Chapter 3
ORGANIZATION
AND TRAINING OF THE JESUITS.
Loyola’s Vast Schemes—A General
for the Army—Loyola Elected—"Constitutions"—Made
Known to only a Select Few—Powers of the General—An Autocrat—He
only can make Laws—Appoints all Officers, etc.—Organization—Six
Grand Divisions—Thirty-seven Provinces—Houses, Colleges, Missions,
etc.—Reports to the General—His Eye Surveys the World—Organization—Preparatory
Ordeal—Four Classes—Novitiates—Second Novitiate—Its
Rigorous Training—The Indifferents—The Scholars—The Coadjutors—The
Professed—Their Oath—Their Obedience.
THE long-delayed wishes of Loyola had
been realised, and his efforts, abortive in the past, had now at length
been crowned with success. The Papal bull had given formal existence to
the order, what Christ had done in heaven his Vicar had ratified on the
earth. But Loyola was too wise to think that all had been accomplished;
he knew that he was only at the beginning of his labors. In the little
band around him he saw but the nucleus of an army that would multiply
and expand till one day it should be as the stars in multitude, and bear
the standard of victory to every land on earth. The gates of the East
were meanwhile closed against him; but the Western world would not always
set limits to the triumphs of his spiritual arms. He would yet subjugate
both
hemispheres, and extend the dominion of Rome from the rising to the
setting sun. Such were the schemes that Loyola, who hid under his mendicant’s
cloak an ambition vast as Alexander’s, was at that moment revolving.
Assembling his comrades one day about this time, he addressed them, his
biographer Bouhours tells us, in a long speech, saying, "Ought we
not to conclude that we are called to win to God, not only a single nation,
a single country, but all nations, all the kingdoms of the world?"
1
An army to conquer the world, Loyola was forming. But
he knew that nothing is stronger than its weakest part, and therefore
the soundness of every link, the thorough discipline and tried fidelity
of every soldier in this mighty host was with him an essential point.
That could be secured only by making each individual, before enrolling
himself, pass through an ordeal that should sift, and try, and harden
him to the utmost.
But first the Company of Jesus had to elect a head. The
dignity was offered to Loyola. He modestly declined the post, as Julius
Caesar did the diadem. After four days spent in prayer and penance, his
disciples returned and humbly supplicated him to be their chief. Ignatius,
viewing this as an intimation of the will of God, consented. He was the
first General of the order. Few royal sceptres bring with them such an
amount of real power as this election bestowed on Loyola. The day would
come when the tiara itself would bow before that yet mightier authority
which was represented by the cap of the General of the Jesuits.
The second step was to frame the "Constitutions"
of the society. In this labor Loyola accepted the aid of Lainez, the ablest
of his converts. Seeing it was at God’s command that Ignatius had
planted the tree of Jesuitism in the spiritual vineyard, it was to be
expected that the Constitutions of the Company would proceed from the
same high source. The Constitutions were declared to be a revelation from
God, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.2 This gave them
absolute authority over the members, and paved the way for the substitution
of the Constitution and canons of the Society of Jesus in the room of
Christianity itself. These canons and Instructions were not published:
they were not communicated to all the members of the society even; they
were made known to a few only—in all their extent to a very few.
They took care to print them in their own college at Rome, or in their
college at Prague; and if it happened that they were printed elsewhere,
they secured and destroyed the edition. "I cannot discover,"
says M. de la Chalotais, "that the Constitutions of the Jesuits have
ever been seen or examined by any tribunal whatsoever, secular or ecclesiastic;
by any sovereign—not even by the Court of Chancery of Prague, when
permission was asked to print them... They have taken all sorts of precautions
to keep them a secret.3 For a century they were concealed
from the knowledge of the world; and it was an accident which at last
dragged them into the light from the darkness in which they had so long
been buried.
