a saint.' We are not unhappy, and the three French Fathers
who left us envied our lot.
"Very few of us have even the shreds of our soutanes left. Indeed we
have scarcely enough clothes for decency. At night a rough covering full
of sharp points serves as a blanket; and the straw on which we sleep as
well as the blanket that covers us soon become foul, and it is very hard
to get them renewed. We are not allowed to speak to any one. The jailor
is extremely brutal and seems to make a point of adding to our
sufferings; only with the greatest reluctance does he give us what we
need. Yet we could be set free in a moment if we abandoned the Society.
Some of the Fathers who were at Macao and had undergone all sorts of
sufferings at the hands of the pagans, such as prison chains and torture
say to us that perhaps God found it better to have them suffer in their
own country for nothing, than among idolaters for the Faith.
"We ask the prayers of the Fathers of the province, but not because we
lament our condition. On the contrary, we are happy. As for myself,
though I would like to see my companions set free, I would not change
places with you outside. We wish all our Fathers good health so that
they may work courageously for God in Germany to make up for the little
glory he receives here in Portugal.
Your Reverence's most humble servant
Lawrence Kaulen,
Captive of Jesus Christ."
Pombal was determined now to make a master-stroke to discredit the
Portuguese Jesuits. He would disgrace and put to death as a criminal
their most distinguished representative, Father Malagrida, now over
seventy years of age, who had already passed two years in the dungeons
of Jonquiera. Malagrida was regarded by the people as a saint. He had
labored for many years in the missions of Brazil and was marvelously
successful in the work of converting the savages. Unfortunately he had
been recalled to Portugal in 1749 by the queen mother to prepare her for
the end of her earthly career. As Malagrida knew how Carvalho's brother
was acting in Brazil, he was evidently a dangerous man to have so near
the Court. Hence when the earthquake occurred and the holy old
missionary dared to tell the people that possibly it was a punishment of
God for the sins of the people, Carvalho banished him to Setubal and
kept him there for two years. When the supposed plot against the king's
life occurred, Malagrida was sent to prison as being concerned in it,
though he had never been in Lisbon since his banishment. He was
condemned to death with the other supposed conspirators; but his
character as a priest, and his acknowledged sanctity made the king
forbid the execution of the sentence. Pombal, however, found a way out
of the difficulty. A book was produced which was said to have been
written by Malagrida during his imprisonment. It was crammed with
utterances that only a madman could have written: In any case it could
not have been produced by the occupant of a dark cell, where there was
no ink and no paper. When it was presented to the Inquisition whose
death sentences the king himself could not revoke, the judges refused to
consider the case at all; whereupon they were promptly removed by Pombal
who made his own brother chief inquisitor; and from him and two other
tools, promptly drew a condemnation of Malagrida for heresy, schism,
blasphemy and gross immorality.
The sentence of death was passed on September 20, 1761, and on the same
day the venerable priest was brought to hear the formal proclamation of
it in the hall of supplication. There he was told that he was degraded
from his priestly functions, and was condemned to be led through the
public streets of the city, with a rope around his neck, to the square
called do Rocco, where he was to be strangled by the executioner, and
after he was dead, his body was to be burned to ashes, so that no memory
of him or his sepulchre might remain. He heard the sentence without
emotion and quietly protested his innocence. On the very next day,
September 21, the execution took place. Platforms were erected around
the square. Cavalry and infantry were massed here and there in large
bodies; each soldier had eight rounds of ammunition. Pombal presided.
The nobility, the members of the courts, and officers of the State were
compelled to be present, and great throngs of people crowded the square
and filled the abutting avenues and streets.
When everything was ready, a gruesome procession started from the
prison. Malagrida appeared with the _carocha_, or high cap of the
criminal, on his head, and a gag in his mouth. With him were fifty-two
others who had been condemned for various crimes; but only he was to
die. They were called from their cells merely to accentuate his
disgrace. Having arrived at the place of execution, the sentence was
again read to him; and when he was relieved of the gag, he calmly
protested his innocence and gave himself up to the executioners,
uttering the words of Our Lord on the Cross: "Father, into Thy hands, I
commend my spirit." He was quickly strangled; then fire was set to his
lifeless body and the ashes were scattered to the winds. He was
seventy-two years of age, and had spent forty-one of them working for
the salvation of his fellowmen.
All this happened in Portugal which once gloried in having the great
Francis Xavier represent it before the world; which exulted in a son
like de Britto, the splendid apostle of the Brahmans, who waived aside a
mitre in Europe but bent his neck with delight to receive the stroke of
an Oriental scimitar. The same Portugal which inscribed on its roll of
honor the forty Jesuits who suffered death while on their way to
evangelize Portugal's possessions in Brazil, now made a holiday to
witness the hideous torture of the venerable and saintly Malagrida. The
Jesuits of Portugal had done much for their country. They had borne an
honorable part in the struggle that threw off the Spanish yoke: the
magnificent Vieira was a greater emancipator of the native races than
was Las Casas; and he and his brethren had won more territories for
Portugal than da Gama and Cabral had ever discovered. But all that was
forgotten, and they were driven out of their country, or kept chained in
fetid dungeons till they died or were burned at the stake in the
market-place, in the presence of the king and the people. No wonder that
Portugal has descended to the place she now occupies among the nations.
CHAPTER XV
CHOISEUL
The French Method--Purpose of the Enemy--Preliminary
Accusations--Voltaire's testimony--La Vallette--La
Chalotais--Seizure of Property--Auto da fé of the Works of
Lessius, Suárez, Valentia, etc.--Appeal of the French
Episcopacy--Christophe de Beaumont--Demand for a French
Vicar--"Sint ut sunt aut non sint"--Protest of Clement XIII
--Action of Father La Croix and the Jesuits of Paris--Louis
XV signs the Act of Suppression--Occupations of dispersed
Jesuits--Undisturbed in Canada--Expelled from Louisiana--
Choiseul's Colonization of Guiana.
The result of Pombal's work in Portugal was applauded by his friends in
France, but his methods were condemned. "He was a butcher with an axe."
Their own procedure was to be along different lines. They would first
poison the public mind, would enjoy the pleasure of seeing the heretical
Jansenist condemning the Jesuit for heterodoxy, and the professional
debauchee assailing his morality, and then they would put the Society to
death by process of law for the good of the commonwealth and of the
Church. There would be no imprisonments, no burnings at the stake, no
exiles, but simply an authorized confiscation of property which would
leave the Jesuits without a home, replenish the public purse and ensure
the peace of the nation. It was much easier and more refined. Meantime,
the Portuguese exhibition was a valuable object lesson to their
followers, who saw a king lately honored with the title of His Most
Faithful Majesty putting to death the most ardent champions of the
Faith. Later on, The Christian King, The Catholic King, and The
Apostolic Emperor would unite to show that "Faith" and "Christianity"
and "Apostolicity" were only names.
With all their refinement, however, the French were more radical and
more malignant than the Portuguese. Pombal had no other idea beyond that
of a state Church such as he had seen in England, forming a part of the
government machinery, and when his effort to bring that about by
marrying the Protestant Duke of Cumberland to the Infanta of Portugal
was thwarted by the Jesuits, he simply treated them as he did his other
political enemies; he put them in jail or the grave. In France, the
scheme was more comprehensive. With men like Voltaire and his associates
in the literary world, and Choiseul and others of his set controlling
the politics of the country, the plan was not merely to do away with the
Church, but with all revealed religion. As the Jesuits were conspicuous
adversaries of the scheme, it was natural that they should be disposed
of first.
Such is the opinion of St. Liguori, who says: "The whole thing is a plot
of the Jansenists and unbelievers to strike the Pope and the Church."
The Protestant historian Maximilian Schoell is of like mind (Cours
d'histoire, xliv.): "The Church had to be isolated; and to be isolated,
it had to be deprived of the help of that sacred phalanx which had
avowed itself to the defence of the Pontifical throne.... Such was the
real cause of the hatred meted out to that Society." Dutilleul, in his
"Histoire des corporations religieuses en France" (p. 279) expresses
himself as follows: "The Jesuit is a missionary, a traveller, a mystic,
a man of learning, an elegant civilizer of savages, a confessor of
queens, a professor, a legislator, a financier, and, if need be, a
warrior. His was not a narrow and personal ambition, as people
erroneously suppose and assert. He was something more. He was a
reactionist, a Catholic and a Roman revolutionist. Far from being
attached, as is supposed, to his own interests, the Society has been in
the most daring efforts of its indefatigable ambition only the
protagonists of the spiritual authority of Rome."
Indeed, we have it from Voltaire himself, who wrote to Helvetius in
1761: "Once we have destroyed the Jesuits, we shall have easy work with
the Pope." Rorbacher (Histoire de l'église, tom. XXVII, p. 28) holds the
same view, "They are attacking the Society only to strike with greater
certainty at the Church and the State." But the real, the ultimate
purpose of Voltaire was expressed by his famous phrase _Ecrasons
l'infâme_--"Let us crush the detestable thing," the detestable thing
meaning God or Christ, and such has ever been the aim of his disciples.
That it still persists was proclaimed officially from the French tribune
by Viviani, "Our war is not against the Church, nor against
Christianity, but against God." This open and defiant profession of
atheism, however, would not have been possible in 1761. Hence, to
conceal their purpose, they allied themselves with the most pretentious
professors of the religion of the time; the only ones, according to
themselves, who knew the Church's dogma and observed her moral law; the
orthodox and austere Jansenists, who probably flattered themselves they
were tricking _les impies_, whereas, d'Alembert wrote to one of his
friends "Let the Pandours destroy the Jesuits; then we shall destroy the
Pandours."
The programme was to compel the parliament to terrorize the king, which
was very easy, because of the gross licentiousness of Louis XV. He was
simply a tool in the hands of his mistresses, and Guizot in his
"Histoire de France" has a picture in which Madame du Barry stands over
the king and points to the picture of Charles I of England, who was
beheaded for resisting parliament.
The Jansenist section of the coalition began the fight by the time-worn
accusation of the "lax morality" of the Jesuits--a method of assault
that was by no means acceptable to Voltaire who as early as 1746 had
written to his friend d'Alembert, as follows: "What did I see during the
seven years that I lived in the Jesuit's College? The most laborious and
frugal manner of life; every hour of which was spent in the care of us
boys and in the exercises of their austere profession. For that I call
to witness thousands of men who were brought up as I was. Hence, it is
that I can never help being astounded at their being accused of teaching
lax morality. They have had like other religious in the dark ages
casuists who have treated the _pro_ and _con_ of questions that are
evident today or have been relegated to oblivion. But, _ma foi_ are we
going to judge their morality by the satire of the _Lettres
Provinciales_. It is assuredly by Father Bourdaloue and Father Cheminais
and their other preachers and by their missionaries that we should
measure them. Put in parallel columns the sermons of Bourdaloue and the
_Lettres Provinciales_, and you'll find in the latter the art of
raillery pressed into service to make indifferent things appear criminal
and to clothe insults in elegant language; but you will learn from
Bourdaloue how to be severe to yourself and indulgent to others. I ask
then, which is true morality and which of the two books is more useful
to mankind? I make bold to say that there is nothing more contradictory;
nothing more iniquitous; nothing more shameful in human nature than to
accuse of lax morality, the men who lead the austerest kind of life in
Europe, and who go to face death at the ends of Asia and America."
The romances about the immense wealth of the Society best appealed to
the public imagination, especially as the news of an impending
financial disaster was in the air. One instance of this style of
propaganda may suffice. The others all resemble it. A Spaniard, it was
said, had arrived at Brest with, 2,000,000 _livres_ in his wallet and
was promptly killed by the Jesuits. Soon the 2,000,000 had grown to
8,000,000. Then there was a distinguished conversion; that of a Jesuit
named Chamillard who had turned Gallican and Jansenist on his death-bed;
and although Chamillard a few days afterwards appeared in the flesh and
protested that he was neither dead nor a Gallican nor a Jansenist, his
testimony was set aside. It had appeared in print and that was enough.
Such absurdities of course could do no serious harm, but at last, a
splendid fact presented itself which could not be disproved; especially
as a vast number of people, in France and elsewhere, were financial
sufferers in consequence of it. It was the bankruptcy of Father de la
Valette. In the public mind it proved everything that had ever been
written about the Order. Briefly it is as follows:
At the very beginning of the Seven Years War, the British fleet had
destroyed 300 French ships, captured 10,000 sailors and confiscated
300,000,000 _livres_ worth of merchandise. Among the sufferers was
Father La Valette, the superior of Martinique, who was engaged in
cultivating extensive plantations on the island, and selling the
products in Europe, for the support of the missions. Very unwisely he
borrowed extensively after the first disaster, going deeper and deeper
into debt, until at last he was unable to meet his obligations which by
this time had run up to the alarming sum of 2,000,000 _livres_, or about
$400,000. Suit was therefore brought by some of the creditors, but
instead of submitting the case to a commission established long before
by Louis XIV for adjusting the affairs of the missions, they laid it
before the usual parliamentary tribunal in spite of the fact of its
inveterate and well-known hatred of the Society. Guizot says that they
did it with a certain pride, so convinced were they of the justice of
their plea. Hundreds of others had suffered like themselves at the hands
of the enemy in the Seven Years War, and they had no desire to avail
themselves of any special legislation in their behalf. They underrated
the honesty of the judges.
A verdict was, of course, rendered against them, and the whole Society
was made responsible for the debt, though by the law of the land there
was no solidarity between the various houses of religious orders.
Nevertheless, they set to work to cancel their indebtedness. They had
made satisfactory arrangements with their principal creditors, and
although Martinique, where much of the property was located, had been
seized by the English; yet one-third of their liabilities had been paid
off when the government took alarm. If this continued, the public
treasury would reap no profit from the transaction. Hence, an order was
issued to seize every Jesuit establishment in France. A stop was put to
the reimbursement of private individuals and the government seized all
that was left. But although the Society was not to blame it incurred the
hatred of all those who were thus deprived of their money. That, indeed,
was the purpose of the government seizure.
Long before the crash, the superiors had done all in their power to stop
La Valette, but in those days Martinique was far from Rome. Although
attempt after attempt was made to reach him, it was all in vain. One
messenger was crippled when embarking at Marseilles; another died at
sea; another was captured by pirates, until in 1762 Father de la Marche
arrived on the island. After a thorough investigation de la Marche
declared (1) that La Valette had given himself up to trading in defiance
of canon law and of the special laws of the Society; (2) that he had
concealed his proceedings from the higher superiors of the Society and
even from the Fathers of Martinique; (3) that his acts had been
denounced by his superiors, not only as soon as they were made known,
but as soon as they were suspected. The visitor then asked the General
of the Society (1) to suspend La Valette from all administration both
spiritual and temporal: and (2) to recall him immediately to Europe.
La Valette's submission was appended to the verdict of the visitor; in
it, he acknowledges the justice of the sentence, although as soon as he
knew what harm he was doing he had stopped. He attests under oath that
not one of his superiors had given him any authorization or counsel or
approval; and no one had shared in or connived at his enterprises. He
takes God to witness that he did not make his avowals under compulsion
or threat, or out of complaisance, or for any inducement held out to
him, but absolutely of his own accord, and for truth's sake; and in
order to dispel and refute, as far as in him lay, the calumnies against
the Society consequent upon his acts. The document bore the date of
April 25, 1762. He was expelled from the Society and passed the rest of
his life in England. He never retracted or modified any of the
statements he had made in Martinique.
Following close on the decision in the La Valette case, parliament
ordered the immediate production of a copy of the Constitutions of the
Society. On the following morning, it was in their hands and was
submitted to several committees made up of Jansenists, Gallicans and
Atheists. These committees were charged with the examination of the
Institute and also of various publications of the Society. Extracts
were to be made and presented for the consideration of the court. The
most famous of these reports was the one made by La Chalotais, a
prominent magistrate of Brittany. He discovered that the Society was in
conflict with the authority of the Church, the general Councils, the
Apostolic See, and all ecclesiastical and civil governments; moreover
that, in their approved theological works, they taught every form of
heresy, idolatry and superstition, and inculcated suicide, regicide,
sacrilege, robbery, impurity of every kind, usury, magic, murder,
cruelty, hatred, vengeance, sedition, treachery--in brief, whatever
iniquity mankind could commit was to be found in their writings. As soon
as the report was laid before the judges, a decree was issued on May 8,
1761 declaring that the one hundred and fifty-eight colleges, churches
and residences with the foreign missions of the Order were to be seized
by the government; all the physical laboratories, the libraries, moneys,
inheritances of its members, the bequests of friends for charitable,
educational or missionary purposes--all was to go into the Government
coffers.
Crétineau-Joly estimated that the total value of the property seized
amounted to about 58,000,000 francs or $11,600,000. The amount of the
booty explains the zeal of the prosecution. To soften the blow a
concession of a pension of thirty cents a day was made by the Paris
parliament to those who would take an oath that they had left the
Society. The Languedoc legislators, however, cut it down to twelve.
Moreover this pension was restricted to the Professed. The Scholastics
got nothing; and as they were considered legally dead, because of the
vows they had taken in the Society, they were declared incapable of
inheriting even from their own parents. The decree also forbade all
subjects of the king to enter the Society; to attend any lecture given
by Jesuits; to visit their houses previous to their expulsion; or to
hold any communication with them. The Jesuits themselves were enjoined
not to write to each other, not even to the General. It is noteworthy
that the lawmakers who issued these regulations profess to be shocked by
the Jesuit doctrine of "blind obedience."
By a second decree it was ordered that the works of twenty-seven Jesuits
which had been examined should be burned by the public executioner.
Among them were such authors as Bellarmine, Lessius, Suárez, Valentia,
Salmerón, Gretser, Vásquez, Jouvancy,--all of whom were and yet are
considered to be among the greatest of Catholic theologians, but the lay
doctors of the parliament held them to be dangerous to public morals;
and to the peace of the nation and in order to express their horror
emphatically, they called for this _auto da fé_. It should be noted that
all of these works were written in Latin, and that their technical
character as well as the terminology employed would make it absolutely
impossible for even these solons of the French parliament to grasp the
meaning of the text. In order to sway the public mind, a summary of the
Chalotais report, commonly known as "Extraits des assertions" was
scattered broadcast throughout the country. The desired effect was
produced and even to-day if an attempt is made to answer any of its
charges the answer is always ready, "We have the authority of La
Chalotais; he was an eminent magistrate; he examined the books; the
highest court in France accorded him the verdict, and any attempt to
explain away the charges is superfluous!"
Yet there was in Paris at that time a higher tribunal than the one which
gave La Chalotais his claim to notoriety. It was the General Assembly of
the Clergy which had been convoked by the King to pass upon the
character of the Jesuits as a body, before he affixed his signature to
the decree of expulsion. It consisted of fifty-one prelates, some of
them cardinals. They met on June 27 and with the exception of the Bishop
of Angers, Allais, and especially of Fitzjames, the Bishop of Soissons,
who was the head of the Jansenist party and whose pastoral utterances
were condemned by the Pope as heretical, addressed a "Letter" to the
king conjuring him "to preserve an institution which was so useful to
the State," and declaring that "they could not see without alarm the
destruction of a society of religious who were so praiseworthy for the
integrity of their morals, the austerity of their discipline, the
vastness of their labors and their erudition and for the countless
services they had rendered to the Church.
"Charged as they are with the most precious trust of the education of
youth, participating as they do under the authority of the bishops, in
the most delicate functions of the holy ministry, honored as they are by
the confidence of kings in the most redoubtable of tribunals, loved and
sought after by a great number of our subjects and esteemed even by
those who fear them, they have won for themselves a consideration which
is too general to be disregarded."
"Everything, Sire, pleads with you in favor of the Jesuits: religion
claims them as its defenders; the Church as her ministers; Christians as
the guardians of their conscience; a great number of your subjects who
have been their pupils intercede with you for their old masters; and all
the youth of the kingdom pray for those who are to form their minds and
their hearts. Do not, Sire, turn a deaf ear to our united supplication;
do not permit in your kingdom, that in violation of the laws of justice,
and of the Church and of the State an entire and blameless society
should be destroyed."
The Archbishop of Paris, the famous Christophe de Beaumont was not
satisfied with this general appeal. He was the chief figure in France at
that time; and every word he uttered was feared by the enemies of the
Church. He was great enough to be in correspondence with all the crowned
heads of Europe, and Frederick the Great said of him: "If he would
consent to come to Prussia, I would go half way to meet him." Louis XV
had forced him to accept the See of Paris, but had not the courage to
support him when assailed by his foes. He was a saint as well as a hero;
he lent money to men who were libelling him, and would give the clothes
on his back to the poor. When a hospital took fire in the city, he
filled his palace and his cathedral with the patients. Hence, he did not
hesitate, after parliament had condemned the Society, to issue a
pastoral which he foresaw would drive him from his see. "What shall I
say, Brethren," he asks, "to let you know what I think of the religious
society which is now so fiercely assailed? We repeat with the Council of
Trent that it is 'a pious Institute;' that it is 'venerable,' as the
illustrious Bossuet declared it to be. We spurn far from us the
'Extraits des assertions' as a resumé of Jesuit teaching; and we renew
our declaration that in the condition of suffering and humiliation to
which they have been brought that their lot is a most happy one, because
in the eyes of religious men, it is an infinitely precious thing to have
no reproach on one's soul when overwhelmed by misfortune." As he foresaw
he was expelled from his see for this utterance, not by parliament but
by Louis XV whose cause he was defending.
Perhaps this treatment of the great Archbishop of Paris explains the
silence maintained through all the uproar by the Jesuits themselves. One
would expect some splendid outburst of eloquence in behalf of the
Society from one of its outraged members; but not a word was uttered by
any of them. Their protests would not have been printed or published.
Even Theiner who wrote against the Society says: "All France was
inundated with libellous pamphlets against the Jesuits. The most notable
of all was the one entitled 'Extracts of the dangerous and pernicious
doctrines of all kinds which the so-called Jesuits have at all times,
uninterruptedly maintained, taught and published.' Calumny and malice
fill the book from cover to cover. There is no crime which the Jesuits
did not teach or of which they are not accused. Never was bad faith
carried to such extremes. And yet there is no book that is so often
cited as an authority against the Society and its spirit."
Meantime, the government had approached the Pope for the purpose of
obtaining for the French Jesuits a special vicar who should be
quasi-independent of the General. It was harking back to the old scheme
of Philip II and Louis XIV. His Holiness replied in the memorable words:
"Sint ut sunt aut non sint" (Let them be as they are or not at all.) We
find in a letter of the procurator of Aquitaine that in case a vicar was
appointed every member of the province of Paris would leave the Order,
which under such an arrangement would be no longer the Society of Jesus.
Again in his letter to the king, after declaring that the appointment of
a French Vicar would be a substantial alteration of the Institute which
he could not authorize, the Pope says: "For two hundred years the
Society has been so useful to the Church, that, though it has never
disturbed the public tranquillity either in your kingdom or in any one
else's, yet because it has inflicted such damage on the enemies of
religion by its science and its piety, it is assailed on all sides by
calumny and imposture when fair fighting was found insufficient to
destroy them." Finally, on January 9, 1765, after the final knell had
sounded, Clement XIII issued his famous Bull "Apostolicum." It is given
at length in de Ravignan's "Clément XIII et Clément XIV," but a few
extracts will suffice.
After enumerating the glories of the Society in the past, and calling
attention to the fact that it had been approved by nineteen Popes, who
had most minutely examined their Institute, Clement XIII continues: "It
has, nevertheless, in our days been falsely and malignantly described
both by word and printed book as irreligious and impious, and has been
covered with opprobrium and ignominy until even the Church has been
denounced for sustaining it. In order, therefore, to repel these
calumnies and to put a stop to the impious discourses which are uttered
in defiance of both reason and equity; and to comfort the Regular Clerks
of the Society of Jesus who appeal to us for justice; and to give
greater emphasis to our words by the weight of our authority and to lend
some solace in the sufferings they are undergoing; and finally to defer
to the just desires of our venerable brothers, the bishops of the whole
Catholic world, whose letters to us are filled with eulogies of this
Society from whose labors the greatest services are rendered in their
dioceses; and also of our own accord and from certain knowledge, and
making use of the plenitude of our Apostolic authority, and following in
the footsteps of our predecessors, we, by this present Constitution,
which is to remain in force forever, say and declare in the same form
and in the same manner as has been heretofore said and declared, that
the Institute of the Society of Jesus breathes in the very highest
degree, piety and holiness both in the principal object which it has
continually in view, which is none other than the defence and
propagation of the Catholic Faith, and also in the means it employs for
that end. Such is our experience of it up to the present day. It is this
experience which has taught us how greatly the rule of the Society has
formed up to our day defenders of the orthodox Faith and zealous
missionaries who animated by an invincible courage dare a thousand
dangers on land and sea, to carry the light of the Gospel to savage and
barbarous nations.... Let no one dare be rash enough to set himself
against this my present approbative and confirmative Constitution lest
he incur the wrath of God."
These splendid approvals of their labors did much to keep up the courage
of the harassed Jesuits, but if what Father de Ravignan and
Crétineau-Joly relate be true, they had ample reason to keep themselves
in a salutary humility or rather bow their heads in shame. On December
19, 1761, we are told, the provincial of Paris, Father de La Croix and
one hundred and fifteen Fathers addressed a declaration to the clergy
assembled in Paris, by order of the king, which ran as follows: "We the
undersigned, provincial of the Jesuits of the province of Paris, the
superior of the professed house, the rector of the College of Louis Le
Grand, the superior of the novitiate and other Jesuits professed, even
of the first vows, residing in the said houses, and renewing as far as
needs be the declarations already made by the Jesuits of France in 1626,
1713 and 1757, declare before their Lordships the cardinals, archbishops
and bishops now assembled in Paris, by order of the king, to give their
opinion on several points of the Institute: (1) That it is impossible to
be more submissive than we are, or more inviolably attached to the laws,
maxims and usages of this kingdom with regard to the royal power, which
in temporal matters depends neither directly nor indirectly from any
power on earth, and has God alone above it. Recognizing that the bonds
by which subjects are attached to their rulers are indissoluble, we
condemn as pernicious and worthy of execration at all times every
doctrine contrary to the safety of the king, not only in the works of
some theologians of our Society who have adopted such doctrines but also
those of every other theologian whosoever he may be. (2) We shall teach
in our public and private lessons of theology the doctrine established
by the Clergy of France in the Four Articles of the Assembly of 1682,
and shall teach nothing contrary to it. (3) We recognize that the
bishops of France have the right to exercise in our regard what,
according to the canons of the Gallican Church, belongs to them in their
dealings with regulars; and we renounce all the privileges to the
contrary that may have been accorded to our Society or may be accorded
in the future. (4) If, which may God forbid, it happens that we are
ordered by our General to do anything contrary to the present
declaration, persuaded as we are that we cannot obey without sin, we
shall regard such orders as unlawful, and absolutely null and void;
which we could not and should not obey in virtue of the rules of
obedience to the General such as is prescribed in the Constitutions. We,
therefore, beg that the present declaration may be placed on the
official register of Paris, and addressed to the other provinces of the
kingdom, so that this same declaration signed by us, being deposited in
the official registers of each diocese may serve as a perpetual memorial
of our fidelity.
Etienne de la Croix, Provincial."
Quoting this document and admitting its genuineness Father de Ravignan
exclaims: "In my eyes nothing can excuse this act of weakness. I deplore
it; I condemn it; I shall merely relate how it came to pass" (Clément
XIII et Clément XIV, I 135). He goes on to say:--
"In a personal letter the original of which is in the archives of the
Gesù at Rome, Father La Croix, provincial of Paris explains to the
General the circumstances and occasion of this unfortunate affair. He
tells how the royal commissioners came to him with the aforesaid
declaration already drawn up and accompanied by a formal order of the
king to sign it immediately. It was a most unforeseen demand, for
although the Jesuits of France had already suffered considerable trouble
about the question of the Four Articles in 1713, and also in 1757, when
Damiens attempted to assassinate Louis XV, they had been compelled on
both occasions to sign only the first article which dealt with the
temporal independence of the king. Shortly afterwards, a new royal
decree had been brought to their attention. It consisted of eighteen
articles, the fourth of which was as follows: 'Our will is that in every
theological course followed by the students of the Society, the
propositions set forth by the Clergy of France in 1682, should be
defended, at least in one public discussion, to which the principal
personages of the place shall be invited, and over and above that, the
arrangements laid down by the edict of March 1682 shall be observed.'
"While these matters were being debated by the king and his ministers on
one side and by parliament on the other, a royal order was despatched to
the Jesuits of Paris to affix their signatures to the disgraceful
capitulation given above. It is said that Louis XV imagined that he
could mollify the recalcitrant parliament by this new concession: and,
hence, La Croix and his associates were foolish enough to imagine that
such a result could ensue."
Continuing his indictment of La Croix and his one hundred and fifteen
associates, de Ravignan informs his readers that "an unpublished
document which no writer has so far made mention of, furnishes
important details about the matter. It is entitled 'An exact relation of
all that took place with regard to the interpretation of the decree of
Aquaviva in 1610, which was sent to Rome in 1761 and rejected by the
General; and also the declaration which the General refused to approve.'
The author is M. de Flesselles, who was charged by the commission to
report to Choiseul whose agent he was.
"With regard to the declaration about Gallicanism" says de Flesselles
"the Jesuits, after some difficulties regarding its form, determined to
sign it, and even when urged by the royal commissioners they undertook
to send it to their General for approbation. Soon after, when the
Jesuits received the reply of their General, the provincial came to tell
me that when the Pope was made aware of the declaration which the French
Jesuits had made and of the one they proposed to make, His Holiness
angrily reprimanded the General for permitting the members of the
Society in France to maintain doctrines which are in conflict with the
teachings of the Holy See."
Now it is unpleasant to contest the authority of such an eminent man as
de Ravignan, but, on the other hand, his conclusions that this letter
was a Jesuit production or received a Jesuit endorsement are by no means
convincing. In the first place, no Jesuit would ever sign a paper which
began with the words: "We the Professed, even of the first vows." There
is no such category in the Society. Secondly, no Jesuit or indeed any
one in his senses would ever ask a superior for a permission to teach
error, and say, in the same breath, that it was a matter of indifference
whether the permission was granted or not. Thirdly, as all the Jesuits
of the province had announced their intention of leaving the Society if
Louis XV imposed on them a commissary General independent of their
superior at Rome--as we recited above from an extant letter from the
procurator of the province of Aquitaine--it is inconceivable that those
same men, at that very same time should solemnly declare themselves
rebels against the Father General at Rome. Fourthly, as no association
rewards a man who attempts to destroy it, one finds difficulty in
understanding how, after this revolt, the leader in the rebellion, La
Croix, was not only not expelled from the Society but was retained in
his responsible post of provincial and later was made assistant general
of the Society.
Moreover, it is difficult to understand why, when de Flesselles says
that "the Fathers determined to sign the document," de Ravignan should
go one step further and say that "they signed it." Nor does it help
matters to say that this was "_un acte de faiblesse_," when, it was a
wholesale, corporate and deliberate crime of cowardice and treason; nor
will it avail to suggest that the Pope and General must have been
intensely, grieved--"Ils durent être amèrement affligés." History does
not deal with conjectures but with facts. The question is not whether
they must have been, but whether they were really grieved over an act
which had really occurred and which reflected such discredit on the
Society? Again, as one of the greatest glories of the French Jesuits was
their long and successful battle against Gallicanism, it is
inconceivable that they should suddenly reverse and stultify themselves
at the very moment when all the bishops of France, save one, had
abandoned Gallicanism and had united in eulogizing the Society; and to
do it at a time when the greatest friend they ever had, Pope Clement
XIII, glorified them for their orthodoxy and pronounced the famous
words: "Let them be as they are or not at all!"
To have declared for Gallicanism would have stripped them of their
priestly functions, it would have aroused the intense disgust and
contempt of the hierarchy of France and of the world and would have
called down on them the anathema of the Pope. Indeed, is it likely that
Pope Clement XIV would have omitted to note the defection in his Brief
of Suppression, if they had been guilty? Fortunately, we may refer to
the explicit declaration of the Protestant historian, Schoell (Cours
d'histoire, xl, 53), who says: "These men who are accused of playing
with religion, refused to take the oath to sustain the principles of the
Gallican Church. Of 4000 Fathers who were in France, hardly five
submitted." If there were "hardly five" Gallicans in all the provinces
of France, it is a justifiable conclusion that 116 Jesuits of the
provinces of Paris did not sign the famous "Statement" of de Flesselles.
Louis XV made a feeble attempt to save the situation by withdrawing the
decree of expulsion from the jurisdiction of parliament, but Mme. de
Pompadour and Choiseul so effectively worked on his fears that he
ignominiously rescinded his order. The Pope had meantime delivered an
allocution in a consistory on September 3, 1762; and had sent a letter
to Cardinal Choiseul, the brother of the minister, on September 8 of the
same year, in both of which he declared that "by a solemn decree, he had
quashed and nullified the proceedings of the various parliaments against
the Jesuits." He enjoined upon the cardinal "to use all his episcopal
power against the impious act which was directed against the Church and
against religion." He wrote to other bishops in the same tone of
indignation and anger. It was not, however, until the November of 1764
that Choiseul succeeded in extorting the royal signature which made the
decree irrevocable. Of course, Mme. de Pompadour was to the fore in
securing this shameful surrender of the royal prerogative. The poor king
cuts a sorry figure in signing the document. After making some feeble
scrawls on the paper, he complained that the preamble was too long and
that it would have sufficed to state that "the Jesuits had produced a
great tumult in his kingdom." He added he did not think the word
"punish" should be used; it was too strong; "he never cordially liked
the Jesuits, yet they had the glory of being hated by all heretics.... I
send them out of my kingdom against my will; at least, I don't want
people to think that I agree with everything the parliament said or did
against them." He ended by saying: "If you do not make these changes, I
will not sign, but I must stop talking. I would say too much and I do
not want anyone in France to discuss it." One could hardly say of Louis
that "he was every inch a king."
The desire to close the mouths of every one of his subjects on a matter
that concerned them all as intelligent beings and as citizens was
carried out with extreme rigor. Thus, when two secular priests had the
temerity to condemn the decree, they were promptly hanged. The audacity
of the ministers and parliament went still further; and on December 3
the Duke de Praslin sent a note to Aubeterre, the French ambassador at
Rome to advise him that "under the circumstances, it would be very
futile and still more dangerous for the Pope to take any measures either
directly or indirectly in contravention of the wishes and intention of
his majesty; and hence His Holiness must, out of zeal for religion and
out of regard for the Jesuits, observe the same silence which His
Majesty had ordered to be observed in his states." The Pope replied to
the insult by the Bull "Apostolicum," which was a splendid proclamation
of the absolute innocence of the proscribed Order. It aroused the fury
of the Governments of France, Portugal, Naples and other countries. In
France it was burned in the streets of several cities by the public
executioner. In Portugal, any one who circulated it or had it in his
possession was adjudged guilty of high treason; but on the other hand,
from the bishops of the entire Catholic world came enthusiastic letters
of approval and praise for the fearless Pope who dared to stand forth as
the enemy of tyranny and injustice.
Böhmer-Monod, in their "Jésuites," are of the opinion that the Pope was
"injudicious, and that out of the hundreds of Catholic bishops, only
twenty-three assured him of their approbation." De Ravignan, who is
better informed, tells us that "almost the whole episcopacy of the world
were a unit in this manifestation of loyalty to the supreme Pastor."
Before the event, two hundred bishops had sent their appeals to the
Pope, in favor of the Society; and the Pope himself says in the Bull:
"Ex omni regione sub coelo est una vox omnium episcoporum" (From every
region under the canopy of heaven, there is but one voice from the
episcopal body). After the Bull appeared, other bishops hastened to send
him their adhesions and felicitations. Even in France itself, in spite
of the terrorism exercised by parliament, the assembly of the clergy of
1765, by a unanimous vote, protested against the condemnation of the
Jesuits, extolled "the integrity of their morals, the austerity of their
lives, the greatness of their labors and science"; and declared that
their expulsion left a frightful void in the ministry, in education, and
in the sublime and laborious work of the missions. Not only that, but
they wanted it put on record that "the clergy would never cease to pray
for the re-establishment of the Order and would lay that plea at the
feet of the king."
The exiles lingered for a while in various parts of France; for some of
the divisional parliaments were not at one with Paris in their
opposition to the Society. Indeed, in many of them, the proscription was
voted only by a small majority. Thus at Rennes, there was a majority of
three; at Toulouse two; at Perpignan one; at Bordeaux five; at Aix two;
while Besançon, Alsace, Flanders and Artois and Lorraine pronounced in
their favor and proclaimed "the sons of St. Ignatius as the most
faithful subjects of the King of France and the surest guarantees of the
morality of the people." On the other hand, Brittany, the country of
Chalotais, author of the "Extraits," was especially rancorous in its
hate. Thus, it voted to deprive of all civil and municipal functions
those parents who would send their children abroad to Jesuit schools;
and the children on their return home were to be punished in a similar
fashion. The Fathers lingered for a few years here and there in their
native country employed in various occupations; but in 1767 a decree was
issued expelling them all from the territory of France.
An interesting manifestation of affection by the pupils of St. Omers for
their persecuted masters occurred when the parliament of Paris issued
its order of expulsion in 1767. St. Omers was founded by Father Persons
in 1592 or 1593. It was not for ecclesiastics as were the colleges of
Douai, Rome and Valladolid, but to give English boys an education which
they could not get in their own country. It was twenty-four miles from
Calais and in territory which at that time belonged to the King of
Spain. Shortly after its transfer from Eu in Normandy where an attempt
had been made to start it, there were one hundred boys on its register
and, thirty years later, the number had doubled. For years it was a
favorite school for English Catholics and it rejoices in having had
twenty of its students die for the Faith. It continued its work for a
century and a half. When the expulsion of the Jesuits left the college
without teachers it was handed over to the secular clergy, but when they
arrived there were no boys. They had all decamped for Bruges in Belgium,
and there the classes continued until the general suppression of the
Society in 1773. Even after that, the English ex-Jesuits kept the
college going until 1794, when the French Revolution put an end to it.
By that time, however, one of the former students, Mr. Thomas Weld, had
established the Fathers on his property at Stonyhurst in England, so
that St. Omers and Stonyhurst are mother and daughter.
The buildings and land at St. Omers were handed over by the French
government to the English secular priests, who were at Douai. Alban
Butler, the author of the "Lives of the Saints," was its president from
1766 to 1773. At present a military hospital occupies the site.
In Louisiana, which still owed allegiance to France, the dismissal of
the Fathers was particularly disgraceful. For no sooner had the news of
Choiseul's exploit in the mother-country arrived than the superior
council of Louisiana set to work. "This insignificant body of provincial
officers" as Shea calls them (I, 587), "issued a decree declaring the
Society to be dangerous to the royal authority, to the rights of
bishops, to the public peace of society" and pronounced their vows to be
null and void. These judges in matters ecclesiastical, it should be
noted, were all laymen. They ordered all the property to be seized and
sold at auction, though personal books and clothes were exempted. The
name and habit of the Society were forbidden; the vestments and plate of
the chapel at New Orleans were given by the authorities to the
Capuchins; but all the Jesuit churches in Louisiana and Illinois were
ordered to be levelled to the ground. Every Jesuit was to embark on the
first ship that set sail for France; and arriving there, he was to
report to Choiseul. Each one was given about $420--to pay for his
passage and six month's subsistence.
There was a deviation in some cases about going to France, for Father
Carette was sent to San Domingo; and Father Le Roy made his way to
Mexico. A difficulty arose about Father Beaudoin, who was a Canadian.
Why should he be sent to France where he had no friends? Besides, his
health was shattered by his privations on the missions, and he was at
that time seventy-two years old. He was to go to France, however, but
just as he was about to be dragged to the ship a wealthy friend
interceded for him and gave him a home. Another Father in Alabama did
not hear of the order for several months; and when at last he made his
appearance in New Orleans, he was arrested like a criminal and packed
off to France.
On September 22, a courier reached Fort Chartres, which was on English
territory; and in spite of the danger of embroiling the government,
Father Watron who was then sixty-seven years old was expelled, and with
him his two fellow missionaries. The official from Louisiana gave the
vestments to negro wenches and the altar-plate and candelabra were soon
found in houses of ill-fame. The chapel was then sold on condition that
the purchaser should demolish it. At Vincennes, the same outrages were
perpetrated and Father Duvernay, who had been for six months confined to
his bed, was carried off with the others to New Orleans and despatched
to France. Two only were allowed to remain, owing to the entreaties and
protests of friends. One of the exiles was Father Viel, who was a
Louisianian by birth. The most conspicuous personage enforcing this
expulsion was a certain Lafrenière, but he soon met his punishment. In
1766 Louis XV made a gift of the entire province to his cousin of Spain,
and when Count Alexander O'Reilly was sent out with three thousand
soldiers to quell the disturbance that ensued, Lafrenière and three
associates were taken into the back yard of the barracks and shot to
death. Others were sent in chains to Havana.
Thus the Suppression of the Society in France was not carried out with
the same brutality as in Portugal. There were no prisons, or chains, or
deportation, and they had not the glory of suffering martyrdom. They
were merely stripped of all they had and told to go where they wished.
Whether they lived or died was a matter of unconcern to the government.
It was merely a difference of methods; but both were equally effective.
The Portuguese Jesuits were scourged; their French brethren were sneered
at. Perhaps the latter was harder to bear.
There is a curious sequel to all this. Choiseul, proud of his
achievement in expelling the Jesuits from France and its colonies, now
conceived the magnificent project of colonizing Guyana on lines quite
different from those followed by the detested Order. He induced 14,000
deluded French people to go and take possession of the rich and fertile
lands of Guyana. They found one poor old Jesuit there, who because he
was not a subject of France, had refused to obey the decree of
expulsion. His name was O'Reilly, but what could he do with 14,000
people? He simply disappeared from the scene. Very likely, he joined the
Indians, who fled into the forests at the sight of this immense army of
Frenchmen, who now had the country to themselves without striking a
blow. But two years later, Chevalier de Balzac had to report back to
France, that of the 14,000 colonists only 918 were alive. Thus,
expelling 6,000 Jesuits from France, Choiseul had murdered 13,000 of his
fellow-countrymen (Christian Missions, II, 168).
In 1766, M. de Piedmont, the governor wrote to the Duc de Praslin, that
he had already informed the Duc de Choiseul how necessary it was to send
priests to this colony. He then described the destruction of the mission
posts, the flight of the Indians, the growth of crime amongst the
negroes and the rapid ruin of the colony, and added that religion was
dying out among the whites as well as among the colored races. For ten
years, he kept on repeating this complaint, but no heed was paid to him.
At length, Louis XVI, who was so soon to be himself a victim of
Choiseul's iniquity sent there, three Jesuits, not Frenchmen, perhaps he
had not the heart to ask any of them, but three Jesuits, who had been
expelled from Portugal by Pombal, Choiseul's accomplice. They were
Padilla, Mathos, and Ferreira. They accepted the mission and the
"Journal" of Christopher de Murr says: "The poor savages beholding once
again men clothed in the habit which they had learned to venerate, and
hearing them speak their own language, fell at their feet, bathing them
with tears, and promised to become once more good Christians, since the
Fathers, who had begotten them in Jesus Christ, had come back to them."
No doubt, these three holy men remained till they died with their poor
abandoned Indians.
France's folly in this governmental act was summed up in a letter of
d'Alembert to Choiseul, just before the expulsion. In it he says:
"France will resort to this rigorous measure against its own subjects at
the very moment she is doing nothing in her foreign policy, and in the
chronological epitomes of the future we shall read the words for the
year 1762: 'This year France lost all her colonies and threw out the
Jesuits.'"
CHAPTER XVI
CHARLES III
The Bourbon Kings of Spain--Character of Charles III--
Spanish Ministries--O'Reilly--The Hat and Cloak Riot--
Cowardice of Charles--Tricking the monarch--The Decree of
Suppression--Grief of the Pope--His death--Disapproval in
France by the Encyclopedists--The Royal Secret--
Simultaneousness of the Suppression--Wanderings of the Exiles
--Pignatelli--Expulsion by Tanucci.
Spain had begun to deteriorate in the seventeenth century; it lost all
of its European dependencies in the eighteenth, and in the beginning of
the nineteenth was stripped of almost every one of its rich and powerful
colonies in America. During two-thirds of that period, it was governed
by foreigners, none of whom had any claim to consideration, much less
respect. Until 1700 it owed allegiance to the house of Austria; after
that, the French Bourbons hurried it to its ruin.
Its first Bourbon king, Philip V, had already, in 1713, succeeded in
losing Sicily, Milan, Sardinia, the Netherlands, Gibraltar, and the
Island of Minorca; that is one-half of its European possessions.
Meantime, Catalonia was in rebellion. But little else could be expected
from such a ruler. He was not only constitutionally indolent, but
apparently mentally defective. His queen kept him in seclusion, and he
did nothing but at her dictation; he was professedly devout, but was
racked by ridiculous scruples; "outwardly pious," says Schoell, quoting
Saint-Simon, "but heedless of the fundamental principles of religion; he
was timid and hence sporadically stubborn; and when not in temper, he
was easily led. He was without imagination, except that he was
continually dreaming of conquering Europe, although he never left
Madrid; he was satisfied with the gloomiest existence, and his only
amusement was shooting at game, which his servants drove into the brush
for him to kill." His conscience often smote him for the sin he said he
had committed when he renounced his claim to the throne of France; and,
in consequence, he made a vow to lay aside the Spanish crown until what
time he should be summoned by England to be King of France. To help him
keep his vow, he built the palace of San Ildefonso, which cost the
nation 45,000,000 pesos. He appointed his son Louis, a lad of 17, to
reign in his stead, and the boy, of course, did nothing but enjoy
himself, and died of small-pox in six months' time, having first gone
through the ridiculous farce of making his father his heir. Philip then
began to doubt whether he could resume his duties as king after having
vowed to relinquish them. Besides being thus troubled with scruples, he
was in constant dread of catching the disease which carried off his son;
he died of apoplexy, July 9, 1764 at the age of 53.
Ferdinand VI, who succeeded him, was as indolent as his father, and with
less talent and strength of will; he was afflicted with melancholia, and
like his father was haunted by the fear of death. He took no part in the
government of the kingdom, but spent most of his time listening to the
warblings of the male-soprano, Farinelli, who was so adored by the king
that he was sometimes consulted on state affairs. The queen was another
of his idols, and when she died, he shut himself in, saw no one, would
eat next to nothing; never changed his linen; let his hair and beard
grow, and never went to bed. An hour or two in a chair was all he
allowed himself for rest. He died at the end of the year, leaving a
private fortune of 72,000,000 francs. He was only forty-seven years old.
Like the king, the queen was dominated by fear, not however of death,
but of poverty. To guard against that contingency she hoarded all the
money she could get; accepted whatever presents were offered; and let it
be known that the easiest way to win her favor was to have something to
give. It is gravely said that though she was very corpulent she was
extravagantly fond of dancing.
Ferdinand VI was succeeded by his brother Charles III, who had been King
of Naples for twenty-four years. He had six sons, the eldest of whom,
Philip Anthony was then twelve years of age, but a hopeless imbecile.
The right of succession, therefore, devolved on his second son. The
third, who was then eight years old, was to succeed to the crown of
Naples, and was left in the hands of Tanucci to be trained for his
future office. As Tanucci was a bitter enemy of Christianity, this act
of Charles, who had a Jesuit confessor and was regarded as a pious man,
would imply that he also was mentally deficient. Like his forebears, he
was haunted by a fear of death, a weakness that revealed itself in all
his political acts, notably in the suppression of the Society. That was
one of the reasons why, long after France and Portugal would have
willingly ended the fight with the expulsion of the Jesuits, the
supposedly pious Charles persisted until he had wrung the Brief of
Suppression from the unwilling hands of Clement XIV.
The ministers of state who controlled the destinies of Spain at this
period are of a species whose like cannot be found in the history of any
other nation. They begin with the Italian Alberoni who started life as a
farm laborer; then became an ecclesiastic, and ultimately a cardinal.
"He was destined to trouble the tranquillity of the world for years,"
says Schoell. According to Saint-Simon, he prevented the restitution of
Gibraltar to Spain which England was willing to grant; he was banned by
the Pope; and was subsequently turned out of office, chiefly by the
intrigues of two Italian ecclesiastics. The queen's nurse, old Laura
Piscatori, also figures in the amazing diplomacy of those days, and is
charged with an ambition to be as important as Cardinal Alberoni, who
came from her native village. The next prime minister was the Biscayan
Grimaldi, whose physical appearance Saint-Simon describes, but which we
omit. It will suffice to say that "he was base and supple when it suited
his convenience, and he never made a false step in that direction."
Following him, came Ripperda, who was born in the Netherlands and
educated by the Jesuits at Cologne, but became a Protestant in Holland,
and a Catholic in Spain, where he lasted only four months, as minister.
He turned Protestant a second time, on his return to Holland, and
subsequently led an army of Moors against Spain. It is not known whether
he died a Christian or a Mohammedan.
Patino and de la Quadra followed each other in quick succession, one
good, the other timid and weak. Enseñada, though skilful, was greedy of
money, and was considered the head of the French faction in court.
Carvajal is next on the list, and displays the English propensities
which were natural to him, for he belonged to the house of Lancaster.
Indeed, his policy was entirely pro-English and he was in collusion with
Keene, the British ambassador. Wall, an Irishman, then flits across the
scene, and has with him two associates: Losada and Squillace, both
Italians. When Wall quarrelled with the Pope and the Inquisition, he
fell, and then another Grimaldi came to the fore; not a Biscayan, like
his namesake, but a Genoese. Squillace, apparently from the Italian
branch of the Borgias, was next in order, and then in rapid procession
came the Spaniards: Roda, de Alva, Aranda, Roda, Moniño, Campomáñez,
either as prime ministers or prominent in the government, and nearly all
of them under French influence. Finally, the generalissimo of the army
and the most popular man in Spain was an Irishman, Alexander O'Reilly.
The native Spaniards counted for little; even the king's bodyguard was
made up of Walloons.
O'Reilly was probably not in sympathy with the free-thinking politicians
who then ruled the nation, for the reason that he was born in Ireland
and had all his life been a soldier. Moreover, he was hated by the
Aranda faction and retained his post, at the head of the army, only
because the king thought that no one could shield the royal life as well
as O'Reilly. He was born in 1735, and when still a youth was
sub-lieutenant in the Irish Regiment serving in Spain. In 1757 he fought
under his countryman de Lacy in Austria, and then followed the
_fleur-de-lys_ in France. He so distinguished himself, that the Maréchal
de Broglie recommended him to the King of Spain. There he soon became
brigadier and restored the ancient prestige of the Spanish army. He was
made a commandant at Havana, and rebuilt its fortifications, and from
there went to Louisiana to secure it to the Spanish crown. His only
military failure was in Algiers, but that was not due to any lack of
wisdom in his plans, but because his fleet did not arrive at the time
appointed. Even then, there was no one so highly esteemed as O'Reilly,
and when he died at an advanced age in 1794, the people all declared
that the disasters which fell on the nation would have been averted if
he had lived. He is credited with possessing besides his military ardor
a sweet and insinuating disposition which may explain how he could
easily win over the mob which so terrified King Charles at Madrid.
Meantime, the sinister Choiseul in France had all the ministers of Spain
in his grip, and he then determined to capture the king. He first made
him a present of what up to that time, had been the special pride of
France; the precedence of its ambassadors in public functions over those
of all other countries, the German Empire excepted. Charles naturally
took the gift, but apparently failed to fathom its significance. The
next move was to get rid of the court confessor; and his majesty was
given a confidential letter from Pombal of Portugal accusing Father
Ravago of having fomented the insurrection of the Indians of Paraguay,
against the Spanish troops at the time of the transfer of that
territory. The plot failed, however, for Charles knew Ravago too well,
and then something more drastic was resorted to. Squillace was at that
time in power and under him occurred the historic riot which, in the
course of time, assumed such dimensions in the king's imagination, that
it was one of the three or four things, besides his "royal secret,"
which he urged on the Pope as a reason for suppressing the Society.
The story of the riot is as follows: Squillace was very energetic in
developing the material resources of the kingdom, but always with an eye
to his personal and pecuniary profit. He promoted public works;
established monopolies even in food stuffs; loaded the people with
taxes; and being intensely anti-clerical, was very active in curtailing
ecclesiastical privileges. The people and clergy meekly submitted, but
something happened which brought Squillace's career to an end; though it
had much more serious consequences than that. It scarcely seems
credible, but the incident became one of the serious events of the time.
Though none suspected it, the whole thing had been deliberately
planned, and was the initial step in the plot to expel the Jesuits from
Spain. Squillace objected or pretended to object to the kind of dress
especially affected by the people of Madrid: a slouched sombrero and an
all-enveloping cloak; and he gave orders to change it. Naturally, this
exasperated the people, for although they had patiently submitted to the
imposition of taxes; the creation of oppressive monopolies; the
curtailment of ancient rights and privileges, etc., the audacity of a
foreigner interfering with the cut of their garments brought about a
popular upheaval. On March 26, 1766, the mob stormed the residence of
Squillace, and he ignominiously took to flight. All night long, the
excited crowds swarmed through the streets shouting, "Down with
Squillace." On the following morning, they surrounded the palace of the
king himself and he, in alarm, called for O'Reilly to quell the
disturbance. When it was represented to his majesty that it might entail
bloodshed, he deprecated that and hurriedly left Madrid. Had he shown
himself to the people, they would have done him no harm, for reverence
for royalty was still deep in the popular heart, and the age of royal
assassinations had not yet come. But the king was not a hero, and he
thrust his subaltern into what he fancied was a post of danger.
Thereupon, unarmed and unattended, O'Reilly faced the excited mob.
Delighted by his trust in them, they greeted him with cheers, but
demanded a redress of their grievances. Unfortunately, while he was
keeping them in good humor, the Walloons, who were guarding another gate
of the palace, got into an altercation with some of the rioters. Hot
words were exchanged, shots were fired and several persons were killed.
The whole scene changed instantly, and the capital would have been
drenched in blood, and perhaps Charles would have been dethroned, had
not a number of Jesuits headed by the saintly Pignatelli, hurried
through the crowd and held the rioters in check. Finally, when a placard
was affixed to the palace walls, granting all their demands, the mob
dispersed, cheering for the Jesuits--a fatal cry for those whom it was
meant to honor. They were accused of provoking the riot; and, from that
moment, the king's hatred for the Society began. It was made more acute
by the consciousness of his own cowardice. Thus, a farce was to
introduce a tragedy. Ten years afterwards, the Duke of Alva, a
descendant of the old tyrant of the Netherlands, confessed that it was
he, who had planned the sombrero and cloak riot to discredit the Jesuits
(de Murr, "Journal," ix, 222).
Towards the end of January 1767, another episode in this curious history
presents itself. Like the affair of the riot it seems to be taken from a
novel, but unfortunately it is not so. Its setting is the principal
Jesuit residence at Madrid. The provincial and the community are at
dinner, when a lay-brother enters with a package of letters, which he
places before the provincial. It is not the usual way of delivering such
communications in the Society, but the story is told by de Ravignan in
"Clément XIII et Clément XIV" (I, 186), and he is quoting from Father
Casseda, who is described as "a Jesuit Father of eminence and worthy of
belief." The package was handed back to the brother, along with the keys
of the provincial's room, where it was left. Immediately afterwards, an
officer of the court arrived, searched the room and extracted one of the
letters, said to be from Father Ricci, the General of the Jesuits, who
among other things, declared that the king was an illegitimate son and
was to be superseded by his brother, Don Luis. That such a letter was
really written, is vouched for by several historians: Coxe, Ranke,
Schoell, Adam, Sismondi, Darras, and others; and it is generally
admitted to have been the work of Choiseul in France though he covered
up his tracks so adroitly that no documentary evidence can be adduced to
prove it against him. His intermediary was a certain Abbé Beliardy an
attaché of the French embassy in Madrid.
According to Carayon (XV Opp., 16-23) and Boero ("Pignatelli" Appendix)
there is a second scene in this melodrama. Two Fathers are leaving
Madrid for Rome. A sealed package is entrusted to them, purporting to be
from the papal ambassador in Spain. On the road they are held up and
searched; the package is opened, and a letter is found in it reflecting
on the king's legitimacy. Precisely at the same moment, the trick of the
refectory letter was being played in the Jesuit residence at Madrid, and
thus a connection was established. With this scrap of paper and the
"cloak and sombrero riot" at their disposal, the plotters concluded that
they had ample material to carry out their scheme, and the next chapter
shows Aranda, the prime minister, Roda, Moniño and Campomáñez meeting
frequently in an old abandoned mansion in the country. With them was a
number of boys, probably pages about the court, who were employed in
copying a pile of documents whose import they were too unsophisticated
to understand. Older amanuenses might have betrayed the secret.
The chain of evidence was finally completed, and these grave statesmen
then presented themselves before his majesty and, with evidence in hand,
proved to him the undoubted iniquity of the religious order which up to
that moment he had so implicitly trusted. He fell into the trap, and a
series of cabinet meetings ensued in which information previously
gathered or invented about every Jesuit in France was discussed. The
result was that on January 29, 1767 a proposal was drawn up by
Campomáñez and laid before his majesty to expel the Society from Spain,
and advising him, first, to impose absolute silence on all his subjects
with regard to the affair, to such an extent that no one should say or
publish anything either for or against the measure, without a special
permission of the government; secondly, to withhold all knowledge of the
affair, even from the controller of the press and his subordinates; and
finally to arrange that whatever action was taken, should proceed
directly from the president and ministers of the extraordinary council.
The advice was assented to by the king, and a decree was issued in
virtue of which silence was passed on 6,000 Spanish subjects who not
only had no trial but who were absolutely unaware that there was any
charge against them. They had been as a body irreproachable for two
hundred years, had reflected more glory, and won more territory for
Spain than had ever been gained by its armies. They were men of holy
lives, often of great distinction in every branch of learning; some of
them belonged to the noblest families of the realm; and yet they were
all to be thrown out in the world at a moment's notice, though not a
judge on the bench, not a priest or a bishop, not even the Pope had been
apprised of the cause of it, and, as we have seen, it was forbidden even
to speak of the act. A more outrageous abuse of authority could not
possibly be conceived.
It was arranged that on the coming second of April, 1767, a statement
should be made throughout Europe by which the world would be informed:
first, that for the necessary preservation of peace, and for other
equally just and necessary reasons (though the world is not to be told
what they are), the Jesuits are expelled from the king's dominions, and
all their goods confiscated; secondly, that the motive will forever
remain buried in the royal heart; thirdly, that all the other religious
congregations in Spain are most estimable and are not to be molested.
The decree was signed by Charles and countersigned by Aranda and then
sent out. The ambassador at Rome was ordered to hand it to the Pope and
withdraw without saying a word. The despatches to the civil and military
authorities in both worlds were enclosed in double envelopes and sealed
with three seals. On the inner cover appeared the ominous words, as from
a pirate addressing his crew: "Under pain of death this package is not
to be opened until April 2, 1767, at the setting sun." The letter read
as follows: "I invest you with all my authority and all my royal power
to descend immediately with arms on the Jesuit establishments in your
district; to seize the occupants and to lead them as prisoners to the
port indicated inside of 24 hours. At the moment of seizure, you will
seal the archives of the house and all private papers and permit no one
to carry anything but his prayer-book and the linen strictly necessary
for the voyage. If after your embarcation there is left behind a single
Jesuit either sick or dying in your department, you shall be punished
with death."
"I, the King."
The motive that prompted Charles to keep the secret of this amazing
proceeding "shut up in his royal heart" has been usually ascribed to his
intense resentment at the suspicion cast on his legitimacy, and his fear
that even the mention of it would lead people to conclude that there was
some foundation for the charge. Davila, quoted by Pollen in "The Month"
(August, 1902), finds another explanation.
"Charles III," he says, "had become an extravagant regalist, and was
convinced by his Voltairean ministers, mostly by Tanucci, whom he had
left in charge of his son at Naples, that in all things the Church
should be subject to the State. It was on that account that he kept the
reasons for the expulsion of the Jesuits 'buried in his royal heart.'
The sole cause of this act was his change of policy; a true reason of
state such as, on some occasions, covers grave acts of injustice--for it
must be always a grave injustice to charge a religious society with
having conspired against the fundamental institutions of a country, and
yet not be able to point out in any way the object and plan of so dark a
conspiracy. If such be the case," continues Davila, "it is easy to
understand why his majesty could not reveal this 'secret of his royal
heart' even to the Pope, or perhaps least of all to him, for it would be
a painful avowal that his Catholic Majesty was a yoke-fellow with the
Voltaireans of Europe whose avowed purpose was to destroy the Church."
Clement XIII was overwhelmed with grief when he read the king's decree
and wrote to him as follows: "Of all the blows I have received during
the nine unhappy years of my pontificate the worst is that of which your
majesty informs me in your last letter, telling me of your resolution to
expel from all your vast dominions the religious of the Society of
Jesus. So you too, do this, my son, _Tu quoque fili mi_. Our beloved
Charles III, the Catholic King, is the one who is to fill up the chalice
of our woe and to bring down to the grave our old age bathed in tears
and overwhelmed with grief. The very religious, the very pious King of
Spain, Charles III, is going to give the support of his arm, that
powerful arm which God has given him to increase his own honor and that
of God and the Church, to destroy to its very foundation, an order so
useful and so dear to the Church, an order which owes its origin and its
splendor to those saintly heroes whom God has deigned to choose in the
Spanish nation to extend His greater glory throughout the world. It is
you who are going to deprive your kingdom and your people of all the
help and all the spiritual blessings which the religious of that Society
have heaped on it by their preaching, their missions, their catechisms,
their spiritual exercises, the administration of the sacraments, the
education of youth in letters and piety, the worship of God, and the
honor of the Church.
"Ah! Sire! our soul cannot bear the thought of that awful ruin. And what
cuts us to the heart still deeper perhaps is to see the wise, just King
Charles III, that prince whose conscience was so delicate and whose
intentions were so right; who lest he might compromise his eternal
salvation, would never consent to have the meanest of his subjects
suffer the slightest injury in their private concerns without having
their case previously and legitimately tried and every condition of the
law complied with, is now vowing to total destruction, by depriving of
its honor, its country, its property, which was legitimately acquired,
and its establishments, which were rightfully owned, that whole body of
religious who were dedicated to the service of God and the neighbor, and
all that without examining them, without hearing them, without
permitting them to defend themselves. Sire! this act of yours is grave;
and if perchance it is not sufficiently justified in the eyes of
Almighty God, the Sovereign Judge of all creatures, the approval of
those who have advised you in this matter will avail nothing, nor will
the plaudits of those whose principles have prompted you to do this. As
for us, plunged as we are in inexpressible grief, we avow to your
majesty that we fear and tremble for the salvation of your soul which is
so dear to us.
"Your Majesty tells us that you have been compelled to adopt these
measures by the duty of maintaining peace in your states,--implying we
presume that this trouble has been provoked by some individual belonging
to the Society of Jesus. But, even if it were true, Sire, why not punish
the guilty without making the innocent suffer? The body, the Institute,
the spirit of the Society of Jesus, we declare it in the presence of God
and of man, is absolutely innocent of all crime, and not only innocent,
but pious, useful, holy in its object, in its laws, in its maxims. It
matters not that its enemies have endeavored to prove the contrary; all
calm and impartial minds will abhor such accusers as discredited liars
who contradict themselves in whatever they say. You may tell me that it
is now an accomplished fact; that the royal edict has been promulgated
and you may ask what will the world say if I retract? Should you not
rather ask, Sire, what will God say? Let me tell you what the world will
say. It will say what it said of Assuerus when he revoked his edict to
butcher the Hebrews. It accorded him the eternal praise of being a just
king who knew how to conquer himself. Ah! Sire, what a chance to win a
like glory for yourself. We offer to your majesty the supplications not
only of your royal spouse, who from heaven recalls to you the love she
had for the Society of Jesus, but much more so, to the Sacred Spouse of
Jesus Christ, the Holy Church, which cannot contemplate, without
weeping, the total and imminent extinction of the Society of Jesus,
which until this very hour has rendered to her such great assistance and
such signal services. Permit, then, that this matter be regularly
discussed; let justice and truth be allowed to act, and they will
scatter the clouds that have arisen from prejudice and suspicion. Listen
to the counsels of those who are doctors in Israel; the bishops, the
religious, in a cause that involves the interests of the State, the
honor of the Church, the salvation of souls, your own conscience and
your eternal salvation."
How Charles could resist this appeal, which is among the most admirable
and eloquent state papers ever given to the world, is incomprehensible.
But he did. He merely replied to the Pope: "To spare the world a great
scandal, I shall ever preserve as a secret in my heart the abominable
plot which has necessitated this rigor. Your Holiness ought to believe
my word, the safety of my life exacts of me a profound silence."
Not satisfied with writing to the king himself, the Pope also pleaded
with the greatest prelate in the realm, the Archbishop of Tarragona as
follows: "What has come over you? How does it happen that, in an
instant, the Society of Jesus has departed so far from the rules of its
pious Institute, that our dear Son in Jesus Christ, Charles III, the
Catholic King, can consider himself authorized to expel from his realm
all the Regular Clerks of the Society? This is a mystery we cannot
explain; only a year ago, the numberless letters addressed to us by the
Spanish episcopacy afforded us some consolation in the deep grief that
affected us when these same religious were expelled from France. Those
letters informed us that the Fathers in your country gave an example of
every virtue, and that the bishops and their dioceses received the most
powerful support by their pious and useful labours. And now, behold, in
an instant, there come dreadful charges against them and we are asked to
believe that all these Fathers or almost all have committed some
terrible crime; nay the king himself, so well known for his equity, is
so convinced of it, that he feels obliged to treat the members of that
Institute with a rigor hitherto unheard of."
Addressing himself personally to the king's confessor he says: "We write
to you, my dear son, that you may lay this before the prince who has
taken you for his guide, and we charge you to speak in our name and in
virtue of the obligations which the duty of your office imposes, and the
authority it bestows on you. As for us, we do not refuse to employ
measures of the severest and most rigorous justice against those members
of the Society of Jesus who have incurred the just anger of the king,
and to employ all our power to destroy and to root out the thorns and
briars which may have sprung up in a soil hitherto so pure and fertile.
As for you, it is part of your sacred ministry to consider with fear and
trembling as you kneel at the feet of the image of Jesus Christ, to
compel the king to consider the incalculable ruin that religion will
suffer, especially in pagan lands, if the numberless Christian missions
which are now so flourishing, are abandoned and left without pastors."
Evidently the confessor could do nothing with his royal penitent.
This mad act of Charles did not please some of his friends in France.
Thus, on May 4, 1767, D'Alembert wrote to Voltaire: "What do you think
of the edict of Charles III, who expels the Jesuits so abruptly?
Persuaded as I am that he had good and sufficient reason, do you not
think he ought to have made them known and not to 'shut them up in his
royal heart?' Do you not think he ought to have allowed the Jesuits to
justify themselves, especially as every one is sure they could not? Do
you not think, moreover, that it would be very unjust to make them all
die of starvation, if a single lay-brother who perhaps is cutting
cabbage in the kitchen should say a word, one way or the other in their
favor? And what do you think of the compliments which the King of Spain
addresses to the other monks and priests, and curés and sacristans of
his realm, who are not in my opinion less dangerous than the Jesuits,
except that they are more stupid and vile? Finally, does it not seem to
you that he could act with more common sense in carrying out what after
all, is a reasonable measure?"
In spite of the royal order enjoining silence on his subjects high and
low, there was a great deal of feeling manifested at the outrage. Roda,
an agent of the ministry at Madrid, tried to conceal it and wrote to the
Spanish Embassy at Rome on April 15, 1767: "There is not much agitation
here. Some rich people, some women and other simpletons are very much
excited about it, and are writing a great deal of their affection for
the Jesuits, but that is due to their blindness. You would be astounded
to find how numerous they are. But papers discovered in the archives and
libraries, garrets and cellars, furnish sufficient matter to justify the
act. They reveal more than people here suspect." And yet not one of
these incriminating documents "found in archives and libraries and
garrets and cellars" was ever produced.
Among "the simpletons" who denounced the act was the Bishop of Cuenca,
Isidore de Carvajal, who told the king to his face, what he thought of
the whole business. The Archbishop of Tarragona did the same, but they
both incurred the royal displeasure. The Bishop of Terruel published a
pamphlet "The Truth unveiled to the King our Master" and he was
immediately confined in a Franciscan convent, while his Vicar-general
and chancellor were thrown into jail. The Archbishop of Toledo, Cardinal
de Córdova, wrote to the Pope and the contents of his letters were known
in Spain, for Roda, the individual above referred to, hastened to tell
the Spanish ambassador on May 12, 1767: "In spite of all their tricks,
the Archbishop of Toledo and his vicar-general have written a thousand
stupid things to the Pope about this affair. We would not be a bit
surprised if the Bishop of Cuenca, Coria, Cuidad Rodrigo, Terruel and
some others have done the same thing, but we are not sure." A year and a
half after the blow was struck something happened which again threw the
timid Charles into a panic about his royal life. According to custom, he
presented himself on November 4, 1768, on the balcony of his palace to
receive the homage of his people, and to grant them some public favor
out of his munificence. To the stupefaction of both king and court, one
universal cry arose from the vast multitude. "Send us back the Jesuits!"
Charles withdrew in alarm and immediately investigations began with the
result that he drove out of the kingdom the Cardinal Archbishop of
Toledo and his vicar on the charge that they had prompted the demand of
the people (Coxe, "Spain under the Bourbons," v, 25).
With regard to the supposed letter of Father Ricci which brought on this
disaster, it may be of use to refer here to what was told thirty years
after these events, in a work called "Du rétablissement des Jésuites et
de l' éducation publique" (Emmerick, Lambert, Rouen). The author says:
"It is proper to add an interesting item to the story of the means
employed to destroy the Society of Jesus in the mind of Charles III.
Besides the pretended letter of Father Ricci, there were other
supposititious documents, and among these lying papers was a letter in
the handwriting of an Italian Jesuit which had been perfectly imitated.
It contained outrageous denunciations of the Spanish government. When
Clement XIII insisted on having some proof to throw light on the
allegations, this letter was sent to him. Among those who were
commissioned to examine it, was a simple prelate, who afterwards became
Pius VI. Glancing at the missive he remarked that the paper was of
Spanish manufacture, and he wondered why an Italian should send to
Spain for writing material. Looking at it closer and holding it up to
the light he saw that the water-mark gave not only the name of a Spanish
paper-factory, but also the date on which it was turned out. Now it
happened that this date was two years after the letter was supposed
to have been written. The imposture was manifest, but the blow had
already been struck. Charles III was living at the time, yet he was
not man enough to acknowledge and repair the wrong he had done."
(Crétineau-Joly, v, 241).
On the day appointed by the king, April 2, 1767, every ship selected to
carry out the edict was in the harbor assigned to it, in every part of
the Spanish world, where there happened to be a Jesuit establishment.
The night before at sundown the captain had opened the letter which had
the threat on its envelope: "Your life is forfeited if you anticipate
the day or the hour." He obeyed his instructions; and early in the
morning the Fathers in the college of Salamanca, Saragossa, Madrid,
Barcelona and all the great cities, as well as in every town where the
Jesuits had any kind of an establishment, heard the tramp of armed men
entering the halls. The members of the household were ejected from their
rooms, seals were put on the doors, and the community marched down like
convicts going to jail. Old men and young, the sick and even the dying,
all had to go to the nearest point of embarcation. Not a syllable were
they allowed to utter as they tramped along, and no one could speak in
their defence without being guilty of high treason. When they reached
the ships, they were herded on board like cattle and despatched to
Civita Vecchia, to be flung on the shores of the States of the Pope,
whose permission had not even been asked; nor had any notice been given
him. It was a magnificent stroke of organized work, and incidentally
very profitable to the government, for at one and the same moment it
came into possession of 158 Jesuit houses, all of considerable value as
real estate and some of them magnificent in their equipment. How much
was added to the Spanish treasury on that eventful morning, we have no
means of computing.
There was one difficulty in the proceedings, however. The supply of
ships was insufficient, for 2,643 men had to be simultaneously cared
for; but their comfort did not interfere with the progress of the
movement. "They were piled on top of each other on the decks or in the
fetid holds," says Sismondi, "as if they were criminals." It was worse
than the African slave-trade. Saint-Priest thinks "it was a trifle
barbarous, but the precipitation was unavoidable." It was indeed a
trifle barbarous and the precipitation was not unavoidable.
In rounding up the victims, the king and the ministers were naturally
anxious about the effect it might have upon many of the best Spanish
families who had sons in the Order; notably the two Pignatellis, who
were of princely lineage. Inducements were held out to both of them to
abandon the Society, but the offer was spurned with contempt. Indeed
very few even of the novices failed in this sore trial. As for the
Pignatellis they were the angels of this exodus, particularly Joseph,
whose exalted virtue is now being considered in Rome in view of his
beatification. He was at Saragossa when the royal order arrived, and
though suffering with hemorrhages, he started out afoot on the weary
journey to Tarragona, and from there to Salu, nine miles further on,
where nineteen brigantines were assembled to receive this first batch of
600 outcasts. He was so feeble that he had to be carried on board the
ship.
From there, they set sail for Civita Vecchia, where they arrived on May
7, but were not allowed to land. Even the generally fair Schoell
describes the Pope's action in this instance as "characterized by the
greatest inhumanity." On the contrary, it would have been an act of the
greatest inhumanity to receive them. There were some thousands of
Portuguese Jesuits there already, who had been flung on the shore
unannounced, and in that impoverished region there was no means of
providing them with food or medicine or even clothes and beds. To have
admitted this new detachment of 600 who were merely the forerunners of
4,500 more, and who, in turn were to be followed by all the Jesuits whom
Tanucci would drive out of the Neapolitan Kingdom, and those whom
Choiseul would hasten to gather up in France, the result would have been
that ten or fifteen thousand Jesuits without money or food or clothing,
some of them old and decrepit and ill, would have to be cared for and
the native population in consequence would be subjected to a burden that
would have been impossible to bear. It was "inhuman" no doubt, but the
inhumanity must be ascribed to Charles III who had plundered these
victims, and not to Clement XIII who would have died for them. His first
duty was to his own people and his next was to proclaim to the world and
to all posterity, the grossness of the insult as well as the injustice
inflicted on the Vicar of Christ by the Most Catholic King, Charles III.
Nor were the "unhappy wretches," as Böhmer-Monod call them, "received by
cannon shot, at the demand of their own General, who had trouble enough
with the Portuguese already on his hands;" (p. 274) nor did the Jesuits,
as Saint-Priest adds: "vent their rage against Ricci and blame his harsh
administration, as the cause of all their woes." Ricci was begging for
bread to feed his Portuguese sons at that time, and he certainly would
not have received those from Spain with a cannon shot; nor would the
Jesuits have vented their rage against him and blamed his harsh
administration, especially as his administration was the very reverse of
harsh; and, finally, Jesuits were not accustomed to vent their rage
against their superior.
Sismondi (Hist. des Français, xxix, 372) says that "many of them
perished on board ship, and Schoell describes them as lying on top of
one another on deck for weeks, under the scorching rays of the sun or
down in the fetid hold." The filthy ships finally turned their prows
towards Corsica where arrangements had been made for them to discharge
their human cargo. It took four days to reach that island, but Paoli was
just then fighting for the independence of his country, and French ships
which were aiding Genoa occupied the principal ports. At first the
exiles remained in their ships, but, later, they were allowed to go
ashore during the day. Meantime, a vessel had been despatched to Spain
for instructions and when it returned on July 8, the "criminals" were
ordered to go to Ajaccio, Algoila or Calvi. They reached Ajaccio on July
24, and as they were then in a state of semi-starvation, Father
Pignatelli went straight to the insurgent camp, though at every step he
risked being shot or seized and hanged, but he did not care, he would
appeal to Paoli's humanity. He was well received, help was sent to the
sufferers, and they were given liberty to go where they chose on the
island.
They remained there a month and were then sent to the town of
Saint-Boniface, where they bivouacked or lived in sheds until the 8th of
December, when they were ordered to Genoa. This time the number of
brigantines in which they embarked had been reduced from thirteen to
five, though the number of the victims had considerably increased; but
that mattered little; they finally reached the mainland but were not
permitted to go ashore. Meantime, other Jesuits had arrived and they
now numbered 2,000 or 2,400. After a short delay in the harbor, they
made their way separately or in groups to different cities in the Papal
States, chiefly to Bologna and Ferrara.
Their ejection from the Two Sicilies was a foregone conclusion, for it
was ruled by the terrible Bernardo Tanucci, whom Charles III on his
accession to the throne of Spain had left as regent during the minority
of Ferdinand IV. Tanucci was a lawyer who began his career in a most
illegal fashion by exciting riots in Pisa against his rival Grandi. They
had quarrelled about the discovery of the Pandects of Justinian. He next
drew the attention of Charles by assailing the right of asylum for
criminals, which he maintained was in contravention of all law human and
divine. "He attacked the prerogatives of the Court of Rome and of the
nobles of Naples, with more fury than prudence," says de Angelis
(Biographie universelle). Subsequently he showed himself the enemy of
the Church in every possible way, and, meantime, so neglected to provide
for the security of the State that during the war of the Pragmatic
Sanction, King Charles had to sign an act of neutrality at the mouth of
the cannons of a British man-of-war. His political incapacity continued
to injure the country during the reign of Ferdinand until it was no
longer reckoned among the military powers of Europe. Meantime, he kept
the young king in ignorance of everything so as to maintain himself in
power. He robbed the courts of justice of their power; drew up the
Caroline Code which was never published; ruined the finances of the
country, as well as its industry and agriculture, and allowed men of the
greatest ability and learning to die in penury. In brief, says his
biographer, "Tanucci's reputation both before and after his death is a
mystery. It is probably due to his prominence as a bitter enemy of the
Holy See. He seized Beneventum and Pontecorvo which belonged to the
Patrimony of Peter; he suppressed a great number of convents,
distributed abbeys to his followers, fomented dissensions against the
bishops and, of course, persecuted the Jesuits."
When Charles III of Spain expelled the Society from Spain everyone knew
what was going to happen in Sicily, and news was eagerly expected from
the peninsula. While they were waiting, an eruption of Vesuvius took
place, which the excitable Italians regarded as a sign of God's wrath.
Penitential pilgrimages were organized to avert the danger and angry
murmurs were heard against the government. To quell the tumult, Tanucci
sent out word that the Jesuits would be undisturbed, though ships were
at that time on their way to carry off the victims. The young king's
signature to the decree had, however, to be procured, but he angrily
refused to give it until the official confessor, Latelle, the retired
Bishop of Avellino entreated him to yield, saying that he himself would
answer for it on the Day of Judgment. The prelate did not know that he
himself was to die at the end of the month. The expulsion took place in
the usual dramatic fashion. At midnight of November 3, 1767, squads of
soldiers descended on every Jesuit establishment in the land. The doors
were smashed in; the furniture shattered; all the papers seized, both
official and personal, and then surrounded by platoons of soldiers, the
Fathers were led like criminals through the streets to the nearest beach
with nothing but the clothes on their backs. The whole affair was
managed with such lightning-like rapidity, that though the prisoners had
been taken from their houses at midnight, they were out at sea before
dawn and were heading for Ferrara.
At Parma another Spanish prince ruled. He was still a child, however,
but his minister was du Fillot, a statesman of the school of Tanucci and
Choiseul. The expulsion took place simultaneously on the night of
February 7, 1768 at Piacenza, Parma, San Domino and Busseto. In the
first city, all the available vehicles of the place had been
requisitioned. At seven o'clock at night a dozen soldiers entered the
house. Later, an officer, two adjutants and a magistrate appeared, read
the decree, the fourth article of which declared that any one not a
priest or professor who would take off the habit of the society would be
received among the faithful subjects of his royal highness. The fifth
announced that the innate clemency of his highness accorded an annual
pension of sixty _scudi_ to the professed and forty to the brothers who
were his subjects. The scholastics were to get nothing. In a quarter of
an hour they were hurried to the citadel where carriages and carts were
waiting and were driven all night at top speed to Parma, where they
arrived at day break. Passing through the city they caught up with those
who had been expelled from the other places. Half an hour's rest and a
bite to eat were allowed and then the journey was continued on to Reggio
and Bologna. Not to be outdone in zeal for the king, the Knights of
Malta drove them from the island on April 22, 1768. The expulsion at
Parma was disastrous not only to the Jesuits but to the Pope. Parma was
his fief, and he protested against the action of the duke. It was
precisely what the plotters were waiting for. France immediately seized
the Comtat Venaissin, and Naples took possession of Beneventum, both of
which belonged to the Patrimony of St. Peter. Of course, the Jesuits
were immediately expelled and their property confiscated.
The expulsion in Spanish America meant the seizure of at least 158
establishments belonging to the Jesuits in Mexico, New Granada, Ecuador,
Peru and Chili. It involved the flinging out into the world of 2,943
Jesuits, some of them old and infirm and absolutely unable to earn their
living. Of those who embarked at Valparaiso sixty were drowned in the
wreck of the ship "Our Lady of the Hermitage." Carayon gives some
interesting diaries of the journeys of these exiles (Doc. inédits, xvi),
while Hubert Bancroft in his monumental work of thirty-nine volumes
about the Pacific Coast furnishes abundant and valuable information
about the exodus from the missions of Mexico. The victims underwent the
same sufferings as their Portuguese brethren in the long journeys over
mountains and through the primeval forests and in the long, horrible
crossing of the ocean to their native land, which they were thought
unworthy to enter.
CHAPTER XVII
THE FINAL BLOW
Ganganelli--Political plotting at the Election--Bernis,
Aranda Aubeterre--The Zelanti--Election of Clement XIV--
Renewal of Jesuit Privileges by the new Pope--Demand of the
Bourbons for a universal Suppression--The Three Years Struggle
--Fanaticism of Charles III--Menaces of Schism--Moñino--
Maria Theresa--Spoliations in Italy--Signing the Brief--
Imprisonment of Father Ricci and the Assistants--Silence and
Submission of the Jesuits to the Pope's Decree.
As early as 1768, the Bourbon courts let it be known that they would
make a formal demand for the suppression of the Society throughout
Christendom. On January 14 of that year, Cardinal Torregiani wrote to
the papal nuncio at Madrid as follows: "His Holiness is horrified at the
attitude of the king, and indignant that the demand should be
accompanied by threats to force his hand, so as to wring from him a
concession which is in violation of divine, natural and ecclesiastical
law. If any mention of it is made to you again, dismiss immediately the
person who dares to suggest it." That stinging rebuke, however, did not
halt the stubborn Charles, and in the January of 1769 the coalition
began its attack. First came the Spanish representative who presented
himself for an audience on the eighteenth. The Pope received him with
dignified reserve; gave expression to the intense pain caused by the
request, and then, bursting into tears, withdrew. On the twentieth and
twenty-second respectively, Orsini, representing Naples, made his
appearance and after him Aubeterre, on behalf of France. They were both
abruptly dismissed. The French document was especially insulting. It
advised the Pope to admit the demand on the ground that it was based on
a sincere and well-informed zeal for the progress of religion, the
interest of the Roman Church, and the peace of Christendom. The use of
the expression "Roman" Church was an evident hint at schism.
On January 25, a formal reply was sent to the three courts, informing
them that "the Pope could not explain the deplorable audacity they had
displayed in adding to the sorrows that already overwhelmed the Church,
a new anguish the only purpose of which was to torture the conscience
and distress the soul of His Holiness. An impartial posterity would
judge if such acts could be regarded as a new proof of that filial love
which these sovereigns boast of having for His Holiness personally, and
an assurance of that attachment which they pretend to show for the Holy
See." On January 28, Cardinal Negroni told the ambassadors: "You are
digging the grave of the Holy Father." The prophecy was almost
immediately fulfilled, for on February 2 Clement XIII died of a stroke
of apoplexy. He had officiated at the ceremonies of that day, and had
shown no sign of illness. The blow was a sudden one, and there is no
doubt that this joint act of the Bourbon kings had caused his death. De
Ravignan does not hesitate to describe him as a martyr who died in
defence of the rights of the Church. He is blamed by some for "his lack
of foresight in not yielding to the exigencies of the times." But there
were other "exigencies of the times" besides those formulated by the men
"who knew not the secrets of God, nor hoped for the wages of justice,
nor esteemed the honor of holy souls," and the Pope's foresight was not
limited by the horizons of Pombal, Choiseul and Charles III. "His
pontificate," as has been well said, "affords the spectacle of a saint
clad in moral strength, contending alone against the powers of the
world. Such a spectacle is an acquisition forever." For it should not be
forgotten that those arrayed against him in this fight were not aiming
merely at the annihilation of the Society of Jesus. That was only a
secondary consideration. Their purpose was to destroy the Church, and in
its defence Pope Clement XIII died.
A new Pope was now to be elected and the alarming influence wielded by
the statesmen of Europe in ecclesiastical affairs now assumed
proportions which seemed to menace the destruction of the Church itself.
In his "Clément XIII et Clément XIV" (p. 552) de Ravignan gives an
extract from Theiner which is startling. In 1769, that is before the
election, we find all the cardinals tabulated as "good;" "bad;"
"indifferent;" "doubtful;" "worst;" "null." Their ages are given; their
characters, their political tendencies. Among those marked "good" is
Ganganelli; Rezzonico, the nephew of Clement XIII is in the category of
the "worst;" the Cardinal of York is "null." There are eleven who are
labelled "_papabili_," ten to be excluded and fourteen to be avoided. It
is even settled who is to be secretary of State. Weekly instructions in
this matter were sent from the court of Spain to its agents at Rome,
whose motto was: "nec turpe est quod dominus jubet--nothing is base if
the king orders it." They were at that time precisely the kind of men
that the implacable Charles III needed to sustain him in his iniquitous
measure: unprincipled clerics like Sales, or savages like Moniño, or
Aspuru, who could write: "What matter that the charges are not proved?
The accused has been condemned. We have not to establish his guilt." As
for the flippant Bernis and the infidel Aubeterre, they were good enough
for the royal debauchee, Louis XV. Aubeterre had been a soldier, was
now a diplomat and had lost his faith by contact with the revolting
indecencies of the regency, while Bernis, says Carayon, was "a
distinguished type of French vanity who talked much, schemed continually
and fancied he controlled the conclave though he was only a fly on the
wheel. He was not ashamed to admit that he owed his red hat to la
Pompadour."
Bernis' correspondence with his government is valuable not only in
showing how unscrupulous were the methods of coercion employed but in
revealing the ultimate purpose of the conspirators, viz. the
establishment of state churches in their several kingdoms. He and de
Luynes were instructed to insist that the new Pope should: first, annul
the Brief of Clement XIII against Parma; secondly, recognize the
independent sovereignty of the Prince; thirdly, relinquish Avignon and
the Comtat Venaissin to France, and Beneventum to Sicily; fourthly,
exile Cardinal Torregiani, the prime minister of Clement XIII; fifthly,
completely abolish the Society of Jesus; secularize its members, and
expel Father Ricci, the General, from Rome. They let it be known that
there would be no backing down on these five points.
