Chapter 6
THE
"SECRET INSTRUCTIONS" OF THE JESUITS.
The Jesuit Soldier in Armor complete—Secret
Instructions—How to Plant their First Establishments—Taught
to Court the Parochial Clergy—to Visit the Hospitals—to Find
out the Wealth of their several Districts— to make Purchases in another
Name—to Draw the Youth round them—to Supplant the Older Orders—How
to get the Friendship of Great Men—How to Manage Princes—How
to Direct their Policy— Conduct their Embassies—Appoint their
Servants, etc.—Taught to Affect a Great Show of Lowliness.
SO far we have traced the enrollment
and training of that mighty army which Loyola had called into existence
for the conquest of Protestantism. Their leader, who was quite as much
the shrewd calculator as the fiery fanatic, took care before sending his
soldiers into the field to provide them with armor, every way fitted for
the combatants they were to meet, and the campaign they were to wage.
The war in which they were to be occupied was one against right and truth,
against knowledge and liberty, and where could weapons be found for the
successful prosecution of a conflict like this, save in the old-established
arsenal of sophisms
The schoolmen, those Vulcans of the
Middle Ages, had forged these weapons with the hammers of their speculation
on the anvil of their subtlety, and having made them sharp of edge, and
given them an incomparable flexibility, they stored them up, and kept
them in reserve against the great coming day of battle. To this armory
Loyola, and the chiefs that succeeded him in command, had recourse. But
not content with these weapons as the schoolmen had left them, the Jesuit
doctors put them back again into the fire; they kept them in a furnace,
heated seven times, till every particle of the dross of right and truth
that cleaved to them had been purged out, and they had acquired a flexibility
absolutely and altogether perfect, and a keenness of edge unattained before,
and were now deemed every way fit for the hands that were to wield them,
and every way worthy of the cause in which they were to be drawn. So attempered,
they could cut through shield and helmet, through body and soul of the
foe.
Let us survey the
soldier of Loyola, as he stands in the complete and perfect panoply his
General has provided him with. How admirably harnessed for the battle
he is to fight! He has his "loins girt about with" mental and
verbal equivocation; he has "on the breast-plate of" probabilism;
his "feet are shod with the preparation of the" Secret Instruction.
"Above all, taking the shield of" intention, and rightly handling
it, he is "able to quench all the fiery darts of" human remorse
and Divine threatenings. He takes "for an helmet the hope of"
Paradise, which has been most surely promised him as the reward of his
services; and in his hand he grasps the two-edged sword of a fiery fanaticism,
wherewith he is able to cut his way, with prodigious bravery, through
truth and righteousness.1
Verily, the man who has to sustain
the onset of soldiers like these, and parry the thrusts of their weapons,
had need to be mindful of the ancient admonition, "Take unto you
the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day,
and having done all, to stand."
Shrewd, practical, and precise are
the instructions of the Jesuits. First of all they are told to select
the best points in that great field, all of which they are in due time
to subjugate and possess. That field is Christendom. They are to begin
by establishing convents, or colleges, in the chief cities. The great
centers of population and wealth secured, the smaller places will be easily
occupied.
Should any one ask on what errand
the good Fathers have come, they are instructed to make answer that their
"sole object is the salvation of souls." What a pious errand!
Who would not strive to be the first to welcome to their houses, and to
seat at their tables, men whose aims are so unselfish and heavenly? They
are to be careful to maintain a humble and submissive deportment; they
are to pay frequent visits to the hospitals, the sick-chamber, and the
prisons. They are to make great show of charity, and as they have nothing
of their own to give to the poor, they are "to go far and near"
to receive even the "smallest atoms." These good deeds will
not lose their reward if only they take care not to do them in secret.
Men will begin to speak of them and say, What a humble, pious, charitable
order of men these Fathers of the Society of Jesus are! How unlike the
Franciscans and Dominicans, who were want to care
for the sick and the poor, but have now forgotten the virtues of a former
tune, and are grown proud, indolent, luxurious, and rich! Thus the "new-comers,"
the Instructions hint, will supplant the other and older orders, and will
receive "the respect and reverence of the best and most eminent in
the neighborhood."2
Further, they are enjoined to conduct
themselves very deferentially towards the parochial clergy, and not to
perform any sacred function till first they have piously and submissively
asked the bishop’s leave. This will secure their good graces, and
dispose the secular clergy to protect them; but by-and-by, when they have
ingratiated themselves with the people, they may abate somewhat of this
subserviency to the clergy.
