# The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Jesuits

Edition of 1879. See also Society of Jesus on Wikipedia; and the disclaimer.
JESUITS, or Society of Jesus (Span. Compañía de Jesus), a religious order of the Roman Catholic church. St. Ignatius Loyola, its founder, does not appear to have known that the title of “Society of Jesus” had been bestowed in the 15th century on an order of chivalry established by Pope Pius II., the members of which bound themselves by special vow to fight unceasingly against the Turks. This fact is attested in a letter of that pope dated Mantua, Oct. 13, 1459, and addressed to Charles VII. of France, begging him to permit one of his nobles “to enter into the society bearing the
name of Jesus, and which has been lately founded to tight for the glory of God against the infidels.” The efforts of Pius to organize a crusade for the rescue of Constantinople having failed, this new order expired almost at its birth. The appellation Societas Jesu was inserted in the Latin forms approved in 1540 by Paul III. The word “Jesuit,” it is said, was first used by Calvin in his “Institutes;” it is found in the register of the parliament of Paris in 1552; but at that time it was never used by the companions themselves. The actual title received much opposition from the Sorbonne in France, and even in Italy, where Sixtus V. ordered Claudio de Acquaviva, then general, to discontinue it. But Sixtus died before the order could be executed; and the title was expressly approved by Gregory XIV., June 28, 1594. Ignatius Loyola, very soon after his conversion, conceived the idea of a body of apostolic men specially devoted to the propagation of Christianity among the heathen. In his conception their organization and spirit were to partake somewhat of a military character; hence he always used the Spanish word compañía in designating his order, both before it had been canonically established, and in the constitutions which he afterward drew up for it. His original purpose, which he never abandoned, was to have the headquarters of this religious militia in Jerusalem. To effect this he visited that city as a pilgrim in 1523; but the resident Franciscan monks forbade his remaining there. Returning to Spain and becoming conscious that he lacked the literary culture necessary for the accomplishment of his design, he set about preparing himself by study in the universities, and while there collected a small band of young men whom he formed by ascetic exercises to a life of self-renouncement and devotion to the spiritual welfare of others. But the peculiarities of their dress and manner of living, and the discourses which they addressed to the people, excited the suspicions of the inquisitors. Ignatius was repeatedly imprisoned by the holy office, and forbidden to discourse in public or private on religious subjects. He thereupon separated himself from his companions, who never afterward joined him, and went to study in the university of Paris in January, 1528. There he soon gained as followers Pierre Lefèvre, a Savoyard, Francisco Xavier, Diego Laynez, Alfonso Salmeron, Nicolas Alfonso de Bobadilla, Spaniards, and Simon Rodriguez de Azevedo, a Portuguese. When each of these had been separately prepared by Ignatius for adopting a resolution conformable to his purpose, he assembled them in July, 1534, and disclosed to them his project of going to Palestine in order to labor there for the conversion of the Asiatic populations. He added that he would “bind himself to the death” to any among them who would follow him thither, and that he intended to confirm his purpose by taking before them all the vows of chastity and poverty. This
proposal was unanimously adopted; and on the morning of Aug. 15 following Ignatius and his six companions met in a crypt of the church of Notre Dame des Martyrs at Montmartre. Lefèvre, the only priest among them, celebrated mass, and all, before partaking of the communion, read a written engagement by which they renounced all worldly dignities and possessions, bound themselves to the journey to Palestine, to perpetual chastity and poverty, and to receive no stipend for their clerical functions. These vows were renewed annually in the same place while they remained in France to complete their theological studies and receive their degrees. Three more were added to the little band before Ignatius left Paris for Spain in March, 1535; and when on Jan. 6, 1537, they met in Venice, their number was increased to 13. Ignatius having incurred the resentment of Cardinal Caraffa, afterward Pope Paul IV., and not daring to visit Rome himself to solicit the pope's consent to their going to Palestine and his approval of their labors in that country, Lefèvre and the others undertook the journey to Rome amid great hardships. They were well received by Paul III., who, hearing that they were graduates of the university of Paris, made them discuss theological questions in his presence with the most learned Italians in Rome. After learning their manner of life, he approved of their project, gave them money for their expenses, and permission to receive holy orders forthwith. But, as the war between Venice and Turkey rendered the voyage to Palestine impossible, they spread themselves throughout the peninsula after their ordination, Ignatius, Lefèvre, and Laynez going to Rome in November, 1537. He now bade them say, when asked who they were, that they belonged to the compagnia di Gesù. The pope appointed Lefèvre and Laynez to chairs of theology in the university of Sapienza at Rome, and Ignatius occupied himself in directing persons who wished to perform his “Spiritual Exercises.” All of them embraced every opportunity of assembling and catechising the Roman children. In March, 1538, all the companions were summoned to Rome for the purpose of deliberating on the erection of the company into a religious order. But a formidable obstacle was raised by the renewal, before the inquisitors of Venice and Rome, of the charge of heresy formerly made against Ignatius in Spain and in Paris. He boldly went himself to the pope, and related to him the whole story of these inquisitorial persecutions, and demanded that an ordinary judge should be instantly appointed to inquire into the matter and decide without delay. To this the pope assented, and a solemn sentence acquitting Ignatius and his followers was issued Nov. 18, 1538. The pope, who recognized the importance of the service which the association could render in counteracting the spirit of Protestantism, immediately commanded schools to be opened throughout the city in which
Ignatius and his associates might teach the elements of Christian doctrine. At the same time a fearful famine in Rome afforded them the opportunity of displaying their charity. The pope would not have hesitated to recognize them at once as a religious order, had it not been that a commission appointed that very year to inquire into clerical abuses and scandals had presented to him a report discountenancing the establishment of new religious orders. Nevertheless, Ignatius and his companions began their deliberations in the first days of April, 1539, and a sketch of the proposed constitutions in five chapters was subscribed by all on May 4, and presented to the pope. The master of the sacred palace having reported favorably on this sketch, it was approved orally Sept. 3. Meanwhile these outlines were committed for thorough examination to three cardinals, among whom Cardinal Guidiccioni was so opposed to the introduction of new orders that he would not at first even read the sketch. At length having done so, he changed his mind, won over his colleagues to his opinion, and the bull of confirmation, Regimini militantis ecclesiæ, was signed Sept. 27, 1540, and promulgated in the spring of 1541. It restricted the number of “professed” members to 60; but this restriction was removed, March 14, 1543. A written promise of entering the company after its confirmation by the pope had been signed by 11 of the members, including Ignatius, on April 15, 1539. After their deliberations closed on May 4, most of them were sent by the pope on various missions. Codure, Le Jay, Ignatius, and Francis Xavier remained in Rome, Xavier being secretary and keeping up the correspondence with the absent members. On March 15, 1540, Ignatius informed Xavier that he was to leave Rome the next day for Lisbon and the East Indies. At the same time the pope destined others for Ireland in order to counteract there the measures of Henry VIII. At the Easter of 1541 Ignatius was unanimously chosen general, those absent from Rome sending their votes in writing, and he entered on the office April 13. In conformity with the will of the pope and the wish of his companions, he now began to draw up constitutions for the new order. He had read previously the lives of the founders of religions orders, as well as the rules which they had framed for their followers; but while engaged in framing the constitutions of the society, he shut himself up, with no books near him save the Bible and the “Imitation of Christ,” preparing himself before he wrote by prayer and meditation, then placing what he had written upon the altar during mass, and only consulting with the other fathers when he had well considered each matter himself and come to some decision. These constitutions, drawn up in Spanish, and translated into Latin under the eyes of Ignatius, received high praise from Cardinal Richelieu. They are now accessible to all (Institutum Societatis Jesu, 2 vols., Avignon, 1827-'38, a reprint from the