It was chiefly to secure the suppression of the Society that the fight
was to be made. The other matters could be left, if necessary, for
future adjustment. If every other means failed, intimidation was to be
resorted to. Indeed, as a preparation, veiled threats began to be heard
from several quarters. Thus, for instance, Louis XV put his name to the
following insulting letter: "My sincere and constant wish is," he said,
"that the Barque of Peter should be entrusted to a pilot who is
enlightened enough to appreciate the necessity of having the Head of the
Church remain in the most perfect harmony with all the sovereigns of
the Roman Faith; and of being wise enough to avoid every inconsiderate
measure prompted by indiscreet and extravagant zeal; in brief, one who
will shape his policy by the rules of moderation, prudence and sweetness
in keeping with divine wisdom and human politics." Such language from
the "Most Christian King" was an outrage on the memory of Clement XIII;
and the words "Roman Faith" contained, as on a previous occasion, a
threat of schism. Schoell, the Protestant historian, says that "the
formation of State Churches in the three kingdoms was clearly the avowed
purpose of these plotters."
The "Zelanti" were in the majority, but that difficulty was soon
disposed of by the veto power which had been granted to the Catholic
sovereigns. Making full use of it, they shamelessly forbade the
consideration of any candidate who was suspected of being unfriendly to
them, with the result that the number of eligible candidates was
speedily reduced to eleven; and as most of these latter were old or
infirm they could not be even considered by the electors. At this point,
Bernis protested against being excessive in the eliminations. Finally
there were only two cardinals who could be considered _papabili_:
Ganganelli and Stoppani.
On March 7, 1769, instructions arrived from Madrid emphatically
insisting that the election of no Pope would be recognized who would not
first bind himself to grant the five points insisted upon by the Bourbon
kings, but when the two Spanish cardinals at Rome represented to Charles
III that such a proposal to the electors would involve serious risks,
the obstinate king insisted, nevertheless, that he would yield on three
of the points, but that he would have to exact absolutely as a condition
of election that the new Pope would promise to cancel the previous
Pontiff's action with regard to the Duke of Parma, and also suppress
the whole Society of Jesus. He wanted the conclave to pass a decree to
that effect. Even in the Parma affair, he was willing to relent, because
as Clement XIII was dead, his ruling might be considered as having
lapsed, but as for the Society of Jesus, nothing would satisfy him
except its absolute extinction. That much was due, he said, to the three
powerful monarchs on whom the Church depended for support. On the other
hand, as it would not be proper to compromise the reputation of these
kings by letting it be known that such a deal was being made, for it
might happen to fail; it was thought better not to give any precise
orders, but to leave to the discretion of those who were on the spot to
determine what means should be employed for bringing about the desired
results.
The project of getting a distinct decree from the conclave in the sense
of the King of Spain was abandoned, but while the political cardinals
would not hear of exacting a written promise, the ambassadors who were
working on the outside, openly avowed that they had no scruples about
it. Indeed, Aubeterre, the French ambassador, wrote to Choiseul in
France complaining that he and his fellow-diplomats felt hurt that their
proposal should be rejected for moral reasons, especially as they had
secretly consulted an excellent canonist, who ruled that there would be
no harm in imposing on the new Pontiff the obligation of fulfilling the
contract inside of a year, dating from the day of his election. Not only
was it permissible, he said, but, in the circumstances, it was
imperatively urgent for the good of the Church. "The excellent canonist"
here referred to was Azpuru, the Spanish ambassador, but as Cardinals
Orsini, Bernis and de Luynes insisted that such a contract would be
simoniacal, they were informed that if an unacceptable Pope was elected
there would be an immediate rupture of relations with the Holy See and
the representatives of the three Powers would withdraw from Rome. They
were further told that it was hoped that the fanatics, or Zelanti, would
not drive them to such an extremity. D'Aubeterre who voiced the opinion
of his associates went so far as to say, that any election which had not
been arranged beforehand with the court would not be recognized.
Finally, after the conclave had been in session from February 13 to May
19, Cardinal Ganganelli was elected Pope and took the name of Clement
XIV. He was considered "acceptable," especially by Spain. According to
Cordara, however, his elevation to the pontifical throne was not due to
the influence or the manipulations of the Spanish cardinals but was
brought about as follows:--"From the beginning of the conclave two or
three votes were deposited in his favor, but he was never seriously
thought of as Pope. Indeed, Cardinal Castelli, whose learning and piety
gave him great influence in the Sacred College, was strongly opposed to
him. Suddenly, however, he changed his opinion and declared that, having
considered the matter more thoroughly, he was convinced that in the
actual circumstances, no one was better fitted for the post than
Ganganelli. From that moment, those who had been opposed to him regarded
him favorably. Even Rezzonico, the nephew of Clement XIII, who had many
reasons to vote against him said he would take the opinion of the
majority of the cardinals. Hence the only one against him was Orsini who
said that "the Franciscan was a Jesuit in disguise." He was, therefore,
after the fight had raged for 100 days, elected by forty-six out of
forty-seven votes. The forty-seventh was his own, which he cast in favor
of Rezzonico. It is not true that he had made a promise to suppress the
Society in case of election. Azpuru, the Spanish agent, wrote on May 8:
"No one has gone so far as to propose to anyone to give a written or
verbal promise"; and after May 13, he added: "Ganganelli neither made a
promise nor refused it." Unfortunately some of his written words were
interpreted as implying it.
Ganganelli was born in the town of Sant' Arcangelo, near Rimini, on
October 31, 1705, and was baptised Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio, but took
the name of Lorenzo when he became a Conventual of St. Francis. His life
as a friar was characterized by piety and intense application to study.
He was noted for his admiration of everything pertaining to the Society
of Jesus, and, indeed, Pope Clement XIII when making him a cardinal
said, "there is now a Jesuit in the Sacred College in the habit of a
Franciscan." But "the purple seemed to change him," says Cordara, "and
from that out he was more reserved in his manifestations of friendship."
As Pope he was as simple in his way of life as when living with his
community; he was gentle, affable, kind, rarely ruffled, never
precipitate and never carried away by inconsiderate zeal. He would have
made an admirable Pope in better times. But when he was given control of
the Barque of Peter a wild storm was sweeping over the world. Venice,
Parma, Naples, France, Spain and Portugal were arrayed against him--some
of them threatening separation from the Church. Austria, the only
Catholic government that remained, observed neutrality at first, but
finally went to the wrong side. In brief, a fierce and united
anti-religious element dominated all Catholic Europe, and the rest was
Protestant.
Of course, immediately after his election, felicitations rained upon
him, but as de Ravignan expresses it, "they were like flowers on the
head of the victim that was to be immolated." Indeed, even in the
congratulations harsh notes were heard, as when France expressed its
hope that the Holy See would show more condescension to the powers than
usual, and when Spain "urgently called the attention of His Holiness to
certain petitions which had been presented to him." The Spanish
ambassador, Azpuru, reminded him in the very first audience that
application had already been made to his predecessor for the suppression
of the Jesuits. The representatives of France, Portugal and Naples
chanted the same dirge. Before three months had elapsed, there was an
explosion that shook Christendom. Following an accepted custom, the Pope
issued the septennial Brief of indulgences in favor of the missionaries
"to bestow the treasures of heavenly blessings on those who, to our
knowledge, are laboring with indefatigable zeal for the salvation of
souls. We include among these fervent apostles, the Religious of the
Society of Jesus, and especially those whom our beloved son, Lorenzo
Ricci, is to assign this year and afterwards, in various provinces of
the Society, to that work; and we most certainly desire to promote and
increase by these spiritual favors the piety and the active and
enterprising zeal of those Religious."
It was a thunderbolt. Fierce protests were made in Spain, Naples, Parma
and France. Choiseul, who, up to that time, had been suave in his
malice, lost his temper completely and ordered the Ambassador Bernis not
only to make a public demand for the suppression of the Society but to
order the Pope to begin it inside of two months. "This Pope is trifling
with us," he said; "and if he does not come to terms he can consider all
relations with France at an end." He became grossly insulting and
declared that "he had enough of this monkery;" he would upset the plans
of the _Fratacci_; and annihilate his Roman finesse. "A monk was always
a monk," he said, "and it was very hard for an Italian monk to be honest
and frank in business matters." Choiseul's varnish of courtesy had been
all rubbed off by the incident, and he wanted to know "who were going to
win in the fight? the kings or the Jesuits? If I were ambassador at
Rome," he wrote to Bernis, "I would be ashamed to see Father Ricci the
antagonist of my master."
Bernis, Cardinal though he was, meekly replied: "Of course the kings
must win, but only the Pope can make them win. However, he has to do it
according to the prescriptions of canon law, and must save his own
reputation as well as that of the clergy. Moreover, as he is a temporal
sovereign, he has to consider the courts of Vienna, Turin and Poland,
and all that takes time. Personally, he means to keep the promise
already given to the three crowns to suppress the Society, and has shown
his mind on that point by public acts against the Fathers. He will renew
the promise explicitly and immediately, in a letter written in his own
hand to the King of Spain. He is not feeble or false as you seem to
think. Time will show that such is his purpose. But, first, the way to
lose the battle with the Jesuit General is to begin now. The Pope cannot
and will not do it without preparation. Secondly, France and Spain must
agree on the time and manner of arriving at the extinction of the
Jesuits. Thirdly, it would be wiser to restrict the suppression to the
Papal States, and not attempt it in countries that are favorable to the
Society. Fourthly, a good preliminary would be to forbid the reception
of novices, as the Pope has already done in his own dominions.
Marefoschi and I put that into his head. Fifthly, I also proposed the
seizure of the archives, the appointment of a Vicar General, to whom
Father Ricci will render an account of his administration."
Bernis' temporising, however, only exasperated the foes of the Society,
especially Charles III. Nevertheless, he succeeded in inducing the Pope
to write to Louis XV on September 30, and in this communication a
promise was made to do all the king wanted. But that was not enough for
Charles. To force the issue, he ordered all the Jesuit property in Spain
to be put up at auction, and a copy of the decree was sent to the Pope.
That was on November 8, and on November 13, a joint letter was sent by
the three powers requesting Clement to publish a Brief _motu proprio_
that is on his own initiative, as if they had had nothing to do with it,
approving all that the Bourbon princes had done against the Society; and
also to send to their majesties the plan he proposed to follow in
carrying out its complete suppression. Clement humbly submitted to the
outrage, and seven days later, Bernis was able to write to Choiseul:
"His Holiness has renewed in the strongest manner the two promises he
had made to the Bourbon kings with regard to the Brief approving the
missionaries, and the plan to suppress the Jesuit Order. He has
commissioned me to positively assure the ministers of the powers on that
point."
Spain wanted even more than that; and on November 22d, Azpuru told the
Pope that if he did not send a manuscript letter to the king promising
the suppression, extreme measures would be resorted to, and the rupture
of relations which had been begun in 1767 and which was so disastrous to
the Church in Spain would be carried to its limit. He was not
exaggerating, and the nuncio at Madrid wrote that the king was so set on
his purpose, that they did not know what mad thing he might do to gain
his point. The general impression was that Charles was on the verge of
insanity.
To quiet him, the Pope wrote, on November 30, to say positively that he
would carry out the will of the courts. "We have gathered all the
documents," he said, "that are needed for writing the _motu proprio_
agreed upon; so as to justify to the whole world, the wise conduct of
your majesty in expelling the Jesuits, as troublesome and turbulent
subjects. As we are carrying on our government, unaided, although
crushed by the weight and multiplicity of questions that have to be
settled, you will understand that it is not forgetfulness but merely the
unavoidable delay required to bring this important matter to a
successful issue." Indeed at that time Clement had secluded himself from
everyone. He was in constant fear of being poisoned, and had his food
prepared by a Cordelier lay-brother. "We beg Your Majesty," he
continued, "to put your entire confidence in us, for we have fully
resolved to act, and we are preparing to give to the public
incontestable proofs of our sincerity. We shall submit to the wisdom and
intelligence of Your Majesty a plan for the total extinction of this
Society; and Your Majesty will receive it shortly. We shall not cease to
give genuine proofs of our attachment and our veneration for Your
Majesty to whom in the plenitude of our paternal affection we give our
apostolic benediction" (De Ravignan, "Clément XIII et Clément XIV," I,
295).
Bernis gave himself the credit of having got the Pope to write this
letter, and said that now: "His Holiness could not escape carrying out
his promise. He will be forced to do it, in spite of his unwillingness,
for he knows that the king is too intelligent not to publish the letter,
and the Pope will be disgraced if he does not keep his word"
(Saint-Priest, p. 131). Thus six months after his election, he was bound
by a written and absolute promise to suppress the Society; though he
was continually saying "_questa supressione mi darà la morte_" (this
suppression will kill me). At this stage of the proceedings little
Naples was becoming obstreperous. Tanucci had seized the Greek College
and expelled the Jesuits. He then claimed the property of all religious
communities, and when remonstrated with, he replied that "he was going
to keep on thwarting every order that came from Rome, until the Society
of Jesus was abolished." In 1770 the Pope cancelled the excommunication
of the Duke of Parma to gratify the sovereigns, but the satisfaction
that ensued did not last long. Cardinal Pacca, who was quasi-nuncio at
Lisbon just then, notes the disorders prevalent in the country
especially in the University of Coimbra, where the worst kind of
teaching was permitted.
On July 3, 1770, Bernis wrote to Choiseul: "I heard that the Founder of
the Passionists, Paul of the Cross, has warned the Pope to watch over
his kitchen, and hence Brother Francisco who looks after the Pope's
household has redoubled his vigilance. I do not know if it is on account
of this warning, but in any case the Pope has gone to some mineral
springs for treatment and is to be there for the next fortnight." Ten
days afterwards, Choiseul replied: "I cannot imagine the Pope is so
credulous or so cowardly as to be so easily frightened by reports about
attempts on his life. The Society of Jesus has been looked upon as
dangerous because of its doctrines, its Institute and its intrigues in
the countries from which they have been expelled; but they have not been
accused of being poisoners. It is only the base jealousy and fanatical
hatred of some monks that could suspect such a thing. The General of the
Passionists might have dispensed himself from giving such indiscreet
advice to the Pope, which seems to have aggravated the illness of which
he was already complaining." As this General of the Passionists was no
other than the saintly Paul of the Cross, who has been since raised to
the honors of the altar, one may form some idea of the infamous devices
resorted to in all this business. Far from being unfriendly, Paul of the
Cross writes: "I am extremely pained by the sufferings of the
illustrious Company of Jesus. The very thought of all those innocent
religious being persecuted, in so many ways, makes me weep and groan.
The devil is triumphing; God's glory is diminished, and multitudes of
souls are deprived of all spiritual help. I pray, night and day that,
after the storm is passed, God who gives both life and death may
resuscitate the Society with greater glory than before. Such have been
always, and such still are, my feelings towards the Jesuits."
The fact is, however, that the Pope was really frightened. His
cheerfulness had vanished, his health had failed, and his features wore
an anxious and haunted look. He kept in seclusion, and, as has been
said, would let no one prepare his meals but his fellow-friar, Brother
Francisco, who remained with him till the end. He was evidently fighting
for time; hoping, no doubt, that something might occur to absolve him
from his promise. But his enemies were relentless. Charles III was more
than fanatical in his insistency, and finally Clement appointed
Marefoschi, an open enemy of the Jesuits, to prepare the Brief. The task
was joyfully accepted, but the Pope discovered that it was not written
in the usual pontifical style. That excuse, however, was regarded by his
assailants, as a trick, and they complained of it bitterly. Then it was
alleged that the Empress Maria Theresa, who was not averse to the
Jesuits, had to be consulted. Indeed, she had given out that as long as
she lived they had nothing to fear in her dominions, but she failed to
keep her word. Subsequently, a promise was given not to allow Father
Ricci to have a successor or to admit novices into the Order; then a
general council was proposed to decide the question, but all was of no
avail.
At this point, December 25, 1770, Choiseul fell from power, and the
world began to breathe for a short spell, hoping that this might affect
the situation, but d'Aiguillon, his successor, was just as bad.
Moreover, Saint-Priest, in his "Chûte des Jésuites" (p. 127) uses the
incident for a nasty insult. He attributes Choiseul's fall to the regard
that Madame du Barry had for the Society. "Thank God!" exclaims de
Ravignan, "the Society has never had such a protectress." She was
admired by Voltaire, who hailed her as another Egeria, but no Jesuit
ever sought her protection. Their only advocate at the court at that sad
period was the saintly daughter of the king, who became a Carmelite nun
to expiate her father's sins. The real cause of Choiseul's downfall was
that Maupeou showed to Louis XV some of Choiseul's letters urging
parliament "not to yield in the fight, for the king would sustain the
Society with all his power." "It was not hard," says Foisset in "Le
Président des Brosses" (p. 302), "for du Barry to persuade the king that
those letters were meant to incite the parliament to rebellion against
him." She hated Choiseul who, though willing to pay court to Pompadour,
had no respect for the low and coarse du Barry.
At this point, the Pope offered another inducement to the King of Spain:
the canonization of Palafox, whom Charles III worshipped, but that
failed, though a little respite was gained by the help of the king's
confessor; and certain discussions with regard to the restitution of the
papal territories also contributed to delay the disaster. The year 1771
had now been reached, and to afford some satisfaction to the foe, the
Pope established a commission or congregation of cardinals to examine
the financial conditions of the Society. At its head was the fierce
Marefoschi, who began by seizing the Roman Seminary. Thus matters
dragged on till 1772. Up to that time very little progress had been
made, and people were beginning to talk about the impossibility of
abolishing the whole Order, or even a part of it without "proper
juridical investigation." Even Bernis told his government that "there
was too much heat in this Jesuit affair to permit the Pope to explain
his real thoughts about the suppression;" but, though Aranda was out of
office and Choiseul likewise, the implacable Charles III was determined
to put an end to the delay and instead of Azpuru, he sent the fierce
José Moñino, otherwise known as Florida Blanca to be his ambassador in
Rome.
Under an affable and polished exterior Moñino was in reality very
brutal. He simply terrorized the Pope, who put off receiving him for a
week after his arrival and invented all sorts of excuses not to see him.
When at last they met, the Pope was pale and excited but Moñino had
resolved to end the siege. He dismissed absolutely all question of a
reform of the Order. What he wanted was suppression, or else there would
be a rupture with Spain. In vain the Pope entreated him to wait for
Ricci's death; but the angry minister rejected the offer with scorn, and
the Pope after being humiliated, insulted and outraged, withdrew to his
apartments, exclaiming with sobs in his voice: "God forgive the Catholic
King." "It was Moñino," said a diplomat then at Rome, "who got the Brief
of 1773; but he did not obtain it; he tore it from the Pope's hand."
Under instructions from Charles III, Moñino told the Pope, "I will
disgrace you by publishing the letter you wrote to the king," and he
laid before the Pontiff a plan drawn up by himself and the other
ministers of Charles III to carry out the suppression. De Ravignan
condemns Crétineau-Joly for having published this paper. "It would have
been better to have left it in the secret archives."
In Moñino's plan of action he declares that "it was not advisable to
enter into details; so as not to allow any ground for discussion, as it
would do harm to religion and uselessly defame the character of the
Jesuits." The king's reasons had already been made known to the Holy
See. They were three in number. The first was "they had caused the
Sombrero Riot in Madrid;" the second: "their moral and doctrinal
teaching was bad;" the third, and this was the most extraordinary of
all: "they had always persecuted the holiest bishops and persons in the
Kingdom of Spain." The last item probably referred to Palafox. His
Majesty had not yet revealed the important secret which he kept "locked
in his royal heart." All the terrible statements of the documents
alleged to have been seized by Marefoschi were to be of no use, when
compared with the Riot of the Sombreros.
Meantime conditions were every day growing worse in Europe. The
publications of Voltaire and his friends were destroying both religion
and morality. The fulminations of the Pope against these books availed
little, and meantime he was about to crush the men who were best able to
face the enemy. Finally, poor Poland was being cut up by Prussia, Russia
and Austria and the Pope was powerless to prevent it. On the other hand,
there were some consolations. Thus in 1771 the Armenian patriarch and
all his people renounced Nestorianism and returned to the unity of the
Church. Between 1771 and 1772 seven thousand families and their
ministers in the country of Sickelva abandoned Socinianism, and became
Catholics. Again, wonderful conversions were made in Transylvania and
Hungary, not only among Protestants but among the schismatical Greeks.
Similar triumphs had been achieved in Armenia and Syria among the
subjects of the Grand Turk, and the whole peninsula of Italy under the
eyes of the Pope was in a transport of religious zeal. The peculiarly
interesting feature about all this was that it was the work of the
members of the Society of Jesus. But that did not check the progress of
the anti-Christian plot of the Catholic kings of Europe to obliterate
from the face of the earth the organization which even in its crippled
condition and in the very last moments of its existence was capable of
such achievements. Cardinal Migazzi, the Archbishop of Vienna, called
the Pope's attention to this fact, but without avail.
Up to this time, Maria Theresa had been the devoted friend of the
Society. She had even said she would never cease to be so, but yielding
to the influence of her son, Joseph II, and of her daughter, the Queen
of Naples, she consented to their suppression, on condition that she
could dispose arbitrarily of their property (Clément XIII et Clément
XIV, I, 362.) The illustrious queen displayed great worldly prudence in
withdrawing her affections. This desertion destroyed the last hope that
the Pope had cherished of putting off the Suppression. Moñino returned
to the attack again and received an assurance from Clement that the
document of suppression would be ready in eight days, and copies would
be sent to the Kings of Spain, France and Naples. Meantime, as a
guarantee, he began the work in his own States. Under all sorts of
pretexts, individuals and college corporations were haled to court; and
official visits were made of the various establishments. On March 10,
1773, Malvezzi, the Archbishop of Bologna, applied to the Pope for
"permission to dissolve the novitiate, if it would seem proper to do so.
If you think well of it, I shall carry that measure into effect, as soon
as I arrive. I also judge it advisable to shut up St. Lucia, by
dismissing the Jesuit theologians and philosophers. In doing so, Your
Holiness will be dispensed from the trouble of investigating and will
thus avoid the publicity of any notable offence which an examination
might reveal."
There were two difficulties in the way, however. The people objected to
the expulsion, and the Jesuits refused to be released from their vows.
The latter obstacle was thought to be overcome by tearing off the
cassocks of the young men and sending them adrift as laymen, and when
the rector, Father Belgrado, who besides being a theologian was one of
the foremost physicists and mathematicians of the day, and had been the
confessor of the Duke and Duchess of Parma, informed the archbishop that
dispensation from substantial vows must come from the Pope and from no
one else, that did not stop Malvezzi. He had the rector arrested and
exiled; and with the help of a band of soldiers expelled the scholastics
from the house. He then wrote to the Pope regretting that he had not
proceeded more rapidly. Besides this, Frascati was taken from the
Jesuits and given to the Cardinal of York, who asked for it, though his
royal pension had made him already immensely wealthy. Similar
visitations were made in Ferrara and Montalto, and the looting became
general.
In Poland, as we learn from "Les Jésuites de la Russie blanche," the
spoliation had started even before the promulgation of the edict.
Libraries were broken up and the books were often used to kindle
bonfires; the silver of the churches was melted down and sold, and
medals and chains from statues were seen on the necks of abandoned
women. Even the cattle on the farms were seized. The Jews were
especially conspicuous in these depredations.
All this was the prelude of the fatal Brief, which was signed on July
21, 1773, but was not promulgated until August 16 of that year. Theiner
is the only author who gives August 17 as the date. As a matter of fact
it was held up by Austria so as to gain time to prevent the secular
clergy from seizing the property. The preparation of the Brief was
conducted with the profoundest secrecy. Even on July 28, the French
Ambassador wrote to D'Aiguillon: "the Pope is doing nothing in the
Jesuit matter." He was unaware that not only was the Brief already
signed but that a Congregatio de rebus extinctæ Societatis (a Committee
on the affairs of the Extinct Society) had been appointed, and that its
members had been bound under pain of excommunication not to reveal the
fact to any one. However, Bernis found it out on the 11th, and
complained that he had not been consulted. He wrote as follows: "Last
Friday, the Pope summoned Cardinals Marefoschi, Casali, Zelada, Corsini
and Caraffa, and after having made them take an oath, he put a Brief in
their hands, which constituted them members of a congregation which was
to meet every Monday and Thursday to discuss whatever concerned the
Jesuit establishments, their benefices, colleges, seminaries,
foundations, and such matters. It held its first meeting last Monday.
Macedonio, the Pope's nephew, was the secretary; Alfani, a prelate, was
the assessor; and Fathers Mamachi, a Dominican, and de Casal, a
Recollect, were consulting theologians. The last two mentioned are men
of repute."
"The 16th day of August 1773, the day of sad memories," writes de
Ravignan, "arrived. Towards nine at night, Macedonio went to the Gesù
and officially notified the General of the Brief that suppressed the
Society throughout the world. He was accompanied by soldiers and
officers of the police to keep order, though no one dreamed of creating
any trouble. At the same hour, also by command of the Pope, other
distinguished prelates and ecclesiastics gave notice of the Brief to the
various Jesuit rectors in Rome. They also were accompanied by soldiers
and notaries. Seals were put on the archives, the accounts, the offices
of the treasurers and the doors of the sacristies. The Jesuits were
suspended from all ecclesiastical functions such as confessions and
preaching, and they were forbidden, for the time being, to leave their
houses. The Father General and his assistants were carried off to jail."
"Such," said Schoell (xliv, 84), "was the end of one of the most
remarkable institutions that perhaps ever existed. The Order of the
Jesuits was divided into five nations, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish,
French and German, each one of which had a representative living with
the General. In 1750 the organization comprised 39 provinces, had 84
professed houses, which were residences where the most experienced
members worked unceasingly for the Order without being distracted by
public instruction. There were 679 colleges, 61 novitiates, 176
seminaries, 335 residences, and 273 missions. There were 22,589 members
of whom 11,293 were priests."
This official act of the Pope really added very little to the temporal
injury already done to the Order in Spain, France and Portugal where
they had already been robbed of everything. But to be regarded as
reprobates by the Pope and branded as disturbers of the peace of the
Church was a suffering with which all they had hitherto undergone bore
no comparison. Nevertheless, they uttered no protest. They submitted
absolutely and died without a murmur, and in this silence they were true
to their lifelong training, for loyalty to the See of Peter had always
been the distinctive mark of the Society of Jesus from the moment that
Ignatius Loyola knelt at the feet of the Sovereign Pontiff, for his
approval and blessing. When the blow fell, the Society was found to be
faithful. If it had during its lifetime achieved something for the glory
of God and the salvation of souls; if it had been constantly appealed to
for the most dangerous missions and had accepted them with enthusiasm;
if it had poured out its blood lavishly for the Faith; if it had given
many glorious saints to the Church, now, in the last terrible crisis
which preceded the French Revolution and perhaps precipitated it, when
the ruler of the Militant Church judged that by sacrificing one of his
legions he could hold back the foe, the Society of Jesus on being chosen
did not hesitate; it obeyed, and it was cut to pieces. Not a word came
from the heroic band to discuss the wisdom or the unwisdom of the act.
Others protested but not they. Those who condemned Clement XIV were not
Jesuits, though their enemies said they were. On the contrary, the
Jesuits defended and eulogized him and some of them even maintained that
in the terrible circumstances in which he found himself, he could not
have done otherwise. The Suppression gave them the chance, which they
did not miss, to prove to the world the solidity of virtue that reigned
throughout the Order, and to show that their doctrine of "blind
obedience" was not a matter of mere words, but an achievable and an
achieved virtue. They would have stultified themselves had they halted
when the supreme test was asked for, and so they died to uphold the
judgment of the Vicar of Christ, and in similar circumstances would do
it again. They had preached sermons in every part of the world, but
never one like this. Nor was it a sublime act such as some individual
saints might have performed. It was the act of the whole Society of
Jesus.
Silent themselves, they did their best to persuade others to refrain
from all criticism. One example will suffice. It was after the Pope's
death when the ex-Jesuits at Fribourg held a funeral service in their
collegiate Church of St. Nicholas. The whole city was present, and the
preacher, Father Matzel, amid the sobs of the congregation uttered these
words: "Friends! beloved Friends of our former Society! whoever and
wherever you may be! If ever we have had the happiness to be of help and
comfort to you by our labor in city or country; if ever we have
contributed anything to the cause of Christianity in preaching the word
of God or catechising or instructing youth, or laboring in hospitals or
prisons, or writing edifying books now, on this occasion, although in
our present distress we have many favors to ask of you, there is one we
ask above all and we entreat and implore you to grant it. It is never to
speak a word that would be harsh or bitter or disrespectful to the
memory of Clement XIV, the Supreme Head of the Church of Christ."
The famous Brief is designated by its first words, _Dominus ac
Redemptor_. Its general tenor is as follows: It begins by enumerating
the various religious orders which, in course of time, had been
suppressed by successive Popes, and it then gives a list of the
privileges accorded to the Society by the Holy See, but it notes that
"from its very cradle" there were internal and external disagreements
and dissensions and jealousies, as well as opposition to both secular
and ecclesiastical authority, chiefly because of the excessive
privileges that had been granted to it by the different Sovereign
Pontiffs. Its moral and dogmatic theology also gave rise to considerable
discussion, and it has frequently been accused of too great avidity in
the acquisition of earthly goods. The Pontiff merely declares that such
"charges" were made against the Society; he, in no place, admits that
the "charges" were based on truth. These accusations, he continues,
caused much chagrin to the Holy See, and afforded a motive for several
sovereigns of Europe to range themselves in opposition to the Society;
while, on the other hand, a new confirmation of the Institute was
obtained from Pope Paul IV of happy memory. That, however, did not
succeed in putting an end to the disputes with the ordinaries or with
other religious orders on many points, and notably with regard to
certain ceremonies which the Holy See proscribed as scandalous in
doctrine, and subversive of morality; nor did it avail to quell the
tumult which ultimately led to the expulsion of the Society from
Portugal, France, Spain and the Two Sicilies, and induced the kings of
those countries to ask Clement XIII for its complete suppression.
"Hence, finding that the Society of Jesus can no longer produce the
abundant fruits for which it was instituted, and for which it was
approved by so many Popes, and rewarded by so many privileges, we now
abolish and suppress it. But as the purpose which we have set for
ourselves and are eager to achieve is the general good of the Church and
the tranquillity of the people, and, at the same time, to give help and
consolation to each of the members of this Society, all of whom we
tenderly cherish in the Lord, we ordain as follows with regard to them."
He then explains the various ways in which each section of the Society
is to be dealt with.
Such in general is the substance of this very long Brief. In it,
however, there is not one word about the decadence of the Society in
its morality or its theology. The Pontiff merely says that many have
"charged" them with such offenses. He even goes so far as to say that
"he tenderly loved all of the individuals who composed the Society." The
real purpose of it was to bring peace to the Church. Cahours in his "Des
Jésuites par un Jésuite," (II, p. 278) says, "Every judge who passes a
sentence affirms two things: the existence of a crime and the fitness of
the penalty. Clement XIV pronounces on the second, but says nothing of
the first. Hence the sentence is not something exacted by justice, but
is merely an administrative measure called for by the embarrassment of
the moment."
Was it legitimate? Yes; for the Holy See has a right to suppress what it
has created.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE INSTRUMENT
Summary of the Brief of Suppression and its Supplementary
Document.
The Brief of Clement XIV which suppressed the Society begins by
enumerating the various religious orders which have been treated in a
similar manner at different periods in the history of the Church, but it
omits to note that their extinction occurred only after a juridical
examination. Thus, for instance, when Clement V suppressed the Knights
Templars in 1321, he first ordered all the bishops of the world to
summon the Knights who had chapters in their dioceses; to subject them
to a regular trial and then to forward a report of their proceedings to
Rome. When this was done a general council was convened at Vienne in
Dauphiné to go over the whole matter and then submit its decision to the
Pope. The council brought in a favorable verdict by a majority vote,
although the Knights were very poorly defended, but the Pope, terrorized
by Philip the Fair, ordered the dissolution of the Order. In the case of
the Society there was a dissolution but no trial.
After recounting these facts, the Pontiff says: "Having before my eyes
these and other examples of Orders suppressed by the Church and being
most eager to proceed with perfect confidence in carrying out the
purpose which shall be referred to later, we have left nothing undone to
make ourselves acquainted with the origin, progress and actual condition
of the religious order commonly known as the Society of Jesus. We have
seen that it was established by its Holy Founder for the salvation of
souls, the conversion of heretics and especially of the heathen, and
also for the increase of piety and religion. To accomplish these
purposes its members were bound by a very strict vow of evangelical
poverty both in common and individually, with the exception of its
houses of study or colleges which are allowed to possess certain
revenues, but in such wise that they could not be diverted or applied to
the use of this Society.
"In consequence of these statutes and of others equally wise, our
predecessor Paul III approved of the Society of Jesus, by his Bull of
September 27, 1540, and allowed it to draw up rules and statutes to
ensure its peace, its existence and its government; and although he had
restricted this Society to sixty members, yet by another Bull dated
February 28, 1543, he permitted the superiors to receive all who
appeared to possess the proper qualifications for the work proposed.
Subsequently, the same Pontiff by a Brief of November 15, 1549, accorded
very great privileges to this Society and gave its Generals the power of
accepting twenty priests as spiritual coadjutors and of conferring on
them the same privileges, the same favor and the same authority as the
Professed. His wish was and he so ordained that there should be no limit
or restriction put on the number of those whom the General should judge
worthy of being so received. Furthermore, the Society itself, all its
members and their possessions were entirely withdrawn from all
superiorship, control and correction of bishops and taken under the
protection of the Holy See.
"Others of our predecessors have exhibited the same munificent
liberality to this order. In effect Julius III, Paul IV, Paul V, Gregory
XIII, Sixtus V, Gregory XIV, Clement VIII and other Popes have either
confirmed or augmented, or more distinctly defined and determined the
privileges already conferred on these religious. Nevertheless, the
tenor and even the terms of these Apostolic Constitutions show that even
at its inception the Society saw spring up within it various germs of
discord and jealousies, which not only divided the members, but prompted
them to exalt themselves above other religious orders, the secular
clergy, the universities, colleges, public schools and even the
sovereigns who had admitted and welcomed them in their realms. These
troubles and dissensions were sometimes caused by the character of the
Society's vows, by its power to admit novices to the vows, to dismiss
from the Society, to present its subjects for ordination without any
ecclesiastical title and without having made solemn vows. Moreover, it
was in conflict with the decisions of the Council of Trent and of Pius
V, our predecessor, both with regard to the absolute power arrogated by
the General, as well as in other articles which not only relate to the
government of the Society, but also on different points of doctrine, and
in the exemptions and privileges which the ordinaries and other
dignitaries both ecclesiastical and secular claim to be an invasion of
their jurisdiction and their rights. In brief, there is scarcely any
kind of a grave accusation that has not been brought against this
Society, and in consequence, the peace and tranquillity of Christendom
has been for a long time disturbed.
"Numberless complaints backed by the authority of kings and rulers have
been urged against these religious at the tribunals of Paul IV, Pius V
and Sixtus V. Thus, Philip II, King of Spain, laid before Sixtus V not
only the urgent and grave personal reasons which prompted his action in
this matter, but also the protest of the Spanish Inquisition against the
excessive privileges of the Society. His majesty also complained of the
Society's form of government, and of points in the Institution which
were disputed by some of the members of the Society who were conspicuous
for their knowledge and piety, and he asked the Sovereign Pontiff to
name a commission for an Apostolic visitation of the Society.
"As the zealous demands of Philip seemed to be based on justice and
equity, Sixtus V appointed as visitor Apostolic a bishop generally
recognized for his prudence, virtue and intellectual gifts. A
congregation of cardinals was also instituted to dispose of the matter,
but the premature death of Sixtus prevented any action. On the other
hand, the first act of Gregory XIV on his accession to the Chair of
Peter was to give by his Bull of June 28, 1591, the most extensive
approval of the Institute. He confirmed and ratified all the privileges
accorded by his predecessors, and especially that of dismissal from the
Order without juridical procedure, that is to say without having taken
any previous information, without drawing up any indictment, without
observing any legal process, or allowing any delay, even the most
essential, but solely on the inspection of the truth of the fact and
without regard to the fault or whether it or the attendant circumstances
sufficiently justified the expulsion of the person involved.
"Moreover, Pope Gregory absolutely forbade under pain of excommunication
_ipso facto_, any direct or indirect attack on the institute, the
constitutions, or the decrees of the Society, or any attempt to change
them, although he permitted an appeal to himself or his successors,
either directly or through the legates and nuncios of the Holy See, and
also the right to represent whatever one might think should be added,
modified or retrenched.
"However, all these precautions did not avail to silence the clamorous
complaints against the Society. On the contrary, strife arose
everywhere about the doctrines of the Order, which many maintained were
totally opposed to the orthodox faith and sound morality. The Society
itself was torn by internal dissensions while this external warfare was
going on. It was also everywhere reproached with too much avidity and
eagerness for earthly goods and this complaint caused the Holy See much
pain and exasperated many rulers of nations against the Society. Hence,
to strengthen themselves on that point these religious, wishing to
obtain from Paul V of happy memory a new confirmation of their Institute
and their privileges, were compelled to ask for a ratification of some
decrees published in the fifth general congregation and inserted word
for word in his Bull of September 14, 1606. These decrees expressly
declared that the Society assembled in general congregation had been
compelled both by the troubles and enmities among the members, and by
the charges from without, to formulate the following statute:--
"'Our Society which has been raised up by God for the propagation of the
Faith and the salvation of souls, is enabled by the proper functions of
its Institute which are the arms of the spirit to attain under the
standard of the Cross the end it proposes, with edification to the
neighbor and usefulness to the Church. On the other hand, it would do
harm and expose itself to the greatest danger if it meddled in affairs
of the world and especially with what concerns the politics and
government of States. But, as in these unfortunate times our Order,
perhaps because of the ambition or indiscreet zeal of some of its
members, is attacked in different parts of the world and is complained
of to certain sovereigns whose consideration and affection we have been
bidden by St. Ignatius to preserve so that we may be more acceptable to
God, and as, besides, the good odor of Jesus Christ is necessary to
produce fruits of salvation, this congregation is of the opinion that it
is incumbent upon all to avoid as far as possible even the appearance of
evil, and thus to obviate the accusations that are based on unjust
suspicions. Hence, the present decree forbids all under the most
rigorous penalties to concern themselves in any way with public affairs,
even when invited to do so or when for some reason they may seem to be
indispensable. They are not to depart from the Institute of the Society
no matter how entreated or solicited, and the definitors are to lay down
rules and to prescribe the means best calculated to remedy abuses in
cases which may present themselves.'
"We have observed with bitter grief that these remedies and many others
subsequently employed failed to put an end to the troubles, complaints
and accusations against the Society, and that Urban VIII, Clement IX,
Clement X, Clement XI, Clement XII, Alexander VII, Alexander VIII,
Innocent X, Innocent XI, Innocent XII, Innocent XIII, and Benedict XIV
were unable to give the Church peace. The constitutions which were drawn
up with regard to secular affairs with which the Society should not
concern itself, whether outside of these missions or on account of them,
failed to have any result. Nor did they put an end to the serious
quarrels and dissensions caused by members of the Society with the
ordinaries and, religious orders, or about places consecrated to piety,
and also with communities of every kind in Europe, Asia and America; all
of which caused great scandal and loss of souls. The same was true with
regard to the practice and interpretation of certain pagan ceremonies
which were tolerated and permitted in many places while those approved
of by the Universal Church were put aside. Then, too, there was the use
and interpretation of maxims which the Holy See deemed to be scandalous
and evidently harmful to morality. Finally, there were other things of
great moment and of absolute necessity for the preservation of the
dogmas of the Christian religion in its purity and integrity which in
our own and preceding centuries led to abuses and great evils such as
the troubles and seditions in Catholic states, and even persecutions of
the Church in some provinces of Asia and Europe.
"All of our predecessors have been sorely afflicted by these things,
among others Innocent XI of pious memory, who forbade the habit to be
given to novices; Innocent XIII, who was obliged to utter the same
threat; and, finally, Benedict XIV, who ordered a visitation of the
houses and colleges of our dear son in Christ, the most faithful King of
Portugal and the Algarves. But the Holy See derived no consolation from
all this; nor was the Society helped; nor did Christianity secure any
advantage from the last letter, which had been rather extorted than
obtained from our immediate predecessor Clement XIII (to borrow the
expression employed by Gregory X in the Ecumenical Council of Lyons.)
"After so many terrible shocks, storms and tempests, the truly faithful
hope to see the day dawn which will bring peace and calm. But under the
pontificate of our predecessor Clement XIII, the times grew more stormy.
Indeed, the clamors against the Society augmented daily and in some
places there were troubles, dissensions, dangerous strifes and even
scandals which, after completely shattering Christian charity, lighted
in the hearts of the faithful, party spirit, hatred and enmity. The
danger increased to such a degree that even those whose piety and
well-known hereditary devotion to the Society, namely our very dear sons
in Jesus Christ, the Kings of France, Spain, Portugal and the Two
Sicilies, were forced to banish from their kingdoms, states and
provinces all the religious of this Order; being persuaded that this
extreme measure was the only means of remedying so many evils and
putting an end to the contentions and strife that were tearing the bosom
of Mother Church.
"But these same kings, our very dear sons in Jesus Christ, thought that
this remedy could not be lasting in its effects or could avail to
tranquillize Christendom unless the Society was altogether abolished and
suppressed. Hence, they made known to Clement XIII their desire in this
matter and asked him with one accord and with all the authority they
possessed, adding also their prayers and entreaties to bring about in
that way the perpetual tranquillity of their subjects and the general
good of the Church. But the sudden death of that Pontiff checked all
progress in the matter. Hardly, however, had we, by the mercy of God,
been elevated to the Chair of St. Peter, than the same prayers were
addressed to us, the same insistent demands were made and a great number
of bishops and other personages illustrious by their learning, dignity
and virtue united their supplications to this request.
"Wishing, however, to take the surest course in such a grave and
important matter, we believed we needed a much longer time to consider
it, not only for the purpose of making the most exact examination
possible and then to deliberate upon the most prudent methods to be
adopted and also to obtain from the Father of Light His especial help
and assistance, we offered our most earnest prayers, mourning and
grieving over what was before us, and we entreated the faithful to come
to our aid by their prayers and good works. We have especially thought
it advisable to find out upon what basis this widespread feeling rested
with regard to the Society, which had been confirmed and approved in
the most solemn manner by the Council of Trent. We discovered that the
council mentions the Order only to exempt it from the general decree
passed for other Orders. The Jesuit novices were to be admitted to
profession if judged worthy, or they were to be dismissed from the
Society. Hence the council (Session 25, c. xvi, de reg.) declared that
it wished to make no innovation nor to prevent these religious from
serving God and the Church in accordance with their pious Institute
which had been approved by the Church.
"Wherefore, after having made use of so many necessary means, and aided
as we think by the presence and inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and,
moreover, compelled by the duty of our office which essentially obliges
us to procure, maintain and strengthen with all our power, the repose
and tranquillity of Christendom, and to root out entirely what could
cause the slightest harm; and, moreover, having recognized that the
Society of Jesus could no longer produce the abundant fruit and the
great good for which it was instituted and approved by so many Popes,
our predecessors, who adorned it with so many most admirable privileges,
and seeing that it was almost and, indeed, absolutely impossible for the
Church to enjoy a true and solid peace while this Order existed, being
bound as we are by so many powerful considerations and compelled by
other motives which the laws of prudence and the wise administration of
the Church suggest but which we keep in the depths of our heart:
Following in the footsteps of our predecessors and especially of Gregory
X at the Council of Lyons, since the cases are identical, we do, hereby,
after a mature examination, and of our certain knowledge, and by the
plenitude of our Apostolic power, suppress and abolish the Society of
Jesus. We nullify and abrogate all and each of its offices, functions,
administrations, houses, schools, colleges, retreats, refuges and other
establishments which belong to it in any manner whatever, and in every
province, kingdom or state in which it may be found. We do the same for
its statutes, customs, usages, decrees, constitutions, even those
confirmed by the oath and by the approbation of the Holy See or
otherwise, as well as all and each of its indults, both general and
particular whose tenor we wish to be regarded as fully and sufficiently
set forth by these present letters, as if they were here inserted word
for word; notwithstanding any clause or formula to the contrary, no
matter upon what decrees or obligations they may be based. Hence, we
declare as forever broken and entirely extinct all authority, spiritual
or temporal, of the General, provincials, visitors and other superiors
of this Society, and we transfer absolutely and without restriction this
same authority and this same jurisdiction to the ordinaries of the
places where the aforesaid are, according to the case or persons, in the
form and under the conditions which we shall explain hereafter;
forbidding, as we do by these presents forbid, that any one should be
received into this Society or admitted to the novitiate or invested with
the habit. We also forbid any of those who have already been received to
pronounce the simple or solemn vows, under pain of nullity either of
their admission or profession and under other penalties as we may see
fit. Moreover, we wish, ordain and enjoin that those who are at present
novices, should be immediately, instantly and effectually dismissed, and
we forbid those who have not made solemn vows and who have not yet been
admitted to the priesthood to be promoted to either under the title or
pretext of their profession or in virtue of any privileges accorded to
the Society and in contravention of the decrees of the Council of
Trent.
"But as the object we have in view and which we are most eager to attain
is to watch over the general good of the Church and the peace of the
nations, and at the same time to help and console each one of the
members of this Society whom we tenderly cherish in the Lord, so that,
freed at last from all the quarrels and disputes and annoyances in which
they have until now been engaged, they may cultivate with more fruit the
vineyard of the Lord and labor with more success for the salvation of
souls, we decree and ordain that the members of this Society who have
made only simple vows and who are not yet in Holy Orders shall depart
from their houses and colleges freed from their vows, and that they are
free to embrace whatever state they judge most conformable to their
vocation, their strength and their conscience. The ordinary of the place
will fix the time which may be deemed sufficient to procure an
employment or an occupation, without, however, extending it beyond a
year, just as in the Society they would be dismissed without any other
reason than because the prudence of the superior so judges, and that
without any previous citation or juridical proof.
"We allow those in Holy Orders either to leave their houses and colleges
and enter some religious order approved by the Holy See, in which case
they must pass the probation prescribed by the Council of Trent, if they
have only taken simple vows, if they have taken solemn vows, the time of
their probation will be six months in virtue of a dispensation which we
give to that effect; or they may remain in the world as secular priests
or clerics, and in that case they shall be entirely subject to the
authority and jurisdiction of the ordinary of the place in which they
reside. We ordain, also, that a suitable pension shall be assigned to
those who remain in the world, until such time as they shall be
otherwise provided for. This pension shall be derived from the funds of
the house where they formerly lived, due consideration, however, being
had to the revenues and the indebtedness of such houses.
"The professed who are already in Holy Orders and who fear they may not
be able to live respectably on account of the smallness of their
pension, either because they can find no other refuge or are very old
and infirm, may live in their former houses on condition that they shall
have no share in its administration, that they dress like secular
priests and be entirely subject to the bishop of the place. We expressly
forbid them to supply anyone's place or to acquire any house or place in
the future, or, as the Council of Lyons decrees, to alienate the houses,
goods or places which they actually possess. They may, nevertheless,
meet in one or more houses, in such a manner that such houses may be
available if needed for pious purposes, as may appear most in
conformity, in time and place, with the Holy Canons and the will of the
founders, and also more conducive to the growth of religion, the
salvation of souls and public utility. Moreover, some one of the secular
clergy, commendable for his prudence and virtuous life, must appear in
the administration of such houses, as the name of the Society is now
totally suppressed and abolished.
"We declare, also, that those who have been already expelled from any
country whatever are included in the general suppression of the Order,
and we consequently decree that those banished Jesuits, even if they are
in Holy Orders and have not entered a religious order, shall from this
moment belong to the secular clergy and be entirely subject to the
ordinary of the place.
"If the ordinaries recognize in those who in virtue of the present Brief
have passed from the Society to the state of secular priests necessary
knowledge and correctness of life, they may grant or refuse them, as
they choose, the permission to confess and preach, and without such
authorization none of them can exercise such functions. However, the
bishops or ordinaries will never grant such powers as are conceded to
those not of the diocese, if the applicants live in houses or colleges
formerly belonging to the Society; and therefore we forbid such persons
to preach or administer the sacraments, as Gregory X, our predecessor
prescribed in the general council already referred to. We lay it on the
conscience of the bishops to watch over the execution of all this and we
command them to reflect on the rigorous account they will have one day
to render to God of the sheep committed to their care and of the
terrible judgment with which the Sovereign Judge of the living and the
dead menaces those who govern others.
"Moreover, if among those who were members of the Society there are any
who were charged with the instruction of youth or who have exercised the
functions of professors in colleges and schools, we warn them that they
are absolutely deposed from any such direction, administration or
authority and that they are not permitted to be employed in any such
work, except as long as there is a reason to hope for some good from
their labors and as long as they appear to keep aloof from all
discussions and points of doctrine whose laxity and futility only
occasion and engender trouble and disastrous contentions. We furthermore
ordain that they shall be forever forbidden to exercise the functions
aforesaid, if they do not endeavor to keep peace in their schools and
with others; and that they shall be discharged from the schools if they
happen to be employed in them.
"As regards the missions, we include them in everything that has been
ordered in this suppression, and we reserve to ourselves to take
measures calculated to procure more easily and with greater certainty of
results the conversion of the heathens and the cessation of disputes.
"Therefore, we have entirely abolished and abrogated all the privileges
and statutes of this Order and we declare that all of its members shall
as soon as they have left their houses and colleges and have embraced
the state of secular clerics, be considered proper and fit to obtain, in
conformity with the Holy Canons and the Apostolic Constitutions, all
sorts of benefices either simple or with the care of souls annexed; and
also to accept offices, dignities and pensions, from which in accordance
with the Brief of Gregory XIII of September 10, 1584, which begins with
the words: 'Satis superque,' they were absolutely excluded as long as
they belonged to the Society. We allow them also to accept compensations
for celebrating Mass, which they were not allowed to receive as Jesuits,
and to enjoy all the graces and favors of which they would have always
been deprived as long as they were Clerks Regular of the Society. We
abrogate likewise all permissions they may have obtained from the
General and other superiors, in virtue of the privileges accorded by the
Sovereign Pontiff, such as leave to read heretical books and others
prohibited and condemned by the Holy See, or not to fast or abstain, or
to anticipate the Divine Office or anything, in fact, of that nature.
Under the severest penalties we forbid them to use such privileges in
the future, as our intention is to make them live in conformity with the
requirements of the common law, like secular priests.
"After the publication of the Brief, we forbid anyone, no matter who he
may be, to dare to suspend its execution even under color, title or
pretext of some demand, appeal or declaration or discussion of doubt
that may arise or under any other pretext, foreseen or unforeseen; for
we wish that the suppression and cessation of the whole Society as well
as of all of its officers should have their full and entire effect, at
the moment, and instantaneously, and in the form and manner in which we
have described above, under pain of major excommunication incurred _ipso
facto_ by a single act, and reserved to us and to the Popes, our
successors. This is directed against anyone who will dare to place the
least obstacle, impediment or delay in the execution of this Brief. We
order, likewise, and we forbid under holy obedience all and every
ecclesiastic secular and regular, whatever be their grade, dignity,
quality or condition, and notably those who are at present attached to
the Society or were in the past, to oppose or attack this suppression,
to write against it, even to speak of it, or of its causes or motives,
or of the extinct Institute itself, its rules, constitutions or
discipline or of anything else, relative to this affair, without the
express permission of the Sovereign Pontiff. We likewise forbid all and
everyone under pain of excommunication reserved to us and our successors
to dare to assail either in secret or in public, verbally or in writing,
by disputes, injuries and affronts or by any other kind of contempt,
anyone, no matter who he may be and least of all those who were members
of the said Order.
"We exhort all Christian princes whose attachment and respect for the
Holy See we know, to employ all the zeal, care, strength, authority and
power which they have received from God for the execution of this Brief,
in order to protect and defend the Holy Roman Church, to adhere to all
the articles it contains; to issue and publish similar decrees by which
they may more carefully watch over the execution of this our present
will and so forestall quarrelling, strife and dissensions among the
faithful.
"Finally, we exhort all Christians and we implore them by the bowels of
Jesus Christ Our Lord to remember that they have the same Master, Who is
in heaven; the same Savior, Who redeemed them at the price of His blood;
that they have all been regenerated by the grace of Baptism; that they
have been all made sons of God and co-heirs of Christ; and are nourished
by the same bread of the Divine word, the doctrine of the Church; that
they are one body in Jesus Christ, and are members of each other; and
consequently, it is necessary that being united by the bonds of charity
they should live in peace with all men, as their only duty is to love
each other, for he who loves his neighbor fulfills the law. Hence, also,
they should regard with horror injuries, hatred, quarrels, deceits and
other evils which the enemy of the human race has invented, devised and
provoked to trouble the Church of God and to hinder the salvation of
souls; nor are they to allege the false pretext of scholastic opinions
or that of greater Christian perfection. Finally, let all endeavor to
acquire that true wisdom of which St. James speaks (iii, 13): 'Who is a
wise man and indued with knowledge among you? Let him show, by a good
conversation, his work in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have a
bitter zeal, and there be contentions in your heart; glory not, and be
not liars against the truth. For this is not wisdom, descending from
above; but earthly, sensual, devilish. For, where envying and contention
is, there is inconstancy, and every evil work. For the wisdom, that is
from above, first indeed is chaste, then peaceable, modest, easy to be
persuaded, consenting to the good, full of mercy and good fruits,
without judging, without dissimulation. And the fruit of justice is sown
in peace, to them that make peace.'
"Even if the superiors and the other religious of this Order, as well as
all those who are interested or pretend to be, in any way whatever, in
what has been herein ordered, give no assent to the present Brief and
were not summoned or heard, we wish, nevertheless, that it should never
be attacked, weakened or invalidated on the plea of subreption,
obreption, nullity, invalidity or defect of intention on our part or for
any other motive, no matter how great or unforeseen or essential it may
be, or because formalities and other things have been omitted which
should have been observed in the preceding enactments or in any one of
them, or for any other capital point deriving from the law or any
custom, or indeed contained in the body of the law; nor can there be any
pretext of an enormous or a very enormous and extreme injury inflicted;
nor, finally, can there be any reasons or causes however just or
reasonable they may be, even one that should have necessarily been
expressed, needed to give validity to the rules above given. We forbid
that it should be ever retracted, discussed or brought to court or that
it be provided against by way of restitution, discussion, review
according to law or in any other way to obtain by legal procedure, fact,
favor or justice, in any manner in which it might be accorded, to be
made use of either in court or out of it.
"Moreover, we wish expressly that the present Constitution should be
from this moment valid, stable and efficacious forever, that it should
have its full and entire effect; that it should be inviolably observed
by all and each of those to whom it belongs or will belong in the future
in any manner whatever."
Such was the famous Brief which condemned the Society to death.
Distressing as it is, it attributes no wrong doing to the Order. It
narrates a few of the accusations against the Jesuits, but does not
accept them as ever having been proved. The sole reason given for the
suppression--and it is repeated again and again--is that the Society was
the occasion of much trouble in the Church. It is thus, on the whole, a
vindication and not a condemnation. It was not a Bull but a Brief, and
on that account could be much more easily revoked than the more solemn
document to which the papal _bulla_ is affixed.
Father Cordara's view of this act of the Pope is generally considered to
reflect that of the Society at large. It is of special value for he was
one of the suppressed Jesuits and happened to be living in Rome at the
time. He maintained that "the Pope could, without injustice, suppress
the Society, even if innocent, just as a king can deliver over an
innocent man to be put to death by an enemy who otherwise would sack a
city. Clement XIV thought to save the Church whose existence was
menaced."
Two years later however, Cardinal Antonelli when interrogated by
Clement's successor, Pius VI, and, consequently, when he was compelled
to speak, did not hesitate to condemn the Brief absolutely. His
statement is quoted here, not as a view that is adopted, but merely as a
matter of history. The document is of considerable importance, for
Antonelli was prefect of the Propaganda and with Consalvi was the
confidant of Pius VII and was his fellow-prisoner in 1804. We sum it up
briefly, omitting its harsher phrases.
"Your Holiness knows as well as the cardinals that Clement XIV would
never consent to give the Brief of Suppression the canonical forms which
were indispensable to make it definitive. Moreover this Brief of
Clement XIV is addressed to no one, although such letters usually are.
In its form and execution all law is set aside, it is based on false
accusations and shameful calumnies; it is self-contradictory, in
speaking of vows both solemn and simple. Clement XIV claims powers such
as none of his predecessors claimed, and, on the other hand, leaves
doubts on points that should have been more clearly determined. The
motives alleged by the Brief could be applied to any other Order, and
seem to have been prepared for the destruction of all of them, without
specifying reasons it annuls many Bulls and Constitutions received and
recognized by the Church; all of which goes to show that the Brief is
null and void."
A copy of the Brief was sent to every bishop in Christendom, even to the
remotest missions. Accompanying it was another document called an
"Encyclical from the Congregation styled 'For the abolition of the
Society of Jesus,' with which is sent an exemplar to every bishop of the
Brief of Extinction: Dominus ac Redemptor, with the command of His
Holiness that all the bishops should publish and promulgate the Brief."
The Latin text may be found in de Ravignan's "Clément XIII et Clément
XIV" (p. 560). We give here the translation:
"Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord and Brother.
"From the printed copy herein contained of the Apostolic Letters in the
form of a Brief, under the date of the 21st of the preceding month of
July, your lordship will learn of the suppression and extinction for
just causes of the Regular Clerics hitherto called "of the Society of
Jesus" by the most holy Lord Clement XIV; you will also learn by what
legal process His Holiness has decreed that the suppression should be
carried out in every part of the world. For the complete destruction of
the same, he has established a special congregation of their eminences,
the Cardinals Corsini, Marefoschi, Caraffa, Zelada, and Casali, together
with the Reverend Macedonio and Alfani, who possess the most ample
faculties for what is necessary and proper. The Brief establishing this
congregation, under date of the 18th of the current month of August, is
herein enclosed.
"By command of His Holiness the same congregation transmits the present
letters to your lordship, in order that in each house and college and
place where the individuals of the aforesaid suppressed Society may be
found, your lordship shall assemble them in any house whatever (_in
qualibet domo_) and you shall regularly (_rite_) announce, publish and
intimate, as they say, and force and compel them to execute these
letters; and your lordship shall take and retain possession for the use
afterwards to be designated by His Holiness, of all and each of the
houses, colleges and places of the same, with the lawful rights to their
goods and appurtenances, after having removed the aforesaid individuals
of the suppressed Society; and in their execution, your lordship will do
whatever else is decreed in the letters of suppression and will advise
the special congregation that such execution has been carried out. Your
lordship will see to it. Meantime we entreat the Lord that all things
may prosper with you.
"Yours with brotherly devotedness.
"Rome, Aug. 18, 1773."
Carayon gives us the personnel of this congregation (Doc. inédits,
xvii). Cardinal Marefoschi, who had been for sixteen years secretary of
the Propaganda, had made a digest of all the complaints uttered by
missionaries in various parts of the world against the Jesuits,
omitting, however, all that had been said in their favor. The Pope had
named him visitor of the Irish College, which had been entrusted to the
Society by Cardinal Ludovisi, and he immediately removed the Jesuits.
Among other professors he put in a certain Tamburini, who had been
expelled from Brescia for Jansenism. In Marefoschi's report to the Pope,
the former professors (the Jesuits) were accused of neglect of the
studies, alienation of ecclesiastical property and swindling, with a
consequent diminution of the revenues. He was then sent to visit the
College of Tuccioli and similar disastrous results ensued. In June,
1772, he and the Cardinal of York expelled the Jesuits from the Roman
Seminary and in the same year from Frascati. The entire city addressed a
petition to the cardinal begging him not to drive out the Fathers, but
his royal highness was so wrought up by the audacity of the request that
he was on the point of putting some of the chief petitioners in jail,
magistrates though they were.
With Marefoschi were three other cardinals, Casali, Caraffa, and Zelada,
all three of whom had been raised to the purple in the month of May at
the suggestion of Mgr. Bottari, who had been filling Rome with
defamatory books against the Jesuits. In spite of the entreaties of his
family, young Cardinal Corsini accepted the presidency. Macedonio was
made secretary, and Alfani, assessor; both of these clergymen were
subsequently charged with pillage of the sequestrated property. Finally,
to give an appearance of acting in conformity with canon law, two
theologians were added to the commission; Mamachi, a Dominican, and de
Casal, a Minor Reformed; both were avowed enemies of Probabilism and
Molinism, and, singularly enough, were bitterly opposed to the Apostolic
Constitution "Unigenitus" in which Clement XI condemned the Jansenistic
errors of Pasquier Quesnel.
The Protestant historian Schoell (xliv, 83) speaking of the brief of
suppression says: "This Brief does not condemn the doctrine nor the
morals, nor the rules of the Jesuits. The complaints of the courts are
the sole motives alleged for the suppression of the Order, and the Pope
justifies himself by the precedents of other Orders which were
suppressed to satisfy the demands of public opinion." As he was about to
sign it, he heard the bells of the Gesù ringing. "What is that for?" he
asked. "The Jesuits are about to recite the Litany of the Saints," he
was told; "Not the Litany of the Saints," he said, "but the Litany of
the Dead." It was July 21, 1773.
CHAPTER XIX
THE EXECUTION
Seizure of the Gesù in Rome--Suspension of the Priests --
Juridical Trial of Father Ricci continued during Two Years--
The Victim's Death-bed Statement--Admission of his Innocence
by the Inquisitors--Obsequies--Reason of his Protracted
Imprisonment--Liberation of the Assistants by Pius VI--
Receipt of the Brief outside of Rome--Refused by Switzerland,
Poland, Russia and Prussia--Read to the Prisoners in Portugal
by Pombal--Denunciation of it by the Archbishop of Paris--
Suppression of the Document by the Bishop of Quebec--
Acceptance by Austria--Its Enforcement in Belgium--Carroll
at Bruges--Defective Promulgation in Maryland.
Two days before the subsidiary Brief was signed, namely on August 16,
1773, the commissioner began operations. Led by Alfani and Macedonio, a
squad of soldiers invaded the Gesù, where the General and his assistants
were notified of the suppression of the Society. Apparently no one else
was cited, and hence, according to de Ravignan, the procedure was
illegal as far as the rest of the community was concerned. However, they
made no difficulty about it and from that moment considered themselves
as no longer Jesuits. It was supposed that a great amount of money would
be seized at the central house of the Society; but the hope was not
realized; for only about $50,000 were found, and that sum had been
collected to defray the expenses of the beatification of St. Francis
Hieronymo. It really belonged to St. Peter's rather than to the Gesù.
However, there was plenty of material in the gold and silver vessels of
the chapels, the works of art, the valuable library, and the archives.
The same process was followed in the other Jesuit establishments of the
city. The Fathers were locked up while the soldiers guarded the doors
and swarmed through the rooms and passage ways. The old and infirm were
carried to the Roman College, and then sent back to the place whence
they had been taken; in both instances on stretchers, when the victim
was unable to walk. One old Father was actually breathing his last
during the transfer. They were all suspended from their priestly
faculties, and ordered to report every three months to the authorities
with a certificate of their good behavior, signed by the parish priest.
They were ecclesiastical "ticket of leave men." Pretexts were multiplied
to have many of them arrested. They were paraded through the streets in
custody of a policeman, and after being put in the dock with common
criminals were locked up or banished from the Papal States.
On August 17 at night-fall, the carriage of Cardinal Corsini drove to
the Gesù. In it was the auditor of the congregation with a request to
Father Ricci to meet the cardinal at the English College. The invitation
was accepted in perfect good faith, although that very morning an offer
made by the minister of Tuscany to take the General under his protection
and thus secure him from arrest had been declined by Ricci. The freedom
of the house was given to him on his arrival, but soon he was restricted
to three rooms, and he then noticed that soldiers were on guard both
inside and outside of the college. He was kept there for more than a
month, during which time he was subjected to several judicial
examinations; finally he was transferred to the Castle Sant' Angelo
where he was soon followed by his secretary, Commolli, and the
assistants, Le Forestier, Zaccharia, Gautier and Faure. They were all
assigned to separate cells. The enemies of the Society now had the
arch-criminal in their hands, the General himself, Father Ricci; and
they could get from him all the secrets of the redoubtable organization
which they had destroyed. His papers, both private and official, were in
their possession. The archives of the Society were before them with
information about every member of it from the beginning, as well as all
the personal letters from all over the world written in every
conceivable circumstance of Jesuit life. They were all carefully studied
and yet no cause for accusation was found in them. The jailors seemed to
have lost their heads and to have forgotten their usual tactics of
forgery and interpolation.
The trial of Father Ricci was amazing both in its procedure and its
length. There were no witnesses to give testimony for or against him,
but he was brutally and repeatedly interrogated by an official named
Andretti who was suggestively styled "the criminalist." The
interrogatories have all been printed, and some of the questions are
remarkable for their stupidity. Thus for instance, he was asked, "Do you
think you have any authority since the suppression of the Society?" The
answer was, "I am quite persuaded I have none." "What authority would
you have if, instead of abolishing the Society, the Pope had done
something else?" "What he would give me." "Are there any abuses in the
Order?" To this he replied, "If you mean general abuses, I answer that,
by the mercy of God there are none. On the contrary, there is in the
Society a great deal of piety, regularity, zeal, and especially charity,
which has shown itself in a remarkable way during these fifteen years of
bitter trials." "Have you made any changes in the government of the
Order?" "None." "Where are your moneys?" "I have none. I had not enough
to keep the exiles of Spain and Portugal from starvation."
The result of this investigation which went on for more than two years
was that nothing was found either against him or against the Society,
and yet he was kept in a dungeon until he died. As the end was
approaching Father Ricci read from his dying bed the following
declaration:
"Because of the uncertainty of the moment when God will please to summon
me before him and also in view of my advanced age and the multitude,
duration, and greatness of my sufferings, which have been far beyond my
strength, being on the point of appearing before the infallible tribunal
of truth and justice, after long and mature deliberation and after
having humbly invoked my most merciful Redeemer that He will not permit
me to speak from passion, especially in this the last action of my life,
nor be moved by any bitterness of heart, or out of wrong desire or evil
purpose, but only to acquit myself of my obligation to bear testimony to
truth and to innocence, I now make the two following declarations and
protests:
"First, I declare and protest that the extinct Society of Jesus has
given no reason for its suppression; and I declare and protest with that
moral certainty which a well-informed superior has of what passes in his
Order. Second, I declare and protest that I have given no reason, not
even the slightest, for my imprisonment, and I do so with that sovereign
certitude which each one has of his own actions. I make this second
protest solely because it is necessary for the reputation of the extinct
Society of which I was superior.
"I do not pretend in consequence of these protests that I or any one may
judge as guilty before God any of those who have injured the Society of
Jesus or myself. The thoughts of men are known to God alone. He alone
sees the errors of the human mind and sees if they are such as to excuse
from sin; He alone penetrates the motives of acts; as well as the spirit
in which things are done, and the affections of the heart that
accompany such actions; and since the malice or innocence of an external
act depends on all these things, I leave it to God Who shall interrogate
man's thoughts and deeds.
"To do my duty as a Christian, I protest that with the help of God I
have always pardoned and do now sincerely pardon all those who have
tortured and harmed me, first, by the evils they have heaped on the
Society and by the rigorous measures they have employed in dealing with
its members; secondly, by the extinction of the Society and by its
accompanying circumstances; thirdly, by my own imprisonment, and the
hardships they have added to it, and by the harm they have done to my
reputation; all of which are public and notorious facts. I pray God, out
of His goodness and mercy, through the merits of Jesus Christ, to pardon
me my many sins and to pardon also all the authors of the
above-mentioned evils and wrongs, as well as their co-operators. With
this sentiment and with this prayer I wish to die.
"Finally I beg and conjure all those who may read these declarations and
protests to make them public throughout the world as far as in them
lies. I ask this by all the titles of humanity, justice and Christian
charity that may persuade them to carry out my will and desire. (signed)
Lorenzo Ricci."
The trial had been purposely prolonged. At each session only three or
four questions would be put to the accused, although he constantly
entreated the inquisitors to proceed. Then there would be an
interruption of eight, ten and even twenty days or more. At times the
interrogations were sent in on paper, until finally, Andretti, the chief
inquisitor, said that the case was ended and he would return no more.
Nevertheless he made his appearance a few days later.
"No doubt," says Father Ricci, "someone had told him that the whole
process was null and void; and I pitied this honest man, advanced in age
as he was, and so long in the practice of his profession, who was now
told that he did not know the conditions necessary for the validity of a
process. Those who gave him that information should have warned him long
before. So he began again, going over the same ground in the same way,
and I gave him the same answers. His questions were always preceded by
long formulæ to which I paid no heed. After each question, he made me
repeat my oath. I asked him to let me know the reason of my
incarceration and could get no answer; but, finally he uttered these
words: 'Be content to know that you have not been imprisoned for any
crime; and you might have inferred that from the fact that I have not
interrogated you about anything criminal whatever.'"
As a necessary consequence of this exoneration by the official deputed
to try him, it follows that the Order of which he was the chief superior
was also without reproach; for, if the numberless offences alleged
against the Society were true, it would have been absolutely impossible
for the General not to have known them; and having this knowledge, he
would have been culpable and deserving of the severest punishment, if
there had been dissensions in the Order and he had not endeavored to
repress them; if lax morality had been taught and he did not censure it;
if the Society had indulged in mercantile transactions and he had not
condemned such departures from the law; if it had been guilty of
ambition and he had not crushed it. Being the centre and the source of
all authority and of all activity in the Order, his knowledge of what is
going on extends to very minute details and hence if the Order was
guilty he was the chief criminal. But even his bitterly prejudiced
judges had declared him innocent and he was, therefore, to be set free.
At this juncture, the Spanish minister, Florida Blanca, intervened and
in the name of Charles III warned the Pope not to dare to release him.
The Bourbons were still bent on terrorizing the Holy See. The difficulty
was solved by the victim himself who died on November 24, 1775. He was
then seventy-two years of age. He was able to speak up to the last
moment and was often heard to moan: "Ah! poor Society! At least to my
knowledge you did not deserve the punishment that was meted out to you."
On the evening of the 25th, Father Ricci's remains were carried to the
Church of St. John of the Florentines. The whole edifice was draped in
black, and the coffin was placed on the bier around which were thirty
funeral torches. A vast multitude took part in the services. The Bishop
of Commachio, a staunch friend of the Society, celebrated the Mass. He
came, he said, not to pray for the General but to pray to him. Another
bishop exclaimed: "Behold the martyr!" In the evening, the corpse was
carried to the Gesù. It should have arrived by 9 o'clock, but it reached
the church only at midnight. To avoid any demonstration, the approaches
to the church had been closed, and there were only five or six Fathers
present. From Carayon's narrative it would appear that the uncoffined
body was carried in a coach and was clothed in a very short and very
shabby habit. The curé of the parish and two other persons were in the
conveyance. Two other carriages whose occupants were unknown but who
were suspected of being spies followed close behind. After the
absolution, the body was placed in the coffin and laid in the vault
beside the remains of Ricci's seventeen predecessors. The tomb was then
closed and a scrap of paper was fixed on it, with the inscription:
"Lorenzo Ricci, ex-General of the Jesuits, died at Castle Sant' Angelo,
November 24, 1775."
After reciting these facts, Boero asks why the ex-General was kept in
such a long and severe confinement? There is no answer, he says, except
that such was the good pleasure of His Majesty Charles III. The Spanish
minister, Moñino, had declared that such was the case. To let him out
alive would have been an indirect condemnation of the pressure exerted
by the court of Madrid in directing the course of the commission which
had been expressly created to pass a sentence of death on the Society.
The knowledge that the General and his assistants had issued alive from
the dungeons of Sant' Angelo would have troubled the peace of Charles
III and his fellow-conspirators; hence, in spite of the good will and
the affection of the Sovereign Pontiff, Father Ricci, after two years
imprisonment in Adrian's Tomb, was carried out a corpse. Those of his
companions who survived were released, but were commanded by the judges
to observe the strictest silence on what had passed during their
captivity, or not to tell what questions had been put to them.
One of the victims showed his indignation at this excessive cruelty, and
exclaimed, "Why should you require me to swear on the Holy Gospels not
to speak of my trial, when you know very well that it consisted of two
or three insignificant and ridiculous questions?" Another assistant was
merely asked his name and birthplace, and no more. A third satisfied the
judges when he replied, "I have neither said nor done anything wrong."
He was never interrogated again. The secretary of the Society had been
asked in what subterranean hiding-place he kept the treasures. He
answered that there were no subterranean hiding-places, and no
treasures. In that consisted his whole examination. He died shortly
afterwards of sickness contracted in the prison and his death was for a
long time concealed.
Father Faure inquired of one of his judges: "For what crime am I in
jail?" "For none," was the reply, "but the fear of your pen, and
especially the fear of having you write against the Brief. That is the
only cause of your imprisonment." "By the same rule," retorted the
prisoner, "you might send me to the galleys for fear I might steal, or
to be hanged to prevent me from committing murder." He was the only
recalcitrant, and he was so dreaded that during his incarceration he was
ordered to keep his light burning all night, so that he might be
watched. This was after they found a black spot on his bed. They thought
it was ink. Father Ricci, however, contrived to keep an exact account of
the questions that were asked. Carayon has published them in his
"Documents inédits."
One of these redoubtable personages so rigidly kept in confinement was
Father Romberg, the German assistant, who was eighty-two years of age.
He became very feeble, and had a stroke of paralysis which kept him to
his chair. When the governor of the Castle came with the judges and
officials to tell him he was free, he thanked them effusively, but
requested the favor of being left in his cell to die. "You see," said
he, "I have two fine friends who are prisoners here, and they, out of
charity, come regularly every morning and carry me in my chair to the
chapel where I can hear Mass and go to Communion. If I leave this place,
God knows if I should have the same help and the same consolation." This
was a specimen of the men who made Charles III and Florida Blanca
tremble. In spite of the protests of the Spanish minister, every one was
set free on February 16, 1776, and Pius VI cancelled the order of the
inquisitors who forbade their victims to hold any communication with
their fellow-Jesuits.
The manner in which the Brief was executed outside of Rome varied with
the mentality and morality of the nations to which it was sent. Much to
the chagrin of the Sovereign Pontiff, it was enthusiastically acclaimed
by all the Protestants and infidels of Europe. For, was it not a
justification of all the hatred they had invariably heaped on the
Society wherever it happened to be? They could now congratulate
themselves that they had instinctively divined the malignant character
of the Institute which it took centuries for the Church to discover, and
they logically concluded that all the laudatory Bulls lavished on the
Society by previous Pontiffs were intentional deceits or ignorant
delusions. They might have argued contrariwise, but as it would have
been against themselves they refrained. They were jubilant because the
Sovereign Pontiff had slain their chief enemy, and they had a medal
struck to commemorate the event.
In "Les Jésuites" by Böhmer-Monod (p. 278) we find the following:
"Cultured Europe triumphed in the Suppression of the Order, and the
people everywhere showed their approval. Here and there some pious
devotees raised their voices in lamentation, but nowhere in Europe or
elsewhere was there any serious opposition to the Brief. The Order had
forfeited all esteem; and public opinion evinced no compassion for
anything tragic that occurred in its fall. It remained quite indifferent
to the atrocities of which Pombal was guilty. The injustices which
certain Fathers suffered in various places were considered a just
retribution or at least were regarded as necessary for progress of light
and virtue." This is not very flattering to "cultured" Europe.
Apart from the self-stultifying utterances on this quotation, as for
instance, that "the injustices suffered were a just retribution, or were
at least regarded as necessary for the progress of light and virtue,"
and also that certain Fathers suffered in various places; whereas the
same authors give 23,000 who suffered all over the world, it is an
absolute contradiction with the facts of the case to say that "nowhere
in Europe was there any serious opposition to the Brief" and that "they
everywhere showed their approval and evinced no compassion for anything
tragic that occurred in the fall."
In the first place, Frederick the Great in Prussia and Catherine II of
Russia not only would not allow the Brief in their dominions, but
forbade it under the severest penalties. Poland for a long time refused
to receive it, and the Catholic cantons of Switzerland sent a
remonstrance to the Pope. Moreover, although, even before the document
was promulgated, the Fathers had secularized themselves of their own
initiative, yet, the authorities would not allow them to give up the
colleges. The other side of the picture was that in Naples, Tanucci not
only forbade the Brief to be read under pain of death, but forbade all
mention of it. In Portugal, of course, no opposition was made for there
were no Jesuits to suppress, they were either dead or in prison or
exile. It was, however, an occasion of public rejoicing, and the
document was received with booming of cannon and ringing of bells, as if
a victory had been won, but that governmental device did not extinguish
in the heart of the suffering people a deep compassion for the victims
of Pombal's "atrocities."
In Spain, it was absolutely prohibited to read it or speak about the
Brief, because by its eulogy of the virtues of the members of the
Society, it gave the lie to the government, which insisted on the
suppression of the Society precisely because of the immorality of its
members. In France, its promulgation was forbidden for the very opposite
reason, that is, because it praised the Institute, which the politicians
had declared to be essentially vicious; though they admitted that the
individual Jesuits were irreproachable. Thus, like Spain, France had
been officially convicted by the Brief of calumniating, plundering and
annihilating a great religious order. Voltaire, commenting on the
situation, suggested that there might be a sort of national exchange by
France and Spain. "Send the French Jesuits to Spain," he said, "and they
will edify the people by observing the Institute, and send the Spaniards
to France where they will satisfy the people by not observing it."
The most notable opposition to the Brief, occurred in France. The whole
hierarchy and clergy positively refused to accept it, and the Archbishop
of Paris, Christopher de Beaumont, who had been especially requested by
the Pope to promulgate it, answered by a letter which is unpleasant for
a Jesuit to publish on account of its tone; for the most profound
affection and reverence for the Holy See is one of the ingrained and
distinctive traits of the Society. However, it is a historical document
and is called for in the present instance as a refutation of the
statement that there was no opposition to the Brief in Europe. This
famous letter was dated April 24, 1774, that is more than eight months
after the Suppression. It is addressed to the Holy Father himself and
runs as follows:
"This Brief is nothing else than a personal and private judgment. Among
other things that are remarked in it by our clergy is the extraordinary,
odious, and immoderate characterization of the Bull "Pascendi Munus" of
the saintly Clement XIII, whose memory will be forever glorious and who
had invested the Bull in question with all the due and proper
formalities of such documents. It is described by the Brief not only as
being inexact but as having been 'extorted' rather than obtained;
whereas it has all the authority of a general council; for it was not
promulgated until almost the whole clergy of the Church and all the
secular princes had been consulted by the Holy Father. The clergy with
common accord and with one voice applauded the purpose of the Holy
Father, and earnestly begged him to carry it out. It was conceived and
published in a manner as general as it was solemn. And is it not
precisely that, Holy Father, which really gives the efficacity, the
reality and the force to a general council, rather than the material
union of some persons who though physically united may be very far from
one another in their judgments and their views? As for the secular
princes, if there were any who did not unite with the others to give
their approbation, their number was inconsiderable. Not one of them
protested against it, not one opposed it, and even those who, at that
very time, were laying their plans to banish the Jesuits, allowed the
Bull to be published in their dominions.
"But as the spirit of the Church is one and indivisible in its teaching
of truth, we have to conclude that it cannot teach error when it deals
in a solemn manner with a matter of supreme importance. Yet it would
have led us into error if it had not only proclaimed the Institute of
the Society to be pious and holy, but had solemnly and explicitly said:
'We know of certain knowledge that it diffuses abroad and abundantly the
odor of sanctity.' In saying this it put upon that Institute the seal of
its approbation, and confirmed anew not only the Society itself, but the
members who composed it, the functions it exercised, the doctrines it
taught, the glorious works it accomplished, all of which shed lustre
upon it, in spite of the calumnies by which it was assailed and the
storms of persecution which were let loose against it. Thus the Church
would have deceived us most effectively on that occasion if it would now
have us accept this Brief which destroys the Society; and also if we are
to suppose that this Brief is on the same level in its lawfulness and
its universality as the Constitution to which we refer. We abstract,
Holy Father, from the individuals whom we might easily name, both
secular and ecclesiastical who have meddled with this affair. Their
character, condition, doctrine, sentiment, not to say more of them, are
so little worthy of respect, as to justify us in expressing the formal
and positive judgment that the Brief which destroys the Society of Jesus
is nothing else than an isolated, private and pernicious judgment, which
does no honor to the tiara and is prejudicial to the glory of the Church
and the growth and conservation of the Orthodox Faith.
"In any case, Holy Father, it is impossible for me to ask the clergy to
accept the Brief; for in the first place, I would not be listened to,
were I unfortunate enough to lend the aid of my ministry to its
acceptance. Moreover, I would dishonor my office if I did so, for the
memory of the recent general assembly which I had the honor to convoke
at the instance of His Majesty, to inquire into the need we have of the
Society in France, its usefulness, the purity of its doctrines, etc., is
too fresh in my mind to reverse my verdict. To charge myself with the
task you wish me to perform would be to inflict a serious injury on
religion as well as to cast an aspersion on the learning and integrity
of the prelates who laid before the king their approval of the very
points which are now condemned by the Brief. Moreover, if it is true
that the Order is to be condemned under the specious pretext of the
impossibility of peace, as long as the Society exists, why not try it on
those bodies which are jealous of the Society? Instead of condemning it
you ought to canonize it. That you do not do so compels us to form a
judgment of the Brief which, though just, is not in its favor.
"For what is that peace which is incompatible with this Society? The
question is startling in the reflection it evokes; for we fail to
understand how such a motive had the power to induce Your Holiness to
adopt a measure which is so hazardous, so dangerous, and so prejudicial.
Most assuredly the peace which is irreconcilable with the existence of
the Society is the peace which Jesus Christ calls insidious, false,
deceitful. In a word what the Brief designates as peace is not peace;
_Pax, pax et non erat pax_. It is the peace which vice and libertinism
adopt; it is the peace which cannot ally itself with virtue, but which
on the contrary has always been the principal enemy of virtue.
"It is precisely that peace against which the piety of the Jesuits in
the four quarters of the world have declared an active, a vigorous, a
bloody warfare; which they have carried to the limit and in which they
have achieved the greatest success. To put an end to that peace, they
have devoted their talents; have undergone pain and suffering. By their
zeal and their eloquence they have striven to block every avenue of
approach, by which this false peace might enter and rend the bosom of
the Church; they have set the souls of men free from its thralldom, and
they have pursued it to its innermost lair, making light of the danger
and expecting no other reward for their daring, than the hatred of the
licentious and the persecution of the ungodly.
"An infinite number of splendid illustrations of their courage might be
adduced in the long succession of memorable achievements which have
never been interrupted from the first moment of the Society's existence
until the fatal day when the Church saw it die. If that peace cannot
co-exist with the Society, and if the re-establishment of this
pernicious peace is the motive of the destruction of the Jesuits, then
the victims are crowned with glory and they end their career like the
Apostles and Martyrs; but honest men are dismayed by this holocaust of
piety and virtue.
"A peace which is irreconcilable with the Society is not that peace
which unites hearts; which is helpful to others; which each day
contributes an increase in virtue, piety and Christian charity; which
reflects glory on Christianity and sheds splendor on our holy religion.
Nor is there need of proving this, though proof might be given, not by a
few examples which this Society could furnish from the day of its birth
to the fatal and ever deplorable day of its suppression, but by a
countless multitude of facts which attest that the Jesuits were always
and in every clime, the supporters, the promoters and the indefatigable
defenders of true and solid peace. These facts are so evident that they
carry conviction to every mind.
"In this letter I am not constituting myself an apologist of the
Jesuits; but I am placing before the eyes of Your Holiness the reasons
which, in the present case, excuse us from obeying. I will not mention
place or time, as it is an easy thing for Your Holiness to convince
yourself of the truth of my utterance. Your Holiness is not ignorant of
them.
"Moreover, Holy Father, we have remarked with terror, that this
destructive Brief eulogizes in the highest way certain persons whose
conduct never merited praise from Clement XIII, of saintly memory. Far
from doing so, he regarded it always as his duty to set them aside, and
to act in their regard with the most absolute reserve.
"This difference of appreciation necessarily excites attention, in view
of the fact that your predecessor did not consider worthy of the purple
those whom Your Holiness seems to design for the glory of the
cardinalate. The firmness on one side and the connivance on the other
reveal themselves only too clearly. But perhaps an excuse might be found
for the latter, were it not for the fact which has not been successfully
disguised that an alien influence guided the pen that wrote the Brief.
"In a word, most Holy Father, the clergy of France, which is the most
learned and most illustrious of Holy Church, and which has no other aim
than to promote the glory of the Church, does now judge after deep
reflection that the reception of the Brief of Your Holiness will cast a
shadow on the glory of the clergy of France; and it does not propose to
consent to a measure which, in ages to come, will tarnish its glory. By
rejecting the Brief and by an active resistance to it our clergy will
transmit to posterity a splendid example of integrity and of zeal for
the Catholic Faith, for the prosperity of the Church and particularly
for the honor of its Visible Head.
"These, Holy Father, are some of the reasons which determine us, myself
and all the clergy of this kingdom, never to permit the publication of
such a Brief, and to make known to Your Holiness, as I do by this
present letter, that such is my attitude and that of all the clergy,
who, however, will never cease to unite in prayer with me to our Lord
for the sacred person of Your Holiness. We shall address our humble
supplications to the Divine Father of Light that He may deign to
diffuse it so abundantly that the truth may be discerned whose splendor
has been obscure."
The Bishop of Quebec, Mgr. Briand, refused to promulgate the Brief, and
he informed some of his intimate friends that he had no fear of
excommunication in doing so, for the reason that he was in constant
communication with Pope Clement XIV, who approved of his course of
action. Associated with the bishop was Governor Carleton, who was
interested in the matter for his own personal reasons. His rival,
General Amherst, the conqueror of Quebec, was anxious to see the Jesuits
driven out, so as to secure their property for himself. Carleton, on the
contrary, proposed to keep it for future educational purposes. He could
not seize it immediately, for the treaty at the conquest had guaranteed
the protection of the Canadians in their religion. Hence he did not
molest the Fathers, though he refused to allow any accession either of
novices or former Jesuits to their ranks. The result was that they
gradually died out. The last of all was the venerable Casot, who gave up
the ghost in 1800 after having distributed all his goods to the poor.
What was not available in that way he conveyed to religious communities
or to churches. The relics of Brébeuf and Lalemant are now among the
treasures of the Hotel-Dieu. The Jesuit College, which was opposite the
present basilica cathedral, was occupied by soldiers, and was first
known as the "Jesuit Barracks," and subsequently as the "Cheshire
Barracks." Later it was a refuge for the poor, until at length Cardinal
Taschereau ordered it to be demolished as unsafe. Thus the Brief was not
executed in Canada. The Jesuits of New Orleans had been already expelled
by Choiseul, and there was no one left to whom it could be read.