The individual Jesuit
takes a vow of poverty, but the society takes no such vow, and is qualified
to hold property to any amount. Therefore, while seeking the salvation
of souls, the members are carefully to note the rich men in the community.
They must find out who own the estates in the neighborhood, and what are
their yearly values. They are to secure these estates by gift, if possible;
if not, by purchase. When it happens that they "get anything that
is considerable, let the purchase be made under a strange name, by some
of our friends, that our poverty may still seem the greater."3
And let our provincial "assign
such revenues to some other colleges, more remote, that neither prince
nor people may discover anything of our profits"4 —a
device that combines many advantages. Every day their acres will increase,
nevertheless their apparent poverty will be as great as ever, and the
flow of benefactions and legacies to supply it will remain undiminished,
although the sea into which all these rivers run will never be full.
Among the multifarious
duties laid upon the Jesuits, special prominence was given to the instruction
of youth. It was by this arm that they achieved their most brilliant
success. "Whisper it sweetly in their [the people’s] ears, that
they are come to catechise the children gratis."5 Wherever
the Jesuits came they opened schools, and gathered the youth around them;
but despite their zeal in the work of education, knowledge somehow did
not increase. The intellect refused to expand and the genius to open under
their tutelage. Kingdoms like Poland, where they became the privileged
and only instructors of youth, instead of taking a higher place in the
commonwealth of letters, fell back into mental decrepitude, and lost their
rank in the community of nations. The Jesuits communicated to their pupils
little besides a knowledge of Latin. History, philosophy, and science
were sealed books. They initiated their disciples into the mysteries of
probabilism, and the art of directing the intention, and the youth trained
in these paths, when old did not depart from them. They dwarfed the intellect
and narrowed the understanding, but they gained their end. They stamped
anew the Roman impress upon many of the countries of Europe.
The second chapter
of The Instructions is entitled "What must be done to get
the ear and intimacy of great men?" To stand well with monarchs and
princes is, of course, a matter of such importance that no stone is to
be left unturned to attain it. The Instructions here, as we should expect
them to be, are full and precise. The members of the Society of Jesus
are first of all to imbue princes and great men with the belief that they
cannot dispense with their aid if they would maintain the pomp of their
State, and the government of their realms. Should princes be filled with
a conceit of their own wisdom, the Fathers must find some way of dispelling
this egregious delusion. They are to surround them with confessors chosen
from their society; but by no means are they to bear hard on the consciences
of their royal penitents. They must treat them "sweetly and pleasantly,"
oftener administering opiates than irritants. They are to study their
humors, and if, in the matter of marriage, they should be inclined—as
often happens with princes—to contract alliance with their own kindred,
they are to smooth their way, by hinting at a dispensation from the Pope,
or finding some palliative for the sin from the pharmacopoeia of their
theology. They may tell them that such marriages, though forbidden to
the commonalty, are sometimes allowed to princes, "for the greater
glory of God."6
If a monarch
is bent on some enterprise—a war, for example—the issue of which
is doubtful, they are to be at pains so to shape their counsel in the
matter, that if the affair succeeds they shall have all the praise, and
if it fails, the blame shall rest with the king alone. And, lastly, when
a vacancy occurs near the throne, they are to take care that the empty
post shall be filled by one of the tried friends of the society, of whom
they are enjoined to have, at all times, a list in their possession. It
may be well, in order still more to advance their interests at courts,
to undertake embassies at times. This will enable them to draw the affairs
of Europe into their own hands, and to make princes feel that they are
indispensable to them, by showing them what an influence they wield at
the courts of other sovereigns, and especially how great their power is
at that of Rome. Small services and trifling presents they are by no means
to overlook. Such things go a great way in opening the hearts of princes.