official edition of Prague, 2 vols., 1757). It was only in 1550 that they were so far complete that Ignatius could communicate them to an assembly of the professed who had been summoned to Rome, including Laynez and Francis Borgia. He wished his work to be suitable for all without distinction, so that the difference of countries and nations, of manners and dispositions, should require neither exceptions nor dispensations. He also submitted the constitutions to the judgment of the absent. They were examined with the most minute attention, and were only published when every correction or addition suggested and deemed necessary had been made. In 1553 they were sent upon trial to Spain, Portugal, and other countries, in order that they should be approved by the whole body only when found everywhere to be in perfect accordance with the design of the society. This sanction of the whole body was not given to them till 1558, after the death of Ignatius, and in the congregation assembled to choose his successor. They were revised with the utmost care, and confirmed with unanimity. They were then presented to Pope Paul IV., who appointed a commission of four cardinals to examine them. These approved the constitutions unanimously, and the pope confirmed them without changing a single word. Laynez added nothing to them, nor is it on record that he had any more to do with the framing of them than any other of the members consulted by Ignatius. — The kernel or indestructible portion of these constitutions is found in the draft presented to Paul III. and first approved by him. In this it is said that “whoever wishes to enter the society of Jesus, to fight under the standard of the cross and of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, and to serve the church his spouse under his vicar the Roman pontiff, must keep in mind that this society has been established for the defence and propagation of the faith, for promoting the salvation of souls, by teaching Christian doctrine and Christian life, by explaining the word of God, by giving the ‘Spiritual Exercises,’ by teaching catechism to the young and ignorant, by the administration of the sacraments, and especially the sacrament of penance. He must keep also in mind that its object is to perform works of mercy, more particularly for the sick and the imprisoned; and all this is to be done gratuitously and without any earthly compensation.” The constitutions are divided into 10 parts. The 1st describes the qualities which allow or forbid the admission to noviceship; the 2d, the causes and manner of rejection; the 3d and 4th relate to health, devotion, and study; the 5th explains the profession of the four vows and the inferior degrees; the 6th and 7th instruct the professed and spiritual coadjutors in their various offices; the 8th and 9th concern the general, his election, authority, and duties; the 10th gives general directions for the conservation and increase of the society. The greatest discrimination is used in the choice
of candidates for membership. Some circumstances or qualities form absolute impediments to admission, such as illegitimate birth or infamous descent, public heresy or apostasy, such crimes as murder or enormous secret sins, the brand of a degrading judicial sentence, matrimonial ties, membership even for one day in another religious order, and insanity or notable weakness of intellect. Less serious impediments, such as ill temper, obstinacy, injudicious enthusiasm or visionary devotion, the being involved in debt, &c., may be compensated by other redeeming qualities and circumstances. The first probation consists of a period of some weeks spent by the candidate in a house of the society, during which he is given to read the Examen Generale, taken from the first part of the constitutions, containing a series of questions, which he is required to answer truthfully. His examiner is bound to the strictest secrecy as to the answers. These questions involve every possible impediment to his admission. He is required also to declare if he is perfectly free in his determination to enter, or if he is led to do so by friendship for any member of the society. He is finally asked if he is willing that all letters written by him or addressed to him shall be opened by the superior; if he consents that the superior shall admonish him of all imperfections and faults which he may remark in him, and that his companions shall report the same to the superior; and, finally, if he will be content to accept any grade, occupation, or office in the society which may be assigned to him. The candidate, having waived his natural rights on these points, is admitted to his second probation or noviceship, which lasts two years and one day from the date of his first entrance. During the first year the novices devote a full month to the performance of the “Spiritual Exercises,” which they are required to master as an indispensable instrument of future utility to others. The whole two years are given up to spiritual things. They teach the elements of Christian doctrine to children and the poor, serve the sick for a month in some hospital, and travel during another month from place to place without money, and subsisting on the charity received by the way. They have also daily conferences or lessons on the constitutions and rules of the society. The severest scrutiny is exercised with regard to the capacity and dispositions of each novice, and every means is employed to encourage him to correct what is faulty and to perfect what is praiseworthy in his conduct. Such as are destined for the priesthood are called “scholastic novices;” the others, who are to be lay brothers, are not allowed to rise any further in secular knowledge. They must be content with what they already possess, and apply themselves to the acquisition of humility and solid piety. At the end of these two years, the novices pronounce the simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, with a formal promise to enter the society at a future
day, implying an engagement to accept readily any degree which may be given them therein. Such as are destined to study now assume the name of formed scholastics (scholastici formati). If they are young enough, a space of two years, called juniorship or juvenate, is spent by them in cultivating Latin and Greek letters and rhetoric; then three years are given in a scholasticate to mental and moral philosophy and the sciences. The professors in these special seminaries are all men who have themselves passed through the entire curriculum of sacred and profane science, and have either made the profession of the four vows, or are destined to do so in due time. Every six months the scholastics undergo a most searching examination before four sworn examiners, who send separately their sealed suffrages to the general and the local provincial. At the end of the philosophical course the scholastic is sent to teach in a college, both for the purpose of enabling him to apply his acquired knowledge and of training him to the science of governing men. Should his age permit, he begins with the lowest grammar and leads his scholars up to humanities and rhetoric. This is called by the French cours de régence, and is followed by the study of theology, Scripture, canon law, and church history, which lasts four years. The half-yearly examination here becomes still more rigorous, and at the end of the third year it is increased in length and severity. Should the candidate break down in this, he is not allowed to proceed in his fourth year of study. At the end of the third year the scholastics are raised to the priesthood. The fourth year closes with the examen ad gradum, or the examination which qualifies the successful candidate for the profession of the four vows, the highest rank in the society. Three months in advance of the day appointed for this, the candidate is given a series of theses embracing the substance of dogmatical theology, intellectual philosophy, and the natural sciences. He is freed from every other occupation in order thoroughly to prepare himself for the ordeal. The examination takes place before a commission of four examiners presided over by the rector, and lasts two hours, each examiner being bound by his oath to propound the most searching questions and formidable objections during half an hour. The suffrage, delivered sealed to the general and the provincial, attests that the “candidate is (or is not) able to teach the whole of theology, philosophy, and the sciences in any university.” This intellectual ordeal is one regular condition for obtaining the degree of professed; the other and a more indispensable condition is proficiency in solid virtue as well as in learning. Sometimes young men of extraordinary eloquence are allowed, after passing this last examination, to spend two years more in Biblical and patristic studies. Generally, however, they pass from the theologate to what is known as the third “probation,” which is an