The suppression of the Society in what is now the United States is of
special interest to Americans, though it possesses also a general value
in the fact that it furnishes the only account in English, as far as we
are aware, of what took place in Belgium some years before as the
prelude of the general suppression. This is based on the highest
authority, for it is the personal narrative of John Carroll, the founder
of the American hierarchy. He had gone when a lad of fourteen to St.
Omers in French Flanders, and after his college course entered the
Jesuit novitiate at Watten about six miles away, where he met several of
his countrymen who were to distinguish themselves later in the Jesuit
mission of Maryland. They were Horne, Jenkins, Knight, Emmot and Tyrer.
There also was the English Jesuit, Reeve, whose "Bible History" was once
an indispensable treasure in every Catholic family.
On completing his novitiate, Carroll was sent for his theology and
philosophy to Liège, and was ordained priest in 1769, after having
proved his ability by a brilliant public defense in theology. He then
taught at St. Omers and was subsequently made professor of philosophy
and theology to the scholastics at Liège. He pronounced his four solemn
vows as a Professed Father on February 2, 1771, a little more than two
years before the suppression of the Society. As St. Omer was in France
the Jesuits were expelled from it in 1764. That the occupants of the
house were English did not matter. International comity received scant
consideration in those days. Every one was driven out except Father
Brown, who was then ninety-four years of age. He was left there alone to
die. The others, under the guidance of Father Reeve, crossed the
frontier to Bruges where they had been invited by the authorities to
found a college.
Here begins a story told by Carroll of government duplicity which shows
how largely the motive of plunder entered into the whole movement of the
suppression. Belgium was then under the domination of Austria, and the
government continually urged the Fathers to begin the erection of a
college on a grand scale at that place. In all confidence that they
would never be disturbed, they expended on the first set of buildings
the sum of $37,000 a considerable amount of money in those days. They
would have gone further but their money was exhausted.
While teaching there, Father Carroll was sent on a short tour through
Europe as tutor to the young son of Lord Stourton, an English nobleman.
He passed through Alsace and Lorraine, where the Jesuits were still
protected; was welcomed at the University of Heidelberg, and finally
reached Rome. There, though under the very eyes of the Pope, he was
compelled to conceal his identity as a Jesuit and hence met none of his
brethren. He saw everywhere not only infamous libels on the Society
which were for sale in the streets, but books and pamphlets assailing
the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and ridiculing the ceremonies
of the Mass. The overthrow of the Jesuits was the common topic of
conversation and word from the King of Spain was momentarily expected.
Henry Stuart, Cardinal of York, the last descendant of James II, was
there at the time, but as he was a rancorous enemy of the Society,
Father Carroll did not dare to present the young Catholic nobleman to
him. He returned by the way of France and saw the ruins everywhere, and
finally arrived at Bruges to take part in the tragedy as one of the
victims.
The Brief was promulgated on August 16, and the superiors of the two
colleges at Bruges, encouraged by the general expectation of the town
that their status would not be effected, wrote a letter to the
president of the council at Brussels, offering their services as secular
clergy to continue the work of education. The rectors were invited to
Brussels, and assured that they would be treated with respect, allowed
to retain private property and be granted proper maintenance. Even after
the reception of the Brief, the Bishop of Bruges assured them that in a
few days the excitement would pass and everything would go on as usual.
Austria, however, had already accepted and promulgated the Brief.
The first commissioners of the Suppression threw up the work in disgust.
It was then handed over to a coarse young fellow named Marouex who was
anxious to make a name for himself. He succeeded. Arriving at the
college on September 20, he summoned the community to his presence and
ordered the Brief and edict to be read. He then forbade anyone to leave
the house, or to be allowed to enter, or to write any letters, or to
direct the college, or to teach the pupils. He seized the account books
and began a hunt for hidden treasures. Each member of the community was
examined individually, put under oath, and ordered to produce everything
he had, even family letters; "which explains," says Shea, "how there is
no trace of Carroll's letters from his mother and kindred in America."
On October 14, Marouex, accompanied by a squad of soldiers, burst into
the community rooms and ordered Fathers Angier, Plowden and Carroll to
follow him. He would not even permit them to go to their rooms for a
moment to get what they needed, but sent them under guard to wagons
waiting outside, and hurried them off to the Flemish college, which had
been already plundered. There they were locked up for several days
without a bed to lie on. The community was still there under lock and
key. Three of them were kept as hostages and the rest were ordered out
of the country. Thus did Maria Theresa allow her beloved Jesuits to be
treated, in return for the benefits they had heaped on her empire from
the time when Faber and Le Jay and Canisius and their great associates
had saved it from destruction.
Thoroughly heartbroken, Carroll turned his steps towards Protestant
England. Before leaving the Continent, he wrote the following pathetic
letter to his brother Daniel, who was in Maryland. Because of Carroll's
own personal character and his prominence in American history, it is a
precious testimonial of love and affection for the Society, as well as a
splendid vindication of it for the world at large. It is dated September
11, 1773.
"I was willing to accept the vacant post of prefect of the sodality
here, but now all room for deliberation is over. The enemies of the
Society and, above all, the unrelenting perseverance of the Spanish and
Portuguese ministries, with the passiveness of the court of Vienna have
at last obtained their ends; and our so long persecuted, and, I must
add, holy Society is no more. God's holy will be done and may His Name
be blessed for ever and ever! This fatal blow was struck on July 21, but
was kept secret at Rome till August 16, and was only made known to me on
September 5. I am not, and perhaps never shall be, recovered from the
shock of this dreadful intelligence. The greatest blessing which in my
estimation I could receive from God would be immediate death, but if He
deny me this, may His holy and adorable designs on me be wholly
fulfilled.
"I find it impossible to understand that Divine Providence should permit
such an end to a body, wholly devoted, and striving with the most
disinterested charity to procure every comfort and advantage to their
neighbors, whether by preaching, teaching, catechizing, missions,
visiting hospitals, prisons and in every other function of spiritual and
corporal mercy. Such have I beheld it in every part of my travels, the
first of all ecclesiastical bodies in the esteem and confidence of the
faithful, and certainly the most laborious. What will become of our
flourishing congregations with you and those cultivated by the German
Fathers? These reflections crowd so fast upon me, that I almost lose my
senses. But I will endeavor to suppress them for a few moments. You see
I am now my own master and left to my own direction. In returning to
Maryland, I shall have the comfort of not only being with you, but of
being farther out of reach of scandal and defamation, and removed from
the scenes of distress of many of my dearest friends whom I shall not be
able to relieve. I shall therefore most certainly sail for Maryland
early next spring if I possibly can."
At the time of the Suppression there were nineteen Jesuits in Maryland
and Pennsylvania; as it was then three years before the Declaration of
Independence, they were still English subjects. On October 6, 1773,
Bishop Challoner, the Vicar of London, though Chandlery in his "Fasti
breviores" says it was Talbot, sent them the following letter:
"To Messrs the Missioners in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
"To obey the order which I have received from Rome, I notify to
you, by this the Breve, of the total dissolution of the Society
of Jesus; and send withal a form of declaration of your
obedience and submission, to which you are all to subscribe, as
your brethren have done here, and send me back the formula
with the subscription of you all, as I am to send them up to
Rome.
"Ever yours,
"Richard Deboren. V. Ap."
In passing, it may be remarked that as a missive from a Superior to a
number of devoted priests against whom not a word of reproach had been
ever uttered and whose lives were wrecked by this official act this
communication of the vicar cannot be cited as a manifestation of
excessive paternal tenderness.
The formula to which they were required to subscribe, was, in its
English translation, as follows:
"We the undersigned missionary priests of the London District of
Maryland and Pennsylvania, hitherto known as the Clerks of the Society
of Jesus, having been informed by the declaration and publication of the
Apostolic Brief issued on July 21, 1773, by our Most Holy Lord Pope
Clement XIV, by which he completely suppresses and extinguishes the
aforesaid Congregation and Society in the whole world, and orders the
priests to be entirely subject to the rule and authority of the Bishops
as part of the secular clergy, we the aforesaid, fully and sincerely,
submit to the Brief, and humbly acquiescing to the complete suppression
of the said Society, submit ourselves entirely as secular priests to the
jurisdiction and rule of the above mentioned Bishop, the Vicar
Apostolic."
In this document of the vicar there are some features which are worthy
of consideration. The first is that it was not communicated personally
to those interested but through the post--and it might have been a
forgery. Secondly, it was not correct in saying that it was issued on
July 21, 1773. It was signed on July 21 but issued or published only on
August 16 of that year, and it was not effective or binding until that
date. Thirdly, there was no mention of the renewal of faculties to the
superior whose ecclesiastical character had now been completely
transformed from that of a religious to a secular priest; and they were
thus obliged to presume that they were not suspended and that their
power of transmitting faculties was not withdrawn. Fourthly, before the
Suppression, the vicar Apostolic had warned the Propaganda that he could
do nothing to aid the Maryland missioners, and after the Revolution he
refused absolutely to have any communication with them. Thus, there was
no possibility of fulfilling the injunction of becoming secular priests,
as the Brief enjoined.
As far as the Jesuit habit was concerned there was no difficulty, for
there is no distinctive habit in the Society. The Jesuits are
ecclesiastically in the rank of "clerici regulares," and can wear the
garb of any secular priest, just as they do, at present, in many parts
of the world. St. Francis Xavier once wore green silk, and in our own
days, the English Jesuit dress is rather an academic gown than a
cassock. Again in Maryland and Pennsylvania, there were at that time no
secular priests; the missionaries were all Jesuits, and it would have
been difficult to get any other ecclesiastical attire. What they wore
was, as a matter of fact, used only in ecclesiastical functions. An
analogous obstacle presented itself in the name. The people continued to
recognize them as Jesuits, and it would have been very imprudent to
publicly announce that they were no longer such. There are several
letters extant, however, in which the Jesuits advise their friends to
drop the S. J. in their correspondence, but that is not unusual even
now. Exteriorly, the life of those old Maryland Jesuits continued to be
precisely the same as it had always been.
Moreover they retained possession of their property, for unlike the
Jesuits of Canada, Illinois and Louisiana, they held their estates by
personal, not by corporate title; and regularly deeded their possession
by will or transfer from one to another. In Maryland, it was impossible
to do otherwise, for the English government did not recognize the
Jesuits as constituting a legal association.
Indeed, Challoner informs Talbot that he considered the promulgation of
the Brief as enjoined by the Pope would be fraught with serious danger,
and hence he was convinced that the method adopted for the extinction of
the Jesuits of England and her colonies was the only one possible and
that the Pope would be so advised.
A lament from one of the Maryland missionaries may be of interest.
Father Mosley is the writer. "I cannot think of it," he says, "without
tears in my eyes. Yes, dear Sister, our Body or Factory is dissolved of
which your two brothers are members; and for myself, I know I am an
unworthy one when I see so many worthy, saintly, pious, learned,
laborious missionaries dead and alive who were or who have been members
of the same, for the last two ages. I know no fault that we are guilty
of. I am convinced that our labors are pure, upright and sincere for
God's honor and our neighbor's good. What our Supreme Judge on earth may
think of our labors is a mystery to me. It is true he has stigmatized us
through the world with infamy, and declared us unfit for our business or
his service. Our dissolution is known through the whole world; it is in
every newspaper, and I am ashamed to show my face. As we are judged
unserviceable, we labor with little heart, and what is worse, by no
Rule.
"To my great sorrow, the Society is abolished, and with it must die all
the zeal that was founded and raised on it. Labor for our neighbor is a
Jesuit's pleasure; destroy the Jesuit and labor is painful and
disagreeable. I must allow that what was my pleasure is now irksome.
Every fatigue I underwent caused a secret and inward satisfaction; it is
now unpleasant and disagreeable. I disregarded this unhealthy climate,
and all its agues and fevers which have really paid me to my heart's
content, for the sake of my rule. The night was as agreeable as the day;
frost and cold as a warm fire and a soft bed; the excessive heats as
welcome as a cool shade or pleasant breezes, but now the scene is
changed. The Jesuit is metamorphosed into I know not what. He is a
monster; a scarecrow in my idea. With joy I impaired my health and broke
my constitution in the care of my flock. It was the Jesuit's call; it
was his whole aim and business. The Jesuit is no more. He now endeavors
to repair his little remains of health and his shattered constitution,
as he has no rule calling him to expose it.
"Joseph Mosley, S. J. forever, as I think and hope."
It must have been a very hard trial for the Jesuit vicars Apostolic in
the various foreign missions to be the executioners of their own
brethren in carrying out this decree. One of these sad scenes occurred
in Nankin, where Mgr. Laimbeckhoven, S. J., was vicar. He did not live
to see the Restoration, for he died in 1787.
CHAPTER XX
THE SEQUEL TO THE SUPPRESSION
Failure of the Papal Brief to give peace to the Church--
Liguori and Tanucci--Joseph II destroying the Church in
Austria--Voltaireanism in Portugal--Illness of Clement XIV
--Death--Accusations of poisoning--Election of Pius VI--
The Synod of Pistoia--Febronianism in Austria--Visit of Pius
VI to Joseph II--The Punctation of Ems--Spain, Sardinia,
Venice, Sicily in opposition to the Pope--Political collapse
in Spain--Fall of Pombal--Liberation of his Victims--
Protest of de Guzman--Death of Joseph II--Occupations of the
dispersed Jesuits--The _Theologia Wiceburgensis_--Feller--
Beauregard's Prophecy--Zaccaria--Tiraboschi--Boscovich--
Missionaries--Denunciation of the Suppression in the French
Assembly--Slain in the French Revolution--Destitute Jesuits
in Poland--Shelter in Russia.
Clement XIV did not give peace to the Church as he had hoped. On the
contrary, distressing scandals were continually occurring in the Holy
City itself under his very eyes. Infamous books and pamphlets directed
against the Church were hawked about the streets, and actors and
buffoons parodied the most sacred ceremonies in the public squares.
Elsewhere the same conditions obtained. Tanucci who had governed Naples
for over forty years was continuing his ruthless persecution of every
thing holy, and enriching himself by the spoliation of ecclesiastical
property. Even St. Alphonsus Liguori could not obtain from the Pope the
recognition of the Redemptorists as a congregation because Tanucci
opposed it. Doctrinal views leading to schism in the Church were openly
advocated in the schools and universities of Austria, in spite of the
entreaties and threats of the Sovereign Pontiff. Maria Theresa had
proved feeble or false, and her son Joseph II was in league with the
Bourbon princes in their work of destruction. In Portugal, Pombal was
still raging like a wild beast; filling the schools with the disciples
of Voltaire, flouting the papal nuncio, and keeping in dark and filthy
dungeons the members of the detested Order which he had exterminated.
The Philosophers and Jansenists were rejoicing in their triumph, and
were suppressing all religious communities and seizing their property;
the morality and orthodoxy of Poland were being rapidly corrupted;
Catherine of Russia was creating bishops and establishing sees as the
fancy prompted her, and Freemason lodges were multiplying all over
Europe. Worst of all, the Pope's own household with but few exceptions
kept aloof from him and were silent about what he had done, while many
bishops of various countries of Europe and the entire episcopacy of
France endorsed the sentiments expressed in the terrible letter of the
Archbishop of Paris, denouncing the Suppression.
Ineffably shocked by all this, the Pope began to show signs of
depression, and everyone was in consternation. St. Alphonsus Liguori,
especially, was anxious about him and kept continually repeating: "Pray
for the Pope; he is distressed; for there is nowhere the slightest
glimmer of peace for the Church. He is praying for death, so crushed is
he by the sorrows that are overwhelming the Church; he remains
continually in seclusion; gives audience to no one; and attends to no
business. I have heard things about him from those who are at Rome that
would bring tears to your eyes." His mind was unbalanced, and one of his
successors, Pius VII, related later what he had been told by a prelate
who was present at the signing of the fatal Brief: "As soon as he had
affixed his signature to the paper he threw the pen to one side and the
paper to the other. He had lost his mind." Before that, Pius had said
the same thing to Cardinal Pacca at Fontainebleau, when in an agony of
remorse for having signed the Concordat with Napoleon: "I cannot get the
cruel thought out of my mind. I cannot sleep at night and I am haunted
by the fear of going mad and ending like Clement XIV." Another writer
who received his information from Gregory XVI tells the same sad story
(de Ravignan, Clément XIII et Clément XIV, I, 452). St. Alphonsus
Liguori was with the Pope when he died, but according to a Redemptorist
writer, it was "in spirit," and not by bodily bilocation. The end came
in September 22, 1774, thirteen months after the unfortunate Brief was
issued.
Of course, when he died, the report went abroad that the Jesuits had
poisoned him, by administering a dose of _aqua toffana_, but although no
one has ever found out what _aqua toffana_ is or was, and as there were
no Jesuits in Rome at the time, the story was nevertheless believed by
many and was adduced as a proof of the wisdom of the Pope in suppressing
the iniquitous organization. The Jansenists even made a saint of the
dead Pontiff and circulated marvellous romances about the incorruption
of his body and the miracles that were wrought at his tomb.
Cantù in his "Storia dei cent' anni" says that "the Pope whose health
and mind were grievously affected, died in delirium, haunted by
phantoms, and begging for pardon. It was claimed that he had been
poisoned by the Jesuits, but the truth is that the physicians found no
trace of poison in the body. Had the Jesuits possessed the power or the
will to do so, one might ask why they did not do it before and not after
Clement had struck them. But passion often makes light of common sense."
The post-mortem which was made in the presence of a great many people
showed that the sickness to which he had succumbed arose from scorbutic
and hemorrhoidal conditions from which he had been suffering for many
years, and which were aggravated by excessive work and the system he had
followed of producing artificial perspiration even in the heats of
summer."
The poor Pope had exclaimed before he signed the Brief: "Questa
soppressione mi darà la morte" (this suppression will kill me.) "After
it," says Saint-Priest in his 'Chute des Jésuites,' "he would pace his
apartments in agony, crying: 'Mercy! Mercy! They forced me to do it.
_Compulsus feci._' However, at the last moment his reason returned. He
showed his indignation at a proposal made to him even then, to raise
some of the enemies of the Society to the cardinalate and drove them
from his bedside with loathing.
Bernis, the French ambassador at Rome, wrote to Louis XV that "the Vicar
of Christ prayed like the Redeemer for his implacable enemies," and
insinuated that he was poisoned. Knowing this d'Alembert warned
Frederick II to be on his guard against a similar fate, but the king
replied: "There is nothing more false than the story of the poisoning;
the truth is that he was profoundly hurt by the coldness manifested by
the cardinals and he often reproached himself, for having sacrificed an
Order like that of the Jesuits, to satisfy the whim of his rebellious
children." Becantini (Storia di Pio VI, i, 31) says: "Nowadays no one
believes the story of the poisoning of Clement XIV. Even Bernis who
first stood for it, afterwards disavowed it." Cancelleri one of the most
distinguished savants of Italy denies the fact; so does Gavani, a bitter
enemy of the Church and the Society. Finally, Salcetto the physician of
the Apostolic palace, and Adinolfi the Pope's own doctor, in their
official report to the majordomo, Archinto, declare it to have been an
absolutely natural death and they explain that the corruption which set
in was due to the excessive heat that prevailed at the time.
It was even said that the Pope had expressed to the General of the
Conventuals, Marzoni, a fear that he had been poisoned. Whereupon
Marzoni caused the following statement to be published:
"I, the undersigned Minister General of the Order of the
Conventuals of St. Francis, fully aware that by my oath I call
the sovereign and true God to witness what I say; and being
certain of what I say, I now without any constraint and in the
presence of God who knows that I do not lie, do by these words,
which are absolutely true, and which I write and trace with my
own hand, swear and attest to the whole universe, that never in
any circumstance whatever did Clement XIV ever say to me either
that he had been poisoned or that he felt the slightest symptom
of poison. I swear also that I never said to any one soever that
the same Clement XIV assured me in confidence that he had been
poisoned or had felt the effects of poison. So help me God.
"Given in the Convent of the Twelve Apostles at Rome July 27,
1775.
"I, Bro. Louis-Maria Marzoni
"Minister General of the Order."
Thus Clement XIV, far from giving peace to the Church, left a heritage
of woe to his successor, Angelo Braschi, who was elected Pope on
February 15, 1775, and took the name of Pius VI. The new Pope was
painfully conscious that an error had been committed by suppressing an
Order without trial and without even condemnation, and that a reflection
had been cast upon a great number of Pontiffs who had been unstinted in
their praise of it, no one more so than Clement's immediate predecessor.
The act had also given to the Jansenists a terrific instrument in the
implied approval of them by the Sovereign Pontiff. They became more
aggressive than ever and organized their forces to introduce their
doctrines into Italy itself.
By a curious coincidence the leader of the movement was of the same
family as the General of the suppressed Jesuits: Scipio Ricci, the
Bishop of Pistoia. Supporting him in the civic world was the Grand Duke
of Tuscany who was the brother of Joseph II of Austria. Ricci convened
the famous Synod of Pistoia, on July 31, 1786. No doubt July 31 was
chosen purposely; it was the feast of St. Ignatius. There were 247
members in attendance, all exclusively Jansenists and regalists. The
four Gallican Articles were endorsed and among the measures was that of
conferring the right on the civil authority to create matrimonial
impediments. It advocated the reduction of all religious orders to one;
the abolition of perpetual vows; a vernacular liturgy; the removal of
all altars but one from the church; etc. The Acts of the synod were
promulgated with the royal imprimatur. Indeed Pius VI found himself
compelled to condemn eighty-five of the synod's propositions.
Worse than this was the Febronianism of Austria, which went far beyond
the Gallicanism of France or Italy in its rebellious aggressiveness. It
maintained that the primacy of Rome had no basis in the authority of
Christ; that the papacy was not restricted to Rome, but could be placed
anywhere; that Rome was merely a centre with which the individual
churches could be united; that the papal power was simply administrative
and unifying and not jurisdictional; that the papal power of condemning
heresies, confirming episcopal elections, naming coadjutors,
transferring and removing bishops, erecting primatial sees, etc., all
rested on the False Decretals. It was maintained that the Pope could
issue no decrees for the Universal Church, and that even the decrees of
general councils were not binding until approved of by the individual
churches.
In vain Clement XIV had begged Maria Theresa to check the movement. She
was absolutely in the power of her son Joseph II, whose very first
ordinances forbade the reception of papal decrees without the
government's sanction. The bishops, he ruled, were not to apply to the
Pope for faculties; they could not even issue instructions to their own
flocks without permission of the civil authority. He established
parishes, assigned fast days, determined the number of Masses to be
said, and sermons to be preached. He even decided how many candles were
to be lighted on the altar; he made marriage a civil contract and
abolished ecclesiastical ceremonies.
In the hope that a personal appeal might avail, the Pope determined to
make a journey to Vienna to entreat the emperor to desist. He arrived
there on March 22, 1782, and was courteously received by Joseph himself,
but brutally by his minister, Kaunitz, who forbade any ecclesiastic to
present himself in the city while the Pope was there. Pius remained a
month in the capital and succeeded only in extracting a promise that
nothing would be done against the Faith or the respect due the Holy See.
How far the royal word was kept may be inferred from the fact that after
accompanying the Pope as far as the Monastery of Marianbrunn Joseph
suppressed that establishment an hour after the Pope had resumed his
journey to Rome.
In Germany the three ecclesiastical Electors of Mayence, Treves and
Cologne with the Archbishop of Salzburg met in a convention at Ems in
1786, and attempted to curtail the powers of the Pope in dealing with
bishops. That assembly was also strongly Jansenistic. Thirty-one of its
articles were directed against the Pope. Pacca, the papal nuncio, was
not even received by the Archbishop of Cologne, and three of the Elector
bishops refused to honor his credentials. The famous "Punctation of
Ems," which consisted of twenty-three articles, declared that German
archbishops were independent of Rome, because of the "False Decretals."
They pronounced for an abolition of all direct communication with Rome;
all monasteries were to be subject to the bishops; religious orders were
to have no superior generals residing outside of Germany; Rome's
exclusive power of granting faculties was denied; Papal Bulls were
binding only after the bishop of the diocese had given his _placet_; all
Apostolic nunciatures were to be abolished, etc. In brief, the synod, or
"Congress" as it was called, aimed at establishing a schismatical
church. But the Pope's remarkable letter to the dissidents and the
progress of the French Revolution, which was then raging furiously,
prevented the application anywhere of the doctrines put forth at the
meeting.
Spain, Sardinia, Venice and Sicily were all in this movement against the
Church, and Ferdinand IV of Sicily claimed the right of appointment to
all ecclesiastical benefices, as well as the power to nullify all Papal
Briefs which had not received his approval.
Nor did the Brief of Suppression contribute to the political stability
of the nations. In Naples, for example, Tanucci was flung from power
when the young king married an archduchess of Austria; so that he
disappeared from the scene three years after the suppression of the
Society. In 1798 the Bourbons fled from Naples; the city was given over
to a mob directed by an innkeeper called Michael the Madman; the Duke
della Torre and his brother were burned alive in the public square; the
Senate was dissolved; the palaces were pillaged; a republic was
proclaimed and the whole Peninsula of Italy fell into the hands of the
French.
Charles III of Spain died in 1788, and was succeeded by Charles IV, whom
Arnado describes as more deficient in character and ability than his
father. The rude Florida Blanca, who was so conspicuous for his
brutality in terrorizing Clement XIV, was thrown out of office by the
inept Godoy, who allied Spain with France against England, and brought
on the disaster of Trafalgar. The king was driven from his throne and
country by his rebellious son, Ferdinand, and then laid his royal crown
at the feet of Napoleon Bonaparte. Since that time, the country has been
in a ferment because its politics are filled with the ideas of the
French Revolution and of English Liberalism.
In Portugal, retribution came at a rapid pace. Pombal fell from power in
1777 on the death of the king. He had been detected in a plot to have
the young Prince of Beira succeed to the throne to the exclusion of
Queen Maria. It was possibly with the same end in view that he had
endeavored to start a war with Spain. He had seized Spanish posts in
America, mobilized troops and fortified Lisbon, but hostilities were
never declared. Queen Maria's first act at her accession was to open
Pombal's dungeons. Eight hundred men of all classes issued from these
sepulchres in which some of them had been for eighteen years without a
trial. They were like ghosts; emaciated; hollow-eyed and ghastly; some
were sightless, many were half-naked. Among them were sixty Jesuits. The
populace were so infuriated at the horrible spectacle that Pombal feared
to venture into the street. He might have been torn to pieces, and he
was conducted under guard to his country estates. Father Oliviera, the
confessor of the queen, was installed in court, and the venerable Father
de Guzman issued the following statement to the public:
"At the age of eighty-one and at the point of appearing before the
tribunal of Divine Justice, John de Guzman, the last assistant of the
Society of Jesus, for the provinces and dominions of Portugal, would
believe himself guilty of an unpardonable sin of omission, if, in
neglecting to have recourse to the throne of Your Majesty where clemency
and justice reign, he did not place at your feet, this humble petition
in the name of six hundred subjects of Your Majesty, the unfortunate
remnants of a wrong inflicted on them.
"He entreats Your Majesty by the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, by that
tender love which Your Majesty bears to the August Queen, His mother,
and to the illustrious King Don Pedro, to the princes and princesses of
the royal family, that you would deign and even command that the trial
of so many of the faithful subjects of Your Majesty, who have been
branded with infamy in the eyes of the world, be now reviewed. They are
groaning under the accusation of having committed outrages and crimes
which the very savages would shrink from even imagining, and which no
human heart could ever conceive. They lament and moan that they were
condemned without even having been brought to trial, without being heard
and without being allowed to make any defense. Those who have now issued
from prison are all in accord in this matter, and unanimously attest,
that during all the time of their imprisonment, they have not even seen
the face of any judge.
"On his part, your suppliant, who is now making this appeal, and who for
many years occupied a position where he could acquire an intimate
knowledge of what was going on, is ready to swear in the most solemn
manner, that the superiors and members of the Spanish assistancy of the
Society of Jesus were without reproach. He and all the other exiles are
ready to undergo sufferings more rigorous than any to which they have
hitherto been subjected, if a single individual has ever been guilty of
the least crime against the State.
"Moreover, your suppliant and his brethren, the chief superiors of the
Society, have been examined in Rome, again and again, in the most
searching manner, and have been declared innocent. Pope Pius VI, now
gloriously reigning, has seen the minutes of those investigations, and
Your Majesty will find in that great Pontiff an enlightened witness
whose integrity nothing on earth can equal; and at the same time you
will find a judge who could not commit a wrong without rendering himself
guilty of an unparalleled iniquity.
"Deign, then, Your Majesty, to extend to us that clemency which belongs
to you as does your throne; deign to hearken to the prayers of so many
unfortunates, whose innocence has been proven, and who have never ceased
in the midst of their sufferings to be the faithful subjects of Your
Majesty; and who could never falter or fail an instant, in the love that
they have from childhood entertained for the royal family."
This appeal had its effect. An enquiry was ordered, and in October 1780
a revision of the trial of the alleged conspirators of 1758 was begun.
On April 3, 1781, the court announced that "all those, either living or
dead, who had been imprisoned or executed in virtue of the sentence of
January 12, 1759, were absolutely innocent." Pombal himself was put on
trial, found guilty, and condemned to receive "an exemplary punishment."
He escaped imprisonment on account of his age, but he died of leprosy
on May 8, 1782. His corpse lay unburied until the Society which he had
crushed was restored thirty-one years later to its former place in
Portugal. One of its first duties was to sing a Requiem Mass over his
remains. The details of the trial were suppressed at the request of the
Pope, for the reason that too many prominent personages in the Church
were implicated. There was another reason. The spirit of Pombal had so
thoroughly impregnated the ruling classes that the report was withheld
out of fear of a revolution. Indeed, the queen was so terrified by the
danger that she lost her mind. Finally, in 1807 a French army occupied
Lisbon and the royal family fled to Brazil. Since then Portugal which
was once so great counts for very little in the political world.
It is unnecessary to refer to France, except to note that it was
Choiseul who purchased Corsica and thus gave his country which he had
helped to ruin an alien ruler: Napoleon Bonaparte, who put an end to the
orgies of the Revolution by deluging Europe with French blood; who
imprisoned the Pope; demolished the Bourbon dynasties wherever he could
find them, and bound France in fetters which, in spite of its multiplied
changes of government, it has never shaken off.
When Joseph II of Austria ended his lonely and unhappy existence in
1790, he saw in France the beginning of the wreck which his friend
Voltaire had helped to effect; he did not live to see the execution of
his own sister, Marie Antoinette, but enough had occurred to fill him
with terror especially as the existence of his own monarchy was
threatened; Belgium was lost; Hungary was in wild disorder, and other
parts of the empire were about to rebel. Before he died he wrote his own
epitaph. It was: "Here lies Joseph II, who never succeeded in any of
his undertakings."
What became of the scattered Jesuits? The scholastics and lay-brothers,
of course, went back to the world, but, in France, by a refinement of
cruelty they were declared by the courts to be incapable of inheriting
even from their own parents, because of the vows they had pronounced on
entering the Society. That the vows no longer existed made no difference
to the lawmakers. As for the priests they were secularized, and in many
places were welcomed by the bishops as rectors or professors in colleges
and seminaries. They were in demand, also, as directors of religious
communities and not a few became bishops. Thus, in America, the first
two members of the hierarchy, Carroll and Neale, were old Jesuits, as
was Lawrence Graessel who had been named as Carroll's successor but who
died before the Bulls arrived. Crétineau-Joly has a list of twenty-one
bishops in Europe alone. Others were called to episcopal sees, but in
hopes of the restoration of the Society they had declined the honor.
Father Walcher was appointed imperial director of navigation and
mathematics by Maria Theresa; Cabral, Lecci, and Riccati, were engaged
by various governments in engineering works; Zeplichal was employed by
Frederick II in exploiting mines. The Theresian College of Vienna became
one of the best schools in the world under their direction; and Breslau
felt the effects of their assistance, as did other colleges such as the
Oriental in Vienna, the University of Buda, and the schools of Mayence,
and of various cities in Italy.
They must have been often amused at some of the situations in which they
found themselves. Thus, for instance in 1784 the Parliament of
Languedoc, which had been one of the bitterest enemies of the Society,
met to arrange for the solemn obsequies of the Jesuit Father Sesane "the
friend of the poor," and the ecclesiastical authorities were busy taking
juridical information for his canonization. Again, although not
permitted to exist in Switzerland the Council of Soleuse erected a
statue in honor of the Jesuit Father Crollanza, who all his life had
shunned honor and was conspicuous for his humility. On the pedestal was
the very delightful inscription: "Pauperum patrem, ægrorum matrem,
omnium fratrem, virum doctum et humillimum, in vita, in morte, in
feretro suavitate sibi similem amabat, admirabatur, lugebat Solodurum."
In the same way, Maria Theresa in an official document dated 1776
declared that "moved by the consideration of the brilliant virtues, the
science, the erudition and the regular and exemplary life of
Jean-Theophile Delpini; and reflecting moreover on his apostolic labors
in Hungary and the Principality of Transylvania where to our great
consolation, he led a vast throng of Anabaptists back to the true Faith,
we have chosen and we hereby appoint the said Theophile Delpini who has
merited much from the Church and the State, and who is therefore very
acceptable to us personally, to the post of Abbot of Our Lady of
Kolos-Monostros."
Parhamer obtained a similar distinction in Austria and Carinthia. He was
an advanced advocate of what is now called social service, and he made
use of his position as confessor and friend of the Emperor Francis I to
establish useful popular institutions; among which was an orphanage for
the children of soldiers who had died for their country. It was a sort
of child's Hôtel des Invalides. The discipline was exclusively military,
with drills, camp life, etc. Joseph II wanted to make him a bishop but
Parhamer asked for two months to think it over and before the two
months had expired he was dead. That was as late as 1786. Meantime,
Marie Leczinska, the Queen of France, would only have these prescribed
Jesuits hear her confession, and two Poles, Radomiviski and Buganski
were chosen for that office. On account of their nationality they could
not be exiled from France. In Austria, Father Walcher was kept busy
building dykes to prevent inundations. Father Cabral, a Portuguese, had
to harness the cataract of Velino, which had so long wrought havoc in
the city of Terni, and then he did the same thing for his own country by
confining the Tagus to its bed. In doing so he did not remember that his
country had kept him in exile for eighteen years. Ximenes made roads and
bridges in Tuscany and Rome. Riccati saved Venice from inundations by
controlling the Po, the Adige and Brenta, and by order of Frederick II
of Prussia Father Zeplichal had to locate the metal mines of Glatz, and
so on. All this was over and above their ecclesiastical work for which
they were called on by every one, even by the Pope who had suppressed
them.
The famous astronomer, Maximilian Hell, was another of the homeless
Jesuits of that period; and as it happened that from the beginning,
astronomy had always been in honor in the Society, there was a great
number of such men adrift in the world when their own observatories were
taken away from them. The enthusiastic historian of the Society,
Crétineau-Joly has an extended list of their names as well as those who
were remarkable in other branches of science.
The "Theologia Wiceburgensis," which is so popular in the modern
Society, was composed by dispersed Jesuits, and, according to Cardinal
Pacca, "in the difficulties that arose between the Papal nuncios and the
ecclesiastical Electors of Germany it was the former Jesuits who
appeared in the lists as the champions of the Holy See, to illumine and
strengthen the minds of the faithful by their solid and victorious
writings." François Xavier de Feller belonged to this period, and in the
opinion of Gerlache, the historian of the Netherlands, "he exerted a
great influence on the Belgian Congress of 1790." It was he who led the
assault on Josephinism and Febronianism. With him in this fight was
Francesco Antonio Zaccaria who compelled the author of the "Febronius"
to acknowledge his errors. Guillaume Bertier revived the famous "Journal
de Trévoux," and Fréron made a reputation for the "Journal des Débats."
Girolamo Tiraboschi wrote his "History of Italian Literature," Juan
Andrés, his "Origin of All Literature," Francisco Clavigero continued
his "History of Mexico" and Antoine de Berault-Bercastel, François De
Ligny, Jean Grou, Giulio Cordara, wrote their various well-known works.
Besides writing his still popular "Bible History" Reeve translated into
Latin verses much of the poetry of Pope, Dryden and Young. The list is
endless. A French-Canadian, Xavier du Plessis, was famous in the pulpits
of France in those days, as was Nicholas de Beauregard, who in 1775
startled all France by an utterance he made when preaching at
Notre-Dame.
"These philosophers," he exclaimed, "are striking at the king and at
religion. The axe and the hammer are in their hands. They are only
waiting for the moment to overturn the altar and the throne. Yes Lord,
Thy temples will be plundered and destroyed, Thy feasts abolished, Thy
name proscribed. But what do I hear? Great God! what do I see. Instead
of the holy canticles which resounded beneath these consecrated vaults
till now, I hear lascivious and blasphemous songs. And thou, the
infamous divinity of paganism, lascivious Venus, thou darest to come to
take the place of the living God, to sit upon the throne of the Holy of
Holies and receive the guilty incense of thy worshippers." The vision
was realized eighteen years later.
The sermon caused a tumult in the church. The preacher was denounced as
seditious, and as a calumniator of light and reason. Even Condorcet
wrote him down as a _ligueur_ and a fanatic. He continued preaching,
nevertheless, and his old associates followed his example. During one
Lent, out of twenty of the great preachers, sixteen were Jesuits.
Three of these former Jesuits especially attracted attention at this
time in the domain of letters and science: Zaccaria, Tiraboschi, and
Boscovich.
Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, whose name is sometimes written Zaccheria,
was a Venetian who had entered the Austrian novitiate in 1731, when he
was a boy of seventeen. He taught literature at Goritz, but was
subsequently sent to Rome where he became very distinguished both for
his eloquence and his marvellous encyclopedic knowledge. In 1751 he was
appointed to succeed Muratori as the ducal librarian at Modena, though
Cardinal Quirini had asked for him and the celebrated Count Crustiani
subsequently tried to bring him to Mantua. His fame was so great that
the most illustrious academies of Italy claimed his name for their
registers. In Rome he became the literary historiographer of the
Society, and had been so excellent an aid for Clement XIII in the fight
against Gallicanism that the Pope assigned him a pension. That was just
before the Suppression of the Society; when that event occurred he was
deprived of his pension, and after frequently running the risk of being
imprisoned in the Castle Sant' Angelo, he was ordered not to attempt to
leave Rome. When Pius VI became Pope, Zaccaria's life became a little
happier. His pension was restored and even increased; he was made Rector
of the College of Clerical Nobles, and regained his old chair of
ecclesiastical history in the Sapienza. He died in 1795 at the age of
eighty-two. The "Biographie Universelle" says that, besides innumerable
manuscripts, Zaccaria left one hundred and six printed books, the most
important of which is the "Literary History of Italy" in 14 octavo
volumes with supplements to volumes IV and V. His method of leading his
readers through the literary labyrinth deserves no less praise than the
penetration of his views, and the good taste of his criticism. Besides
this literary work, he wrote on moral theology, scripture, canon law,
history, numismatics, etc.
Girolamo Tiraboschi, who was born in Bergamo on December 28, 1731, went
to the Jesuit school at Monza, and from there entered the Society. His
first characteristic work, while teaching literature in Bergamo, was to
re-edit the Latin-Italian dictionary of Mandosio. He made so many
corrections that it was substantially a new work. When occupied as
librarian in Milan, he discovered a set of valuable manuscripts about
the suppressed Order of Humiliati. The publication of these MSS. filled
up a gap in the annals of the Church, and made Tiraboschi's reputation
in the world of letters. The Duke of Modena made him his librarian, the
post formerly held by Zaccaria. Thanks to the munificence of the princes
of Este, the library was a literary treasure house, and Tiraboschi
conceived the idea of gathering up the riches around him and writing a
good history of Italian literature; a task that seemed to be too much
for one mind. The difficulty was increased by the jealousy of the
various Italian states, so that an unbiased judgment about the merits of
this army of writers called for a man with courage enough to shut his
ears to the clamors of local prejudice. It supposed also a profound
knowledge of ancient and modern literature, a sufficient acquaintance
with the arts and sciences, and skill enough not to be overwhelmed by
the mass of material he had to handle. It took him eleven years to
complete the work.
The Spaniards were irritated by the "History" for they were blamed for
having corrupted the literary taste of Italy, and three Spanish Jesuits
attacked him fiercely on that score. Nevertheless, the Academy accepted
a copy of the work in the most flattering terms. The Italians regarded
it as a most complete history of their literature and a monument erected
to the glory of their country. He was made a knight by the Duke and
appointed counsellor of the principality. While he was engaged in this
work, the Society was suppressed, and like Boscovich and Zaccaria, he
did not live to see its resurrection. He died in Modena on June 3, 1794.
Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich was a Dalmatian from Ragusa, where he was
born on May 18, 1711. He was a boy at the Jesuit college of that town
and entered the Society at the early age of fourteen. He was sent to the
Roman College, where his unusual literary and philosophical as well as
mathematical abilities immediately attracted attention. He was able to
take the place of his professor in mathematics while he was yet in his
theological studies, and subsequently occupied the chair of mathematics
with great distinction for a generation. His bent, however, was chiefly
for astronomy, and every year he issued a treatise on one or another
subject of that science. Among them may be mentioned: the "Sun spots"
(1736); "The Transit of Mercury" (1737); "The Aurora Borealis" (1738);
"Application of the Telescope in Astronomical Studies" (1739); "The
Figure of the Earth" (1739); "The Motion of the Heavenly Bodies in an
unresisting Medium" (1740); "Various effects of Gravity" (1741); "The
Aberration of the Fixed Stars" (1742); and numberless others. Foreign
and Italian academies, among them Bologna, Paris and London admitted him
to membership. It was he who first suggested the massive pillars of the
college church of St. Ignatius as the foundation of the Observatory in
Rome; but the Suppression of the Society prevented him from carrying out
the plan. When the great dome of St. Peter's began to crack, he allayed
the general alarm by placing iron bands around it. His advice was sought
for the draining of the Pontine Marshes; he surveyed the Papal States by
order of Benedict XIV and induced the Pope to withdraw the obsolete
decree in the Index against the Copernican system.
When King John V of Portugal asked for ten Jesuit Fathers to make an
elaborate survey of Brazil, Boscovich offered himself for the arduous
task, hoping thus to make a survey in Ecuador, so as to obtain data for
the final solution of the problem of the figure of the earth which was
then exciting much attention in England and France, but the Pope kept
him for the survey of Italy, which Boscovich did, and in 1755 he
published a large quarto volume describing the work. In 1748, he had
already revived Leibnitz's system of dynamism in the composition of
bodies, a view which his fellow-Jesuits generally rejected. When this
volume was issued, the publisher added a list of Boscovich's previous
works. They amounted to sixty-six and he soon added three more quartos
on "The Elements of Mathematics." He even wrote Latin poetry, mostly
eulogies of the Pope and distinguished men, and published five volumes
of verse on "The Defects of the Sun and the Moon."
Boscovich's advice was sought as an engineer for damming the Lakes which
were threatening the city of Lucca; and he acquitted himself so well,
that he was made an honorary citizen and his expenses were subsequently
paid for his scientific exploration in Italy, France and England. He
settled a dispute between his native town and the King of France. He
journeyed with the Venetian ambassador to Constantinople to complete his
archæological studies, but that journey seriously injured his health. He
then accepted the appointment of professor of mathematics at the
University of Pavia and helped to found the Observatory of Brera in
Milan which with that of the Collegio Romano is among the most prominent
in Italy. The London Academy wanted to send him to California in 1769 to
observe the transit of Venus, but the opposition to the Jesuits, which
was four years later to lead to their suppression, caused the invitation
to be withdrawn. Louis XV then called him to France where he was made
director of optics for the Navy with a salary of 8,000 francs. He
retained this position until 1783, that is ten years after the Society
of Jesus had gone out of existence. He then went to Italy to publish
five more books, and at the age of eighty-six retired to the monastery
of the monks of Vallombroso. On account of his great ability, or rather
on account of his being a Jesuit, he was bitterly assailed by Condorcet
and d'Alembert and other infidels of France.
Bolgeni, who died in 1811, was made penitentiary by Pius VI in
recognition of his services against Jansenism and Josephinism.
Unfortunately, however, he advocated the acceptance of some scheme of
Napoleon, for which Pope Pius VII deposed him from his office and called
Father Muzzarelli from Parma to take his place. In 1809 when Pius VII
was exiled, Muzzarelli went with him to Paris or at least followed soon
after. His work on the "Right Use of Reason in Religion" ran up to
eleven volumes, besides which he produced other books against Rousseau,
and several pious treatises, like the "Month of May," which has been
translated into many languages.
Possibly a certain number of missionaries remained with their neophytes
because they were too remote to be reached. Others, who owed no
allegiance to the king who ordered the expulsion, paid no attention to
it, as the Englishman King, for instance, who was martyred in Siam after
the Suppression; or the Irishman O'Reilly, who buried himself, in the
forests of Guiana with his savages; Poirot was kept at the court of
Pekin as the emperor's musician; and Benoit constructed fountains for
the imperial gardens, invented a famous waterclock, which spouted water
from the mouths of animals, two hours for each beast, thus running
through the twenty-four hours of the day; he made astronomical
observations, brought out copper-plate engravings of maps and so on, and
finally died of apoplexy in 1774, one year after Clement XIV had
suppressed the Society. Hallerstein, the imperial astronomer, was also
there waiting for news of the coming disaster.
B. N. in "The Jesuits; their history and foundation" (II, 274) and
Crétineau-Joly both declare that there were four of the proscribed
Jesuits in the Etats généraux which was convened in Paris at the opening
of the Revolution: Delfau, de Rozaven, San-Estavan and Allain. Of
course, the Rozaven in this instance was not the John Rozaven so famous
later on. In 1789 John was only eighteen years of age. In the session of
February 19, 1790, the famous Abbé Grégoire, who afterwards became the
Constitutional Bishop of Loir-et-Cher, startled the assembly by crying
out, "Among the hundred thousand vexations of the old government, whose
hand was so heavy on France, we must place the suppression of the
celebrated Order of the Jesuits." The Deputy Lavie had also asked for
justice in their behalf. The Protestant Barnave declared that "the first
act of our new liberty should be to repair the injustices of despotism;
and I, therefore, propose an amendment in favor of the Jesuits." "They
have," said the next speaker, the Abbé de Montesquiou, "a right to your
generosity. You will not refuse justice to that celebrated Society in
whose colleges some of you have studied; whose wrongs we cannot
understand, but whose sufferings were to be expected."
The sentiments of the speakers were enthusiastically applauded, but it
was all forgotten as the terrible Revolution proceeded on its course.
Jesuits like other priests were carried to the guillotine; but, as no
records could now be kept, it is impossible to find out how many were
put to death. We find out, however, from "Les martyrs" of Leclercq that
in Paris alone there were eleven: DuPerron, Benoit, Bonnand, Cayx,
Friteyre, du Rocher, Lanfant, Villecrohain, Le Gue, Rousseau, and
Seconds. Crétineau-Joly adds to this list the two Rochefoucaulds; Dulau,
who was Archbishop of Aries; Delfaux; Millou; Gagnière; Le Livec;
another Du Rocher; Vourlat; Du Roure; Rouchon; Thomas; Andrieux and
Verron; making in all twenty-five. In "Les crimes de la Révolution"
there are two volumes of the names of the condemned in all parts of
France, but as the ecclesiastical victims are merely described as
"priests" it is impossible to find out how many Jesuits there were among
them. The twenty-five, however, make a good showing for a single city.
Probably the proportion was the same elsewhere.
The old Jesuits appear again for a moment in Spain, when in 1800 Charles
IV recalled them. A pestilence was raging in Andalusia when they
arrived, and they immediately plunged into the work of caring for the
sick. Twenty-seven Jesuits died in the performance of this act of
charity; but the government soon forgot it and again drove into exile
the men whom they had appealed to for help. In Austria they remained in
the colleges as secular priests. At Fribourg, Lucerne and Soleure, the
people insisted on their retaining the colleges. In China, they clung to
their missions until the arrival of the Lazarists in 1783. In Portuguese
India, even before the Suppression, they had been forcibly expelled, and
the same thing occurred in South America wherever Portugal ruled. The
Spanish missions of both South and North America had likewise been
wrested from them. In Turkey the French ambassador, Saint-Priest,
insisted on their staying at their posts in Constantinople, because of
their success in dealing with the Moslems and schismatics. As we have
seen when missionaries were needed in the deadly forests of French
Guiana, the government was shameless enough to ask the Portuguese
Jesuits to devote themselves to the work; and the request was acceded
to. They were also entreated to remain in French India.
Speaking of Brazil, Southey says (III): "Centuries will not repair the
evil done by their sudden expulsion. They had been the protectors of a
persecuted race; the advocates of mercy, the founders of civilization;
and their patience under their unmerited sufferings forms not the least
honorable part of their character." What Southey says of Brazil applies
to Paraguay, Chile and other missions.
Montucla in his "Histoire des mathématiques" tells us that Father
Hallerstein, the president of the tribunal of astronomy in China hearing
of the Suppression, died of the shock, as did his two distinguished
companions. The story related by the Protestant historian Christopher de
Mürr in his "Journal" is also illustrative of the general attitude of
mind in this trying conjuncture. Just before the Suppression, he informs
us, a French Government ship left Marseilles for Pekin with four Jesuits
on board. One was a painter, another a physician and the two others were
mathematicians. All of them were to be in the personal entourage of the
Emperor of China. They were Austrians from the Tyrol, but France, which
had expelled the French Jesuits a few years before, was sending these
foreign Jesuits to represent her, and to promote the interests of
science in the Chinese court. They set sail in the month of July, 1773,
and not a word was said to them about the general Suppression, which
Choiseul knew perfectly well would soon take place. The Archbishop of
Paris, de Beaumont, had warned them of what was in the air, but they
could not believe it possible and so they departed for the Far East.
After a weary journey of four months, they arrived at Macao. Meantime
the Brief had been published, and the Bishop of Macao, a creature of
Pombal's made haste to inform them of the fact. Had he held his peace
there would have been no difficulty about the continuance of the journey
to Pekin, and their subsequent standing at the court, for the Brief was
not effective until it was promulgated. But once they knew it, the poor
men were in a dilemma. Not to heed the invitation of the Chinese emperor
meant death, if he laid hold of them; but, on the other hand, to go to
China without the power of saying Mass or preaching, or hearing
confessions, namely as suspended priests, was unthinkable. For three
days, the unfortunate wanderers studied the problem with aching hearts,
and finally determined to run the risk of capture by the Chinese with
its subsequent punishment of death. They stowed themselves away on
separate ships and thus got back to Europe. Incidentally, it serves as a
proof that the Jesuits did not go out to China to be mandarins, as some
of their enemies alleged. They accepted what honors came to them, but
only to help them in their apostolic work.
It was found out subsequently that these poor men would have had better
luck had they continued on their journey to China instead of returning
to Europe. The promulgation of the Brief and the observance of all the
legal technicalities connected with its enforcement was next to
impossible in China, and hence we find a letter of Father Bourgeois from
Pekin to his friend Duprez in France, which bears the date May 15, 1775,
announcing that "the Brief is on its way." It had been issued two years
previously. Of course, Bourgeois is in tears over the prospective
calamity, and tells his friend: "I have nothing now but eternity and
that is not far off. Happy are those of Ours who are with Ignatius and
Xavier and Aloysius Gonzaga and the numberless throng of saints who
follow the Lamb under the glorious banner of the Name of Jesus."
Crétineau-Joly discovered another letter from an Italian lay-brother
named Panzi, who writes eighteen months later than Bourgeois. It is
dated November 11, 1776. In it he says "the missionaries had been
notified of the Bull of Suppression (he does not state how),
nevertheless they live together in the same house, under the same roof
and eat at the same table." Apparently there had been a flaw in the
promulgation of the "Bull" or Brief. The brother goes on to say, that
"the Fathers preach, confess, baptise, retain possession of their
property just as before. No one has been interdicted or suspended for
the reason that in a country like this it would have been impossible to
do otherwise. It is all done with the permission of the Bishop of
Nankin, to whom we are subject. If the same course had been pursued here
as in some parts of Europe, it would have put an end not only to the
missions but to all religion, besides being a great scandal to the
Chinese Christians who could not be provided for and who would have
abandoned the Faith.
"Thanks be to God, our holy Mission is going on well and at present
everything is very tranquil. The number of converts increases daily.
Father Dollières brought over an entire tribe which lives on the
mountains two days' journey from Pekin. The Emperor, so far, shows no
signs of embracing the Catholic Faith, but he protects it everywhere
throughout his vast dominions, and so do the other great men of the
Empire. I am still at my work of painting. I am glad I am doing it for
God; and I am determined to live in this holy mission until God wishes
to take me to himself."
About this time, the Fathers addressed a joint letter to Cardinal de
Bernis, the French ambassador at Rome, who had been so conspicuous in
wresting the Brief of Suppression from Clement XIV and had originated
the calumny about the poisoning of the Pope.
"Would your Eminence," says the document, "cast a glance at the inclosed
report on the present condition of the French missions of China and the
Indies which has been asked for by the Holy Congregation of the
Propagation of the Faith. To these missions as you know, his majesty has
sent great amounts of money and a large number of his subjects, knowing
as he did that the interests of France are bound up with those of
religion, and the advancement of the latter was what he had chiefly in
view. It will be gratifying to you to learn that the Chinese Emperor
takes great pleasure in having these French missionaries employed in his
palace; he frequently takes them with him on his journeys through the
empire, and makes use of them to draw up maps of the country, which are
of invaluable service to him. On the other hand, the missionaries, on
account of the esteem in which they are held, use all their influence to
prevent the persecution of Christians and have succeeded in obtaining
favors for Europeans and especially for the Frenchmen who arrive at
Canton, by protecting them from the annoyances to which they are
exposed. Over and above this, several of the Fathers are in
correspondence with the Paris Academy of Science, and also with the
ministers of State, and are sending them the results of their
astronomical observations, and of their discoveries in botany, natural
history, in brief, whatever can contribute to the advancement of science
and art.
"The king and his ministers, have in the past few years, accorded free
transportation to the Fathers who are sent out here to the French
missions of India, and deservedly so, for these missionaries have
frequently rendered important service to France, and for that reason,
the Supreme Council of Pondicherry has taken up their defense against
the rulings of the Parliament of Paris, which sent officers out here to
seize the little property we possess. The Pondicherry authorities would
concede only that the Fathers might make a small change in their soutane
and be called the "Messieurs les missionnaires de Malabar." It is in
accordance with this arrangement that we continue to exercise our
functions under the jurisdiction of the bishop. We are the only ones who
understand the very difficult language of the country and there does not
seem to be any reason why we should not be left as we are. Besides
these two missions, there are two others in the Levant, one in Greece,
the other in Syria. They have always been and still are under the
protection of France. M. le Chevalier de Saint-Priest, who is ambassador
to Turkey, said, on his arrival at Constantinople, that the king had
explicitly recommended to him the French missions and ordered him to
assure the Fathers of the continuance of his protection."
Of the missions in Hindostan it may be of use to quote here the
utterance of M. Perrin of the Missions Etrangères, who went out to India
three years after the destruction of the Jesuit Missions in those parts.
"I cannot be suspected when I speak in praise of those Fathers. I was
never associated with them. Indeed, they were already extinct as a body
when Providence placed me in the happy necessity of having had to do
with some of the former members. I belonged to an association which had
protracted and sometimes very lively debates with the Jesuit Fathers,
who might have regarded us as their enemies, if Christians are capable
of entertaining that feeling; but I feel bound to say that,
notwithstanding these discussions, we always held each other in the
highest esteem, and I hereby defy the most audacious calumniator to
prove that the Society of Jesus had ever to blush for the conduct of any
of its Malabar missionaries either at Pondicherry or in the interior.
All were formed and fashioned by virtue's hand and they breathed virtue
back in their conduct and their sermons." (Voyage dans l'Indostan, II,
261.)
Among the French Jesuits in China, Father Amiot was conspicuous.
Langlès, the French Academian who was ambassador in China, dedicated to
him a translation of Holme's "Travels in China," in which the Jesuit is
described as "Apostolic Missionary at Pekin, Correspondent of the
Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres; an indefatigable _savant_,
profoundly versed in the knowledge and the history of the sciences, the
arts and the language of China and an ardent promoter of the
Tatar-Manchou language and literature." With Amiot was Father Joseph
d'Espinha, who was president of the imperial tribunal of astronomy, and
simultaneously administrator of the Diocese of Pekin. Fathers de Rocha
and Rodrigues presided over the tribunal of mathematics, and Father
Schelbarth replaced Castiglione as the chief painter of the emperor;
there were other Jesuits also who evangelised the various provinces of
the country under the direction of the Ordinary.
This condition of things lasted for ten years and it was only then that
the question arose of handing over the work to the Lazarists. Thus in a
letter of Father Bourgeois, of whom we have already spoken, he says:
"they have given our mission to the Lazarist Fathers." The letter is
dated November 15, 1783, namely ten years after the suppression of the
Society. "They were to have come last year," continues the writer; "Will
they come this year? They are fine men and they can feel sure that I
shall do all in my power to help them and put them in good shape." It
was not until 1785 that a Lazarist, Father Raux, took over the Pekin
Mission, and in 1788, three years afterwards, Bourgeois was able to say
to Father Beauregard who had contrived to remain in Paris in spite of
the Revolution: "Our missionary successors are men of merit, remarkable
for virtue, talent and refinement. We live together like brothers, and
thus the Lord consoles us for the loss of our good mother, the Society,
whom we can never forget. Nothing can tear that love out of our hearts,
and hence every moment we have to make acts of resignation in the
calamity that has fallen upon us. Meanwhile it is hard to say in our
house whether the Lazarists live as Jesuits or the Jesuits like
Lazarists."
The old and infirm Jesuits who were homeless and could find no
ecclesiastical employment had much to suffer. They became pitiable
objects of charity. Zalenski in "Les Jésuites da la Russie Blanche" (I,
77) gives an instance of it, in an appeal made to the King of Poland by
one hundred and five of these outcasts, many of whom had been
distinguished professors in the splendid colleges of the country. They
had been granted a miserable pittance out of their own property in the
way of a pension, but even that was often not forthcoming. After
reminding His Majesty that this pension had been guaranteed them by the
Church, by their country, and by the Sovereign Pontiff, and that the
allowance was from their own property; and was due to them from the
natural law; and also that the amount needed was every day decreasing,
because of the great number among them who were dying, they asked him
imploringly: "Will Poland, so long known for its humanity, be cruel only
to us; will you permit us the Lord's anointed, the old teachers of the
youth of Poland, to go begging our bread on the streets, with our
garments in rags, and exposed to insults; will you permit that our tears
and our cries which are forced from us by the grief and abandonment to
which we are reduced should add to the affliction of our country; will
you permit that our country should be accused of inhumanity and insulted
because it withholds our pension? It is sad enough for us to have lost
the Society, the dearest and nearest thing to our heart in this life,
without adding this new suffering. Should you not have pity on our lot
and grant us a pension? Do not bring us down to the grave with this new
sorrow." Whether their prayers were answered or not we do not know.
However, as Cardinal Pallavicini denounces the king as "impious and
inert," it is very likely that the poor old men were left to starve.
Quite unexpectedly the Protestant Frederick the Great of Prussia and the
schismatical Catherine II of Russia insisted on having what Jesuits they
could get for educational work in their respective domains. As neither
sovereign would permit the Papal Brief to be read in the countries which
they governed, a number of the exiles in various parts of Europe flocked
thither. Efforts were made to have the Brief promulgated in both
countries, but without success; for Catherine as well as Frederick
denied any right of the Pope in their regard; nor would either of them
listen to any request of the Jesuits to have it published. They were
told to hold their peace. Of course, they were condemned by their
enemies for accepting this heterodox protection; but it has been blamed
for almost everything, so they went on with their work, thanking God for
the unexpected shelter, and knowing perfectly well that Clement XIV was
not averse to the preservation of some of the victims.
CHAPTER XXI
THE RUSSIAN CONTINGENT
Frederick the Great and the "Philosophers"--Protection of the
Jesuits--Death of Voltaire--Catherine of Russia--The Four
Colleges--The Empress at Polotsk--Joseph II at Mohilew--
Archetti--Baron Grimm--Czerniewicz and the Novitiate--
Assent of Pius VI--Potemkin--Siestrzencewicz--General
Congregation--Benislawski--"_Approbo; Approbo_"--Accession
of former Jesuits. Gruber and the Emperor Paul--Alexander I--
Missions in Russia.
Even before the general suppression of the Society, Frederick II of
Prussia had given a shock to the politicians of Europe and to his
friends the _philosophes_ of France, by welcoming the exiled Jesuits
into his dominions and employing them as teachers. Hence d'Alembert
wrote to remonstrate; though at first glance he appears to approve of
the king's action, his insulting tone when speaking of the Pope reveals
the animus of this enemy of God. It ran as follows:
"They say that the Cordelier, Ganganelli, does not promise ripe pears to
the Society of Jesus and that St. Francis will very likely kill St.
Ignatius. It appears to me that the Holy Father, Cordelier though he be,
would be very foolish to disband his regiment of guards to please the
Catholic princes. Such a treaty would be very like that of the sheep and
the wolves; the first article of which was that the sheep should deliver
their dogs to the wolves. But in any case, Sire, it will be a curious
condition of affairs, if while the Most Christian, the Most Catholic,
the Most Apostolic, and the Most Faithful kings are destroying the
grenadiers of the Holy See, your Most Heretical Majesty should be the
only one to protect them." A little later he writes: "I am assured that
the Cordelier Pope needs a good deal of plucking at his sleeves to get
him to abolish the Jesuits. I am not surprised. To propose to the Pope
to destroy this brave troop is like asking Your Majesty to disband your
body guards."
D'Alembert was playing double. He was as anxious as any one to bring
about the Suppression, and on April 3, 1770, Frederick wrote him that,
"The Philosophy which has had such vogue in this century is bragged
about more brazenly than ever. But what progress has it made? 'It has
expelled the Jesuits,' you tell me. Granted, but I will prove, if you
want me to do so, that the whole business started in vanity, spite,
underhand dealing and selfishness."
On July 7, 1770, Frederick wrote to Voltaire and said: "The good
Cordelier of the Vatican lets me keep my dear Jesuits whom they
persecute everywhere. I will guard the precious seed so that some day I
may supply it to those who may want to cultivate this rare plant in
their respective countries." Frederick had annexed Silesia which was
entirely Catholic, while the part of Poland which was allotted to him at
the time of the division had remained only half faithful. To gratify
them and keep them at peace, he thought he could do no better than to
ask the Jesuits to take care of the education of the youth of those
countries, "let the _philosophes_ cry out against it as they may."
Hence, on December 4, 1772, he wrote to d'Alembert: "I received an
ambassador from the General of the Ignatians, asking me to declare
myself openly as the protector of the Order; but I answered that when
Louis XV thought proper to suppress the regiment of Fitzjames (the
Jansenists), I did not think I could intercede for that corps; and
moreover, the Pope is well able to bring about such a reformation
without having heretics take a hand in it."
A Jesuit named Pinto had, indeed, presented himself to Frederick to ask
for his protection, but he had no warrant to do so. Someone in Rome had
suggested it, and he was encouraged in his enterprise by Maria Theresa.
When apprised of it, the General sent a very severe reprimand to the
volunteer ambassador, and that disposed of Father Pinto. No more was
heard of him.
Frederick showed himself a very vigorous protector of the Society. When
the Brief was published he issued the following decree: "We, Frederick
by the Grace of God, King of Prussia, to all and every of our subjects,
greeting:
"As you have already been advised that you are not permitted to
circulate any Bulls or Briefs of the Pope, without our approbation of
the same, we have no doubt that you will conform to this general order,
in case the Brief of the Pope suppressing the Society of Jesus arrives
at any department within your jurisdiction. Nevertheless, we have deemed
it necessary to recall this to your memory, and as, under the date of
Berlin, the sixth of this month, we have resolved, for reasons prompting
us thereto, that this annihilation of the Society which has recently
taken place shall not be published in our states, we graciously enjoin
upon you to take all necessary measures in your district to suppress the
aforesaid Bull of the Pope; for which end you will, in our name, as soon
as you receive this communication, issue an explicit order, under
penalty of rigorous chastisement, to all ecclesiastics of the Roman
Catholic religion domiciled in your territory not to publish the
aforesaid Bull annulling the Society of Jesus. You are commanded to see
carefully to the execution of this order, and to inform us immediately
in case any high foreign ecclesiastics endeavor to introduce any Bulls
of this kind into our kingdom surreptitiously."
This mandate had the effect of protecting the Jesuits who were in his
dominions; for as canon law made the promulgation of the Brief an
indispensable condition of the suppression, it followed that the Jesuits
in Prussia could conscientiously continue to live there as Jesuits.
Indeed, the king had previously notified the Pope that such would be his
course of action, and an autograph dispatch to the Prussian
representative at Rome, dated Potsdam, September 13, 1773, reads as
follows: "Abbé Columbini: You will say to whomsoever it may concern, but
without any ostentation or affectation, and indeed you will endeavor to
find an opportunity to say naturally, both to the Pope and his prime
minister, that with regard to the affair of the Jesuits, my resolution
is taken to keep them in my States as they hitherto have been. I
guaranteed in the treaty of Breslau the _statu quo_ of the Catholic
religion, and I have found no better priests than they under every
aspect. You will add that as I am a heretic, the Pope cannot dispense me
from the obligation of keeping my word nor from nullifying my obligation
as an honest man."
The last phrase, of course, is very insulting, but there was no help for
it. It was the king's. When d'Alembert heard of the letter, he revealed
his true colors, and warned Frederick that he would regret it, reminding
him that in the Silesian War, the Jesuits had been opposed to him; that
is to say, the Silesian Jesuits were faithful to Silesia. Frederick
replied, on Jan. 7, 1774: "You need not be alarmed for my safety. I have
nothing to fear from the Jesuits; they can teach the youth of the
country, and they are better able to do that than any one else. It is
true that they were on the other side, during the war, but, as a
philosopher, you ought not to reproach me for being kind and humane to
every one of the human species, no matter what religion or society he
belongs to. Try to be more of a philosopher and less of a metaphysician.
Good acts are more profitable to the public than the most subtle systems
and the most extravagant discoveries, in which, generally speaking, the
mind wanders wildly without ever finding the truth. In any case, I am
not the only one who has protected the Jesuits. The English and the
Empress of Russia have done as much." This correspondence with
d'Alembert continued for a year or so; and in 1777, when Voltaire was
dying, the king wrote to advise him to think of his old school days at
Louis-le-Grand. "Remember Father Tournemine, who was your nurse and made
you suck the sweet milk of the Muses. Reconcile yourself with the Order
which in the last century gave to France its greatest men." To all
appearances Voltaire did not take the advice of his royal friend.
The politicians of Spain were particularly irritated at this action of
Frederick, but he paid no attention to their anger. It is even said that
the Pope ordered his nuncio at Warsaw to suspend all the Jesuits in
Prussia from their ecclesiastical and pedagogical function and that a
request was made to the King to have it done _pro forma_, with a promise
to lift the ban immediately afterwards, a proposition which seems too
silly to have ever been seriously made. But when Clement XIV died, Pius
VI, after a few perfunctory protests, so as not to exasperate the other
powers, let it be known that he was not dissatisfied with the status of
the Jesuits in Prussia, and he not only wrote in that sense to
Frederick, but encouraged him to continue his protection of the
outcasts. Whereupon Frederick dispatched the following letter to the
superior of Breslau. It is dated September 27, 1775:
"Venerable, dear and faithful Father: The new Pontiff having declared
that he left to me the choice of the most suitable means to be employed
for the conservation of the Jesuits in my kingdom, and that he would put
no obstacle in my way by any declaration of irregularity, I have in
consequence enjoined on my bishops to leave your Institute _in statu
quo_, and not to trouble any of your members or to refuse ordination to
any of your candidates to the priesthood. You will therefore conform to
this arrangement and advise your confrères to do likewise."
Until the death of Bishop Bayer of Culm, who was the staunch friend of
the Fathers, there was no cloud on the horizon; but he was succeeded by
Bishop Hohenzotten, who belonged to the House of Brandenburg. He had
been extremely friendly before his installation as bishop, but
immediately afterwards he advised the king to secularize the Jesuits and
to forbid the establishment of a novitiate. The king, however, would not
yield any further than to permit of their dressing as secular priests,
and until his death in 1786 they continued to live in community under
the name of the "Priests of the Royal Institute." His successor was not
so benignant, for he seized all the revenues of the houses and thus put
an end to their existence in Prussia, and they, like their brethren
elsewhere, took the road of exile. Some joined the secular clergy and
others made their way to Russia.
More surprising still was the protection accorded to them by the
terrible Empress Catherine II of Russia. Indeed, it was she who made it
possible to preserve unbroken the link between the old and the new
Society. On the other hand, not a few Pharisees have reproached the
Society for having accepted the protection of this imperial tigress. For
the same reason, they might have found fault with Daniel in the lion's
den. He could not get out of it; and, the animals were kinder than the
humans above ground.
Catherine of Russia was not a Russian but a Prussian. Her name was
Sophia Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst. She and her unfortunate husband had
been adopted by the czarina, Elizabeth, as her successors on the
imperial throne of Russia, on condition that they would change their
name and religion. There was no difficulty about either, especially the
latter. According to Oliphant, Kohl, Döllinger and others who have
described the state of the empire as it was about forty years later,
sixteen millions or about one fourth of the entire population of Russia
did not profess the Greek faith. The educated classes neither cared nor
affected to care for the state religion. From the mercantile classes and
most of their employees and the landed aristocracy all faith had
departed. The peasants were divided into about fifty sects, and hatred
and contempt for one another and the enmity of all of them for the
Orthodox Church were extreme. No two Russian bishops had any spiritual
dependence or connection with any other. They were simply paid officials
of a common master who appointed, degraded or discarded them at
pleasure. De Maistre who lived in Russia about that time says. "The
words: "Oriental Church" or "Greek Church" have no meaning whatever." "I
recognize," said Peter the Great, "no other legitimate Patriarch than
the Pope of Rome. Since you will not obey him you shall obey me only.
Behold your Pope." On that basis the Russian Church was built.
Strictly speaking the Jesuits were not entering Russia but merely
staying in their old establishments which were still Polish, though
geographically labelled Russia. Nevertheless, with Russia proper they
had already a considerable acquaintance. Thus, as early as 1612, Father
Szgoda had allowed himself to be taken by the Tatars to the Crimea, so
as to evangelize the Cossacks. Later, Father Schmidt had appeared at the
court of Peter the Great as chaplain of the Austrian embassy. In 1685,
Father Debois brought a letter to the czar from the Pope Innocent XI,
and in 1687 Father Vota, encouraged by several Russian theologians of
note, was bold enough to propose to Peter the Great a union with Rome.
Peter's sister Sophia was favorable to the project and the moment seemed
propitious, but a brace of fanatical monks backed by the patriarch,
fiercely denounced the scheme and it was dropped. A school, however, was
established at Moscow, but when Sophia died, Peter drove out the
Fathers. In 1691, however, he returned to a better state of mind and
permitted the Catholics of Moscow to build a church and to invite the
Jesuits to take charge of it. But in 1719 he again expelled them, for he
had conceived the idea of a Church of his own; not only independent of
Rome but of Constantinople, and absolutely under his own control--a view
it is said that was suggested to him by the French Jansenists whom he
met in Paris on a visit there in 1717.
That ended all hopes of Catholicity in Russia, but in 1772 when Poland
was dismembered, a large number of Catholics were added to the
population of Russia and Catherine II, who had murdered her husband in
order to be supreme in the State, addressed herself to the task of
constituting these Russianized Poles into an independent Catholic
Church. She found an ambitious Polish bishop, named Siestrzencewicz who
entered into her views, and on May 23, 1774, by an imperial ukase she
established the Diocese of White Russia. Zalenski, S. J., the author of
"Les Jésuites et la Russie Blanche" is strong in his denunciation of
Siestrzencewicz, as are Pierling and Markowitch, but Godlewski is more
benignant and tries to excuse the bishop as a man who did indeed resort
to questionable methods, but was striving to stave off an open
persecution of the Catholics. Zalenski has the more likely view.
This name of "White" Russia is a puzzle to most people, as are the
opposite descriptions of "Black" and "Red" Russia. Indeed Okolski, who
wrote in 1646, has a book entitled "Russia Florida," a name not in
accordance with the popular notions about that country. There is also a
"Greater" and a "Little" and a "West" Russia. The geographical limits of
White Russia may be found in any encyclopedia. It is the region in which
are Polotsk, Vitebsk, Orsha, Mohilew, Motislave and Gomel, and is
bounded by the rivers Duna, Dnieper, Peripet and Bug. It was Russia's
share in the first spoliation of Poland, and had a population of
1,600,000. Moscow is not far to the east but St. Petersburg (Petrograd)
is at a great distance to the north.
In 1772 Catherine made known her intention regarding the Jesuits whom
she found teaching in the section of Poland which had passed under her
sceptre. They were even to retain their four colleges of Polotsk,
Vitebsk, Orsha and Dunaberg besides their two residences and fourteen
missions. She needed them as teachers and as they were the first to
declare their acceptance of the new conditions, and had thus set an
example to their countrymen, she revoked the ancient proscription of
Peter the Great against the Society in Russia proper, and also apprised
the other provinces of Europe that she would be their guardian in the
future.
When the Brief of Suppression was announced, the Fathers felt perfectly
sure that, like Frederick II, she would not permit it to be promulgated,
both because the Russian Church refused allegiance to Rome, and also
because she had already bound herself by a promise to protect them.
Nevertheless, through their superior, they addressed to her "Sacred
Imperial Majesty" the following letter:
"It is to Your Majesty that we owe the privilege of professing
publicly the Roman Catholic Religion in your glorious states,
and of depending in spiritual matters on the Sovereign Pontiff
who is the visible head of our Church. That is the reason why we
Jesuits, all of whom belong to the Roman Rite, but who are most
faithful subjects of Your Majesty, now prostrate before your
august imperial throne, implore Your Majesty by all that is most
sacred to permit us to render prompt and public obedience to the
authority which resides in the person of the Sovereign Roman
Pontiff and to execute the edict he has sent us abolishing our
Society. By condescending to have a public proclamation made of
this Brief of Suppression, Your Majesty will thus exercise your
royal authority, and we by promptly obeying will show ourselves
obedient both to Your Majesty and to the Sovereign Pontiff who
has ordered this proclamation. Such are the sentiments and the
prayers of all and each of the Jesuits, which are now expressed
by me to Your Majesty, of whom I have the honor to be, with the
most profound veneration and the most respectful submission, the
most humble, the most devoted and the most faithful subject,
"Stanislas Czerniewicz."
"Her Sacred Majesty" absolutely refused to accede to the request. On the
contrary she insisted that the Brief should not be proclaimed in her
dominions. She showed them the greatest consideration and insisted that
her nobles should imitate her example, so that it became the fashion
for the dignitaries of the empire to visit the various Jesuit
establishments; on their part, the Jesuits never failed to show their
appreciation of such an honor in as splendid a fashion as possible. The
most memorable of all such visits was one in which the "Semiramis of the
North" was the central figure. Catherine left St. Petersburg, on May 20,
1780, and reached Polotsk ten days later. In her suite were Potemkin,
Tchernichef, de Cobentzel, the Prince Marshal Borjantynski, and Prince
Dolkowiouki. On her arrival, while surrounded by all the notables who
had hastened to meet her, the Jesuits were pointed out to her and she
graciously saluted them. In the evening, the college was splendidly
illuminated in her honor, and on the following morning she came to the
church, for she was burning with a desire to witness a Catholic
ceremonial. After Mass she went through the house, and both at her
arrival and departure the rector celebrated her glory in an epic poem.
From thence she set out for Mohilew where Joseph II of Austria awaited
her. He had already visited the college at this place, and was received
with proper honor by the rector and provincial. He made all sorts of
inquiries about the reason why the suppressed Jesuits were permitted to
exist in Russia, and the bishop told him laconically: "The people need
them; the empress ordered it and Rome has said nothing." "You did well,"
replied the emperor, "you should not, and could not have done
otherwise." With the emperor on this occasion appears the unexpected
figure of one of the suppressed Jesuits: Father Francis Xavier Kalatai.
He was his majesty's travelling companion, and has left a letter telling
us what happened on this occasion.
"At Mohilew," he writes, "at the farthest extremity of the recently
dismembered provinces of Poland, the Jesuits still remain on their
former footing. They are protected by the empress, because of their
ability in training the youth of the country in science and piety. I
asked to be presented to the superior when we visited the college and
found him to be a very venerable old man. I questioned him and other
members of the community on what they based their non-submission to the
Brief of Suppression, and they replied in the same formula as the
bishop: "Clementissima imperatrice nostra protegente, populo derelicto
exigente, Roma sciente et non contradicente;" (i. e. on the protection
of our most clement empress, the needs of the abandoned people, and the
knowledge and tacit consent of Rome). They then showed me a letter from
the Pope expressing his affection for them, and exhorting them to remain
as they were until new arrangements could be made. He insisted upon
their receiving novices and admitting Jesuits from other provinces, who
desired to resume with them the sweet yoke of Christ from which they had
been so violently torn. The provincial added that all the Jesuits of
Russia were willing to relinquish everything they had, at the first
authentic sign of the will of the Pope, and that they waited only a
canonical announcement to that effect. Thus, I found that the true
spirit of the Society had kept its first fervor among these scattered
remnants of it in Russia."
The empress arrived, after making fifty leagues a day on the trip from
Polotsk; killing ten horses on the journey. The meeting of the two
sovereigns was unusually splendid; ten thousand soldiers stood on guard
in the city, and besides state receptions, there were theatrical
performances, public sports, banquets and the rest. The Jesuits of other
establishments paid their respects, and were presented to the empress by
the governor. On the 12th of June, "Semiramis" left for St. Petersburg.
Such a favor, of course, made the Jesuits still more popular and, at the
same time, checked the papal nuncio, Archetti, who had not yet recovered
from his failure to have the suppression made effective. Nevertheless,
he still persisted in his efforts, in spite of the threats of the
empress. But she never yielded.
Father Brucker writing in the "Etudes" (tom. 132, 1912, 558-59) gives a
characteristic letter of the empress to Baron Grimm who was a friend and
associate of Rousseau, Diderot, d'Alembert, Holbach and the rest. At
that time, Grimm was the envoy of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, at the court
of France, and later on, Catherine's own plenipotentiary to Lower
Saxony.
The letter is dated May 7, 1779 and runs as follows: "Neither I nor my
_coquins en titre_ (my honorable rogues) _les Jésuites de la R. Bl._
(the Jesuits of White Russia) are going to cause the Pope any worry.
They are very submissive to him and want to do only what he wishes. I
suppose it is you who wrote the article in the 'Gazette de Cologne'
about the hot house (the Jesuit novitiate). You say that I am amusing
myself by being kind to them. Assuredly, you credit me with a pretty
motive, whereas I have no other than that of keeping my word and seeking
the public good. As for your grocers (the Bourbon kings) I make a
present of them to you; but I know one thing, namely, they are not going
to visit me and sing the song: 'Bonhomme! you are not master of your
house while we are in it.'"
As early as 1776, that is only three years after the Suppression, the
Jesuits of White Russia already numbered 145 members, and had twelve
establishments: colleges, residences, missions, etc. In 1777 the
question was discussed about opening a novitiate and the Fathers had
sufficient evidence that Pius VI would be glad of it and that even
Clement XIV had not been averse. Moreover, the letter sent to Bishop
Siestrzencewicz had been found on examination not to be the "formidable
decree," as friends in Rome had described it, for it left to him the
right of creating and renewing only "what he might find necessary."
Finally, as it was not couched in the usual form of Apostolic documents,
the superior, Father Czerniewicz, set aside his doubts and wrote both to
the bishop and to the firm friend of the Society, Governor General
Tchernichef, that he had determined to open that establishment.
Tchernichef's support must have been very strong, for when Father
Czerniewicz arrived at Mohilew to arrange matters with the bishop, he
received from the prelate a decree dated June 29, 1779, authorizing him
to carry out his purpose. This decree began with the words: "Pope
Clement XIV, of celebrated memory, condescending to the desire of the
Most August Empress of the Russias, our Most Clement Sovereign, had
permitted the non-promulgation in her dominions of the Bull 'Dominus ac
Redemptor;' and Our Holy Father Pope Pius VI, now happily reigning,
shows the same deference to the desires of Her Imperial Majesty, by
refraining from all opposition to the retention of their habit, name and
profession by the Regular Clerks of the Society of Jesus, in the estates
of her Majesty, notwithstanding the Bull 'Dominus ac Redemptor.'
Moreover as the Most August Empress to whom both we and the numerous
Catholic churches in her vast domains are under such grave obligations
has recommended to us both verbally and by writing to do all in our
power to see that the aforesaid Regular Clerks of the Society of Jesus
may provide for the conservation of their Institute, we hasten to
fulfil that duty which is so agreeable to us and for which we should
reproach ourselves did we stint our efforts in carrying it out.
Hitherto, they have not had any novitiate in this country, and, as their
numbers are gradually diminishing, it is evident that they cannot
exercise their useful ministry unless a novitiate is accorded them."
In virtue of this permission, a novitiate was established at Polotsk on
February 2, 1780, and ten novices entered and began community life under
the direction of Father Lubowicki. On that occasion, according to de
Mürr, a formidable Latin poem of 169 hexameters was composed by Father
Michael Korycki in honor of Bishop Siestrzencewicz. Thus was the house
established; and in spite of the importunities of the Bourbon
ambassadors at Rome, the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius VI, never gave
utterance, either personally or through his nuncio in Poland, to any
public protest against it. All the denunciations of the alleged
"refractory Jesuits" were either letters of private individuals or
secret official correspondence, written doubtless in the name of the
Pope, but indirectly, that is through the channel of the secretaryship
of State and the nunciature; and never going outside the narrow
diplomatic circle. Nor is there the slightest positive proof that the
Pope regarded the Jesuits of White Russia except as religious.
"On the contrary," says Zalenski (I, 330), "Pius VI knew very well, as
did everyone else in Rome, that Clement XIV had published the Brief of
Suppression in spite of himself, and only after four years of hesitation
and conflict with the diplomats. Moreover, Cardinals Antonelli and
Calini, eye-witnesses of what had happened, represented to Pius VI in
personal memorials that the suppression was invalid. Pius himself had
belonged to that section of cardinals which disapproved of the
destruction, and, as has been already said, when he was Pope, he set
free the prisoners of the Castle Sant' Angelo, rehabilitated their
memory, and ordered Father Ricci to be buried with the honors due to the
general of an Order. In brief, Pius VI, as both Frederick II and
Tchernichef insisted, was really glad that the Society had been
preserved, and his silence was an approbation of it. Indeed, he could
not, as the Father of Christendom, exclude the Jesuits from the
protection of the general law of the Church and regard them as
suppressed and freed from their vows, before the Brief of Clement XIV
had been properly made known to them by the ordinary of the diocese. Of
course, their enemies systematically rejected this axiom although
accepted both by common and canon law. They denounced it as "a vain
subterfuge," and even the Apostolic nuncio, in one of his dispatches
declared it to be such; but the Holy Father could not, in conscience,
accept that view.
In February, 1782, Tchernichef, the great friend of the Society, fell
from power, but his successor Potemkin showed himself even a more
devoted defender. Fortunately, Father Benislawski, a former Jesuit, but
now a canon, was very intimate with him and induced him to give his aid
to the Society. As Bishop Siestrzencewicz had meantime become Archbishop
of Mohilew, the fear was again revived that he would claim to be the
religious superior of the Jesuits. Indeed, by sundry appointments to
parishes, he began to reveal that such was his intention, and Archetti,
the nuncio at Warsaw, urged him to persist in his attacks. To head off
the danger, the Fathers had determined to proceed to the election of a
Vicar General, and they obtained permission from the empress to that
effect. She issued a ukase, on June 23, 1782, in which she said that the
Jesuits were to be subject to the archbishop, in things that pertained
to his rights and duties, but that he should be very careful not to
interfere with any of the rules of the Order which were to remain intact
"in as far as they agree with our civil constitutions." Siestrzencewicz
was quite upset by this order, and not knowing that it had been obtained
through the intervention of Potemkin, he asked the Prince Wiaziemski,
who was then president of the Senate, to obtain a decree from that body
subjecting the Jesuits to his jurisdiction. The Senate so ruled by a
rescript dated September 12, 1781, but it was a very ill-advised
proceeding on their part, for it set them in opposition both to the
empress and the powerful Potemkin, besides making a rebel of the
archbishop and a meddler of the nuncio.
While a spirited correspondence was going on between those two
distinguished ecclesiastics about the matter, the Fathers met at
Polotsk, on October 10, 1782, which happened to be the feast of St.
Francis Borgia, to hold the twentieth congregation of the Society.
Everything was done according to the rule which governs such assemblies,
and Father Stanislaus Czerniewicz, the vice-provincial, was chosen Vicar
General of the Society. In the following session, it was decreed that
for those who re-entered the Society, the years spent involuntarily and
by compulsion, in the world, would count as so many years in religion.
With this the congregation ended, because orders had come to Polotsk,
for the Vicar General to report immediately to the Empress at St.
Petersburg. Accordingly, after naming Father Francis Kareu,
vice-provincial, he set out for the capital and was welcomed by
Catherine with the words: "I defended you thus far, and will do so till
the end."
The question now arose how would the archbishop receive the delegates of
the congregation which had ignored his claim to control the internal
affairs of the Society. The all-powerful Potemkin had attended to that.
He had called the prelate to task for daring to oppose the explicit
command of the empress, and warned him of the danger of such a course of
action. As Siestrzencewicz was primarily a politician, he had no
difficulty in modifying his views. Moreover, Canon Benislawski, who had
studied him at close range and knew his peculiarities, had taken care to
prepare him for the visit of the delegates. When they arrived, he
received them with the greatest courtesy and sent a letter of
congratulation to the newly-elected vicar. The future of the Society was
thus assured. A successor to Father Ricci had been elected; a general
congregation had convened and its proceeding had been conducted in
strict conformity with the Constitution. Besides, a novitiate had been
established, members of the dispersed provinces had been officially
recognized as belonging to the Society; and all this had been done with
the tacit consent of the Sovereign Pontiff.
Father Czerniewicz remained in St. Petersburg more than three months,
during which time he was frequently summoned to discuss with the empress
and Potemkin matters pertaining to education, but chiefly to make
arrangements for negotiations in Rome, in order to obtain the Pope's
express approval of the election. The matter called for considerable
diplomatic skill, for in the Acts of the congregation, some very bold
expressions had been employed which might cause the failure of the whole
venture. Thus, it had declared that "the Brief of Clement XIV destroyed
the Society outside of Russia;" and again, that "the Vicar was elected
by the authority of the Holy See." The second especially was a dangerous
assertion, since the papal nuncio, Archetti, regarded the election as
illegal, and even a few of the Jesuits themselves were doubtful as to
the correctness of the claim. There was fear, also, about the personal
disposition of the Pope on that point.