It is not easy, perhaps it is not possible, to say what
number of volumes the Constitutions of the Jesuits form. M. Louis Rene
de la Chalotais, Procurator-General of King Louis XV., in his Report on
the Constitutions of the Jesuits’, given in to the Parliament of
Bretagne, speaks of fifty volumes folio. That was in the year 1761, or
221 years after the founding of the order. This code, then enormous, must
be greatly more so now, seeing every bull and brief of the Pope addressed
to the society, every edict of its General, is so much more added to a
legislation that is continually augmenting. We doubt whether any member
of the order is found bold enough to undertake a complete study of them,
or ingenious enough to reconcile all their contradictions and inconsistencies.
Prudently abstaining from venturing into a labyrinth from which he may
never emerge, he simply asks, not what do the Constitutions say, but what
does the General command? Practically the will of his chief is the code
of the Jesuit.
We shall first consider the powers of
the General. The original bull of Paul III. constituting the Company gave
to "Ignatius de Loyola, with nine priests, his companions,"
the power to make Constitutions and particular rules, and also to alter
them. The legislative power thus rested in the hands of the General and
his company—that is, in a "Congregation" representing them.
But when Loyola died, and Lainez succeeded him as General, one of his
first acts was to assemble a Congregation, and cause it to be decided
that the General only had the right to make rules.4
This crowned the autocracy of the General, for while
he has the power of legislating for all others, no one may legislate for
him. He acts without control, without responsibility, without law. It
is true that in certain cases the society may depose the General. But
it cannot exercise its powers unless it be assembled, and the General
alone can assemble the Congregation. The whole order, with all its authority,
is, in fact, comprised in him.
In virtue of his prerogative the General can command and
regulate everything in the society. He may make special Constitutions
for the advantage of the society, and he may alter them, abrogate them,
and make new ones, dating them at any time he pleases. These new rules
must be regarded as confirmed by apostolic authority, not merely from
the time they were made, but the time they are dated.
The General assigns to all provincials,
superiors, and members of the society, of whatever grade, the powers they
are to exercise, the places where they are to labor, the missions they
are to discharge, and he may annul or confirm their acts at his pleasure.
He has the right to nominate provincials and rectors, to admit or exclude
members, to say what proffered dignity they are or are not to accept,
to change the destination of legacies, and, though to give money to his
relatives exposes him to deposition, "he may yet give alms to any
amount that he may deem conducive to the glory of God." He is invested
moreover with the entire government and regulation of the colleges of
the society. He may institute missions in all parts of the world. When
commanding in the name of Jesus Christ, and in virtue of obedience, he
commands under the penalty of mortal and venial sin. From his orders there
is no appeal to the Pope. He can release from vows; he can examine into
the consciences of the members; but it is useless to particularise—the
General is the society.5
The General alone, we have said, has power to make laws,
ordinances, and declarations. This power is theoretically bounded, though
practically absolute. It has been declared that everything essential ("
Substantia Institutionis ") to the society is immutable, and therefore
removed beyond the power of the General. But it has never yet been determined
what things belong to the essence of the institute. Many attempts have
been made to solve this question, but no solution that is comprehensible
has ever been arrived at; and so long as this question remains without
an answer, the powers of the General will remain without a limit.
Let us next attend to the organization
of the society. The Jesuit monarchy covers the globe. At its head, as
we have said, is a sovereign, who rules over all, but is himself ruled
over by no one. First come six grand divisions termed Assistanzen, satrapies
or princedoms. These comprehend the space stretching from the Indus to
the Mediterranean; more particularly India, Spain and Portugal, Germany
and France, Italy and Sicily, Poland and Lithuania.6 Outside this
area the Jesuits have established missions. The heads of these six divisions
act as coadjutors to their General; they are staff or cabinet. These six
great divisions are subdivided into thirty-seven Provinces.7
Over each province is placed a chief, termed a Provincial.
The provinces are again subdivided into a variety of houses or establishments.
First come the houses of the Professed, presided over by their Provost.