entire year spent in a special establishment and under a master thoroughly versed in asceticism and a knowledge of the constitutions of the society. Their exercises are substantially those of noviceship or second probation, a full month being devoted to the “Spiritual Exercises,” another to pilgrimage, and a third to giving retreats or missions. This year St. Ignatius called the “school of the heart.” When the special informations sent to the general concerning the probationists assure him that they possess that superiority in virtue and science required by the constitutions, he awards them their degree of professed of the four vows. Throughout this protracted course of studies and probation, every precaution is taken that the mind shall not be diverted from the object of study, that the bodily health shall not be injured by intense mental application, and that the springs of piety in the soul shall not be dried up by the exclusive culture of the intellect. The establishments in which the young Jesuits are trained are allowed by Ignatius to receive endowments, or they are supported by taxes levied on all the houses of the province, or, in some instances, wealthy novices are allowed to retain the possession of their property, but not the disposal of their revenues, until their studies and probation are ended, and thus to pay their own expenses. But in no case are they allowed to seek outside of the house for alms, or to be turned away in any manner from their studies. The members of the society who have taken their final vows, socii formati, are distinguished into three classes, the professed, the spiritual coadjutors, and lay brothers, or temporal coadjutors. The degree of professed of three vows is an honorary distinction bestowed for some signal service or great quality on priests who do not possess the regular theological or scientific attainments required for the profession of the four vows; this distinction enables its subject to rank with the latter, but not to hold the offices reserved to them, such as those of general, provincial, and elector in a general congregation. The “professed society” (societas professa) constitutes the core of the whole body; the coadjutors, both spiritual and temporal, are only auxiliaries or helpers. To the professed society belong the colleges, seminaries, houses, and residences of the order, together with all other property whatsoever, movable and immovable; and it is in its name that this property is held and administered by the coadjutors. In ordinary life the professed are not distinguished from the spiritual coadjutors. The latter are appointed in preference to the government of lay colleges and seminaries, to superiorships in residences, &c.; while the professed are left free to preach, or to teach the higher branches of sacred and profane science, and it is only by certain reserved occupations and functions that their rank is known to the majority of their brethren. — The whole order is divided into assistancies, of which there are
at present five, distributed according to the foremost European races or languages, namely, those of Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and England. The original assistancy of Portugal has been abolished since the total extinction of the society in that country, and that of England has been recently created. Each assistancy embraces several provinces and missions. A province comprises one or more colleges, a novitiate, scholasticate, and residences with a stated number of professed. It has a certain autonomy, and depends on the general only in the measure prescribed by the constitutions. At the head of the order is a general (præpositus generalis), who is elected for life in a general congregation composed of the provincials and two delegates from each province. They elect at the same time the five assistants who form his council, the secretary of the society, and an admonitor, whose duty it is to observe the conduct and actions of the general and to admonish him when necessary. If they see in his conduct anything censurable, they must lay their observations before him; and in a case of great urgency or visible scandal, the assistants can summon without his assent a general congregation, or even depose him themselves, after obtaining by letter the suffrages of the provinces. The power of the general, so long as he acts within the limits of the constitutions, is very great. He appoints the provincials, rectors of colleges, scholasticates, and novitiates, the superiors of professed houses and residences, together with the executive officer in each house, called minister; these are properly denominated superiors, and have a right to command. The inferior officers are nominated by the provincial with the approbation of the general. Every provincial, rector, and superior has his council of four consultors and his admonitor. The provincial is required to report every month to the general; the other superiors report every three months. The consultors, both provincial and local, are bound to report separately at stated times. Every three years deputies elected by the provincial congregations meet in Rome or wherever the general resides. They compose what is called the “congregation of procurators,” and one of their chief functions is to decide on the necessity of convening a general congregation. They also bear to the general from each province a complete catalogue of its members, detailing the conduct and capacity of each. In the general congregation resides the supreme legislative power. The provincial congregation is composed of the provincial, rectors, and senior professed members. The term of office for all superiors below the general is three years. Provincials visit every house in their jurisdiction once a year, to see that the constitutions are exactly observed by all. During this visitation rigorous inquiry is made into the temporal and spiritual welfare of each house. Every member, beginning with the rector or superior, has to render to the provincial a full account of
his conscience, of his temptations and trials, and the difficulties he meets with in the performance of his special office. This “manifestation of conscience,” whether made in sacramental confession or not, obliges the provincial to the most inviolable secrecy. He can only make of the knowledge thus acquired the use which the inferior permits him. At the same time the latter is informed of the defects which have been remarked in his conduct. This practice is one of the fundamental points or subatantialia of the constitutions, and contributes above all others to give to the government of the society its extraordinary power, as well as to make obedience easy. Another chief object of this yearly visitation is to correct every abuse in the matter of poverty. Obedience and dependent poverty are the two mainsprings of the order. One of the vows made at the time of the solemn profession binds the professed to maintain the obligations of poverty inviolable, or to make them more rigorous. The rectors and local superiors yearly demand the same “account of conscience” of their subjects; and as all who have not pronounced their last solemn vows renew their simple vows twice a year, this renewal affords a fitting opportunity for repairing every violation of religious poverty. Before the time of Ignatius one year's novitiate only was required before admission to membership in a religious order, and the emission of the solemn religious vows. In his constitutions, besides a novitiate of two full years, he demanded a further probation of several years before any one was admitted to final membership. Thus there are three kinds of vows made by Jesuits to the society: the simple vows made at the end of the novitiate, and renewed every six months, but not accepted by the society; the simple but final vows made by the coadjutors, both temporal and spiritual, when they are solemnly admitted into the society, which accepts them by the hands of the local superior; and the solemn vows made by the professed. The fourth solemn vow is to the pope, and binds the Jesuit to go wherever the former may send him for the service of the church. The professed, besides these four which are made publicly in the church, pronounce in private immediately afterward a formula containing several simple vows, among them one binding them neither to seek nor to accept any dignity or office in the society or in the church, and to denounce all of their brethren whom they know to be seeking them. The society of Jesus never admitted a third order, like the Dominicans and Franciscans; and St. Ignatius inflexibly refused not only to allow nuns to have any fellowship with the society, but to permit its members to be cumbered with the direction of nuns. There never has been any body of men or women directly or indirectly affiliated to the Jesuits. The dress adopted by St. Ignatius and his companions was that of the better class of Spanish secular priests. It