To dispose of all these difficulties Catherine sent Benislawski as her
ambassador to Rome, with very positive instructions not to modify them
in any way whatever. He was not to stop at Warsaw, but might call on the
nuncio, Garampi, at Vienna, and also on Gallitzin, the Russian
ambassador. He was to go by the shortest route to Rome, to visit no
cardinals there, but to present himself immediately to the Pope. In his
audience, he was to make three requests. They were: first, the
preconization of Siestrzencewicz as archbishop; second, the appointment
of Benislawski himself as coadjutor; and third, the approbation of the
Jesuits in White Russia, and especially the recognition of the Acts of
the congregation. The refusal of anyone of them was to entail a rupture
of negotiations with Russia.
On February 21, 1783, Benislawski arrived in Rome, and saw the Pope on
the same day. He was received most graciously; his own nomination as
bishop was confirmed; but, said the Pope: "Siestrzencewicz had no right
to open the novitiate." "That was done," replied Benislawski, "by order
of the empress." "Since that is the case," said the Pope, "I shall
forget the injury done to me by the bishop." He then asked about the
Jesuits and their General, and whether the election had been formally
ordered by the empress. When assured upon the latter point, he answered,
"I do not object." After an interview of two hours Benislawski withdrew.
At the second audience the attitude of the Pope was cold and
indifferent, for the Bourbon ambassadors had influenced him meantime.
Noticing the change, Benislawski fell upon his knees and asked the
Pope's benediction. "What does this mean?" he was asked. "My orders are
to withdraw immediately, if my requests are not granted." That startled
the Pope, and he immediately changed his tone; he spoke kindly to
Benislawski and told him to put his requests in writing. All night long
the faithful ambassador labored at his desk formulating each request and
answering every argument that might be alleged against it. Zalenski
gives the entire document (I, 386), which substantially amounted to
this: "The failure of the bishop to abolish the Society in Russia; the
establishment of the novitiate, and the election of the General were all
due to the explicit and positive orders of Catherine. As she had
threatened to persecute the Catholics of Russia and to compel the Poles
to enter the Orthodox Church, it was clear that there was no choice but
to submit to her demands.
"With regard to the objection that the Bourbon Princes would be angry at
Catherine's support of the Jesuits, Benislawski made answer, that, 'as
the empress had offered no objections to the suppression of the Order in
the dominions of those rulers, she failed to see why they had any right
to question her action in preserving it. She owed those kings no
allegiance.' Secondly, the approval of the Society would not be a
reflection on the present Pope, who had as much right to reverse the
judgment of Clement XIV, as Clement XIV had to reverse the judgment of
thirty of his predecessors. If none of the kings and diplomats had
blamed Clement for acting as he did, why should they blame Pius VI for
using his own right in the premises? Moreover, the Brief was never
published in Russia, and there was not the slightest prospect that it
ever would be. Finally, the empress had made a solemn promise not to
harm her Catholic subjects; but she was convinced that she could not
inflict a greater injury on them than to deprive their churches of
priests and their schools of teachers who in her opinion were
invaluable." As to the charge that the whole course of the empress was
due to the suggestion of the Jesuits, Benislawski replied that "everyone
knew they had petitioned her to have the Brief promulgated, and that she
had told them they were asking what was not agreeable to her."
The next day the Pope read the statement, smiled and said, "You want to
arrange this matter by a debate with me. But there can be no answer to
your contention. Your arguments are irrefutable." Very opportunely, a
letter arrived from the empress who expressed her willingness to receive
a papal legate to settle the case of the Uniate Archbishop of Polotsk,
and asking to have Benislawski consecrated in St. Petersburg. The letter
was read to the Pope, in the presence of a number of Cardinals, to whom
Benislawski was presented. The Holy Father then gave his assent to the
preconization of the archbishop, and the consecration of Benislawski.
"As to the third," he said, raising his voice: "Approbo Societatem Jesu
in Alba Russia degentem; approbo, approbo" (that is I approve of the
Society of Jesus, now in Russia; I approve, I approve). As the verbal
utterances of Popes in public matters of the Church, have the same force
as when they are in writing, and are designated by canonists and
theologians as _vivæ vocis oracula_, Benislawski contented himself with
this approval. Besides, fearing the machinations of the Bourbon
politicians, he could not ask for more. He had won his case, and had
received the Pope's assurance that the Society in Russia was not and
never had been suppressed. No more was needed.
Against the immense majority of historians of every shade of opinion,
Theiner in his "Pontificate of Clement XIV" denounces this account of
the embassy as "a fabrication of the Jesuit Benislawski," though
Benislawski was not then a Jesuit, nor did he ever re-enter the Society.
Besides, although Theiner characterizes the distinguished canonist whom
the Pope had just made a bishop as "a liar" and "an intriguer," he
admits at the same time that he was "a virtuous man" and "a pious
priest." If the account of the audience had been untrue, the Pope would
certainly have been compelled to denounce it; for it was published
immediately in the Florence Gazette; and the falsifier would assuredly
never have received his mitre. Nevertheless, to settle the matter
definitely and to allay all doubts and suspicions, Benislawski, after he
was installed as Bishop of Gadara, was invited to the second
congregation of the Jesuits. It met at Polotsk, on July 25, 1785, and he
there made the following declaration under oath:
"Having been sent to Rome by the Most Illustrious Empress of all the
Russias to interview the Pope with a view of settling the difficulty
about the Archbishopric of Mohilew and of the Co-adjutorship of that
see, as well as to obtain from the Pope the approval of the Society of
Jesus in White Russia, I represented to His Holiness the state of the
Jesuits living there in conformity with the laws of their Institute, and
I acquainted him with the fact that they had elected a General in
obedience to the command of the Most Illustrious Empress. After having
heard me, His Holiness kindly approved of the manner of life which the
Jesuits were leading in White Russia, and ratified the election of the
General, repeating three times, '_approbo, approbo, approbo_.' I affirm
under a most solemn oath, the truth of this verbal approbation; in
confirmation of which I hereunto affix my seal and signature."
Theiner adduces three Briefs of Pius VI to offset this affidavit of
Benislawski, but two of them antedate the episode at Rome; the third was
issued a month later, and has nothing in common with the question at
issue. Besides this, a few years subsequent to this approval, when
Father Joseph Pignatelli, who may one day be among the canonized saints
of the Church, asked permission of the Pope to go to White Russia "if
the Society existed there," His Holiness answered: "Yes, it exists
there; and if it were possible I would have it extended everywhere
throughout the world. Go to Russia. I authorize you to wear the habit of
the Jesuits. I regard the Jesuits there, as true Jesuits and the Society
existing in Russia as lawfully existing." (Bonfier, Vie de Pignatelli,
196.)
As their status was now settled, the Fathers addressed themselves to the
educational reform which the empress wanted to introduce into the
schools of Russia. It consisted mainly in giving prominence to the
physical sciences. They had no difficulty in complying with her wishes,
and Father Gruber, who was an eminent physicist, immediately established
a training-school for the preparation of future professors, and in March
1785, a number of Jesuit scientists were summoned by Potemkin to St.
Petersburg.
On June 20, of that year, the Vicar General Czerniewicz died. He was
born in 1728, and had entered the Society at sixteen; after teaching at
Warsaw, he was called to Rome as secretary to Father Ricci; later he was
substitute assistant of Poland. He was then sent to be rector of
Polotsk, and was at that post when Clement XIV issued the decree of
Suppression. At the congregation which was called on October 1, Father
Lenkiewicz was elected to succeed him.
By this time, many of the old Jesuits were sending in their requests for
admission. Among them were such distinguished personages as the
astronomer Hell; two of Father Ricci's assistants, Romberg and Korycki
and others. All could not be received in Russia itself, but wherever
they were, in America, Europe, China, the East and West Indies, etc.,
they were all gladly welcomed back and their names were inscribed in the
catalogue. It is of especial interest for Americans to find those of
Adam Britt of Maryland and of several who were sent from White Russia to
the United States when Carroll was empowered to re-establish the Society
in 1805. They are Anthony Kohlmann, Malevy, Brown, Epinette and others.
Those who, for one reason or another, were unable to go to Russia in
person, were informed that they were duly recognized as Jesuits and were
given permission to renew their vows. This arrangement was made
especially for the ex-members who had been appointed to bishoprics, or
were employed in some important function, such as royal confessors,
court preachers, scientists, etc., or again, who were prevented by age
and infirmity from making the long and difficult journey.
In the "Catalogus mortuorum," or list of deceased members, which covers
the period between 1773 and 1814, Zalenski counts 268 who are _extra
provinciam_; all nations under the sun are represented. From everywhere
gifts were sent by former Jesuits. Thus, Father Raczynski who had become
Primate of Poland gathered together at various auctions as many as 8000
Jesuit books and sent them to the College of Polotsk. Others followed
his example, and in 1815 the college library had 35,000 volumes on its
shelves. Other contributions came in the form of money. As early as
1787, Polotsk had a printing-press, and produced its own text-books,
besides publishing a number of works which were out of print. Fr. Gruber
kept at work forming a corps of able scientists, and he even made many
coadjutor brothers architects, painters and skilled artificers in
various crafts. The institution soon became famous for its physical and
chemical laboratories, its splendid theatre, its paintings, sculpture,
etc. The minor colleges soon followed its example, and the Jesuit
churches resumed their customary magnificence. Sodalities were
established, distant missions were undertaken, and among the neighboring
Letts, Jesuit missionaries created a veritable Paraguay.
Catherine reigned for thirty-five years, and until her death, as she had
promised, she had never failed to protect the Society. Her word alone
counted in Russia. She was alone on the throne for she had murdered the
czar, her husband, because of his repudiation of her son Paul, and also
because of her natural intolerance of an equal. It is true that Father
Carroll, in far-away America, was lamenting that his brethren had such a
protectress, but that was beyond their control. It can at least be
claimed that they had never yielded an iota in their duties as Catholic
priests. During the whole of her reign she kept her unfortunate heir
almost in complete seclusion. He was confided to the care chiefly of
Father Gruber, who besides being a saint was a man of wonderful ability.
He was a musician, a painter, an architect, a physicist and a
mathematician. One of his oil paintings adorns the refectory of
Georgetown today; brought over, no doubt, by some of the Polish Fathers.
It is very far from being the work of an amateur. Naturally, therefore,
Paul took to him kindly, and the affection continued till the end. When
on the throne, he multiplied the colleges of the Society, enlarged the
novitiate, installed the Fathers in the University of Vilna, and even
persuaded the Grand Turk to restore to the Jesuits their ancient
missions on the Ægean Archipelago.
The intimacy was so great that Gruber was supposed to be able to procure
any favor from Paul and hence his life was made miserable by the swarm
of suitors who beset him; but he was not foolish enough to forfeit the
favor of the prince by being made a tool to further the selfish aims of
the petitioners. He did, however, request the czar to ask the
newly-elected Pope Pius VII for an official recognition of the Society
in Russia. The Pope was only too willing to grant it, but the lingering
hostility to the Jesuits, even in Rome itself, made it somewhat
difficult. Indeed, a certain number of the cardinals pronounced very
decidedly against it, and only yielded, when the Pope made them take all
the responsibility of a refusal. He appointed a committee of the most
hostile among them to report on the imperial request, thus bringing them
face to face with the consequences of opposing the ruler of a great
empire and converting him from a friend into a persecutor of the Church.
Looking at it from that point of view, they quickly came to a favorable
conclusion, and on March 7, 1801, the Bull "Catholicæ Fidei" was issued,
explicitly re-establishing the Society of Jesus in Russia. It was the
first great step to the general restoration throughout the world
thirteen years later. The approbation arrived very opportunely, for
sixteen days after its reception Paul I was assassinated.
At his accession, Alexander, though less demonstrative than Paul, showed
his esteem for the Society to such an extent that when the General,
Father Kareu, was at the point of death, the czar went in person to
Polotsk to offer his condolence. This condescension was so marked that
Father Gruber availed himself of the opportunity to solicit the
publication of the Papal Bull which the turmoil consequent upon Paul's
assassination had prevented from being officially proclaimed. The
emperor made no difficulty about it, and issued a ukase to that effect.
He even went further in his approval, for when Gruber was elected
General in place of Father Kareu, he was summoned to St. Petersburg to
occupy a splendidly equipped College of Nobles which Paul had
established in the city itself. It was there that Gruber met the famous
Count Joseph de Maistre who was at that time Ambassador of Sardinia at
the imperial court. A deep and sincere affection sprung up between the
two great men, and in the storm that, later on, broke out against the
Society, de Maistre showed himself its fearless and devoted defender.
Catherine II had, in her time, attempted the colonization of the vast
steppes of her empire, and Paul I had been energetic in carrying out her
plans. Alexander I, also, was anxious to further the project which
called for not a little heroism on the part of those who undertook it.
Incidentally, it would relieve the government of considerable anxiety
and worry; for as the new settlers came from every part of Germany, and
professed all kinds of religious beliefs, it was considered to be of
primary importance politically, to establish some sort of unity among
them and to accustom them to Russian legislation and ways of life. The
Jesuits were selected for the task, and in spite of the hardships and
the isolation to which they were subjected, and in face, also, of the
hatred and opposition of their enemies as well as the usually surly mood
of the brutalized immigrants who had been driven out of their own
country by starvation and oppression, order was restored within a year,
and the government reported that these few priests had achieved what a
whole army of soldiers could never have accomplished. The missions of
Astrakhan were said to be similarly successful. But it appears in the
light of subsequent events, that no solid or permanent results had been
effected.
A glance at the map will show us that these two fields of endeavor were
at the extreme eastern and western ends of Russia's vast empire. The
Riga district is on the Baltic or, more properly, on the Gulf of Riga.
Below it, are the now famous cities of Köningsberg and Dantzic.
Astrakhan is on the Caspian Sea into which the great River Volga
empties. On both sides of this river, as in the city itself, the Jesuits
had established their mission posts. But from both the Baltic and the
Caspian they had to withdraw, when driven out of Russia by Alexander in
1820.
The present condition of these two sections of the now dismembered
empire is most deplorable. Indeed, as early as 1864 Marshall (Christian
Missions, I, 74) says of them: "Let us begin with the Provinces of the
Baltic. The Letts who inhabit Courland and the southern half of Livonia,
though long normally Christians and surrounded by Lutherans and
Russo-Greeks, sacrifice to household spirits by setting out food for
them in their gardens or houses or under old oak trees. Of the
Esthonians, Kohl says: 'The old practices of heathenism have been
preserved among them more completely than among any other Lutheran
people. There are many spots where the peasants yet offer up
sacrifices.' Let us now accompany Mr. Laurence Oliphant down the Volga
to the Caspian Sea. Everywhere his experience is uniform. The Kalmuks
whom he discovered are still Buddhists. Near the mouth of the Volga he
visits a large and populous village in a state of utter heathenism and
apparently destined to remain so. At Sarepta near Astrakhan, the
Moravians had attempted to convert the neighboring heathen but the Greek
clergy prevented them. One tribe is made up of followers of the Grand
Lama; another of pagans; a third of Mahometans. In the city of Kazan,
once the capital of a powerful nation, there are 20,000 Mahometans, and
the immense Tatar population of the entire region reaching as far as
Astrakhan has adopted a combination of Christianity, Islamism and
Shamanism, or are as out and out pagans as they were before being
annexed to the Russian Empire."
Among these degraded peoples the Jesuits were at work while they were
directing their colleges at Polotsk, St. Petersburg and elsewhere until
1814.
CHAPTER XXII
THE RALLYING
Fathers of the Sacred Heart--Fathers of the Faith--Fusion--
Paccanari--The Rupture--Exodus to Russia--Varin in Paris
--Clorivière--Carroll's doubts--Pignatelli--Poirot in
China--Grassi's Odyssey.
While the Society was maintaining its corporate life in Russia several
contributory sources began to flow towards it from various parts of
Europe. The most notable was the association that was formed under the
eyes and with the approval of the wise and virtuous Jacques-André Emery,
the superior of the Seminary of Paris, who himself had been trained in
the Jesuit college of Macon. Under his guidance and very much attached
to him, was a little group of seminarians consisting of Charles and
Maurice de Broglie, sons of the celebrated Marshal of that name, both of
whom bore the title of Prince; François Eléonore de Tournély, who was
the animating spirit of the little association, and, omitting others,
Joseph Varin who succeeded de Tournély as the guide of the growing
community.
When the Revolution broke out, Varin yielding to his martial instincts,
left the seminary and became a soldier in the royalist army; but Charles
de Broglie kept the group together and under the direction of Pey, a
distinguished canon of Paris, they plunged into the study of the
spiritual life and continued to dream of an association which might in
one way or another take up the work of the suppressed Society of Jesus.
In 1791 they were compelled to seek a refuge in Luxembourg. Two years
later, they fled to Antwerp, and finally found themselves in the old
Jesuit villa of Louvain, which is still standing near the château of the
Duc d'Arenberg. There they were joined by de Broglie's brother, Xavier,
and by Pierre Leblanc, both of whom had served for two years in the army
of the Prince de Condé. Varin joined them in that year. He had been a
soldier ever since the seminary had closed, and had given up all idea of
ever resuming the soutane. But it happened that he was absent from his
regiment when a battle occurred, and in disgust he had gone to Belgium
to ask to be transferred to another corps. While there, he fell into the
hands of his old seminary friends; in a few days his former fervor
returned and he was accepted as the sixth member of what de Tournély had
determined to call "The Society of the Sacred Heart."
On the very day of Varin's entrance, he and five associates started off
on foot, with their bags on their backs, to beg their way to Bavaria. It
took them five days to get as far as Augsburg, and there they remained,
though their intention was to establish themselves at Munich. But the
Bishop of Augsburg told them that if they wanted to learn what the
Society of Jesus was, no better place could be found than the city in
which they then found themselves, for the memory of many illustrious
Jesuits was still fresh in the hearts of the people. The bishop who gave
them this welcome hospitality was Clemens Wenzeslaus, who besides being
a prelate was a prince of Saxony and Poland. Yielding to his advice,
they took up their abode in Augsburg where they were soon joined by two
distinguished men who were afterwards to be conspicuous in the
reconstructed Society, Grivel, who was to be sent to Georgetown in
America as master of novices, and the famous Rozaven, who was to save
the Society from wreck in the first general congregation held after the
Restoration, and who was subsequently to be the assistant General both
of Fortis and Roothaan.
As they were all Frenchmen, they were necessarily debarred from
apostolic work among the people whose language they could not speak. But
that was providential, for they had thus a better opportunity to devote
themselves to the study of the spiritual life. On March 12, 1796, Varin
and some others were promoted to the priesthood, and about the middle of
December, they were installed first at Neudorf and then at Hagenbrünn,
near Vienna, as the invading armies of Moreau and Jourdan made Augsburg
an unsafe place to live in. They were now sixteen in number and their
close imitation of the Jesuit mode of life caused a sensation there, as
Austria had only a short time before suppressed the Society.
De Tournély died on July 9, 1797, and Varin was elected in his place on
the first ballot. The organization however, had not yet received the
authorization of the Sovereign Pontiff, for as Napoleon held him a
prisoner now in one place now in another, it was impossible to make any
personal application for his approval of the new organization. Hence, a
petition was drawn up, signed by twenty-five or thirty bishops asking
the Holy Father's approbation. The answer came in the month of September
1798, assuring them that their project afforded him the greatest
consolation, and with all his heart he gave them his blessing.
The establishment of this Society was not as has been said "the
underhand work of the Jesuits," for Varin and his associates had as yet
never met any member of the old Society, nor were they aware of the
existence of any similar organization in Italy. Indeed, when a letter
came from Rome, signed Nicolas Paccanari, announcing that he was their
superior, and was such, "in virtue of an express wish of the Pope to
have the two communities united," the associates regarded it as the
abolition of their Society of the "Fathers of the Sacred Heart,"
especially as this unknown individual announced that he was then on his
way to Hagenbrünn to carry the plan into effect.
Nicolas Paccanari was a very curious personage. He had no education
whatever, and in his early life had been engaged in various occupations
which scarcely seemed to fit him to be the founder of a religious order.
He was born near Trent, and had been for some time a soldier, then a
merchant on a small scale, and when swindled by an associate, he took to
tramping from town to town, vending, as Guidée says, "objects of
curiosity," that is, he was an itinerant peddler. He was a pious man,
and as he belonged to one of the guilds in the Caravita at Rome, he was
prompted by the spirit that prevailed in that famous Oratory to do
something more than usual for the glory of God. He first thought of
being a Carmelite, and then the fancy seized him that he was destined to
resuscitate the Society of Jesus. Strangely enough, although he was not
even a priest, he was joined by a doctor of the Sapienza and two French
ecclesiastics, Halnat and Epinette, the latter of whom entered the
Society and later taught philosophy at Georgetown D. C. He was
undoubtedly clever, and so plausible in his speech that he won the
confidence of the most distinguished personages in Europe: cardinals and
noblemen and heads of religious orders, with the result that he and his
two friends made their vows on the eve of the Assumption 1797, in the
chapel of the Caravita, and Paccanari was elected superior. He succeeded
even in seeing the Pope, who was then a prisoner at Spoleto, and
obtained his approval and blessing. He called his organization "The
Society of the Fathers of the Faith of Jesus," which was shortened
later into "The Fathers of the Faith." In Böhmer-Monod we find them
styled "The Brothers of the Faith."
Paccanari failed to arrive at Hagenbrünn for a considerable time, for he
had fallen into the hands of the police and was kept a prisoner in Sant'
Angelo. His restless activity and constant change of abode had attracted
the notice of the authorities, and he was suspected of being concerned
in some political plot against the Roman Republic, which the French had
just then set up in the Papal dominions. His associates were arrested at
the same time, and were not released for four months. It was during this
time of incarceration that Paccanari sent a second letter to Varin more
startling than the first. It announced that the Fathers of the Sacred
Heart had been received into the Paccanari association, and that Father
Varin was appointed superior of the society in Germany. Such a
communication from a man whom they had not even seen, made them conclude
that they had to do with a lunatic. Finally, in the month of February
1799, a third letter arrived, clearing up what had been said in the
second. The explanation offered was that not knowing if he would ever be
let out of jail, and not wishing that the privileges he had received
from the Holy See should lapse, he had as a precaution admitted Varin
and his associates into the Society of the Fathers of the Faith.
When at last he was released, he started for Vienna, and on his way,
made it his business to see some of the dispersed Jesuits who were in
Parma and Venice. They were very kind to him, procured him financial
assistance, but did not welcome him with the enthusiasm he expected.
They had remarked that he never spoke of uniting his associates with the
Jesuits of Russia. Paccanari was keen enough to divine their reason,
and he was therefore only the more eager to affiliate with the people at
Hagenbrünn, for he had only twenty members of his own, not more than
three of whom were priests. He reached Vienna on April 3, and was
naturally received with some reserve, but when Cardinal Migazzi and the
nuncio made known the desire of the Pope, all opposition ceased and the
discussion of the mode of union began. The sessions lasted ten days and
ended by the election of Paccanari as general. The Society of the
Fathers of the Sacred Heart thus passed out of existence on April 18,
1799.
The house at Hagenbrünn at once took on a different aspect. There was
less study, fewer exercises of piety, the recreations were immoderately
prolonged, and the Fathers were actually compelled to take up a series
of athletic exercises that made them think they were back in their
college days. Of course this soon became intolerable, but little else
could have been expected from a man like Paccanari, who was absolutely
ignorant of the first elements of community life. What is still more
curious is that he was not even yet tonsured; but he was, nevertheless,
so wonderfully insinuating in his manner that he succeeded in persuading
everyone outside of his own household that he was the man of the hour.
The public praised him, but his subjects were exasperated at his
opinionativeness, his despotism, his repeated absences from home, and
above all by his avoidance of all association with the dispersed
Jesuits. All that quickly convinced the Fathers of the Sacred Heart that
a serious mistake had been made. It is true that on August 11, 1799,
Paccanari made a formal announcement that his sole purpose was to
amalgamate with the Jesuits of Russia, but it was tolerably clear that
if he ever had any such intention it was rapidly vanishing from his
mind. He began by founding several establishments in various parts of
Europe, even Moravia being favored in this respect. In this
distribution, de Broglie and Rozaven were dispatched to England, and
Halnat, Roger and Varin to France.
After the example of the old Jesuits, the first work that Varin and his
companions undertook when they arrived in Paris was the care of the
hospitals of La Salpétrière and Bicêtre, the first of which had 6,000
patients and had not seen a priest in its wards for ten years. The
government now admitted the folly of its previous methods of procedure,
and sought the help of the ministers of religion. A tremendous
transformation was immediately effected. Nor could it have been
otherwise, for the zealous priests spent thirteen and fourteen hours a
day there, going from bed to bed to comfort the patients.
It was Halnat who first discovered the existence of the venerable Father
de Clorivière, a Jesuit of the old Society, who was to be the first
provincial of France after the restoration. The pious Mlle. de Cicé, a
niece of the Archbishop of Bordeaux, also comes into view at this
period. She had been the directress of an association of ladies
established by Father de Clorivière to supply as far as possible the
place of the expelled nuns, in looking after the young girls of Paris.
Varin became her spiritual guide and also directed Mlle. de Jugon, a
remarkable woman, who subsequently married a wealthy nobleman; but at
his death she resumed with great ardor the charitable works which had
previously reflected such glory upon her piety and zeal.
Just at this time, an attempt was made to assassinate Napoleon. An
"infernal machine," as it was called, was exploded under his carriage,
and Mlle. de Cicé was suspected of knowing something about it, chiefly
because of her association with the mysterious personages who had
recently arrived in France--Varin and his companions. Indeed, although
the good woman's holiness of life was vouched for by a great number of
witnesses, chiefly the beneficiaries of her charity, she might have been
condemned to death, had not Father Varin appeared in court, where he
made a candid explanation of the character of his society, as having for
its only purpose religion and charity, without any political
affiliations whatever. His good temper at the trial was a happy offset
to Father Halnat's outburst of anger which almost provoked an
unfavorable verdict. Later Halnat applied for admission to the Society
of Jesus, but it was thought unsafe to admit him.
At this juncture, there appears the figure of Madeleine-Sophie Barat,
the foundress of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, a title chosen at that
time not to indicate any social distinction; indeed Madame Barat was
from people in very ordinary circumstances, but the name "religious" was
in disfavor at that turbulent period, and it was thought advisable not
to obtrude unnecessarily the fact that she and her associates formed a
community of nuns. They were merely _des dames pieuses_, who lived
together for charitable and educational work. The name "dames" is an old
title for nuns in England.
She was the sister of Father Louis Barat, who was one of the Fathers of
the Faith, and when Varin was looking around for some capable woman to
give the girls of Paris and elsewhere a Christian education, Barat
suggested her as a possibility. He had taught her Latin, Greek, Spanish,
Italian, and natural philosophy, besides subjecting her to a very rigid
and somewhat harsh training in asceticism. She was then twenty years of
age, and with her usual habit of submission, she and her three
companions addressed themselves to the task. This was in 1801. Before
1857, she had succeeded in establishing more than eighty foundations in
various parts of the world and she is now ranked among the Beatified.
To Varin must also be accorded the credit of forming in the religious
life another woman who is among the Blessed; the Foundress of the
Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur, Julie Billiart. Perhaps his prayers had
something to do with the restoration to health of this remarkable woman,
who had been a paralytic and almost speechless for thirty-one years. She
recovered her youthful vigor in 1804, at the end of a novena to the
Sacred Heart, which had been suggested by her confessor. She was then at
Amiens, and Varin united her and her companions into a teaching
community, and drew up the rules and constitutions which they have
undeviatingly adhered to ever since. Indeed it was this very fidelity
that gave them the name of Notre Dame de Namur. For in the absence of
Varin a prominent ecclesiastic attempted to modify their rule, whereupon
the indignant women left Amiens and emigrated in a body to Namur. That
city has ever since been regarded as their spiritual birthplace. In the
space of twelve years, namely between 1804 and 1812, this quondam
paralytic founded fifteen convents, and made as many as one hundred and
twenty journeys, some of them very long and toilsome, in the prosecution
of her great work for the Church. Like the Ladies of the Sacred Heart,
the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur have establishments all over the
world.
Meantime, a very marked difference had displayed itself in the tone of
the various members of the Fathers of the Faith. Those who had been
followers of Paccanari had no idea whatever of the real nature of
religious life, whereas the disciples of Varin for the most part were
spiritual men and eager in the work of perfection. How noticeable this
was, is revealed in a letter from Bishop Carroll in America. He had
asked for help from the new organization, and four priests had been
promised him, but only one arrived--an Italian named Zucchi. Whether he
lost his way or not, or fancied he could follow his own guidance, he
went first to Quebec, but was promptly informed by the government
officials there that his presence was undesirable. He finally reached
Maryland, and Carroll describes him in a letter to Father Plowden in
England as follows: "There is a priest here named Zucchi, a _Romano di
nascità_, a man of narrow understanding, who does nothing but pine for
the arrival of his companions. Meantime he will undertake no work. From
this sample of the new order, I am led to believe that they are very
little instructed in the maxims of the Institute of our venerable
mother, the Society. Though they profess to have no other rule than
ours, Zucchi seems to know nothing of the structure of our Society, nor
even to have read the _Regulæ Communes_ which our very novices know
almost by heart."
The bishop had also heard of the establishment of one of the communities
of women by Father Varin, and that made him still more suspicious about
the genuineness of the Fathers of the Faith. "In one point," he writes
to Plowden, "they seem to have departed from St. Ignatius, by engrafting
on their Institution a new order of nuns, which is to be under their
government."
The rupture in the ranks of the Fathers of the Faith took place in 1803.
In the preceding year, Rozaven and Varin had gone to Rome and were there
confirmed in their suspicions that Paccanari was not sincere in his
protestations about his desire to join the Jesuits in Russia. They were
also shocked at the lack of religious spirit in the Paccanarist house
in Rome. In the following year, Rozaven again returned to Rome, and
besides being confirmed in his conviction that Paccanari was working for
the development of an independent society, he was informed of certain
charges against the personal character of the man. Paccanari's
explanation of the accusations, far from convincing Rozaven, only
confirmed him in his opinion. The result was that he obtained a private
audience with the Pope, and was authorized to sever his connection with
the Fathers of the Faith.
To his amazement, he found on his return to London, that his associates
had already taken the matter in hand for themselves and had applied to
Father Gruber in Russia, for admission to the Society. The petition was
granted, not, however to enter corporately but individually, namely
after each one's vocation had been carefully examined. The application
was to be made to Father Strickland in England, who had been a member of
the old Society. With other candidates from Holland and Germany,
twenty-five new members passed over to Russia.
It is very distressing to note that Father Charles de Broglie, who with
de Tournély had initiated the whole movement, was not in this group. He
and three others remained in London as secular priests, and
unfortunately, his relations with a certain number of refractory
Frenchmen led him into the schism known as _La Petite Eglise_. He
persisted in his rebellion as late as 1842, when he at last made his
submission to the Church.
Rozaven wrote from Polotsk to Varin, giving him an account of what had
happened to him in Rome, insisting on the justifiableness of the act,
and reminding him that they had joined the Fathers of the Sacred Heart,
and subsequently the Fathers of the Faith, solely for the sake of
uniting with the Jesuits in Russia. As Paccanari had not only no
intention of carrying out that purpose, but was doing everything in his
power to prevent it, the duty of allegiance ceased, and so the Pope had
decided. Forthwith, Varin, with the approval of all his subjects in
France, notified Paccanari that they had severed all connection with his
Society. Meantime however, they retained the name of Fathers of the
Faith.
But this independence was not satisfactory to Varin. What was he to do?
Should he disband his communities which were performing very effective
work in France or wait for developments? The Apostolic nuncio at Paris,
della Genga, decided that he should continue as he was till more
favorable circumstances presented themselves. They had not long to wait.
The emperor's uncle, Cardinal Fesch, had thus far protected them, but in
1807 Napoleon publicly and angrily reproached him for this patronage,
and on November 1st ordered all the Fathers to report to their
respective dioceses within fifteen days, under penalty of being sent to
the deadly convict colony of Guiana. Fouché offered several positions of
honor to Varin and on his refusal to accept them, drove him out of
Paris. By this time, however, Varin was a Jesuit and was following the
directions of the venerable Father Clorivière who had been empowered to
receive him.
The secession of the Fathers of France and England was quickly imitated
by the communities in other parts of Europe. Meanwhile Paccanari's
conduct became a public scandal. A canonical process was instituted
against him in 1808, and he was condemned to ten years' imprisonment.
But when the French took possession of the city in 1809 and opened the
prison doors, Paccanari disappeared from view, and no one ever knew what
became of him.
While the work of the Fathers of the Faith was progressing in France and
elsewhere, the saintly Pignatelli, who had been Angel Guardian of the
Spanish Jesuits when they were expelled from their native land, was
accomplishing much for the general establishment of the Society. After
landing in Italy where the Jesuits were as yet unmolested, he had
betaken himself, with the advice of the provincial to Ferrara, and there
housed the exiles as best he could. He also established a novitiate in
connection with the college which had been handed over to him; but all
this was swept away when the Brief of Clement XIV suppressed the entire
Society in 1773. Of course, the first thought of Pignatelli after this
disaster was to join his brethren in Russia, and with that in view he
wrote to Pope Pius VI, who had succeeded Clement XIV, asking him if the
Jesuits whom Catherine II had sheltered, really belonged to the Society.
The reply delighted him beyond measure, for it told him that he might go
to Russia with a safe conscience and put on the habit of the Society.
The Jesuits there really belonged to the Society for the Brief of
Suppression had never reached that country. The Pontiff also added that
he would restore the Society as soon as possible; and if he were not
able to do so he would recommend it to his successor.
Pignatelli's joy knew no bounds, and he immediately prepared for his
journey to the North, but the Providence of God kept him in Italy, for
the Duke of Parma, though a son of Charles III of Spain, had resolved to
recall the Jesuits to his Duchy, and for that purpose had written to
Catherine II of Russia to ask for three members of the Society to
organize the houses. The empress was only too glad to accede to his
wish; on February, 1794, three Jesuits arrived in Parma and began their
work at Calorno, just when Pius VI was passing through that city on his
way to the prisons of France. The opportunity was taken advantage of to
ask the august captive for authorization to open a novitiate and he most
willingly granted the request. Panizzoni, who was then provincial of
Italy, appointed Pignatelli as superior and master of novices.
Unfortunately the Duke of Parma died, and the Duchy was taken over by
France; however, the Jesuits were not molested for a year and a half,
and during this time Pignatelli, who was exercising the office of
provincial, succeeded in having the Society restored in Naples and
Sicily. This was in 1804. But when Napoleon laid his hands on the whole
of the peninsula an order was formulated for the expulsion of the
Jesuits. Fortunately its execution was not rigorously enforced and
colleges were established in Rome, Tivoli, Sardinia and Orvieto.
Meantime matters were progressing favorably in Russia, so much so that
in 1803 Father Angiolini was sent as imperial ambassador to the Pope to
solicit alms for the missions. When he appeared in Rome dressed as a
Jesuit, he found himself the sensation of the hour. The Sovereign
Pontiff received him with effusive affection and granted all that he
asked. He remained there as procurator of the Society, and in the
following year, was able to communicate to Father Gruber the pleasing
news that, at the request of King Ferdinand, the Society had been
re-established in the Two Sicilies. Father Pignatelli was made
provincial, and as many as 170 of those who had survived after Tanucci
had driven them out thirty-seven years previously came from the various
places that had sheltered them during the Suppression to resume their
former way of life. Several of them who had been made bishops asked the
Pope for permission to return but all were refused except two, Avogado
of Verona and Bencassa of Carpi.
The whole kingdom welcomed back the exiles with enthusiasm. The King
came in person to open the Church which he had persistently refused to
enter ever since the expulsion; at the first Mass he and the entire
royal family received Holy Communion. He also gave the Fathers their
former college, and endowed it with an annual income of forty thousand
ducats. This example encouraged others; colleges were founded
everywhere, and the number of applicants was so great that the
conditions for admission to the Society had to be made as rigorous as
possible. Unfortunately this happy condition of affairs did not last
long, for in March 1806, Joseph Bonaparte replaced Ferdinand IV on the
throne of Naples, and the Jesuits again took the road of exile. The Pope
offered them a refuge in Rome, and when they protested that such a
course would draw on him the wrath of Napoleon, he replied that they
were suffering for the Church, and that he must receive them just as
Clement XIII had done when they were exiled from Naples.
While these events were occurring in Italy and France, an opportunity
was presented to the Jesuits of Russia to revive their old missions in
China. Unfortunately it was frustrated. The story as told in the
"Woodstock Letters" (IV, 113) is a veritable Odyssey, and is
particularly interesting to Americans, for the reason that the principal
personage concerned in what proved to be a very heroic enterprise became
subsequently the President of Georgetown College: John Anthony Grassi.
Grassi was a native of Bergamo, and in 1799 entered the novitiate
established by Father Pignatelli at Calorno. He thus received a genuine
Jesuit training and escaped the influence of the establishments which
Paccanari was inaugurating in Italy just at that time. From Calorno he
was sent to Russia, and was made Rector of the College of Nobles which
was dependent upon the establishment at Polotsk. Meanwhile, he was
preparing himself for the missions of Astrakhan, and was already deep in
the study of Armenian when the Chinese matter was brought to the
attention of Father Gruber by a letter from a member of the old Society,
who had contrived to remain in China ever since the Suppression. He was
Louis Poirot. It appears that his ability as a musician had charmed the
emperor, and thus enabled him to continue his evangelical work in the
Celestial Empire.
Hearing of the establishment in Russia, he bethought himself of having
the Jesuits resume their old place in China, evidently unaware that the
Brief of 1801 expressly declared that the Society had been established
"only within the limits of the Russian Empire." But not knowing this he
availed himself of the return of a Lazarist missionary and wrote two
letters; one to the Pope and another to the Father General in which he
said: "I am eighty years of age and there is only one thing I care to
live for. It is to see the Jesuits return to China." His letter to the
General ends with a request to be permitted to renew his vows, "so as to
die a true son of the Society of Jesus." Between the time he wrote this
letter and its arrival in Europe, the limitation of the approval of the
Society to Russia had been withdrawn, and Father Gruber immediately set
about granting the venerable and faithful old man's request. Happily a
solemn legation was just then to leave St. Petersburg for China, and the
ambassador, Golowkin, was urged to take some Jesuits in his suite. The
offer was gladly accepted, but it was decided that it should be better
for the priests to go by the usual sea route than to accompany the
embassy overland.
Father Grassi was considered to be the most available man in the
circumstances, and he was told merely that he was to go to a distant
post, and that his companions were to be Father Korsack, a native of
Russia and a German lay-brother named Surmer, who happened to be a
sculptor. On January 14, 1805, they left Polotsk, and travelling day and
night, arrived at St. Petersburg on January 19. Only then were they
informed that their destination was Pekin. On February 2 they started on
sleds for Sweden. At the end of three days, they were all sick and
exhausted, but kept bravely on till they reached the frontier where they
found shelter in a little inn. Fortunately a physician happened to be
there and he helped them over their ailments, so that in ten days they
were able to resume their journey. They then started for Abo, the
capital of Finland and from there crossed the frozen sea at top speed,
till they reached the Island of Aland. On March 20 they traversed the
Gulf of Bothnia in a mail packet, and landed safely on the shore of
Sweden. On March 22 they were in Stockholm, but the Abbé Morrette, the
superior of the Swedish mission to whom they were to present themselves
was dead. An Italian gentleman, happily named Fortuna, who was Russian
Consul at that place, took care of them and presented them to Alopeus,
the Russian minister.
Alopeus dissuaded them from going to England as they had been directed,
and suggested Copenhagen as the proper place to embark. Arrived there,
they were informed that there was a ship out in the harbor, waiting to
sail for Canton, but that the captain refused to take any passengers;
whereupon they determined to follow their original instructions, and
after a stormy voyage arrived at Gravesend on May 22. From there they
went to London where they met Father Kohlmann.
The same misfortune attended them at London for although Lord Macartney,
who had known the Jesuits in Pekin, did everything to secure them a
passage to China, he failed utterly. Then acting under new instructions
they set sail for Lisbon on July 29, but were driven by contrary winds
to Cork in Ireland, where of course they met with the heartiest welcome
from everyone especially from the bishop. They finally landed at Lisbon
on September 28; passing as they entered the harbor, the gloomy fortress
of St. Julian where so many of their brethren had been imprisoned by
Pombal. They were befriended there by an Irish merchant named Stack, and
also by the rector of the Irish College; but were finally lodged in an
old dismantled monastery where they slept on the floor. Then, in the
dress of secular priests, they presented themselves to the Apostolic
nuncio who was very friendly to the Society, and who would have been a
Jesuit himself had it not been for the opposition of his family. He
warned them to be very cautious in what they did and said, and informed
them that there were very few ships clearing for Macao.
While at Lisbon, they devoted themselves to the study of mathematics and
astronomy, and after two months their friend, the Irish merchant, came
to tell them that there was a ship about to sail. They hastened to
advise the nuncio of it, but were then told that they could not go to
China, without the Pope's permission, for the reason that the Society
had been suppressed in that country. They also learned from a missionary
priest of the Propaganda, that Rome was very much excited about their
proposed journey; Father Angiolini who was then in Rome, wrote to the
same effect. It was then March 1806. Not knowing what to do, they began
a course of astronomy at the observatory of Coimbra, but unfortunately,
the founder of the observatory, an ex-Jesuit, José Monteiro da Rocha,
was very hostile to the Society; and even went so far in his opposition
that in a public oration before the university he had praised Pombal
extravagantly for having abolished the Order.
The wanderers remained at Coimbra for two months, and then returned to
Lisbon. On their way to the capital they saw the unburied coffin of
Pombal. On June 4 a letter came from England which revived their hopes,
especially as it was followed by pecuniary help from the czar; but soon
after that, they received news of the Russian embassy's failure to reach
China, and they also heard that the country of their dreams was in the
wildest excitement because a missionary there had sent a map of the
empire to Europe. The imprudent cartographer was imprisoned and an
imperial edict announced that vengeance was to be taken on all
Christians in the empire. Who the poor man was we do not know. It could
not have been old Father Poirot. He was merely a musician and not a
maker of maps. On December 2, 1806, the nuncio at Lisbon was informed
that the Pope quite approved of the project of the Fathers and had urged
his officials to assist them to carry it out. The reason of this change
of mind on the part of the Holy Father is explained by the fact that he
was anxious to propitiate Russia. Nevertheless, the nuncio advised them
to wait for further developments.
Another year went by, during which they continued their studies and made
some conversions. They had also the gratification of being introduced to
the Marchioness of Tavora, the sole survivor of the illustrious house
which Pombal had so ruthlessly persecuted. Finally they were recalled to
England, which they reached on November 16, 1807, after a month of great
hardship at sea. They were welcomed at Liverpool by the American Jesuit,
Father Sewall, who was at that time sheltering four other members of
the Society in his house. When the little community met at table, they
represented seven different nationalities--American, English, French,
German, Italian, Polish and Belgian. Father Grassi remained in England,
chiefly at Stonyhurst until 1810, and on August 27 of that year set sail
from Liverpool for Baltimore, where he arrived on October 20. He had
thus passed three years in England where community life had been carried
on almost without interruption from the time of the old Society. For
although the Brief of Suppression had explicitly forbidden it,
nevertheless Clement's successor had authorized it as early as 1778, and
had permitted the pronouncement of the religious vows in 1803,--a
privilege that was extended to the Kingdom of Naples in 1804. Arriving
in the United States, Father Grassi found that there had been virtually
no interruption of the Society's traditions in this part of the world.
The Fathers had been in close communication with Russia as early as 1805
and were being continually reinforced by members of the Society in
Europe. When the Bull of Re-establishment was issued there were nineteen
Jesuits in the United States.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE RESTORATION
Tragic death of Father Gruber--Fall of Napoleon--Release of
the Pope--The Society Re-established--Opening of Colleges--
Clorivière--Welcome of the Society in Spain--Repulsed in
Portugal--Opposed by Catholics in England--Announced in
America--Carroll--Fenwick--Neale.
In 1805 the Society met with a disaster which in the circumstances
seemed almost irreparable. During the night of March 25-26 its
distinguished General, Father Gruber, was burned to death in his
residence at St. Petersburg. His friend, the Count de Maistre, who was
still ambassador at the Russian Court, hurried to the scene in time to
receive his dying blessing and farewell. Gruber's influence was so great
in Russia that it was feared no one could replace him. His successor was
Thaddeus Brzozowski, who was elected on the second of September.
Splendid plans, especially in the field of education had been made by
Gruber and had been warmly approved of by the emperor, but they had to
be set aside for more pressing needs. Napoleon was just then devastating
Europe, and the very existence of Russia as well as of other nations was
at stake. It is true that the empire was at peace with France, but at
the rupture of the treaty of Amiens, Napoleon complained of the
political measures of the cabinet of St. Petersburg, and the ambassadors
of both countries received their papers of dismissal. The result was
that a coalition of Russia, England, Austria and Sweden was formed to
thwart the ambitions of Napoleon who was at that time laying claim to
the whole Italian Peninsula. War was declared in 1805. Austerlitz
compelled the empire to accept Napoleon's terms, but Prussia and Russia
continued the fight until the disasters at Jena, Eylau and Friedland.
Then the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia met Napoleon on a
raft anchored out in the Niemen, where on the eighth and ninth of July
peace was agreed to.
At Erfurt, in 1808 Napoleon and Alexander drew up what was known as the
"Continental System," in accordance with which, all English merchandise
was to be excluded from every continental nation. This was followed by a
defensive alliance of Austria and England, and as Austria was Russia's
ally, Alexander again entered the fight against Napoleon, but the
victory of Wagram and the marriage of Napoleon with the Austrian
archduchess, Maria Louisa, changed the aspect of affairs and the
"Continental System" was restored, but in so modified a form that war
broke out again, and in 1812 Napoleon began his Russian Campaign. The
battle of Smolensk opened the way for him to Moscow, but when the
conqueror arrived he found the city in flames. He mistook it for an act
of surrender and Alexander purposely detained him, discussing the terms
of peace until the winter set in. Then the conqueror decided to return,
but it was too late. On February 22, 1813, Alexander sent out a call to
all the kings of Europe to unite against Napoleon and they eagerly
responded. He beat them at Lutzen and Bautzen, and in Silesia, but in
spite of his success he had to continue his retreat. He won again at
Dresden and Leipzig, but they pursued him relentlessly, until at last
the Rhine was reached. Peace was offered in December 1813, but when its
acceptance was delayed, the Allies entered France, and on March 3, 1814,
laid siege to Paris. The city surrendered on the following day.
Meantime Napoleon had released Pius VII from captivity, not voluntarily,
but as a political measure, to propitiate the anger of the Catholics of
the world, who were beginning to open their eyes to the extent of the
outrage. Eighteen months previously he had dragged the venerable Pontiff
from Rome and hurried him night and day over the Alps, absolutely
heedless of the age and infirmity of his victim, until at last the Pope
entered Fontainebleau a prisoner. According to Pacca, it was a jail more
than a palace. There by dint of threats and brutal treatment Napoleon so
wore out the strength of the aged man that a Concordat was signed which
sacrificed some of the most sacred rights of the Holy See. It was
cancelled, indeed, subsequently, but it almost drove the Pope insane
when he realized the full import of what he had been driven to concede.
"I shall die like Clement XIV," he exclaimed. But his jailer was
heartless and it was only after a year and a half of imprisonment, and
when the Allies were actually entering France as conquerors, that he
made up his mind to send the Pontiff back to Rome. Had he done it with
less brutality he might even then, have succeeded in his calculations,
but only one attendant was sent to accompany the prisoner. The cardinals
were purposely dismissed some days later in batches, and ordered to go
by different routes so as to prevent any popular demonstration on the
way.
Pacca overtook the Pope at Sinigaglia on May 12, and on May 24, after a
brief stay at Ancona, Loreto, Macerata, Tolentino, Foligno, Spoleto,
Terni and Nepi, entered Rome. What happened at these places deserves to
be recorded, as it shows that the Faith was not only not dead but had
grown more intense because of the outrages of which the Vicar of Christ
had been the object. At Ancona, for instance, Artaud tell us, "he was
received with transports of delight. The sailors in the harbor flocked
around his carriage, unhitched the horses and with silken ropes of
yellow and red drew it triumphantly through the city, while the cannon
thundered from the ramparts, and the bells of every tower proclaimed the
joy of the people. From the top of a triumphal arch the Pope gave his
benediction to the kneeling multitudes, and then blessed the wide
Adriatic. From there he went to the palace of the Picis for a brief
rest. The next day he crowned the statue of the Blessed Virgin, Queen of
All Saints, and then set out for Osimo escorted as far as Loreto by a
scarlet-robed guard of honor. Entering Rome by the Porto del Popolo, his
carriage was drawn by young noblemen, and he was met by a procession of
little orphan children chosen from the Protectory of Providence. They
were all clothed in white robes and in their hands they held golden palm
branches which they waved above their heads, while their young voices
filled the air with jubilant songs. When the crowd became too dense, the
little ones knelt before him to present their emblems of peace, which he
affectionately received, while tears rolled down his cheeks. At last,
the city gates were reached and he proceeded along the streets lined on
either side by kneeling multitudes who were overcome with joy at his
return."
Almost the first official act of the Pope was to re-establish the
Society. How that came about may be best told in the words of his
faithful servant, Cardinal Pacca.
"While we were in prison together," says the illustrious cardinal, "I
had never tired of adroitly leading the conversation up to this
important matter, so as to furnish His Holiness with useful information
if ever it happened that he would again ascend the Chair of St. Peter.
In those interviews he never failed to manifest the greatest esteem and
affection for the Society. The situation in which we found ourselves was
remarkable, and it shows the admirable Providence of God with regard to
this celebrated Society.
"When Barnabo Chiaramonte was a young Benedictine, he had teachers and
professors in theology whose sentiments were anti-Jesuit, and they
filled his mind with theological views that were most opposed to those
maintained by the Society. Everyone knows what profound impressions
early teaching leaves in the mind; and, as for myself, I also had been
inspired from my youth with sentiments of aversion, hatred and, I might
say, a sort of fanaticism against the illustrious Society. It will
suffice to add that my teachers put in my hands and ordered me to make
extracts from the famous 'Lettres Provinciales,' first in French and
then in Latin, with the notes of Wendrok (Nicole) which were still more
abominable than the text. I read also in perfect good faith, 'La morale
pratique des Jésuites,' and other works of that kind and accepted them
as true.
"Who then would have believed that the first act of the Benedictine
Chiaramonte who had become Pope, immediately after emerging from the
frightful tempest of the Revolution, and in the face of so many sects,
then raging against the Jesuits, should be the re-establishment of the
Society throughout the Catholic world; or that I should have prepared
the way for this new triumph; or, finally, that I should have been
appointed by the Pope to carry out those orders which were so acceptable
to me and conferred on me so much honor? For both the Pope and myself,
this act was a source of supreme satisfaction. I was present in Rome on
the two memorable occasions of the Suppression and the Re-establishment
of the Society, and I can testify to the different impressions they
produced. Thus, on August 17, 1773, the day of the publication of the
Brief 'Dominus ac Redemptor,' one saw surprise and sorrow painted on
every face; whereas on August 7, 1814, the day of the resurrection of
the Society, Rome rang with acclamations of satisfaction and approval.
The people followed the Pope from the Quirinal to the Gesù, where the
Bull was to be read, and made the return of the Pope to his palace a
triumphal procession.
"I have deemed it proper to enter into these details, in order to profit
by the occasion of these 'Memoirs' to make a solemn retraction of the
imprudent utterances that I may have made in my youth against a Society
which has merited so well from the Church of Jesus Christ."
Some of the cardinals were opposed to the Restoration, out of fear of
the commotion it was sure to excite. Even Consalvi would have preferred
to see it deferred for a few months, but it is a calumny to say that he
was antagonistic to the Society. As early as February 13, 1799, he wrote
as follows to Albani, the legate at Vienna: "You do me a great, a very
great wrong, if you ever doubted that I was not convinced that the
Jesuits should be brought back again. I call God to witness that I
always thought so, although I was educated in colleges which were not
favorable to them, but I did not on that account think ill of them. In
those days, however, I did say one thing of them, viz., that although I
was fully persuaded of their importance, I declared it to be fanatical
to pretend that the Church could not stand without them, since it had
existed for centuries before they existed, but when I saw the French
Revolution and when I got to really understand Jansenism, I then thought
and think now that without the Jesuits the Church is in very bad
straits. If it depended on me, I would restore the Society to-morrow. I
have frequently told that to the Pope, who has always desired their
restoration, but fear of the governments that were opposed to it made
him put it off, though he always cherished the hope that he could bring
it about. He would do it if he lived; and if he were unable he would
advise his successor to do it as quickly as possible. The rulers of the
nations will find out that the Jesuits will make their thrones secure by
bringing back religion."
Of course, the thought of restoring the Society did not originate with
Pius VII and Pacca. Pius VI had repeatedly declared that he would have
brought it about had it been at all feasible. Even after the return of
Pius VII to Rome, some of the most devoted friends of the Jesuits, as we
have seen, thought that the difficulties were insuperable; but the Pope
judged otherwise, and hence the affection with which the Society will
ever regard him. Indeed, he had already gone far in preparing the way
for it. He had approved of the Society in Russia, England, America and
Italy. He had permitted Father Fonteyne to establish communities in the
Netherlands; Father Clorivière was doing the same thing in France with
his approval so that everyone was expecting the complete restoration to
take place at any moment. The Father provincial of Italy had announced
that the Bull would be issued before Easter Sunday 1814, although some
of his brethren laughed at him and thought he was losing his mind. This
did not disturb him, however, and in June, 1814 he knelt before the
Sovereign Pontiff and in the name of Father General Brzozowski presented
the following petition:
"We, the Father General and the Fathers who, by the benignity of the
Holy See, reside in Russia and in Sicily, desiring to meet the wishes
of certain princes who ask our assistance in the education of the youth
of their realms, humbly implore Your Highness to remove the difficulty
created by the Brief of Clement XIV and to restore the Society to its
former state in accordance with the last confirmation of it by Clement
XIII, so that in whatever country we may be asked for we may give to the
princes above referred to whatever help the needs of their several
countries may demand."
On June 17, Pius VII let it be known that he was more than eager to
satisfy the wish of the petitioners; and a few days afterwards, when
Cardinal Pacca said to him, "Holy Father, do you not think we ought to
do what we so often spoke of?" he replied, "Yes; we can re-establish the
Society of Jesus on the next feast of Saint Ignatius." Even Pacca was
taken aback by the early date that was fixed upon, for there was not a
month and a half to prepare for it. The outside world was even still
more surprised, and the enemies of the Society strove to belittle the
Pontifical act by starting the report that it was not the old Society
that was going to be brought back to life; only a new congregation was
to be approved. That idea took possession of the public mind to such an
extent that Father de Zúñiga, the provincial of Sicily, brought it to
the attention of the Sovereign Pontiff. "On the contrary," said Pius,
"it is the same Society which existed for two hundred years, although
now circumscribed by some restrictions, because there will be no mention
of privileges in the Bull, and there are other things which will have to
be inserted, on account of circumstances in France and Spain and the
needs of certain bishops."
The chief difficulty was in draughting the document. The time was very
short and some of the cardinals were of opinion that the courts of
Europe should be consulted about it. But Pacca and the Pope both swept
aside that suggestion. They had had a sad experience with the courts of
Europe. Hence Cardinal Litta, who when ablegate at St. Petersburg had
asked for the confirmation of the Society in Russia, was chosen to draw
up the Bull. He addressed himself to the task with delight and presented
to the Pope a splendid defense of the Society which he declared "had
been guilty of no fault;" but when he added that "the suppression had
been granted by Clement XIV unwillingly," and that "it was to be
ascribed to the wicked devices, the atrocious calumnies, and the impious
principles of false political science and philosophy which, by the
destruction of the Order, foolishly imagined that the Church could be
destroyed," the language was found to be too strong and even Cardinal di
Pietro, who was a staunch friend of the Society, protested vehemently
against it. Indeed, di Pietro went so far as to say that certain changes
should be made in the Institute before the Bull was issued. Other
members of the Sacred College were of the same opinion, but did not
express themselves so openly. They were afraid to do so, because the
popular joy was so pronounced at the news of the proposed restoration
that anyone opposing it would run the risk of being classed as an enemy.
As a compromise, the Pope set aside the Bull drawn up by Litta and also
the corrections by di Pietro, and entrusted the work to Pacca. It was
his draught that was finally published. It makes no mention of any
change or mutilation of the Institute; neither does it name nor abrogate
any privilege; it is not addressed to any particular State, as some
wished, but to the whole world; it does not reprehend anyone, nor does
it subject to the Propaganda the foreign missions which the Society
might undertake. Some of the "black cardinals" such as Brancadoro,
Gabrielli, Litta, Mattei and even di Pietro, asked for greater praise in
it for the Society, while others wanted it just as Pacca had written it;
Mattei objected to the expression "primitive rule of St. Ignatius,"
because the words would seem to imply that the Society had adopted
another at some time in its history and he also wanted the reason of the
restoration to be explicitly stated, namely: "the Pope's deep conviction
of the Society's usefulness to the Church." His reason was that many had
asked for it; but only some of his suggestions were accepted.
These details prevented the publication of the Bull on July 31, hence
August 7, the octave of the feast was chosen.
A few extracts from it will suffice. Its title is "The Constitution by
which the Society of Jesus is restored in its pristine state throughout
the Catholic World." The preamble first refers to the Brief "Catholicæ
Fidei" which confirmed the Society in Russia and also to the "Per alias"
which restored it in the Two Sicilies. It then says: "The Catholic world
unanimously demands the re-establishment of the Society of Jesus. Every
day we are receiving most urgent petitions from our venerable brothers,
the archbishops and bishops of the Church, and from other most
distinguished personages to that effect. The dispersion of the very
stones of the sanctuary in the calamitous days which we shudder even to
recall, namely the destruction of a religious order which was the glory
and the support of the Catholic Church, now makes it imperative that we
should respond to the general and just desire for its restoration. In
truth, we should consider ourselves culpable of a grievous sin in the
sight of God, if, in the great dangers to which the Christian
commonwealth is exposed, we should fail to avail ourselves of the help
which the special Providence of God now puts at our disposal; if, seated
as we are in the Barque of Peter, we should refuse the aid of the tried
and vigorous mariners who offer themselves to face the surges of the sea
which threaten us with shipwreck and death. Therefore, we have resolved
to do to-day what we have longed from the first days of our Pontificate
to be able to accomplish, and, hence, after having in fervent prayer
implored the Divine assistance, and having sought the advice and counsel
of a great number of our venerable brothers, the cardinals of the Holy
Roman Church, we have decreed, with certain knowledge, and in virtue of
the plenitude of our Apostolic power, that all the concessions and
faculties accorded by us to the Russian empire and the Two Sicilies, in
particular, shall henceforward be extended in perpetuity to all other
countries of the world.
"Wherefore, we concede and accord to our well-beloved son Thaddeus
Brzozowski, at present the General of the Society of Jesus, and to the
other members of the Society delegated by him, all proper and necessary
powers to receive and welcome freely and lawfully all those who desire
to be admitted into the Regular Order of the Society of Jesus, and that,
under the authority of the General at the time such persons may be
received into and assigned to one or many houses, or colleges or
provinces, as needs be, wherein they shall follow the rule prescribed by
St. Ignatius Loyola, which was confirmed by the Constitutions of Paul
III. Over and above this, we declare them to possess and we hereby
concede to them the power of devoting themselves freely and lawfully to
educate youth in the principles of the Catholic religion; to train them
in morality; to direct colleges and seminaries; to preach and to
administer the sacraments in their place of residence, with the consent
and approbation of the ordinary. We take under our protection and under
our immediate obedience as well as that of the Apostolic See, all the
colleges, all the houses, all the provinces, all the members of the
Order, and all those who are gathered in their establishments, reserving
nevertheless to Ourself, and to the Roman Pontiffs, our successors, to
decree and prescribe whatever we consider it our duty to decree and
prescribe as necessary to consolidate more and more the same Society, in
order to render it stronger and to purge it from abuse, if ever (which
may God avert) any may be found therein. And we exhort with our whole
heart, in the name of the Lord, all superiors, rectors and provincials,
as well as all the members and pupils of this re-established Order to
show themselves in all places, faithful imitators of their Father. Let
them observe with exactness the rule prescribed for them by their great
founder, and let them follow with ever increasing zeal the useful
admonitions and counsels which he has left for the guidance of his sons.
"Finally we earnestly recommend in the Lord this Society and its members
to the illustrious kings and princes and temporal lords of the various
nations, as well as to our venerable brothers, the archbishops and
bishops and whosoever may occupy positions of honor and authority. We
exhort them, nay we conjure them, not only not to suffer that these
religious should be molested, in any manner, but to see that they should
be treated with the benevolence and the charity which they deserve."
A difficulty now arose as to the person into whose hands the Bull was to
be delivered. It was impossible for the General to be present, for he
was unable to obtain permission of the emperor to take part in what
concerned him more than any other member of the Society--a condition of
things which made it evident that the residence of the next General had
to be in some other place than Russia. That, of course, the czar would
never permit and the expulsion of the Society from Russia was from that
moment a foregone conclusion. Angiolini, who was rather conspicuous in
Rome at that time, possibly because he had some years before arrived in
the city as an envoy from the Russian court, was first thought of. In
fact the Pope had already named him, but Albers in his "Liber sæcularis"
does not hesitate to say that Angiolini sought the honor, and had
succeeded in enlisting the interest of Cardinal Litta in his behalf. But
he was known to be a man of impetuous character, eager to be concerned
in every matter of importance and decidedly headstrong. The provincial
was chosen, therefore, to represent the General, and Angiolini was
consoled by being made consultor of the Congregation of Rites. The
difficulty seems almost childish, for whatever prominence Angiolini
possessed, it was purely personal whereas that of Father Panizzoni was
official. It may be, however, that Angiolini's friendship for Rezzi, who
attempted to wreck the Society at the first congregation, had laid him
open to suspicion.
At last the great day arrived. It was Sunday; and all Rome was seen
flocking to the Gesù. As early as eight o'clock in the morning, as many
as one hundred Jesuits along with the College of Cardinals were waiting
to receive the Pope. He arrived at last and said Mass at the high altar.
He then proceeded to the chapel of the Sodality which was crowded with
bishops and most of the notables then in the city. Among them were Queen
Marie Louise of Bourbon, the wife of Charles IV of Spain, with her niece
and three sons. It was Spain's reparation for the wrong it had done the
Society. Behind the cardinals, in a double row were the Spanish,
Italian and Portuguese Jesuits; the youngest of whom was sixty years of
age, while there were others still who had reached eighty-six. It is
even asserted that there was present one old Jesuit who was one hundred
and twenty-six years old. His name was Albert Montalto and he had been
in the Society for one hundred and eight years. He was born in 1689, was
admitted to the novitiate in 1706 and hence was sixty-four years old at
the time of the Suppression.
This beautiful fairy story is vouched for by Crétineau-Joly (V, 436),
but Albers, in his "Liber sæcularis," tells us that there is no such
name as Montalto or Montaud in the Catalogue of 1773 or in Vivier's
"Catalogus Mortuorum Societatis Jesu."
When the Pope had taken his seat upon the throne, he handed the Bull to
Belisario Cristaldi, who in a clear voice, amid the applause of all in
the chapel, read the consoling words which the Jesuits listened to with
tears and sobs. Then one by one some hobbling up with the help of their
canes, others leaning on the arms of the distinguished men present,
knelt at the feet of the Pontiff, who spoke to them all with the deepest
and tenderest affection. For them it was the happiest day of their lives
and the old men among them could now sing their "Nunc dimittis."
Pacca then handed to Panizzoni a paper appointing him superior of the
Roman house, until the nomination arrived from Father General. The
professed house, the novitiate of Sant' Andrea and other properties were
also made over to the Society with a monthly payment of five hundred
scudi.
On entering the Gesù, the Fathers found the house almost in the same
condition as when Father Ricci and his assistants left it in 1773, to go
to the dungeons of Sant' Angelo. It was occupied by a community of
priests, most of them former Jesuits, who had continued to serve the
adjoining church, which, though despoiled of most of its treasures,
still possessed the remains of St. Ignatius. Two years later, the
novitiate of Sant' Andrea was so crowded that a second one had to be
opened at Reggio. Among the novices at that place was Charles Emanuel,
King of Sardinia, who had resigned his crown to enter the Society. He
died there in 1819. In 1815 the Jesuits had colleges in Orvieto,
Viterbo, Tivoli, Urbino, Ferentino, and Galloro, Modena, Forlì, Genoa,
Turin, Novarra, and a little later, Nice. In Parma and Naples, they had
been at work prior to 1814.
Just eight days before these happenings in Rome, an aged Jesuit in Paris
saw assembled around him ten distinguished men whom he had admitted to
the Society. It was July 31, the feast of St. Ignatius, and the place of
the meeting was full of tragic memories. It was the chapel of the Abbaye
des Carmes, where, in the general massacre of priests which took place
there in 1792, twelve Jesuits had been murdered. In the old man's mind
there were still other memories. Fifty-two years before, he and his
religious brethren had been driven like criminals from their native
land. Forty years had passed since the whole Society had been
suppressed. He had witnessed all the horrors of the French Revolution,
and now as he was nearing eternity--he was then eighty-five--he saw at
his feet a group of men some of whom had already gained distinction in
the world, but who at that moment, had only one ambition, that of being
admitted into the Society of Jesus, which they hoped would be one day
re-established. They never dreamed that seven days after they had thus
met at the Abbaye to celebrate the feast of St. Ignatius, Pius VII who
had returned from his captivity in France would, by the Bull
"Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum," solemnly re-establish the Society
throughout the world.
The old priest was Pierre-Joseph Picot de Clorivière. He was born at St.
Malo, June 29, 1735 and had entered the Society on August 14, 1756. He
was teaching a class at Compiègne when Choiseul drove the Society out of
the country, but though he was only a scholastic, it had no effect on
his vocation. He attached himself to the English province, and after
finishing his course of theology at Liège in Belgium, was professed of
the four vows about a month after Clement XIV had issued his Brief of
Suppression. The decree had not yet been promulgated in the Netherlands.
Instead of going to England as one would expect, he returned to his
native country as a secular priest, and we find him in charge of a
parish at Paramé from 1775 to 1779. He was also the director of the
diocesan College of Dinan, where he remained up to the time of the
Revolution. Meantime, he was writing pious books and founding two
religious congregations, one for priests, the other for pious women in
the world. The former went out of existence in 1825. The latter still
flourishes.
Having refused to take the constitutional oath, he was debarred from all
ecclesiastical functions, and began to think of offering himself to his
old friend and classmate at Liège, Bishop Carroll, to work on the
Maryland missions; but one thing or another prevented him from carrying
out his purpose, though on the other hand it is surprising that he could
make up his mind to remain in France. His brother had been guillotined
in 1793; his niece met the same fate later; his sister, a Visitation
nun, was put in prison and escaped death only by Robespierre's fall from
power; several of his spiritual followers had perished in the storm, but
he contrived to escape until 1801, when, owing to his relationship with
Limoellan, who was implicated in the conspiracy to kill the First
Consul, he was lodged in jail. He was then sixty-nine years old.
During his seven years of imprisonment, he wrote voluminous commentaries
on the Bible, chiefly the Apocalypse. He also devoted himself to the
spiritual improvement of his fellow-prisoners, one of whom, a Swiss
Calvinist named Christin, became a Catholic. As Christin had been an
attaché of the Russian embassy he posted off to Russia when he was
liberated in 1805, taking with him a letter from Clorivière to the
General of the Society, asking permission for the writer to renew his
profession and to enter the Russian province. Of course, both requests
were granted. When he was finally discharged from custody in 1809,
Clorivière wrote again to Russia to inform the General that Bishop
Carroll wanted to have him go out to Maryland as master of novices. As
for himself though he was seventy-five years of age, he was quite ready
to accede to the bishop's request. The General's decision, however, was
that it would be better to remain in France.
Meantime, Father Varin, the superior of the Fathers of the Faith, had
convoked the members of his community to consider how they could carry
out the original purpose of their organization, namely: to unite with
the Jesuits of Russia, but no progress had been made up to 1814. In his
perplexity, he consulted Mgr. della Genga who was afterwards Leo XII,
and also Father Clorivière. But to his dismay, both of them told him to
leave the matter in _statu quo_. This was all the more disconcerting,
because he had just heard that Father Fonteyne, who was at Amsterdam,
had already received several Fathers of the Faith. Whereupon he posted
off to Holland, and was told that both della Genga and Clorivière were
wrong in their decision. To remove every doubt he was advised to write
immediately to Russia, or better yet to go there in person. He
determined to do both. At the beginning of June 1814, he returned to
France to tell his friends the result of his conference with Father
Fonteyne, but during his absence Clorivière had been commissioned by
Father Brzozowski to do in France what Fonteyne had been doing in
Holland. That settled everything, and on July 19, 1814, Fathers Varin,
Boissard, Roger and Jennesseaux were admitted to the novitiate; and a
few days later, Dumouchel, Bequet, Ronsin, Coulon, Loriquet, with a lay
brother followed their example. On the 31st, St. Ignatius' Day, they all
met at the Abbaye to entreat the Founder of the Society to bless this
inauguration of the province of France.
In virtue of his appointment Father Clorivière found that he had now to
take care of seventy novices, most of whom were former Fathers of the
Faith; in this rapidly assembled throng it was impossible to carry out
the whole scheme of a novitiate training in all its details. Indeed, the
only "experiment" given to the newcomers was the thirty-days retreat,
and that, the venerable old superior undertook himself. Perhaps it was
age that made him talkative, perhaps it was over-flowing joy, for he not
only carried out the whole programme but overdid it, and far from
explaining the points, he talked at each meditation during what the
French call "five quarters of an hour." But grace supplied what was lost
by this prolixity, and the community was on fire with zeal when the
Exercises were ended. How soon they received the news of what happened
on August 7, in Rome, we do not know. But there were no happier men in
the world than they when the glad tidings came; and they continued to
be so even if Louis XVIII did not deign or was afraid to pay any
attention to the Bull, and warned the Jesuits and their friends to make
no demonstration. The Society was restored and that made them
indifferent to anything else.
In Spain, a formal decree dated May 25, 1825, proclaimed the
re-establishment of the Society, and when Father de Zúñiga arrived at
Madrid to re-organize the Spanish province, he was met at the gate of
the city by a long procession of Dominicans, Franciscans, and the
members of other religious orders to welcome him. Subsequently, as many
as one hundred and fifteen former Jesuits returned to their native land
from the various countries of Europe where they had been laboring, and
began to reconstruct their old establishments. Many of these old heroes
were over eighty years of age. Loyola, Oñate and Manresa greeted them
with delight, and forty-six cities sent petitions for colleges.
Meanwhile, novitiates were established at Loyola, Manresa and Seville.
Portugal not only did not admit them, but issued a furious decree
against the Bull. Not till fifteen years later did the Jesuits enter
that country, and then their first work was to inter the yet unburied
remains of their arch-enemy Pombal and to admit four of his
great-grandsons into one of their colleges. Brazil, Portugal's
dependency, imitated the bitterness of the mother country. The Emperor
of Austria was favorable, but the spirit fostered among the people by
his predecessor, Joseph, was still rampant and prevented the
introduction of the Society into his domains. But, on the whole, the act
of the Pope was acclaimed everywhere throughout the world. So Pacca
wrote to Consalvi.
Of course there was an uproar in non-Catholic countries. In England,
even some Catholics were in arms against the Bull. One individual,
writing in the "Catholic Directory" of 1815, considered it to be "the
downfall of the Catholic religion." A congress in which a number of
Englishmen participated was held a few years later at Aix-la-Chapelle to
protest against the re-establishment of the Order. Fortunately it evoked
a letter from the old Admiral Earl St. Vincent which runs as follows: "I
have heard with indignation that Sir J. C. Hippisley, a member of
Parliament, is gone to the Congress. I therefore beseech you to cause
this letter to be laid before his Holiness the Pope as a record of my
opinion that we are not only obliged to that Order for the most useful
discoveries of every description, but that they are now necessary for
the education of Catholic youth throughout the civilized world." With
the exception of John Milner, all the vicars Apostolic of England were
strongly opposed to the restitution of the Society in that country.
The United States was at war with England just then, and it happened
that seventeen days before the Bull was issued Father Grassi and his
fellow-Jesuits were witnessing from the windows of Georgetown College
the bombardment of Washington by the British fleet. They saw the city in
flames, and fully expected that the college would be taken by the enemy,
but to their great delight they saw the forty ships on the following
morning hoist their anchors and, one by one, drop down the Potomac. They
did not, of course, know what was going on in Rome, but as soon as the
news of the re-establishment arrived in America, Father Fenwick, the
future Bishop of Boston, who was then working in St. Peter's Church, New
York, wrote about it to Father Grassi, who was President of Georgetown.
The letter is dated December 21, 1814 and runs as follows:
"Rev. and Dear Father,
_Te Deum Laudamus, Te Dominum confitemur_!
The Society of Jesus is then re-established! That long-insulted
Society! The Society which has been denounced as the corrupter
of youth, the inculcator of unsound, unchristian and lax
morality! That Society which has been degraded by the Church
itself, rejected by her ministers, outlawed by her kings and
insulted by her laity! Restored throughout the world and
restored by a public Bull of the Sovereign Pontiff! Hitherto
cooped up in a small corner of the world, and not allowed to
extend herself, lest the nations of the earth, the favorites of
heaven, should inhale the poison of her pestiferous breath, she
is now called forth, as the only plank left for the salvation
of a shipwrecked _philosophered_ world; the only restorer of
ecclesiastical discipline and sound morality; the only
dependence of Christianity for the renewal of correct
principles and the diffusion of piety! It is then so. What a
triumph! How glorious to the Society! How confounding to the
enemies! _Gaudeamus in Domino, diem festum celebrantes!_ If any
man will say after that, that God is not a friend of the
Society, I shall pronounce him without hesitation a liar.
"I embrace, dear Sir, the first leisure moments after the
receipt of your letter, to forward you my congratulations on
the great and glorious tidings you have recently received from
Europe--tidings which should exhilarate the heart of every true
friend of Christianity and of the propagation of the Gospel;
tidings particularly grateful to this country, and especially
to the College of which you are rector, which will hereafter be
able to proceed _secundum regulam et Institutum_."
A word about this distinguished American Jesuit may not be out of place
here. He was born in the ancestral manor of the Fenwicks, in old St.
Mary's County, Maryland, and was a lineal descendant of Cuthbert Fenwick
who was distinguished among the first Catholic colonists by his
opposition to Lewger, Calvert's secretary, then assailing the rights of
the Church in Maryland. When Georgetown College opened its doors,
Benedict Fenwick and his brother Enoch were among its first students.
After finishing the course, he took upon himself what his old admirer,
the famous Father Stonestreet, calls "the painful but self-improving
duties of the class room," and was professor of Humanities for three
years. Later he began a course of theology at St. Mary's Seminary,
Baltimore, but he left in order to become a Jesuit. The Fenwicks, both
in England and America had been always closely identified with the
Society, and when the news came that it was about to be resuscitated,
Benedict and Enoch were chosen with four other applicants to be the
corner stones of the first novitiate in the United States of North
America. He was ordained on June 11, 1808, in Trinity Church,
Georgetown, D. C., by the Jesuit Bishop Neale, coadjutor of Archbishop
Carroll, and was immediately sent to New York with Father Kohlmann to
prepare that diocese for the coming of its first bishop Dr. Concanen.
Kohlmann himself had been named for the see, but the Pontiff had yielded
to the entreaties of Father General not to deprive the still helpless
Society of such a valuable workman; hence, Father Richard Luke Concanen,
a Dominican, was appointed in his stead.
Kohlmann and Fenwick were welcomed with great enthusiasm in New York
which had suffered much from the various transients who had from time to
time officiated there. Several distinguished converts were won over to
the faith, and an attempt was made to influence the famous free-thinker,
Tom Paine, but the unfortunate wretch died blaspheming. It was Kohlmann
and Fenwick who established the New York Literary Institute on the site
of the present St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was successful enough to
attract the sons of the most distinguished families of the city and
merited the commendation of such men as the famous governor of New York,
De Witt Clinton, and of Governor Thompkins who was subsequently
Vice-President of the United States. At the same time, they were
building old St. Patrick's, which was to become the cathedral of the new
bishop. Bishop Concanen never reached New York, and when his successor
Bishop Connolly arrived in 1814, Father Fenwick was his consolation and
support in the many bitter trials that had to be undergone in those
turbulent days. He was made vicar general and when he was sent to
Georgetown to be president of the college in 1817, it was against the
strong protest and earnest entreaties of the bishop, who, it may be said
in passing, regretted exceedingly the closing of the Literary
Institute,--a feeling shared by every American Jesuit. The reason for so
doing is given by Hughes (History of the Soc. of Jesus in North America,
I, ii, 945).
While Fenwick was in Georgetown, Charleston, South Carolina, was in an
uproar ecclesiastically. The people were in open schism, and Archbishop
Maréchal of Baltimore, in spite of his antagonism to the Society
appealed to the superior of the Jesuits for some one to bring order out
of the chaos. Fenwick was sent, and such was his tact, good judgment and
kindness, that he soon mastered the situation and the diocese was at
peace when the new bishop, the distinguished John England, arrived.
Strange to say, Bishop England had the same prejudice as Bishop
Concanen, against the Society; a condition of mind that may be explained
by the fact that it had been suppressed by the highest authority in the
Church, and that even educated men were ignorant of the causes that had
brought about the disaster. But Fenwick soon disabused the bishop.
Indeed, he remained as Vicar General of Charleston until 1822, and when
he was recalled to Georgetown, Bishop England, at first, absolutely
refused to let him go.
In a funeral oration pronounced over Fenwick, later by Father
Stonestreet he said in referring to the Charleston troubles;
"Difficulties had arisen between the French and Anglo-Irish portions of
the congregation, each insisting it should be preached to in its own
tongue; each restive at remaining in the sacred temple while the word of
God was announced in the language of the other. The good Father, nothing
daunted by the scene of contrariety before him, ascends the pulpit,
opens his discourse in both languages, rapidly alternates the tongues of
La Belle France and of the Anglo-Saxon, and by his ardent desire to
unite the whole community in the bonds of charity, astonishes, softens,
wins and harmonizes the hearts of all. A lasting peace was restored
which still continues."
Bishop Cheverus, who was then at Boston, was subsequently called to
France to be Archbishop of Bordeaux and cardinal. Father Fenwick,
without being consulted, was appointed to the vacant see. In fact, the
first news he had of the promotion was when the Bulls were in his hands,
so that no means of protesting was possible. He was consecrated on
November 1, 1825, and his friend Bishop England travelled all the way
from Charleston to assist as one of the Consecrators. At that time the
diocese of Boston was synonymous with New England, but it had only ten
churches, two of which were for Indians. Fenwick, however, set to work
in his usual heroic fashion. He was particularly fond of the Indians,
and bravely fought their battle against the dishonest whites. As the
red men were the descendants of the Abenakis to whom the old Jesuits had
brought the Faith, there was a family feeling in his defense of them.
The same sentiment of kinship prompted him to establish a newspaper
which he called "The Jesuit." It was a defiance of the bigotry of New
England, of which there were to be many serious manifestations. "The
Jesuit" was the pioneer of Catholic journalism in the United States.
Bishop Fenwick was averse to the crowding of Catholics in the large
cities, and to segregate them he established the exclusively Catholic
colony of Benedicta, but this scheme of a Paraguay in the woods of Maine
had only a limited success. Prompted by the same motive of love of the
Society he visited the place which Father Rasle had sanctified with his
blood when the fanatical Puritans of Massachusetts put him to death in
1724. Father Rasle was the apostle of the Abenakis and had established
himself at what is now Norridgewock on the Kennebec. Fenwick went there
to pray. Although it was in the wilderness, he determined to make it a
notable place for the future Catholics of America; and over the
mouldering remains of Rasle and his brave Indian defenders, he erected a
monument, a shaft of granite, on which an inscription was cut to record
the tragedy. It was too much for the bigotry that then reigned in those
parts, and the monument was thrown down; but Fenwick put it in its place
again; at a later date when, in the course of time, it had fallen out of
perpendicular, Bishop Walsh of Portland corrected the defect and amid a
great throng of people solemnly reconsecrated it.
While he was Bishop of Boston, Fenwick made a pious pilgrimage to
Quebec; the city from which the Jesuits of the old Society had started
on their perilous journeys to evangelize the Indians of the continent.
He saw there an immense building on whose façade were cut the letters I.
H. S. "What is that?" he asked. "It is the old Jesuit College, now a
soldiers' barracks," was the reply. His soul was filled with indignation
and he exclaimed in anger, "The outrage that these men of blood should
occupy the house sanctified by the martyrs Jogues, Brébeuf, Lalemant and
the others." The good bishop was unaware that the martyrs had never seen
the building. It was built after they had gone to claim their crowns in
heaven.
During his episcopacy Knownothingism reigned, and in one of the
outbreaks the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown was attacked at midnight.
The sisters were shot at, the house was pillaged, the chapel desecrated
and the whole edifice given over to the flames. The blackened ruins
remained for fifty years to remind the Commonwealth of its disgrace,
until finally the remnants of the building, which it had cost so much to
erect, had to be removed to escape taxation. It was Fenwick who founded
Holy Cross College, in Worcester, Massachusetts, an establishment which
is the Alma Mater of most of the subsequent bishops of New England. It
has also the singular distinction of being the only Catholic College
exempted by law from receiving any but Catholic students. Fenwick is
buried there. He died on August 11, 1846, after an episcopacy of
twenty-one years.
Strange to say the Bull resurrecting the Society was not sent to America
until October 8, 1814, and on January 5, 1815, Bishop Carroll wrote to
Father Marmaduke Stone, in England, as follows: "Your precious and
grateful favor accompanied by the Bull of Restoration was received early
in December and diffused the greatest sensation of joy and
thanksgiving, not only among the surviving and new members of the
Society, but also all good Christians who have any remembrances of their
services or heard of their unjust and cruel treatment, and have
witnessed the consequences of their suppression. You may conceive my
sensations when I read the account of the celebration of Mass by His
Holiness himself at the superb altar of St. Ignatius at the Gesù; the
assemblage of the surviving Jesuits in the chapel to hear the
proclamation of their resurrection, etc."
On returning to America after the suppression of the Society in Belgium,
Father Carroll had gone to live at his mother's house in Rock Creek,
Maryland, for he no longer considered himself entitled to support from
the funds of the Jesuits who still maintained their existence in the
colonies. They had never been suppressed, whereas he had belonged to a
community in the Netherlands which had been canonically put out of
existence by the Brief. He spent two years in the rough country missions
of Maryland and then went with Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase and his
cousin Charles Carroll to Canada to induce the Frenchmen there to make
common cause with the Americans against Great Britain. The Continental
Congress had especially requested him to form a part of the embassy. The
mission was a failure and the Colonies had themselves to blame for it;
because two years previously they had issued an "Address to the English
People" denouncing the government for not only attempting to establish
an Anglican episcopacy in the English possessions, but for maintaining a
papistical one on the banks of the St. Lawrence. Clearly it would have
been impossible for the French Catholics who had been guaranteed the
free exercise of their religion to transfer their allegiance to a
country which considered that concession to be one of the reasons
justifying a revolution.
When the war was over, Carroll and five other Jesuits met at Whitemarsh
to devise means to keep their property intact in order to carry on their
missionary work. They had no other resources than the produce of their
farms, for their personal support. The faithful gave them nothing. At
this conference they decided to ask Rome to empower some one of their
number to confirm, grant faculties and dispensations, bless oils, etc.
They added that, for the moment, a bishop was unnecessary. The petition
was sent on November 6, 1783, and on June 7, 1784, Carroll was appointed
superior of the missions in the thirteen states, and was given power to
confirm. There were at that time about nineteen priests in the country
and fifteen thousand Catholics, of whom three thousand were negro
slaves. In 1786 Carroll took up his residence in Baltimore and was
conspicuously active in municipal affairs, establishing schools,
libraries and charities. Possibly it was due to him that Article 6 was
inserted in the Constitution of the United States which declares that
"no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any
office or public trust under the United States;" and probably also the
amendment that "this Congress shall make no laws respecting the
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Its
actual sponsor in the Convention was C. C. Pinckney of South Carolina.
Carroll was made Bishop of Baltimore by Pius VI on November 6, 1789,
twenty-four out of the twenty-five priests in the country voting for
him. He was consecrated on August 15, 1790, at Lulworth Castle, England
by the senior vicar Apostolic of England, Bishop Walmesly. On the
election of Washington to the presidency, he represented the clergy in a
congratulatory address to which Washington answered; "I hope your
fellow-countrymen will not forget the patriotic part in the
accomplishment of the Revolution and the establishment of the government
or the important assistance which they received from a nation in which
the Roman Catholic Faith is professed."
He convoked the first Synod of Baltimore in 1791. There were twenty-two
priests of five nationalities in attendance. He called the Sulpicians to
Baltimore in 1791; the first priest he ordained was Stephen Badin, the
beloved pioneer of Kentucky, and four years later the famous Russian
prince, Demetrius Gallitzin. He also succeeded in having a missionary
for the Indians appointed by the government. He had intended to have as
his coadjutor and successor in the see, Father Lawrence Grässel, who had
been a novice in the old Society and who at Carroll's urgent request,
had come out to America as a missionary. Grässel, however, died before
the arrival of the Bulls. Father Leonard Neale, a Maryland Jesuit, was
then chosen and was consecrated in 1800. A year and two months after the
re-establishment of the Society, namely on December 3, 1815, Carroll
died. It was fitting that this son of Saint Ignatius should be called to
heaven on the feast of the great friend and companion of Saint Ignatius,
Saint Francis Xavier.
Apropos of this, a note has been quoted by Father Hughes (op. cit.,
Doc., I, 424) which is often cited as revealing a change in Carroll's
attitude toward the Society after he became archbishop. Fr. Charles
Neale had written to him as follows, "It is equally certain that I have
no authority to give up any right that would put the subject out of the
power of his superior, who must and ought to be the best judge of what
is most beneficial to the universal or individual good of the members,
of the Congregation." On the back of the letter appear the words
"Inadmissible Pretensions," said by Bishop Maréchal to have been written
by Carroll.
Archbishop Carroll's attitude to the Society is clearly manifested in
his letter of December 10, 1814, addressed to Father Grassi, which says:
"Having contributed to your greatest happiness on earth by sending the
miraculous bull of general restoration, even before I could nearly
finish the reading of it, I fully expect it back this evening with Mr.
Plowden's letter." It should not be forgotten that Carroll was
heartbroken when the Society was suppressed and that he longed for death
because of the grief it caused him. The words "Inadmissible Pretensions"
noted on Neale's letter referred to a formal protest made by Father
Charles Neale against a synodial statute of the bishops convened at
Baltimore. Neale, indeed, desired to exercise the special privileges of
the Society and to govern as was done in the old Society or as in
Russia, a procedure which incurred the disapproval of the General.
Grassi writing to Plowden, in England, says: "He (Archbishop Carroll)
considers Mr. Chas. Neale as a wrongheaded man, and persons who knew him
at Liège and Antwerp are nearly of the same opinion." In brief, Neale's
administration both as president of Georgetown and as superior of the
mission was most disastrous (cf. Hughes, I, ii, passim).