Next come the colleges, or houses of the novices and scholars, presided
over by their Rector or Superior. Where these cannot be established, "residences"
are erected, for the accommodation of the priests who perambulate the
district, preaching and hearing confessions. And lastly may be mentioned
"mission-houses," in which Jesuits live unnoticed as secular
clergy, but seeking, by all possible means, to promote the interests of
the society.8
From his chamber in Rome the eye of the General surveys
the world of Jesuitism to its farthest bounds; there is nothing done in
it which he does not see; there is nothing spoken in it which he does
not hear. It becomes us to note the means by which this almost superhuman
intelligence is acquired. Every year a list of the houses and members
of the society, with the name, talents, virtues, and failings of each,
is laid before the General. In addition to the annual report, every one
of the thirty-seven provincials must send him a report monthly of the
state of his province, he must inform him minutely of its political and
ecclesiastical condition. Every superior of a college must report once
every three months. The heads of houses of residence, and houses of novitiates,
must do the same. In short, from every quarter of his vast dominions come
a monthly and a tri-monthly report. If the matter reported on has reference
to persons outside the society, the Constitutions direct that the provincials
and superiors shall write to the General in cipher. "Such precautions
are taken against enemies," says M. de Chalotais. "Is the system
of the Jesuits inimical to all governments?"
Thus to the General of the Jesuits the world lies "naked
and open." He sees by a thousand eyes, he hears by a thousand ears;and
when he has a behest to execute, he can select the fittest agent from
an innumerable host, all of whom are ready to do his bidding. The past
history, the good and evil qualities of every member of the society, his
talents, his dispositions, his inclinations, his tastes, his secret thoughts,
have all been strictly examined, minutely chronicled, and laid before
the eye of the General. It is the same as if he were present in person,
and had seen and conversed with each.
All ranks, from the nobleman to the day-laborer; all trades,
from the opulent banker to the shoemaker and porter; all professions,
from the stoled dignitary and the learned professor to the cowled mendicant;
all grades of literary men, from the philosopher, the mathematician, and
the historian, to the schoolmaster and the reporter on the provincial
newspaper, are enrolled in the society. Marshalled, and in continual attendance,
before their chief, stand this host, so large in numbers, and so various
in gifts. At his word they go, and at his word they come, speeding over
seas and mountains, across frozen steppes, or burning plains, on his errand.
Pestilence, or battle, or death may lie on his path, the Jesuit’s
obedience is not less prompt. Selecting one, the General sends him to
the royal cabinet. Making choice of another, he opens to him the door
of Parliament. A third he enrolls in a political club; a fourth he places
in the pulpit of a church, whose creed he professes that he may betray
it; a fifth he commands to mingle in the saloons of the literati; a sixth
he sends to act his part in the Evangelical Conference; a seventh he seats
beside the domestic hearth; and an eighth he sends afar off to barbarous
tribes, where, speaking a strange tongue, and wearing a rough garment,
he executes, amidst hardships and perils, the will of his superior. There
is no disguise which the Jesuit will not wear, no art he will not employ,
no motive he will not feign, no creed he will not profess, provided only
he can acquit himself a true soldier in the Jesuit army, and accomplish
the work on which he has been sent forth. "We have men," exclaimed
a General exultingly, as he glanced over the long roll of philosophers,
orators, statesmen, and scholars who stood before him, ready to serve
him in the State or in the Church, in the camp or in the school, at home
or abroad— "We have men for martyrdom if they be required."
No one can be enrolled in the Society of Jesus till he
has undergone a severe and long-continued course of training. Let us glance
at the several grades of that great army, and the preparatory discipline
in the case of each. There are four classes of Jesuits. We begin with
the lowest. The Novitiates are the first in order of admission, the last
in dignity. When one presents himself for admission into the order, a
strict scrutiny takes place into his talents, his disposition, his family,
his former life; and if it is seen that he is not likely to be of service
to the society, he is at once dismissed. If his fitness appears probable,
he is received into the House of Primary
Probation.9 Here he is forbidden
all intercourse with the servants within and his relations outside the
house. A Compend of the Institutions is submitted for his consideration;
the full body of laws and regulations being withheld from him as yet.