consists in a black cassock and cloak, and has been somewhat modified in various provinces. Two popes (Paul IV. and Pius V.) and one general (Francis Borgia) wished to assimilate the Jesuits in some points more to the other religious orders, in particular by introducing the observance of the canonical hours; but this was soon given up, and the whole energy of the order was directed to laboring in behalf of the church by means of education and missions. — As the “Spiritual Exercises” of St. Ignatius moulded not only his own religious character and that of his early companions, but the spirit of the society, it is impossible to understand either its constitutions or the private and public life of its members, without having some conception of the nature and aim of that famous book. It is not a book to be merely read; for it contains only germs of thought, and rude outlines of meditations on the great Christian truths and facts of gospel history. The “exercises” consist in a graduated series of meditations on the creation and destiny of man; on the degradation and misery wrought by sin; on the restoration of the fallen children of God to their true rank in Christ, and the manifestation of true heroism in following him, in poverty, toil, humiliation, suffering, and death. The meditations are intermingled with practical rules for examining one's conscience, for the prudent use of penitential austerities, for detecting and resisting temptations, for discovering the action of the good spirit on one's soul from that of the evil one, for making a safe election in determining one's calling in life, for a right distribution of alms, for moderating one's appetite in eating and drinking, and finally for conforming one's judgment to that of the church. These exercises, when fully performed in retirement, last over a month, and are divided into four stages or “weeks.” In the first, the truth of God's right over man's being, faculties, and life is, made the foundation of all the subsequent exercises, and a practical “indifference” in the use of all things, states, and conditions of life is inculcated as a necessary conclusion from the fact that wealth and poverty, health and sickness, are only means to an end, and in themselves indifferent. The foundation of religious poverty and self-renouncement is thus laid at the very outset. Then come the meditations on sin and its punishments in time and eternity, terminating with the contemplation of Christ crucified, and the mingled sentiments of grief and love, shame and generosity, inspired by the consciousness of one's own guilt in presence of the divine victim of sin. Next comes the meditation of Christ our king as the model of the generosity to be thenceforth displayed in serving God. Ignatius proposes here the conception formed at Manresa, when he had renounced the secucular militia for a life of spiritual chivalry. Christ presents himself as a king inviting all his subjects to aid him in subjecting the whole earth to God, asking none to follow where he
does not lead himself, and promising certain victory with a fellowship in glory after a fellowship in toil and danger. The offer to follow Christ, not as the crowd may, but in the foremost ranks of those who shall wear his livery and share his poverty and privations, lays the foundation of what Ignatius conceives to be the apostolic virtues. These dispositions are fostered and continually increased by the meditations which follow on the incarnation, the nativity, the flight into Egypt, the private life of Christ at Nazareth, and the labors of his public career. In the midst of these meditations come the exercises known as the “three degrees of humility” and the “three classes of men,” the whole drift of which is to raise the spiritual enthusiasm or generosity of the soul to the point of resolving to leave all to follow Christ in shame and suffering, and be content only when it has embraced what is most repugnant to flesh and blood and the judgment of the world. This resolution is still further intensified and confirmed by the meditations on Christ crucified which occupy the third week; and the meditations on the resurrection and the life of Christ with his apostles and disciples until his ascension are destined to set forth a perfect model of the sweetness to be enjoyed in Christ's company, in such a society as Ignatius contemplated. — The society spread with unparalleled rapidity, so that it was said to have had no period of youth. At the death of Ignatius there were 1,000 members in 12 provinces; soon after the death of Acquaviva, in 1615, 13,000 members in 32 provinces; in 1749, 24 professed houses, 669 colleges, 176 seminaries, 61 novitiates, 335 residences, 273 missions in Protestant and pagan countries, and about 22,600 members. In Portugal it was introduced as early as 1540 by St. Francis Xavier and Rodriguez, who found a zealous patron in King John III. Rodriguez established a college at Coimbra, which in 1544 counted 60 members. A considerable number of young noblemen prayed for admission, and thus the order soon became influential. King John appointed at the same time two Jesuits to be judges of the inquisition, but Ignatius forbade them to accept the office. “For,” said he, “the society has for its mission the assistance of our neighbor by preaching and the duties of the confessional; moreover, it were undesirable that its members had power to punish heretics with death. On the contrary, their duty is to console with priestly kindness these unfortunate men.” In Spain the Jesuits had at first to overcome the opposition of several bishops, but the patronage of Francis Borgia, at that time governor of Barcelona, soon procured for them a favorable reception and a number of houses and colleges, and at the university of Salamanca they received some of the theological chairs. In France, where they likewise appeared as early as 1540, they met with a very decided resistance on the part of the parliament, the university of Paris,
and many bishops. They could not secure a legal existence until 1562, when they were recognized as “fathers of the college of Clermont.” The parliament at first refused to register the royal patent, but had at length to yield to the order of the king. They were unable, however, to overcome the opposition of the parliament and the Sorbonne. When Châtel, who had studied in one of their colleges, made an attempt against the life of Henry IV., they were expelled from France by a decree of the parliament in 1594, and Père Guignard, who was accused of having approved the attempt of assassination, was put to death. Henry IV. himself recalled them in 1603, and from that year they remained in the undisturbed possession of their property. They enjoyed the confidence of Louis XIII., Cardinal Richelieu, and Louis XIV., and were the principal combatants against the doctrines of the Jansenists. Their colleges were very numerous, and among their pupils were Descartes, Bossuet, Corneille, Voltaire, and the astronomer Lalande. Two Jesuits were sent to Ireland as papal nuncios in the reign of Henry VIII. Elizabeth expelled them from her dominions, and forbade them upon penalty of death to return. We find them, nevertheless, again as missionaries in the reign of James I., and after the discovery of the gunpowder plot (1605) Father Garnet, to whom the plot had been communicated by his subordinate in an “account of conscience,” was put to death. In 1678 Titus Gates charged them with having entered into a conspiracy against Charles II. and the state, in consequence of which six Jesuits were put to death. In spite of several decrees against the public exercise of the Roman Catholic religion in England in general and the residence of Jesuits in particular, the society maintained itself there, although it never became very numerous. The Jesuits first appeared in Germany about 1549, at the instance of Duke William of Bavaria and of Ferdinand I. of Austria; Salmeron and Peter Canisius being appointed professors of theology in the university of Ingolstadt, and others at Prague. The society received chairs in the colleges at Cologne (1556), Munich (1559), Treves (1561), Augsburg (1563), and several other places. In Italy they spread more rapidly and more extensively than in any other country. They were banished from Venice in 1606, and the popes did not succeed until 1657 in causing their restoration. One of the wars between France and Charles V., during which all Spaniards were ordered to leave France, brought some Jesuits to the Netherlands soon after the foundation of the society. They gained a firm footing under Philip II., although the bishops showed them less favor than in other countries. In Transylvania they were favored by Prince Christopher Báthori and his son and successor Sigismund, but the assembly of the states compelled the latter prince in 1588 to sign a decree of banishment. They became very numerous in Poland, which they divided