Leonard Neale, like Carroll, was an American. He was born near Port
Tobacco in Maryland in 1746, and with many other young Marylanders, was
sent to the Jesuit College of St. Omers in France. After the Suppression
he went to England, where he was engaged in parochial work for four
years. From there he was sent to Demerara in British Guiana and
continued at work in that trying country from 1779 to 1783. His health
finally gave way, and he returned to Maryland and joined his Jesuit
brethren. He distinguished himself in the yellow fever epidemic in
Philadelphia, and remained in that city, for six years as the vicar of
Bishop Carroll. In 1797 another epidemic of fever occurred and he was
stricken but recovered. In 1798 he was sent to Georgetown College as
president, and in 1800 while still president he was consecrated
coadjutor of Archbishop Carroll. He continued his scholastic work until
1806, succeeding to the See of Baltimore in 1815. He was then seventy
years old and in feeble health. He died at Georgetown on June 18, 1817.
Bishop Maréchal who had been suggested to the Pope by Bishop Cheverus of
Boston, had already been named for the See.
Bishop Maréchal was a Sulpician. He had left France at the outbreak of
the French Revolution and after spending some years in America as a
professor both at Georgetown and Baltimore, returned to his native
country, but was back again in Maryland after a few years. Neale wanted
him to be Bishop of Philadelphia, but the offer was declined, and he
was made coadjutor of Baltimore with the right of succession. He
was consecrated on December 14, 1817, and occupied the see until
1826. Unfortunately, the whole period from 1820 was marked by
misunderstandings with the Society. In spite of this controversy, which
was unnecessarily acrimonious at times, Archbishop Maréchal was anxious
to have the Jesuit visitor Father Peter Kenny appointed Bishop of
Philadelphia. (cf. Hughes, op. cit., Documents, for details of the
controversies.)
CHAPTER XXIV
THE FIRST CONGREGATION
Expulsion from Russia--Petrucci, Vicar--Attempt to wreck the
Society--Saved by Consalvi and Rozaven.
The superiors-general who presided over the Society in Russia were
Stanislaus Czerniewicz (1782-85), Gabriel Lenkiewicz (1785-98), Francis
Kareu, (1799-1802), Gabriel Gruber, (1802-05), and Thaddeus Brzozowski,
(1805-20). The first two were only vicars, as was Father Kareu when
first elected, but by the Brief "Catholicæ Fidei" he was raised to the
rank of General on March 7, 1801. His two successors bore the same
title. Father Brzozowski lived six years after the Restoration. But
those years must have been a time of great suffering for him. Over the
rapidly expanding Society, whose activities were already extending to
the ends of the earth, he had been chosen to preside but he was
virtually a prisoner in Russia. It soon became evident that such an
arrangement was intolerable and not only was there an exasperating
surveillance of every member of the Order by the government, but even
when Brzozowski himself asked permission to go to Rome to thank the Holy
Father in person for the favor he had conferred on the Society by the
Bull of Re-establishment, he was flatly refused. Hence it was resolved
that when he died, a General had to be elected who would reside in Rome,
no matter what might be the consequences in Russia.
The difficulty, however, solved itself. Though officially the head of
the Orthodox Church, Alexander cared little for its doctrines, its
practises or its traditions, and he set about establishing a union of
all the sects on the basis of what he considered to be the fundamental
truths of religion. He is even credited with the ambition of aiming at a
universal spiritual dominion which would eclipse Napoleon's dream of
world-wide empire built upon material power. Whether this was the
outcome of his meditations,--for after his fashion, he was a religious
man,--or was suggested to him by the Baroness Julia de Krudner, who was
creating a sensation at that time, as a revivalist, cannot be
ascertained. There is no doubt, however, that he fell under her sway.
Mme. de Krudner had given up pleasures and wealth to bring back the
world to what she called the principles of the primitive Church. She
travelled through Germany and Switzerland with about forty of her
admirers, who kept incessantly crying out: "We call only the elect to
follow us." She established soup-kitchens wherever she went, and her
converts knelt before her, as this slim diet which they regarded as a
gift from heaven was doled out to them. Naturally this attraction worked
first on the poor, but the baroness soon reached the upper grades of
society. Her opportunity presented itself at Vienna, where the allied
sovereigns were in session to determine the political complexion of the
world, after they had disposed of Napoleon. They did her the honor of
attending some of her meetings, and Alexander who showed himself greatly
interested, became the special object of her attention. She styled him:
"The White Angel of God," while Napoleon was set down as "The Dark Angel
of Hell."
Such a serious writer as Cantù is of the opinion that it was the
baroness who drew up the scheme of the Holy Alliance, in which the four
monarchs agreed to love one another as brothers; to govern their
respective states as different branches of the great family of nations,
and to have Jesus Christ, the Omnipotent Word, as their Sovereign Lord.
But immediately after making this pious pact they began to distribute
among themselves the spoils of war. Prussia took Saxony; Russia, Poland;
Austria, Northern Italy; and England, Malta, Heligoland and the Cape.
Thus was virtue rewarded.
At the suggestion of Galitzin, his minister of worship, Alexander had
begun a devout course of Bible reading as a means of lifting himself out
of the gloom into which he seemed to be plunged after the war. It had
apparently some beneficial effect on him, and he became an enthusiastic
advocate of the practise for all classes of people. The English Bible
Society was to help the propaganda and the Catholic Archbishop of
Mohilew and his clergy strongly supported the imperial project.
Necessarily the Jesuits had to antagonize this wholesale diffusion of
corrupt versions of the sacred text, and they endeavored to point out
the folly of leaving its interpretation to ignorant people. The
consequence was that they provoked the anger not only of the Bible
Society and of the emperor, but also both of the Russian and partly of
the Catholic clergy. The troublesome Siestrzencewicz, Archbishop of
Mohilew, not only strongly favored the project but suggested to Galitzin
that the attitude of the Jesuits furnished an excellent opportunity to
get rid of them. There was another reason also why the blow was sure to
fall. A Catholic Polish woman named Narychkine it is said had been
dissociated from the czar by a refusal of absolution at Easter time. The
confessor was the Jesuit, Father Perkowski, and, of course, as all his
associates would have acted in the same way, the whole Society came
under the ban.
Zalenski, in his "Russie Blanche," finds another reason for this loss of
Alexander's favor. He was not only not a Romanoff but had not a drop of
Russian blood in his veins, except through his father Paul, the alleged
bastard son of Catherine before she became empress. He was aware that
the Jesuits knew of this family stain, though not a word was ever
uttered about it. It made him uncomfortable, nevertheless, and he was
quite willing to rid himself of their presence.
As he had officially proclaimed that all religions were alike, many who
had professed allegiance to the Greek Church under political pressure
became materialists or atheists, and some distinguished women became
Catholics. No attention was paid to the atheists, but these conversions
to the Faith were blamed on the Jesuits, particularly on three French
fathers, among whom was Rozaven. Count de Maistre, who was in St.
Petersburg at the time, declares emphatically that they had nothing to
do with it. The feeling against them, however, was very intense and only
lacked an occasion to show itself. It came when a nephew of Galitzin,
announced that he was going to become a Catholic. This was too much for
the minister of worship to put up with and although the lad, who was a
pupil of one of the Jesuit colleges, had let it be known that the
Fathers had absolutely nothing to do with his project and that his
resolution was only the result of his own investigations, he was not
believed, and a ukase, dated December 25, 1815, was issued, proclaiming
their expulsion from the country. This was seventeen months after the
Re-establishment.
The decree called attention to the fact that "when the Jesuits were
expelled from all the other nations of Europe, Russia had charitably
admitted them and confided to their care the instruction of youth. In
return, they had destroyed the peace of the Orthodox Church and had
turned from it some of the pupils of their colleges. Such an act, said
the document, explains why they were held in such abhorrence elsewhere.
The ukase bubbles over with piety, deploring the "apostacies" that had
taken place, and then goes on to state that: first, the Catholic Church
in Russia is hereby re-established on the plan which had been adopted
since the time of Catherine II until the year 1800; secondly, the
Jesuits are to withdraw immediately from St. Petersburg; thirdly, they
are forbidden to enter either of the capitals.
It is noteworthy that the decree of banishment is not stocked with
calumnies like those issued by the Catholic courts of Europe. It was
based purely on religious ground. Nor was the expulsion characterized by
any exhibition of brutality as in Spain, Portugal and France; for
although the police descended on the houses, in the dead of night, and
drove out the occupants, an almost maternal care was taken against their
suffering in the slightest degree on their way to the places of their
exile. Of course, all their papers and books were seized but perhaps the
Fathers were glad of it; for although, since Catherine's time, they had
been brought into closest contact with the hideous skeletons of her
court and those of her successors, no mention was made of any family
scandal in the voluminous correspondence that had been so suddenly
seized by the government. As regards the charge of proselytism, there is
a letter from Father Brzozowski to Father de Clorivière, dated February
20, 1816, which stated that not only did none of the Fathers ever
attempt to influence their pupils, but that during the thirteen years of
the existence of the College of St. Petersburg, no Russian Orthodox
student had been admitted to the Church. It goes on to say that for a
long time the storm had been foreseen and that everyone was prepared for
it.
Before the final blow came, Father Brzozowski petitioned the emperor at
least to permit the Fathers to continue their labors in the dangerous
mission of the Riga district, in the Caucasus, and on the banks of the
Volga, in all of which places, their success in civilizing and
christianizing the population had been officially recognized by the
emperor. But the request was not granted, and in 1820, just as Father
Brzozowski was dying, the Jesuits were ordered out of the empire, and
all their possessions were confiscated. The loss was a grievous one in
many respects, but it had its compensations. For, in the first place, it
effectually settled the question of the General's residence. Secondly,
as the Jesuits living in Russia were almost of every nationality in
Europe and as many of them were conspicuous for their great ability in
many branches of learning, a valuable re-inforcement was thus available
for the hastily formed colleges in various parts of the world. Thirdly,
the traditions of the Society had remained unbroken in Russia, and the
example and guidance of the venerable men who were there to the number
of 358 would transmit to the various provinces the true spirit of the
Society. In any case Alexander's successor would have expelled them, for
he was a violent persecutor of the Church, and, moreover, Freemasonry
and infidelity had been making sad havoc with what was left of the
religion of the nation.
Brzozowski when dying, had named as Vicar, Father Petrucci, the master
of novices at Genoa, a most unfortunate choice; for Petrucci was not
only old and ill, but was woefully lacking in worldly wisdom, and proved
to be a pliant tool in the hands of designing men. His appointment went
to show the impossibility of directing the Society in pent-up Russia,
where the General could not be sufficiently informed of the character of
the various members of the Order. The congregation was summoned for
September 14, 1820, but although there were already in Rome on August 2
seventeen out of the twenty-one delegates, Cardinal della Genga wrote to
Petrucci to say that the Pope wanted the congregation to be delayed,
because he desired time for the arrival of the Polish Fathers who
represented a notable part of the Society.
As no one ever questioned the fact that the Polish province, which alone
had remained intact in the general wreck, was a notable part of the
Congregation and of the Society, and as, moreover, the Polish delegates
would have no difficulty in reaching Rome before September 14, everyone
suspected that something sinister was being attempted. That Petrucci and
Cardinal della Genga were in league with each other in this matter was
clear from the fact that Petrucci, without consulting any one of his
colleagues, immediately dispatched letters to all the provinces
announcing the prorogation of the congregation, protesting meantime that
the office of vicar was too great for one of his age and infirmities. It
was also remarked that with the cardinal was a small group of
malcontents composed of Rizzi, Pancaldi, who was only in deacon's
orders, Pietroboni and a certain number of Roman ecclesiastics, some of
them prelates who, like della Genga, did not of course belong to the
Society.
These conspirators kept the minds of the waiting delegates in a feverish
state of excitement by giving out that there was a great fear, not only
in the public at large, but even in the papal court, that a Paccanarist
might be elected. Indeed there were already three of them among the
electors: Sineo, Rozaven and Grivel, and hence it was desirable to
delay the congregation until it would be sure that no others would
arrive. Over and above this, some of those recently admitted to the
Society maintained that only those who belonged to the old Society or
had been a long time in Russia should be accepted as delegates. Doubts
were raised also as to whether those who had taken their vows before the
formal recognition of the Society in Russia in 1801, or the recognition
in Sicily in 1804, were to be considered as Jesuits or as secular
priests.
In brief, Rizzi and his associates had so filled the minds of outsiders
with doubts, that some prelates and even a cardinal advised that the
questions should be submitted to the Pope for settlement. Finally, on
the day originally fixed for the congregation, namely, September 14,
Cardinal della Genga sent three letters to the Fathers at Rome. In the
first he said that the Pope was convinced that the meeting of the
delegates should be postponed, and that he had given to the Vicar,
Petrucci, all the faculties of a regularly elected General. The second
letter was directed to the assistants, who were informed that it was the
wish of His Holiness that all the irregularities which della Genga
declared existed in the congregation should be remedied, and to that
end, he had appointed a committee composed of himself, Cardinal Galiffi
and the Archbishop of Nanzianzum, together with Petrucci and Rizzi to
consider them. This committee, moreover, was to preside at the election.
The third letter ordered that new assistants should be added to those
already in office, making seven in all, a thing absolutely unheard of in
the Society until then.
Rizzi and Petrucci were in high spirits when this became known, but not
so the other delegates, and they determined to appeal directly to the
Pope. Then a doubt arose as to which cardinal was to present the
appeal. Mattei and Litta, the staunch friends of the Society were dead
and Pacca leaned slightly to Rizzi's views. There remained Consalvi. To
him Father Rozaven wrote the appeal, but, two of the assistants and
Petrucci refused to sign it. Consalvi received the petitioners with the
greatest benignity, promised to present the document to the Pope, and
bade the Fathers not to be discouraged. He explained the situation to
the Holy Father, who immediately approved of the request, and issued the
following order: "Having heard the plea, We command that the general
congregation be convened immediately, and that, as soon as possible, the
General be elected, all things to the contrary notwithstanding."
"Everyone," wrote Rozaven, "was delighted, except of course, Petrucci,
the provincial of the Italian Province, Pietroboni, and those who had
been misled by Rizzi."
The congregation met on October 9. Twenty-four professed Fathers were
present and they elected Father Aloysius Fortis as General. Petrucci
protested the legality of the election, but when the usual delegation
presented itself to the Pope, they were received most cordially and he
referred them to Consalvi for the decree of "sanation," if any were
needed. "He is altogether devoted to you," said the Pope, "and watches
with the greatest concern over your interests." Now that the
congregation was regularly constituted, the Fathers proceeded as quickly
as possible to the punishment of the conspirators. Both Petrucci and
Pietroboni were deposed from their respective offices as Vicar and
provincial, and other disturbers were expelled from the Society;--the
Pope highly approving of the action. It was Cardinal Consalvi who had
averted the wreck.
In view of the great cardinal's attitude in this matter, it is
distressing to find Crétineau-Joly declaring that Consalvi acted as he
did because he was a diplomat, a man of the world rather than an
ecclesiastic. He cared little for the Jesuits (il aimait peu les
Jésuites) whom he regarded as adding a new political embarrassment to
the actual complications in Europe, but he knew how to be just, and
refused to be an accomplice in the plot (VI, 1). This is a calumny. We
have the Pope's own words about Consalvi's concern for the Society, and
in the "Memoirs" edited by Crétineau-Joly himself the exact opposite is
asserted. Thus on page 56, we read: "he made the greatest number of
people happy and in doing so was happier than they, because he was thus
making them venerate the Church, his Mother." On page 11, he says that
whenever Consalvi wrote about Napoleon "he placed himself in the
presence of God in order to be impartial in judging his persecutor." On
page 180: "He lived without any concern for wealth; he never asked or
received any gifts. He realized what St. Bernard and Pope Eugenius III
said of a Cardinal Cibo in their day: 'In passing through this world of
money, he never knew what money was. He was prodigal in his benevolence
and died virtually a poor man." These are not the traits of a "man of
the world and a politician."
As for "his not liking the Jesuits," we find in those "Memoirs," which
were finished in 1812, and consequently eight years before the meeting
of the congregation, the following words (II, 305): "When Pope Pius VII
returned to Rome in 1801, he received a letter from Paul I, the Emperor
of Russia, asking for the re-establishment of the Jesuits in his
dominions. The Pope was delighted to have the chance to gratify the Czar
and also to perform a praiseworthy (_louable_) action;--for it was
restoring to life an Institute which had deserved well of Christendom
and whose fall had hastened the ruin of the Church, of thrones, of
public order, of morality, of society. One can assert this without fear
of being taxed with exaggeration or falsehood by honest and reasonable
men and by those who are not imbued with a false philosophy or party
spirit."
He then narrates how cautious the Pope had to be before granting Paul's
request, "so as not," Consalvi says, "to arouse the antagonism of the
enemies of the Society: the philosophers and haters of religion and of
public order, who, as they had forced its condemnation from Clement XIV,
would now employ all the machinery of the courts which had asked for the
suppression to prevent its rehabilitation. The Pope succeeded, but a few
years afterwards, when the Emperor of Austria asked for the Jesuits, his
ministers brought about the failure of the project. They consented to
accept the Jesuits, but in such a fashion and under such a form that
they could no longer be Jesuits. The Pope would not consent to such
conditions, and as the imperial court would not accept them as they
were, the matter was dropped." In other words, Pope Pius VII and his
great cardinal believed with Clement XIII that no changes should be made
in their Institute. _Sint ut sunt aut non sint._ Let them be themselves
or not at all. To assert that in the heart of the great champion of the
Faith, Consalvi, there was little love for the Jesuits is to say what is
contrary to facts.
The new General, Father Aloysius Fortis, was born in 1748 and was
consequently seventy-two years of age when he was elected. In spite of
his age, however, he was in vigorous health and governed the Society for
nine years. He had been in the old Society for eleven years before the
Suppression. In 1794 he was associated in Parma with the saintly
Pignatelli, who twice foretold his election. He had been prefect of
studies in the scholasticate at Naples, and when the Society was
re-established he was named as Father Brzozowski's vicar in Rome. In
1819 Pius VII appointed him _Examinator Episcoporum_. Hence his election
was naturally gratifying to the Pope, and he gave evidence of it by the
joy that suffused his countenance when the formal announcement of the
result was made to him. The eagerness with which he affixed his
signature to the official document also testified to his satisfaction.
In the Professed House, the Fathers acclaimed the choice with
enthusiasm, as did the throngs of people who had immediately flocked to
the Gesù to hear the announcement. They have chosen a saint was the
universal cry. The Emperor of Austria, Francis I, Frederick, the Prince
of Hesse, and Duke Antony, who was soon to be King of Saxony, all
expressed their pleasure at the promotion of Father Fortis.
The letter written by Antony is worth quoting. "I have read with the
greatest joy, in the public press," he said, "of the election of a man
of whom it may well be said he is _Fortis_ by name and _fortis_ by
nature. I am aware that his humility would prompt him to differ with me,
but I hoped that such would be the choice, and now my desire has been
fulfilled. God who directed this election will give you that strength
which you think you lack to fulfill the duties of your office. Now more
than ever I commend myself to the fervent prayers of yourself and your
associates. I have a claim on them, for ever since my earliest youth, I
have been most devoted to the Society, to which I owe my religious
training."
In the congregation, Father Fortis proposed a resolution or a decree, as
it is called, which is of supreme importance, and which was, it is
needless to say, unanimously adopted. It runs as follows: "Although
there is no doubt that both the Constitutions given by Our Holy Founder
and whatever in the course of time the Fathers have judged to add to
them have recovered their force at the very outset of the restored
Society, as it was the manifest wish of our Holy Father, Pius VII, that
the Society re-established by him should be governed by the same laws as
before the Suppression, nevertheless, to remove all anxiety on that
score, and to put an end to the obstinacy of certain disturbers of the
peace, this congregation not only confirms, but as far as necessary
decrees anew, in conformity with the power vested in the General and the
congregations by Paul III, and reaffirms that not only the Constitutions
with the declarations and the decrees of the general congregations, but
the Common Rules and those of the several offices, the Ratio Studiorum,
the ordinations, the formulas and whatsoever belongs to the legislation
of Our Society are intact, and it wishes all and each of the aforesaid
to have the same binding force on those who live in the Society that
they had before Clement XIV's Bull of Suppression."
Although Fortis was gentle and humble he admitted no relaxation,
especially in the matter of poverty, and those who were unwilling to put
up with the requirements, he allowed to leave the Order. "We want
fruits," he used to say, "not roots." Again, in spite of his new dignity
and of his great natural gifts he was always the same simple Father
Fortis. He was such an ardent lover of poverty that he kept his clothes
till they were threadbare and torn, and had to be stolen out of his room
to be replaced by others more befitting his station. In 1821 he united
into a vice-province the various members of the Society scattered
through Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and Germany and gave it a name
descriptive of its composition: "The Vice-Province of Switzerland and
the German Missions." In 1823 the Province of Galicia was established.
In it were many of the old Fathers of Russia, but the number was so
great that many had to be sent to Italy, France and elsewhere. Sicily,
especially, was benefited in this way. From the province thus
established three others sprung in a short time: Germany, Belgium and
Holland.
Father Fortis died on January 27, 1829. The grief for his loss was
general and none felt it more keenly than the King of Saxony, who wrote
another affectionate letter to express his sorrow. It is worthy of note
that, although the royal family of Saxony is still Catholic, no one who
has been trained in a Jesuit School is eligible there to any
ecclesiastical office. It is a curious condition in a kingdom which in
1821 was ruled by a sovereign who exulted in the fact that he was a
Jesuit alumnus.
Chief among the distinguished Jesuits in the congregation of 1820 was,
without doubt, the Frenchman, John Rozaven. He was born at Quimper in
Brittany, March 9, 1772. His uncle had belonged to the Society when it
was suppressed in France in 1760, and had then become a parish priest at
Plogonnec. While there, he was elected, in 1789, at the outbreak of the
Revolution to be a representative at the Etats Généraux. He accepted the
constitutional oath, but soon retracted. He had to atone for his treason
to the Church, however, by being made the victim of his bishop, who,
like him, had joined the schism but had not recanted. On account of this
ill-feeling, Rozaven left the country, taking with him the future
Jesuit, his nephew, who was living with him at that time. They both
disappeared on the night of June 20, 1792, and on the 24th arrived at
the Island of Jersey. From there they went to London and after a few
months made their way to the Duchy of Cleves.
Hearing that there was a French ecclesiastical seminary at Brussels,
young Rozaven entered it, was ordained sub-deacon, but was obliged to
leave after six months, because of the arrival of the French troops. He
and his uncle then took up their abode in Paderborn and lodged in an old
Jesuit establishment where they lived for four years, at which time the
young man was ordained priest and then left his uncle in order to join
the Fathers of the Sacred Heart under Father Varin. When informed of the
existence of the Jesuits in Russia, John applied for admission and was
received on March 28, 1804. He was subsequently made prefect of studies
and professor of philosophy in the College of Nobles at St. Petersburg.
In the course of his ministerial work, he brought to the Faith the
Princess Elizabeth Galitzin, well-known as one of the first of the
Ladies of the Sacred Heart. The famous Madame Swetchine was another of
his converts. He was the professor of the young Galitzin who had created
such an uproar in St. Petersburg by his supposed part in the conversion.
At the death of Father General Brzozowski, Rozaven was sent as a
delegate to the congregation and, as we have seen, it was his wisdom and
courage that saved the Society from shipwreck on that occasion. He was
elected assistant to the General, and, with the exception of one short
visit to France, remained for the rest of his life in Rome. He was too
valuable an aid for the General to be allowed even to be the official
visitor to France although everyone there was clamoring for him. It was
he who demolished the philosophical system of de Lamennais, and at the
same time restrained the hotheads of the French provinces from accepting
and teaching the new doctrine. His "Examen of Certain Philosophical
Doctrines" came out in 1831, and although his office of assistant gave
him plenty of occupation, he taught theology, was a member of several
pontifical congregations, and heard as many as 20,000 confessions a
year. This immense labor was made possible by his rising at half past
three in the morning, and by the clock-like punctuality and system with
which he addressed himself to the various tasks of the day. In the
cholera epidemic of 1837, despite his sixty-five years of age, he
plunged into the work like the rest of his brethren and heard 23,000
confessions during the continuance of the plague.
When the Revolution of '48 broke out, Rozaven remained at Rome more or
less secluded, but at last, when there was danger of his being taken to
prison, a friend of his, the Count Rampon, said: "You will come to my
château and I shall see that you are not molested." The protection was
accepted, and a few nights after, a banquet was given at the château, to
which the French ambassador and several conspicuous anti-Jesuit
personages had been invited. When the guests were seated it was remarked
that there was an empty place near the Count. "Are you waiting for
someone else?" they asked. "Yes," he said, "I have here a very
remarkable old gentleman whom I want to present to you. He is my friend
and more worthy of respect than anyone in the whole world." Then leaving
the room, he led Father Rozaven in by the hand and said to his guests in
a loud voice: "Gentlemen, I have to present my friend, Father Rozaven,
who has deigned to accept my hospitality. He is here under my protection
and I place him under yours. If, contrary to my expectation, hatred
pursues him into my house, the Count Rampon will defend his guest to the
last drop of his blood." Then making a step backward, he swung open a
door which revealed a formidable array of muskets, pistols and swords
which would be available if the contingency he referred to arose. It is
needless to say that Father Rozaven was treated with the most
distinguished consideration, not only at the banquet but subsequently.
From there he went to Naples but, later, joined Father Roothaan in
France. When Pius IX returned to Rome, the Father General and his
faithful assistant returned also. But Rozaven had reached the end of his
pilgrimage. In 1851 he fell seriously ill and breathed his last on April
2, at the age of seventy-nine. He had put in thirty years of incessant
work since the time he had fought so valiantly in the twentieth
congregation.
Besides Rozaven, there was present at the twentieth congregation the
distinguished English Jesuit, Charles Plowden. He was born at Plowden
Hall, Shropshire, in 1743, of a family which had not only steadfastly
adhered to the Faith in all the persecutions that had desolated England,
but had given several of its sons to the Society of Jesus and some of
its daughters as nuns in religious orders. He entered the Society in
1759, and was ordained in Rome three years before the Suppression. He
was in Belgium when the Brief was read and was kept in prison for
several months. After teaching at Liège, he returned to England where he
was appointed chaplain at Lulworth Castle, and as such preached there at
Bishop Carroll's consecration. He had much to do with the establishment
of Stonyhurst and was the first master of novices in England after the
re-establishment, subsequently he was rector of Stonyhurst and
provincial. It was he who, with Fathers Mattingly and Sewall, called
upon Benjamin Franklin in Paris to persuade him to crush the scheme of
making the Church of the United States dependent upon the
ecclesiastical authorities of France. He died at Jougne, in France, on
his way home from the congregation and was buried with military honors,
because his attendant had informed the authorities of the little town
that the dead man had been called to Rome for the election of a General.
They mistook the meaning of the word "General", and so buried the humble
Jesuit with all the pomp and ceremony that usually accompany the
obsequies of a distinguished soldier.
On August 20, 1823, Pius VII, the great friend of the Society, died and
it was with no little consternation that the Jesuits heard of the
election of Leo XII. He was the same Cardinal della Genga who had
endeavored to control the twentieth congregation and was supposed to
have revealed his attitude towards the Society years before, when he
advised Father Varin not to attempt to form a union between the Fathers
of the Faith and the Jesuits in White Russia. Father Rozaven,
especially, had reason for apprehension, for it was he who had thwarted
della Genga's plans at the election of Fortis; but the fear proved to be
groundless, and Rozaven hastened to assure his friends in France that in
the three years that had intervened since that eventful struggle, God
had operated a change in the mind of della Genga. As Sovereign Pontiff
he became one of the most ardent friends of the Society.
CHAPTER XXV
A CENTURY OF DISASTER
Expulsion from Holland--Trouble at Freiburg--Expulsion and
recall in Spain--_Petits Séminaires_--Berryer--Montlosier
--The Men's Sodalities--St. Acheul mobbed--Fourteen Jesuits
murdered in Madrid--Interment of Pombal--de Ravignan's
pamphlet--Veuillot--Montalembert--de Bonald--Archbishop
Affre--Michelet, Quinet and Cousin--Gioberti--Expulsion
from Austria--Kulturkampf--Slaughter of the Hostages in the
Commune--South America and Mexico--Flourishing Condition
before Outbreak of the World War.
When Pius VII restored the Society in 1814, he said it was because "he
needed experienced mariners in the Barque of Peter which was tossed
about on the stormy sea of the world." The storm had not abated. On the
contrary its violence had increased, and the mariners who were honored
by the call have never had a moment's rest since that eventful day when
they were bidden to resume their work.
As early as 1816 the King of the Netherlands, William I, sent a band of
soldiers to drive the Jesuits out of his dominions. He began with the
novitiate of Destelbergen. Some of the exiles went to Hanover and others
to Switzerland. The dispersion, however, did not check vocations. In
1819, for instance, Peter Beckx, who was then a secular priest in the
parish of Uccle, never imagining, of course, that he was afterwards to
be the General of the Society, entered the novitiate at Hildesheim.
Before 1830 more than fifty applicants had been received. The figure is
amazing, because it meant expatriation, paternal opposition, and a
decree of perpetual exclusion from any public office in Holland. In
spite of the law of banishment, however, a few priests succeeded in
remaining in the country, exercising the functions of their ministry
secretly.
In Russia, the Society, as mentioned above, had been cooped up in a
restricted part of White Russia from 1815; on March 13, 1820, Alexander
II extended the application of the decree of banishment to the entire
country.
Then the storm broke on the Society in Freiburg, the occasion being a
pedagogical quarrel with which the Jesuits had absolutely nothing to do.
The people of the city were discussing the relative merits of the
Pestalozzi and Lancaster systems for primary teaching; and to restore
peace, the town council, at the bishop's request, closed all the
schools. This drew down the public wrath on the head of the bishop, but
as reverence for his official position protected him from open attack,
someone suggested that the Jesuits were at the back of the measure. The
result was that, at midnight on March 9, 1823, a mob attacked the Jesuit
college, and clamored for its destruction. The bishop, however, wrote a
letter assuming complete responsibility for the measure and the trouble
then ceased.
After the fall of Napoleon, Talleyrand suggested to Louis XVIII to
recall the Jesuits for collegiate work. But before his majesty had
succeeded in making up his mind, the proposition became known and
Talleyrand was driven from power in spite of a proclamation which he
issued, assuring the public that he was always a foe of the Society. In
the lull that followed, the Fathers were able to remain at their work,
but four years afterwards, namely in 1819, they were expelled from Brest
but continued to labor as missionaries in the remote country districts.
On May 15, 1815, they had been recalled to Spain by Ferdinand as a
reparation for the sins of his ancestors and their reception was an
occasion of public rejoicing--the Imperial College itself being
entrusted to them. They then numbered about one hundred, and in the
space of five years there were one hundred and ninety-seven on the
catalogue. They were left at peace for a time, but in 1820 throngs
gathered in the streets around their houses, clamoring for their blood,
and a bill was drawn up for their expulsion. By a notable--or was it an
intentional?--coincidence the document bore the date of July 31, the
feast of the Spanish saint, Ignatius Loyola. The feeling against them
was so intense that three Fathers, who had been acclaimed all over Spain
for their devotion to the plague-stricken, were taken out of their beds,
thrown into prison and then sent into exile. Meantime, Father Urigoitia
was murdered by a mob, near the famous cave of St. Ignatius at Manresa.
The Pope and king protested in vain. Indeed the king was besieged in his
palace and kept there until everything the rioters demanded was granted;
he remained virtually a prisoner until the French troops entered Spain.
In 1824 the Jesuits were recalled again, in 1825 the preparatory
military school was entrusted to their care, as was the College of
Nobles at Madrid in 1827.
In 1828 new troubles began for the French Jesuits. As they had been
unable to have colleges of their own, they had accepted eight _petits
séminaires_ which were offered them by the bishops. This was before they
had become known as Jesuits, for to all outward appearances they were
secular priests. But, little by little, their establishments took on a
compound character. Boys who had no clerical aspirations whatever asked
for admittance, so that the management of the schools became extremely
difficult and, of course, their real character soon began to be
suspected by the authorities. Investigations were therefore ordered of
all the _petits séminaires_ of the country, though the measure was aimed
only at the eight controlled by the Jesuits. As the interrogatory was
very minute, it caused great annoyance to the bishops, who saw in it an
attempt of the government to control elementary sacerdotal education
throughout the country, and hence there was an angry protest from the
whole hierarchy, with the exception of one prelate who had been a
Constitutional bishop.
It was on this occasion that the younger Berryer pronounced his masterly
discourse before the "General Council for the Defense of the Catholic
Religion." He established irrefragably the point of law that "a
congregation which is not authorized is not therefore prohibited"--a
principle accepted by all the French courts until recently. Apart from
the ability and eloquence of the plea, it was the more remarkable
because his father had been one of the most noted assailants of the
Society in 1826. The plea ended with this remarkable utterance: "Behold
the result of all these intrigues, of all this fury, of all these
outrages, of all this hate! Two ministers of State compel a legitimate
monarchy to do what even the Revolution never dreamed of wresting from
the throne. One of these ministers is the chief of the French
magistracy, and the guardian of the laws; the other is a Catholic
bishop, an official trustee of the rights of his brethren in the
episcopate. Both of them are rivals in their zeal to exterminate the
priesthood and to complete the bloody work of the Revolution. Applaud
it, sacrilegious and atheistic race! Behold a priest who betrays the
sanctuary! Behold a magistrate who betrays the courts of law and
justice!"
Berryer's chief opponent was the famous Count de Montlosier whose
"Memoire" was the sensation of the hour. It consisted of four chapters:
1. The Sodalities. 2. The Jesuits. 3. The Ultramontanes. 4. The
Clerical Encroachments. These were described as "The Four Calamities
which were going to subvert the throne." The Sodalities especially
worried him, for they were, according to his conception of them,
"apparently a pious assembly of angels, a senate of sages, but in
reality a circle of intriguing devils." These sodalities or
congregations, as they are called in France, had assumed an importance
and effectiveness for good which is perhaps unequalled in the history of
similar organizations elsewhere. Their founder was Father Delpuits,
"whom it is a pleasure to name," said the eloquent Lacordaire, "for
though others may have won more applause for their influence over young
men, no one deserved it more."
When the Society was expelled from France in 1762, Delpuits became a
secular priest and was offered a canonry by de Beaumont, the Archbishop
of Paris. He gave retreats to the clergy and laity and especially to
young collegians. During the Revolution, he was put in prison and then
exiled, but he returned to France after the storm. There he met young
Father Barat, who had just been released from prison and was anxious to
join the Jesuits in Russia. Delpuits advised him to remain in France
where men of his stamp were sorely needed and hence Barat did not enter
the Society until 1814.
In 1801, following out the old Jesuit traditions, Delpuits organized a
sodality, beginning with four young students of law and medicine. Others
soon joined them, among them Laennec who subsequently became one of the
glories of the medical profession as the inventor of auscultation. Then
came two abbés and two brothers of the house of Montmorency. The future
mathematician, Augustin Cauchy, and also Simon Bruté de Rémur who, at a
later date, was to be one of the first bishops of the United States;
Forbin-Janson, so eminent in the Church of France, was a sodalist, as
were the three McCarthys, one of whom, Nicholas, became a Jesuit, and
was regarded as the Chrysostom of France. The list is a long one. When
Delpuits died in 1812, his sodalists erected a modest memorial above
him, and inserted the S. J. after his name. That was two years prior to
the re-establishment. A Sulpician then took up the work, but in 1814, he
turned it over to Father de Clorivière who, in turn, entrusted it to
Father Ronsin. Its good works multiplied in all directions, and branches
were established throughout France. By the time Montlosier began his
attacks, the register showed 1,373 names, though Montlosier assured the
public that they were no less than 48,000. Among them were a great
number of priests and even bishops, notably, Cheverus, the first Bishop
of Boston and subsequently, Cardinal Archbishop of Bordeaux. The last
meeting of the sodality was held on July 18, 1830. Paris was then in the
Revolution and the sodality was suppressed, but rose again to life later
on.
While this attack on the sodalists was going on, the Jesuits of course
were assailed on all sides. The fight grew fiercer every day until the
"Journal des Débats" was able to say: "The name Jesuit is on every
tongue, but it is there to be cursed; it is repeated in every newspaper
of the land with fear and alarm; it is carried throughout the whole of
France on the wings of the terror that it inspires." As many as one
hundred books, big and little, were counted in the Bibliothèque
Nationale, all of which had been published in the year 1826 alone. They
were the works not only of anonymous and money-making scribes, but of
men like Thiers and the poet Béranger who did not think such literature
beneath them. Casimir Périer appeared in the tribune against the
Society, and the ominous name of Pasquier, whose bearer was possibly a
descendant of the famous anti-Jesuit of the time of Henry IV, is found
on the list of the orators. Lamennais got into the fray, not precisely
in defense of the Jesuits, but to proclaim his ultra anti-Gallicanism;
thus bringing that element into the war. Added to this was the old
Jansenist spirit, which had not yet been purged out of France; indeed,
Bournichon discovers traces of it in some of the Fathers of the Faith
who had joined the Society.
Finally came the Revolution of 1830, during which the novitiate of
Montrouge was sacked and pillaged. Other houses of France shared the
same fate. On July 29 a mob of four or five hundred men attacked St.
Acheul, some of the assailants shouting for the king, others for the
emperor, others again for the Republic, but all uniting in: "Down with
the priests! Death to the Jesuits!" Father de Ravignan attempted to talk
to the mob, but his voice was drowned in the crashing of falling
timbers. The bell was rung to call for help, but that only maddened the
assailants the more. De Ravignan persisted in appealing to them, but was
struck in the face by a stone and badly wounded. Then some one in the
crowd shouted for drink, and wine was brought out. It calmed the rioters
for a while, but while they were busy emptying bottles and breaking
barrels, a troop of cavalry from Amiens swept down on them and they
fled. The troopers however, came too late to save the house. It was a
wreck and some of the Fathers were sent to different parts of the
world--Italy, Switzerland, America or the foreign missions. But when
there were no more popular outbreaks, many returned from abroad and gave
their services to the French bishops, with the result that there never
had been a period for a long time which had so many pulpit orators and
missionaries as the reign of Louis-Philippe.
Pius VIII died on November 30, 1830, and it was a signal for an uprising
in Italy. Thanks to Cardinal Bernetti, the Vicar of Rome, peace was
maintained in the City itself, but elsewhere in the Papal States, the
anti-Jesuit cry was raised. The colleges were closed and all the houses
were searched, on the pretext of looking for concealed weapons. Meantime
calumnious reports were industriously circulated against the reputations
of the Fathers.
In the Spanish Revolution of 1820, twenty-five Jesuits were murdered. In
1833 civil war broke out between the partisans and opponents of Isabella
and, for no reason whatever, two Jesuits were arrested and thrown into
prison. One of them died after three months' incarceration. Meanwhile
threats were made in Madrid to murder all the religious in the city. The
Jesuits were to be the special victims for they were accused of having
started the cholera, poisoned the wells, etc. July 17, 1834, was the day
fixed for the deed, and crowds gathered around the Imperial College to
see what might happen.
The pupils were at dinner. A police officer entered and dismissed them
and then the mob invaded the house. Inside the building, three Jesuits
were killed; a priest, a scholastic and a lay-brother. The priest had
his skull crushed in, his teeth knocked out and his body horribly
mangled. The scholastic was beaten with clubs; pierced through the body
with swords, and when he fell in his blood, his head was cloven with an
axe. Four of the community disguised themselves and attempted to escape
but were caught and murdered in the street. Three more were killed on
the roof; and two lay-brothers who were captured somewhere else were
likewise butchered. The rest of the community had succeeded in reaching
the chapel, and were on their knees before the altar, when an officer
forced his way through the crowd and called for his brother who was one
of the scholastics, to go with him to a place of safety. The young
Jesuit refused the offer, whereupon the soldier replied: "Very well I
shall take care of all of you." He kept his word and fifty-four Jesuits
followed him out of the chapel and were conducted to a place of safety.
The house, however, was gutted; unspeakable horrors were committed in
the chapel; everything that could not be carried off was broken, and in
the meantime a line of soldiers stood outside, not only looking on, but
even taking sides with the rioters.
Evidently the times had passed when it was necessary to go out among the
savages to die for the Faith. The savages had come to Madrid. Nor was
this a conventional anti-Jesuit uprising; for on that hideous 17th of
July, 1834, seventy-three members of other religious communities were
murdered in the dead of night in the capital of Catholic Spain.
Nevertheless Father General Roothaan wrote to his Jesuit sons: "I am not
worried about our fourteen who have so gloriously died, for 'blessed are
those who die in the Lord.' What causes me most anguish is the danger of
those who remain; most of them still young, who are scattered abroad, in
surroundings where their vocation and virtue will be exposed to many
dangers." Nothing was done to the murderers, and before another year had
elapsed, a decree was issued expelling the Jesuits from the whole of
Spain; but as Don Carlos was just then in the field asserting his claim
to the throne, a large number of the exiles from other parts of Spain,
were able to remain at Loyola in the Pyrenees until 1840.
The Portuguese had waited for fifteen years after Pius VII had
re-established the Society before consenting to re-admit the Jesuits.
Don Miguel issued a decree to that effect on July 10, 1829, and the
Countess Oliviera, a niece of Pombal, was the first to welcome them back
and to place her boys in their college. The Fathers were given their
former residence in Lisbon and, shortly afterwards, the Bishop of Evora
established them in their old college in that city. In 1832 they were
presented with their own college at Coimbra, and on their way thither
they laid in the tomb the still unburied remains of their arch-enemy,
Pombal, which had remained in the morgue ever since March 5, 1782,--a
space of half a century. It seemed almost like a dream. Indeed it was
little else, for Dom Miguel, who was then on the throne, was deposed by
his rival, Dom Pedro, soon after, and on July 20, 1833 the Jesuits of
Lisbon were again expelled. The decree was superfluous, for in the early
Spring, their house had been sacked, and on that occasion the inmates
would have been killed had not a young Englishman, a former student of
Stonyhurst, appeared on the scene. The four that were there he took on
his yacht to England, the others had already departed for Genoa.
Hatred for the Society, however, had nothing to do with it. The whole
affair was purely political. Had the Fathers accepted Dom Pedro's
invitation to go out among the people and persuade them to abandon the
cause of the deposed king, they would have been allowed to remain. They
were expelled for not being traitors to their lawful sovereign. The
Fathers of Coimbra contrived to remain another year, but on May 26,
1834, they were seized by a squad of soldiers and marched off to Lisbon.
Fortunately the French ambassador, Baron de Mortier, interceded for
them, otherwise they would have ended their days in the dungeons of San
Sebastian, to which they had already been sentenced. They were released
on June 28, 1834, and sent by ship to Italy and from there, along with
the dispersed Spaniards were sent by Father Roothaan to France and South
America.
Switzerland, which is the land of liberty to such an extent that it will
harbor the worst kind of anarchists, refused to admit the Jesuits, at
least in some parts of it. There were seven Catholic Cantons, Uri,
Schwyz, Unterwalden, Lucerne, Zug, Fribourg and Valais. These sections
formed a coalition known as the Sunderbund. A war broke out between them
and the other cantons, but the Sunderbund was defeated. The Jesuits were
then expelled from the little town of Sion where they had an important
school. In 1845 the people of Lucerne asked for a college, and though
Father Roothaan refused, Pope Gregory XVI insisted on it. The expected
happened. The Radicals arose in a rage and with 10,000 men laid siege to
Lucerne. They were beaten, it is true, but that did not insure the
permanency of the college. In 1847 the Sunderbund was again defeated,
and in 1848 when the general European revolution broke out, the College
of Fribourg was looted, and its collection of Natural History which was
regarded as among the best on the Continent was thrown out in the
street.
The rumblings of the storm began to be heard in France on May 1, the
Feast of the Apostles Philip and James, Louis-Philippe's name-day.
Someone in the Tuilleries said that the Jesuits were starting a
conspiracy against the throne. Happily a distinguished woman heard the
remark, and admitted that she was concerned in it, along with 300 other
conspicuous representatives of the best families of France. It was a
charity lottery and most of the conspirators had received a pot or
basket of flowers for their participation in the plot.
When that myth was exploded, the "Journal des Débats" attacked de
Ravignan for his wide influence over many important people in Paris, and
though admitting his unquestioned probity, added "What matters his
virtue, if he brings us the pest?" The word caught the popular fancy,
but it brought out de Ravignan's famous reply: "De l'éxistence et de
l'institut des Jésuites." It was received with immense favor, applauded
by such men as Vatemesnil, Dupanloup, Montalembert, Barthélemy, Beugnot,
Berryer and others. In this year 1844 alone, 25,000 copies were sold.
The root of the trouble was the university's monopoly of education;
which was obnoxious even to many who cared little for religion.
Catholics objected to it chiefly because Cousin, the Positivist,
controlled its philosophy. Many of the bishops failed to see the danger
until Father Delvaux published a digest of the utterances of many of the
university professors on religious subjects. Then the battle began. On
the Catholic side were such fighters as Veuillot, Montalembert, Cardinal
de Bonald, Mgr. Parisis. Ranged against them were Michelet, Quinet,
Sainte-Beuve and their followers. The battle waxed hotter as time went
on; and the Jesuits soon became the general target. Cousin introduced
the "Lettres Provinciales" in the course. Villemain in his Reports
denounced "the turbulent and imperious Society which the spirit of
liberty and the spirit of our government repudiate." Dupin glorified
Etienne Pasquier, the old anti-Jesuit of the time of Henry IV; similar
eulogies of the old enemy were pronounced in various parts of France;
Quinet and Michelet did nothing else in their historical lectures than
attack the Society, while Eugene Sue received 100,000 francs from the
editor of the "Constitutionel" for his "Juif errant," which presented
to the public the most grotesque picture of the Jesuits that was ever
conceived. It was however, accepted as a genuine portrait.
The anti-Jesuit cry was of course the usual campaign device to alarm the
populace. It was successful, chiefly because of the persistency with
which it was kept up by the press, and, from 1842 till 1845, the
book-market was glutted with every imaginable species of anti-Jesuit
literature. Conspicuous among the pro-Jesuits were Louis Veuillot and
the Comte de Montalembert. The royalist papers spoke in the Society's
defense but feebly or not at all. Finally, a certain Marshall Marcet de
la Roche Arnauld, who as a scholastic had been driven from the Society
in 1824, and who had been paid to write against it, suddenly disavowed
all that he had ever said. Crétineau-Joly also leaped into the fray with
his rapidly written six volumes of the "History of the Society."
It would have been comparatively easy to continue the struggle with
outside enemies, but in the very midst of the battle, the Archbishop of
Paris, Affre, ranged himself on the side of the foe. He denied that the
Jesuits were a religious order, for the extraordinary reason that they
were not recognized by the State; their vows, consequently, were not
solemn; and the members of the Society were in all things subject to the
curé of the parish in which their establishment happened to be. He even
exacted that he should be informed of everything that took place in the
community, and if an individual was to be changed, His Grace was to be
notified of it a month in advance. The archbishop, however, was not
peculiar in these views. They were deduced from Bouvier's theology which
was then taught in all the seminaries of France.
Of course, this affected other religious as well as the Jesuits, and,
hence, when Dom Guéranger wanted to establish the Benedictines in
Paris, the archbishop had no objection, except that "they had no legal
existence in France." To this Guéranger immediately replied:
"Monseigneur! the episcopacy has no legal existence in England, Ireland
and Belgium, and perhaps the day will come when it will not have any in
France, but the episcopacy will be no less sacred for all that." The
great Benedictine then appealed to the Pope, and when the reply was
handed to him, the Apostolic nuncio said: "It is not an ordinary Brief I
give you, but an Apostolic Constitution." In it the archbishop was told
by His Holiness that the French religious had not been destroyed because
of the refusal of the government to give them a legal existence. His
Grace had also received a communication from Father Roothaan, the
General, who, after reminding him of the provision of canon law on the
point at issue, warned him that if he persisted in his view the Jesuits
would simply withdraw from his diocese.
Meantime the Pope had suspended the execution of the orders of the
archbishop and shortly after, sent him the following severe admonition:
"We admit, Venerable Brother, our inability to comprehend your very
inconsiderate ruling with regard to the faculties for hearing
confessions which you have withdrawn from the Jesuit Fathers, or by what
authority or for what reason you forbid them either to leave the city or
to enter it, without notifying you a month in advance; especially as
this Society, on account of the immense services it has rendered to the
Church, is held in great esteem by far-seeing and fervent Catholics and
by the Holy See itself. We know also that it is calumniated by people
who have abandoned the Faith and by those who have no respect for the
authority of the Holy See and we regret that they will now use the
authority of your name in support of their calumnies."
Of course the archbishop could do nothing else than obey. But he did not
change his mind with regard to the objects of his hostility. Possibly he
was constitutionally incapable of doing so. For he treated his cathedral
chapter in the same fashion and we read in a communication from the
French ambassador at Rome to Guizot who was then head of the Government
that the canons of Paris had complained of being absolutely excluded
from all influence or authority in the administration of the diocese.
This note gives an insight into the methods of Gallicanism, which
conceded that the disputes or differences of the clergy with the
archbishop were to be passed upon by a minister of state even if he were
a Protestant.
The trouble did not end there and the Parliamentary session of 1844
marked a very notable epoch in the history of the French province of the
Society and of the Church of France. M. Villemain presented a bill which
proposed to reaffirm and reassure the university's monopoly of the
education of the country. It explicitly excluded all members of
religious congregations from the function of teaching. It is true that
there was not a single word in it about the Jesuits, nevertheless in the
stormy debates that it evoked, and in which the most prominent men of
the nation participated, there was mention of not one other teaching
body. Almost the very first speaker, Dupin, pompously proclaimed that
"France did not want that famous Society which owes allegiance to a
foreign superior and whose instruction is diametrically opposed to what
all lovers of the country desire" nor was it desirable that "these
religious speculators should slip in through the meshes of the law." His
last word was: "Let us be implacable." In the official Report, however,
"implacable" became "inflexible." The ministerial and university organ,
the "Journal des Débats," admitted that such was the purpose of the
bill.
Villemain fancied that he had silenced the bishops by leaving them full
authority over the little seminaries. He was quickly disillusioned. From
the entire hierarchy individually and collectively came indignant
repudiations of the measure and none was fiercer than the protest of
Mgr. Affre, Archbishop of Paris. He denounced the university as "a
centre of irreligion" and as perverting in the most flagrant manner the
youth of France. "You reproach us," he said, "with disturbing the
country by our protests. Yes, we have raised our voices, but the
university has committed the crime. We may embarrass the throne for the
present, but in the university are to be found all the perils of the
future." The excitement was so intense that the government actually put
the Abbé Combalot in jail for an article he wrote against the bill, and
the whole hierarchy was threatened with being summoned before the
council of state if they persisted in their opposition.
Montalembert was more than usually eloquent in the course of the
parliamentary war. To Dupin who exhorted the peers to be "implacable" he
replied: "In the midst of a free people, we, Catholics, refuse to be
slaves; we are the successors of the martyrs and we shall not quail
before the successors of Julian the Apostate; we are the sons of the
Crusaders and we shall not recoil before the sons of Voltaire."
There were thirty-five or forty discourses and twelve or fifteen of the
speakers described the Society as "the detested congregation," while the
members who admitted the injustice and the odious tyranny of the
proposed legislation made haste to assure their constituents that they
had no use for the Jesuits. Cousin consumed three hours in assailing
them; another member of the Dupin family saw "an appalling danger to
the State in the fact that Montalembert could speak of them without
cursing them, and that the peers could listen to him in silence, while
he extolled the poisoners of the pious Ganganelli." Others insisted that
the Jesuits had dragged the episcopate into the fight; even Guizot
declared that "public sentiment inexorably repudiated the Jesuits and
the other congregations, who are the champions of authority and the
enemies of private judgment." The great man was not aware that the same
reproach might be and is addressed to the Church.
The measure was finally carried by 85 against 51, but the heavy minority
disconcerted the government and better hopes were entertained in the
lower house to which Villemain presented his bill on June 10th. There it
was left in the hands of Thiers, and it did not reach the Assembly, as a
body, for an entire month. As the summer vacations were at hand, the
_projet de loi_ was dropped. Guizot then conceived the plan of appealing
directly to the Pope to suppress the French Jesuits. He chose as his
envoy an Italian named Rossi, who had been banished from Bologna, Naples
and Florence as a revolutionist. After a short stay at Geneva, he made
his way to France where, by Protestant influence, chiefly that of
Guizot, he advanced rapidly to very distinguished and lucrative
positions. The country was shocked to hear that an Italian and a
Protestant should represent the nation at the court of the Pope from
whose dominions he had been expelled, but Guizot intended by so doing,
to express the sentiments of his government. It was an open threat.
Rossi arrived in Rome and presented his credentials on April 11.
The French Jesuits who had been expelled from Portugal did not return to
their native country; for Charles X, discovering at last that the
Liberals, as they called themselves, had played him false, resolved to
have a thoroughgoing monarchical government; and, to carry out his
purpose, made the inept Polignac prime minister. On July 25 he signed
four ordinances, the first of which restricted the liberty of the press;
the second dissolved parliament; the third diminished the electorate to
25,000. The next day, the press was in rebellion; Charles abdicated and
sailed for England. Of course the Revolution was anti-religious and the
Jesuits were the first sufferers. House after house was wrecked and the
scholastics were gathered together and hurried off to different
countries in Europe. Thus ended the first sixteen years of the Society's
existence in France, after the promulgation of the Bull of Pius VII
"Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum."
The first successor of Father de Clorivière as vice-provincial was
Father Simpson. France was made a province in 1820, and on the death of
Father Simpson, the new General, Father Fortis, appointed Father
Richardot, who at the end of his three years' term asked to be relieved.
In 1814 Godinot was appointed, because none of those who had been
proposed for the office had been more than ten years in the Society.
Godinot himself had been admitted only in 1810. He had been
vice-provincial of the Fathers of the Faith, and eleven years after his
admission, was directing the scattered Jesuit establishments in
Switzerland, Belgium, Holland and Germany. In Switzerland, he had given
the impulse to the college of Fribourg, which afterwards became so
famous. It is worth noting that when he was a Father of the Faith he was
a member of the community of Sion in Valais which enjoyed the
exceptional privilege of being united as a body to the Society.
Everywhere else each individual had to be admitted separately.
On April 14, the peers met to discuss a very exciting subject. A protest
had come from Marseilles signed by 89 electors, against the books of
Michelet and Quinet. Immediately Cousin was on his feet and ascribed it
to the Jesuits. A few days later, another topic engrossed their
attention. Dupin's "Manual of Ecclesiastical Law" had been condemned by
Cardinal de Bonald, and more than sixty bishops concurred with him in
prohibiting the book. At Rome, it was put on the Index, along with
Cousin's "History of Philosophy." The anti-Catholics were in a fury, and
on April 24, Cousin addressed the House. At the end of a three hour
discourse which he began, unbeliever though he was, by protesting his
respect for "the august religion of his country," he concluded by saying
that "probably the action of the bishops was due to the Jesuits" and
therefore he called for the enforcement of the law for their
suppression. The question now arose, whether they could proceed to the
suppression by force of law while the government actually had an envoy
at Rome to dispose of the affair in a different fashion. It was decided
that the non-authorized congregations would be suppressed, no matter
what might be the outcome of Rossi's mission. Such a resolution was a
gross diplomatic insult, but they cared little for that.
Meanwhile no news had come from Rossi. He had been left in the
ante-chamber of the Pope until the Abbé de Bonnechose had succeeded in
getting him an audience, a service which de Bonnechose had some
difficulty in explaining when he was subsequently made a cardinal. A
congregation of cardinals was named to discuss Guizot's proposition, and
it was unanimously decided to reject it; and when Rossi asked what he
had to do, he was told he might address himself to the General of the
Society. To make it easy for him, Lambruschini, the papal secretary of
state, proposed to Father Roothaan to diminish the personnel of some of
the houses which were too much in evidence or remove them elsewhere. As
for dissolution of the communities or banishment from France, not a word
was said.
Immediately Rossi despatched a messenger to Paris with the account of
what had been done, and twelve days afterwards the "Moniteur" stated:
"The Government has received news from Rome that the negotiations with
which M. Rossi was entrusted have attained their object. The
congregation of the Jesuits will cease to exist in France and will, of
its own accord, disperse. Its houses will be closed and its novitiates
dissolved." On July 15, Guizot was asked by the peers to show the
alleged documents. He answered that "they were too precious to give to
the public." They have been unearthed since, and it turns out that
Guizot's notice in the "Moniteur" does not correspond with the despatch
of Rossi who merely said, "the Congregation is going to disperse;" and
instead of saying "the houses will be closed," he wrote: "only a small
number of people will remain in each house." In brief, the famous
Guizot, so renowned for his integrity, prevaricated in this instance,
and one of the worst enemies of everything Jesuitical, Dibidous, who
wrote a "History of the Church and State in France from 1789 to 1870"
declares bluntly that Guizot's note in the "Moniteur" was not only a lie
but "an impudent lie."
A great many militant Catholics in France were indignant that Father
Roothaan had not defied the government on this occasion. Yet probably
those same perfervid souls would have denounced him, had he acted as
they wished. He knew perfectly well that the government was only too
anxious to get out of the mess in which it found itself, and the little
by-play which was resorted to harmed nobody and secured at least a
temporary respite.
"To gain the support of the Catholics against the anarchical elements
which were everywhere revealing themselves," says the Cambridge History
(XI, 34) "Guizot had tolerated the unauthorized Congregations. This had
the immediate consequence of concentrating popular attention upon those
religious passions whose existence the populace, if left to itself,
might have forgotten. Even the colleagues of Guizot, such as Villemain
and the editors of the "Journal des Débats," the leading ministerial
organ, began by declaring that they saw everywhere the finger of the
Jesuits. In each party, men's minds were so divided on the subject of
the Jesuits or rather that of educational liberty which was so closely
linked with it, that nothing of immediate gravity to the Government
would for the moment arise." Liberals, or rather Republicans, such as
Quinet and Michelet, in their lectures at the Collège de France took up
the alarm and spread it broadcast.
Bournichon in his "Histoire d'un Siècle," (II, 492) calls attention to
the fact that this attack was apparently against the Jesuits, but in
reality against the Church. The "Revue Indépendante" did not hesitate to
make the avowal that "Jesuitism is only a formula which has the merit of
uniting all the popular hatred for what is odious and retrograde in a
degenerate religion." Cousin started the hue and cry, in this instance,
and Thureau-Dangin in his "Histoire de la monarchie de Juillet" (p.
503-10) says that "Quinet and Michelet transformed their courses into
bitter and spiteful diatribes against the Jesuits. Both were hired for
the work, and did not speak from conviction." "Quinet," says Bournichon
(II, 494) "was quite indifferent to religious matters and had passed
for a harmless thinker and dreamer up to that moment. As for Michelet,
he had obtained his position in the Ecole Normale from Mgr. Frayssinous,
yet he forgot his benefactor, and maintained that not only the Jesuits
but Christianity was an obstacle to human progress; paganism or even
fetichism was preferable, and Christ had to be dethroned."
Guizot removed Villemain from the office of Minister of public
instruction and reprimanded Michelet and Quinet. Then Thiers seized the
occasion to denounce Guizot for favoring the religious congregations and
succeeded in defeating the minister's measure for educational freedom.
It was at this stage that Guizot sent his envoy Rossi to Rome to induce
Pope Gregory XVI to recall the Jesuits so as to extricate the French
government from its difficulty. The Pope refused, as we have seen, and
Father Roothaan merely gave orders to the members of the Society in
France to make themselves less conspicuous.
In 1847 Gioberti published his "Gesuita Moderno" which unfortunately had
the effect of creating in the minds of the Italian clergy a deep
prejudice against the Society. Gioberti was a priest and a professor of
theology. He first taught Rosminianism, and then opposed it. Under the
pen-name of "Demofilo" or the "People's Friend" he wrote articles for
Mazzini in the "Giovane Italia," and was the author of "Del Buono" and
"Del primato morale e civile degli Italiani." His first attack on the
Society appeared in 1845 in the "Prolegomeni al Primato;" "Il Gesuita
Moderno," a large sized pamphlet full of vulgar invective, appeared in
1847. It was followed in 1848 by the "Apologia del Gesuita Moderno." He
was answered by Father Curci. Deserting Mazzini, Gioberti espoused the
cause of King Charles Albert, and founded a society to propagate the
idea of a federated Italy with the King of Piedmont at its head. His
last book, "Rinnovamento civile d'Italia" showed him to be the enemy of
the temporal power of the papacy. His philosophy is a mixture of
pantheistic ontology, rationalism, platonism and traditionalism. Though
a revolutionist, he denied the sovereignty of the people. His complete
works fill thirty-five volumes.
Of course the Society felt the shock of the Italian Revolution of 1848.
Gioberti's writing had excited all Italy and as a consequence the Jesuit
houses were abandoned. At Naples, the exiles were hooted as they took
ship for Malta; they were mobbed in Venice and Piedmont. The General
Father Roothaan left Rome on April 28 in company with a priest and a
lay-brother, and as he stood on the deck at Genoa, he heard the cry from
the shore, "You have Jesuits aboard; throw them overboard." There was
nothing surprising in all this, however, for Rossi, the Pope's prime
minister, was stabbed to death while mounting the steps of the
Cancelleria. On the following day, the Pope himself was besieged in the
Quirinal; Palma, a Papal prelate, was shot while standing at a window;
and finally on November 24, Pope Pius fled in disguise to Gaeta.
In Austria, the Jesuits were expelled in the month of April. The
community of Innsbruck, which is in the Tyrol, held together for some
time, but finally drifted off to France or America or Australia or
elsewhere. The emperor signed the decree on May 7, 1848. It applied also
to Galicia, Switzerland, and Silesia, and the Jesuit houses all
disappeared in those parts.
What happened to the Jesuits in France in the meantime? Nothing
whatever. They had obeyed the General in 1845, and had simply kept
their activities out of sight. They did not wait for the Revolution, and
hence although the "Journal des Débats," announced officially, on
October 18, 1845, that "at the present moment there are no more Jesuits
in France," there were a great many. Indeed, the catalogues of 1846 and
1847 were issued as usual, not in print, however, but in lithograph, and
as if they felt perfectly free in 1848, the catalogue of that year
appeared in printed form. Meantime de Ravignan was giving conferences in
Notre-Dame, and preaching all over the country. The only change the
Fathers made was to transport two of their establishments beyond the
frontiers. Thus a college was organized at Brugelette in Belgium and a
novitiate at Issenheim. The scholasticate of Laval continued as usual.
What was done in the province of Paris was identical with that of Lyons.
For a year or so the catalogues were lithographed but after that they
appeared in the usual form.
For two years Father Roothaan journeyed from place to place through
France, Belgium, Holland, England, and Ireland, and in 1850 returned to
Rome. The storm had spent itself, and the ruins it had caused were
rapidly repaired, at least in France, where the Falloux Law, which was
passed in 1850, permitted freedom of education, and the Fathers hastened
to avail themselves of the opportunity to establish colleges throughout
the country.
Elsewhere, however, other conditions prevailed. In 1851 there was a
dispersion in Spain; in 1859 the provinces of Venice and Turin were
disrupted and the members were distributed through the fifteen other
provinces of the Society. In 1860 the arrival of Garibaldi had already
made an end of the Jesuits in Naples and Sicily. The wreckage was
considerable, and from a complaint presented to King Victor Emmanuel by
Father Beckx, it appears that the Society had lost three establishments
in Lombardy; in Modena, six; in Sardinia, eleven; in Naples, nineteen,
and in Sicily, fifteen. Fifteen hundred Jesuits had been expelled from
their houses, as if they had been criminals, and were thrown into public
jails, abused and ill-treated. They were forbidden to accept shelter
even from their most devoted friends, and the old and the infirm had to
suffer like the rest. Nor were these outrages perpetrated by excited
mobs, but by the authorities then established in Sardinia, Sicily,
Naples, Modena and elsewhere. "This appeal for justice and reparation
for at least some of the harm done," said Father Beckx, "is placed, as
it were, on the tomb of your ancestor Charles Emmanuel, who laid aside
his royal dignity and entered the Society of Jesus as a lay-brother. He
surely would not have embraced that manner of life if it were
iniquitous." But it is not on record that Victor Emmanuel showed his
appreciation of his predecessor's virtue by healing any of the wounds of
the Society, whose garb Charles Emmanuel had worn.
The Jesuits of Venice had resumed work in their province, when in 1866
war was declared between Prussia and Austria. Sadowa shattered the
Austrian forces, and though the Italians had been badly beaten at
Custozzio, Venice was handed over to them by the treaty that ended the
war. That meant of course another expulsion. Most of the exiles went to
the Tyrol and Dalmatia. Then followed the dispersion of all the
provinces of Italy except that of Rome.
The Spanish Jesuits had recovered somewhat from the dispersions of 1854,
but, in 1868 just as the provincial congregations had concluded their
sessions, a revolution broke out all over Spain. Many of the houses were
attacked, but no personal injuries were inflicted. After a while, a
provisional government was established at Madrid which held the mob in
check but made no pretence to restrain the attacks on priests and nuns.
Indeed, it inaugurated a bitter persecution on its own account. The
minister of justice issued a decree which not only ordered the Jesuits
out of all Spain and the adjacent islands within three days, but forbade
any Spaniard to join the Society, even in foreign parts. Of course all
the property was confiscated. That was probably the chief motive of the
whole procedure. The outcasts for the most part went to France, and a
temporary novitiate was established in the territory known as Les
Landes. They returned home after some time, but were expecting another
expulsion in 1912 when the great war was threatening. Possibly the
hideous scenes enacted in Portugal in 1912 were deemed sufficient by the
revolutionists for the time being.
The expatriation of the Jesuits and other religious from Portugal which
was decreed by the Republican government, on October 10, 1910, six days
after the bombardment of the royal palace and the flight of King Manuel,
is typical of the manner in which such demonstrations are made in
Europe. We have an account of it from the Father provincial Cabral which
we quote in part.
"After the press had been working up the populace for three years to the
proper state of mind by stories of subterranean arsenals in the Jesuit
colleges; the boundless wealth of the Fathers; their affiliated secret
organizations; their political plots, etc., the colleges of Campolide
and San Fiel were invaded. The occupants were driven out and led between
lines of soldiers through a howling mob to the common jail. Those who
had fled before the arrival of the soldiers were pursued across the
fields with rifles, and when caught were insulted, beaten and spat
upon, and led like the others to prison. They had to eat out of the
dishes with their hands, and at night sentinels stood over them with
loaded rifles and warned the victims that if they got up they would be
shot. Abandoned women were sent in among them, but those poor creatures
soon withdrew. The prisoners were then transferred to Caixas where they
slept on the floor. Twenty-three were confined in a space that could
scarcely accommodate three. They were kept there for four days, and were
not allowed to leave the room for any reason whatever, and were told
that they would be kept in that condition until they began to rot, and
that then some of their rich friends would buy them off. They were
photographed, subjected to anthropometric examinations, and their finger
prints taken, etc. They were then expelled from the country and
forbidden ever to return. They had only the clothes on their backs, and
had no money except what was given them by some friends; their colleges
with their splendid museums and libraries were confiscated, and in this
condition they set out, old and young, the sick and the strong, to ask
shelter from their brethren in other lands. It was almost a return to
the days of Pombal."
In Germany the Kulturkampf began in 1870, and in 1872 a decree was
signed by the Kaiser, on June 14, 1872, expelling all members of the
Society, and with them the Redemptorists, Lazarists, Fathers of the Holy
Ghost, and the Society of the Sacred Heart. Some of the Jesuits went to
Holland; others to England and America. Contrary to expectations, this
act of tyranny did not harm the German province, for, whereas it then
numbered only 775, it now (1920) has 1210 on its roll, of whom 664 are
priests.
France had its horror in 1871, when on May 24 and 26, Fathers Olivaint,
Ducoudray, Caubert, Clerc and de Bengy were shot to death by the
Communists, who were then in possession of Paris. It was not, however, a
rising against the Jesuits. There were fifty-seven victims in all:
priests, religious and seculars, were immolated. At their head, was the
venerable Archbishop of Paris, Mgr. Darboy. Again, on March 29, 1880, a
decree issued by Jules Ferry brought about a new dispersion and the
substitution of staffs of non-religious teachers in the Jesuit colleges.
The law was not enforced, however, and little by little the Fathers
returned to their posts. Then followed the law of Waldeck-Rousseau in
1901 against unauthorized congregations, which closed all their houses,
for these religious declined to apply for authorization which they knew
would be refused, or if not, would be used to oppress them. The
communities were, therefore, scattered in various houses of Europe. The
last blow was the summons sent to all parts of the world for every
Frenchman not exempt from military service to take part in the great
World War, as chaplains, hospital aids or common soldiers.
The simultaneity as well as the similarity in the methods of executing
these multiplied expulsions show clearly enough that they were not
accidental but part of a universal war against the Church. Thus, at the
other ends of the earth, similar outrages were being committed. When,
for instance, the Conservatives fell from power in Colombia, South
America, in 1850, the Jesuits were expelled. They went from there to
Ecuador and Guayaquil, but were left unmolested only for a year. In 1861
they were re-admitted, and soon had fifty mission stations and had
succeeded in converting 10,000 natives to the faith. But Garcia Moreno
who had invited them was assassinated, and forthwith they were expelled.
A second time they were recalled, but remained only from 1883 to 1894,
and from there they returned to Colombia where they are at present. In
Argentina, whither they were summoned in 1836, their houses were closed
in 1841. They entered Paraguay in 1848, where the old Society had
achieved such triumphs, but were allowed to remain there only three
years. They asked the Chilian government to let them evangelize the
fierce Araucanian savages, but this was refused. At the death of the
dictator Rosas in 1873, they again went to Argentina and have not since
been disturbed. They have had the same good fortune in Chile.
A different condition of things, however, obtained in Brazil. In the
very year that Rosas died in Argentina, 1873, the Jesuit College of
Olinda in Brazil was looted and the Fathers expelled. The reason was not
that the Jesuits were objectionable but that the bishop had suspended a
young ecclesiastic who was a Freemason. The College of Pernambuco was
wrecked by a mob, and one of the priests was dangerously wounded. Worse
treatment was meted out to them when the Emperor, Don Pedro, was deposed
in 1889. Since then, however, there has been comparatively no trouble.
Of course, when the Piedmontese broke down the Porta Pia the Jesuits had
to leave Rome, where until then they had been undisturbed. The novitiate
of S. Andrea was the first to be seized; then St. Eusebio, the house of
the third probation, and after that, St. Vitalis, the Gesù, and finally
the Roman College. The occupants had three months to vacate the
premises. The other religious orders whose general or procurator resided
at Rome could retain one house for the transaction of business but that
indulgence was not granted to the Jesuits. Their General was not to
remain, and hence Father Peter Beckx, though then seventy-eight years
old, had to depart with his brethren for Fiesole, where he was received
in the family of the Counts of Ricasole on November 9, 1873. From that
place he governed the Society until the year 1884, when he was succeeded
by Father Anthony Anderledy, who remained in the same city until he
died. Father Luis Martín, the next General, returned to Rome in 1893, so
that Fiesole was the centre of the Society for twenty years.
As the chief representative of Christ on Earth is the most prominent
victim of these spoliations, and as he has been frequently driven into
exile and is at present only tolerated in his own territory, the Society
of Jesus with the other religious orders cannot consider it a reproach
but rather a glory to be treated like him. How does the Society survive
all these disasters? It continues as if nothing had happened, and one
reads with amazement the statement of Father General Wernz at the
meeting of the procurators held in September and October 1910, when in a
tone that is almost jubilant he congratulates the Society on its
"flourishing condition." He said in brief:
"There are five new provinces; a revival of the professed houses; new
novitiates, scholasticates, tertianships and courses in the best
colleges for students of special subjects; and a superior course for
Jesuit students of canon law in the Gregorian University. Next year
there are to be accommodations for 300 theologians (boarders) at
Innsbruck, which institution will be a Collegium Maximum for philosophy,
theology and special studies. The novitiate is to be moved to the
suburbs of Vienna. In the province of Galicia sufficient ground has been
bought to make the College of Cracow similar to Innsbruck, and a
beautiful church is being built there. The province of Germany though
dispersed has built in Holland an immense novitiate and house of
retreats and the Luxemburg house of writers is to be united to the
Collegium Maximum of Valkenburg. The Holland province has more
diplomated professors than any other in the Society, and is about to
build a new scholasticate. Louvain is becoming more and more a house of
special studies. In England, the Campion house at Oxford is continuing
its success and there is question of moving St. Beuno's. The Irish
province is looking for another site for the novitiate and juniorate,
and is using the University to form better teachers. Canada is looking
for another place for its novitiate and so are Mexico, Brazil and
Argentina, while Maryland is trying to put its scholasticate near New
York.
"Not much remains to be done in Spain. However, Toledo has established a
scholasticate in Murcia, and Aragon is planning one for Tarragona.
France is dispersed, but it has furnished excellent professors for the
Biblical Institute and the Gregorian University. In the mission of
Calcutta, 130,000 pagans have been brought to the Faith and in one
Chinese mission, 12,000. The numbers could be doubled if there were more
workers." This was in 1910, and within a week of this pronouncement, the
expulsion in Portugal took place; in 1914 the war broke out which
shattered Belgium and made France more wretched than ever. What the
future will be no one knows.
CHAPTER XXVI
MODERN MISSIONS
During the Suppression--Roothaan's appeal--South America--
The Philippines--United States Indians--De Smet--Canadian
Reservations--Alaska--British Honduras--China--India--
Syria--Algeria--Guinea--Egypt--Madagascar--Mashonaland
--Congo--Missions depleted by World War--Actual number of
missionaries.
Besides its educational work, the Society of Jesus has always been eager
for desperate and daring work among savages. At the time of the
Suppression, namely in 1773 three thousand of its members were so
employed; and the ruthless and cruel separation from those abandoned
human beings was one of the darkest and gloomiest features of the
tragedy. To all human appearances millions of heathens were thus
hopelessly lost. Happily the disaster was not as great as was
anticipated. In his "Christian Missions" Marshall says:--It would almost
seem as if God had resolved to justify his servants by a special and
marvellous Providence before the face of the whole world, and had left
their work to what seemed inevitable ruin and decay only to show that
neither the world nor the devil, neither persecution, nor fraud nor
neglect could extinguish the life that was in it. And so when they came
to look upon it, after sixty years of silence and desolation they found
a living multitude where they expected to count only the corpses of the
dead. Some indeed had failed, and paganism or heresy had sung its song
of triumph over the victims; others had retained only the great truths
of the Trinity and the Incarnation while ignorance and its twin sister,
superstition, had spread a veil over their eyes, but still the
prodigious fact was revealed that in India alone that there were more
than one million natives who, after half a century of abandonment, still
clung with constancy to the faith which had been preached to their
fathers, and still bowed the head with loving awe when the names of
their departed apostles were uttered amongst them. Such is the
astonishing conclusion of a trial without parallel in the history of
Christianity, and which if it had befallen the Christians of other
lands, boasting their science and civilization, might perhaps have
produced other results than among the despised Asiatics. The natural
inference would be that besides this special Providence in their regard
these neophytes had been well trained by their old masters (I, 246).
For a time, of course, there were some Jesuits who lingered on the
missions in spite of the government's orders to the contrary. Thus we
find a very distinguished man, a Tyrolese from Bolzano, who died at
Lucknow on July 5, 1785. His name was Joseph Tiffenthaller and he had
lived forty years in Hindostan. His tombstone, we are told, may be still
seen in the cemetery of Agra where they laid his precious remains. He
was a man of unusual ability and besides speaking his native tongue was
familiar with Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Hindustanee, Arabic,
Persian and Sanscrit. He was the first European who wrote a description
of Hindostan. It is a detailed account of the twenty-two Provinces of
India, with their cities, towns, fortresses, whose geographical
situations were all calculated by means of a simple quadrant. The work
contains a large number of maps, plans and sketches drawn by himself and
the list of places fills twenty-one quarto pages. He also made a large
atlas of the basin of the Ganges, and is the author of a treatise on the
regions in which the rivers of India rise; a map of the Gagra which
Bernoulli calls "a work of enormous labor" is another part of
Tiffenthaller's relics.
In the field of religion he wrote books on "Brahmanism," "Indian
Idolatry," "Indian Asceticism," "The religion of the Parsees and
Mohammedanism with their relations to each other." He also published his
astronomical observations on the sun-spots, on the zodiacal light,
besides discussions on the astrology and cosmology of the Hindus, with
descriptions of the flora and the fauna of the country. He was besides
all that an historian, and has left us an account in Latin of the origin
and religion of the Hindus, another in German of the expedition of Nadir
Shah to India; a third in Persian about the deeds of the Great Mogul,
Alam, and a fourth in French which tells of the incursions of the
Afghans and the capture of Delhi, together with a contemporary history
of India for the years 1757-64. In linguistics, he wrote a
Parsee-Sanscrit lexicon and treatises in Latin on the Parsee language,
the pronunciation of Latin, etc., He was held in the highest esteem by
the scientific societies of Europe with which he was in communication.
During the greater part of his life in India, the struggle was going on
between the French and English for the possession of the Peninsula.
Of course he was not alone in India, at that time, for Bertrand tells us
in his "Notions sur l' Inde et les missions" (p. 30) that "the Jesuits
had a residence at Delhi as late as 1790", but, unfortunately, he
could say nothing more about them. It is very likely, however, that
when Pombal's agents attempted to crowd the 127 Jesuits who were at
work in the various districts of Hindostan into a ship which had
accommodations--and such accommodations--for only forty or fifty, many
of them had perforce to be left behind, or perhaps failed to report at
the place of embarcation. By keeping out of Goa, they could easily elude
the pursuivants. The jungle, for instance, was a convenient hiding
place. However, as they received no recruits the work went to pieces
when the old heroes died, so that there were, most likely, no Jesuits
there at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It was just at this
time, that England took possession of the greater part of Hindostan and,
as a consequence, the country was soon swarming with Protestant parsons
of every sect, eager to fill their depleted ranks with new converts from
the East.
Marshall had been employed to report on their success, but as every one
knows, the investigation brought him to the Church. His researches
furnish very reliable and interesting information about the conditions
prevailing in those parts among the old proselytes of the Jesuits.
Quoting from the "Madras Directory" of 1857, he shows that in the
Missions of Madura, founded by de Nobili, there were still 150,000
Catholics, and in Verapoli as many as 300,000, with an accession of 1000
converts from Mohammedanism every year. Nor were these Hindus merely
nominal Christians. Bertrand who knew India thoroughly, writing in 1838,
says of the Sanars: "One might almost say that they have not eaten of
the tree of knowledge of good and evil with Adam, and that they were
created in the days of original innocence. Among these Hindus there are
numbers who when asked whether they commit this or that sin, answer:
'Formerly I did, but that is many years ago. I told it to the Father,
and he forbade me to do it. Since then I have not committed it.' We
reckon more than 7000 Christians of this caste." Father Garnier, S. J.
wrote in the same year as follows: "The Christians of this country are,
in general, well disposed and strongly attached to the Faith. The
usages introduced among them by the Jesuits still subsist; morning
prayer in common, an hour before sunrise; evening prayer with spiritual
reading; catechism for the children every day given by a catechist; Mass
on Sunday in the chapel. But in spite of these excellent practices there
still remains much ignorance and superstition, and we shall have a good
deal to do to form them into a people of true Christians before we turn
our attention to the pagans. We shall do that when we are more
numerous."
Of course these testimonies of Jesuits may be rejected by some people,
but the Protestant missionaries in Hindostan, at that time, leave no
room for doubt about the actual conditions. Buchanan, for instance, who
was particularly conspicuous among his fellows and was greatly extolled
in England says: "There are in India members of the Church of Rome who
deserve the affection and respect of all good men. From Cape Commorin to
Cochin, there are about one hundred churches on the seashore alone.
Before each is a lofty cross which like the church itself is seen from a
great distance. At Jaffna, on Sundays, about a thousand or twelve
hundred people attend church and on feast days three thousand and
upward. At Manaar they are all Romish Christians. At Tutycorin, the
whole of the tribe, without exception, are Christians in the Romish
Communion. Before they hoist sail to go out to sea, a number of boatmen
all join in prayer to God for protection. Every man at his post, with
the rope in his hands, pronounces the prayer."
One of these parsons who bore the very inappropriate name of Joseph
Mullens and whose writing is usually a shriek against the Church says
that "in 1854, the Jesuit and Roman Catholic missions are spread very
widely through the Madras Presidency. At Pubna there is a population of
13,000 souls. It is all due to the Catholic missionaries. I allow that
they dress simply, eat plainly and have no luxuries at home; they travel
much; are greatly exposed; live poorly, and toil hard, and I have heard
of a bishop living in a cave on fifty rupees a month, and devoutly
attending the sick when friends and relatives had fled from fear. But
all that is much easier on the principles of a Jesuit who is supported
by motives of self-righteousness than it is to be a faithful minister on
the principles of the New Testament."
The bloody persecution of 1805 in China showed how fervent and strong
those Christians were in their faith. Very few apostatized, though new
and terrible punishments were inflicted on them. Dr. Wells Williams, a
Protestant agent in China, says that "many of them exhibited the
greatest constancy in their profession, suffering persecution, torture,
banishment and death, rather than deny their faith, though every
inducement of prevarication and mental reservation was held out to them
by the magistrates, in order to avoid the necessity of proceeding to
extreme measures." It came to an end only when it was discovered that
Christianity had even entered the royal family, and that the judges were
sometimes trying their own immediate relatives. In 1815, however, the
very year that the Protestant missionaries arrived in China the
persecution broke out again. Bishop Dufresse was one of the victims, and
when the day of execution arrived he with thirty-two other martyrs
ascended the scaffold. In 1818 many were sent to the wastes of Tatary,
and 1823 when pardon was offered to all who would renounce their faith,
after suffering in the desert for five years only five proved recreant.
In the midst of all this storm one of the missionaries reported that he
had baptized one hundred and six adults.
That a great many Chinese had remained faithful Catholics during the
long period which had elapsed after the Suppression was manifested by a
notable event recorded by Brou in "Les Jésuites Missionaires."
"On November 1, 1903," he writes, "a funeral ceremony took place in
Zikawei, a town situated about six miles from Shanghai. It was more like
the triumph of a great hero than an occasion of mourning. The people
were in a state of great enthusiasm about it, and assembled in immense
throngs around the tomb of the illustrious personage whose glories were
being celebrated. The object of these honors was Paul Zi or Sin, a
literary celebrity in his day, the prime minister of an emperor in the
long past, and one of the first converts of the famous Father Ricci,
whom he had aided with lavish generosity in building churches and in
establishing the Faith in the neighborhood of Shanghai.
"The celebration of 1903 was the third centenary of his baptism, and all
his relations or descendants who were very numerous, had gathered at
Zikawei for the occasion. Among them, the Fathers discovered a great
number of Christians who had remained true to the teachings of the
Church during those 300 years; and there were many others throughout the
country who resembled the Zi family in this particular. In Paul's
district, that is in the neighborhood of Shanghai, there were, 60 years
after the baptism of the great man, as many as 40,000 Christians, and in
1683 the number had risen to 800,000, but a century later the
persecutions had cut them down to 30,000 though doubtless there were
many who had succeeded in concealing themselves."
With Cochin the Jesuits never had anything to do, except that their
great hero, de Rhodes, was its first successful missionary in former
days. It was at his suggestion that the Society of the Missions
Etrangères was founded and took up the work which the Jesuits were
unable to carry on alone.
About Corea, Marshall furnishes us with two very interesting facts. The
first is that England had the honor of giving a martyr to Corea, the
English Jesuit, Thomas King, who died there in 1788, that is fifteen
years after the Suppression. Unfortunately the name "King" does not
appear in Foley's "Records."
The second is vouched for by the "Annales" (p. 190) which relate that a
French priest, known as M. de Maistre, had for ten years vainly
endeavored to enter the forbidden kingdom and had spent 60,000 francs in
roaming around its impenetrable frontier. He assumed all sorts of
disguises, faced every kind of danger in his journeys from the ports of
China to the deserts of Leao-tong, asking alternately the Chinese junks
and the French ships to put him ashore somewhere on the coast. Death was
so evidently to be the result of his enterprise that the most courageous
seaman refused to help him. It required the zeal of an apostle to
comprehend this heroism and to second its endeavors. Father Hélot, being
a priest, understood what the Cross required of him, and as a member of
a society whose tradition is that they have never been baffled by any
difficulties or perils, felt himself at the post where his Company
desired him to be. The Jesuit becomes the pilot of a battered ship,
safely conducts his intrepid passenger to an unknown land, and having
deposited him on the shore, looked after him for a while and returned to
his neophytes with the consoling satisfaction of having exposed his life
for a mission that was not his own.
From the Catalogues of the Society, we find that Louis Hélot was born on
January 29, 1816. He was a novice at St. Acheul, in 1835, and in the
same house there happened to be a certain Isidore Daubresse, not a
novice, however, but a theologian who was well-known later on in New
York. The master of novices was Ambrose Rubillon who was subsequently
assistant of the General for France. By 1850 Hélot was in China and
spent the rest of his life hunting after souls in the region of Nankin.
He died sometime after 1864. De Maistre succeeded in entering the
country and we find him waiting one Good Friday night to welcome the
first bishop who had three priests with him, one of whom was a Jesuit.
Before the re-establishment the few Jesuits in White Russia had kept up
the missionary traditions of the Society. Their missions extended all
along the Volga and they were at Odessa in 1800. In 1801, thanks to the
Emperor Paul's intercession, they had returned to their ancient posts on
the Ægean Islands, which were in the dominions of the Grand Turk; by
1806 they had reached Astrakhan; and in 1810 were in the Caucasus.
Before Father Grassi came to America, he was studying in St. Petersburg
to prepare himself for the missions of Astrakhan.
In America, in spite of the Suppression, the work of the old Jesuits did
not fail to leave its traces. Thus in Brazil where Nobrega and Anchieta
once labored, over 800,000 domesticated Indians now represent the fruit
of their toil. Deprived during sixty years of their fathers and guides
and too often scandalized by men who are Christians only in name, the
native races have not only preserved the Faith through all their sorrows
and trials, but every where rejected the bribes and promises of heresy.
In that vast region, which stretches from the mouth of the San Francisco
to the Isthmus of Panama, watered by the mightiest rivers of our globe,
and including the district of the Amazon with its 45,000 miles of
navigable water communication, "the natives who still find shelter in
its forests or guide their barks over its myriad streams," says a
Protestant writer, "push their profession of the Catholic religion even
to the point of fanaticism."