Be sure, say The Instructions, to paint the men whom the prince
dislikes in the same colors in which his jealousy and hatred teach him
to view them. Moreover, if the prince is unmarried, it will be a rare
stroke of policy to choose a wife for him from among the beautiful and
noble ladies known to their society. "This is seen," say The
Instructions, "by experience in the House of Austria: and in
the Kingdoms of Poland and France, and in many other principalities."7
"We must endeavor," say The Instructions, with remarkable
plainness, but in the belief, doubtless, that the words would meet the
faithful eyes of the members of the Society of Jesus only:
"We must endeavor
to breed dissension among great men, and raise seditions, or anything
a prince would have us to do to please him. If one who is chief Minister
of State to a monarch who is our friend oppose us, and that prince cast
his whole favors upon him, so as to add titles to his honor, we must
present ourselves before him, and court him in the highest degree, as
well by visits as all humble respect."8
Having specified the
arts by which princes may be managed, the Instructions next prescribe
certain methods for turning to account others "of great authority
in the commonwealth, that by their credit we obtain profit and preferment."
"If," say the Instructions,9
"these lords be seculars, we
ought to have recourse to their aid and friendship against our adversaries,
and to their favor in our own suits, and those of our friends, and to
their authority and power in the purchase of houses, manors, and gardens,
and of stones to build with, especially in those places that will not
endure to hear of our settling in them, because the authority of these
lords serveth very much for the appeasing of the populace, and making
our ill-willers quiet."
Nor are they less sedulously to make
court to the bishops. Their authority—great everywhere—is especially
so in some kingdoms, "as in Germany, Poland, and France;" and,
the bishops conciliated, they may expect to obtain a gift of "new-erected
churches, altars, monasteries, foundations, and in some cases the benefices
of the secular priests and canons, with the preferable right of preaching
in all the great towns." And when bishops so befriend them, they
are to be taught that there is no less profit than merit in the deed;
inasmuch as, done to the Order of Jesus, they are sure to be repaid with
most substantial services; whereas, done to the other orders, they will
have nothing in return for their pains "but a song."10
To love their neighbor, and speak
well of him, while they held themselves in lowly estimation, was not one
of the failings of the Jesuits. Their own virtues they were to proclaim
as loudly as they did the faults of their brother monks. Their Instructions
commanded them to "imprint upon the spirits of those princes who
love us, that our order is more perfect than all other orders." They
are to supplant their rivals, by telling monarchs that no wisdom is competent
to counsel in the affairs of State but "ours," and that if they
wish to make their realms resplendent with knowledge, they must surrender
the schools to Jesuit teachers. They are especially to exhort princes
that they owe it as a duty to God to consult them in the distribution
of honors and emoluments, and in all appointments to places of importance.
Further, they are ever to have a list in their possession of the names
of all persons in authority and power throughout Christendom, in order
that they may change or continue them fit their several posts, as may
be expedient. But so covertly must this delicate business be gone about,
that their hand must not be seen in it, nor must it once be suspected
that the change comes from them!
While slowly and steadily
climbing up to the control of kings, and the government of kingdoms, they
are to study great modesty of demeanor and simplicity of life. The pride
must be worn in the heart, not on the brow; and the foot must be set down
softly that is to be planted at last on the neck of monarchs. "Let
ours that are in the service of princes," say the Instructions, "keep
but a very little money, and a few movables, contenting themselves with
a little chamber, modestly keeping company with persons in humble station;
and so being in good esteem, they ought prudently to persuade princes
to do nothing without their counsel, whether it be in spiritual or temporal
affairs."11
Footnotes
1 See Ephesians 6:14-17.
2 Secreta Monita, cap. 1,
sec. 1.
3 Ibid., cap. 1, sec. 5.
4 Ibid., cap. 1, sec. 6.
5 Ibid. (tr. from a French copy, London, 1679), cap.
1, sec. 11.
6 Secreta Monita, cap. 2, sec. 2.
7 Secreta Monita, cap. 2,
sec. 5.
8 Ibid., cap. 2, sec. 9, 10.
9 Ibid., cap. 3, sec. 1.
10 "Praeter cantum." (Secreta Monita, cap.
3, sec. 3.)
11 Secreta Monita, cap. 4, sec. 1—6.
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