before the end of the 16th century into two provinces, and where they had houses and colleges in 20 towns. In Sweden they made great efforts, under John III. and Sigismund, to restore the sway of the Roman Catholic church, but the dethronement of Sigismund in 1604 destroyed their hopes. In Russia favorable prospects seemed to open for them with the reign of Pseudo-Demetrius, but the fall of this prince involved that of the Jesuits. — The missionary activity of the Jesuits among the pagans commenced in 1541, the year after the foundation of the order. Francis Xavier sailed in that year to the East Indies, founded a college at Goa, preached in Travancore, Malacca, Macassar, the islands, and Japan, and baptized a vast number of pagans. Other members of the order preached in Madura, Ceylon, and many other places, and the Christian population of their missions in India rose to 100,000. Some members of the society, especially Robert de' Nobili, appeared as Brahmans, and tried to excel the Hindoo Brahmans as sages and penitents, regarding this as the most efficient means of obtaining the confidence of the Hindoo population. The mission in Japan was commenced by Francis Xavier in 1549; several princes were converted, and some natives were received into the society. In 1613 the Portuguese Jesuits had in Japan two colleges, eight residences, and three professed houses; but the persecution which soon after broke out against the Catholics put an end to their establishments. Their last member, a native of Japan, was put to death in 1636. Father Rogerius penetrated into China in 1584, disguised as a merchant. Ricci established a reputation as one of the best Chinese scholars. Others became the teachers and ministers of several emperors. In 1692 they obtained a decree by which Christianity was declared to be a sacred law and the missionaries virtuous men. The number of converts was very large, and amounted in the province of Kiangsu alone to 100,000. But a controversy with several other orders on the conformity of the Jesuits to the pagan customs in China and India was decided by the pope against the Jesuits, and proved a fatal blow to the prosperity of their missions in these countries. Cochin China (1614) and Tonquin (1627) became likewise missionary fields for Jesuits; the congregations in Tonquin in 1640 numbered 100,000 members, but they were cruelly persecuted. The most celebrated of the Jesuit missions was that established in Paraguay, where they Christianized and civilized an Indian population of from 100,000 to 200,000 souls. With the consent of the Spanish authorities they retained the civil dominion over the Indians, and their principles of government have been commended by many who in other respects were their opponents, as Montesquieu, Muratori, and Southey; while many of their admirers have represented Paraguay under the sway of the Jesuits as more free from vice and corruption than any
other state of modern times. The prosperity of these missions was interrupted in 1750, when Spain ceded seven parishes to Portugal, and the Indians, with an army of 14,000 men, resisted the execution of this project. After some time, however, the former state of things and the dominion of the Jesuits were restored, both of which continued until the suppression of the order in Spain. In 1566 they were sent to Florida, which in the following year was formed into a vice province of the order, and a school for the children of the Florida Indians was commenced in Havana (1568). On the invitation of a Virginian chief, called by the Spaniards Don Luis, Father Segura, the vice provincial, with seven members of the order and some Indian youths who had been educated at Havana, undertook to establish a new mission on the banks of the Chesapeake, or St. Mary's bay. But the Indian proved to be a traitor, and Father Segura with all his companions except one lost their lives (1570). This led the Jesuits to abandon Florida for Mexico. The first mission of the Jesuits in California was established by Father Eusebius Külm or Kino, in 1683; gradually they founded 16 missionary stations, each of which was generally directed by one missionary. They administered these missions until the suppression of the order in Spain and the Spanish possessions. In 1611 the Jesuits established their first mission in the French possessions in America. This mission was interrupted for a time by the English, who in 1629 took Quebec and carried off the missionaries; but their work was resumed in 1633, and for nearly half a century they wrestled with paganism in the northern wilds. Quebec remained their centre, whence Jesuit missionaries were sent far and wide. The most distant effort made by the Jesuits was a mission in Arkansas. When Louisiana was settled, Jesuits were sent from France to undertake missions on the lower Mississippi, but these missions were not subject to the superior at Quebec, but to another at New Orleans. After the restoration of the order, the Jesuits recommenced their missions among the Indians on the Missouri in 1824, which gradually extended over a number of tribes. In 1840 the mission in Oregon was commenced by Father de Smet, one of the most celebrated missionaries of the order in the present century. Other missions were established among the tribes near the Amazon river in Brazil (1549), Peru (1567), Mexico (1572), the Antilles (1700), Congo and Angola, on the W. coast of Africa (1560), and Turkey (1627), where they effected in particular the submission of many members of the eastern churches to the authority of the pope. Toward the middle of the 18th century the prime ministers of Portugal (Pombal), Spain (Aranda), and France (Choiseul) resolved nearly at the same time upon the expulsion of the Jesuits from their countries. Pombal was incensed against them, ostensibly because he
suspected them of having instigated the Indians in Paraguay to resist the execution of the treaty of cession above mentioned. Soon after an attempt was made to assassinate Joseph Emanuel, king of Portugal, and several Jesuits, particularly Father Malagrida, were accused of having been privy to the plot. Pombal requested the pope to take measures against the Jesuits; but as Clement XIII. took their defence, a royal edict of Sept. 3, 1759, declared the Jesuits to be traitors, suppressed the order in Portugal, Brazil, and the other Portuguese colonies, and confiscated its property. All the Jesuits living in Portugal were transported to the Papal States. In France they fell into disfavor at court when the two fathers who were the confessors of Louis XV. and Mme. de Pompadour refused to admit them to the sacraments, unless the latter was dismissed from court. Mme. de Pompadour and Choiseul united their influence with that of the parliament to suppress the order. At the same time its reputation among the people, which had long before been injured by the lax contents of some Jesuit books of casuistry, suffered greatly in consequence of the unfortunate commercial operations of Lavalette, superior of an establishment of the order in Martinique. Lavalette speculated largely in colonial produce, and, when two of his ships were taken by the English, became a bankrupt. A firm in Marseilles brought a suit for indemnification against the whole society, and the inferior courts as well as the parliament of Paris, to which the Jesuits appealed, gave sentence against them, and made them pay 2,000,000 livres to the plaintiff and the costs. Louis XV., who wished to save the society, at first yielded to the urgent calls for its suppression only so far as to demand in Rome that the society be reformed, and that the French Jesuits be placed under a vicar of their own. To this demand the general, Ricci, is reported to have given the famous response: Sint ut sunt, aut non sint; whereupon the king expelled them from France in 1764. Their expulsion from Spain was effected in 1767 by Aranda, on the charge, according to some historians, that treasonable writings had been discovered in one of the colleges, which declared the king a bastard and not entitled to the throne. But the true reason is not known, as the king declared that he kept the secret “locked up in his royal heart.” On April 2 all the Jesuits of Spain and the Spanish colonies were arrested at the same hour, and shipped to the territory of the pope, who, at the request of the general of the order, refused to receive them. At the same time, and in a similar way, the order was suppressed in Naples, Parma, and Malta. On Dec. 10, 1768, all the Bourbon courts (France, Spain, Naples, and Parma) demanded from the pope its entire suppression for the whole church. Shortly afterward the pope died (1769), and the Bourbon courts succeeded in procuring the election of Clement XIV.