The Paraguayans of course could be counted upon not to forget their
fathers in Christ. Both Sir Woodbine Parish and d'Orbigny testify that
the effects of the preponderating influence of the monastic
establishments are still visible in the habits of the generality of the
people. One thing is certain, they say, and ought to be declared to the
praise of the Fathers, that since their expulsion the material
prosperity of Paraguay has diminished; many lands formerly cultivated
have ceased to be so; many localities formerly inhabited present at this
day only ruins. What ought to be confessed is this--that they knew how
to engrave with such power, on their hearts, reverence for authority
that even to this very hour the tribes of Paraguay beyond all those who
inhabit this portion of America are the most gentle and the most
submissive to the dictates of duty.
In "La Compañía de Jesús en las Republicas del Sur de America," Father
Hernández tells us that there were three former Jesuits in Chile at the
beginning of the nineteenth century: Father Caldera, Vildaurre and
Carvajal. The first two died respectively in 1818 and 1822, the date of
Carvajal's demise is not known, nor is there any information available
as to whether or not they ever re-entered the Society. In the old
Province of Paraguay, there was a Father Villafañe who was seventy-four
years old in 1814. Hearing of the re-establishment, he wrote to the Pope
asking to renew his vows when "in danger of death." The request, of
course, was granted but he continued to live till the year 1830. Whether
he waited till then to renew his vows has not been found out. In that
same year there died in Buenos Aires an Irish Jesuit named Patrick
Moran. His name is inscribed not only on the headstone over his remains,
in the Recolta graveyard, but on a slab inserted in the wall of the
church. He was probably a chaplain in some distinguished family or what
was more likely exercising his ministry in the Irish colony of that
place.
Coming to the northern part of the hemisphere we are told by Mr. Russell
Bartlett that the Yaqui Indians of Sonora, the fishermen and pearl
divers of California are invariably honest, faithful and industrious.
They were among the first to be converted by the Jesuits. Originally
extremely warlike, their savage nature was completely subdued on being
converted to Christianity, and they became the most docile and tractable
of people. They are now very populous in the southern part of Sonora.
Anyone who has visited the Abenakis at Old Town in Maine, or La Jeune
Lorette in Quebec, or Caughnawaga on the St. Lawrence, or the Indian
settlements at Wekwemikong and Killarney on Lake Huron will testify to
the excellent results of the teachings implanted in their hearts by the
old Jesuit missionaries who reclaimed them from savagery.
A most remarkable example of this fidelity to their former teachers was
afforded by the Indians of Caughnawaga. They were mostly Iroquois from
New York who after their conversion to the Faith were sent or went, of
their own accord, to the Christian village that was assigned to them
above Montreal. Long after the Suppression of the Society, namely in the
first third of the nineteenth century, a party of these Indians headed
by two chiefs with the significant names of Ignace and François Régis
tramped almost completely across the continent, and without the aid of
a priest, for none could be got, converted an entire tribe to
Christianity and did it in such wonderful fashion that the first white
men who visited these converts were amazed at the purity, honesty,
self-restraint and piety that reigned in the tribe. Over and over again,
Ignace travelled down to St. Louis, thus making a journey of two
thousand miles each time to beg for a Black Robe from the poor
missionary bishop who had none to give him. The devoted Ignace, at last,
lost his life in pursuance of his apostolic purpose. He fell among
hostile Indians, and though he might have escaped, for he was dressed as
a white man, he confessed himself an Iroquois and died with his people.
Father Fortis, the first General after the re-establishment of the
Society, was rather averse to any missionary enterprise for the time
being, because he judged that he had not as yet any available men for
such perilous work. Father Roothaan, his immediate successor, was of a
different opinion, and when in 1833, he appealed for missionaries the
response was immediate. Hence Bengal was begun in 1834; Madura,
Argentina and Paraguay in 1836, and the Rocky Mountains and China in
1840. In 1852 at the request of Napoleon III the penal colony of French
Guinea was accepted as were the offers of Fernando Po in Africa and the
Philippines from Queen Isabella of Spain.
The Spanish missions in Latin America were the least successful of any
in the Society. The Fathers were debarred from any communication with
the native tribes, even those formerly Christianized and civilized by
them, or if permission were granted it was soon under some frivolous
pretext or other rescinded, as we have mentioned above.
The Belgian Jesuits went to Guatemala in 1843, but only after
considerable trouble was their existence assured by a government Act, in
1851. In 1871, however, they were expelled and withdrew to Nicaragua,
from which they were driven in 1884. The Brazilian Mission was
inaugurated by the Jesuits whom Rosas had exiled from Argentina. They
were acceptable because priests were needed in the devastated Province
of Rio Grande do Sul, which had been the theatre of an unsuccessful war
of independence. Of course, the usual government methods in vogue in
that part of the world were resorted to.
The suppression of the Society wrought havoc in the Philippines, and we
are told that in 1836 as many as 6000 people were carried off into
slavery by Mohammedan pirates, a disaster that would have probably been
prevented had the missionaries been left there. They would have made
soldiers out of the natives as they did in Paraguay. It was only in 1859
that they returned to that field of work. They resumed their educational
labors in Manila and at the same time evangelized Mindanao with
wonderful success. In 1881 there were on that island 194,134 Christians
and in 1893, 302,107. Inside of thirty-six years, the Fathers had
brought 57,000 Filipinos to the Faith and established them in Reductions
as in Paraguay. Great success was also had with the Moros, who were
grouped together in three distinct villages. The Spanish War brought its
disturbances, but little by little the Jesuits recovered what they had
lost and there are at present 162 members of the province of Aragon at
work in the Islands.
In the United States, the native races have largely disappeared except
in the very far West. With the remnants, the Jesuits are, of course,
concerned, and perhaps the most reliable official estimate of the
success they have achieved was expressed by Senator Vest during the
discussion of the Indian Appropriation Bill before the United States
Senate in 1900:
"I was raised a Protestant," he said; "I expect to die one. I was never
in a Catholic church in my life, and I have not the slightest sympathy
with many of its dogmas; but above all I have no respect for the insane
fear that the Catholic Church is about to overturn this Government. I
should be ashamed to call myself an American if I indulged in any such
ignorant belief. I said that I was a Protestant. I was reared in the
Scotch Presbyterian Church; my father was an elder in it and my earliest
impressions were that the Jesuits had horns and hoofs and tails, and
that there was a faint tinge of sulphur in the circumambient air
whenever one of them crossed your path. Some years ago I was assigned by
the Senate to examine the Indian schools in Wyoming and Montana. I
visited every one of them. I wish to say now what I have said before in
the Senate and it is not the popular side of the question by any means,
that I did not see in all my journey a single school that was doing any
educational work worthy of the name educational work, unless it was
under the control of the Jesuits. I did not see a single Government
school, especially day schools where there was any work done at all. The
Jesuits have elevated the Indian wherever they have been allowed to do
so without the interference of bigotry and fanaticism and the cowardice
of politicians. They have made him a Christian, have made him a workman
able to support himself and those dependent on him. Go to the Flathead
Reservation in Montana, and look at the work of the Jesuits and what do
you find? Comfortable dwellings, herds of cattle and horses,
self-respecting Indians. I am not afraid to say this, because I speak
from personal observation, and no man ever went among these Indians with
more intense prejudice than I had when I left the city of Washington to
perform that duty. Every dollar you give to the Government day schools
might as well be thrown into the Potomac under a ton of lead."
(Congressional Records, Apl. 7, 1900, p. 7. 4120.)
The most conspicuous of the missionaries among the North American
Indians is Father Peter de Smet. He was born in Dendermonde on the
Scheldt, and was twelve years old when the booming of the cannons of
Waterloo startled the little town. He came out to Maryland in 1821 and
after remaining for a short time at Whitemarsh in the log cabin which
then sheltered the novices of the Province of Maryland, set out on foot
with a party of young Jesuits for the then Wild West. They walked from
Whitemarsh to Wheeling, a distance of 400 miles, and then went in flat
boats down the Ohio to Shawneetown and from there proceeded again on
foot to St. Louis. It was a journey of a month and a half.
His first work was among the Pottawotamis, and then he was sent to the
wonderful Flatheads, whom the Iroquois from Caughnawaga had converted.
From that time forward his life was like a changing panorama. In the
story, there are Indians of every kind who come before us. Gros Ventres
and Flatheads and Pottawotamis, and Pend d'Oreilles and Sioux; their
incantations and cannibalism and dances and massacres and disgusting
feasts are described; there are scenes in the Bad Lands and mountains
and forests; there are tempests in the mid-Pacific and more alarming
calms; there are councils with Indian chiefs, and interviews with Popes
and presidents and kings and ambassadors and archbishops and great
statesmen and Mormon leaders, always and exclusively in the interests of
the Church. The great man's life has been written in four volumes by two
admiring Protestants, and another biography has lately come from the pen
of a Belgian Jesuit. In them appears an utterance from Archbishop
Purcell about the hero, which deserves to be quoted. "Never," he says,
"since the days of Xavier, Brébeuf, Marquette and Lalemant has there
been a missionary more clearly pointed out and called than Father de
Smet." Thurlow Weed, one of the most conspicuous American statesmen of
the day, said of him: "No white man knows the Indians as Father de Smet
nor has any man their confidence to the same degree." Thomas H. Benton
wrote to him in 1852: "You can do more for the welfare of the Indians in
keeping them at peace and friendship with the United States than an army
with banners."
Again and again he was sent by the government to pacify the Indians. His
mission in 1868 was particularly notable. Sitting Bull was on the
warpath and was devastating the whole regions of the Upper Missouri and
Yellowstone. They were called for a parley, and de Smet went out alone
among the painted warriors. He held a banner of the Blessed Virgin in
his hand and pleaded so earnestly with them to forget the past, that
they went down into the very midst of the United States troops and
signed the treaty of peace that brought 50,000 Indians to continue their
allegiance to the government. De Smet in his journeys had crossed the
ocean nineteen times and had travelled 180,000 miles by sailing vessels,
river barges, canoes, dogsleds, snow shoes, wagons, or on horseback or
on foot. "We shall never forget," said General Stanley of the United
States Army--and this eulogy of the great man will suffice--"nor shall
we ever cease to admire the disinterested devotion of Reverend Father de
Smet who at the age of sixty-eight years did not hesitate, in the midst
of the summer heat, to undertake a long and perilous journey across the
burning plains, destitute of trees and even of grass, having none but
corrupted and unwholesome water, constantly exposed to scalping by
Indians, and this without seeking honor or remuneration of any sort but
solely to arrest the shedding of blood, and save, if it might be, some
lives and preserve some habitations."
In Canada, the Indian reservation of La Jeune Lorette, which was
established in the early days by Father Chaumonot, is now directed by
the secular clergy of Quebec. The Caughnawaga settlement near Montreal
was, of course, lost to the Society at the time of the Suppression, but
of late years has been restored to its founders. The Canadian Jesuits
also look after the Indians of Lakes Huron and Superior. Their latest
undertaking is in Alaska which began by a tragedy.
The saintly Bishop Charles John Seghers, who was coadjutor to the Bishop
of Oregon, had himself transferred to the See of Vancouver in order to
devote his life to the savages of Alaska. In 1886 when he asked the
Jesuits to come to his assistance, Fathers Tosi and Robaut were assigned
to the work. In July, the bishop, the two Jesuits and a hired man
started over the Chilcoot Pass for the headwaters of the Yukon. It was
decided that the two Jesuits should spend the winter at the mouth of the
Stewart River, while the Bishop with his man hastened to a distant post
to forestall the members of a sect, who contemplated establishing a post
at the same place. During the terrible 1,100 mile journey the servant
became insane and in the dead of night killed the bishop. The result was
that new arrangements had to be made and Father Tosi was made prefect
Apostolic in 1894. His health soon gave way under the terrible
privations of the mission and he died in 1898, although only fifty-one
years of age. He was succeeded by Father René of the Society who
resigned in 1904, and the present incumbent Father Crimont, S. J., took
his place.
The condition of Alaska has greatly changed since the advent of the
missionaries. The discovery of placer gold deposits with the influx of
miners robbed a portion of Alaska of its primitive isolation. The
invading whites had to be looked after, and hence there are resident
Jesuit priests at Juneau, Douglas, Fairbanks, Nome, Skagway, St. Michael
and Seward. A great number of posts are attended to from these centres.
The Ten'a Indians and Esquimaux are the only natives whom the
missionaries have been able to evangelize thus far. There is a
training-school for them at Koserefsky, where the boys are taught
gardening, carpentry and smithing of various kinds, and the girls are
instructed in cooking, sewing and other household arts. This work is
particularly trying not only because of the bodily suffering it entails,
but because of the awful monotony and isolation of those desolate arctic
regions. Some idea of it may be gathered from a few extracts taken from
a letter of one of the missionaries. It is dated May 29, 1916.
"The Skúlarak district of 15,000 square miles, depending on St. Mary's
Mission," says the writer, "is as large as a diocese. It has seventy or
eighty villages. The whole country along the coast is a vast swamp
covered with a net work of rivers, sloughs, lakes and ponds. There is
only one inhabitant to every ten or twelve square miles. There is no
question of roads except in winter and then as everything is deep in
snow, it is impossible to tell whether one is going over land or lake or
river. When we started the thermometer registered 28° below zero,
Fahrenheit. We had nine dogs; but two were knocked out shortly after
starting. Eleven hours travelling brought us to our first cabins. We
rose next morning at five, said Mass on an improvised altar and set out
southward. At noon we stopped for lunch, which consisted of frozen
bread and some tea from our thermo bottle. It was only at seven o'clock
that we reached a little 'village' of three houses at the foot of the
Kusilwak Mountains, which are two or three thousand feet high. They
served as a guide to direct our course." At another stage of the journey
he writes: "At sundown as we lost all hope of reaching any village we
made for a faraway clump of brushwood intending to pass the night there.
It is full moon and its rays light up an immaculate white landscape,
there is a bright cloudless sky, and everything is so still that you
cannot even breathe without a plainly audible sound."
What kind of people was he pursuing? Not very interesting in any way. "I
came upon a new style of native dwelling, a low-roofed miserable hovel
about twelve feet square; in the centre, a pit, about two and a half
feet deep, was the sink and dumping ground for the refuse of the house.
There we had to descend if we wanted the privilege of standing erect.
That is where I placed myself to perform a baptism of the latest arrival
of the family whom the mother held on her lap squatted on the higher
ground which served as a bed. The habits of the natives cannot be
described." "Our dogs were so exhausted," he says in the course of his
narrative, "that they lay down at once without waiting to have their
harness taken off. We fed them their ration of dry fish, they curled up
in the snow and went to sleep. As for ourselves we tried to build a fire
but could not succeed in boiling enough of melted snow for even a cup of
tea; a box of sardines, the contents of which were so frozen that I had
to chop them up with the prong of a fork constituted my royal supper. A
hole was soon dug in the snow, by using the snow shoes for a shovel and
a few sticks thrown in to prevent direct contact with the snow. I opened
my bag of blankets, put on my fur parkey and tried to keep the blankets
around me to keep from freezing. After a couple of hours I felt my limbs
getting numb, and I was compelled to crawl out and look around for a
hard mound of snow where I began to execute a dance that would baffle
the best orchestra. I jigged and clogged around for fifteen or twenty
minutes, and feeling I was alive again sought my blankets once more, but
the cold was too intense and I could only say a few prayers and make a
peaceful application of the meditation 'de propriis peccatis.'
"Another time, after fruitlessly scanning the horizon for a sign of a
village, we found ourselves compelled to pass the night in the open air.
This time I constructed a scientific Pullman berth for myself. Selecting
the leeward side of an ice block, I dug a trench in the snow, using the
fire-pan as a shovel. I hewed out the pillow at the head and made the
grave (indeed it looked like one) about two feet wide and two deep and
my exact length. Stretching my cassock over it, with the snow shoes as a
supporting rack, I crawled into it and passed a tolerably comfortable
night, though I awoke dozens of times from the violent coughing that had
stuck to me since my stay in Tumna. So it went on till April 8. We had
been three weeks on the road. Never had the trip to Tumna lasted so
long. This was due to the fact that the dogs were exhausted and we had
to walk back for about 250 miles in the snow."
The missionaries of the old Society would recognize this light hearted
modern American apostle as their brother.
Another example in a region which is the very opposite of Alaska will
convince the skeptic that the modern Jesuit retains the old heroic
spirit of the missions. This time we are in the deadly swamps and
forests of British Honduras and the apostle there is Father William
Stanton of the Missouri province. As a scholastic he was teaching the
dark skinned boys of Belize and incidentally gathering numberless
specimens of tropical flora and fauna for the Smithsonian Institute in
Washington. From there he went to the other end of the earth and was put
at scientific work in the Observatory at Manila. He was the first
American priest ordained in the Philippines, and his initial ministerial
work was to attend to the American soldiers, who were dying by scores of
cholera. After that we find him again in Honduras, no longer in college
but in the bush with about 800 Maya Indians, whose language he did not
know but soon learned. He was still a naturalist but first of all he was
absorbed in the care of the lazy and degraded Indians. His hut was made
of sticks plastered with mud and thatched with palm leaves and he was
all alone.
"Roads! Roads!" he writes, "they are simply unspeakable. It's only a
little over nine miles from Benque Viejo to Cayo but it took me five
hours to do it on horseback. Rain and the darkness caught me. It was so
dark I could not see my horse's head but my Angel Guardian brought me
through all right.... The only beasts that bother me are the garrapatas
(ticks). I have to spend from an hour and a half to two hours picking
them out of my flesh and my whole body is thickly peppered with blotchy
sores where they have left their mark. But one can't expect to have
everything his own way in this life even in the paradise of Benque. By
the way, before I forget, would you try to send me a wash basin or bowl
of glazed metal. I have nothing but the huge tin dishpan of the kitchen
to wash my face in. It's a little inconvenient to scour the grease out
every time I want to wash and I don't want to fall into real Spanish
_costumbres_." His table was a packing case, his chair a box of tinned
goods, his bed four ropes and a mat woven of palm leaves. He had one
cup, plate and saucer.
"I have forty stations to get around to, and I haven't a decent
crucifix, or ciborium, and only one chalice. I am not squealing for my
house but for the Lord's. My good little mud house is a palace, even if
the pigs and goats of the village do break in now and then to make a
meal off one's old boots or the scabbard of one's machete. My bush
church is fine; same architecture as my house, only larger. In church,
the men stand around the walls, while the women and children squat on
the clay floor and the babies roll all over, garbed only in angelic
innocence."
Of one of his journeys he writes: "I have just returned from a river
trip, after being away from home thirty-one days moving about from place
to place among my scattered people on the river banks and in the bush.
My health was good until last week when I got a little stroke from the
heat, followed by several days' fever which put me on my back for four
days, but I am now myself again. Fortunately I had only three more days'
journey, and with the help of my two faithful Indians I arrived safely
at Benque." These "three days," though he does not say so, were days of
torture, and his Indians wondered if they could get him back alive. "I
am now back as far as Cayo, arriving at 1.30 this morning. Everything is
flooded with mud and water. I must get a horse and get out to Benque
today, as I hear Father Henneman is down with fever. I have ten miles
more to make, and over a terrible road through the bush, with the horse
up to his belly in mud and water most of the time; but with the Lord's
help I hope to be safe at home before night. I have been away only a
week, having made some hundred and sixty miles on horseback, the whole
of it through a dense jungle. I had to cut my way through with my
machete, for the rank vegetation and hanging lianas completely closed
the narrow trail."
He had gone out to visit a village and crossed a ford on the way. The
river was high and the current strong. His horse was swept off his feet
and Father Stanton slipped out of his saddle and swam beside the animal.
Some quarter of a mile below there was a dangerous fall in the river,
but they managed to reach the bank a hundred feet above the fall. He
caught hold of a branch, but it broke and he was swept down the stream.
With a prayer to his Guardian Angel he struck out for the deepest water
and went over the fall. Some Indians near the bank saw the bearded white
man go over the roaring cataract and they thought he was a wizard, but
he went safely through, and then with long powerful strokes (he was a
marvellous swimmer) he made for the bank. Then waving his hand to the
startled Indians, he cut his way with his machete through the bush to
look for his horse. Another time we find him returning after what he
calls a "stiff trip," soaking wet all the time, for he had to swim
across a swift river with boots and clothes on, he was all day in the
saddle, was caught one night in the jungle in a swamp, pitch dark, knee
deep in the mud--"Clouds of mosquitos and swarms of fiery ants had taken
their fill of me," he writes, "while the blood sucking vampire bats
lapped my poor horse. We got out all right and I had the consolation of
being told by an Indian that three big tigers (jaguars) had been killed
near the place last month."
On April 13, 1909, he says: "Just at present I am flat on my back with
an attack of something, apparently acute articular rheumatism." He felt
it, the first time while he was working in the garden. "I simply
squirmed on the ground and screeched like a wild Indian." And yet he
starts off to Belize on horseback to see the doctor, which meant a
distant journey of four days, and he had to sleep in the bush one night.
From Belize he returned by water in a "pitpan," a freight boat for
shallow rivers that can easily upset in the slightest current. That
meant eight weary days without room even to stretch himself out at
night; with no awning in the day to shield him from the sun and
frequently drenched by torrential rains. In September he is following
his horse through the mud of the jungle. In October he was sent for
again by the doctor at Belize, and returns a second time to his mission
which meant eight days in the forest alone.
Finally, Father Stanton was ordered home to St. Louis, and it was found
that his whole body was ringed around with a monstrous growth of cancer.
He died in intense agony, but never spoke of his sufferings. In his
delirium he was talking about Honduras. Only once he said "I am so long
a-dying." He finally expired on March 10, 1910. He had just completed
his fortieth year, but his missionary work was equal to anything in the
old Society.
When the Jesuits resumed work in China in 1841 they found that all over
the country there were great numbers of natives who had kept the Faith
in spite of the bitter persecutions to which they had been subjected
during the absence of the missionaries. The Province of Kiang-nan, the
capital of which is Nankin, and the city where Ricci began his apostolic
labors, welcomed back the great man's brethren.
Kiang-nan is a territory half the size of France. In the west and
south-west it is hilly, but the rest of it is an immense plain watered
by the Yang-tse-Kiang and by countless lakes, streams and canals. It is
marvellously fertile and furnishes a double crop every year. The rivers
swarm with fish, and the land with human beings. In it are many large
cities such as Shanghai with its 650,000 inhabitants; Tchen-Kiang with
170,000, Odi-si with 200,000 and so on. Nankin is the residence of the
viceroy, and was formerly the "Capital of the south," and the rival of
Pekin, but later it had only 130,000 people within its walls. At
present, however, it is reviving and is credited with three or four
hundred thousand inhabitants. Before the Jesuits arrived, the country
had been cared for by other religious orders, chiefly the Lazarists and
the Fathers of the Missions Etrangères.
In the neighborhood of Shanghai, there were 48,000 Catholic Chinese who
dated back through their ancestors to the time of the Jesuit
missionaries of the seventeenth century. Perhaps four thousand more
might have been found in the rest of the province, but they were
submerged in the mass of 45,000,000 idolaters. The outlook on the whole
was consoling, for the vicar Apostolic, Mgr. de Besi, had founded a
seminary, which before 1907 furnished more than one hundred native
priests. The work of the Holy Childhood was enthusiastically carried on,
with the result that in the years 1847-48, 60,963 names appear on the
baptismal registers. In 1849 the Jesuits had establishments at Nankin,
Ousi and along the Grand Canal. That year, however, was made gloomy by
floods, famine and sickness. Nevertheless the trials had the good result
of compelling the erection of orphanages where the Faith could be taught
without difficulty. In 1852 the revolt against the Manchu dynasty broke
out, and in 1853 Nankin and Shanghai were sacked. Everything Christian
disappeared in the general carnage; but in 1855 the imperial troops with
the aid of the French Admiral Laguerre entered Shanghai, but Nankin and
the provinces remained in the hands of the rebels.
Certain ecclesiastical changes also occurred at that time. Pekin and
Nankin disappeared as dioceses, and the province of Kiang-nan became a
vicariate Apostolic, whose administration was entrusted to the Jesuits
of Paris under Mgr. Borgniet. He was appointed in 1856. The vicariate of
South-Eastern Tche-ly was given to the province of Champagne and Mgr.
Languillat began his work there with three Fathers and 9,475 old
Christians, the descendants of the neophytes of Pekin.
In 1860 the Chinese war broke out and the Taipings availed themselves of
it for another rising. The English and French, who were fighting the
emperor, held different opinions about what to do with the rebels, and
finally contented themselves with defending Shanghai; leaving the rest
of the country to be ravaged at will. Father Massa was thrown into
prison and was about to be executed, but contrived to make his escape.
His brother Louis, however, was put to death at Tsai-kia-ouan, along
with a crowd of orphans whom he was trying to protect. In 1861 Father
Vuillaume was killed at Pou-tong and others were robbed, taken prisoners
and ill-treated. In 1862 an epidemic of cholera broke out in the
province and lasted two years; the vicar Apostolic, Mgr. Borgniet,
sixteen religious and four hundred of the faithful succumbed to the
pestilence. In the following year six more Jesuits died. At this time
General Gordon was beginning his great career. He was then only a major
but he reorganized the imperial army, crushed the rebels and took
Nankin. This gave a breathing spell to the missionaries; but in 1868,
the Taipings were out again, under another name, and anarchy reigned for
an entire year.
In the mean time the cities of Shanghai and Zikawei had relatively
little to suffer, and the end of the war gave the missionaries the
right to build churches, to exercise the ministry everywhere, and even
to be compensated for the destruction of their property. But the rights
were merely on paper, and fourteen or fifteen years of quarrels with
every little mandarin in the country followed. Nevertheless the work
went on. At Zikawei, for instance, schools were established, a
printing-establishment inaugurated, and in 1872 the observatory which
was soon to be famous in all the Orient was begun. Progress was also
made at Shanghai. Of course the usual burnings and plunderings, with
occasional massacre of groups of Christians continued, but not much
attention was paid to these disturbances until 1878, when the Church at
Nankin was set on fire, and Sisters of Charity, priests, and Christians
in general, among whom was the French consul, were all ruthlessly
murdered. The imperial government then took cognizance of the outbreak,
and eleven alleged culprits were put to death. That helped to calm the
mob, and evangelical work was resumed, so that Kiang-nan, which had
70,685 Christians in 1866 counted over 100,000 in 1882. In the year 1900
there were 124,000 of whom 55,171 were adults. There were also 50,000
catechumens preparing for baptism. The number of priests had grown to
159, of whom 42 were Chinese. The 940 schools had an attendance of
18,563 children.
The Boxer uprising was the most formidable trial to which the mission
has so far been subjected. It was organized in the court itself by Toan,
the emperor's uncle, General Tong-Fou-Siang and the secretary of state,
Kangi-i, and its rumblings were heard for years before the actual
outbreak. In Se-tchouan, a third of the churches were destroyed,
villages set on fire, missionaries thrown into prison and many
Christians massacred. A priest and his people were burned in the church
at Kouang-toung; and at Hou-pe, another was put to death. These outrages
were as yet local, but there was every evidence that a general
conspiracy was at work for the expulsion of all foreigners from the
empire. Finally the Boxers, or _Grand Sabres_, declared themselves, and
by order of the viceroy, Yu-heen, 360 Christian villages were destroyed.
That was only a beginning. Tche-ly suffered most. It was the stronghold
of the rebels. In the autumn of 1899 there were conflagrations and riots
everywhere. In 1900 the northern part of the mission was in flames, and
forty-five Christian centres were reduced to ashes, but there were few,
if any, apostacies, although thousands were put to death in the most
horrible fashion. On June 20 Fathers Isore and Andlauer were murdered at
the altar. On July 20 Fathers Mangin and Denn were killed, and on April
26, 1902, after peace had been concluded, Father Lomüller with his
catechist and servant suffered death.
In this storm, five missionaries had been killed; Mgr. Henry Bulté died
of exhaustion; 5,000 Christians had disappeared from the country; 616
churches had been destroyed along with 381 schools and three colleges.
But that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church was shown by the
fact that there are now more Christians in the district than there were
before the persecution. The churches have been rebuilt; priests and
catechists are more numerous; the seminary is crowded, and schools and
pupils and teachers are at work, as if nothing had happened. The exact
figures may be found in Brou's "Jésuites missionaires au xix siécle."
Shanghai and Zikawei form the center of the Vicariate of Kiang-nan. In
Shanghai are a cathedral and three parish churches which provide for a
Catholic population of 9,724. There are three hospitals; an orphanage
with trade schools; six schools; a home for the aged; conferences of
St. Vincent de Paul. At Zikawei there is a scholasticate of the Society;
a grand and little seminary; a meteorological and magnetic observatory;
a museum of natural history; a college with 266 students, of whom 105
are pagans; a printing-house; a bi-weekly publication, and the
beginnings of a university which it is hoped will head off the tendency
of the natives to go for an education to Japan or to the Japanese
schools founded in China itself.
When Gregory XVI sent the Jesuits to China, it was thought that from
there it would be easy for them to go to Japan to resume the work in
which they had so distinguished themselves in former times. Eighty years
have passed since then, and only lately, a few Jesuits have shown
themselves in that country. The Fathers of the Missions Etrangères have
occupied the ground and have succeeded in establishing a complete
hierarchy of five bishops and have won praise for themselves by their
work in missions and parishes, in polemics and conferences. A school has
been attempted and an American Jesuit has lately been placed on the
staff of the University of Tokio. Only that and nothing more. What the
future has in store, who can tell?
It was a happy day for the new Society when in 1841 it was ordered by
Gregory XVI to undertake the missions of Hindostan; the country
sanctified by the labors of Francis Xavier, de Nobili, de Britto,
Criminali and a host of other saintly missionaries. No work could be
more acceptable. The chief obstacle in the way of success was the
protectorate which Portugal exercised over the churches of the Orient.
In Catholic times its kings had the right not only to nominate all the
bishops of the East, but to legislate on almost the entire
ecclesiastical procedure within its dominions. Not even a sacristan
could be sent to the Indies without the official approval of the
Portuguese government. Such a state of things was bad enough in Catholic
times, but when the politics of Portugal were in the hands of infidels
and enemies of the Church, it could not possibly be tolerated, no matter
how persistent was the claim that the right still adhered to the crown.
Another abnormality in the pretence was that the country no longer
belonged to Portugal but was to a very great extent English and hence if
there were to be any dictation it should come from the government of
that country.
The first act of the Pope was to create a number of vicars Apostolic who
were to be independent of the Archbishop of Goa. This started a war
which lasted sixty years. It was called the Goanese schism, or the fight
of the double jurisdiction. The vicar Apostolic of the Calcutta district
was Robert St. Leger, an Irish Jesuit, who came to India with five
members of the Society after his appointment on 15 April, 1834. St.
Leger's jurisdiction was disputed by a number of the adherents of Goa
and he retired in December, 1838. The Jesuits with him had begun a
college, which was enthusiastically supported by his successor, Bishop
Jean-Louis Taberd. Unfortunately he died suddenly in 1840, and the same
encouragement was not given by Dr. Patrick Carew, the third vicar, with
the result that the college which had begun to prosper was closed. In
1846 the Jesuits left Calcutta, but in 1860 they were recalled by Mgr.
Oliffe, the successor of Dr. Carew.
The missionaries came under the leadership of Father Depelchin, who when
he had finished his work in Calcutta was later to add to his glory by
founding the mission of the Zambesi in Africa. They found everything in
ruins. Out of a population of 2,300,000 in the city and suburbs, there
were no more than seven or eight thousand Catholics, many of whom were
Tamouls from Madras. Only a few of the faithful were in easy
circumstances and their influence in the city amounted to nothing. There
was no help for it, therefore, but to resuscitate the College of St.
Francis Xavier, which had been suppressed fourteen years before. It had
no furniture and its library consisted of a few books with the covers
off. The college was opened nevertheless and had, on the first day,
eighty students on the benches. When Bishop Oliffe died there was a
dreadful possibility of the appointment of a Goanese bishop, which, for
the Jesuits, meant packing up a second time and leaving Calcutta. An
appeal was therefore made to Rome and Father Auguste Van Heule was
named, but he died in 1865 shortly after his arrival, and in 1867,
Bishop Walter Steins was called over from Bombay to take his place. By
this time the college had 350 students; a new building and another
situation were imperative, but Depelchin was equal to the task, and
before he left Calcutta for Africa he had 500 students on the roster.
The initial work of the missionaries was the development of the colleges
but they subsequently addressed themselves to the evangelization of the
whole population of the city and suburbs, and to-day they have six
parishes with a population of 13,000 souls, who are provided with
schools, hospitals, asylums and the like. The native population, the
Bengalis as they are called, were found to be hopeless. Contact with the
whites has made them skeptical in religion, and morally worse than they
had been originally. The only Christian Hindoos in Calcutta are Tamouls
from the South.
Not finding the Bengalis apt for evangelization, they sought out their
countrymen, the Ourias in the Delta of the Ganges. Their home had the
unhappy distinction of being called "the famine district," the dreadful
calamity being caused either by too much water or by none. In 1866 there
was a drought that withered all the crops, and then came inundations
that covered 68,000 acres of land, swept away hundreds of villages, and
diminished the population by half a million. Orphans, of course,
abounded, and in 1868 an asylum was built for them in Balasore, which
served also as an evangelical centre for missionary expeditions into the
interior. But this venture was not very successful, for only about 1,600
conversions resulted after years of hard labor. The Ourias, it was
found, had all the bad qualities of their friends the Bengalis. Perhaps
also the movement was halted because their territory was a sort of Holy
Land for Hindooism. Every year 500,000 pilgrims arrived there to pray at
the shrine of Vishnu, and idolatry of all kinds, from the bloody
ancestral fetichism to the refined cult of the Vedas and undiluted
Brahmanism, took root and flourished there. Hence a mission was begun
among the Orissas still further south.
Better than anywhere else one can see at close range among the Ourias
how formidable are the moral, intellectual, social and historical
obstacles that oppose the progress of Christianity in Hindostan. To add
to the difficulty, Protestantism with its jumble of sects had
established itself there and claimed at this time 15,000 adherents. But
when cholera swept over the land in 1868, the Protestant missionaries
fled and many of the native converts came over to the priests who, of
course, did not imitate their non-Catholic rivals in deserting their
charges. Father Goffinet especially distinguished himself in this
instance, going everywhere in his narrow canoe and lavishing spiritual
and corporal aid on the victims. In 1873 he was joined by Father
Delplace, who went still nearer the sea. Others followed, lived in the
huts of the natives, satisfied their hunger with a few handfuls of rice
varied by a fish on Sundays to break the monotony of the diet, with the
result that, in three years, there were thirty Catholic missions between
the Hoogly and the Mutlah with 3,000 converts in what had been
previously a stronghold of Hindoo Protestantism.
In the same year, Father Schoff went north of Calcutta to Bardwan--"The
Garden of Western Bengal." He kept away from the rich, and devoted
himself to the dregs of the populace. Over and over again the superiors
doubted if it were worth while, but to-day the Haris, who were
previously so degraded, live in pretty villages, and the order, piety
and honesty for which they are noted make one forget the ignorance,
debauchery and dishonesty of the past. A group of over 5,000 Catholics
may be found there at the present time.
In these parts, the caste system prevails in all its vigors but if you
go still further west into the heart of the Province of Chota-Nagpur you
come upon a half-savage people, the offscouring of humanity who have
been driven into the hills and forests by the conquering Aryans of the
plains. They are the Ouraons of Dravidian origin; small, black as
negroes, filthy, often wrapped in cow-dung and tattooed all over the
body, but nevertheless light-hearted, robust and proud of their ability
to perform hard work. With them also lives a more ancient race known as
the Koles: men of broad flat faces which recall the Mongolian type. They
are probably the aborigines. Their religion is grossly elementary--a
vague adoration of the Supreme Being, superstition and ancestor worship;
but with a shade of the pride that characterizes the horrible caste
system of the Hindoos. The German Lutherans had essayed to convert
them. Fifty rupees were paid for each adhesion, and fifty ministers
devoted themselves to this apostolate. They are credited with having
disbursed 3,700,000 francs by the year 1876. Then came the Anglicans who
claimed 40,000 of them. In 1869 Father Stockman arrived and opened a
mission at Chaibassa. In 1873 he had only a group of thirty converts.
Nine years later, he had succeeded in baptising only 273, but by 1885
there were four residences in Chota-Nagpur with one out-mission. Five
priests were engaged in the task.
The progress of the work, however, was comparatively slow until the
young Father Constant Lievens made himself the champion of the natives
in the courts. This gave it a phenomenal impulse. For years, these poor
mountaineers had been cruelly exploited by Hindoo traders from Calcutta.
As soon as the natives had contrived to cultivate a bit of land they
were loaded down with taxes and enforced contributions, haled before the
magistrates and flung into jail to rot. Unfortunately the police
regulations were all in favor of the aggressors. Hence there were
incessant riots and massacres, and when the English authorities tried in
good faith to remedy matters, they could find no one among these poor
outcasts fit to hold any position of responsibility. The Lutherans
presented themselves and promised protection for those who would join
the sect, and many went over to them, but the government disapproved of
these unworthy tactics, as calculated only to make things worse in the
end. It was like the temptation on the mountain.
At this point Father Lievens stepped into the breach. He could speak all
the languages: Bengali, Hindoo, Mundari and Ouraon; and he then plunged
into a study of the laws and customs of the land; an apparently
inextricable maze, but in less than a year he was master of the whole
legal procedure then in force. Thus armed, he appeared in court whenever
a victim was arraigned, and almost invariably won a verdict in his
favor. His reputation spread, and the victims of the sharks flocked to
him from all sides. He argued for all of them, without however, omitting
his ministerial occupation of preaching, teaching, composing canticles,
helping the needy, and seeking out souls everywhere. He cut out so much
work for his associates that his superiors were in a panic. But he
succeeded. The native Protestants came over in crowds, and there was a
flood tide of conversions to the Faith. It cost him his life, indeed,
for he died in 1892, overcome by his labors and privations, but he had
started a great movement and two years after his death, the flock had
grown from 16,000 to 61,312, with more than 2,566 catechumens preparing
for baptism. To-day the district is absolutely unlike its former self.
Sacred canticles have taken the place of the old pagan chants and
immoral dances are unknown. Even the pagans who are in the majority do
not dare to perform certain rites of theirs in public.
In a district of Chota-Nagpur other than that in which Lievens labored,
the conversions are still more pronounced. Six missionaries are at work,
and their catechumens number more than 25,000. They offered themselves
in spite of the fact that the Rajah was in a rage with his subjects
about it; beat many of them unmercifully, and flung them into jail.
Indeed the English government had to intervene to stop him. If there
were a sufficiency of priests, there would be no difficulty in
converting the whole countryside. The last accounts available tell us
that the inhabitants of fifteen villages have declared themselves
Christians, and cut off their hair to let the world know that they have
renounced idolatry. Fifty years ago there were in all Western Bengal
only a few thousand Catholics. In 1904 there were 106,000; in the
following year, 119,705; in 1906, 126,529. Chota-Nagpur alone has
another 102,000 and the number could be doubled if twenty new
missionaries were on the spot. Western Bengal has now 27 churches, 346
chapels, 124 schools and two great colleges. Working there, are 101
priests, 55 scholastics and 27 coadjutor brothers of the Society, along
with 34 Christian Brothers and 158 Sisters.
When Bishop Steins left Bombay, his successor Mgr. Jean-Gabriel Meurin
built the college already planned, and called it St. Francis Xavier's.
The undertaking was a difficult one, for the schismatical Goanese
numbered 40,000 out of the 60,000 Catholics in the city, and their
ecclesiastical leaders were not only indifferent to the project but
refused to contribute anything to carry it out, just as if it had been a
Moslem or a heretical establishment. The people, however, were better
minded. Every one, Catholic, heathen and heretic, was eager to build the
college, for Bombay was proud of being a great intellectual centre; and
hence when the government promised to double what could be collected,
the enthusiasm was general and money poured in. The Observatory still
bears the name of the rich Parsee who built it.
The Bombay mission included Beluchistan up to the frontiers of
Afghanistan; its southern limit was the Diocese of Poona. In this vast
territory were native villages, military posts, Anglo-Indian
settlements, Indo-Portuguese, and pure Hindoos. There were only about
33,000 Christians to be found in this amalgam, excluding the 70,000
people of the Goanese allegiance. Four colleges were erected in the
various districts of this territory, but, unlike the great
establishments of Bombay and Calcutta, they were exclusively Catholic.
They gave instructions respectively to 500, 690, 298, and 306 pupils.
The girls of the two dioceses were also provided for and the high school
population exceeded 10,000. The great advantage of this scheme was that
it ate very rapidly into the schism through the children of the
insurgents.
The Carmelites had been in Mangalore; but found it too hard to hold out
against the Calvinists from Bâle who, in 1880 had twenty stations,
sixty-five schools and an annual budget of half a million; consequently
they begged the Holy See to call in the Jesuits. When the new
missionaries arrived in December, 1879, the Carmelites went out to meet
them in a ship hung with flags and bunting and, on landing, presented
them to the enthusiastic multitude waiting on the shore. The college of
St. Aloysius was immediately begun and opened its classes with 150
students. Thus it happened that the greatest part of St. Francis
Xavier's territory had come back to the Society; German Jesuits being in
Bombay, Belgians in Calcutta, French in Madura and Italians in
Mangalore. In the latter mission out of a population of 3,685,000 there
are to-day only 93,000 Catholics, but there were 1,500 Christian
students in St. Aloysius' college in 1920. It might be noted that
Mangalore has acquired a world wide reputation for its leper hospital
which was founded by Father Müller, formerly of the New York province.
In that district also there are more native priests than in any other
part of India. They number 60 all told and take care of about 32
parishes. They are not pure-blood, however, for they bear distinctively
Portuguese names, such as Coelho, Fernandes, Saldanha and Pinto. This
growth of the native clergy is encouraging, but it would be a mistake to
regard them as useful for spreading the Faith. They make relatively very
few conversions. They leave that to outsiders. They merely hold on to
what has been won for them by others.
In 1884, the college of Negapatam was transferred to Trichinopoly, the
reason being that in the latter there was a Catholic population of
20,000. Of course, the Anglican educators of the city tried to prevent
the move but failed. The college at one time had 1,800 pupils, and
although there was a drop to 1,550 in 1905, because of new rivals in the
field, the latest accounts place the attendance at 2,562. St. Xavier's
high school in Tuticorin, in the Madura mission had 563 pupils in 1920,
and St. Mary's erected in 1910 in the very heart of Brahmanism has 441.
In Trichinopoly, the discipline and work of the students have attracted
much attention, but especially the enterprise of the sodalists, who have
formed twenty groups of catechists and are engaged in giving religious
instruction to 700 children. Most notable, however, is the success of
the college in overthrowing the caste barriers. Indeed the missionaries
of the old days would look with amazement at the grouping in the class
rooms of Brahmins, Vellalans, Odeayans, Kallans, Paravers and twenty
other social divisions down to the very Pariahs, all studying in the
same house and eating at the same table. There were walled divisions, at
first; then screens; then benches, and now there is only an imaginary
line between the grades which formerly could not come near each other
without contamination.
Among these castes, the Brahmins display the greatest curiosity about
things Christian, but like the rich young man in the Gospel when they
hear the truth they turn sadly away. "Why did God permit me to meet
you," said one of them, "if I am going to suffer both here and
hereafter?" One of them at last yielded and took flight to the
ecclesiastical seminary at Ceylon. When the news spread abroad, priests
from the pagodas and professors from the national schools came to the
college and stormed against the other catechumens but without avail.
Another Brahmin declared himself a Christian the next year; three in
1896, three in 1897, four in 1898, six in 1899 and two in 1900. They all
have a hard fight before them; for they are thrown out of their caste
and are disinherited by their families. Two of these converts died, and
there is a suspicion that at least one was poisoned. Already 60 Brahmins
have been baptized and India is in an uproar about it. To those who know
the country, these conversions are of more importance than that of a
thousand ordinary people and it is almost amusing to learn that the
well-known theosophist leader, Annie Besant, hastened back to India to
denounce the Catholic Church for its effrontery. The incident, it is
true, gave a new life to idol-worship but possibly it was the last gasp
before death.
The Madura district had been taken over by the Fathers of the Foreign
Missions, after the Jesuits had been suppressed in 1773. When the Pope,
Pius VII, re-established the Society, insistent appeals were made by
those devoted and overtaxed missionaries to have the Jesuits resume
their old place in that part of the Peninsula. The petition was heeded
and the Jesuits returned to Madura in 1837. They were confronted by a
frightful condition of affairs. In spite of the heroic labors of their
immediate predecessors, there were scandals innumerable, and a large
part of the population had lapsed into the grossest superstition and
idolatry. The missionaries were well received at first, but a
fulmination from Goa incited the people to rebellion. Moreover their
labors were so crushing that four of the Fathers died of exhaustion in
the year 1843 alone. Little by little however a change of feeling began
to manifest itself, and as early as 1842, there were 118,400 Catholics
in the mission, many of them converts from Protestantism and paganism.
In 1847 Madura was made a vicariate Apostolic under Mgr. Alexis Canoz, a
year after the Hindo-European college was established at Negapatam.
Madura has another great achievement to its credit. The English
government had put an end to the suttee: the frightful and compulsory
custom of widows flinging themselves on the funeral pyres of their
husbands who were being incinerated. The prohibition was universally
applauded but the Fathers started another movement. It was against the
enforced celibacy of widows, some of whom had been married in babyhood,
often to some old man, and were consequently obliged to live a single
life after his death. The moral results of such a custom may be
imagined. It was difficult at first to convince a convert that it was a
perfectly proper thing for him to marry a widow, but little by little
the prejudice was removed. Of course there are orphanages, old people's
homes, Magdalen asylums, maternity hospitals, industrial schools, and
other charitable institutions in prosperous Madura.
The work among the lower classes in the country districts is of the most
trying description. There is no place for the itinerant missionary to
find shelter in the villages except in some miserable hut. Indeed, 1,853
of these hamlets out of 2,035 have no accommodations at all for the
priest, who perhaps has travelled for days through forests to visit
them. Moreover, though the people have their good qualities and a great
leaning to religion, they are fickle, excitable, ungrateful, unmindful
as children at times, and hard to manage. In certain quarters,
especially in the south, conversions are multiplying daily. The movement
began as early as 1876, after a frightful famine that swept the country,
and in one place the Christian population grew in fifteen years from
4,800 to 68,000. In 1889 around Tuticorin whole villages came over in a
body. In December, 1891, 600 people were clamoring for baptism in one
place, and they represented a dozen different castes. In 1891 one
missionary was compelled to erect thirty-two new chapels. "I said we
have 75 new villages;" writes another, "if we had priests enough we
could have 75 more."
In 1920, there were in the Diocese of Trichinopoly besides the bishop,
Mgr. Augustine Faisandier, 119 Jesuit priests of whom 28 are natives.
There are a number of native scholastics. Besides this group there are
27 natives studying philosophy and theology in the seminary at Kandy.
Add to this 32 Brothers of the Sacred Heart, an institute of Indian lay
religious, who assist the missionaries as catechists and school
teachers; 75 nuns in European and 346 in Indian institutions; and 75
oblates or pious women who devote themselves to the baptizing of heathen
children; and you have some of the working corps in this prosperous
mission. The Catholic population was 267,772 in 1916. There are 1,100
churches and chapels, 2,620 posts, a school attendance of 27,378
children, and 7 Catholic periodicals.
The missions in Mohammedan countries were particularly difficult to
handle, because Turkey is a veritable Babel of races, languages and
religions. There are Turks, and Syrians, and Egyptians and Arabians,
along with the Metualis of Mount Lebanon and the Bedouins of the desert.
There are Druses, who have a slender link holding them to Islamism;
there are idolaters of every stripe; there are Schismatical Greeks, who
call themselves Orthodox and depend on Constantinople; and there are
United Greeks or Melchites who submit to Rome; Monophysite Armenians,
and Armenian Catholics; and Copts also of the same divided allegiance.
Then come Syrian Jacobites and United Syrians, Nestorians, Chaldeans,
Maronites, Latins, Russians, with English, German and American
Protestants, and to end all, the ubiquitous Jews. The missionaries who
labor in this chaos are also of every race and wear every kind of
religious garb. What will be the result of the changes consequent upon
the World War no one can foretell. There is nothing to hope for from the
Jews or Mohammedans; and only a very slight possibility of uniting the
schismatics to Rome, or of converting the Protestants who have nothing
to build on but sentiment and ingrained and inveterate prejudice. There
is plenty to do, however, in restraining Catholics from rationalism and
heresy; in lifting up the clergy to their proper level, by imparting to
them science and piety; forming priests and bishops for the Uniates;
promoting a love for the Chair of Peter; and all the while not only not
hurting Uniate susceptibilities, but showing the greatest respect for
the jealous autonomy of each Oriental Church.
Before the Suppression, the missions of the Levant were largely
entrusted to the Jesuits of the province of Lyons. The alliance of the
Grand Turk with the kings of France assured the safety of the
missionaries and hence there were stations not only at Constantinople,
but in Roumelia, Anatolia, Armenia, Mingrelia, Crimea, Persia, Syria,
Egypt and in the Islands of the Ægean Sea. The work of predilection in
all these places was toiling in the galleys with the convicts, or in the
lazar houses with the plague-stricken. Between 1587 and 1773, more than
100 Jesuit missionaries died of the pest. In 1816, that is two years
after the re-establishment of the Society, the bishops of the Levant
petitioned Rome to send back the Jesuits. Thanks to Paul of Russia, they
had resumed their old posts in 1805 in the Ægean, where one of the
former Jesuits, named Mortellaro, had remained as a secular priest, and
lived long enough to have one of the Fathers from Russia receive his
last sigh and hear him renew his religious vows. This was the beginning
of the present Sicilian Jesuit missions in the Archipelago. The Galician
province has four stations in Moravia, and the Venetian has posts in
Albania and Dalmatia.
In 1831 Gregory XVI ordered the Society to undertake the missions of
Syria; but at that time Mehemet Ali of Egypt was at war with the Sultan,
and the Druses and Maronites were butchering each other at will.
Finally, in the name of the Sultan, Emir Haidar invited the Fathers to
begin a mission at Bekfaya on the west slope of Mount Lebanon and about
10 miles west of Beirut. Simultaneously Emir Beckir, who was an upholder
of Egypt, established them at Muallakah, a suburb of Zahlé on the other
side of the mountain. At Hauran, on the borders of the desert, they
found a Christian population in the midst of Druses and Bedouins. They
were despised, ill-treated and virtually enslaved. They had no churches
and no priests, were in absolute ignorance of their duties as
Christians, and were stupefied to find that Rome had come so far to seek
them. The work of lifting them up was hard enough, but it was a trying
task to be commissioned by Rome to settle the disputes that were
continually arising between Christian, Orthodox, and Turk, and even
between ecclesiastical authorities. Father Planchet was the chief
pacificator in all these wrangles, and for his punishment was made
delegate Apostolic in 1850, consecrated Bishop of Mossul in 1853, and
murdered in 1859 when about to set out for Rome.
Father Planchet was a Frenchman; with Father Riccadonna, an Italian, and
Brother Henze, a Hanoverian, he went to Syria in 1831, at the joint
request of the Melchite bishop, Muzloum, Joseph Assemani, the
procurator of the Maronite patriarch and the Maronite Archbishop of
Aleppo, Germanus Harva. A hitherto unpublished document recently edited
by Father Jullien in "La Nouvelle Mission en Syrie" gives a detailed
account of the journey of this illustrious trio from Leghorn to Syria.
"The vessel was called 'The Will of God,' and the voyage was," says
Riccadonna, "an uninterrupted series of misfortunes,--fevers, faintings,
rotten water, broken rigging, shattered masts, wild seas, frightful
tempests, a sea-sick crew and escapes from English, Turkish and other
cruisers on the high seas. When they came ashore the cholera was raging
throughout the country." The narrative is full of interest with its
picturesque descriptions of the people, their habitations, their
festivals, their caravans, their filth, their fanaticism and the
continually recurring massacres of Christians. The travellers journeyed
to Beirut and Qamar and Bagdad and Damascus, and give vivid pictures of
the conditions that met them in those early days. The medical ability of
the lay-brother was of great service. He was the only physician in the
country, with the result that, according to Riccadonna, each stopping
place was a _probatica piscina_, every one striving to reach him first.
"In Arabia," says the Relation, "as in the plains of Ba'albek, there is
nothing but ignorance and sin. There are sorcerers and sorceresses in
every village; superstitions of every kind, lies, blasphemies, perjury
and impurity prevail. It is a common thing for Christians to bear
Mussulman names and to pray to Mahomet. They never fast, and on feast
days never go to Mass. Of spiritual books or the sacraments they know
nothing; clan and personal vengeance and murder are common, and sexual
immorality indescribable." Such was the state of these countries in
1831.
In 1843 the mission, which until then depended on the general, was
handed to the province of Lyons. In that year a seminary for native
priests was begun at Ghazir, in an old abandoned castle bought from an
emir of the mountains. It began with two students, but at the end of the
year there were twenty-five on the benches, and in that small number,
many Rites were represented. A college for boys soon grew up around it,
and a religious community of native nuns for the education of children
was established. The latest account credits the Sisters with nearly
4,000 pupils.
New posts were established at Zahlé and ancient Sidon and also at Deir
el Qamar. The prospects seemed fair for the moment, for had not the
French and Turks been companions in arms in the Crimea? But in 1860 the
terrible massacres in Syria began as a protest of the ultra-Mussulmans
against the liberal concession of Constantinople to the Christians. In
the long list of victims the Jesuits counted for something; for on June
18, four of them were butchered at Zahlé and a fifth at Deir el Qamar.
In that slaughter eight thousand Christians were killed; 560 churches
destroyed; three hundred and sixty villages devastated and forty-two
convents burned. Three months later the Turkish troops from the garrison
at Damascus butchered eight thousand five hundred people, four prelates,
fifty Syrian priests, and all the Franciscan Friars in the city. They
levelled to the ground three thousand eight hundred houses and two
churches, and would have done more; but the slaughter was stopped when
the Algerian Abd-el-Kader arrived on the scene. They still live on a
volcano. Preceding and during the war of 1914, massacre of the
Christians continued as usual.
Armenia is the Ararat of Scripture. Little Armenia, in which the Jesuits
are laboring, is an irregular strip of territory that starts from the
Gulf of Alexandretta and continues on towards the Black Sea. Its
principal towns are Adana, Cæsarea, Civas, Tokat, Amasia, and Marswan,
about two or three days' journey from each other. The country is
mountainous, without railroads or other means of transport. The highways
are infested with brigands; and the climate is excessively hot and
excessively cold. The difficulties with which the Church has to contend
in this inhospitable region are first, the government which is Turkish;
second, the secret societies which are continually plotting against
their Turkish masters; and third, the American Protestant sects which
are covering the country with churches, orphan asylums, schools and
dispensaries, and flooding it with anti-Catholic literature, and money.
In 1886 all the schools were closed by the Turks, but when the French
protested they were reopened. In 1894 two of the priests died while
caring for the cholera victims and that helped to spread the Faith, for,
of course, there are never any parsons on the scene in such calamities.
Under Turkish rule also, massacres are naturally chronic, but Brou
informs us that on such occasions the Protestants suffer more than the
Catholics; for the latter are not suspected of being in the secret
revolutionary societies, while the others are known to be deeply
involved.
The population of this region consists of 500,000 Christians, of whom
14,000 are Protestants and 12,000 Catholics. The rest are Monophysite
schismatics. In the mission besides the secular priests there are 57
Jesuits and 50 teaching sisters from France. There are 22 schools with
3,309 pupils, but only 504 of these children are Uniate Catholics. They
are what are called Gregorians, for the tradition is that Armenia was
converted to the Faith by St. Gregory the Illuminator. There are few
conversions, but the schismatics accept whatever Catholic truth is
imparted to them. They believe in the Immaculate Conception; pray for
the dead; love the Pope; say their beads; and invoke the Sacred Heart.
For them the difference between Romans and Gregorians is merely a matter
of ritual. In several places, however, whole villages have asked to be
received into Roman unity. As a people they look mainly to Russia for
deliverance from the Turk, but neither Turk nor Russian now counts in
the world's politics and no one can foresee the future.
Father Roothaan had long been dreaming of sending missionaries to what
until very recently has been called the Unknown or Dark Continent,
Africa. Hence when the authorities of the Propaganda spoke to him of a
proposition, made by an ecclesiastic of admitted probity, about
establishing a mission there, Roothaan accepted it immediately, and in
the year 1846 ordered Father Maximilian Ryllo with three companions to
ascend the Nile as far as possible and report on the conditions of the
country. Ryllo was born in Russia in 1802 and entered the Roman province
in 1820. After many years of missionary work in Syria, Malta and Sicily
he was made rector of the Urban College in Rome on July 4, 1844, and was
occupying that post when he was sent by Father Roothaan to the new
mission of Central Africa.
In 1845 Ryllo was at Alexandria in search of "the eminent personage" who
had suggested the mission and had been consecrated bishop _in partibus_,
for the purpose of advancing the enterprise. But the "eminent personage"
was not to be found either there or in Cairo. Hence after waiting in
vain for a month, Ryllo and his companions started for Khartoum which
was to be the central point for future explorations. After a little
rest, they made their way up the White Nile. They were then under the
equator, and had scant provisions for the journey, and no means of
protection from the terrible heat, and, besides, they were in constant
peril of the crocodiles which infested the shores of the river. The
first negro tribes they met spoke an Arabic dialect, so it was easy to
understand them. The native houses were caves in the hillsides, a style
of dwelling that was a necessity on account of the burning heat. Their
manner of life was patriarchal; they were liberal and kind, and seemed
to be available foundation stones for the future Church which the
missionaries hoped to build there. Satisfied with what they had
discovered, they returned to Khartoum, but when they reported in due
time to Propaganda, the mission was not entrusted to them. It was handed
over to the Congregation of the Missionaries of Verona.
In 1840 the Jesuits went to Algeria. The work was not overwhelming. They
were given charge of an orphan asylum. But unfortunately though they had
plenty of orphans they had no money to feed them. Nevertheless, trusting
in God, Father Brumauld not only did not close the establishment, but
purchased 370 acres of ground, in the centre of which was a pile of
buildings which had formerly been the official baths of the deys of
Algiers. In 1848 the asylum sheltered 250 orphans. Fr. Brumauld simply
went around the cafés and restaurants and money poured into his hat, for
the enterprise appealed to every one. He even gathered up at the hotels
the left-over food and brought it back to the motherless and fatherless
little beggars whom he had picked up at the street corners. They were
filthy, ragged and vicious, but he scraped them clean and clothed them,
taught them the moral law and gave them instructions in the useful
trades and occupations. Marshal Bougeaud, the governor, fell in love
with the priest and when told he was a Jesuit, replied "he may be the
devil himself if you will, but he is doing good in Algeria and will be
my friend forever." One day some Arab children were brought in and he
said to Father Brumauld "Try to make Christians out of these youngsters.
If you succeed they won't be shooting at us one day from the
underbrush."
The Orphanage stood in the highroad that led to Blidak and permission
was asked to get in touch with natives. Leave was given Father Brumauld
to put up a house which served as café for the Arabs. It had a large
hall for the travellers and a shed for the beasts. Next to it was a
school the upper part of which gave him rooms for his little community.
It was a _zaoui_ for the Christian marabouts, a meeting place for the
French and natives, and a neutral ground where fanaticism was not
inflamed but made to die out. All the governors, Pelissier, the Duc
d'Aumale, MacMahon, Admiral de Guéydon and General Chanzy were fond of
the Father and encouraged him in his work. One day General d'Hautpoul
praised him for his success, and advised him to begin another
establishment. The suggestion was acted on immediately. The government
was appealed to and soon a second orphanage was in operation at
Bouffarik further South. Finally, as the number of Arab orphans was
diminishing in consequence of better domestic conditions, Brumauld asked
why he could not receive orphans from France? Of course he could, and he
was made happy when 200 of them were sent as a present from Paris. There
would be so many gamins less in the streets of the capital.
Meantime, residences and colleges were being established in the cities
of Al-Oran, Constantine and Algiers, but when at the instance of the
bishop, Father Schimbri opened a little house in the neighborhood of
Selif and was ingratiating himself with the natives, the authorities
demanded his immediate recall. Later, when the bishop solicited leave to
begin a native mission he was denounced in Paris for influencing minors,
because he had asked some Lazarists to teach a few vagabond Arab
children; but the government, whose disrespect for religion was a
by-word with the natives, had no scruple in building Moslem
schoolhouses, allowing a French general to pronounce an eulogy of
Islamism in the pulpit of a mosque. While it forbade religious
processions, it provided a ship to carry Arabian pilgrims to Mecca. It
was so scrupulously careful of the Moslem conscience that it forbade the
nuns to hang up a crucifix in the hospital when these holy women were
nursing sick Mohammedans.
In 1864 there were Jesuit chaplains in two of the forts, and from there
they ventured among the natives with whom they soon became popular. That
was too much to put up with, so they were ordered to discontinue,
because, forsooth, they were attacking the right of freedom of
conscience. The result of this governmental policy was that in the
revolt of the Kabyles in 1871 the leaders of the insurgents were the
Arab students who had been given exclusively lay and irreligious
instructions in Fort Napoleon. Father Brou says (viii, 218) that
MacMahon who was governor of the colony was opposed to Cardinal
Lavigerie's efforts to Christianize the natives, but that Napoleon III
supported the cardinal, who after his victory, installed the Jesuits in
the orphanage and also made Father Terasse novice master of the
community of White Fathers, which was then being founded; two others
were commissioned to put themselves in communication with the tribes of
the Sahara and when they reported that everything was favorable the new
Order began its triumphant career. That was in 1872. When Vice-Admiral
de Guéydon was made governor he willingly permitted the cardinal to
employ Jesuits as well as White Fathers in the work among the Kabyles,
but de Guéydon was quickly removed from office and the old methods of
persecution were resumed. When the year 1880 arrived and the government
was busy closing Jesuit houses, the single one left to them in Algeria
was seized.
Portugal graciously made a gift to Spain of the Island of Fernando Po in
the Gulf of Guinea. Brou calls it "an island of hell," with heat like a
lime-kiln, and reeking with yellow fever. It was inhabited by a race of
negroes called Boubis, who were dwarfs, with rickety limbs, malformed,
tattooed from head to foot, smeared with a compound of red clay and oil,
speaking five different dialects, each one unintelligible to speakers of
the others; they had been charged with poisoning the streams so as to
get rid of the Portuguese and were trying to kill the Spaniards by
starvation. It cannot have been brotherly love that suggested this
Portuguese present. To this lovely spot Queen Isabella of Spain invited
the Jesuits in 1859, and they accepted the offer. They lived among the
blacks, unravelled the tangle of the five dialects and won the affection
of the natives. Their success in civilizing these degraded creatures was
such that whenever a quarrel broke out in any of the villages the
governor had only to send his staff of office and peace descended on the
settlement. In other words the missionaries had made Fernando Po a
Paraguay. This condition of things lasted twelve years, but when
Isabella descended from her throne the first act of the revolutionists
was to expel the Jesuits from the mission.
Leo XIII had ordered the General, Father Beckx to begin a seminary at
Cairo. It was opened with twelve pupils. Three years afterwards occurred
the Turkish massacre of Damascus and Libanus and the bombardment of
Alexandria by the English. In consequence of all this the seminarians
fled to Beirut, and after the war a college was begun at the deserted
establishment of the Lazarists at Alexandria. Cairo was near by, but
there was such an antagonism between the two cities that two distinct
colleges with different methods and courses had to be maintained. Cairo
was Egyptian in tone; Alexandria was French. Meanwhile, a mission was
established on the Nile at Nineh which was some distance south of Cairo.
In this mission the young priests trained at Beirut were employed, and
they proved to be such excellent apostles that Leo XIII made three of
them bishops and thus laid the foundation of the United Coptic
hierarchy. In 1905 there were 20,000 United Copts in Egypt, four-fifths
of whom had been reclaimed from the schism. This is all the more
remarkable because the Protestants had spent enormous amounts of money
in schools, hospitals, and asylums.
Madagascar was originally called the Island of St. Lawrence, because it
was first sighted on the festival day of the great martyr by Diego Diaz,
who with Cabral, the Portuguese discoverer, was exploring the Indian
Ocean in the year 1500. A Portuguese priest was massacred there in 1540;
in 1585 a Dominican was poisoned by the natives, and in the seventeenth
century two Jesuits came from Goa with a native prince who had been
captured by the Portuguese. Their benevolence toward the prince secured
them permission to preach Christianity for a while, but when their
influence began to show itself, they were, in obedience to a royal
order, absolutely avoided by the natives so that one starved to death;
the other succeeded in reaching home. The Lazarists came in 1648, but
remained only fourteen months, two of their number having died meantime.
Other attempts were made, but all ended in disaster to the missionaries.
Nothing more was done until the middle of the nineteenth century. In
1832 Fathers de Solages and Dalmond were sent out, but they had been
anticipated by the Protestant missionaries who, as early as 1830, had 32
schools with 4,000 pupils. De Solages soon succumbed and Dalmond
continued to work on the small islands off the coast until 1843, when he
returned to Europe to ask Father Roothaan to send him some Jesuits. Six
members of the Society together with two Fathers of the Holy Ghost
responded to the call, but they could get no farther than the islands of
Nossi-Bé or St. Mary's and Réunion, or Bourbon as it was called.
The Queen Ranavalo, who was a ferocious and bloodthirsty pagan, had no
use for any kind of evangelists, Protestant or Catholic, but there was a
Frenchman named Laborde in the capital, who was held in high esteem by
her majesty, because he was a cannon-founder, a manufacturer of
furniture and a maker of soap. Besides these accomplishments to
recommend him, he had won the esteem of the heir-apparent. Incidentally
Laborde put the prince in relation with the missionaries off the coast.
A short time afterwards, there appeared in the royal city another
Frenchman who could make balloons, organize theatrical representations,
and compound drugs. He was accepted in the queen's service. He was a
Jesuit in disguise. His name was Finaz, and he continued to remain at
Tananarivo until 1857, when the violence of the queen, who was insanely
superstitious, brought about an uprising against her which was organized
by the Protestant missionaries. She prevailed against the rebels, and as
a consequence all Europeans were expelled from the island, and among
them Father Finaz. He could congratulate himself that he had at least
learned the language and made himself acquainted with the inhabitants.
Four years later (1861), the queen died, and King Radama II ascended the
throne; whereupon six Jesuits opened a mission in Tananarivo. They soon
had 2 schools with 400 pupils and numberless catechumens, but their
success was not solid, for the Malgassy easily goes from one side to
another as his personal advantage may dictate. Radama was killed, and
then followed a forty years' struggle between the French and the English
to get control of the island. The English prevailed for a time and, in
1869, Protestantism was declared to be the state religion. The number of
evangelists multiplied enormously, but they were merely government
agents and knew next to nothing about Christian truth or morality. The
confusion was increased, when to the English parsons were added American
Quakers and Norwegian Lutherans. The Evangelical statistics of all of
them in 1892 were most imposing. Thus the Independents claimed 51,033
and the Norwegians 47,681, with 37,500 children in their schools. The
names were on the lists, but the school-houses were often empty, and in
the interim between the different official visits of the inspectors
often no instruction was given. Against this the Catholics had only 22
chapels and 25 schools, and they were mostly in the neighborhood of
Tananarivo.
France was subsequently the dominant influence in Madagascar but, as in
the mother country religion was tabooed, there was little concern about
it in the colonies. When the Franco-Prussian war showed the weakness of
France, the respect for the alleged religion of France vanished,
especially when a crusade began against the Catholic schools.
Nevertheless the faithful continued to grow in number, and in 1882 they
were reckoned at 80,000 with 152 churches, 44 priests, 527 teachers and
2,000 pupils. War broke out in 1881, and the missionaries were expelled
but returned after hostilities ceased, and found that their neophytes,
under the guidance of a princess of the royal blood, had held firmly to
their religion, notwithstanding the closing of the schools and the
sacking of the churches. After these troubles, conversions increased,
and in 1894 there were 75 Jesuit priests in the island; and, besides the
primary schools which had increased in number, a college and nine high
schools as well as a printing house and two leper hospitals were
erected. Added to this, an observatory was built and serious work began
in geographical research, cartography, ethnography, natural history,
folklore and philology.
Just at the height of this prosperity, a persecution began. The
missionaries were expelled, their buildings looted, and the observatory
wrecked. In 1896 the bishop counted 108 of his chapels which had been
devastated, but in 1897 General Galieni arrived, and the queen vanished
from the scene. After that the faith prospered, and in the year 1900
alone there were 94,998 baptisms. In 1896 Propaganda divided Madagascar
into three vicariates: one entrusted to the Lazarists; another to the
Fathers of the Holy Ghost; and a third to the Jesuits of the provinces
of Toulouse and Champagne. In the Jesuit portion, the latest statistics
give 160,080 Christians and 170,000 catechumens, with 74 priests, 8
scholastics and 11 lay-brothers. The chief difficulty to contend with is
the gross immorality of the people who are, in consequence, almost
impervious to religious teaching, and at the same time easily captured
by the money that pours into the country from England and Norway. The
French officials, of course, cannot be expected to further the cause of
Catholicity.
In 1877, when Bishop Ricards of Grahamstown in South Africa asked the
Jesuits to accept the Zambesi Mission, Father Weld ardently took up the
work, and in April, 1879, Father Depelchin, a Belgian, started from
Kimberly, with eleven companions for Matabeleland, over which King Lo
Benguela ruled. It was a five months' journey and the missionaries did
not arrive at the royal kraal until September 2. But as the prospects of
conversion of the much-married king and his followers were not
particularly bright, only one part of the expedition remained with Lo
Benguela, while two others struck for the interior. There several of the
strongest missionaries sickened and died. The work went on, however, for
ten weary years when the king told them to stop teaching religion and
show the people how to till the soil. Otherwise they must go. They
accepted the offer, of course, for it got them a better means of
imparting religious instruction.
Then a quarrel broke out between the British, the Portuguese, the Boers
and Lo Benguela for the possession of Mashonaland. The British as usual
won the fight, but when Cecil Rhodes came to the kraal, to arrange
matters, Lo Benguela ordered all the whites out of his dominion and the
Fathers withdrew. A new difficulty then arose between the English and
Portuguese, and the mission was divided between Upper and Lower
Zambesi, the latter being assigned to the Portuguese Jesuits. There was
trouble with the natives of both sections for some time, and then the
Anglo-Boer war broke out, so that for twenty-five years very little
apostolic progress was made. In Upper Zambesi or Rhodesia, as it is
called, there are at present 40 Jesuit priests and 24 brothers, and 3
missionaries of Mariannhill, with 115 nuns, 20 churches or chapels, and
30 schools of which 26 are for natives, and about 5,000 Catholics.
Naturally speaking the result scarcely warrants the outlay but the
purpose is supernatural and intelligible only from that point of view.
In Lower Zambesi, which was given to the Portuguese Jesuits, there have
been no troubles because it is garrisoned by Portuguese soldiers; the
four stations in that district with their thirty-five Fathers were doing
splendid work when the Portuguese revolution occurred; the Jesuits were
then expelled, but twenty-six Fathers of the Divine Word took their
place.
The early days of the Zambesi mission evoked splendid manifestations of
the old heroic spirit of the Society. Thus we read of one of the
missionaries, a Father Wehl, who was separated from his companions and
wandered for twenty-six days in the bush, luckily escaping the wild
beasts and finally falling into the hands of some Kaffirs who were about
to put him to death, when he was saved by the opportune arrival of an
English gold-hunter. But starvation and disease had shattered his health
and his mind was gone. Six months afterwards he died.
Meantime his two companions Father Law and Brother Hedley found shelter
among the natives, but had to live in a clay hut which was a veritable
oven. They both fell sick of fever; little or no food was given them,
and they slowly starved to death. They lay along side of each other,
neither being able to assist his companion, and when finally the Father
breathed his last, all the poor lonely brother could do was to place a
handkerchief on the face, but when he removed the covering in the
morning, he found that the rats had been eating the flesh. The dead
missionary lay there for some time because the superstitious natives
would not touch the corpse; when finally a rope was tied around it, they
dragged it out of the hut and left it in the forest. For three weeks
after this horrible funeral the poor brother had to fight off the rats
that were attacking himself; at last the chief took pity on him and had
him carried on a litter to a band of other missionaries who were
approaching. When his friends saw him they burst into tears. He had not
changed his clothes for five months and they were in tatters. His whole
body was covered with sores and ulcers and the wounds were filled with
vermin. He was in a state of stupor when he arrived, but strange to say
he recovered. His dead companion, the priest, had been a naval officer,
and was a convert to the Faith and the grandson of one of the lord
chancellors of England.
The Congo mission was organized by the Belgium Jesuits in 1885, under
the auspices of Leopold II of Belgium, who had established the Congo
Free State. His majesty requested the Fathers to assist him, but he gave
them no financial aid whatever, though he was pointedly asked to do so.
The Congo Free State begins 400 miles from the Atlantic ocean and
extends to Central Africa. Leopold's plan was to abolish slavery within
the boundaries of this domain; then to make the adult male population
his soldiers, and meantime to place the orphans and abandoned children
in asylums which the missionaries would manage. Some of these
establishments were to be supported from the public revenues, others by
charity. The whole hope of the mission was in these orphanages, for
nothing could be expected from the adult population. The boys were to be
taught a trade and then married at the proper time. These households
were to be visited and supervised by the missionaries.
It was an excellent plan, but it was opposed by the Belgian
anti-clericals, who objected to giving so much power to priests. A
number of English Protestants also busied themselves in spreading
calumnies about these settlements and brought their accusations to
court, where sentence was frequently given without hearing the accused.
The charges were based on alleged occurrences in three out of the
forty-four mission stations. The persecution became so acute that the
Jesuits appealed to the king and received the thanks of his majesty and
the government for the work they had performed, but the calumnies were
not retracted, until May 26, 1906, when a formal document was issued by
the Free State declaring that it greatly esteemed the work performed by
the Catholic missionaries in the civilization of the State. In the
following year on May 22, it added: "Since it is impossible to do
without the missionaries in the conversion of the blacks, and as their
help is of the greatest value in imparting instruction, we recommend
that the mission be made still more efficacious by granting them a
subsidy for the upkeep of their institutions." At the beginning of 1913,
the Jesuits had seven stations and forty missionaries. In spite of all
this, however, the work of systematic calumniation still continues.
The great war of 1914 brought absolute ruin on all the missions of Asia
and Africa. Thus France called to the army every French priest or lay
brother who was not crippled by age and infirmity, and made him fight in
the ranks as a common soldier or a stretcher bearer in the hospital or
on the battlefield. This was the case not only with the Jesuits, but
with other religious orders and the secular priesthood. Nor was this
call to the colors restricted to those who were in the French colonies;
it affected all priests or brothers of French birth who were laboring in
Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Belgian Congo, Angola, Zambesi, Canada, Haiti,
the United States or South America. Sixty priests or brothers had to
leave Japan. Out of forty-three missionaries of the Society of African
Missions who were in Egypt, half had to leave. Of the twenty-two who
were on the Ivory Coast sixteen were mobilized. Indeed, four bishops
were summoned to the ranks, Mgrs. Moury of the Ivory Coast, Terrien of
Benin, Perros of Siam, and Hermel of Haiti. There were at the outbreak
of the war thirty-five Jesuits from the Levant in the army, besides
others from Madagascar, Madura and China.
CHAPTER XXVII
COLLEGES
Responsibility of the Society for loss of Faith in Europe--The
Loi Falloux--Bombay--Calcutta--Beirut--American Colleges
--Scientists, Archæologists, Meteorologists, Seismologists,
Astronomers--Ethnologists.
The Society of Jesus is frequently charged with being responsible for
the present irreligious condition of the Latin nations, of France in
particular, because, having had the absolute control of education in the
past, it did not train its pupils to resist the inroads of atheism and
unbelief.
In the first place, the charge is based on the supposition that the
Society had complete control of the education of Catholic countries,
which is not the case. Thus, for instance, Montesquieu, one of the first
and most dangerous of the assailants of the Church in the eighteenth
century, was educated by the Oratorians. As much as thirty-seven years
before the French Revolution, namely, in 1752, Father Vitelleschi, the
General of the Society, addressed the following letter to the Jesuits
throughout the world:
"It is of supreme importance that what we call the _scholæ inferiores_
(those namely below philosophy and theology) should be looked after with
extreme solicitude. We owe this to the municipalities which have
established colleges for us, and entrusted to us the education of their
youth. This is especially incumbent upon us at the present time, when
such an intense desire for scholastic education everywhere manifests
itself, and has called into existence so many schools of that kind.
Hence, unless we are careful, there is danger of our colleges being
considered unnecessary. We must not forget that for a long time there
were almost no other Latin schools but ours, or at least very few; so
that parents were forced to send their sons to us who otherwise would
not have done so. But now in many places, many schools are competing
with ours, and we are exposing ourselves to be regarded as not up to the
mark, and thus losing both our reputation and our scholars. Hence, our
pupils are not to be detained for too long a period by a multiplication
of courses, and they must be more than moderately imbued with a
knowledge of the Classics. If they have not the best of masters, it is
very much to be feared that they will betake themselves elsewhere and
then every effort on our part to repair the damage will be futile."
In the second place, after the year 1762, that is twenty-seven years
before the Revolution, there were not only no Jesuit colleges at all in
France, but no Jesuits, and consequently there was an entire generation
which had been trained in schools that were distinctly and intensely
antagonistic to everything connected with the Society. Furthermore, it
is an undeniable fact, provable by chronology, that the most conspicuous
men in that dreadful upheaval, namely, Robespierre, Desmoulins, Tallien,
Fréron, Chenier and others were educated in schools from which the
Jesuits had been expelled before some of those furious young demagogues
were born. Danton, for instance, was only three years old in 1762; Marat
was a Protestant from Geneva, and, of course, was not a Jesuit pupil;
and Mirabeau was educated by private tutors. The fact that Robespierre
and Desmoulins were together at Louis-le-Grand has misled some into the
belief that they were Jesuit students, whereas the college when they
were there had long been out of the hands of the Society. The same is
true of Portugal and Spain. The Society had ceased to exist in Portugal
as early as 1758, and in Spain in 1767.
Far from being in control of the schools of France, the whole history of
the French Jesuits is that of one uninterrupted struggle to get schools
at all. Against them, from the very beginning, were the University of
Paris and the various parliaments of France, which represented the
highest culture of the nation and bitterly resented the intrusion of the
Society into the domain of education.
Not only is this true of the period that preceded but also of the one
that followed the French Revolution. It was only in 1850, namely
seventy-seven years after the Suppression of the Society, that the
Jesuits, in virtue of the _Loi Falloux_, were permitted to open a single
school in France. The wonder is that the incessant confiscations and
suppressions which followed would permit of any educational success
whatever. Nevertheless, in the short respites that were allowed them
they filled the army and navy with officers who were not only
conspicuous in their profession but, at the same time, thoroughgoing
Catholics. Marshal Foch is one of their triumphs. Indeed it was the
superiority of their education that provoked the latest suppression of
the Jesuit schools in France.
It is this government monopoly of education in all the Continental
countries that constitutes the present difficulty both for the Society
of Jesus and for all the other teaching orders. Thus after 1872, the
German province had not a single college in the whole extent of the
German Empire. It could only attempt to do something beyond the
frontiers. It has one in Austria, a second in Holland, and a third in
Denmark. Austria has only one to its credit; Hungary one and Bohemia
another. The province of Rome has one; Sicily two, one of which is in
Malta, and Malta is English territory; Naples had three and Turin four,
but some of these have already disappeared. All the splendid colleges of
France were closed by Waldeck-Rousseau in 1890. Spain has five excellent
establishments, but they have no guarantee of permanency. Belgium has
thirteen colleges, packed with students, but the terrible World War has
at least for a time depleted them. Holland has three colleges of its
own. England four, and Ireland three.
The expulsions, however, have their compensations. Thus when the Jesuits
were expelled from Germany by Bismarck, the English government welcomed
them to India, and the splendid college of Bombay was the result. Italy
also benefited by the disaster. Not to mention other distinguished men,
Father Ehrle became Vatican librarian, and Father Wernz, rector of the
Gregorian University and subsequently General of the Society. In South
America, the exiles did excellent work in Argentina and Ecuador. The
Jesuits of New York gave them an entrance into Buffalo, and from that
starting-point they established a chain of colleges in the West, and
later, when conditions called for it, they were assimilated to the
provinces of Maryland, New York and Missouri, thus greatly increasing
the efficiency of those sections of the Society.
When driven out of their country, the Portuguese Jesuits betook
themselves to Brazil, where their help was greatly needed; the Italians
went to New Mexico and California; and the French missions of China and
Syria benefited by the anti-clericalism of the home government; for
Zikawei became an important scientific world-centre and Beirut obtained
a university. The latter was, until the war broke out, a great seat of
Oriental studies.
The most imposing institutions in Beirut, a city with a population of
over 150,000, made up of Mussulmans, Greeks, Latins, Americans and
Jews, are those of the Jesuits. They maintain and direct outside of
Beirut 192 schools for boys and girls with 294 teachers and 12,000
pupils. There is, in the city, a university with a faculty of medicine
(120 students) founded in 1881 with the help of the French government;
its examinations are conducted before French and Ottoman physicians and
its diplomas are recognized by both France and Turkey. The university
has also a seminary (60 students) for all the native Rites. Up to 1902
it had sent out 228 students including three patriarchs, fifteen
bishops, one hundred and fifteen priests and eighty-three friars. Its
faculty of philosophy and theology grants the same degrees as the
Gregorian University in Rome. Its faculty of Oriental languages and
sciences, founded in 1902, teaches literary and conversational Arabic,
Hebrew, Syriac, Coptic and Ethiopic; the comparative grammar of the
Semitic languages; the history and geography of the Orient; Oriental
archæology; Græco-Roman epigraphy and antiquities. Its classical college
has 400 pupils and its three primaries 600. A printing-house,
inaugurated in 1853, is now considered to be the foremost for its output
in that part of the world. Since 1871 it has published a weekly Arabic
paper, and since 1898 a fortnightly review in the same language, the
editors of which took rank at once among the best Orientalists. Besides
continually adding to their collection of philological papers, they
contribute to many scientific European reviews. (The Catholic
Encyclopedia, II, 393.)
There are Jesuit colleges, also, throughout India, such as the great
institutions of Bombay and Calcutta with their subsidiary colleges, and
further down the Peninsula are Trichinopoly, all winning distinction by
their successful courses of study. Indeed the first effort the Society
makes in establishing itself in any part of the world, where conditions
allow it, is to organize a college. If they would relinquish that one
work they would be left in peace.
An interesting personage appears in connection with the University of
Beirut: William Gifford Palgrave. It is true that one period of his
amazing career humiliated his former associates, but as it is a matter
of history it must needs be told.
He was the son of an eminent English Protestant lawyer, Sir Francis
Palgrave, and had Jewish blood in his veins. He was born in 1826, and
after a brilliant course of studies at Oxford began his romantic career
as a traveller. He went first to India and was an officer of Sepoys in
the British army. While there, he became a Catholic, and afterwards
presented himself at the novitiate of Negapatam as an applicant for
admission. Unfortunately his request was granted, and forthwith he
changed his name to Michael Cohen, as he said to conceal his identity.
This was a most amazing mask; for Palgrave would have escaped notice,
whereas everyone would immediately ask, who is this Jesuit Jew? How he
was admitted is a mystery, especially as he proclaimed his race so
openly.
After his novitiate he was sent to Rome to begin his theology--another
mystery. Why was he not compelled to study philosophy first like
everyone else? Then he insisted that Rome did not agree with his health,
and he was transferred to Beirut to which he betook himself, not in the
ordinary steamer, but in a sailing vessel filled with Mussulmans. On the
way, he picked up Arabic. Inside of a year, namely in 1854, he was made
a priest and given charge of the men's sodality which he charmed by his
facility in the use of the native tongue; in the meantime he made many
adventurous journeys to the interior to convert the natives, but failed
every time. In 1860 he was sent to France for his third year of
probation under the famous Father Fouillot, whom he fascinated by his
scheme of entering Arabia Petrea as its apostle. He succeeded in getting
Louis Napoleon to give him 10,000 francs on the plea that he would thus
carry out the scheme of the Chevalier Lascaris whom Napoleon Bonaparte
had sent to the East.
At Rome, he found the Father General quite cold to the proposition, and
when he had the audacity to ask Propaganda for permission to say Mass in
Arabic, he was told: "Convert your Arabs first and then we shall see
about the Mass." The brother who was to go with him fell ill, and the
General then insisted that he should not attempt the journey without a
priest as companion; whereupon Palgrave persuaded the Greek Bishop of
Zahlé to ordain one of the lay professors of the college, after a few
days' instruction in moral theology. Fortunately this improvised priest
turned out well, and he became His Beatitude Mgr. Geraigri, patriarch of
the Greek Melchites.
In 1862 the travellers set out by way of Gaza in Palestine, Palgrave as
a physician, the other as his assistant. They covered the entire Arabian
peninsula and were back again in Beirut at the end of fourteen months.
Palgrave had made no converts, and was himself a changed man. Even his
sodalists remarked it. What had happened no one ever knew. In 1864 he
was sent to Maria-Laach in Germany, where the saintly Father Behrens
wrestled with him in vain for a while, but he left the Society and
passed over to Protestantism, securing meanwhile an appointment as
Prussian consul at Mossul. In the following year he published an account
of his travels and the book was a European sensation. In it he made no
secret of his having been a member of the Society, which he says was
"so celebrated in the annals of courageous and devoted philanthropy. The
many years I spent in the East were the happiest of my life." In 1884 he
was British consul at Montevideo and remained there till 1888 when he
died.
For twenty years he seemed never to have been ashamed of his apostasy,
but three or four years before his death the grace of God found him. The
change was noticed on his return from a trip to England. He had become a
Catholic again. He went to Mass and received Holy Communion. Although a
government official, he refused to go to the Protestant Church even for
the queen's jubilee, in spite of the excitement caused by his absence.
He died of leprosy. A Jesuit attended him in his last sickness, and he
was buried with all the rites of the Church. These details are taken
from a recent publication by Father Jullien, S. J., entitled "Nouvelle
mission de la Compagnie de Jésus en Syrie" (II, iii.)
The great difficulty that confronts educators of youth in our times, is
state control. In the United States it has not yet gone to extremes, but
every now and then one can detect tendencies in that direction. Meantime
the Society has developed satisfactorily along educational lines.
According to the report of October 10, 1916 (Woodstock Letters, V 45),
there were 16,438 students in its American colleges and universities. Of
these 13,301 were day scholars and 3,137 boarders. There were 3,943 in
the college departments, 10,502 in the high schools and 1,416 in the
preparatory. Besides all this, there were commercial and special
sections numbering 737. The total increase over the preceding year was
523.
The Maryland-New York provinces had 1,848 students of law, 341 of
medicine, 127 of dentistry, 122 of pharmacy. Missouri had 786 students
of law, 643 of medicine, 776 of dentistry, 245 of pharmacy, 126 of
engineering, 530 of finance, 240 of sociology, 425 of music, 43 of
journalism, and 61 in the nurse's training school. New Orleans had a law
school of 81 and California one of 232 students.