If he possesses property he is told that he must give it to the poor—that
is, to the society. His tact and address, his sound judgment and business
talent, his health and bodily vigor, are all closely watched and noted;
above all, his obedience is subjected to severe experiment. If he acquits
himself on the trial to the satisfaction of his examiners, he receives
the Sacrament, and is advanced to the House of Second Probation.10
Here the discipline is of a yet severer kind. The novitiate
first devotes a certain period to confession of sins and meditation. He
next fulfills a course of service in the hospitals, learning humility
by helping the poor and ministering at the beds of the sick. To further
his advance in this grace, he next spends a certain term in begging his
bread from door to door. Thus; he learns to live on the coarsest fare
and to sleep on the hardest couch. To perfect himself in the virtue of
self-abnegation, he next discharges for awhile the most humiliating and
repulsive offices in the house in which he lives. And now, this course
of service ended, he is invited to show his powers of operating on others,
by communicating instruction to boys in Christian doctrine, by hearing
confessions, and by preaching in public.This course is to last two years,
unless the superior should see fit to shorten it on the ground of greater
zeal, or superior talent.
The period of probation at an end, the candidate for admission
into the Order of Jesus is to present himself before the superior, furnished
with certificates from those under whose eye he has fulfilled the six
experimenta, or trials, as to the manner in which he has acquitted himself.
If the testimonials should prove satisfactory to the superior, the novitiate
is enrolled, not as yet in the Company of the Jesuits, but among the Indifferents.
He is presumed to have no choice as regards the place he is to occupy
in the august corps he aspires to enter; he leaves that entirely to the
decision of the superior; he is equally ready to stand at the head or
at the foot of the body; to discharge the most menial or the most dignified
service; to play his part in the saloons of the great, encompassed by
luxury and splendor, or to discharge his mission in the hovels of the
poor, in the midst of misery and filth; to remain at home, or to go to
the ends of The period of probation at an end, the candidate for admission
into the Order of Jesus is to present himself before the superior, furnished
with certificates from those under whose eye he has fulfilled the six
experimenta, or trials, as to the manner in which he has acquitted himself.
If the testimonials should prove satisfactory to the superior, the novitiate
is enrolled, not as yet in the Company of the Jesuits, but among the Indifferents.
He is presumed to have no choice as regards the place he is to occupy
in the august corps he aspires to enter; he leaves that entirely to the
decision of the superior; he is equally ready to stand at the head or
at the foot of the body; to discharge the most menial or the most dignified
service; to play his part in the saloons of the great, encompassed by
luxury and splendor, or to discharge his mission in the hovels of the
poor, in the midst of misery and filth; to remain at home, or to go to
the ends of the earth. To have a preference, though unexpressed,
is to fall into deadly sin. Obedience is not only the letter of his vow,
it is the lesson that his training has written on his heart.11
This further trial gone through, the approved
novitiate may now take the three simple vows—poverty, chastity, and
obedience—which, with certain modifications, he must ever after renew
twice every year. The novitiate is now admitted into the class of Scholars.
The Jesuits have colleges of their own, amply endowed by wealthy devotees,
and to one of these the novitiate is sent, to receive instruction in the
higher mysteries of the society. His intellectual powers are here more
severely tested and trained, and according to the genius and subtlety
he may display, and his progress in his studies, so is the post assigned
him in due time in the order. "The qualities to be desired and commended
in the scholars," say the Constitutions, "are acuteness of talent,
brilliancy of example, and soundness of body."12 They are to
be chosen men, picked from the flower of the troop, and the General has
absolute power in admitting or dismissing them according to his expectations
of their utility in promoting the designs of the institute.13
Having finished his course, first
as a simple scholar, and secondly as an approved scholar, he renews his
three vows, and passes into the third class, or Coadjutors.
The coadjutors are divided into temporal
and spiritual. The temporal coadjutor is never admitted into holy orders.14
Such are retained to minister in the lowest offices.