(Ganganelli), who had given to the minister of Spain a written declaration that a pope, without acting against the canonical laws, was at liberty to suppress the order. For four years Clement XIV. endeavored to put off an event from which he feared the worst consequences; but at length, when also the court of Vienna consented to the suppression of the Jesuits, he issued, July 21, 1773, the famous brief, Dominui ac Redemptor noster, by which the suppression of the society of Jesus in all the states of Christendom was declared. The brief, though not signed or published with the usual canonical formalities, was quickly complied with; yet the archives and treasures found in searching their houses did not equal in importance and amount the public anticipation. The ex-Jesuits had the choice either to enter other religious orders or to place themselves under the jurisdiction of the bishops. Everywhere, except in Portugal, they received an annuity from the proceeds of their confiscated property. In Rome and the Papal States the colleges and houses of the suppressed society were intrusted to secular priests, who employed many of the former professors, and kept up the method and discipline of their schools. A general resistance to the brief of suppression had been expected from the Jesuits and their many powerful friends; and in anticipation of this, as well as to secure possession of the large funds supposed to be hoarded up in their houses at Rome, the general, Lorenzo Ricci, was imprisoned in the castle of Sant' Angelo. The members of the order, however, submitted everywhere without hesitation to the pontifical will, Ricci did nothing to incite resistance, and the minutest search discovered no treasures. Ricci on his deathbed, in November, 1775, as he was about to receive the sacrament, read a solemn protest on the part of the extinct society, affirming that the conduct of its members afforded no grounds for the suppression, and that he had himself given no reason for his imprisonment. In Prussia, although they had to abandon the constitution of the order (1776), the favor of Frederick II., who esteemed them as teachers, permitted them to continue as an organized society, under the name of priests of the royal school institute; but this institute also was abolished by Frederick William II. In Russia, which with the eastern part of Poland had received in 1772 several houses of Jesuits, they enjoyed the patronage of the empress Catharine II., who appointed an ex-Jesuit coadjutor of the archbishop of Mohilev, and sent him in 1783 as her minister to Rome. He urged Pius VI. to recognize the society as validly existing in Russia, and Pius, moved by the memoir presented to him by Cardinal Albani, as well as by the opinion prevalent in the college of cardinals, that the brief of Clement XIV. was uncanonical, granted to the Russian Jesuits permission to elect a vicar general. The number of Jesuits in Russia amounted at that time to 178, and the total number of ex-Jesuits
was estimated at about 9,000. Attempts to restore the order under other names were made in 1704, when the ex-Jesuits De Broglie and De Tournely founded the “Society of the Sacred Heart,” and in 1798, when Paccanari founded the “Society of the Faith of Jesus,” known as pères de la foi. This latter organization, in spite of the defection of its founder, maintained its existence, and its members formed the nucleus of the restored society in France. The prospects of restoration dawned with the pontificate of Pius VII. (1800). Solicited by Ferdinand IV., he authorized in 1804 the introduction of the order into the kingdom of the Two Sicilies; and on Aug. 7, 1814, he issued the bull of restoration. The vicar general of Russia, Brzozowski, was recognized in Rome as general. At his death an attempt was made to have the constitutions changed in such a way as to suit the altered circumstances of society. At the head of the influential persons who originated and actively favored this scheme was Cardinal della Genga, soon to be Pope Leo XII. The vicar general appointed to govern the order during the interim was drawn into the scheme, and despatched couriers with sealed orders to the electors already on their way to Rome, commanding them to proceed no further on their journey. The assistant of France, De Rozaven, in the name of his colleagues, issued a counter order, enjoining on the deputies to hasten to Rome. Not one failed to be there on the appointed day, and the first act of the congregation was to decree the expulsion of the vicar general and his associates in the order, among whom was the celebrated Padre Ventura, afterward the uncompromising opponent of the Jesuits. Aloisio Fortis was elected general, Oct. 18, 1822, and took up his residence at the Gesù in Rome. Cardinal della Genga succeeded Pius VII. Sept. 28, 1823, and his election filled the Jesuits with alarm; but the new pope on his way to St. John Lateran descended from his chair of state in front of the Gesù, to bless the general and his household. In 1824 the Jesuits received the direction of the Roman college, and in 1836, under Gregory XVI., of the college of the propaganda. As no Jesuits were allowed to occupy chairs in the latter, and the teaching was principally intrusted to their theological opponents, their connection with it became a source of such serious annoyance, that Pius IX. in 1850, at the petition of Father Roothaan, relieved them from this charge. In Modena, Sardinia, and Naples they were restored in 1815, and reinstated in the possession of a part or the whole of the former property of the order, and several new houses were established. They returned to Lombardy in 1837, to Parma and Venice in 1844, and to Tuscany (for a short time) in 1846. The revolution of 1848 endangered their existence in all Italy; mobs attacked their houses in Genoa and Naples, and they were expelled from nearly every state, even from the dominions of the pope. The general
found for some time a refuge in England. They returned after the success of the counter revolution in 1849 to most states, except Sardinia and Tuscany, but were again expelled by the movements of 1859 from Lombardy, Parma, Modena, and the legations. In Naples the principal organ of the Jesuits, the Civiltà Cattolica of Rome, was prohibited in 1855 for having censured the government; but in 1858 they received from the latter new marks of confidence. In 1860 the progress of Garibaldi in Sicily and the Neapolitan provinces was attended by the expulsion of the Jesuits and the sequestration of their property. The establishment of the kingdom of Italy was the signal for the final suppression of the order in the peninsula. Pius IX., who was thought not to favor them in the beginning of his pontificate, gave them many proofs of special affection after his return from Gaëta. As province after province was taken from him, the Jesuits were driven from their houses. When Rome became the capital of Italy in 1870, the Italian parliament decreed the suppression of all religious orders and corporations. The houses destined as residences for the heads of these orders and their officers were at first reserved from the general decree; but in October, 1873, despite the efforts of the Italian ministry, these central residences were suppressed by the legislature, and no Jesuit at present legally exists in Rome or elsewhere in Italy. In Portugal, John VI. protested against their restoration; Dom Miguel admitted them by a decree of 1829, but Dom Pedro exiled them in 1834, since which time there have been no recognized communities of Jesuits in that country. In Spain, Ferdinand VII., after his restoration in 1814, put them in possession of all their former rights and property. They were banished again during the revolution of 1820, but restored with Ferdinand in 1823. In 1834 the ravages of the cholera were attributed to the poisoning of the wells by the Jesuits. The populace in consequence broke into the professed house and massacred the inmates. In 1835 Queen Christina was compelled to suppress the order, and in 1840 its last house, at Loyola in Guipúzcoa, was dissolved by order of the provincial regency; but in 1844 they succeeded in establishing themselves again in the Spanish dominions. They were once more banished by Espartero in 1854, but were recalled by O'Donnell in 1858, at the instance of the emperor and empress of the French. They were intrusted with several colleges and seminaries, among others the university of Salamanca, and with important missions at Fernando Po and the Philippine islands; and a wider scope was allowed to their labors in Cuba and Porto Rico. Their numbers increased with astonishing rapidity, many novices from Portugal hastening to join them. But after the revolution of 1868 they were once more banished from Spain, and allowed only a precarious existence in her colonies. In France,