It is sometimes urged as an objection to Catholic colleges that they
give only a Classical education, and are thus not keeping pace with the
world outside. To show that the objection has no foundation in fact, it
would be sufficient to enter any Jesuit college which is at all on its
feet, and see the extensive and fully equipped chemical and physical
laboratories, the seismic plants and in some cases the valuable museums
of natural history which they possess. If it were otherwise, they would
be false to all their traditions; for the Society has always been
conspicuous for its achievements in the natural sciences. It has
produced not only great mathematicians and astronomers, but explorers,
cosmographers, ethnologists, and archæologists. Thus, for instance,
there would have been absolutely no knowledge of the aborigines of North
America, their customs, their manner of life, their food, their dress,
their superstitions, their dances, their games, their language had it
not been for the minute details sent by the missionaries of the old and
new Society to their superiors. In every country where they have been,
they have charted the territories over which they journeyed or in which
they have labored, described their natural features, catalogued their
fauna and flora, enriched the pharmacopeia of the world with drugs,
foodstuffs and plants, and have located the salts and minerals and
mines.
That this is not idle boasting may be seen at a glance in Sommervogel's
"Bibliothèque des écrivains." Thus the names of publications on
mathematics fill twenty-eight columns of the huge folio pages. Then
follow other long lists on hydrostatics and hydraulics, navigation,
military science; surveying; hydrography and gnomics; physics, chemistry
and seismology call for thirty columns; medical sciences; zoology,
botany, geology, mineralogy, paleontology, rural economy and agriculture
require eight. Then there are two columns on the black art. The fine
arts including painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, music,
equitation, printing and mnemonics take from column 927 to 940.
According to this catalogue, the new Society has already on its lists
one hundred and sixty-four writers on subjects pertaining to the natural
sciences: physics, chemistry, mineralogy, zoology, botany, paleontology,
geography, meteorology, astronomy, etc. The names of living writers are
not recorded. Nor does this number include the writers who published
their works during the Suppression, as de Mailla, who in 1785 issued in
thirteen volumes a history of China with plans and maps, the outcome of
an official survey of the country--a work entrusted by the emperor to
the Jesuits. Father de Mailla was made a mandarin for his share of the
work.
The extraordinary work on the zoology of China by the French Jesuit,
Pierre Heude, might be adduced as an illustration of similar work in
later times. He began his studies in boyhood as a botanist, but
abandoned that branch of science when he went to the East. While
laboring as a missionary there for thirty years he devoted every moment
of his spare time to zoology.
He first travelled along all the rivers of Middle and Eastern China to
classify the fresh-water molluscs of those regions. On this subject
alone he published ten illustrated volumes between 1876 and 1885. His
treatise "Les Mollusques terrestres de la vallée du Fleuve Bleu" is
today the authority on that subject. He then directed his attention
particularly to the systematic and geographical propagation of Eastern
Asiatic species of mammals, as well as to a comparative morphology of
classes and family groups, according to tooth and skeleton formations.
His fitness for the work was furthered by his extremely keen eye, his
accurate memory, and the enormous wealth of material which he had
accumulated, partly in the course of his early travels and partly in
later expeditions, which carried him in all directions. These
expeditions covered chiefly the eight years from 1892 to 1900. They took
him to the Philippines which he visited three times; to Singapore,
Batavia, the Celebes, the Moluccas, New Guinea, Japan, Vladivostock,
Cochin-China, Cambodia, Siam, and Tongking. He carried on his work with
absolute independence of method. He contented himself with the facts
before him and sought little assistance from authorities; nor did he
fear to deduce theoretical conclusions from his own observations which
flatly contradicted other authorities. He continued his scientific work
until shortly before his death which occurred at Zikawei on January 3,
1902. (The Catholic Encyclopedia, VII, 308.)
Albers in his "Liber Sæcularis" maintains that "in the cultivation of
the natural sciences, the restored Society won greater fame than the
old," and that "a glance at the men whom the Italian provinces alone
have produced would be sufficient to convince the doubter." Angelo
Secchi, of course, stands out most prominently, and a little later
Father Barello, who with the Barnabite Denza established the
Meteorological Observatory of Malta. Giambattista Pianciani was regarded
with the greatest veneration in Rome because of his vast erudition as a
scientist, as were Caraffa, Mancini and Foligni for their knowledge of
mathematics. Marchi was the man who trained the illustrious de Rossi, as
an archæologist, and also the Jesuit Raffaele Garrucci whose "Monumenta
delle arte cristiane primitive nella metropoli del Cristianesimo" laid
the foundations of the new study of archæology. The writings of Father
Gondi and Francis Tongiorgi have also contributed much to advancement in
those fields of knowledge.
Faustino Arévalo was one of the exiles from Spain at the time of the
Suppression. He was born at Campanario in Estremadura in 1747, and
entered the Society in 1761. Six years afterwards he was deported to
Italy by Charles III. In Rome he won the esteem and confidence of
Cardinal Lorenzano, who proved to be his Mæcenas by bearing the expense
of Arévalo's learned publications. He was held in high honor in Rome,
and was appointed to various offices of trust, among them that of
pontifical hymnographer and theologian of the penitenziaria, thus
succeeding the illustrious Muzzarelli. When the Society was restored, he
returned to Spain and was made provincial of Castile. One of his works
was the "Hymnodia hispanica," a restoration of ancient Spanish hymns to
their original metrical, musical and grammatical perfection. This
publication was much esteemed by Cardinal Mai and Dom Guéranger. It was
accompanied by a curious dissertation on the Breviary of Cardinal
Quignonez. He also edited the poems of Prudentius and Dracontius and
those of a fifth century Christian of Roman Africa. Besides this, he has
to his credit four volumes of Jouvancy's "Gospel History," the works of
Sedulius and St. Isidore and a Gothic Missal. He stands in the forefront
of Spanish patristic scholars, and has shed great lustre on the Church
of Spain by his vast learning, fine literary taste and patriotic
devotion to the Christian writers of his fatherland.
The founder of the science of archæology, according to Hurter, was
Stefano Antonio Morcelli. He was a member of the old Society and
re-entered it when it was restored. Even before the Suppression, which
occurred twenty years after his entrance, he had established an
archæological section in the Kircher Museum of Rome. When he found
himself homeless, in consequence of the publication of the Brief of
Clement XIV, he was made the librarian of Cardinal Albani. He refused
the Archbishopric of Ragusa and continued his literary labors in Rome.
His first publication was "The Style of Inscriptions." In the town of
Chiari, his birthplace, to which he afterwards withdrew, he founded an
institution for the education of girls, reformed the entire school
system, devoted his splendid library to public use, and restored many
buildings and churches. Meantime his reputation as master of epigraphic
style increased and he was placed in a class of his own above all
competitors. Besides his many works on his special subject, he gave to
the world five volumes of sermons and ascetic treatises. When the
Society was re-established he again took his place in its ranks, and
died in Brescia in 1822 at the age of eighty-four. Hurter classifies him
as also a historian and geographer.
Nor was Morcelli an exception. Fathers Arthur Martin and Charles Cahier
are still of great authority as archæologists, chiefly for their
monograph in which, as government officials, they described the
Cathedral of Bourges; and likewise for their "Mélanges archéologiques,"
in which the sacred vessels, enamels and other treasures of
Aix-la-Chapelle and of Cologne are discussed. They also wrote on the
antique ivories of Bamberg, Ratisbon, Munich and London; on the
Byzantine and Arabian weavings; and on the paintings and the mysterious
bas-reliefs of the Roman and Carlovingian periods. Their works appeared
between 1841 and 1848.
A very famous Jesuit archæologist died only a few years ago, and the
French government which had just expelled the Jesuits erected a monument
at Poitiers to perpetuate his memory. He was Father Camille de la Croix.
He was a scion of the old Flemish nobility and was born in the Château
Saint-Aubert, near Tournai in Belgium, but he passed nearly all his life
in France, and hence Frenchmen considered him as one of their own. He
got his first schooling in Brugelette, and, when that college was given
up, went with his old masters to France. In 1877 we find him mentioned
in the catalogue as a teacher and writer of music. Three years later,
the French provinces had been dispersed by the government, and he was
then docketed as an archæologist at the former Jesuit college of
Poitiers.
De la Croix's success as a discoverer was marvellous. Near Poitiers he
found vast Roman baths, five acres in extent, whose existence had never
even been suspected. There were tombs of Christian martyrs; a wonderful
crypt dating from the beginning of the Christian era; a temple dedicated
to Mercury, with its sacred wells, votive vases etc. At Sauxay, nineteen
miles from Poitiers, he unearthed the ruins of an entire Roman colony; a
veritable Pompeii with its temple of Apollo, its theatres, its palaces,
its baths etc. He had the same success at Nantes, Saint-Philibert, and
Berthouville;--the French government supplying him with the necessary
funds. The "Gaulois" said of him that "in his first ten years he
discovered more monuments than would have made twenty archæologists
famous." Meantime he lived in a wooden cabin, on the banks of the Clain,
and there he died at the age of eighty, on April 14, 1900; and there
also the French government built his monument. At the dedication, all
the scientific men of the country were present, and the King of Belgium
sent a representative.
Although the well-known François Moigno severed his connection with the
Society, it was only after he had achieved greatness while yet in its
ranks. He entered the novitiate on September 2, 1822, when he was
eighteen years of age. He made his theological studies at Montrouge, and
in his spare moments devoted himself to the study of the natural
sciences. At the outbreak of the Revolution of 1830, he went with his
brethren to Brieg in Switzerland, where he took up the study of
languages, chiefly Hebrew and Arabic. When the troubles subsided in
France he was appointed professor of mathematics in Paris at the Rue des
Postes, and became widely known as a man of unusual attainments. He was
on intimate terms with Cauchy, Arago, Ampère and others. He was engaged
on one of his best known works: "Leçons de calcul différentiel et de
calcul intégral" and had already published the first volume when he left
the Society. He had been a Jesuit for twenty-one years. He was then made
chaplain of Louis-le-Grand, one of the famous colleges owned by the
Jesuits before the Suppression, and became the scientific editor of "La
Presse" in 1850; of "Le Pays" in 1851, and in the following year,
founded the well-known scientific journal "Cosmos," followed by "Les
Mondes" in 1862, editing meanwhile "Les Actualités scientifiques." As a
matter of fact, it was the Society that had formed him and enabled him
to publish his greatest works.
The German, Father Ludwig Dressel, who was for many years the director
of the Polytechnic in Quito, is well-known for his treatises on
geology, chemistry and physics. Kramers, in Holland, is the author of
three volumes on chemistry. In entomology, Father Erich Wasmann is among
the masters of today, and has written a series of works which have
elicited the applause of the scientific world, especially his "Die
moderne Biologie und die Entwicklungstheorie." (Modern Biology and the
Theory of Evolution.) The writings of Bolsius on biology won for him a
membership in the scientific societies of Russia, Belgium, Italy and
Holland.
The first meteorological society, the "Palatina," was founded by Father
Johann Hemmer in 1780, and it is noteworthy that nearly all its
contributors were members of the various religious orders of
Austria-Hungary, Italy and France. Its scope was not restricted to the
study of meteors, for it accepted papers on ethnology, linguistics, etc.
Hence we find Father Dobrizhoffer writing to it from Paraguay, Joseph
Lafitaux from Canada, Johann Hanxleden, the Sanscrit scholar from
Hindostan, and Lorenzo Hervás. Hanxleden and his colleague Roth were the
pioneers in Sanscrit. The former was the first European to write a
Sanscrit grammar and to compile a Malabar-Sanscrit-Portuguese
dictionary. Hervás was one of the Jesuits expelled from Mexico, and
after the Suppression was made prefect of the Quirinal Library by Pius
VII. While there, he worked in conjunction with several of his former
brethren in the compilation and composition of scientific works, mostly
of an ethnological character. He also wrote a number of educational
works for deaf mutes.
The Observatory of Stonyhurst dates back to 1838-39, when a building
consisting of an octagonal centerpiece with four abutting structures was
erected in the middle of the garden. But it was not until 1845 that a
4-inch Jones equatorial was mounted in its dome. Meteorological
observations were begun as early as 1844, and magnetic in 1856 by Father
Weld. In 1867 an 8-inch equatorial was set up. The chief workers were
Fathers Stephen Perry, Walter Sidgreaves and Aloysius Cortie. All three
were members of the Royal Astronomical Society and were frequently
chosen to fill official positions. Father Perry achieved special
prominence. He was the director from 1860 to 1862, and again from 1868
till his death in 1889. He was a member of more scientific expeditions
than any other living astronomer. He was at Cadiz for the solar eclipse
in 1870; he was sent as astronomer royal in 1874 for the transit of
Venus to Kerguelen or Desolation Island, and for another observation to
Madagascar in 1882. In 1886 he observed a total eclipse at Carriacou in
the West Indies. For the eclipse of 1887 he was sent to Russia, and for
that of 1889 to Cayenne. On the latter expedition he was attacked by a
pestilential fever and died on board the warship "Comus" off Georgetown,
Demerara, after receiving the last sacraments from a French Abbé
resident in Georgetown. Father Perry was buried there in the cathedral
cemetery. His death was that of a saint, and a touching account of it
has been left by his assistant, a Jesuit lay-brother.
Father Perry's prominence in the scientific world may be judged by the
honors bestowed upon him. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a
member of the Council; also a member and Fellow of the Royal
Astronomical Society and, shortly before he died, he had been proposed
as Vice-President. At the time of his death he held the post of
President of the Liverpool Astronomical Society. He was a Fellow of the
Royal Meteorological Society, a member of the Physical Society of
London, and an associate of the Papal Academy of the Nuovi Lincei, the
oldest scientific society in Europe. He belonged also to the Societé
Géographique of Antwerp, and had received the degree of Doctor of
Science _honoris causa_ from the Royal University of Ireland. For
several years before his death, he served on the committee of the
council on education, as well as on the committee for comparing and
reducing magnetic observations, for which work he had been appointed by
the British Association for the Advancement of Science, a body of which
he was a life-member. In 1887 and 1889 he attended at Paris the meetings
of the Astrographic Congress for the photographic charting of the
heavens.
In the "Monthly Notices" of the Royal Astronomical Society (L, iv) the
following resolution appears on the occasion of his death: "The Council
having heard with the deepest regret of the death of the Rev. S. J.
Perry while on the Society's expedition to observe the total eclipse at
the Salut Islands, desire to put on record their sense of the great loss
which astronomy has suffered by the death of so enthusiastic and capable
an observer, and to offer to his relations and to his colleagues at
Stonyhurst the expression of their sincere sympathy and condolence on
this sad event." The list of his scientific papers covers twelve pages
of his biography. Father Cortie, his associate in the Stonyhurst
Observatory, says of him: "His death was glorious, for he died a victim
to his sense of duty and his zeal for science. Truly he may lay claim to
the title of 'martyr of science,' and a part of the story of the eclipse
of December 22, 1889, will be the account of how Father Perry was
carried from a sick bed to take his last observation."
Besides the Observatories in Granada and Oña the Spanish Jesuits have
another near Tortosa. The main object of the latter is the study of
terrestrial magnetism, seismology, meteorology, study of the sun, etc.
It has five separate buildings and a valuable periodical regularly
published by the observers.
The Zo-se Observatory near Zikawei in China is in charge of the French
Fathers. The Observatory is about 80 feet in length. It has a library of
20,000 volumes with numerous and valuable Chinese manuscripts. They have
another station in Madagascar, which is 4,600 feet above sea-level, and
consequently higher by 100 metres than the Lick Observatory in
California. When the Jesuits were expelled from Madagascar, the
Observatory was demolished by the natives who thought it was a fortress.
It was rebuilt later at the expense of the French government and the
director, Father Colin, was made a corresponding Member of the French
Academy. In 1890, 1895, 1898 and 1899 the observers were honored by
their home government with purses of considerable value, one being of
6,000 and another of 3,000 francs.
There are other observatories at Calcutta, Rhodesia, Feldkirch, Louvain,
Oudenbosch (Holland), Puebla (Mexico), Havana, Woodstock and other
Jesuit colleges in the United States; these are attracting notice
principally by their seismographical reports. The most conspicuous of
all these North American observatories is that of Georgetown which was
founded in 1842-43, about the same time as the Naval Observatory. It was
built under the direction of Father Curley, whose determination of the
longitude of Washington in conjunction with Sir G. B. Airy, the
Astronomer Royal of Greenwich, England, was made by observing a series
of transits of the moon, and was later shown by the electric telegraph
to have been correct to within the tenth of a second. Fathers De Vico,
Sestini and Secchi labored at Georgetown. Secchi's "Researches in
Electrical Rheometry" was published in 1852 by the Smithsonian
Institute. It was his first literary contribution to science. Sestini's
drawings of the sun spots were published by the Naval Observatory. In
1889 Father Hagen, then the director, published his "Atlas stellarum
variabilium." In 1890 Father Fargis solved the question of "the personal
equation" in astronomical observations by his invention of the
Photochronograph. It had been attempted by Father Braun in Kalocsa
(Hungary) and by Repsola in Königsberg, but both failed. Professors
Pickering and Bigelow in the United States had also given it up, but
Father Fargis solved the difficulty by a fixed photographic plate and a
narrow metal tongue attached to the armature of an electric magnet. It
has proved satisfactory in every test.
In Sommervogel's "Bibliothèque" the list of the astronomical works
written by Secchi covers nineteen pages quarto, in double columns. He
was equally active in physics and meteorology and his large meteorograph
described in Ganot's "Physics" merited for him the Grand Prix (100,000
francs) and the Cross of the Legion of Honor at the Paris Universal
Exposition in 1867. It was conferred upon him by the hand of the Emperor
Napoleon, in the presence of the Emperors of Russia and Austria and the
Kings of Prussia and Belgium. The Emperor of Brazil sent him a golden
rose as a token of appreciation.
The "Atlas stellarum variabilium" by Father Johann Hagen is according to
"Popular Astronomy" (n. 81, p. 50) the most important event in the star
world. Ernst Harturg (V. J. S., vol. 35) says: "It will without doubt
become in time an indispensable requisite of the library of every
observatory just as the Bonn maps have become." Father Hagen has also
won distinction in the mathematical world by his "Synopsis der höheren
Mathematik," in four volumes quarto.
The seismological department of Georgetown, under Father Francis A.
Tondorf, has attained an especial prominence in the United States. Its
equipment is of the latest perfection, and its earthquake reports are
those most commonly quoted in the daily press of America.
Important in their own sphere are the books "Astronomisches aus Babylon"
by Fathers Joseph Epping and Johann Nepomuk Strassmaier, and "Die
babylonische Mondrechnung" by Epping. F. K. Ginzel (in V. J. S., vol.
35.) expresses the following opinion of them: "It is well known that the
investigations made by the Jesuit Father Epping, in conjunction with the
Assyriologist Father Strassmaier, upon many Babylonian astronomical
bricks have had as a consequence that the scientific level upon which
the history of astronomy had formerly placed the Babylonians must be
taken considerably higher. Epping's investigations now receive a very
valuable extension through the labor of Father Kugler of Valkenburg,
Holland. From the communications received concerning Kugler's work the
importance of his book to the history of astronomy may be inferred."
"Die Gravitations-Constante" (Vienna, 1896), by Father Carl Braun of
Mariaschein, Bohemia, represents about eight years of patient work, and
according to Poynting (Proc. of the Royal Soc. Inst, of Great Britain,
XVI, 2) "bears internal evidence of great care and accuracy. He obtained
almost exactly the same result as Professor Boys with regard to the
earth's mean density. Father Braun carried on his work far from the
usual mechanical laboratory facilities and had to make much of the
apparatus himself. His patience and persistence command our highest
admiration."
With regard to the "Kosmogonie vom Standpunkte christlicher
Wissenschaft," by Father Braun, Dr. Foster says: (V. J. S., vol. 25)
"this problem, mighty in every aspect, is treated from all points of
view with clearness and impressiveness. One could hardly find at this
time in any other book all the essential features of a theory of the sun
collected together in such a directive manner."
Perhaps the famous phrase of St. Ignatius, _Quam sordet tellus quum
cælum aspicio_, had something to do with the Society's passion for
astronomy. "How sordid the earth is when I look at the sky." His sons
have been looking at the sky from the beginning not only spiritually but
through telescopes, and many of them have become famous as astronomers.
This is all the more notable, because star-gazing was only a secondary
object with them. They were first of all priests and scientific men
afterwards. As early as 1591 Father Perrerin, in his "Divinatio
astrologica," denounced astrology as a superstition although his
Protestant friend, the great Kepler, did not admit the distinction
between it and astronomy. The book of Perrerin's went through five
editions. Father de Angelis published in 1604 five volumes entitled "In
astrologos conjectores" (Against astrological guessers). As late as
1676, the work was still in demand, for illustrious personages like
Rudolph II, Wallenstein, Gustavus Adolphus, Catherine de' Medici and
even Luther and Melanchthon with a host of others were continually
having their horoscopes taken.
Another eminent worker was Father Riccioli, of whom we read: "If you
want to know the ancient follies on this point consult Riccioli."
(Littrois in "Wunder des Himmels," 1886, 604.) The implication might be
that Riccioli approved of them, but the reverse is the case, for, as
Thomas Aquinas furnishes a list of every actual and almost every
possible theological and philosophical error, but after each adds
_videtur quod non_, which he follows up by a refutation, so does
Riccioli in his Astrology. He was a genius. He became a Jesuit when he
was sixteen, and for years never thought of telescopes. He taught
poetry, philosophy and theology at Parma and Bologna, and took up
astronomy only when his superiors assigned him to that study. Being an
Italian, he did not like Copernicus or Kepler. They were from the
Protestant North and had refused to accept the Gregorian Calendar. He
admitted, indeed, that the Copernican system was the most beautiful, the
most simple, the best conceived, but not solid, so he made one of his
own, but did not adhere to it tenaciously.
Appreciating the deficiencies of the astronomy of the ancients, he
composed the famous "Almagestum novum," which placed the whole science
on a new basis. Beginning by the measurement of the earth, he produced,
though he made mistakes, the first meteorolog-system. His lunar
observations revealed 600 spots on the moon, which is fifty more than
had been found by Hevelius. His collaborator, Grimaldi, the greatest
mathematician of his age, made the maps. His remarks on libration fill
an entire volume, and the writer in the "Biographie universelle" gives
him the credit of experimenting on the oscillations of the pendulum
before Galileo. His health was always poor, but he worked like a giant.
His "Almagestum" consists of 1500 folio pages, and is described as a
treasure of astronomical erudition. Lalande quotes from it continually.
His "Astronomia reformata" is in two volumes folio, and he has twelve
folio volumes on geography and hydrography. Its learning is astounding.
Thus, for instance, in the second part of his "Chronologia" there is a
list of the principal events from the creation to the year 1688, along
with the names of kings, patriarchs, nations, heresies, councils, and
great personages, which was really collateral matter.
What the Jesuit astronomers accomplished in China from the time of Ricci
down to Hallerstein in 1774 has been continued there to the present day.
The first government observatory in Europe was erected in the University
of Vienna, then in the hands of the Jesuits. There were others at Vilna,
Schwetzingen and Mannheim. Twelve other private ones had been built in
the various European colleges of the Society. The establishment of these
observatories was providential, for when the Society was suppressed they
afforded occupation and support to a great number of dispersed Jesuits,
who remained in charge of them during their forty years of homelessness
and kept alive the old spirit of the Order in its affection for that
particular study. As in the old Society this work is still a matter of
private enterprise. As far as we are aware there is only one observatory
where a government assists, the Observatory of Manila, in which the
employees are salaried by the United States government. The equipment
itself, however, was provided by the Jesuits, who reduced their living
expenses to the minimum in order to build the house and buy the
instruments.
On the other hand, the number of actual Jesuit observatories in the
strict sense of the term already rivals that of the old Society. The
Roman establishment which had been made famous by Scheiner, Gottignes,
Asclepi, Borgondius, Maire and Boscovich was continued during the
Suppression by the secular priest Calandrelli. In 1824 Leo XII restored
it to the Society, and Father Dumouchel took charge of it with De Vico
as an assistant. The latter's reputation was European. He was known as
the Comet Chaser, for he had discovered eight of them. The well-known
five and a half years periodic comet bears his name. He succeeded
Dumouchel as director in 1840, and was holding that office when the
Revolution of 1848 drove the Jesuits from Rome. He was received with
great enthusiasm in France by Arago, and in England he was offered the
directorship of the Observatory of Madras but he preferred to go to
Georgetown in the United States. Being called to London on business, he
died there on November 15, 1848, at the age of 43. Herschel wrote his
obituary in the "Notices of the Astronomical Society."
Secchi had gone with De Vico to Georgetown, but was recalled to Rome in
1849 by Pius IX, and given charge of the observatory. He was born at
Reggio in 1818, and, after studying in the Jesuit college there, entered
the Society at the age of sixteen. He began as a tutor in physics and
continued at that work when he went to Georgetown. Astronomy had as yet
not appealed to him, but in Washington he met the famous hydrographer,
meteorologist and astronomer, Maury, and a deep affection sprang up
between them, and Secchi dedicated one of his books to his American
friend. His appointment to the Roman Observatory in 1859 was due to the
recommendation of De Vico, and in two years his brilliant success as an
observer attracted the attention of the scientific world. He began by a
revision of Struve's "Catalogue of Double Stars," which necessitated
seven years' strenuous work, and he was able to verify 10,000 of the
entries. Meantime he was studying the physical condition of Saturn,
Jupiter, Mars and the four great moons of Jupiter. In 1852 the moon
became the special object of his investigations, and his micrometrical
map of the great crater was so exact that the Royal Society of London
had numerous photographs made of it. In 1859 he published his great work
"Il quadro fisico del sistema solare secondo il piu recenti
osservazioni." The study of the sun spots was his favorite task, and his
expedition to Spain in 1860 to observe the total eclipse established the
fact that the red protuberances around the edge of the eclipsed sun were
real features of the sun itself and not optical illuminations or
illuminated mountains of the moon. He began the "Sun Records" in Rome,
and they are kept up till this day. No other observatory has anything
like them. All this, with his inventions, and the study of the
spectroscope, heliospectroscope and telespectroscope, besides the mass
of scientific results which he arrived at, has put him in the very first
rank of astronomers. He was equally conspicuous as a meteorologist and a
physicist. When the Piedmontese took Rome, Secchi was offered the rank
of senator and the superintendency of all the observatories of Italy if
he would leave the Society. Of course he scoffed at the proposal; but
his authority in Italy was so great that the invaders did not dare to
expel him from his observatory. He died in 1878.
Clerke says of him: "The effective founders of stellar photography were
Father Secchi, the eminent Jesuit astronomer of the Collegio Romano, and
Dr. Huggins with whom the late Professor Mullen was associated. The work
of each was happily made to supplement that of the other. With less
perfect appliances, the Roman astronomer sought to render his work
extensive rather than precise; whereas, at Upper Tulse Hill, searching
accuracy over a narrower gauge was aimed at and attained. To Father
Secchi is due the merit of having executed the first spectroscope view
of the heavens. Above 4000 stars were all passed in review by him and
classified according to the varying qualities of their light. His
provisional establishment (1863-7) of four types of stellar spectra has
proved a genuine aid to knowledge, through the facilities afforded by it
for the arrangement and comparison of rapidly accumulating facts.
Moreover it is scarcely doubtful that these spectral distinctions
correspond to differences in physical conditions of a marked kind."
"I saw the great man," said one who was in the audience of the splendid
hall of the Cancelleria, "when he was giving a course on the solar
spectrum. The vast auditorium was crowded with a brilliant throng in
which you could see cardinals, archbishops, monsignori and laymen, all
representing the highest religious, diplomatic and scientific circles.
Though an Italian, Secchi spoke in French that was absolutely perfect.
Everyone was enthralled, but what captivated me was the gentleness and
even deference with which he spoke to the men who were adjusting the
screens. He almost seemed to be their servant and I could not help
saying to myself, 'Oh! I love you.' I saw him later in the street. It
was in the turbulent days of the Italian occupation. He was walking
alone; his head slightly bowed. Suddenly the cry was heard: 'Death to
the Jesuits!' and an excited mob was seen rushing towards him. He stood
still; grasped the stout stick in his hand, glared at them; and they
fled. I never saw anything like it. I loved him before. I adored him
now." In brief, Secchi was a great man in the eyes of the world, but he
was a greater religious. Indeed it is said that when his superiors told
him to apply himself to mathematics he burst into tears. He wanted to be
a missionary. He was such, while being at the same time one of the most
distinguished men in the scientific world.
The Manila Observatory in the Philippines, strictly speaking, began its
meteorological service in 1865, though observations had been made many
years previously. In 1881 it was officially approved by the Spanish
government and in 1901 by that of the United States. The meteorological
importance and efficiency of the Manila Observatory overshadows its
astronomical, for the reason that it is situated in the eastern typhoon
path. Astronomy, however, is by no means neglected. From 1880 up to the
present time it has rendered very valuable services to the world. First,
the official time was given to the city of Manila and, after the
American occupation, it was extended to all the telegraph stations
throughout the islands. Secondly, about one hundred ship chronometers
are annually compared and rated at the Observatory free of charge.
In 1894 Father José Algué began to complete the astronomical equipment
and erected a new building at the cost of $40,000, equipping it with
instruments of the latest and best type. Three years later he was given
charge of the whole establishment, and is now rendering immense and
indispensable service to the shipping interests of the Far East by his
weather predictions. His barocyclonometer is carried on every ship in
those waters. In 1900 he was sent to Washington by the United States
government to supervise the printing of his immense work entitled "El
Archipiélago Filipino," and he gave later to the World's Fair at St.
Louis one of its remarkable exhibits,--a relief map covering a great
expanse on the ground and representing every island, river, bay, cape,
peninsula, volcano, village and city of the Archipelago. Previous to his
appointment in Manila Father Algué had worked for several years in the
Georgetown Observatory.
In the matter of the theological teaching it will suffice to note that
the Collegium Germanicum was given back to the Society in 1829 and
entrusted to Father Aloysius Landes as rector. The German government
for some time forbade German students to attend its classes, but in 1848
there were 251 on the roster. Since it opened its doors to the present
day, it has given to the Church 4 cardinals, 4 archbishops, 11 bishops,
3 coadjutor bishops, 1 vicar Apostolic, besides a number of
distinguished professors, canons and priests.
A very notable recognition of the Society in the field of education was
given by Pius IX, when he confided to it the government of the college
known as the Pium Latinum. The distinguished ecclesiastic who suggested
it was the Apostolic prothonotary, José Ignacio Eyzaguirre, a Chilian by
birth. The college was founded in 1858 to prepare a body of learned
priests for the various countries of South America. In 1908 at its
golden jubilee it could show a record not only of distinguished priests
but of a cardinal, Joachim Arcoverde de Albuquerque Cavalcanti, and of
30 bishops, though it began with only 15 students. The house that first
sheltered them was extremely small, but the Pope saw to it that they had
a larger establishment. While urging the bishops of Latin America to
support it liberally--for having been Apostolic delegate in Chili no one
knew better than he the urgent necessity of such a school--he himself
was lavish in his gifts of money, books, vestments, etc. In 1867 a part
of the old Jesuit novitiate was purchased from the Government, and
although in 1870 the Jesuits were expelled from Rome those in the Pio
Latino were not disturbed. In 1884 a new site was found near the Vatican
and on the banks of the Tiber where there is now a splendid college with
a capacity of 400 students. In 1905 Cardinal Vives y Tuto published an
Apostolic Constitution which gave the title "Pontifical" to the college
and confided the education _in perpetuum_ to the Society. This
Constitution had been asked for by the Latin American Bishops during the
Council, it was promised by Leo XIII, and finally realized by Pius X.
When formally handed over to the Jesuits there were 104 alumni present.
The trust was accepted in the name of Father General by Father Caterini,
provincial of the Roman province.
CHAPTER XXVIII
LITERATURE
Grammars and Lexicons of every tongue--Dramas--Histories of
Literature--Cartography--Sinology--Egyptology--Sanscrit
--Catholic Encyclopedia--Catalogues of Jesuit Writers--Acta
Sanctorum--Jesuit Relations--Nomenclator--Periodicals--
Philosophy--Dogmatic, Moral and Ascetic Theology--Canon Law
--Exegesis.
The literary activity of the Society has always been very great, not
only in theological, philosophical and scientific fields, but also in
those that are specifically designated as pertaining to the _belles
lettres_. Thus, under the heading "Linguistics," in Sommervogel's
"Bibliotheca" we find treatises on philology, the origin of language,
grammatical theories, a pentaglottic vocabulary, a lexicon of
twenty-four languages, the first language, etc. Then come the Classics.
Under "Greek," there are two huge pages with the names of various
grammars; besides dictionaries, exercises and collections of old Greek
authors. Under "Latin," we find four pages of grammars and lexicons;
some of the latter giving the equivalents in Portuguese, Tamul, Chinese,
French, Polish, Brazilian, Bohemian, Syrian, Armenian and Japanese.
After that we have: "Elegances," "Roots," "Ancient and Modern Latin,"
"Anthologies," "Pronunciations," "Medullas" etc. Six pages are devoted
to grammars and dictionaries of European languages, not only the
ordinary ones but also Basque, Bohemian, Celtic, Croat, Illyrian, Wend,
Provençal, Russian and Turkish. The Asiatic languages follow next in
order: Annamite, Siamese, Arabian, Armenian, Georgian, Chinese,
Cochinese, Hebrew, Hindustanee, Japanese, Persian, Sanscrit and Syrian;
with two columns of Angolese, Caffre, Egyptian, Ethiopian, Kabyle and
Malgache grammars. The Malgache all bear the dates of the late
nineteenth century, and there is an Esquimaux Grammar by Father Barnum
dated 1901.
The tongues of most of the North and South American Indians are
represented; the dictionaries of the South American Indians were all
written by the Fathers of the old Society.
The books devoted to the study of eloquence are appalling in their
number. They are in all languages and on all sorts of subjects, sacred
and profane. There are panegyrics, funeral orations, coronation
speeches, eulogies, episcopal consecrations, royal progresses, patriotic
discourses, but only occasionally does the eye catch a modern date in
the formidable list of sixty-three folio pages.
Latin poetry claims fifty-seven pages for the titles of compositions or
studies. Poetry in the modern languages is much more modest and requires
only as many columns as the ancients demanded pages. The English list is
very brief; the Italian very long; and while the ancient Jesuits seemed
to have little fear of breaking forth into verse, the modern worshippers
of the Muse, except when they utter their thoughts in Malgache, or
Chouana or Tagale or Japanese, are very cautious.
Pious people perhaps may be scandalized to hear that the Jesuits of the
old Society wrote a great deal for the theatres; it was not, however,
for the theatres of the world, but for the theatres of their colleges.
Hence in the chapter entitled "Theatre," after a number of treatises on
"The Restriction of Comedies," "Théatre des Grecs," "Liturgical Drama,"
"Reflections on the Danger of Shows," "The mind of St. Paul, St. Thomas
Aquinas and St. Francis de Sales on Plays;" etc., we come face to face
with the titles of plays that crowd and blacken by their close print no
less than ten huge folio pages. They are contributed by the Jesuits of
all countries. Germany especially was very prolific in this kind of
literature, claiming as many as four pages of titles; England furnishes
only seven dramas in all, three of which are modern. Three of the
ancient plays had for their author no less a personage than the Blessed
Edmund Campion. They were entitled "The Sacrifice of Isaac," "The
Tragedy of King Saul," while Southwell credits him with "Nectar et
Ambrosia," which was acted before the emperor. All these were written in
1575, when he was professor of rhetoric in Bohemia.
Belgium has a long list to its credit, and among the dramatists appears
the very eminent Ignace Carbonelle, but only as the author of the text
of a Cantata for the jubilee of Pius IX in 1877. In France occurs the
name of Arsène Cahours, who wrote many tragedies and even a vaudeville,
which he called "L'enterrement du Père Simon, le brocanteur." Longhaye's
well-known college plays are on the list.
There are many oratorios, but it is feared that the timid will be
scandalized to hear that an entire column is required for the names of
the authors of _ballets_. One of the writers is no less a personage than
the distinguished historian Jouvancy. The ballets are interludes; there
was no impropriety in these dances, however, for no female characters
appeared, and the college boys for whom they were written had to do all
the dancing themselves.
"Many of these dramas," says Father Schwickerath quoting Janssen, "were
exhibited with all possible splendor, as for instance those given at La
Flèche in 1614 before Louis XIII and his court. But it seems that
nowhere was greater pomp displayed than at Munich where the court
liberally contributed to make the performances especially brilliant. In
1574 the tragedy 'Constantine' was played on two successive days, and
the whole city was beautifully decorated. More than one thousand actors
took part in the play. Constantine entered the city in a triumphal
chariot surrounded by four hundred horsemen in glittering armor. At the
performance of 'Esther' in 1577, the most splendid costumes and gems
were furnished from the treasury of the Duke; and at the banquet of King
Assuerus one hundred precious dishes of gold and silver were used."
Those old Jesuits seemed to be carrying out the famous order of La
Mancha's Knight when the ordinary stage was too small: "Then build a
house or act it on the plain;" or as a recent writer declares "Like
Richard Wagner in our days, the Jesuits aimed at and succeeded in
uniting all the arts within the compass of the drama. The effect of such
plays was like those of the Oberammergau Passion Play, ravishing,
overpowering. Even people ignorant of the Latin tongue were captivated
by these representations and the concourse of people was usually very
great. In 1565 'Judith' was acted before the court in Munich and then
repeated in the public square. Even the surrounding walls and roofs of
the houses were covered with eager spectators. In 1560 the comedy
'Euripus' was given in the courtyard of the college at Prague before a
crowd of more than eight thousand people. It had to be repeated three
times and was asked for again and again."
The early German parsons denounced these dramas as devices for
propagating idolatry, but on the other hand a very capable critic Karl
von Reinhardstottner says: "In the first century of their history the
Jesuits did great work in this line. They performed dramas full of
power and grandeur, and though their dramatic productions did not equal
the fine lyrics of the Jesuit poets Balde and Sarbiewski, still in the
dramas of Fabricius, Agricola and others, there is unmistakable poetic
spirit and noble seriousness. How could the enormous success of their
performances be otherwise explained? And who could doubt for a moment
that by their dramas they rendered great service to their century; that
they advanced culture, and preserved taste for the theatre and its
subsidiary arts? It would be sheer ingratitude to undervalue what they
effected by their dramas."
Goethe was present at a play given in 1786 at Ratisbon. It was during
the Suppression, but happily the Jesuit traditions had been maintained
in the college. He has left his impressions in writing: "This public
performance has convinced me anew of the cleverness of the Jesuits. They
rejected nothing that could be of any conceivable service to them, and
they knew how to wield their weapons with devotion and dexterity. This
is not cleverness of the merely abstract order; it is a real fruition of
the thing itself; an absorbing interest which springs from the practical
uses of life. Just as this great spiritual society had its
organ-builders, its sculptors, its gilders so there seem to be some who
by nature and inclination take to the drama; and as their churches are
distinguished by a pleasing pomp, so these prudent men have seized on
the sensibility of the world by a decent theatre." (Italien Reise,
Goethe Werke, Cotta's Ed. 1840 XXIII p. 3-4.)
Tiraboschi began his literary work when a young professor in Modena by
editing the Latin-Italian dictionary of Monza, but he made so many
corrections that it was practically a new work. Subsequently he was
appointed librarian at Milan, and by means of the documents he
discovered, wrote a "History of the Humiliati," which filled up a gap
in the annals of the Church. While librarian in the ducal library at
Modena, he began his monumental work on the "Storia della letteratura
italiana." This history extends from Etruscan times to 1700, and
required eleven years of constant labor to complete it.
Hurter tells us "Michael Cosmas Petrus Denis was a most celebrated
bibliographer, whose almost innumerable works must be placed in the
category of humanistic literature." He entered the Society in Upper
Austria on October 17, 1747, and taught rhetoric for twelve years in the
Theresian College for Nobles, where he won some renown by his poetry. At
the time of the Suppression of the Society, to which he ever remained
grateful and attached, he was given charge of the Garelli Library and
devoted himself to the study of literature and bibliography. His public
lectures attracted immense throngs from far and near. He was promoted to
be royal counsellor by Emperor Leopold and was made custodian of the
Imperial Library. By that time he was a European celebrity. De Backer in
his "Bibliotheca" mentions ninety-three of his publications. Hurter
classifies as the most important the "Denkmale der christlichen
Glauben-und Sittenlehre." His poems which he signed "Sined," which was
Denis spelled backward, won him the name of Bard of the Danube, and
helped considerably to promote the study of German in Austria. He was
one of a group of poets whose chief aim was to arouse German patriotism.
Ossian was their ideal and inspiration, and Denis translated the Gaelic
poet into German (1768-69), and in addition he published two volumes of
poems just one year before the Suppression. Naturally these patriotic
effusions in verse by a Jesuit attracted considerable attention. Denis
died in Vienna on 20 September, 1800.
Father Baumgartner has won a high place in the domain of letters by his
large work entitled "History of the Literature of the Entire World."
Besides this he has to his credit three volumes on "Goethe," another on
"Longfellow;" a fifth on "Vondel," a sixth entitled "Ausflüge in das
Land der Seein" and a seventh called "Island und die Faröer."
Of Father Faustino Arévalo, the distinguished hymnographer and
patrologist, we have spoken above.
Geographical themes appealed to many writers both of the old and the new
Society, and also to those of the intervening period. The subjects
relate to every part of the world. There is, for instance, "The German
Tyrol" by the Italian Bresciani; "The Longitude of Milan" by Lagrange;
"The Geography of the Archipelago" by F. X. Liechtlé. This archipelago
was the West Indies. His brother Ignatius executed a similar work on the
Grecian Islands. He went to Naxos in 1754, and died there in 1795.
"Chota-Nagpur" is described in 1883, "Abyssinia" in 1896, and the
"Belgian Congo" in 1897. Veiga writes of the "Orinoco" in 1789, and
Armand Jean of the "Polynesians" in 1867. There is no end of maps such
as "Turkestan and Dzoungaria," "China and Tatary," "The Land of
Chanaan," "Paraguay," "Lake Superior," "The Land between the Napo and
the Amazons." The famous maps of Mexico by Father Kino have been
reproduced by Hubert Bancroft in his "Native Races."
Joseph de Mayoria de Mailla's great work called "Toung-Kian-Kang-mou,"
which is an abstract of the Chinese annals, was sent to France in 1737,
but was not published until 1785. He was the first European to give the
world a knowledge of the classic historical works of the Chinese. His
work is of great value for the reason that it provides the most
important foundation for a connected history of China. He sent along
with it many very valuable maps and charts--the result of his work in
making a cartographical survey of the country; the part assigned to him
including the provinces of Ho-nan, Kiang-hinan, Tshe-Kiang, Fo-Kien and
the Island of Formosa. As a reward for his labor the emperor made him a
mandarin, and when he died at the age of seventy-nine very elaborate
obsequies were ordered by imperial decree.
Father Joseph Fischer, a professor at Feldskirch, is known in all the
learned societies of the world for his "Die Entdeckungen der Normannen
in America" and also for his "Cosmographiæ introductio" of Martin
Waldseemüller, on whose map the name "America" first appeared. The maps
and studies of old Huronia by Father Jones have been published by the
Canadian Government.
John Baptist Belot, who died in 1904, won a reputation as an
Orientalist, as did his associate Father Cheiko by his "Chrestomathia
Arabica," in five volumes, and also by his Arabic Lexicon. Their
fellow-worker Father Lammens is now a professor in the Biblical
Institute in Rome. As they lived a considerable time in Syria they have
a distinct advantage over other Europeans in this particular study.
Andrew Zottoli is an authority as a sinologist. The misfortune of being
exiled from Italy in 1848 gave him the advantage, which he would not
otherwise have had, of becoming proficient in Chinese, for he lived
fifty-four years in Kiang-nan. Besides his Chinese catechism and
grammar, he has published a complete course of Chinese literature in
five volumes, and a universal dictionary of the Chinese language in
twelve.
To this list may be added what a recent critic called the monumental
work of the illustrious Father Beccari, known as "Scriptores rerum
ægyptiacarum." It consists of sixteen volumes, and includes the entire
period of Egyptian history from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.
In this category, Father Strassmaier represents the Society by his works
on Assyriology and cuneiform inscriptions. With him is Father Dahlman
whose "Das Mahabharata als Epos und Rechtbuch," "Nirvana," "Buddha," and
"Mahabharata Studien" have won universal applause.
Luigi Lanzi, the Italian archæologist, was born at Olmo near Macerata in
1732, and entered the Society in 1749. At its Suppression, the Grand
Duke of Tuscany made him the assistant director of the Florentine
Museum. He devoted himself to the study of ancient and modern
literature, and was made a member of the Arcadians. The deciphering of
monuments, chiefly Etruscan, was one of his favorite occupations and
resulted in his writing his "Saggio di lingua etrusca" in 1789. Four
years later he produced his noted "History of Painting in Italy." His
other works included a critical commentary on Hesiod's "Works and Days,"
with a Latin and an Italian translation in verse; three books of
"Inscriptiones et carmina," translations of Catullus, Theocritus and
others, besides two ascetic works on St. Joseph and the Sacred Heart
respectively. He died in 1810 four years before the Restoration.
Angelo Mai is one of the very attractive figures at the beginning of the
nineteenth century. He had studied at the seminary of Bergamo and had as
professor, Father Mozzi, a member of the suppressed Society. When the
saintly Pignatelli opened the novitiate at Parma in 1799, Mozzi joined
him and young Angelo who was then seventeen years old went there as a
novice. He was sent to Naples in 1804 to teach humanities, but was
obliged to leave when the French occupied the city. He was then summoned
to Rome, and ordained a priest. While there, he met two exiled Jesuits
from Spain: Monero and Monacho, who besides teaching him Hebrew and
Greek, gave him his first instructions in paleography, showing him how
to manipulate and decipher palimpsests. In 1813 he was compelled by the
order of the duke to return to his native country, and was appointed
custodian of the Ambrosian Library at Milan. There he made his first
great discoveries of a number of precious manuscripts, which alone
sufficed to give him an important place in the learned world. In 1819 at
the suggestion of Cardinals Consalvi and Litta, the staunchest friends
of the Society, Pius VII appointed him librarian of the Vatican, with
the consent of the General.
From all this it is very hard to understand how Mai is generally set
down as having left the Society. Albers says so in his "Liber
sæcularis," Hurter in his "Nomenclator," as does Sommervogel in his
"Bibliotheca," and his name does not appear in Terrien's list of those
who died in the Society. In spite of all this, however, the expression
"left the Society" seems a somewhat cruel term to apply to one who was
evidently without reproach and who was asked for by the Sovereign
Pontiff. He was made a cardinal by Gregory XVI, a promotion which his
old novice master Father Pignatelli had foretold when Angelo was
summoned to be librarian at Milan. He continued his work in the Vatican
and gave to the world the unpublished pages of three hundred and fifty
ancient authors which he had discovered.
Father Hugo Hurter calls Francesco Zaccaria of the old Society the most
industrious worker in the history of literature. This praise might well
be applied to himself if it were only for his wonderful "Nomenclator
literarius theologiæ catholicæ." It is a catalogue of the names and
works of all Catholic theological writers from the year 1564 up to the
year 1894. Nor is it merely a list of names for it gives an epitome of
the lives of the authors and an appreciation of their work and their
relative merit in the special subject to which they devoted themselves;
it thus covers the whole domain of scholastic, positive and moral
theology, as well as of patrology, ecclesiastical history and the
cognate sciences such as epigraphy, archæology and liturgy. It consists
of five volumes with two closely printed columns on each page. The last
column in the second volume is numbered 1846. After that come
fifty-three pages of indexes and a single page of _corrigenda_ in that
volume alone. It is worth while noting that there are only six errors in
all this bewildering mass of matter; there are, besides, three
additions, not to the text, but to the index, from which the names of
three writers were accidentally omitted.
So condensed is the letterpress that only a dash separates one subject
from another. Nevertheless, thanks to the ingenious indexes, both of
persons and subjects, the subject sought for can be found immediately.
Finally, between the text and the indexes are two marvellous
chronological charts. By means of the first, the student can follow year
by year the growth of the various branches of theology and know the
names of all the authors in each. The second chart takes the different
countries of Europe--Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Germany,
England, Poland and Hungary--and as you travel down the years in the
succeeding centuries you can see what studies were most in favor in
different parts of the world and the different stages of their history.
Not only that, but a style of type, varying from a large black print,
down to a very pale and small impression, gives you the relative
prominence of every one of the vast multitude of authors. Such a work
will last to the end of time and never lose its value, and how Father
Hurter, who was the beloved spiritual father of the University of
Innsbruck, whose theological faculty he entered in 1858, and who,
besides publishing his unusually attractive theology and editing
fifty-eight volumes of the Fathers of the Church, could find time and
strength to produce his encyclopedic "Nomenclator" is almost
inconceivable.
In the year 1907, the scheme of a Catholic Encyclopedia was launched in
New York. The editors chosen were Dr. Charles Herbermann, for more than
fifty years professor of Latin and the most distinguished member of the
College of the City of New York; Mgr. Thomas Shahan, the rector of the
Catholic University at Washington, and later raised to the episcopal
dignity; Dr. Edward A. Pace, professor of philosophy in the same
university; Dr. Condé Benoist Pallen, a well-known Catholic publicist,
and Father John J. Wynne of the Society of Jesus.
The scope of the work is unlike that of other Catholic encyclopedias. It
is not exclusively ecclesiastical, for it records all that Catholics
have done not only in behalf of charity or morals, but also in the
intellectual, and artistic development of mankind. Hence, while covering
the whole domain of dogmatic and moral theology, ecclesiastical history
and liturgy, it has succeeded in giving its readers information on art,
architecture, archæology, literature, history, travel, language,
ethnology, etc., such as cannot be found in any other encyclopedia in
the English language. Only the most eminent writers have been asked to
contribute to it, and hence its articles can be cited as the most recent
exposition of the matters discussed. It appeared with amazing rapidity,
the whole series of sixteen volumes being completed in nine years. To it
is added an extra volume entitled "The Catholic Encyclopedia and its
Makers," which consists of photographs and biographical sketches of all
the contributors.
The encyclopedia has proved to be an immense boon to the Church in
America. The chief credit of the publication is generally accorded to
Father John Wynne, who is a native of New York. It was he who conceived
it, secured the board of editors, and, as his distinguished associate,
Bishop Shahan, declared with almost affectionate eagerness at a public
session of the faculty and students of the ecclesiastical seminary of
New York: "it was he who encouraged and sustained the editors by his
buoyant optimism in the perilous stages of its elaboration." This
information may be helpful abroad to show that the Society in America is
doing something for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. The
apostolic character of the work is further enhanced by the fact that
funds are being established in various dioceses to enable each
seminarian to become the personal owner of the entire set from the very
first moment he begins his studies. The effect of such an arrangement on
the ecclesiastical mind of the century is inestimable. It is also being
placed by the Knights of Columbus and by rich Catholics in battleships
and the United States' military posts, as well as in civic libraries and
club houses.
The first catalogue of Jesuit writers was drawn up by Father Ribadeneira
in 1602-1608. Schott and Alegambe continued the work in 1643, and
Nathaniel Bacon or Southwell, or Sotwel, as he was called on the
Continent, published a third in 1676. Nothing more, however, was done in
that line by the old Society, and it was not until the twenty-first
congregation, at which Father Roothaan presided, that a postulatum was
presented asking for the resumption of this valuable work. Something
prevented this from being done for the time being, and it was not until
1853 that the work was undertaken by the two Belgians, Augustine and
Aloys de Backer.
Up to 1861 a series of seven issues appeared, but as by that time the
number of names had increased to ten thousand, a new arrangement had to
be made, and in 1869 the work appeared in three large folios. In 1885,
on the death of Augustine de Backer, Charles Sommervogel took up the
work. Providentially he was well equipped for the task, for although he
had been continually employed at other tasks, sometimes merely as a
surveillant in a French college, he had contrived to publish in 1884 a
"Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymeset pseudonymes des religieux de la
Compagnie de Jésus." He began by recasting all that his predecessors had
done, and it was only after four years that he had published the first
volume. Others, however, followed in quick succession, and in 1900 the
ninth volume appeared. The tenth volume, an index, was unfinished at the
time of his death, but has since been completed by Father Bliard.
Besides his articles in the "Etudes," he had also put into press a
"Table méthodique des Mémoires de Trévoux," in three volumes, a
"Bibliotheca Mariana S. J." and a "Moniteur bibliographique de la
Compagnie de Jésus." He had intended to publish a revised edition of
Carayon's, "Bibliographie historique," but was prevented by death.
As far back as 1658, Pope Alexander VIII did not hesitate to declare
that "no literary work had ever been undertaken that was more useful or
more glorious" than the "Acta Sanctorum" of Father Bollandus and his
associates, nor did the learned Protestants of those days refrain from
extolling the scientific spirit in which the work was being conducted.
The "Acta," which began in the middle of the seventeenth century and
which is still going on, reads like a romance. The account of it by De
Smedt tells us how the first writers had only a garret for a library,
and were forced to pile their books on the floor; how Cardinal
Bellarmine denounced the work as chimerical; how the Carmelites were in
a rage because Papebroch denied that Elias was the founder of their
order; how the Spanish Inquisition denounced the work and condemned the
thirty volumes as heretical, and how finally it reached its present
status.
The Bollandists did not immediately feel the blow that struck the rest
of the Society of Jesus in 1773. Indeed, the commissioners announced
that the government was satisfied with the labors of the Bollandists and
was disposed to exercise special consideration in their behalf. In 1778
they removed to the Abbey of Caudenberg in Brussels, and the writers
received a small pension. In 1788 three new volumes were published.
Meantime Joseph II had succeeded Maria Theresa, and the sky began to
darken. On October 16, 1788, the government decided to stop the pension
of the writers, and their books and manuscripts which the official
inspectors denounced as "trash" were ordered to be sold. After a year,
the Fathers made an offer to the Premonstratensian Abbot of Tongerloo to
buy the books and manuscripts for what would be equivalent now to about
$4,353; the money, however, was to be paid to the Austrian government
and not to the owners of the library. Happily the writers found shelter
in the monastery with their books and, though the Brabantine Revolution
disturbed them for a time, they continued at their work unmolested until
1794, when they issued another volume.
It was fortunate that they had succeeded in putting that volume into
print, for that very year the French invaded Belgium and both
Premonstratensians and Bollandists were obliged to disperse. Some of
the treasures of the library were hidden in the houses of the peasants,
and others were hastily piled into wagons and carried to Westphalia,
with the only result that could be anticipated--the loss of an immense
amount of most valuable material; a certain number of the books were
returned to the abbey, and left there in the dust until 1825. As there
was no hope, at that time, of the Bollandists ever being able to resume
their work, the monks disposed of most of the library treasure at public
auction, and, what was not sold, was given to the Holland government and
incorporated in the library of the Hague. The manuscripts were
transported to Brussels and deposited in the Burgundian Library. They
are still there.
In 1836 a hagiographical society in France under the patronage of Guizot
and several bishops proposed to take up the work of the Bollandists and
an envoy was sent to purchase the documents from the Belgian government.
The proposition evoked a patriotic storm in the little country, and a
petition was made to the minister of the interior, de Theux, imploring
him to lose no time in securing for his native land the honor of
completing the work, and to entrust the task to the Jesuit Fathers, who
had begun it and carried it on for two centuries. The result was that on
January 29, 1837, the provincial of Belgium appointed four Fathers who
were to live at St. Michel in Brussels. The government gave them an
annual subsidy of six thousand francs, but this was withdrawn in 1868 by
the Liberals and never restored, though the Catholics have been in
control since 1884.
There are more than one hundred volumes to the credit of the writers up
to the present time, sixty-five of which are huge folios. What they
contain may be learned from the most competent of all authorities,
Charles de Smedt, the Bollandist director, who wrote the most complete
and scientific account of the Bollandist collection for the Catholic
Encyclopedia. It is sufficient to state that in the opinion of the most
distinguished and capable scholars in the field, the work of the later
Bollandists is in no wise inferior to the work of their illustrious
predecessors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
In reviewing a recent publication of a Bollandist work, the scholarly
"American Historical Review" (July, 1920) has this to say: "It is to be
hoped that a more widely diffused knowledge of what the Bollandists have
been doing for human learning, historical and literary, may bring
American aid to fill the gaps in their resources caused by the
devastations of war. It is a pleasure to know that the Princeton
University Press intends to issue an English translation of Father
Delehaye's admirable book, which gives an account of the labors of the
Bollandists from 1638 down to the present day."
It has been said that the Jesuits had a way of keeping their most
brilliant members before the public eye while sending their inferior men
to the missions to be eaten by the savages. That this is not an accepted
opinion in America is evidenced by the publication of what are called
the "Jesuit Relations," in seventy-two volumes, by a firm in Cleveland,
Ohio, whose members had no affiliation with Catholics or Jesuits, and
whose venture involved immense financial risks. "The Jesuit Relations
and Allied Documents" is the title of the work. The subsidiary title is
"Travels and Explorations of Jesuit Missionaries in New France,
1610-1791. The Original French, Latin and Italian Texts, with English
Translations and Notes, illustrated by Portraits, Maps and Facsimiles."
The editor is Reuben Gold Thwaites, Secretary of the State Historical
Society of Wisconsin. In his preface he says: "American historians from
Shea and Parkman down have already made liberal use of the 'Relations,'
and here and there antiquarians and historical societies have published
fragmentary translations. The great body of the 'Relations' and their
allied documents however have never been Englished; hence these
interesting papers have never been accessible to the majority of
historical students. The present edition offers to the public for the
first time an English rendering side by side with the original.
"The authors of the journals which form the basis of the 'Relations'
were for the most part men of trained intellect, acute observers, and
practiced in the art of keeping records of their experiences. They had
left the most highly civilized country of their times to plunge at once
into the heart of the wilderness and attempt to win to the Christian
Faith the fiercest savages known to history. To gain these savages it
was first necessary to know them intimately, their speech, their habits,
their manner of thought, their strong points and their weak. These first
students of American Indian history were not only amply fitted for their
task but none have since had better opportunity for its prosecution.
They performed a great service to mankind in publishing their annals,
which are for historian, geographer and ethnologist our best
authorities.
"Many of the 'Relations' were written in Indian camps amid a chaos of
distractions. Insects innumerable tormented the journalists; they were
immersed in scenes of squalor and degradation, overcome by fatigue and
lack of proper sustenance, often suffering from wounds and disease,
maltreated in a hundred ways by hosts, who at times, might more properly
be called jailers; and not seldom had savage superstition risen to such
heights that to be seen making a memorandum was certain to arouse the
ferocious enmity of the band. It is not surprising that the composition
of these journals is sometimes crude; the wonder is that they could be
written at all. Nearly always the style is simple and earnest. Never
does the narrator descend to self-glorification or dwell unnecessarily
upon the details of his continual martyrdom. He never complains of his
lot, but sets forth his experiences in matter of fact phrases.
"From these writings we gain a vivid picture of life in the primeval
forests. Not only do these devoted missionaries--never in any field has
been witnessed greater personal heroism than theirs--live and breathe
before us in these 'Relations,' but we have in them our first competent
account of the Red Indian when relatively uncontaminated by contact with
Europeans. Few periods of history are so well illuminated as the French
régime in North America. This we owe in a large measure to the existence
of the Jesuit Relations."
"The existence of these Relations," to use Mr. Thwaites' expression, is
due to the scholarly modern Jesuit, Father Félix Martin, the founder and
first rector of St. Mary's College at Montreal, who in 1858 induced the
Quebec government to reprint the old Cramoisy editions of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was Martin who developed in
Gilmary Shea, then a Jesuit scholastic in Montreal, the historical
instinct; and gave to Parkman much if not all of the information that
made that author famous, in spite of the bigotry or lack of
comprehension that sometimes reveals itself in his pages. Martin's first
publication consisted of three double columned, closely printed and
bulky octavos in French. He never dreamed that the interest in the book
would grow until the splendid edition of Thwaites in seventy-two volumes
would signify to the scientific world the value of these documents
"written in canoes or in the depths of the forests," as Thwaites says,
"a decade before the landing of the Plymouth Pilgrims."
While these "Relations" about the Canada missions were being published
Father Le Gobien began to issue his "Lettres sur les progrès de la
religion de la Chine," which ultimately developed into the well-known
"Lettres édifiantes et curieuses" describing missionary enterprises all
over the world. During the Suppression they were issued in twenty-six
duo-decimo volumes. An Austrian Jesuit began in 1720 to translate some
of these letters, entitling his work "Neue Welt Bott." It soon became
independent of the "Letters" and appeared in five volumes folio. It is
still being published.
A certain number of periodicals are published by the Society, the most
important of which are the "Civiltà Cattolica," the "Etudes," the
"Stimmen aus Maria-Laach" and the "Razón y Fe."
The "Civiltà" was begun in 1850 by express order of Pius IX. Its first
editors were Fathers Curci, Bresciani, Liberatore, Taparelli, Oreglia,
Piccirillo, and Pianciani, a staff which would insure the success of any
publication. Its articles are of the most serious kind, dealing with
questions of theology, philosophy, sociology and literature. Its first
issue of 4,200 copies appeared at Naples; later it was published at
Rome. In 1870 the staff was transferred to Naples, but returned in 1887
to Rome. It is published every fortnight, and at present has a
circulation of over 12,000 copies. It is under the direct control of the
Pope, and unlike other Society publications of the same kind it is not
connected with any house or college. It has received the highest
commendations from Pius IX and from Leo XIII.
In 1856 the "Etudes" was begun by the Jesuits in France under the
editorship of Daniel Gagarin and Godfroy. In character it closely
resembles the "Civiltà." The troubles of 1876 caused its suspension for
almost a year, but the various dispersions of the French provinces have
not affected it, except perhaps in the extent of its circulation. It is
published at Paris, but was at one time issued from Lyons. From a
monthly it has developed into a fortnightly review in latter years.
The German Fathers have their monthly "Stimmen aus Maria-Laach," the
first number of which appeared in 1865. The defense of the Syllabus
called it into being. When the Kulturkampf drove the editors from
Maria-Laach, they migrated to Tervuren in Belgium. There they remained
until 1880, when they went to Blijenbeck in Holland. In 1910 we find
them at Valkenburg, Holland, attached to the Scholasticate. The ability
of the staff has placed the "Stimmen" on a very high plane as a
periodical.
The monthly "Razón y Fe" was begun by the Spanish Fathers in 1901, and
"Studies" by the Irish Jesuits in 1912. This latter, however, admits
contributors who are not of the Society. The same may be said of the
"Month" (London), the weekly "America" (New York), the "Irish Monthly"
(Dublin) and a number of minor periodicals. There are also publications
for private circulation, such as the "Woodstock Letters," the "Letters
and Notices"; "Lettres Edifiantes" of various provinces of the Society,
most of which are printed in the scholasticates, and convey information
about the different works of the Society in different parts of the
world. They are largely of the character of the ancient "Relations des
Jésuites" of the old French Fathers and are of great value as
historical material. Finally the American "Messenger of the Sacred
Heart" publishes a monthly edition of 350,000, besides millions of
leaflets to promote the devotion. There are fifty-one editions of the
"Messenger" published in thirty-five different languages.
The reason why the Society has not succeeded in producing since the
Restoration any theologians like Suárez, Toletus and others, is the same
that prevented Napoleon Bonaparte from winning back his empire when he
was a prisoner on St. Helena. Conditions have changed. Suárez, de Lugo,
Ripalda and their brilliant associates passed their lives in Catholic
Spain which gloried in universities like Salamanca, Valladolid or
Alcalá. There those great men wrote and taught; Bellarmine and Toletus
labored in Rome and Lessius in Louvain; whereas the Jesuit theologians
in our day have been not only debarred from the great universities but
robbed of their libraries, sent adrift in the world and compelled to
seek not for learned leisure but for a roof to shelter them. They were
expelled from France in 1762, and were never allowed to open a school
even for small boys until 1850. At present they are permitted to shed
their blood on the battle field for their country from which they have
been driven into exile. They were banished from Italy repeatedly, and
have never secured a foothold in Germany since 1872; they do not exist
in Portugal and any moment may see them expelled from Spain. In England
and Ireland Catholics were not emancipated until 1829, and it is only
grudgingly that the government allows Ireland to have a university which
Catholics can safely frequent, and even there no chair of Catholic
theology may be maintained with the ordinary revenues. In America
everything is in a formative state and what money is available has to
be used for elementary instruction, both religious and secular, of the
millions whom poverty and persecution have driven out of Europe. It is
very doubtful if Suárez and his great associates would have written
their splendid works in such surroundings.
As the eye travels over Hurter's carefully prepared chronological chart,
it catches only an occasional gleam of the old glory, when the names of
the Wiceburgenses, Zaccaria, Mai, Muzzarelli, Arévalo and Morcelli make
their appearance in the late sixties of the nineteenth century. But
those were the days of the French Revolution and of its subsequent
upheavals. The Church itself was in the same straits between 1773 and
1860, and its number of great theologians of any kind is extremely
small. Thus, abstracting from the Jesuits, we find in 1773 only Flórez,
the Augustinian, who wrote ecclesiastical history; in 1782 the erudite
Maronite Assemani, who is classed as a moralist; in 1787 St. Alphonsus
Liguori; and in 1793 the Benedictine Gerbert, who is also a moralist.
The Barnabite Gerdil appears under date of 1802 as an apologist, and
from that year up to 1864 there is no one to whom Hurter accords
distinction in any branch of divinity. Perhaps the reason is that the
century was in the full triumph of its material civilization and that
men derided and despised the dogmatic teachings of religion.
A study of Hurter's "Nomenclator" is instructive. In 1774, the year
after the Suppression, there are only four publications by Jesuit
authors; in 1775 there are nine; and then the number begins to grow
smaller. In 1780 the figure rises to ten, and it is somewhat remarkable
that in 1789 and 1790, the first years of the French Revolution,
seventeen writers appear. The stream then dribbles along until 1814, the
year of the Restoration, when we find only one book with the letters S.
J. after the name of its author. The next year there is none.
The Jesuit who illumines the darkness of that period is Thaddeus
Nogarola, whom Hurter describes as "a member of the most noble family of
Verona." He was born on 24 December, 1729. Consequently he was
eighty-five years of age at the time of the Restoration. He wrote on
sanctifying grace; and in 1800 he and another Jesuit had a fierce
theological battle on the subject of attrition, in which he defended his
position with excessive vehemence. In 1806 he had issued his great
treatise against Gallicanism. His doughty antagonist re-entered the
Society in 1816. He had expressed himself very vigorously on the subject
of the Napoleonic oath in France and his books were prohibited in the
Cisalpine Republic.
In 1816 four books were published; but the number continues small and
1823 is credited with none. In 1824, there were two publications, one of
them by Arévalo, the eminent patrologist, who composed the hymns and
lessons of the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians. It is a very sad
list from 1826 to 1862, with its succession of ones and zeros. Only
three names of any note appear: Kohlmann in 1836, Loriquet in 1845, and
de Ravignan in 1858. That period of almost forty years had seen the
revolutions of 1830 and 1848, and there was no stability for any Jesuit
establishment. Finally, however, in 1862 came Pianciani, Taparelli and
Bresciani; and in 1865 and 1866 Tongiorgi and Gury, respectively. It was
only then that the Society was able to begin its theological work after
its redintegration. The space is not great between 1862 and the present
time, but since then there have been Perrone and the great Bollandist
and theologian, Victor de Buck, who appeared in 1876; Edmund O'Reilly in
1878; Ballerini and Patrizi in 1881; Kleutgen in 1883; and in 1886
Cardinals Franzelin and Mazzella.
During that period there was no end of confiscations and expulsions,
even of those who were not engaged in educational work. Thus the German
Jesuits acquired the old Benedictine Monastery of Maria-Laach in 1863 on
the southwest bank of a fine lake near Andernach in the Rhineland. There
they organized a course of studies for the scholastics as well as a
college of writers. Among them were the learned Schneeman, Riess and
others who began the great work of the church Councils and the
"Philosophia Lacensis," besides publishing the Jesuit "Stimmen." How
long were they there? Only ten years. The Kulturkampf banished them from
their native land and they had to continue their labors in exile. This
has been the story of the Society in almost every European country and
in the Spanish Republics of South America and Mexico. In spite of all
this, however, Hurter's chart shows that from 1773 to 1894 there have
been no less than four hundred Jesuit theologians who published works in
defense of the doctrines of the Church, and some of them have achieved
prominence.
In philosophy, for instance, there was Taparelli who died in 1863. He
was the first rector of the Roman College, when it was given back to the
Society by Leo XII. He taught philosophy for fifteen years at Palermo,
and in 1840 issued his great work which he called "A Theoretical Essay
on Natural Rights from an historical standpoint." It reached the seventh
edition in 1883 and was translated into French and German. Next in
importance is his "Esame critico degli ordini rappresentativi nella
società moderna." Besides his striking monographs on "Nationality,"
"Sovereignty of the People," "The Grounds of War," he wrote a great
number of articles in the "Civiltà" on matters of political economy and
social rights. His first great work was in a way the beginning of modern
sociology. Palmieri issued his "Institutiones Philosophiæ" in 1874, and
at the very outset won the reputation of a great thinker, even from
those who were at variance with his conclusions and mode of thought.
In the same branch Liberatore was for a long time preëminent, and his
"Institutiones" and "Composito humano" went through eleven editions.
Cornoldi's "Filosofia scolastica specolativa" was also a notable
production. Lehmen's "Lehrbuch" reached the third edition before his
death in 1910. Boedder is well-known to English speaking people because
of his many works written during his professorship at St. Beuno's in
Wales. Cathrein's "Socialism" has been translated into nine different
languages, and his "Moral Philosophy" has enjoyed great popularity.
Pesch's position is established; his last work, "Christliche
Lebens-philosophie," reached its fourth edition within four years.
Kleutgen who is perhaps the best known of these German Jesuits, was
called by Leo XIII "the prince of philosophers" and is regarded as the
restorer of Catholic philosophy throughout Germany. In Spain, Father
Cuevas has written a "Cursus completus philosophiæ" and a "History of
Philosophy." Mendive's "Text-book of Philosophy" in Spanish is used in
several universities, but the writer who dominated all the rest in that
country is admittedly Urráburu, who died prematurely in 1904. His
"Cursus philosophiæ scholasticæ," brings up the memory of the famous old
philosophers of earlier ages.
It is not only edifying but inspiring to hear that the Venerable Father
de Clorivière occupied himself while in prison in the Temple at Paris
during the Revolution in writing commentaries on the Sacred Scriptures.
He was over seventy years of age and was expecting to be summoned to the
guillotine at any moment, but he had plenty of time to write, for his
imprisonment lasted five years. Sommervogel credits him with
commentaries on "The Canticle of Canticles," "The Epistles of St.
Peter," "The Discourse at the Last Supper," "The Animals of Ezechiel,"
"The Two Seraphim of Isaias," besides Constitutions for the religious
orders he had founded, lives of the saints, novenas, and religious
poems. He also translated "Paradise Lost" into French. Evidently the
commentary written in a prison cell cannot have measured up to the
scientific exegesis of the present day, but perhaps for that reason it
reached the soul more readily. In any case, the Scriptural students of
the modern Society made an excellent start with a saint and a virtual
martyr.
Francis Xavier Patrizi distinguished himself as an exegete. He was one
of the first to enter the Society after the Restoration, and was so
esteemed for his virtue and ability that he came very near being elected
General of the Society. His first publication on "The Interpretation of
the Holy Scriptures" appeared in 1844. He translated the Psalms word for
word from the Hebrew. His works are packed with erudition, of scrupulous
accuracy in their citations, and of most sedulous care in defending the
Sacred Text against the Protestants of the early days of the nineteenth
century. The "Cursus Scripturæ" of the Fathers of Maria-Laach: Cornely,
Knabenbauer, Hummelauer, and others, is a monument of erudition and
labor and is without doubt the most splendid triumph of exegesis in the
present century.
In 1901, the Sovereign Pontiff appointed and approved a Biblical
Commission for the proper interpretation and defense of Holy Scripture.
It consists of five cardinals and forty-three consultors. Among the
distinguished men chosen for this work we find Fathers Cornely,
Delattre, Gismondi, von Hummelauer, Méchineau, and Prat. One of the
duties with which the commission was charged was the establishment of a
special institute for the prosecution of higher Biblical Studies. In
1910 Father Fonck, its first rector, began the series of public
conferences which was one of the assigned works of the Institute. It
publishes the "Biblical Annals." The French Fathers in Syria are very
valuable adjuncts to this institute, because of their knowledge of
Oriental languages. One of them, Father Lammens, was for years the
editor of "Bachir," an Arabic periodical.
When Father John Carroll went to England to be consecrated Bishop of
Baltimore, he probably met at Lulworth Castle, where the ceremony took
place, a French Jesuit of the old Society who had found shelter with the
Weld family during the Revolution and was acting as their chaplain. He
was Father Grou, a man of saintly life. It was while he was in England
that he wrote "La Science de crucifix" the "Caractère de la vraie
dévotion," "Maximes spirituelles," "Méditation sur l'amour de Dieu,"
"L'intérieur de Jésus et de Marie," "Manuel des âmes intérieures," "Le
livre du jeune homme." These works were frequently reprinted and
translated.
It is very interesting to find that, before the expulsion from France,
Father Grou had been an ardent student of Plato and had even published
eight books about the great philosopher. He also wrote an answer to La
Chalotais' attack on the Society. Sommervogel mentions another book
written by him in conjunction with Father du Rocher. It is entitled
"Temps Fabuleux," an historical and dogmatic treatise on the true
religion.
Among the other noted ascetical writers were Vigitello, author of "La
Sapienza del cristiano," Mislei, who wrote "Grandezze di Gesù Cristo"
and "Gesù Cristo e il Cristiano," Hillegeer, Dufau, Verbeke, Vercruysse,
de Doss, Petit, Meschler, Schneider and Chaignon, whose "Nouveau cours
de méditations sacerdotales" has gone through numberless editions;
Watrigant has made extensive studies on the "Exercises;" Ramière's
"Apostolat de la Prière" made the circuit of the world and gave the
first impulse to the League of the Sacred Heart. Coleridge's "Life of
Our Lord," consisting of thirty volumes, is a mine of thought and
especially valuable for directors of religious communities.
In 1874 Father Camillo Tarquini was raised to the cardinalate for his
ability as a canonist. His dissertation on the Regium placet exequatur
made him an international celebrity. With him high in the ranks of
canonists are Father General Wernz, Laurentius, Hilgers, Beringer,
Oswald, Sanguinetti, Ojetti, Vermeersch, and the present Assistant
General Father Fine.
Stephen Anthony Morcelli, who is eminent as a historian and is regarded
as the founder of epigraphy, was born in Trent, in the year 1737. He
made his studies in the Roman College, and there founded an academy of
archæology. At the Suppression he became the librarian of Cardinal
Albani. He re-entered the restored Society. He was then eighty-four
years of age. He had no superior as a Latin stylist. His "Calendar of
the Church of Constantinople," covering a thousand years, his "Readings
of the Four Gospels" according to various codices, and his notes on
"Africa Christiana" are of great value.
Possibly the Portuguese Francis Macedo might be admitted to this list of
famous authors. It is true that he left the Society but as he had been
a member for twenty-eight years it deserves some credit for the
cultivation of his remarkable abilities. Maynard calls him the prodigy
of his age. Thus at Venice in 1667 Macedo held a public disputation on
nearly every branch of human knowledge, especially the Bible, theology,
patrology, history, literature and poetry. In his quaint and extravagant
style he called this display the literary roarings of the Lion of St.
Mark. It had been prepared in eight days. On account of his success,
Venice gave him the freedom of the city and the professorship of moral
philosophy at the University of Padua. In his "Myrothecium morale" he
tells us that he has pronounced three hundred and fifty panegyrics,
sixty Latin harangues, thirty-two funeral orations, and had composed one
hundred and twenty-three elegies, one hundred and fifteen epitaphs, two
hundred and twelve dedicatory epistles, two thousand and six hundred
heroic poems, one hundred and ten odes, four Latin comedies, two
tragedies and satires in Spanish, besides a number of treatises on
theology such as "The Doctrines of St. Thomas and Scotus," "Positive
theology for the refutation of heretics," "The Keys of Peter," "The
Pontifical Authority," "Medulla of Ecclesiastical History," and the
"Refutation of Jansenism." The Society made him great but failed to
teach him humility.
In most theological libraries which are even moderately equipped one
sees long lines of books on which the name of Muzzarelli appears. They
are of different kinds; ascetical, devotional, educational,
philosophical and theological, and many of them have been translated
into various languages. He belonged to the old Society, entering it only
four years before the suppression. He was then twenty-four years of age.
As he was of a noble family of Ferrara, he held a benefice in his
native city at the time of his banishment, and a little later, the Duke
of Parma made him rector of the College of Nobles. Pius VII called him
to Rome and made him theologian of the Penitentiaria, which meant that
he was the Pope's theologian. When the Society was re-established in
Naples, he asked permission to join his brethren there, but the Pope
refused. It was just as well, for Napoleon's troops soon closed the
establishment. When Pius VII was carried off a prisoner in 1809,
Muzzarelli was also deported. He never returned to Rome, but died in
Paris one year before the Restoration of the Society. He was not however
forgotten in his native city, which regarded him as one of its glories.
Among his works were several of an ascetic character such as "The Sacred
Heart," "The Month of Mary," and also a "Life of St. Francis Hieronymo."
There were also a few modern Jesuits who were conspicuous in moral
theology. First, in point of time was Jean-Pierre Gury, who was born in
Mailleroncourt on January 23, 1801. He taught theology for thirty-five
years at Annecy and at the Roman College. He died on April 18, 1866. His
work was adopted as a text-book in a number of seminaries, because of
its brevity, honesty and solidity. It is true that his brevity impaired
his accuracy at times, as well as the scientific presentation of
questions, but his successors such as Seitz, Cercia, Melandri and
Ballerini filled up the gaps by the help of the decisions of the
Congregations and the more recent pronouncements of the Holy See.
Besides his "Moral Theology" he also published his "Casus conscientiæ."
That made him the typical "Jesuit Casuist," and drew on him all the
traditional hatred of Protestant polemicists, especially in Germany. His
work did much to extirpate what was left of Jansenism in Europe.
Antonio Ballerini held the chair of moral theology in the Roman College
from 1856 until his death in 1881. In the cautious words of Hurter he
was "almost the prince of moralists of our times." Besides his "Principi
della scuola Rosminiana" he wrote his remarkable "Sylloge monumentorum
ad mysterium Immaculatæ Conceptionis illustrandum," and in 1863 issued
his "De morali systemate S. Alphonsi M. de Ligorio." In 1866 appeared
his "Compendium theologiæ moralis." The style was somewhat acrid, and
sharp, especially in the controversy it provoked with the out-and-out
defenders of St. Alphonsus. His annotations were a mine of erudition and
revealed at the same time a very unusual intellectual sagacity and
correctness of judgment. His book, on the whole, exercised a great
influence in promoting solid theological study; and its denunciation of
the frivolous reasons on which many opinions were based and the
unreliableness of many quotations decided the tone of subsequent works
by other authors. Following Ballerini were other Jesuits such as
Lehmkuhl, Sabbetti, Noldin, Genicot and Palmieri, who won fame as
moralists.
Palmieri was not only a theologian, a moralist and a philosopher, but an
exegete. He taught Scripture and the Oriental languages in Maastricht
for seven years, and in 1886, published a Commentary on the Epistle to
the Galatians and another on the historicity of the Book of Judith. He
was among the first to sound the alarm about Loisy's heterodoxy and he
wrote several books against the Modernistic errors. His reputation rests
chiefly on his dogmatic theology; every two years, from 1902, he issued
treatises that immediately attracted attention for their brilliant
originality and exhaustive learning. He died in Rome on May 29, 1909.
"This superlatively sagacious man," says Hurter, "blended Gury and the
super-abundant commentaries of Ballerini into one continuous text,
injecting, of course, his own personal views into his seven great
volumes, with the result that it is a positive pleasure to read him."
The wonderful theological acumen manifested in this, as in his other
works apparently restored him to favor with Leo XIII, who disliked some
of his philosophical speculations. Hence, when Father Steinhüber was
made cardinal, Palmieri was appointed to succeed him as theologian of
the Penitentiaria.
Besides all this, Palmieri gave a delightful revelation of his
affectionate character as a devoted son, when he wrote, at the request
of his mother, a Commentary of Dante. Ojetti says that "he brought all
the profundity of his philosophy and theology to his task and produced a
work which astonished those who were able to appreciate the depth of the
thought and the scientific erudition employed in the exposition of each
individual canto."
The great Perrone was born in Chieri in 1794 and entered the Society on
December 14, 1815, one of the first novices after the Re-establishment.
He began his career as professor of dogma at Orvieto, and from thence
was transferred to Rome, where he remained until the outbreak of the
Revolution in 1848. After a three years' stay in England he resumed his
place at the Roman College. He was consultor of various congregations,
was conspicuous as the antagonist of Hermes, and also in the discussion
that ended in the dogmatic definition of the Immaculate Conception. His
"Prælectiones theologiæ" in nine volumes reached its thirty-fourth
edition, while its "Compendium" saw fifty-seven.
Carlo Passaglia is another great theological luminary. He entered the
Society in 1827, and when scarcely thirty years old was teaching at the
Sapienza and was prefect of studies at the Collegium Germanicum. The
Gregorian University then claimed him, and, in 1850, he took a leading
part in preparing the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate
Conception on which he wrote three large volumes. Other great works are
to his credit, but his historico-linguistic method met with criticism.
It was said he substituted grammar for dogma. Passaglia left the
Society, however, in 1859. Pius IX gave him a chair in the Sapienza;
there he came in contact with an agent of Cavour and under his influence
wrote his book "Pro causa italica". It was placed on the "Index," and
Passaglia fled to Turin, where he taught moral philosophy until his
death and edited a weekly called "Il Medicatore," which welcomed
articles from discontented priests. He also published a daily paper
called "La Pace," as well as "Il Gerdil," a theological review. He was
suspended from his priestly functions, dressed as a layman, and was
temerarious enough to criticise the Syllabus. The Bishop of Mondovi
tried to reconcile him with the Church, but he did not retract until a
few months before his death. Hurter calls him "an illustrious professor
of dogma who was carried away by politics, left the Society, assailed
the Temporal Power, and by his sad defection cast a stain on his former
glory. His quotations from the Fathers are too diffuse, and although his
work on the Immaculate Conception displays immense erudition it crushes
the reader by its bulk."
Carlo Maria Curci also brought grief to his associates in those days. He
had acquired great fame for his defense of the rights of the Pope
against the Liberal politicians of the Peninsula, but unfortunately,
soon after, became a Liberal himself and left the Society. He returned
again, however, shortly before his death which occurred on June 19,
1891. He was one of the first contributors to the "Civiltà" and was,
besides, a remarkable orator. His "Nature and Grace," "Christian
Marriage," "Lessons from the two books of the Machabees and the Four
Gospels," and "Joseph in Egypt" were the most notable of his writings.
Josef Wilhelm Karl Kleutgen was a Westphalian. He entered the Society on
April 28, 1834, at Brieg; to avoid difficulties with the German
Government he became a naturalized Swiss, and for some time went by the
name of Peters. In 1843 he was professor of sacred eloquence in the
Collegium Germanicum, and subsequently was named substitute to the
Secretary of Father General, consultor of the Congregation of the Index,
and collaborator in the preparation of the Constitution "De fide
catholica" of the Vatican Council. He wrote the first draft of Pope
Leo's Encyclical "Æterni Patris" on the revival of Scholastic theology
and philosophy. His knowledge of the writings of the Angelic Doctor was
so great that he was called _Thomas redivivus_. His first work
"Theologie der Vorzeit" and his "Philosophie der Vorzeit" against
Hermes, Hirscher, and Günther were declared to be epoch-making. The
writing of these books coincided with a remarkable event in his life,
namely suspension from his priestly office for his imprudence in
allowing a community of nuns under his direction to honor as a saint one
of their deceased members. He went into seclusion consequently but at
the opening of the Vatican Council he was recalled by Pius IX to take
part in it. All his works excel in solidity of doctrine, accuracy and
brilliancy of exposition and nobility of style.
Johann Franzelin was a Tyrolese. He entered the Society on 27 July,
1834, but passed most of his life outside of his country. He studied
theology in Rome, and became such an adept in Greek and Hebrew that he
occupied the chair when the professor was ill. He had to leave the city
in the troublous times of 1848, but on his return he gave public
lectures in the Roman College on Oriental languages. In 1857 he began
his career as professor of dogma and his immense erudition caused him to
be called for in many of the Roman congregations. In 1876 Pius IX
created him cardinal. His theological works are known throughout the
Church for their solidity, erudition and scrupulous accuracy. His
dignity made no change in his simple and laborious life. He continued
until the end of his days to wear poor garments, occupied two small
rooms in the Novitiate of Sant' Andrea, rose at four every morning and
spent the time until seven in devotional exercises. He kept up his
penitential practises till death came on 11 December, 1886.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE SOVEREIGN PONTIFFS AND THE SOCIETY
Devotion, Trust and Affection of each Pope of the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Centuries manifested in their Official and Personal
Relations with the Society.
The restored Society, like the old, has been the recipient of many
favors from the Sovereign Pontiffs. Pius VI would have immediately
undone the work of Clement XIV, had it been at all possible; and Pius
VII faced the wrath of all the kings and statesmen of Europe by issuing
the Bull that put back the Society in the place it had previously
occupied in the Church.
The election of Leo XII, who succeeded Pius VII on September 28, 1823,
had, at first, thrown consternation among the members of the Order,
because of his previous attitude as Cardinal della Genga. He had been
associated with its enemies and had uttered very harsh words about the
Society, but it soon became evident that it was all due to the
impression which the plotters had given him that they were fighting
against the influence of Paccanarism in certain members of the
congregation. When he became Pope, he understood better the facts of the
case and became one of the warmest friends the Society ever had.
On May 7, 1824, he recalled the Fathers to the Roman College and gave
them a yearly revenue of 12,000 scudi, besides restoring to them the
Church of St. Ignatius, the Caravita Oratory, the museum, the library,
the observatory, etc. He entrusted to them the direction of the College
of Nobles; assigned to them the Villa of Tivoli; set apart new buildings
for the Collegium Germanicum, and on July 4, 1826, he established them
in the College of Spoleto, which he had founded for the teaching of
humanities, philosophy, civil and canon law, theology and holy
Scripture; for all of which he had provided ample revenues.
In the same year he issued the celebrated Bull "Plura inter," restoring
the ancient privileges of the Society and adding new ones. This list of
spiritual favors fills seven complete columns. "Everyone is aware," he
said in the Bull, "how many and how great were the services performed by
this Society, which was the fruitful mother of men who were conspicuous
for their piety and learning. From it we expect still more in the
future, seeing that it is extending its branches so widely even before
it has taken new root. For not only in Rome but in Transalpine countries
and in the remotest regions of the world, it is affectionately received,
because it leaves nothing undone to train youth in piety and the liberal
arts, in order to make them the future ornaments of their respective
countries."