They become college cooks, porters, or purveyors. For these and similar
purposes it is held expedient that they should be "lovers of virtue
and perfection," and "content to serve the society in the careful
office of a Martha."15 The spiritual coadjutor must be a priest of adequate
learning, that he may assist the society in hearing confessions, and giving
instructions in Christian doctrine. It is from among the spiritual coadjutors
that the rectors of colleges are usually selected by the General. It is
a further privilege of theirs that they may be assembled in congregation
to deliberate with the Professed members in matters of importance,16 but no vote
is granted them in the election of a General. Having passed with approbation
the many stringent tests to which he is here subjected, in order to perfect
his humility and obedience, and having duly deposited in the exchequer
of the society whatever property he may happen to possess, the spiritual
coadjutor, if a candidate for the highest grade, is admitted to the oblation
of his vows, which are similar in form and substance to those he has already
taken, with this exception, that they assign to the General the place
of God. "I promise," so runs the oath, "to the Omnipotent
God, in presence of his virgin mother, and of all the heavenly hierarchy,
and to thee, Father General of the Society of Jesus, holding the place
of God," 17 etc. With this oath sworn on its threshold, he enters
the inner circle of the society, and is enrolled among the Professed.
The Professed Members constitute the society
par excellence. They alone know its deepest secrets, and they alone wield
its highest powers. But perfection in Jesuitism cannot be reached otherwise
than by the loss of manhood. Will, judgment, conscience, liberty, all
the Jesuit lays down at the feet of his General. It is a tremendous sacrifice,
but to him the General is God. He now takes his fourth, or peculiar vow,
in which he binds himself to go, without question, delay, or repugnance,
to whatever region of the earth, and on whatever errand, the Pope may
be pleased to send him. This he promises to the Omnipotent God, and to
his General, holding the place of God. The wisdom, justice, righteousness
of the command he is not to question; he is not even to permit his mind
to dwell upon it for a moment; it is the command of his General, and the
command of his General is the precept of the Almighty. His superiors are
"over him in the place of the Divine Majesty."18
"In not fewer than 500 places in the Constitutions,"
says M. de la Chalotais, "are expressions used similar to the following:—"We
must always see Jesus Christ in the General; be obedient to him in all
his behests, as if they came directly from God himself.’"19
When the command of the superior goes forth, the person
to whom it is directed "is not to stay till he has finished the letter
his pen is tracing," say the Constitutions; "he must give instant
compliance, so that holy obedience may be perfect in us in every point—in
execution, in will, in intellect."20 Obedience is
styled "the tomb of the will," "a blessed blindness, which
causes the soul to see the road to salvation," and the members of
the society are taught to "immolate their will as a sheep is sacrificed."
The Jesuit is to be in the hands of his superior, "as the ax is in
the hands of the wood-cutter," or "as a staff is in the hands
of an old man, which serves him wherever and in whatever thing he is pleased
to use it." In fine, the Constitutions enjoin that "they who
live under obedience shall permit themselves to be moved and directed
under Divine Providence by their superiors just as if they were a
corpse, which allows itself to be moved and handled in any way."21 The annals of
mankind do not furnish another example of a despotism so finished. We
know of no other instance in which the members of the body are so numerous,
or the ramifications so wide, and yet the centralisation and cohesion
so perfect.
We have traced at some length the long
and severe discipline which every member must undergo before being admitted
into the select class that by way of eminence constitute the society.