during the reigns of Louis XVIII. and Charles X., they obtained only toleration, and eight of their colleges, with about 3,500 pupils, were closed in 1828 by order of the government. The revolution of July, 1830, banished them again “for ever” from France, notwithstanding which they were able to maintain themselves. In 1845 the chamber of deputies, with only a few dissenting votes, requested the government to have their houses closed; but no decree was issued against them, and after a brief interval they resumed their labors everywhere. In 1859 they there possessed 61 establishments in 38 dioceses. In 1866 they numbered in all 2,464, and in 1873 2,482, exclusive of the members belonging to the mission of New York and Canada. During the second empire the educational establishments of the French Jesuits entered into a successful competition with the university schools. Their special scientific school in Paris attained such eminence that the emperor was induced to give them the old collége St. Clément in Metz, where a second special school was established scarcely inferior to that of Paris. At the same time they accepted from the government the chaplaincy of the penal settlement of Cayenne, where the dreadful climate soon destroyed upward of 30 priests, and they multiplied their missionary colonies in Africa, Syria, Madagascar, India, and China. In the Netherlands King William I. permitted them to form establishments, and after the separation of Belgium from Holland they increased largely in the former. The Belgian province reckoned 643 members in 1873, and the province of Holland 313. The government of Austria admitted them into Galicia, which in 1820 was made a separate province of the order. The revolution of 1848 endangered their existence in Austria for a short time, but after 1849 their establishments increased rapidly. The government transferred to them seven of the state colleges, and intrusted to them one chair in the theological faculty of Vienna, and the entire theological faculty of the university of Innspruck. The Austrian Jesuits at the present time (July, 1874) are threatened with suppression. The conversion of the duke of Anhalt-Köthen to the Roman Catholic church in 1825 was followed by the establishment of a mission of the Jesuits at Köthen, which existed till 1848. In the kingdom of Saxony they were expressly excluded from the country by a provision in the constitution of 1831. The events of 1848, which expelled them from so many countries, opened to them a wide field of action in many of the German states, where they were permitted, for the first time since their restoration, to hold missions for eight or more days. Many of the larger Protestant cities, as Berlin, heard on this occasion the preaching of the Jesuits for the first time. They were allowed to settle in Prussia, and in Westphalia and the province of the Rhine they founded within a short time a considerable number of establishments. During
the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-'71 the Jesuits distinguished themselves in the service of the sick and wounded, and several of them were decorated by the emperor William. But the active part taken by the theologians of the order in advocating and promoting the dogma of pontifical infallibility, and the coalition of the ultramontane deputies with the separatists in the Reichstag, aroused the suspicions of the German imperial government, and led finally to their suppression and their expulsion from the German empire in 1873. Of the two provinces of Germany and Galicia, the former numbered in that year 764, the latter 230 members. They were recalled to Switzerland as early as 1814 by the government of Valais, which also put them in possession of the former property of the order. In 1818 they founded a college at Fribourg, which soon became one of the most famous institutions of the order, and had numerous pupils (676 in 1845) from nearly every country of Europe. The decision of the grand council of Lucerne, in 1844, to call Jesuits to the chairs of the theological school and to one of the parish churches of the capital, greatly increased the excitement already existing against them in most of the Protestant cantons. Several incursions were made from other cantons to overthrow the local government in order to expel the Jesuits. They were however unsuccessful, and strengthened the separate alliance (Sonderbund) which the government of Lucerne had formed with six other cantons for the protection of what they considered their sovereign cantonal rights. In 1847 the federal diet demanded the dissolution of the Sonderbund and the removal of the Jesuits; the seven cantons refusing submission to this decree, war ensued, and ended in breaking up the alliance and the expulsion of the Jesuits, who have ever since been forbidden by the federal constitution to return. The Swiss constitution, as revised in 1874, rigorously excludes all religious corporations from the territory of the republic. In England, a rich Catholic, Thomas Weld of Lulworth castle, in 1799 gave to ex-members of the order Stonyhurst, which is still their largest establishment in that country. They conduct at present the colleges of Stonyhurst, near Whalley, Lancashire, Mount St. Mary's, near Chesterfield, and Beaumont Lodge, near Windsor, besides the scholasticate of St. Beuno's at St. Asaph. They possess several other flourishing establishments in England and Scotland, and maintain missions in Guiana and Jamaica. In Ireland they have, besides the well known college of Clongowes, others at Tullabeg, Dublin, Limerick, and Galway, and a novitiate at Miltown Park, Donnybrook. The Irish province has also missionary establishments in Melbourne, Australia. In Russia, where their college of Polotzk received in 1812 the rank of a university, they lost the favor of the emperor when several young noblemen, who had been their pupils, were received by them into the
Roman Catholic church. An imperial ukase of Jan. 1, 1816, closed their establishments at St. Petersburg and Moscow; and another of March 25, 1820, suppressed the order entirely in all Russia and Poland. — The Jesuits had accompanied Leonard Calvert when he sailed for the Chesapeake, and were the first religious instructors of the early Catholic settlers of Maryland, as well as of the neighboring Indian tribes. John Carroll, first archbishop of Baltimore, and some of his American fellow countrymen, were completing their “third probation” in Austria when the brief of suppression was issued. They hastened to America at the beginning of the revolutionary war, and continued to live in community until the restoration of the order. Since then their progress has been rapid. They are divided into two provinces and several important missions. The parent province of Maryland has establishments in the states of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, and the District of Columbia; the province of Missouri, founded by that of Maryland with the help of numerous recruits from Belgium and Holland, has establishments in the dioceses of St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, and Milwaukee. The mission of New York, originally founded by the province of France, but now independent, embraces the whole state of New York and the Dominion of Canada, and has three colleges with a novitiate, several residences, and missionary establishments among the Indian tribes of Lake Superior. The mission of the province of Germany, recently organized for the benefit of the German population, possesses several houses in western New York and Ohio. The New Orleans mission, dependent on the province of Lyons, conducts three colleges and several flourishing houses in the dioceses of New Orleans and Mobile. The province of Naples has about 25 missionaries in New Mexico and Colorado, and the province of Turin 120 in California and among the Indians of the Rocky mountains. Their colleges in the United States are as follows: Boston college, South Boston, and college of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass.; of St. Francis Xavier, New York; St. John's, New York (Fordham); St. Joseph's, Philadelphia; St. John's, Frederick, Md.; Loyola, Baltimore; Gonzaga, Washington, D. C.; Georgetown, D. C.; Spring Hill, near Mobile, Ala.; St. Louis university, St. Louis, Mo.; college of the Immaculate Conception, New Orleans; St. Charles's, Grand Coteau, La.; St. Joseph's, Bardstown, Ky.; St. Xavier's, Cincinnati; St. Ignatius' college, San Francisco; and Santa Clara, Cal. In Canada, the Jesuits conduct St. Mary's college, Montreal, founded in 1848; and they have recently petitioned the Dominion parliament for a restoration to them of the estates owned by the order before its suppression in France and her colonies. The number of Jesuits in the United States and Canada at the present time (1874) is 1,062. In Mexico and the states of Central and South