On July 27, he increased the revenues of the College of Beneventum, and
on October 11, of the same year, he told the people of Faenza that he
could not, just then, give them a Jesuit College because of the lack of
funds, but that he would meet their wishes as soon as possible. The very
month before his death, he sent encouraging words to the Fathers in
England, who were harassed by all sorts of calumnious accusations, and
told the Bishop of Thespia that "the English scholastics could be
ordained _sub titulo paupertatis_, and had a right to the same
privileges as other religious orders in England." Finally, he would have
appointed Father Kohlmann Bishop of New York and Father Kenny to the See
of Dromore, had not the General persuaded him not to do so. The same
thing occurred in the case of Father Pallavicini who was named for the
See of Reggio in Calabria. Pope Leo XII died on February 10, 1829, a few
days after the demise of Father Fortis, who was his affectionate and
intimate friend.
The name of his successor, Pius VIII, was Francis Xavier Castiglione--a
good omen for the brethren of the great Apostle. Indeed, brief though
his pontificate was, he always made it clear that the Society was very
dear to him. "I have always let it be known," he said to the Fathers who
had presented themselves to greet him at his accession, "and I shall
avail myself of every occasion to declare that I love the Society of
Jesus. From my earliest childhood that feeling was deep in my heart, and
I have always profoundly venerated St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier.
I bear, all unworthy as I am, the name of Xavier. I have been taught by
the most distinguished Jesuits, and I know how much good they have done
for the Church, so that as the Church cannot be separated from the Pope,
he cannot be separated from the Society. These are sad days and there
never was witnessed greater audacity and hate. Impiety has never
employed greater cunning against the truth. Perhaps very soon other
grievous wounds will be inflicted on the Church; but together we shall
fight the enemies of God. Return to your provinces, therefore, and
arouse in your brethren the same ardor that is in your hearts. Preach
and teach obedience and integrity of life in your schools, in your
pulpits, by voice and pen, and with all your soul. May God second your
efforts. Meantime keep always unshaken in the assurance that I shall
always be, before all, your most tender and devoted Father."
On December 2, 1829, accompanied by Cardinals Somaglia and Odescalchi he
went to the Gesù, and after praying at the altar of St. Francis Xavier,
published the beatification of Alphonsus Liguori, the founder of the
Redemptorist Order. He lavished favors on the Germanico-Hungarico and
the College of Nobles; and when Charles Augustus von Reisach, a student
of the Collegium Germanicum who was very young at the time, was named
rector of the Propaganda, the Pope said to those who referred to it:
"Never mind; he is young but he has studied in the best of schools and
every one praises him for the maturity of his character, his
irreproachable life and his fitness for the office."
When this devoted friend of the Society died, Cardinal Cappellari, the
learned Camaldolese monk, ascended the pontifical throne and took the
name Gregory XVI. Fifteen days afterwards all Italy was in the throes of
Revolution. The Carbonari were in control, and as usual the Society felt
the first blow. On February 17th, at the same hour, the colleges of
Spoleto, Fano, Modena, Reggio, Forlì and Ferrara were attacked and the
masters and pupils thrown out in the street. A decree of banishment was
issued, but the people arose in their wrath, suppressed the insurrection
and the Fathers were re-instated.
When peace was restored, the Pope gave a notable illustration of his
esteem for the Society. He summoned all the religious of the various
orders in Rome to the Gesù to make the Spiritual Exercises. A short time
afterwards, at the instance of the Propaganda, he entrusted to it the
administration of several colleges and formulated the concessions in the
most eulogistic of terms, declaring among other things that a long and
happy experience from the very beginning of the Institute until the
present time, and in divers parts of the world, had shown the Holy See
the incontestable aptitude of the Fathers for directing both clerical
and secular schools. The same conviction, he said later, also prompted
him to give them the Illyrian College.
The cholera which was sweeping over Europe finally reached Rome. The
Pope had already established ambulances and hospitals in various parts
of the city, and his appeal to the religious sentiments of the people
prevented the frightful orgies which had disgraced London, Madrid and
Paris when similarly afflicted. Cardinal Odescalchi, soon to be a
Jesuit, was especially conspicuous in tranquillizing the populace, and a
solemn ceremony in which the entire city participated is especially
worthy of note, since it was intended by the Sovereign Pontiff to be an
official announcement that while the pestilence lasted, the Jesuit
Fathers were to be the principal channel of the Papal charities. The
miraculous picture of the Blessed Virgin was carried in procession from
St. Mary Major's to the Gesù and, in spite of the stifling heat, the
Pope himself, surrounded by his cardinals, the clergy and the principal
civil officials, accompanied the picture through the kneeling multitudes
in the streets, and placed it on the altar in the Jesuit church, which
thus became the prayer centre for the city while the pestilence lasted.
On August 23, 1837, it struck the city at the same moment in several
places. Two princesses were its first victims, but the Pope in person
went wherever the harvest of death was greatest, and his example
inspired every one to emulate his devotion. Naturally members of the
Society did their duty in those terrible days when 9,372 people were
attacked by the disease and more than 5,000 perished. By the month of
October the plague had ceased.
Cardinal Odescalchi, who had won the affection of the people of Rome by
his heroic devotion to them at this crisis, astounded them in the
following year by the renunciation of the exalted dignities which he
enjoyed in the Church and in the State, for he was a prince--in order to
assume the humble garb and subject himself to the obedience of the
Society of Jesus. The Pope and the cardinals endeavored to dissuade him
from taking the step, pleading the interests of the Church, but he
persisted, and on the day of his admission, December 8, 1838, he wrote
to Father Roothaan to say that he could not describe the happiness that
he felt, and he requested the General to deal with him as he would with
the humblest of his subjects. He was then fifty-two years old. He died
at Modena, on August 17, 1841, and had thus been able as one of its sons
to celebrate the third centenary of the Society, which occurred in 1840.
There was little if any public declaration, however, of this
anniversary, for Father Roothaan had sent a reminder to all the
provinces that the dangers of the time made it advisable to keep all
manifestations of happiness and of gratitude to God within the limits of
the domestic circle.
In 1836 an imperial edict in answer to a popular demand permitted the
Jesuits to establish schools anywhere in the limits of the Austrian
empire and to follow their own methods of teaching independently of
university control. The emperor and empress honored by their presence
the first college opened in Verona. Other cities of Italy invited the
Fathers to open schools, and Metternich, who is sometimes cited as their
enemy, allowed them to install themselves at Venice, where a remnant of
antagonism had remained, ever since the time of Paolo Sarpi; but by St.
Ignatius Day in 1844 that had all vanished and the patriarch, the doge,
the nobility, the clergy and the people united in giving the Fathers a
cordial welcome.
In the Island of Malta, which had become a British possession, the
inhabitants sent a letter of thanks to Lord Stanley, the secretary of
State, for having granted them a college of the Society. The letter had
4,000 signatures. The Two Sicilies welcomed the Society in 1804 and
restored to it the Professed house, along with the Collegium Maximum and
the old churches; other establishments were begun elsewhere in the
kingdom. After the Jesuits had been expelled by the Carbonari in 1820
the usual reaction occurred and they were soon back at their posts. The
cholera of 1837 gave them a new hold on the affection of the people, and
for the moment their position in the kingdom appeared to be absolutely
secure.
During the fifteen years of his pontificate, Gregory XVI published no
less than fifteen rescripts in favor of the Society. On March 30, 1843,
he empowered Georgetown College in Washington to confer philosophical
and theological degrees. In the following year he restored the Illyrian
College, which Gregory XIII had established at Loreto, and gave it to
the Society together with the Villa Leonaria. At the request of Cardinal
Franzoni, the prefect of the Propaganda, he turned over the Urban
College to the Society, and in the rescript announcing the transfer he
said: "Whereas the Congregation of the Propaganda was convinced that the
instruction of the young clerics who are to be sent to foreign parts to
spread the light of the Gospel and to cultivate the vineyard of the Lord
could not be better trained for such a task than by those religious who
make it the special work of their Institute to form youth in piety,
literature and science, and who always strive intensely in whatever they
undertake to promote the greater glory of God; and whereas, from the
very establishment of the Society of Jesus, the Church has had daily
experience of the aptitude of the Fathers of the Society in the
education of youth both in secular and clerical pursuits in all parts
of the world; and whereas the testimony which even the enemies of the
Holy See and of the Church are compelled by the evidence of things to
pay to the Society of Jesus for the excellent education which the youth
of their colleges receive, we do therefore assent most willingly to the
petition of the lord cardinal of the Congregation of the Propaganda."
On October 11, 1838, a chair of canon law was erected in the Roman
College. In the following year on March 5, the Pontiff gave the Society
the College of Fermo, and on September 28, the College of Camerino. In
brief, there was no end of the spiritual favors which Gregory XVI
bestowed on the Society through its General, Father Roothaan, whom he
honored with his most intimate friendship.
Pius IX succeeded Gregory XVI, and although he greatly esteemed Rosmini,
who was attacked for his philosophical views by the Jesuits, chiefly by
Melia, Passaglia, Rozaven and Ballerini, that did not affect the great
Pontiff's affection for the Society. Hence when the procurators at their
meeting of 1847 presented themselves to His Holiness to protest against
the charge that they were averse to his governmental policies, he
assured them that he was well aware of the calumnious nature of the
accusation. He repeated the same words in 1853 to the electors of the
twenty-second general congregation, and in 1860, when Garibaldi expelled
the Jesuits from the Two Sicilies, Pope Pius not only welcomed the
refugees to Rome, but, when they arrived, went in person to console
them. "Let us suffer with equanimity," he said, "whatever God wishes.
Persecution always brings courage to Catholics. What you have suffered
is passed. What is to come who knows? It is splendid," he said as he
withdrew, "to see that even when you are scourged you do not cease to
work."
Not only did he comfort them verbally, but he issued as many as one
hundred and thirty-two briefs and Bulls, in each of which some favor was
conferred on the Society. He beatified seventy-seven Jesuits and
canonized three of them. He gave the College of Tephernatum to the
Society and endowed it richly. In 1850 he ordered Father General, who
was hesitating because of the difficulty of the work, to establish the
"Civiltà Cattolica." In 1851 he built and endowed a college at
Valiterno, and gave them another at Sinigaglia. He entrusted to them the
Collegium Pio-Latinum Americanum, a confidence in their ability which
was reaffirmed in 1908 by Pius X when he said: "For fifty years this
college has been of singular advantage to the Church by forming a
learned body of holy bishops and distinguished ecclesiastics."
As for Leo XIII, he was during his entire life intimately associated
with the Society. "You Jesuits have enjoyed the great privilege," he
once said to a Father of the Roman Province, "of having had saints for
Generals. I knew Father Fortis; he was a saint. I knew Father Roothaan
intimately; he was a saint. I was long acquainted with Father Beckx; he
was a saint. And now you have Father Anderledy."
On February 25, 1881, he gave to the college at Beirut in Syria the
power of conferring degrees in philosophy and theology. Four years later
when there was question of a new edition of the third volume of the
Institute, and Father Anderledy had asked His Holiness to re-affirm the
ancient privileges of the Society, Leo XIII replied with the Brief
"Dolemus inter," which is regarded by the Society as one of its great
treasures. After expressing his sorrow for the persecution which it was
just then suffering in France, the Pope says: "In order that our will
with regard to the Society of Jesus may be more thoroughly understood,
we hereby declare that each and every Apostolic letter which concerns
the establishment, the institution and confirmation of the Society of
Jesus and which has been published by our predecessors, the Roman
Pontiffs, beginning with Paul III of happy memory, up to our own time
either by briefs or Bulls, and whatever is contained in them or follows
from them and which either directly or by participation with other
religious orders has been granted to the Society and has not been
abrogated or revoked in whole or in part by the Council of Trent and
other Constitutions of the Apostolic See, namely, its privileges,
immunities, exemptions and indults, we hereby confirm by these letters,
and fortify them by the strength of our Apostolic authority and once
more concede.... Let these letters be a witness of the love which we
have always cherished and still cherish for the illustrious Society of
Jesus which has been most devoted to Our Predecessors and to Us; which
has been the fruitful mother of men who are distinguished for their
holiness and wisdom, and the promoter of sound and solid doctrine, and
which, although it suffered grievous persecution for justice sake, has
never ceased to labor with a cheerful and unconquerable courage in
cultivating the vineyard of the Lord. Let this well-deserving Society of
Jesus, therefore, which was commended by the Council of Trent itself and
whose accumulated glory has been proclaimed by Our Predecessors,
continue in spite of the multiplied attacks of perverse men against the
Church of Jesus Christ to follow its Institute in its fight for the
greater glory of God and the salvation of souls. Let the Society
continue in its efforts to bring to pagan nations and to heretics the
light of truth, to imbue the youth of our times with virtue and
learning, and to inculcate the teachings of the Angelical doctor in our
schools of philosophy and theology. Meantime, embracing this Society of
Jesus, which is most beloved by Us, We impart to its Father General and
his vicar and to all and each of its members our Apostolic benediction."
On the occasion of his golden jubilee in 1888, he showed his esteem for
the Society by canonizing Peter Claver, and when the Fathers went to
express their gratitude for this mark of affection, he replied that the
Society had always been dear to the Sovereign Pontiffs, considering it
as they did to be a bulwark of religion, and a most valiant legion that
was always ready to undertake the greatest labors for the Church and the
salvation of souls. To himself personally it had always been very dear.
He had shown this affection as soon as he was made Pope, by making a
cardinal of Father Mazzella, whose virtue and doctrine he held in the
highest esteem, and by employing Cardinal Franzelin as long as he lived
in the most important and most secret negotiations. Neither of whom ever
waited for the expression of his wish. A mere suggestion sufficed. He
then began to speak of his boyhood in the College of Viterbo, where he
had learned to love the Jesuit teachers, and he went on to say that his
affection had increased in the Roman College under such eminent masters
as Taparelli, Manera, Perrone, Caraffa and others whom he named. He
spoke enthusiastically of Father Roothaan, and then reverting to Blessed
John Berchmans whom he had canonized, he told how his devotion to the
boy saint began in his early college days of Viterbo.
In 1896 he showed his approval of the Society's theology by giving it
the Institutum Leoninum at Anagni, and in the _Motu proprio_ which he
issued on that occasion, he said: "To the glory which the Society
acquired even in its earliest days among learned men, by its scientific
achievements and the excellent work it accomplished in doctrinal
matters, must be added the art which is so full of cleverness and
initiative of instilling knowledge and piety in the hearts of their
scholars. Such has been their reputation throughout their history, and
we recall with pleasure that we have had the opportunity of studying
under the most distinguished Jesuits. Hence, as soon as by the
Providence of God we were called to the Supreme Pontificate, we asked
more than once that young men, especially those who were to consecrate
themselves to the Church, should be trained by the members of the
Society, both in our own city and in distant countries of the world. We
recall especially in this connection their work among the Basilians of
Galicia and in the Xaverian Seminary which we established at Kandy in
the East Indies. Hence, wishing to inaugurate an educational institution
in our native city of Anagni, we cast our eyes upon the members of the
Society and in neither case have we been disappointed."
The mention of the Ruthenian Basilians refers to an extremely delicate
work entrusted to the Jesuits. Something had gone wrong in the Basilian
province of Ruthenia, and at the request of the bishops and by command
of the Pope, a number of Galician Jesuits took up their abode in the
monastery of that ancient and venerable Order, and after twelve years of
labor restored its former fervor. One scarcely knows which deserves
greater commendation: the prudence and skill of those who undertook the
difficult task or the humility and submission of those who were the
objects of it. When the end had been attained, the Jesuits asked to be
relieved of the burden of direction and government, and far from leaving
any trace of resentment behind them, it was solemnly declared by a
general congregation of the Basilian monks that the link of affection
which had been established between the two orders was to endure forever.
The second apostolic work alluded to by the Pope in this Brief of 1897,
was the Pontifical Seminary for all India which he had built on the
Island of Ceylon and entrusted to the Belgian Jesuits.
In 1887, he had established a hierarchy of thirty dioceses in the
Indies, and as a native clergy would have to be provided, an
ecclesiastical seminary was imperative. The Propaganda was therefore
commissioned to erect the buildings and provide for the maintenance of
the teachers, and in virtue of the command 250 acres of land were bought
in 1892 near the city of Kandy on the Ampitiya Hills. Father Grosjean,
S. J., was appointed superior and began his work in a bungalow. It took
five years before any suitable structures could be provided. The course
of studies included three years of philosophy and four years of
theology. There is now a staff of eleven professors and they have
succeeded in overcoming a difficulty which seemed at first
insurmountable, namely, the grouping together under one roof of a number
of men who were of different castes and of different races. The bishops
held off for a time, and in the first year only one diocese sent its
pupils; three years later, seven were represented and now there are one
hundred seminarians from all parts of India. They are so well trained
that it is a rare thing for them not to satisfy their bishops when they
return as priests. "The project of the great Pontiff, Leo XIII," says
the Belgian chronicler, "seemed audacious but the results have justified
it."
The Fathers found another friend in Pius X. They knew him when he was
Bishop of Mantua, and he not only frequented their house but used to
delight to stand at the gate distributing the usual dole to the poor.
He enjoyed immensely the joke of the coadjutor brother who said, "Bishop
Sarto (_sarto_ means tailor) will make a fine garment for the Church
when he is Pope;" though the holy prelate never dreamt of any such honor
in those days or even when he was Patriarch of Venice. When he went to
his new see, he took his Jesuit confessor with him, and there, as at
Mantua, he was at home with the community and found particular delight
in talking to the brothers. When Farther Martín lost his arm in
consequence of an operation for sarcoma, the Pope gave him permission to
celebrate Mass. "I tried it myself to see if it were possible," he said,
"and I found it could be done without much difficulty, so I give
permission to Father General to offer the Holy Sacrifice, provided
another priest assists him." When the new General, Father Wernz, and his
associates presented themselves to the Pope after the election, he
thanked God for having given him the Society, which he described as "a
chosen body of soldiers, who were skilled in war, trained to fight, and
ready at the first sign of their leader." He gave a further proof of the
trust he had in them by putting into their hands the Pontifical Biblical
Institute, which was part of the general purpose he had in view when, in
1901, he organized the Biblical Commission already described.
Apart from the esteem manifested by the Sovereign Pontiffs for the
Society itself as a religious order, their personal regard for each
successive General is worthy of note. Thus Pius VII, on being informed
of the election of Father Brzozowski as General, immediately expressed
his gratification by letter "that the Society had chosen a man of such
merit and virtue." Leo XII, as we have said, lived on the most intimate
and affectionate terms with Father Fortis. Only his brief career as
Pontiff prevented him from giving more positive proofs of his
affection. The same may be said of Pius VIII, whose term was even
shorter than that of Leo XII. During that time, however, he lavished
favors on the Society. Gregory XVI made Father Roothaan his intimate
friend and gave him any favor he asked, and Pius IX expressed the wish
that "the Society would elect a General of equal prudence and wisdom,
and who, like Roothaan, would be a man according to the heart of God."
The amiable Father Beckx was always welcomed by Pius IX and their
intercourse with each other was almost one of familiarity. When the
General was on his death-bed, Leo XIII said to the Roman provincial: "I
am deeply moved by the illness and suffering of Father Beckx for whom I
have always entertained a great regard and even a filial affection. I
most willingly send him my blessing; tonight in his pain and agony, I
shall be at his side in spirit and aid him with my prayers."
In Father Beckx's successor, Father Anderledy, Leo XIII had absolute
confidence. So too, Father Martín's return to Rome from Fiesole was made
an occasion of great rejoicing for the Pope, who used to ask Cardinal
Aloysius Massella good humoredly: "Why don't you give up your office and
be a Jesuit?" When Father Martín presented himself for an audience in
times of trouble, Leo would say to him affectionately: "Come here,
Father General and sit beside me so that we can talk over our sorrows;
for your sufferings are mine."
Of course, affection was almost expected from Pius X, and when Father
Martín returned to Rome with his health slightly improved, his reception
by the Pope was like that of a son coming from the grave to the arms of
his father. Later on he kept himself informed about Father Martín's
suffering and prayed for him several times every day. "We cannot spare
such men" was his expression; and when at last the General died, the
Pope was deeply affected. "He was a man of God," was his exclamation, "A
saint! A saint! A saint!" At the election of Father Wernz, Pius X spoke
of the great good he had done to the whole Church by his profound
learning as teacher in the Gregorian University. "There was scarcely any
part of the world," he said, "where his merit was not acknowledged. He
was known to all as the possessor of a great, solid and sure
intelligence; of vast erudition which found expression in his learned
treatises on the Law of Decretals, and which won the applause of all who
were versed in canon law."
Another mark of this esteem for the Society, though an unwelcome one,
was the elevation of so many of its members to ecclesiastical dignities
by the Sovereign Pontiffs. First, in point of time, was the selection of
John Carroll to be the founder of the American hierarchy. It was all the
more notable because Challoner, the Vicar Apostolic of London, had
repeatedly said that there was no one in America who measured up to the
height of the episcopal dignity. The sequel proved that the Pontiff was
wiser than the Vicar. We have already called attention to the fact not
generally known that there was another Jesuit appointed to the See of
Baltimore; though he never wore the mitre. He died before the Bulls
arrived. His name was Laurence Grässel, and he had been a novice in the
Society in Germany at the time of the Suppression. Carroll describes him
as "a most amiable ex-Jesuit." Shea records the fact that "the Reverend
Laurence Grässel, a learned and devoted priest, of whose sanctity
tradition has preserved the most exalted estimate, revived the missions
in New Jersey which had been attended by the Reverend Messrs. Schneider
and Farmer." (Vol. II.)
Leonard Neale, who succeeded Archbishop Carroll in the See of Baltimore,
was a Jesuit priest in Liège at the Suppression. Before returning to his
native country, he spent four years in England and four more in
Demerara. In Philadelphia, when vicar general of Bishop Carroll, he was
stricken with yellow fever while administering to the sick during the
pestilence. Later he was made president of Georgetown College, and in
1801 was appointed Coadjutor of Baltimore. The successor of the
illustrious Cheverus in the See of Boston was Benedict Fenwick, who had
entered the Society in Maryland eight years before Pius VII
re-established it throughout the world. The first Bishop of New York
also would have been a Jesuit, Anthony Kohlmann, had not Father
Roothaan, entreated the Pope to withdraw the nomination.
Anthony Kohlmann was born at Kaisersberg in Alsace, July 13, 1771. The
outbreak of the French Revolution compelled him to leave his country
when he was a young man and betake himself to Switzerland to continue
his interrupted studies. He completed his theological course and was
ordained a priest in the College of Fribourg. In 1796 he joined the
Congregation of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart, and labored for two
years in Austria and Italy as a military chaplain. We find him next at
Dillingen in Bavaria as the director of an ecclesiastical seminary. By
this time the Fathers of the Faith, Paccanari's organization, had united
with those of the Sacred Heart, and Kohlmann was dispatched to Berlin
and subsequently to Amsterdam as rector of a new college in that place.
As soon as he heard that the Jesuits in White Russia had been recognized
by the Pope, he applied for admission, and entered the novitiate at
Duneburg on 21 June, 1803, and in the following year was sent to
Georgetown as assistant-master of novices. While holding that position
he travelled extensively through Pennsylvania and Maryland to look after
several groups of German colonists who had settled in those states. When
the ecclesiastical troubles of New York were at their height, Bishop
Carroll selected Kohlmann to restore order. With him went Father
Benedict Fenwick and four scholastics. He was given charge of that whole
district in 1808. There were about fourteen thousand Catholics there at
the time: French, German and Irish. In 1809 he laid the corner stone of
old St. Patrick's, which was the second church in the city. He also
founded the New York Literary Institution as a school for boys, on what
is now the site of the present cathedral, but which then was far out of
town. In 1812 he began a nearby school for girls and gave it to the
Ursuline nuns, who had been sent from Ireland for that purpose.
Father Kohlmann rendered a great service to the Church by the part he
took in gaining a verdict for the protection of the seal of Confession.
He had acted as agent in the restitution of stolen money when the owner
of it demanded the name of the thief. As this was refused, he haled the
priest to court, but the case ended in a decision given by the presiding
Judge, DeWitt Clinton, that "no minister of the Gospel or priest of any
denomination whatsoever shall be allowed to disclose any confession made
to him in his professional character in the course of discipline
enjoined by the rules or practices of such denomination." This decision
was embodied in a state law passed on December 10, 1828. His controversy
with Jared Sparks, a well-known Unitarian, brought his reply entitled
"Unitarianism, theologically and philosophically considered." It is a
classic on that topic.
As mentioned above, Kohlmann was designated Bishop of New York, but at
the entreaty of the General of the Society, the Pope withdrew his name.
In 1815 he returned to Georgetown as master of novices, and in 1817 was
appointed president of the college. In 1824 he was called to Rome as
professor of theology in the Gregorian University and occupied that post
for five years. Among his students were the future Pope Leo XIII,
Cardinal Cullen of Dublin, and Cardinal McCloskey of New York. Both Leo
XII and Gregory XVI held Kohlmann in the highest esteem and had him
attached to them as consultor to the staffs of the College of cardinals
and to several important congregations such as that of Extraordinary
Ecclesiastical Affairs; of Bishops and Regulars; and the Inquisition. He
died at Rome in 1836, in consequence of overwork in the confessional.
It might be of interest to quote here a passage from the "Life of John
Cardinal McCloskey" by Cardinal Farley: "About this time Father
McCloskey suffered the loss of a very dear and devoted friend, Father
Anthony Kohlmann, S. J. As pastor of St. Peter's, Barclay Street, he had
been the adviser of the young priest's parents in New York for many
years. He had seen him grow up from childhood, and had been his guide
and friend in Rome. It is therefore but natural that he should express
himself feelingly on the death of this holy man, as in this letter
addressed to the Very Rev. Dr. Power:
Rome, April 15, 1836.
'Very Rev. dear Sir:
'It is truly with deep regret that I now feel it my duty to
acquaint you with the news which, if not already known to you,
cannot but give you pain. Our venerable and most worthy friend,
Father Kohlmann, is no more. He has been summoned to another
world, after a warning of only a few days. On Friday, the 8th.
inst., he was as usual in his confessional. During the course
of the day he was seized with a violent fever which obliged him
to take to his bed, and on Sunday morning, about five o'clock,
he was a corpse. On Monday, I had the melancholy pleasure of
beholding him laid out in the Church of the Gesù, where numbers
were assembled to show respect for his memory, and to view for
a little time his mortal remains. His sickness was so very
short that death effected but little change in his appearance.
He seemed to be in a gentle sleep, such calmness and placidity.
His countenance seemed to have lost nothing of its usual
fulness or even freshness. And such was the composure of every
feature, that one could hardly resist saying within himself: He
is not dead, but sleepeth. His loss as you may well conceive,
is deeply regretted by the members of his Order here as well as
by all who knew him.
'As for myself, I feel his death most sensibly, having lost in
him so prudent a director, so kind a father and friend. You
also, Very Reverend and dear Sir, are deprived by his death of
a most active and valuable friend in Rome.'"
In Hughes's "History of the Society of Jesus in North America" (I, pt.
ii, 866) there is a quotation from the "Memoirs" of Father Grassi which
refers to Father Kohlmann and calls for consideration. He is described
by the odious name of Paccanarist. As a matter of fact, Kohlmann joined
the Fathers of the Sacred Heart in 1796, three years before Paccanari
was even heard of. In April 1799, by order of the Pope, the Fathers of
the Sacred Heart were amalgamated with Paccanari's Fathers of the Faith,
but from the very beginning there was distinct cleavage between the two
sections; and in 1803 when it became evident that Paccanari had no
intention of uniting with the Jesuits in Russia, Kohlmann was one of the
first to separate from him and was admitted to the Society in that year.
If he was a "Paccanarist," then so were Rozaven and Varin.
We are also informed that Kohlmann was an ex-Capuchin. It is strange,
however, that Guidée makes no mention of it in his historical sketches
of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart. Moreover, if he ever were a member
of that Order, it must have been for an extremely brief period; for he
was born in 1771, and at the outbreak of the French Revolution which
swept away all religious communities he was only eighteen years of age.
We find him then finishing his theological studies at Fribourg where the
Jesuits had been conspicuous before the Suppression, and he was ordained
a priest in 1796, when he was twenty-five years old. Immediately
afterwards, he joined the Fathers of the Sacred Heart. So that if he
ever had been a Capuchin it must have been at a very early age; and in
any case he did not leave his Order voluntarily. It had been swept out
of existence in the general storm.
Grassi tells us also that, out of pity for the distressed religious who
had been thrown out of their homes at that time, the General of the
Society had asked the Pope to lift the ban against the Society's
receiving into its ranks the members of other Orders--a policy which it
had always pursued, both out of respect for the Orders themselves, and
because a change in such a serious matter would imply instability of
character in the applicant. Father Pignatelli was deputed to submit the
cause to His Holiness, and Grassi is in admiration at the sublime
obedience of Pignatelli in doing what he was told; but it is hard to
imagine why he should be so edified. The Professed of the Society make a
special and solemn vow of obedience to the Pope and admit his decision
without question. Even when the Pope suppressed the entire Society they
defended his action. Where is there anything heroic in being merely the
messenger between the General and the Pope? In any case Kohlmann's
admission to the Society was with the full approval of both the
Sovereign Pontiff and the General, even if he had been a Capuchin, which
is by no means certain.
We are also informed that the authorities in Rome were surprised that
Kohlmann was admitted to his last vows before the customary ten years
had elapsed, but there are many such instances in the history of the
Society, and the General in referring to it may have been merely asking
for information. Finally with regard to the alleged worry about
Kohlmann's appointment as Vicar General of New York; it suffices to say
that the office is of its nature temporary, and cannot well be
classified as a prelacy; especially as there was only one permanent
church structure in the entire episcopal territory that stretched
between the Hudson River and Lake Erie, and the clergy was largely made
up of transients.
At the time that Father Kohlmann was mentioned for the See of New York,
Father Peter Kenny was proposed for that of Dromore in Ireland. Foley in
his "Chronological Catalogue of the Irish Province S. J." gives a brief
account of this very distinguished man, who like Kohlmann was for some
time identified with the Church in the United States.
He was born in Dublin, July 7, 1779, and entered the Society at Hodder,
Stonyhurst, September 20, 1804. He died in the Gesù at Rome, November
19, 1841. When a boy he attracted the notice of Father Thomas Betagh,
the last of the Irish Jesuits of the old Society, who was then Vicar
General of Dublin, and was sent to Carlow College. Even in early youth
he was remarkable for his extraordinary eloquence. When a novice he was
told to come down from the pulpit, his fellow-novices being so
spell-bound that they refused to eat. At Stonyhurst, he wrote a work on
mathematics and physics. In 1811 he was Vice-President of Maynooth
College. He purchased Clongowes Wood in 1814, and in 1819 was sent as
visitor to the Jesuit houses of Maryland. He was made vice-provincial of
Ireland in 1829, and again came to America in 1830, where he remained
for three years and then installed Father McSherry as the first
provincial of the American province. His retreats in Ireland are still
enthusiastically referred to and quoted. In 1809 when he was finishing
his theology in Palermo, Father Angiolini wrote to Father Plowden
"Father Kenny is head and shoulders over every one. He has genius,
health, zeal, energy, success in action and prudence to a remarkable
degree. May God keep him for the glory and increase of the Irish
Missions!" God did so and the missions of America also profited by his
genius and virtue.
Later on, Father Van de Velde was made Bishop of Chicago, but he
continually petitioned Rome to be allowed to return to the Society;
while Father Miège after twenty-four years of the episcopate and without
waiting to celebrate his silver jubilee became a Jesuit again and spent
his last days at Woodstock, where he met Father Michael O'Connor, who
had resigned the See of Pittsburg in order to assume the habit of St.
Ignatius. His brother before being made Bishop of Omaha asked to enter
the Society but he was told "Be a bishop first like your brother and
afterwards a Jesuit." One of the most distinguished Jesuits of New York,
Father Larkin, had to flee the country to avoid being made Bishop of
Toronto, and Father William Duncan of Boston would have occupied the
See of Savannah had not he entered the Society.
The same thing is true of the cardinalate. An unusually large number of
Jesuits have been raised to that dignity in the hundred years of the new
Society, in spite of the oath they have taken to do all in their power
to prevent it, an oath which they have all most faithfully kept,
yielding only because they were bidden to do so under pain of sin.
Camillo Mazzella entered the Society in 1857, and when the scholasticate
at Woodstock in Maryland was opened, he was made prefect of studies. He
was called to Rome in 1878 to take the place of Franzelin in the
Gregorian University. In 1886 he was created Cardinal deacon and ten
years later Cardinal priest, while in 1897 he was appointed Cardinal
bishop of Palestrina. Camillo Tarquini was made cardinal because of his
prominence as a canonist; Andreas Steinhüber's learning and his great
labors as Vatican librarian won for him the honor of the purple, while
Louis Billot after teaching dogmatic theology at Angers and the
Gregorian University was named Cardinal deacon of Santa Maria in Via
Lata on November 27, 1911. But much greater consolation has been
afforded to the new Society by the canonization of its saints than by
the choice of its members for the cardinalate. One is a recognition of
the intellectual ability and personal virtue; the other is an official,
though indirect, approval of the Institute.
At the very time that Pombal, Choiseul and Charles III were crushing the
Society in their respective countries, Rome as if in condemnation of the
act was jubilant with delight over the heroic virtue of the Italian
Jesuit, Francis Hieronymo; and people were asking each other how a
Society could be bad when it produced such a saint? In an issue of the
"Gazette" of distant Quebec at that time we find a bewildered Protestant
Englishman who was the journal's correspondent at Rome asking himself
that question. The political troubles of the period caused the
proceedings of the canonization to be suspended, but Gregory XVI, who
succeeded Leo XII, canonized Francis on the Feast of the Blessed
Trinity, 1839. Pius IX beatified Canisius, Bobola, Faber, de Britto and
Berchmans, with Peter Claver, the apostle of the negroes, and the
lay-brother Alphonso Rodríguez, besides placing the crown of martyrdom
on the throng of martyrs in Japan, Europeans and natives alike, as well
as upon Azevedo and his thirty-nine Portuguese associates who were
slaughtered at sea near the Azores.
Leo XIII beatified Antonio Baldinucci and Rudolph Aquaviva with his
fellow-Jesuits who were put to death at Salsette in Hindostan, besides
raising to the honors of sainthood Peter Claver and Alphonso Rodríguez,
and also placing John Berchmans in the same category, thus re-affirming
the sanctity of the rules of the Society, for the realization of which
the holy youth had already been beatified. The canonization of Alphonso
is also notable because it was by Leo XII, whose name Leo XIII had
adopted, that the humble porter of Minorca was raised to the first
honors of the altar. Finally, Pius X showed his love for the Society and
his approval of the rule by beatifying the three martyrs of Hungary whom
scarcely anybody had ever heard of before: Mark Crisin, Stephen Pongracz
and Melchior Grodecz. There is also under consideration the
beatification of the great American apostles Jogues, Brébeuf, Lalemant,
Daniel, Chabanel, Garnier, Goupil and Lalande, five of whom died for the
Faith in Canada, and three in what is now the State of New York.
The new Society has not failed to add new names to this catalogue of
honor of prospective saints. They are Joseph Pignatelli, who died in
1811; Father Joseph de Clorivière, 1820; Paul Cappelari, 1857; and Paul
Ginhac, 1895. Five Jesuits were put to death at Paris in 1871 by the
Communards: namely Pierre Olivaint, Anatole de Bengy, Alexis Clerc, Léon
Ducoudray, and Jean Caubert.
Between 1822 and 1902, forty-four others have given glory to the Society
either by the heroic sanctity of their lives, or by shedding their blood
for the Faith. Besides these, there are thirty-five Jesuits who have
been put to death in various parts of the world. They are: four
Italians, Ferdinando Bonacini and Luigi Massa in 1860; Genaio Pastore in
1887 and Emilio Moscoso in 1897; four Germans: Anthony Terorde in 1880;
Stephen Czimmerman, Joseph Platzer and Clemens Wigger who were killed by
the Caffirs in 1895-6. The French can boast of 12 namely: Bishop
Planchet in 1859; Edouard Billotet; Elie Jounès, Habib Maksoud, and
Alphonse Habeisch who were killed in Syria in 1860; Martin Brutail in
1883; Gaston de Batz in 1883; Modeste Andlauer, Léon Mangin, Remi Isoré,
and Paul Denn, who met their death in the Boxer Uprising in 1900; Léon
Müller was killed by the Boxers two years later. Sixteen Spaniards were
put to death: Casto Hernández, Juan Sauri, Juan Artigas, José Fernández,
Juan Elola, José Urrietta, Domingo Barreau, José Garnier, José Sancho,
Pedro Demont, Firmin Barba, Martín Buxons, Emanuel Ostolozza, Juan
Ruedas, Vincente Gogorza, who were massacred in Madrid in 1834.
CHAPTER XXX
CONCLUSION
Successive Generals in the Restored Society--Present
Membership, Missions and Provinces.
As we have seen, the first General of the Society elected after the
Restoration was Father Fortis, who died on January 27, 1829. On June 29
of that year Father John Roothaan was chosen as his successor on the
fourth ballot. As in the previous election, Father Rozaven was the
choice of many of the delegates.
John Philip Roothaan, the twenty-first General of the Society, was born
at Amsterdam on November 23, 1785, and finished his classical studies in
the Atheneum Illustre under the famous Jakob van Lennep. When he had
made up his mind to enter the Society in White Russia in 1804, his
distinguished teacher, though a Protestant, gave him the following
letter of introduction: "I am fully aware of how in former times the
Society distinguished itself in every branch of knowledge. Its splendid
services in that respect can never be forgotten, and I am, therefore,
especially pleased to recommend this young man whose merit I most highly
appreciate. May he be enriched with all your science and your virtues,
and I trust to see him again in possession of those treasures which he
has gone so far to seek."
The praise was well merited, for, even at that early period of his life,
Roothaan had mastered French, Polish, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He
studied philosophy at Polotsk, and in 1812 was ordained priest. After
the expulsion he went to Switzerland in 1820, and taught rhetoric there
for three years. As socius to the provincial, he made the tour of all
the Jesuit houses in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Holland three
times, and afterwards was appointed rector of the new college in Turin.
As General, his chief care was to strengthen the internal life of the
Society. His first eleven encyclicals have that object in view. His
edition of the "Exercises" is a classic. In 1832 he published the
"Revised Order of Studies," adapting the Ratio to the needs of the
times; and he increased the activities of the Society in the mission
fields. But his long term of office was one uninterrupted series of
trials. His enforced visit to the greater number of the houses has
already been told in a preceding chapter.
Among the many things for which the Society is profoundly grateful to
Father Roothaan is the very remarkable publication of the "Exercises of
St. Ignatius." According to Astrain, "the autograph was in rough and
labored Castilian," for it must be remembered that the saintly author
was a Basque. "The text," he tells us, "arrests the attention," not by
its elegance but, "by the energetic precision and brevity with which
certain thoughts are expressed. The autograph itself no longer exists.
What goes by that name is only a quarto copy made by some secretary, but
containing corrections in the author's handwriting. It has been
reproduced by photography. Two Latin translations were made of it during
the lifetime of St. Ignatius. There remain now, first the _versio
antiqua_ or ancient Latin translation, which is a literal version,
probably by the saint himself; second, a free translation by Father
Frusius, more elegant and more in accordance with the style of the
period. It is commonly called the 'Vulgate.' The _versio antiqua_ bears
the date, Rome, July 9, 1541. The 'Vulgate' is later than 1541 but
earlier than 1548, when the two versions were presented to Paul III for
approval. He appointed three examiners, who warmly praised both
versions, but the Vulgate was the only one printed. It was published in
Rome on September 11, 1548, and was called the _editio princeps_.
"Besides these two translations, there are two others. One is the still
unpublished text left by Blessed Peter Faber to the Carthusians of
Cologne before 1546. It holds a middle place between the literal
document and the Vulgate. The second was made by Father Roothaan, who,
on account of the differences between the Vulgate and the Spanish
autograph, wished to translate the Exercises into Latin as accurately as
possible, at the same time making use of the _versio antiqua_. His
intention was not to supplant the Vulgate, and on that account he
published the work of Frusius and his own in parallel columns (1835)."
Father Roothaan was succeeded as General by Father Beckx, who was born
in 1795 at Sichem, near Diest, the town that glories in being the
birthplace of St. John Berchmans. He entered the Society at Hildesheim
in 1819, after having been a secular priest for eight months. In 1825 he
was appointed chaplain of the Duke of Anhalt-Köthen, who had become a
Catholic after visiting the home of one of his Catholic friends in
France. Anhalt-Köthen is in Prussian Saxony, and there were only twenty
Catholics in the entire duchy when Beckx arrived there. Before four
years had passed, the number had grown to two hundred. In 1830 he was
sent to Vienna and for a time was the only Jesuit in that city. In 1852
he was made provincial of Austria and had the happiness of leading back
his brethren to the beloved Innsbruck as well as to Lenz and Lemberg. In
the following year he was elected General, and occupied the post for
thirty-four years. He used to say that at the time he entered into
office the province of Portugal consisted of one Jesuit and a half. The
one was in hiding in Lisbon, and the "half" was a novice in Turin. Even
now they number only three hundred. All the houses have been seized by
the Republican government and the Fathers, scholastics and brothers
expelled from their native land in the usual brutal fashion.
During Father Beckx's term of office eighty Jesuits were raised to the
honors of the altar. All but three of them were martyrs. In spite of
this the Society was expelled from Italy in 1860; from Spain in 1868;
and from Germany in 1873, at which time the General and the assistants
left Rome, where, after the Piedmontese occupation, it was no longer
safe to live. They took up their abode at Fiesole and there the curia,
as it is called, remained until after the death of Father Beckx's
successor. In 1883 the age and infirmities of the General made the
election of a vicar peremptory, and Father Anderledy was chosen. Father
Beckx died at the age of ninety-two, and one who saw him in the closing
years of his life thus writes of him: "This holy old man who has
attained the age of nearly ninety years, so modest, so humble, so
prudent, always the same; always amiable, with the glory of thirty
years' government and of interior martyrdom inflicted upon him by the
mishaps of the Society, was a spectacle to fill one with admiration. His
angelic mien delighted me. With how great charity he received me in his
room! With what deference! His poor cassock was patched. He is as
punctual at the exercises as the most vigorous. In spite of his old age
he observes all the laws of fasting and abstinence. At a quarter past
five he commences his Mass and spends considerable time kneeling before
the Blessed Sacrament. God grant us many imitators of his virtues."
Father Anderledy was a Swiss. He was born in the canton of Valais in
1819, and entered the Society at Brieg in 1838. He was sent to Rome for
his theological studies and it is reported that he was such a
pertinacious disputant that old Father Perrone said to him one day:
"Young man, cease or I shall get angry." In the disturbances of 1847, he
was on his way to Switzerland when he was halted by a squad of furious
soldiers who asked him "Are you a Jesuit?" "What do you mean by a
Jesuit?" he asked. When the conventional answer was given, he angrily
demanded "Do you take me for a scoundrel?" and they let him pass. In
1848 he was sent to America and was ordained at St. Louis by Archbishop
Kenrick and then put in charge of a German parish at Green Bay,
Wisconsin, a place teeming with memories of the old Jesuit missionaries:
Marquette, Allouez and others. On his return to Europe, he went through
Germany preaching missions and winning a reputation as a great orator,
although working in conjunction with the famous Father Roh. He was made
rector of the College of Cologne and, subsequently, professor at the
scholasticate of Maria-Laach. In 1870 he was called to Rome to be made
German assistant, and in 1883 he was elected vicar to Father Beckx with
the right of succession. He was particularly zealous as General in
promoting the study of theology and philosophy, and in training men in
the physical sciences. During his administration, the Society increased
from 11,840 members to 13,275, but he was very much adverse to the
establishment of new provinces. The creation of Canada as an independent
mission was all he would grant in that direction. He died at Fiesole on
18 January, 1892.
Luis Martín García, or, as he is commonly called, Father Martín, who
succeeded Father Anderledy, was the fifth Spanish General of the
Society. He was born on 19 August, 1846, at Melgar de Fermamental, a
small town about twenty-five miles north-west of Burgos, and was already
a seminarian in his second year of theology when he began to think of
becoming a religious. To be a Jesuit, however, was at first as abhorrent
to him as becoming a Saracen. But his ideas on that point began to
clarify when he heard his very distinguished professor Don Manuel
González Peña, who had been a theologian in the Vatican Council,
discourse enthusiastically and on every occasion, about the glories of
Suárez, Toletus, Petavius, Bellarmine and the other great lights of the
Society. The impression was heightened by some letters from the
Philippine Jesuits which had fallen into his hands, and Crétineau-Joly's
history also contributed to his change of views. A conversation with the
Jesuit superior of the residence at Burgos, and the departure of a
brilliant fellow-student for the novitiate, completed the
disillusionment and he was admitted at Loyola on 13 October, 1864.
In 1870, when the Society was expelled from Spain, he went with the
other scholastics to Vals in France, and later to Poyanne. In the latter
place he remained as minister and professor of dogmatic theology until
1880, and when the religious were expelled from France he returned to
Spain and was made superior of the scholasticate which had been opened
in Salamanca. He was charged also with the duty of teaching theology and
Hebrew. In 1886 he opened the house of studies at Bilbao, and in the
same year he was made provincial of Castile. Previous to that he had
been the editor of "The Messenger of the Sacred Heart" for a year. In
1891 he was summoned to Rome by Father Anderledy, to analyze and
summarize the reports sent in by all the provinces on the proposed
_quinquennium_ of theology and a new arrangement of studies. On the
death of Father Anderledy he was made Vicar General. He was then only
forty-five years of age. His appointment coincided with the outbreak of
an epidemic of influenza of which he was very near being a victim.
Singularly enough, it was this same disease that carried him off
thirteen years later, supervening as it did on the terrible sarcoma from
which he had long been suffering.
As Vicar he convoked the general congregation, assigning September 23 as
the date and choosing Loyola in Spain as the place of meeting. It was
the first time in the history of the Society that the convention took
place outside of Rome, with the exception of the meetings in Russia
during the Suppression. The reason for the decision was that the Pope
let it be known that it would not be possible to remain in session in
Rome for any considerable period, though he suggested that they might
elect the General in Rome and then continue the congregation elsewhere.
After long deliberation by the assistants, it was determined not to
separate the election from the other proceedings. As for the place of
meeting, Loyola was chosen, though Tronchiennes in Belgium had been
offered. The choice of Spain was determined by the vote of the assistant
who had no Spanish affiliations. Father Martín was elected general on 2
October, and the sessions continued until 5 December.
In this congregation, Father Martín called the attention of the
delegates to the fact that no Jesuit had ever addressed himself to the
task of writing the complete history of the Order; an abstention, it
might be urged, which ought to acquit them of the accusation of unduly
praising the Society. Father Aquaviva had indeed commissioned Orlandini
to begin the work, but the distinguished writer not only got no further
then the Generalate of St. Ignatius but did not even publish his book.
Sacchini his continuator had to see to the publication; his own
contributions appeared in 1615 and 1621. Jouvancy was then called to
Rome to finish the second half of the fifth section which had by that
time appeared, but he did not advance beyond the year 1616. He had bad
luck with it even in that small space, for certain opinions appeared in
it about the rights of sovereigns which were not acceptable to the
Bourbon kings, and the book was forbidden in France by decrees of
Parliament, dated 25 February and 25 March, 1715. Finally, Cordara, an
Italian, assumed the task and wrote two volumes, which though
exquisitely done embraced not more than seventeen years of Father
Vitelleschi's generalate (1616-33), and only one volume was published
then. More than one hundred years elapsed before the second appeared. It
was edited by Raggazzini in 1859.
It was high time, Father Martín declared, that something should be done
to remedy this condition of affairs and that a history of the Society
should be written on a scale commensurate with the greatness of the
subject, and in keeping with the methods which modern requirements look
for in historical writing. As the undertaking in the way it was
conceived would have been too much for any one man, a literary syndicate
was established in which Father Hughes was assigned to write the history
of the Society's work in English-speaking America, Father Astrain that
of the Spanish assistancy, Father Venturi the Italian, Father Fouqueray
the French, Father Dühr and Father Kroess the German. This work is now
in progress. Those who are engaged on it are men of unimpeachable
integrity. Meantime an immense number of hitherto unpublished documents
are being put in the hands of the writers. As many as fifty bulky
volumes known as the "Monumenta historica Societatis Jesu," consisting
of the chronicles of the houses and provinces, the intimate
correspondence of many of the great men of the Society, such as
Ignatius, Laínez, Borgia etc., have been printed, and sent broadcast
through all the provinces. Nor is this mass of material jealously
guarded by the Jesuits themselves. It is available to any sincere
investigator.
As the Congregation had expressed the desire that the residence of the
General and his assistants at Fiesole be closed, and that if the
political troubles would permit it he should return to Rome, Father
Martín, after consulting with the Pope, who granted the permission with
some hesitation, established himself at the Collegium Germanicum on 20
January, 1895. The public excitement that was apprehended did not occur.
The papers merely chronicled the fact but made no ado about it whatever.
Father Martín had much to console him, during his administration, as,
for instance, the beatification of several members of the Society, but
he had also many sorrows such as the closing of all the houses in France
by the Waldeck-Rousseau government and the deplorable defections of some
Jesuits in connection with the Modernist movement.
In 1905 the first symptoms of the disease that was to carry him off in a
short time declared themselves. In that year, four cancerous swellings
developed in his right arm. He had submitted to the painful cutting of
two of them without the aid of anesthetics. The operation lasted two
hours and a half, and he maintained his consciousness throughout. A
little later, the other swellings showed signs of gangrene and the
amputation of the arm was decided upon, but in this instance he
submitted to chloroform. He rallied after the operation and in spite of
his crippled condition was permitted by the Pope to say Mass. His
strength had left him, however, and on 15 February, 1906 he was attacked
by influenza and he died on 18 April at the age of sixty. At his death
the Society numbered 15,515 members.
Father Martín's successor was Francis Xavier Wernz who was born in
Würtemberg in 1842. When the Society was expelled from Germany in 1872,
he went to Ditton Hall in England to complete his studies, after having
spent the greater part of a year in the army ambulance-corps, during the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870. He taught canon law for several years at
Ditton Hall, and in 1882 was a professor at St. Beuno's in Wales. From
there he was transferred to the Gregorian University in Rome, where he
lectured from 1883 to 1906. In September of the latter year, he was
elected General, in which post he lived only eight years. Previous to
his election, he had issued four volumes of his great work on canon law.
Two others were published later, one of them after his death. The end of
his labors came on 19 August, 1914. He was then in his seventy-second
year and had passed fifty-seven years in the Society. It was during this
generalate that the provinces of Canada, New Orleans, Mexico, California
and Hungary were erected.
Father Wladimir Ledóchowski was elected to the vacant post on 11
February, 1915. He was then only forty-nine years of age. He entered the
Society in 1889, and in 1902, shortly after his ordination, was made
provincial of Galicia, while in 1906 he was elected as assistant to
Father Wernz. He is the nephew of the famous Cardinal Ledóchowski, whom
Bismarck imprisoned for his courageous championship of the rights of
Poland.
The new Society like the old has not failed to produce saints and at the
present moment the lives of a very considerable number of those who have
lived and labored in the century that has elapsed since the restoration
are being considered by the Church as possible candidates for
canonization.
The number of Jesuits who were under the colors as soldiers, chaplains
or stretcher bearers or volunteers in the World War of 1914-1918 ran up
to 2014,--a very great drain on the Society as a whole, which in 1918
had only 17,205 names on its rolls, among whom were very many
incapacitated either by age or youth or ailment for any active work. Of
the 2014 Belgium furnished 165, Austria 82, France 855, Germany 376,
Italy 369, England 83, Ireland 30, Canada 4 and the United States 50. Of
the 83 English Jesuits serving as chaplains, 5 died while in the
service, 2 won the Distinguished Service Order, 13 the Military Cross, 3
the Order of the British Empire, 21 were mentioned in despatches, 2 were
mentioned for valuable services and 4 received foreign decorations,--a
total of 45 distinctions.
France calls for special notice in this matter. From the four French
provinces of the Society 855 Jesuits were mobilized. Of these 107 were
officers, 3 commandants, 1 lieutenant-commander, 13 captains, 4 naval
lieutenants, 22 lieutenants, 50 second-lieutenants, 1 naval ensign, and
5 officers in the health services. The loss in dead was 165 Jesuits, of
whom 28 were chaplains, 30 officers, 36 sub-officers, 17 corporals and
54 privates. The number of distinctions won is almost incredible. The
decoration of the Légion d'honneur was conferred on 68, the Médaille
militaire on 48, the Médaille des épidémies on 4, the Croix de guerre on
320, the Moroccan or Tunisian medal on 3, while 595 were mentioned in
despatches, and 18 foreign decorations were received: in all 1,056
distinctions were won by the 855 Jesuits in the French army and navy
(The Jesuit Directory, 1921). "What party or group or club or lodge,"
says a sometime unfriendly paper, the "Italia," "can claim a similar
distinction?" Another of their distinctions is that Foch, de Castelnau,
Fayolle, Guynemer and many more French heroes were trained in Jesuit
schools. Finally, the French Jesuits performed this marvellous service
to their country in spite of the fact that the government of that
country had closed and confiscated every one of their churches and
colleges from one end of France to the other, and by so doing had exiled
these loyal subjects from their native land. To add to the outrage, they
were summoned back when the war began, and not one of them failed to
respond immediately, returning from distant missions among savages at
the ends of the earth or from civilized countries that were more
hospitable to them than their own for the defense of which they
willingly offered their lives. Now, when the war is over, they have no
home to go to.
In 1912, two years before the War, the Society had on its rolls 16,545
members. At the beginning of 1920 it had 17,250 members: 8,454 priests,
4,819 scholastics, 3,977 lay-brothers. The Society is divided into what
are called assistancies. The Italian assistancy, which is composed of
the provinces of Rome, Naples, Sicily, Turin and Venice, numbers in all
1,415 members. The frequent dispersions and confiscations to which this
section has been subjected account for the small number. Thus, the Roman
province has only 354, and Sicily has but 223. In the assistancy there
are 748 priests, but the prospects of the increase of this category is
the reverse of encouraging, for there are only 308 scholastics. The
lay-brothers number 359. What has acted as a deterrent in Italy has,
paradoxically, acted in a contrary sense in the German assistancy.
Several of these provinces have been dispersed, but they aggregate as
many as 4,329 members. Belgium is a strong factor in this large number,
for it totals 1,279, of whom 672 are priests; the Germans, who have no
establishment in their own country, but are scattered over the earth,
have a membership of 1,210, of whom 664 are in Holy Orders. Austria has
356 on her register, Poland 464, Czecho-Slovakia 114, Jugoslavia 113,
Hungary 212, while Holland has as many as 581.
The Waldeck-Rousseau Associations Law of 1901 not only confiscated every
Jesuit establishment in France but denied the Society the right even to
possess property. Nevertheless, unlike Italy the provinces of Champagne,
France, Lyons and Toulouse show 2,758 names in their catalogues for
1920. They have 1,647 priests with 583 scholastics to draw on. The
Spaniards are grouped in the provinces of Aragon, Castile, Mexico, and
Toledo, to which has been added the Province of Portugal. This
combination has 1,760 to its credit. Possibly the figures would have
been larger had not the Revolution of 1901 brought about the exile of
the Jesuits. The English assistancy which until recently included the
United States, has now 1,622 members of whom 793 are priests and 544
scholastics: England 750, Canada 472 and Ireland 400. The assistancy of
America has 2,892 members of whom 1,230 are priests with a future supply
to draw on of 1,214 scholastics. The contingent of scholastics exceeds
that of any other assistancy by more than a hundred. The province of
California has 485 members, Maryland-New York, 1,080; Missouri, 1,022
and New Orleans, 305.
Besides its regularly established houses the Society has missions
scattered throughout the world. Thus, in Europe its missionaries are to
be found in Albania; in Asia, they are working in Armenia, Syria,
Ceylon, Assam, Bengal, Bombay, Poona, Goa, Madura, Mangalore, Japan,
Canton, Nankin, and South East Tche-ly. In Africa, they are in Egypt,
Cape Colony, Zambesi, Rhodesia, Belgian Congo, and Madagascar, Mauritius
and Réunion; in America, they are working in Jamaica and among the
Indians of Alaska, Canada, South Dakota, the Rocky Mountains, the
Pimería, and Guiana; finally in Oceania, they are toiling in Celebes,
Flores, Java, and the Philippines. To these missions 1,707 Jesuits are
devoting their lives in direct contact with the aborigines.
INDEX
A
Africa, 85 et seq.
Alcalá, 52
Alegambe, 867
Alegre, 370
Alexandria, 109, 811
Alfonso Rodriguez, St., 383
Algonquins, 338
Allen, Cardinal, 134sq.
Allouez, 338
Aloysius, St., 181
Alphonsus Liguori, St., 380, 604
Alva, Duke of, 428
Amaguchi, 167
Amherst, 594
Amiot, 632
Anchieta, 89
Anderledy, 763, 899
Andrada, 237, 372
Angiolini, 678
Angola, 85
Antilles, 306
Appellants, 153
Aquaviva, Claudius, 132sq.
Aquaviva, Rudolph, 75, 384
Aranda, 421, 507
Araoz, 36, 104, 203
Archetti, 648
Archipresbyterate, 153
Arévalo, 836
Armenians, 805
Arnauld, 11, 216, 277
Asia, 229 et seq.
Assembly of the Clergy, 412, 486
Aubeterre, 497, 530
Auger, 41, 57
Augustinus, 281
Avogado, 678
Avril, 266
Azevedo, 90, 384
B
Backer, de, 868
Baertz, 77
Bagnorea, 30
Bagotists, 244
Baius, 112
Balde, 358, 362
Ballerini, 878
Barat, Mme., 672
Baronius, 112
Basilians, 902
Bathe, Christopher, 307
Bathori, 123
Beaumont, de, 488, 588
Beguines, 2
Beirut, 807
Bellarmine, 68, 110, 215
Belloc, 285
Bengy, de, 761
Benislawski, 65
Bernis, Cardinal, 532sq.
Berryer, 737
Beschi, 233
Betagh, 912
Beard, 334
Biblical Institute, 764
Billiart, 673
Billot, Cardinal, 914
Blackwell, 153
Bobadilla, 21sqq.
Bobola, 384
Bollandists, 370, 869
Bonzes, 80, 256
Borgias, 102
Boscovich, 367, 622
Bossuet, 353
Bouhours, 367
Bourdaloue, 264, 283
Boxer uprising, 791
Brazil, 87 et seq.
Brébeuf, 291, 385
Bressani, 336
Britto, John de, 233
Broglie, Charles de, 665
Brouet, 25sqq.
Brugelette, 757
Brzozowski, 685
Bungo, 176
Busembaum, 380
Buteux, 338
Bye Plot, 157
C
Cabral, 87, 174-5
Calcutta, 764, 794-5, 801, 829, 843
California, 828, 833, 926, 929. See Lower California
Calvinists, 87, 334, 801
Cambrensis, 137
Campion, 134, 136-40, 143-6, 384, 857
Canada, 262, 291, 334-9, 425-6, 594, 711, 764, 781, 824, 874, 921
Canisius, Peter, 2, 23, 45, 51, 65, 67, 70, 102, 272, 345, 384, 598,
915
Canonization, 381-2
Canton, 248, 250, 252, 260-1, 930
Capuchins, 292, 312, 500, 911
Caraffa, 208, 225, 391, 549, 574
Carbonari, 894, 897
Carbonelle, 857
Cardinals, 914
Caribs, 309
Carinthia, 346, 376
Carlos, Don, 742
Carmelites, 801, 869
Carranza, 53
Carroll, Charles, 711
Carroll, John, 595, 616, 659, 674, 700, 706, 711, 732, 882, 906
Cartagena, 305, 314
Cartography, 253, 376, 631, 852, 861
Casaubon, 118-9, 221
Cases of Conscience, 290
Caste, 230, 250, 264, 797, 802
Casuistry, 285
Catechism, 38 (of Canisius, 49);
(of Trent), 54, 108
"Catechisme des jésuites," 273
Catherine II, Empress of Russia, 587, 605, 635, 641-60, 662, 677, 719
Catholic Encyclopedia, 866
Catholicæ Fidei, 38, 661, 694, 716
Cathrein, 288, 880
Caughnawaga, 338, 775
Cavalcanti, 853
Cayenne, 312, 841
Celibacy, 120
Centuriators of Magdeburg, 49
Ceylon, 802, 903, 929
Chabanel, 336, 385, 915
Challoner, 599, 602, 906
Charles V., Emperor, 9, 23, 38, 44, 51, 102, 344
Charles Borromeo, St., 15, 102, 138, 218
Charlevoix, 171, 370
Cheminais, 481
Chile, 298, 373, 425, 529, 627, 762, 774
China, 81, 124, 173, 245-67, 372, 375, 424, 470, 627, 679, 770,
776, 788-93, 824, 828, 834, 843, 861
Choiseul, Duc de, 314, 419, 429, 496, 500-3, 509, 512, 524, 535
Christina of Sweden, 128
"Civiltà Catolica," 874, 899
Clavigero, 369, 619
Clavius, 246, 355, 371
Clement VIII, 56, 111, 113, 118, 153-5, 157, 209, 213, 217, 240,
385, 436, 556
Clement XIII, 15, 422, 435 et seq.
Clement XIV, 4, 436 et seq.
Clerc, 760, 916
Clergy, native, 262
Clermont, College of, 57, 115, 216, 273, 345
Clorivière, 671, 676, 691, 700, 720, 739, 751, 880, 916
Coblentz, 67
Cochin-China, 241-2
Cochin, 82, 771
Cochlæus, 42
Cocomaricopas, 319
Cocospera, 323
Codier, 354
Codure, 25, 29, 36, 39
Coeffler, 256
Coelho, 801
Coelho, 182
Coeurdoux, 233
Cogordan, 60, 100
Coimbra, 43, 443, 464, 542, 682, 743
Coleridge, 883
Collegio Pio-Latino, 853, 899
Collegium Germanicum, 50, 56, 66, 70, 345, 852, 891, 925
Collegium Maximum, 897
Collins, 149
Cologne, 42, 288, 345, 433, 837
Colombia, 304, 761
Colombiére, de, 385, 395, 402
Colonna, 208
Columbini, 639
Commendone, 113
Commerce, 445, 450, 457, 459
"Common Rules," 133, 728
Compania de Jesus, 7
Concanen, 706-7
Concordat, 687
Condé, 60, 63, 353, 356, 366, 391, 666
Confession, Seal of, 908
Confessor, Royal, 201
Congo, Belgian, 85, 822-4, 930
Congregations, General, 33, 37, 197, 210, 652, 657, 722-4, 727, 923
Congruism, 116
Coninck, 379
Connolly, 707
Consalvi, 572, 690, 703, 724, 864
Conscience, Account of, 33
Constantinople, 239, 267, 627, 632, 806, 809
Constitution, 31-5, 101, 133, 199, 207, 213, 381, 386, 484, 695, 728
Conti, 416
"Continental System," 686
Coppée, 360
Copts, 86, 805, 816
Cordara, 369, 572, 619, 924
Corea, 242, 249, 772
Corneille, 353
Cornelius a Lapide, 381
Correa, 127
Corrientes, 300
Cornely, 881-2
Cornoldi, 880
Corsica, 525, 615
Cortie, 841-2
Coton, 201, 290-1
Cottam, 141, 144, 146
Coulon, 702
Courtois, 357
Cracow, 763
Cranganore, 75
Crashaw, 360
Cremona, 181
Crétineau-Joly, 746
Crichton, 150, 152, 233
Crimea, 806
Criminali, 77, 81
Crimont, 781
Crisin, 915
Cristaldi, 698
Critonius, 149
Croix, Camille de la, 838-9
Croix, Etienne de la, 491-5
Crollanza, 617
Cruz, da, 452
Cruz, Gaspar de la, 245
Cubosama, 173, 175, 182
Cuevas, 880
Cullen, 909
Cuzco, 55, 214
Czecho-Slovakia, 924
Czerniewicz, 645-9 et seq
D
Dablon, 338
Dalmatia, 389, 758, 807
Daniel, 263, 282, 335-6, 339, 385, 598, 915
"De Auxiliis," 214
Decretals, Law of, 906
"De defectibus Societatis," 275
"De defensione fidei," 116
"De fide catholica," 889
Delehaye, 871
Demerara, 714, 907, 841
Denonville, de, 338
Denza, 835
Descartes, 129, 353
Dillingen, 43, 48, 67, 117, 346
"Directorium," 200
Discipline, 251-3
Dispensation, 33
Dissolution, 199
Dobrizhoffer, 840
Domenech, 56
Dominicans, 52, 76, 187, 189, 214, 245, 256, 265, 306, 312, 334,
464, 703, 706, 816
Dominis, de, 220, 289
Dominus ac Redemptor, 549-50, 552-76, 588-94, 638, 649, 690
Douai, 135, 138, 500
Dracontius, 836
Drama, 865-9
Dresden, 686
Drexellius, 396
Drury, 150, 164
Dublin, 149-50
Dublin, University of, 137
Duelling, 286
Dupin, 443, 748-50, 752
Duplessis-Mornay, 220
Duprez, 629
Duran, 373
Duvernay, 501
Dynamism, 623
E
Eck, 43
Ecuador, 425, 529, 761, 828
Education, 56, 64, 68, 343-57, 567, 639, 644, 647, 653, 658, 695,
704, 736, 745, 748, 778, 835-38, 853, 901
Egypt, 806, 816, 834, 862, 930
Elizabeth, Queen, 135, 141, 144, 152, 155, 182, 228, 274
"End justifies the Means," 287-9
England, 278, 424, 426, 612, 675, 681, 683, 685, 691, 703, 718,
743, 760, 764, 794, 828, 857, 876, 892, 927
England, John, 707-8
English College, 148, 152, 578
Equivocation, 286
"Etudes," 874
Examen, Particular, 14
Excommunication, 222-6
Exercises, 14
Expulsion, 212, 451, 462-70, 499-503, 513-29, 548, 553, 562, 566,
627, 720, 734, 743, 756-62, 828, 898, 920
F
Faber, Peter, Bl., 522sqq.
Faith, Fathers of the, 669sqq.
Falloux Law, 757
Farinelli, 505
Farmer, 906
Febronius, 433
Feller, 619
Fenwick, Benedict, 704
Finding of the Christians, 196
Flagellants, 92
Flesselles, de, 491
Fourquevaux, Baron de, 41
Francis Borgia, St., 53, 102, 117sqq.
Francis Xavier, St., 5, 29, 166sqq.
Francis Regis, St., 775
Franzelin, 877, 889
French Revolution, 626
G
Gago, 166
Gallitzin, 713
Gallicanism, 416, 494, 609
Garnet, 147
Garnier, Charles, 336
Garreau, 338
Gaudan, 40
Georgetown, 704sqq.
Gerard, 160
Gioberti, 755
Goa, 74
Goes, 250
Goldwell, 138
González, Tirso, 415
Goupil, 336
Grässel, 616, 713
Grassi, 679, 704
Gregory de Valencia, 374
Gresset, 353
Grivel, 666
Grou, 354, 619
Gruber, 658sqq.
Guidiccioni, 31
Gunpowder Plot, 143sqq.
H
Hagenbrünn, 667
Hay, 150
Hedley, 821
Hell, 618
Hélot, 772
Henry IV, 60, 113
Hindostan, 242
Hirando, 168
Hoensbroech, 288
Hontheim, 433
Hôtel Dieu, 594
Howard, Cardinal, 408
Hozes, 25
Hungarian College, 69
Hurons, 335
Hurter, 866
I
Ibáñez, 203
Iberville, 307
Ignatius Loyola, St., 5-13, 21-4, 36, 71, 75, 93, 96-9
Inquisition, 21, 127, 200, 225sqq.
Iroquois, 320
Isla, 366
Ivory Coast, 824
J
Jafanapatam, 233
Japan, 73, 78, 166-196
James II, 403
Jansenists, 221, 417, 573
Jesuati, 1
Jogues, 336sqq.
John Berchmans, St., 382
John Casimir, 403
John Francis Regis, St., 383
Joseph II, 421, 547, 604
K
Kabyles, 814
Kandy, 805
Kareu, 652
Kaunitz, 421
Kenny, 715, 892
King, Thomas, 772
Kino, 316, 372
Kleutgen, 879
Knight, 595
Kohlmann, 659, 706, 878
Krudner, Mme., 717
L
Laennec, 738
Lafargeville, 263
Lafitaux, 840
La Flèche, 118, 218
Lafrenière, 502
Lahore, 229
Laimbeckhoven, 603
Laínez, 5
Lalande, 336
Lalemant, Charles, 291
Lallemant, Louis, 396
Lancicius, 381, 385, 396
La Petite Eglise, 675
Larkin, 913
Lascaris, 831
Laval, Scholasticate, 757
Laval, Montmorency de, 244-5, 337
Lavigerie, 815
Lazarists, 627, 633-4
Le Camus, 280
Le Jay, 25, 29-30
Ledóchowski, Wladimir, 926
Lehmkuhl, 288, 886
Leibnitz, 361, 377
Le Moyne, 337
Leo XII (della Genga), 676, 722, 848, 909
Lessius, 114, 147
Lewger, 339, 706
Liberatore, 874
Ligny, de, 619
Litta, 693-4
Loisy, 886
Longhaye, 857
Loretto, 329
Loriquet, 702, 878
Louisiana, 425-6, 500-2
Louis-le-Grand, 353-5
Louvain, 57
Lower California, 315-8
Ludolph of Saxony, 1,12
Lugo, de, 21, 116-7
M
Macao, 189
Macartney, Lord, 681
McCarthy, 739
McCloskey, 909
Macedo, Antonio, 128-9
Macedonio, 549-50, 574-5, 577
Machado, 187, 372
McSherry, 913
Madagascar, 816-20
Madras, 769
Madura, 230, 233-5
Magdeburg, Centuriators of, 49
Mai, 371
Mailla, de, 834, 861
Maimbourg, 367, 411
Maistre, de, 642
Malagrida, 453
Maldonado, 115, 381
Malesherbes, 353
Malta, 528
Manera, 901
Mangalore, 75
Manila Observatory, 851-2
Manresa, 13, 703
Maranhão, 425
Marefoschi, 539
Margry, 291
Mariana, 205, 274-5
Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, 419, 432, 616, 638, 869
Marie Antoinette, 434
Marie de L'Incarnation, 307
Marie Leczinska, 618
Maronites, 239
Marot, 30
Marquette, 338, 372, 921
Martin, Felix, 873
Martin, Luis, 37, 369
Martinique, 306, 311
Maryland, 262, 339-41, 595, 832, 908, 929
Massé, 291, 334-5
Massillon, 364
Mastrilli, 193
Mattei, 694, 724
Maury, 366, 849
Mazzella, 879, 901, 914
Mazzini, 755
Melanchthon, 42-3, 45, 846
Ménard, 338
Mendoza, Bp. of Cuzco, 214
Mercurian, 34, 36
Meschler, 883
Meurin, 800
Mexico, 54, 221-7, 929
Michelet, 745, 754
Miège, 913
Milan, 138, 181
Milner, 704
Mindanao, 777
Mingrelia, 239, 806
Mirón, 92-3
Missal, Chinese, 261, 264
Missions Etrangères, 241
Mohawks, 307
Mohilew, 646-7, 649, 657, 718
Moigno, François, 839
Molinism, 102, 116, 379, 575
Molyneux, 425
Monita secreta, 270, 275-7
Montalembert, 745-6, 749
Montecorvo, 439
Montlosier, 737, 739
Montluc, 41
Montmartre, 24
Montreal, 428
Monts, de, 334
Montserrat, 12
"Monumenta historica Societatis Jesu," 924
Morcelli, 837
Moscow, 267, 643, 686
Mürr, 472, 503
Muzloum, 808
Muzzarelli, 624
Mysore, 233
N
Nagasaki, 174, 184-7, 189, 193-6, 383
Naples, 111, 199, 210, 392, 427, 439, 506, 537, 542, 587, 611, 756
Navarrete, 257, 259, 262, 332
Neale, Leonard, 616, 706, 713, 907
Negroes, 305, 311, 503, 712, 812-24
New Orleans, 500, 594, 833, 926, 929
New York, 263, 338, 706, 764, 828, 832, 907, 911, 929
New York Literary Institute, 706, 908
Nicaragua, 777
Nieremberg y Otin, 11, 395, 381
Nigeria, 824
Nobili, de, 230-3, 292-3, 396, 424, 768
Nobrega, 87-90
Nochistongo tunnel, 315
"Nomenclator," 877
Norridgewock, 709
Nossi-Bé, 817
Notobirga, 275
Novices, 564
O
Oates, Titus, 402, 406-10, 407-9
Obedience, 92, 95, 911
Observatories, 840-5, 848, 851
Oceania, 930
Ochino, 30
Odescalchi, 893, 895sqq.
Office, Divine, 54, 101, 568
Office, Term of, 213
Ogilvie, 151
Ojetti, 883
Oldcorne, 161-4
Oliva, 260, 290, 391, 394, 399-402, 405, 408, 410
O'Reilly, Edmund, 878
Orientalists, 829, 862
Ormanetto, 199, 203.
Orsini, Cardinal, 396, 530, 535sqq.
Oviedo, 36, 56, 59, 85, 104, 161-2, 194
Oxford, 136, 764
P
Pacca, 433-4, 442, 542, 606, 611, 618, 687-94, 698, 703, 724
Palafox, 221-7, 544, 546
Pallavicini, 380, 396, 635, 892
Pampeluna, 9, 10, 11, 304
Pancaldi, 722
Papebroch, 869
Paphlagonia, 239
Paraguay, 299-304, 347, 373, 418, 425, 444-8, 454, 509, 627, 762,
774, 776
Pariahs, 235, 802
Paris, 22, 36, 118, 243, 281, 671, 699, 747-8, 757, 761
Paris, Parliament of, 3, 15, 56, 63, 216, 280, 401, 485, 493, 497,
631, 748
Paris, University of, 56, 70, 748, 927
Parma, 210, 439, 528, 637, 669, 677, 699
Pascal, 278, 281-7, 295
"Pascendi Munus," 588
Passaglia, 887, 898
Passionei, 422, 456
Patrizi, 878, 881
Paul III, Pope, 15, 28, 31, 34, 38, 556, 728, 918
Paul IV, Pope, 35, 46, 71, 101, 173, 198, 553, 556
Paul V, Pope, 56, 116, 157, 264, 390, 556, 559
"Paulistas," 392
Pazmany, 68, 396
Pearl Fisheries, 74
Pekin, 249, 252, 254, 256, 258-61, 265, 629, 633, 790
Perinde ac cadaver, 35
Periodicals, 874-6
Persia, 239, 244, 267, 410, 424, 806
Persons, 136, 138-40, 151-55, 164, 177, 499
Peru, 54, 272, 295-98, 425, 529
Peruvian bark, 299
Pesch, 288, 880
Pétau (Petavius), 118, 395
Peter Claver, St., 305, 383, 396, 901, 915
Petre, 402
Petrucci, 721-4
Philip II, King of Spain, 54, 100, 113, 116, 131, 151, 177, 181,
202, 204, 207, 209-13, 274, 296, 333, 344, 420, 557
Philippines, 183, 189, 191, 245, 255, 333, 376, 426, 476, 785, 835,
930
Philosophy, 355-7, 378-80
Piedmont, 756
Pignatelli, Joseph, 511, 523, 525, 658, 677, 726, 863, 911, 916
Pimas, 318-21, 323
Pious Fund, 328
Pius V., St., Pope, 48, 49, 54, 100, 109, 113, 198, 439, 557
Pius VI, 521, 572, 586, 608-10, 614, 620, 624, 640, 649-51, 653-58,
667, 677, 684, 691, 712, 891
Pius VII, Pope, 5, 353, 572, 605, 624, 661, 675, 678, 683, 687-94,
697-9, 722-7, 733, 840, 864, 885, 891, 904
Pius VIII, 741, 893, 905
Pius IX, Pope, 16, 196, 732, 756, 849, 853, 854, 857, 874, 888-90,
898, 903-6, 905, 915
Plowden, 597, 674, 714, 732, 913
Poetry, 258-63, 856, 860
Poissy Colloquy, 60-63, 102
Poland, 124, 275, 357, 376, 404, 424, 546, 548, 587, 605, 634, 637,
643, 718, 722, 926, 929
Polotsk, 347, 644, 646, 650, 652, 657, 659-60, 664
Pombal, Marquis de, 419, 421, 430, 437, 442-79, 503, 509, 605,
612-15, 683, 703, 743
Pondicherry, 260, 292, 420, 631
"Popish Plot," 407
Portugal, 36, 42, 92, 126, 177, 242, 269, 344, 416, 421, 426, 430,
438, 442-79, 498, 502, 537, 550, 553, 587, 605, 612, 627,
682, 703, 742, 759, 764, 793, 815, 826, 876, 929
Possevin, 121-25, 129, 201, 208, 218
Poverty, 33, 249-51, 394, 397, 556, 728
Prague, 47, 67, 123, 138, 345, 388
Printing, 49, 55, 659, 829
Probabiliorism, 415
Probabilism, 380, 415, 575
Propaganda, 693, 897, 903
Property, 33, 222-23, 602, 616
Property, Confiscation of, 478, 485, 500, 513, 523, 528, 540, 548,
577, 720, 759
Prose, 366-67
Proselytism, 720
"Provinciales," of Pascal, 281-87, 689, 745
Prussia, 426, 635, 636-41, 686, 718, 758
Q
Quebec, 263, 291, 307, 334
Quesnel, 417, 575
Quinet, 282
R
Ragueneau, 337
Raleigh, 156sq.
Ramière, 883
Rasle, 709
"Ratio studiorum", 70, 200
Ravignan, de, 4, 435
Raymbault, 336
Raynal, 419
"Razón y Fe," 874sq.
Realini, Bernardino, 396
Recollect Friars, 334sq.
Redemptorists, 604
Reductions, Philippine, 777
Reductions of Paraguay, 301-04, 444-48
Reeve, 595, 619
Régale, 410-12
Reggio, 699
Regimini Militantis Ecclesiae, 31
Renaudot, 291
Relations, 871-4
Retz, 4l8sq
Rezzonico, 532
Rho, 259
Rhodes, Alexander de, 240-45
Ribadeneira, 36, 204
Riccadonna, 807sq
Ricci, Lorenzo, 419-22, 436, 440sq., 511, 521, 848
Ricci, Scipio, 609
Richelieu, 274, 388sq., 290
Riot of the Sombreros, 510sq., 546
Ripalda, 206, 876
Robaut, 781
Rodrigues, 176, 184
Rodriguez, Alphonsus, 381, 396
Rodriguez, Simon, 23, 24, 72
Roh, 921
Roman College, 69
Romberg, Assistant, 585
Roothaan, John, 398, 667, 706
Rosas, 762
Rosmini, 808
Rossi, Giovanni Battista de, 836
Rossi, Guizot's envoy, 750
Rosweyde, 370
Roth, 840
Rozaven, 625, 719 et seq., 898
Rubillon, Ambrose, 773
Russia, 841
Russian Church, 642
Ruthenia, 902
Ryllo, Maximilian, 811sq.
S
Sabbetti, 886
Sacchini, 369, 923
Sacred Heart, Fathers of the, 666-668
Sacred Heart, Ladies of the, 672 sq.
St. Acheul, 740
St. Bartholomew Massacre, 272
St. Beuno's, 764
St. Clement's Island, 339
Sainte-Beuve, 283 sq., 745
Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Chapel, 58
St. Julian, Castle, 469-472
Saint-Jure, 381
Saint Kitts, 306-310
St. Michel, Brussels, 870
St. Omers, 407
St. Sulpice, Society of, 244
St. Vincent, Admiral, 704
Saints, 914-5
Salamanca, 21
Saldanha, 421-2
Salmerón, Alphonsus, 21, 45
Salsette, 170, 229
Salvatierra, 222, 321
Sancian, Island of, 84
Sanguinetti, 883
San Sebastian, prison, 743
Sant' Andrea, 762
Sarbiewski, 359
Sardinia, 504, 758
Sarpi, 112, 220sq.
Sault Ste. Marie, 338
Sautel, 360
Saxony, 718
Scaramelli, 381
Schall, Adam, 254-261, 372
Scheiner, 848
Scholastics, 485
Schreiner, Christopher, 371
Science, 248-250, 631, 371, 834sq.
Scientia media, 215
Scotch Doctor, 38
Scotland, 40, 150
Secchi, 371, 835
Secret Members, of Jesuit Order, 35
Secularization, 600sq.
Sedeño, 333
Sedlmayer, 372
Segneri, 364
Segura, 54
Seminaries, 44, 65-67
Sequiera, 185
Sestini, 843sq.
Seven Years War, 425, 482sq.
Sewall, 732, 683
Shea, Gilmary, 873
Sherwin, 144
Shintoism, 166
Shogun, 175
Siam, 234
Sicily, 504
Sidgreaves, Walter, 841
Sierra Leone, 824
Siestrzencewicz, 643
Sigismond, King of Poland, 35, 122, 208
Silesia, 637
Silveira, 85
Simpson, 751
Sin (Mandarin), 250
Sin, Paul, see Zi, 771
"Sined," 860
Sioux, 779
Sirmond, 354
Si-Senoussi, Sheik and Jesuit Constitutions, 35
Sixtus V, Pope, p. 7, 111, 202, 180, 206-209, 556-558
Skarga, 367
Slingsby, Francis, 149sq.
Smet, Peter de, 779-81
Smolensk, 686
Smyrna, 239
Sobieski, John, 394, 397, 404
Sodalities, 68, 297, 738
Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum, 694-6
Sommervogel, 868
Sorbonne, 216-7, 290
Soto, 115
Sotwel, 867
Sousa, 87-8
Southey, 90
Southwell, 147-8, 358
Spain, 36, 43, 202-14, 51-3
Sparks, 908
"Speculum Jesuiticum," 273
Spee, von, 117, 361sqq.
Spinola, 185
Spiritual Exercises, 13-15, 381, 918sqq.
Squillace, 428, 507
Stanislaus Kostka, St., 48, 382, 418
Stanton, Father, 785-8
Staritza, 124
Statistics, 418-9, 550, 777, 800sqq.
Steinhüber, 887
Steins, 795
Stephens, 141sqq.
"Stimmen aus Maria-Laach," 874sqq.
Stone, 710
Stonestreet, 706
Stonyhurst, 500, 732
Strada, 36, 53, 56, 359
Strassmaier, 845, 863
Stritch. See Bathe
Stuart, Henry. See York, Cardinal of
Suárez, 21, 116, 281, 379, 390, 395, 416, 486, 876
Suau, 52sqq.
Sulpicians, 713
Superior, Lake, 336
Suppression, 442-603
Surin, 381, 395
Suttee, 804
Sweden, 120-24, 404, 681, 685
Swetchine, 730
Switzerland, 346, 587, 617, 728, 734, 740
Syria, 240, 632, 806-9, 929
T
Tamburini, 417-8, 575
Tamil, 231, 362
Tanucci, 421, 506 et seq.
Taparelli, 874
Tatary, 244, 770
Tegakwitha, 337-8
Theology, 378-81, 852, 864-5, 876-9, 885-90, 901.
Tibet, 237-8, 372, 378
Toletus, 5, 54, 112-5, 152, 197, 209-13, 215, 218, 379, 401, 876
Tongiorgi, 836, 878
Tonkin, 241, 245
Torres, Cosmo de, 76, 79, 93
Torres, 166-7, 169, 174, 188
Torres, Luis de, 381
Tournon, Charles-Thomas-Naillard, de, 259
Tournon, François de, 40, 60
Trent, Council of, 8, 33, 44-6, 48, 62, 108, 138, 150, 557, 563
Trichinopoly, 802, 805, 829
Tyburn, 141, 146
Tyrnau, 69
U
Ucondono, 172, 182-3, 189
Ugarte, 316, 326-7, 329-31
Uniates, 805-6, 811
"Unigenitus," 578
Urban VIII, 113, 119, 192, 255, 385, 390, 400, 560
Urban College, 894, 897
V
Valencia, Gregorio de, 21, 117-8, 215
Valignani, 173-4, 176, 183-5, 246-7
Valkenburg, 763, 875
Valladolid, 43, 83, 116, 151, 206, 406, 409
Van Ortroy, 384
Varin, 665, 669, 671-6, 701, 730, 733, 911
Vasa, House of, 404
Vasquez, Dionisio, 5-7, 199, 204-7, 209, 268
Vasquez, Gabriel, 21, 68, 379, 486
Verbiest, 257, 261, 264, 375, 377
Vicars General, 38, 651-2.
Vico, de, 371, 843, 848-9
Vieira, 126-8, 130, 192, 363, 367, 396, 449, 477
Villemain, 748-50, 754-5
Vilna, University of, 347, 660, 848
Vitelleschi, 269-71, 387, 390-2, 394, 396-8, 825
Vives y Tuto, 853
Vows, 32-3, 548, 557, 564, 609, 616, 659, 684, 746
W
Wadding, 315-6
Wasmann, 840
Waterclock, 625
Wauchope (Waucop), 38, 41
Wealth, 348, 445, 450, 481, 559
Weld, 431, 443, 820, 841
Wendrok. See Nicole
Wernz, 763, 828, 883, 904, 906, 926
White, 307, 339-40
Whitebread, 408
Whitemarsh, 712, 779
White Russia, 267, 735, 773
Witchcraft, 117, 361
Woodstock, 843
"Woodstock Letters," 875
World War, 761, 823, 828, 927
Würzburg, 48, 67, 346
Wynne, 866-7
X
Xavier, Francis. See Francis Xavier, St.
Xavier, Jerónimo, 229-30, 396
Ximenes, 618
Y
York, Cardinal of, 532, 548, 575, 596
York, Duke of, 408
Yu-heen, 792
Z
Zacatecas, 315
Zaccaria, 578, 619-21, 864, 877
Zahlé, 807, 809
Zambesi, 794, 820-2, 824, 930
Zapata, 39
Zelada, 549, 574
Zelanti, 534, 536
Zikawei, 771, 790-3, 828, 843
Zoology, 834
Zúñiga, de, 692, 703
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
PRESS OF
J. B. LYON COMPANY
ALBANY, N. Y.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Superscripts are indicated by preceding them with a circumflex ^.
Simple typographical errors were corrected.
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Some unbalanced quotation marks could not be resolved; the same
inconsistencies appear in at least one other edition of this work.
Many names are similar, differing only in the use of accent marks; some
Index entries have been made consistent with their references, but most
other differences and inconsistencies have not been changed.
"despatch" and "dispatch" both occur in this book.
Page 377: "1620-1740" changed to "1620-1704" to match actual lifespan of
Heinrich Scherer.
Page 416: "González's appeared" probably should be "González's name
appeared".
Page 792: "Father Lomüller" may be the "Léon Müller" on page 916.
Index entry "Wendrok. See Nicole" refers to a non-existent entry.
Index entries for "Demerara" and "Pius VI" corrected.
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