Before arriving on the threshold of the inner circle of Jesuitism, three
times has the candidate passed through that terrible ordeal—first
as a novice, secondly as a scholar, thirdly as a coadjutor. Is his training
held to be complete when he is admitted among the Professed? No: a fourth
time must he undergo the same dreadful process. He is thrown back again
into the crucible, and kept amid its fires, till pride, and obstinacy,
and self-will, and love of ease—till judgment, soul, and conscience
have all been purged out of him, and then he comes forth, fully refined,
completely attempered and hardened, "a vessel fully fitted"
for the use of his General; prepared to execute with a conscience that
never remonstrates his most terrible command, and to undertake with a
will that never rebels the most difficult and dangerous enterprises he
may assign him. In the words of an eloquent writer—"Talk of
drilling and discipline! why, the drilling and the discipline which gave
to Alexander the men that marched in triumph from Macedon to the Indus;
to Caesar, the men that marched in triumph from Rome to the wilds of Caledonia;
to Hannibal, the men that marched in triumph from Carthage to Rome; to
Napoleon, the men whose achievements surpassed in brilliance the united
glories of the soldiers of Macedon, of Carthage, and of Rome; and to Wellington,
the men who smote into the dust the very flower of Napoleon’s chivalry—why,
the drilling and the discipline of all these combined cannot, in point
of stern, rigid, and protracted severity, for a moment be compared to
the drilling and discipline which fitted and molded men for becoming full
members of the militant institute of the Jesuits."22
Such Loyola saw was the corps that was needed to confront
the armies of Protestantism and turn back the advancing tide of light
and liberty. Touched with a Divine fire, the disciples of the Gospel attained
at once to a complete renunciation of self, and a magnanimity of soul
which enabled them to brave all dangers and endure all sufferings, and
to bear the standard of a recovered Gospel over deserts and oceans, in
the midst of hunger and pestilence, of dungeons and racks and fiery stakes.
It was vain to think of overcoming warriors like these unless by combatants
of an equal temper and spirit, and Loyola set himself to fashion such.
He could not clothe them with the panoply of light, he could not inspire
them with that holy and invincible courage which springs from faith, nor
could he so enkindle their souls with the love of the Savior, and the
joys of the life eternal, as that they should despise the sufferings of
time; but he could give them their counterfeits: he could enkindle them
with fanaticism, inspire them with a Luciferian ambition, and so pervert
and indurate their souls by evil maxims, and long and rigorous training,
that they should be insensible to shame and pain, and would welcome suffering
and death. Such were the weapons of the men he sent forth to the battle.
Footnotes
1 Bouhours, Life of Ignatius, bk. 1, p. 248.
2 See Mariani, Life of Loyola; Rome. 1842—English translation by Card.
Wiseman’s authority; Lond., 1847.
Bouhours, Life of Ignatius, bk. 3, p. 282.
3 Report on the Constitutions of the Jesuits, delivered by M. Louis Rene
de
Caraduc de la Chalotais, Procureur-General
of the King, to the
Parliament of Bretagne; 1761. In obedience
to the Court. Translated
from the French edition of 1762. Lond.,
1868. Pages 16, 17.
4 "Solus praepositus Generalis autoritatem habet regulas condendi."
(Can.
3rd., Congreg. 1, p. 698, tom. 1.)
5 Chalotais, Report on the Constitutions of the Jesuits, pp. 19-23.
6 Duller, p. 54.
7 Such was their number in 1761, when Chalotais gave in his Report to the
Parliament of Bretagne.
8 Chalotais’ Report. Duller p. 54.
9 Constit. Societatis Jesu, pars. 1, cap. 4, sec. 1, 2.
10 Examen 3 and 4, sec. 1 and 2—Parroisien, Principles of the Jesuits,
pp.
16-19; Lond., 1860.
11 Constit. Societatis Jesu, pars. 3, cap. 2, sec. 1, and pars, 5, cap.
4, sec. 5-
Parroisien, p. 22.
12 Ibid., pars. 4, cap. 3, sec. 2.
13 Ibid., pars. 8, cap. 1, sec. 2.
14 Examen 6, sec. 1.
15 Constit. Societatis Jesu, pars. 1, cap. 2, sec. 2.
16 Ibid., pars. 8, cap. 3, A.
17 "Locum Dei teneti." (Constit. Societatis Jesu, pars. 5, cap.
4, sec. 2.)
18 Constit. Societatis Jesu, pars. 7, cap. 1, sec. 1.
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