America they have sometimes been admitted, sometimes again expelled, their fate being dependent on the success or defeat of the several political parties. They are now entirely expelled from the Mexican and Colombian republics. The prosperous seminaries which they directed in Guatemala were suppressed in 1873, and the Jesuits themselves compelled to leave the country. Missionary establishments had been also opened a few years ago in Ecuador, Peru, and the province of Maranham, Brazil; but they were suppressed in 1874. In Chili and Paraguay several establishments have been recently founded, all of which are subject to the same insecurity. Jesuits also now labor as missionaries among nearly all the non-Christian nations of the world, especially among the Indians of North America, in Turkey, in India, and China. — The number of Jesuits distributed through the five assistancies in 1873 was as follows: in the five dispersed provinces of the Italian assistancy — Rome 459, Naples 308, Sicily 206, Turin 301, and Venice 246; in the German assistancy — Austria 462, Belgium 642, Galicia 230, Germany 764, and Holland 313; in the French assistancy — Champagne 430, missions of New York and Canada 251, France 735, Lyons 722, Toulouse 595; in the dispersed Spanish assistancy — Aragon 560, Castile 784, Mexico 31; in the English assistancy — England 383, Ireland 183, Maryland 265, and Missouri 255. Total number of members, 9,266. Attached to the assistancy of Italy are the following missions: province of Rome, 80 members in Etruria, Æmilia, and Brazil; province of Naples, 25 in New Mexico and Colorado; Turin, 120 in California and the Rocky mountains; Venice, 40 in Illyria, Dalmatia, and Venetia. German assistancy: Austria, 23 in South Australia; Belgium, 44 in Bengal; Germany, 52 in western New York, &c., 70 in Bombay, 31 in Brazil, and 15 in Java. French assistancy: Champagne, 21 in northern China; New York and Canada, 19 in Indian missions of Lake Superior; France, 16 in Cayenne and 86 in Nanking; Lyons, 72 in Algeria, 94 in New Orleans and gulf states, and 70 in Syria; Toulouse, 77 in the isle of Réunion and Madagascar, and 78 in Madura (India). English assistancy: England, 14 in Scotland, 13 in Guiana, and 17 in Jamaica; Ireland, 12 in Melbourne, Australia; Missouri, 13 among the Osages, and 22 among the Pottawattamies. In all, 1,734 missionaries. — The order has had since the foundation the following 22 generals, many of whom belong also to its most celebrated names: 1, Loyola, a Spaniard, 1541-'56; 2, Laynez, a Spaniard, 1558-'65; 3, Borgia, a Spaniard, 1565-'72; 4, Mercurian, a Belgian, 1573-'80; 5, Acquaviva, a Neapolitan, 1581-1615; 6, Vitelleschi, a Roman, 1615-'45; 7, Caraffa, a Neapolitan, 1646-'9; 8, Piccolomini, a Florentine, 1649-'51; 9, Gottofredi, a Roman, Jan. 21 to March 12, 1652; 10, Nickel, a German, 1652-'64; 11, Oliva, a Genoese; 1664-'81; 12, De Noyelle, a Belgian, 1682-'6; 13, Gonzalez, a
Spaniard, 1687-1705; 14, Tamburini, a Modenese, 1706-'30; 15, Retz, a Bohemian, 1730-'50; 16, Visconti, a Milanese, 1751-'5; 17, Centurioni, a Genoese, 1755-'7; 18, Ricci, a Florentine, 1758-'73, died in 1775; 19, Brzozowski, a Pole, 1814-'20; 20, Fortis, a Veronese, 1820-'29; 21, Roothaan, a Hollander, 1829-'53; 22, Beckx, a Belgian. Among the Jesuits who have been canonized or beatified, the most celebrated are Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, Francis Borgia, Francis Regis, Aloysius Gonzaga, and Stanislas Kostka. — Before the suppression of the order, the Jesuits counted among their members some of the greatest scholars of Europe. The works of Petavius, Sirmond, Tursellinus, and Viger in classical literature, and of Tiraboschi in literary history, are still valued and used. Among the theologians and pulpit orators, Bellarmin, Pallavicini, Paolo Segneri, and Bourdaloue are especially distinguished. Since the restoration, Passaglia (who, however, left the order in 1858) and Perrone have gained the reputation of being among the principal theological writers of the Roman Catholic church, and Ravignan and Félix in France and Roh in Germany have been counted among the greatest Catholic pulpit orators. The most extensive literary work of the order is the Acta Sanctorum (Bollandist), commenced in the 17th century and still continued. Among its periodicals are the Civiltà Cattolica, semi-monthly, at Rome (which has the largest circulation of any theological publication of Italy); the Précis historiques ft littéraires, semi-monthly, at Brussels; the Études théologiques, fortnightly, at Paris; “The Month,” at London; and two published at Freiburg in Germany. — Several charges of complicity in the murder of princes have been brought against the Jesuits, some of which have been abandoned by all impartial historians, while all are contested. These charges are closely connected with the doctrine of the rightfulness of tyrannicide, which has been defended by several writers of the order. It is generally admitted that 14 Jesuits, viz., Sa, Tolet, Valentia, Delrio, Salas, Mariana, Heissius, Suarez, Lessius, Becan, Gretser, Tanner, Castro-Paolo, and Escobar, have maintained it. But on the other hand, it is alleged that this doctrine was one very common among the Roman Catholic theologians, and that even Thomas Aquinas taught it; that more than 60 Jesuits have written against it; and that those Jesuits who admit it, confine it to a few exceptional cases, and allow it to be committed only by a nation. Acquaviva, by a decree issued after the assassination of Henry IV., and dated July 6, 1610, forbade any member publicly or privately to uphold the doctrine that it is lawful for any one under any pretext of tyranny to attempt the life of any ruler. On other points of ethics members of the order have been accused of unsound principles even by certain Catholic writers, and some of the writings of Jesuits have been on this account censured by Rome. Concerning
this point the defence presents the same arguments as on the preceding, viz., that none of the censured doctrines were peculiar to the order or shared by all its members. The following passage in the constitution of the order has often been and is still construed by some writers as if it gave to the superiors of the order the right of obliging their inferiors to commit a sin: Visum est nobis in Domino, excepto expresso voto quo societas summo pontifici pro tempore existenti tenetur, ac trifivs aliis essentialibus paupertatis, castitatis, et obedientiæ, nullas constitutiones, declarationes, vel ordinem ullum vivendi posse obligationem ad peccatum mortale vel teniale inducere, nisi superior ea in nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi, vel in virtute obedientiæ juberet. But the Jesuits have proved this to be a mistranslation of the Latin and in conflict with others of their rules; the true sense of the passage being, that none of the rules of the order so bind the members that the non-observance by itself involves a sin, but that a sin is committed only when a member violates a special order of the superior. Several Protestant historians of note, as Ranke (“History of the Popes”) and Reuchlin (“History of Port Royal”), who in the first editions of their works had followed the former interpretation, have changed their view in subsequent editions, and pronounced the interpretation which the order itself gives of it the true one. — Among the most important works on the history of the Jesuits are: Historia Societatis Jesu, from 1540 to 1625, by Orlandini, Sacchini, Passinus, and other members of the society; Wolf (adverse to the Jesuits), Allgemeine Geschichte der Jesuiten (4 vols., Leipsic, 1803), valuable for its complete bibliography; Crétineau-Joli, Histoire religieuse, politique et littéraire de la compagnie de Jésus (6 vols., Paris, 1844-'6); Gioberti (adverse to the Jesuits), Il Gesuita moderno (5 vols., Lausanne, 1847); A. Steinmetz, “History of the Jesuits” (3 vols., London, 1848); Abbé Guettée (Gallican), Histoire des Jésuites (2 vols., Paris, 1858-'9); Huber (Old Catholic), Der Jesuiten-Orden (Berlin, 1873). See also the “Institute of the Society of Jesus, approved by the Holy See,” “Decrees of the General Congregations,” and “Ordinances of the Superiors General,” all which have been published; “Life and Institute of St. Ignatius Loyola,” by Bartoli; Documents authentiques, &c., by Carié de la Charie (Paris, 1827); and Ravignan's L'Existence et l'institut des Jésuites (Paris, 1844), and Clément XIII. et Clément XIV. (2 vols. 8vo, 1854).