Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-07-29
THE JESUITS.

Spanish cavalier; was wounded in bat
tie /; was by his wounds, which impaired
the use of one of his legs, deprived of
the qualification of his military ambition,
and during his long subsequent confne-
ment found employment and relief in
reading a life, of Christ and lives of the
saints. This enkindled a new ambition
for a life Of religious glory and religious
conquest; he threw himself, with all the
ardor of his old devotion, into his new
life carried his military spirit of auster-
ity and self-denial into his religious ca
reer; hung up his arms at the shrine of
the virgin exchanged his rich dress for
a beggar's rags; lived upon aims prac-
ticed austerities which weakened his iron
frame, but not his military spirit; and
thus he prepared his mind for those dis
eased fancies which characterized this
period of his extraordinary career. In
one of these visions he. saw the hosts of
Babylon, the world, the flesh, and the
devil, fighting against Jerusalem, the
holy city, and he resolved to form
sanity brotherhood for the rescue and
deliverance of the church. He possessed
none of the intellectual requirements
which seemed to be necessary for the
new leadership which he proposed to
himself. The age despised learning and
left it to priests; and this Spanish cava-
lier, at the age Of thirty three, could do
little more than read and write. He
commenced at once, with enthusiasm,
the acquisition of those elements of
knowledge which are ordinarily acquired
long before that age. He entered the
lowest class of the college at Barcelona,
where he was prosecuted and derided by
the rich ecclesiastics to whose luxury his
self-denial was perpetual reproach.-
He fed at last from their Vaccinations
to Paris, where he continued his studies
under more favorable auspices. Promi-
nent among his associates here was Fran
els Xavier, brilliant scholar, who at
first shrank from the ill-educated soldier,
yet gradually learned to admire his in
tense enthusiasm, and then to yield ale
glance to it and its possessor. Several
other Spaniards were drawn around the
ascetic. At length, in 1884, Loyola and
five associates, in subterranean chapel
IN Paris, pledged themselves to a relig.
ious life, and with solemn rites made sa
cred their mutual pledges to each. othel
and to God. PTt54 ~ " b t'Ss s
This was the beginning oe the ordel
of Jesuits. The original design was ;
pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and mis-
sion for the conversion of infdels. Blu
as all access to the Holy Land was pre-
cluded by war with the Turks, Loyol
and his associates soon turned thei
thoughts to more comprehensive organ
ization, specially designed to meet thos
exigencies which the Reformation ha,
brought upon the church. For to under
stand the history of Loyola, we must re
member that Luther was eight years hi
senior. To comprehend the organizatio
of the order of the Jesuits we must re
member that it was born Of the troubu
lous times which produced the Reformi
ton. The awakening heart and col
science of Europe strove to cast off til
letters of ecclesiastical bondage; til
Jesuits sought to bind them more frml
than before. Luther preached liberty
Loyola replied with the doctrine of sui
mission. The sword of the Reformatio
was an open bible; the shield of the R
mish church was secret society.
LOyola therefore introduced into IL
new order of which he was the found,
the principal of absolute obedience, whic
he had acquired in his military caree
The name given to its chief was the mi
itary title of General. The organic
tion was not perfected so as to recei
the sanction of the pope until 1911.
motto was "Ad majorcm Del gloriam
(''To the greater glory Of Gods
vows embraced not only the obligatio
Of chastity, poverty, and obedience, b
also pledge on the part of every mel
Der to go as missionary to any count
which the pope might designate. Lc
ola himself was the first general of t
new order Its constitution, due to hi
is practically that of an absolute me
archy. The general is elected by a g
eral congregation selected for the d
pose by the whole body of profess
MEMBERSHIP the various provinces.
holds his Office for life. A council of
sistants aids him. but he is not bou
by their vote. He may not alter
constitution Of the society; and he
subject to deposition in certain cont
gencies, but no instance of the deposit
of a general has ever occurred. Pra
.