Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-10-01
Character Of the Jesuits.

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riosteotomy.
Character Of the jesuits.
THE STORY OF THEIR MANY ExrULsIoNs.
: From the I.O..ien Newsl
Ignatius of Loyola would have been a
remarkable figure, even if he had not
been the founder of the order of Jesuits
Many writer's have insisted that he was
after all but the picturesque fgurehead
of the movement. and that other brains
than his devised the rules and nodded
the organization which has played so I'M
portant part i'll the history of Europe
The Jesuits were not long Ill existence
before they came into trouble with courts
and ministers. Loyola formed the
brotherhood in 1888, and it was consti-
tuted a religious order by a papal bull
in 1910. Hardly sixty years had passed
before tine proclamation of James of
England was issued against the Jesuits
Little more than fifty years after the
| foundation of the order. the Jesuits were
expelled from France for, the first time
| They were recalled few years after
They were expelled again 176i. Since
| that time they may be said to have only
returned to France and lived there on
suiferance. They We're expelled from
Portugal, and expelled under circumstan-
ces of singular harshness and cruelty, in
1875. 1t was not, however, only sover-
igns like those of France and Spain, and
Portugal who dealt harshly with the
Jesuits. Pope Clement XIV, in IT'S,
issued decree suppressing the whole
order, and this he did mainly at the i'll
stigation of the Catholic princes of Ed
rope. During one season of the existence
of the Jesuits there was no place on the
continent where they could find shelter
than Protestant Prussia, and worse than
heretical Russia. Russia herself very
soon followed the example of the more or
thodox powers, and expelled the Jesuits
in 1917.
Meanwhile the great European revo-
luton and reaction were going on. The
French monarchy had fallen, and French
republicanism exploded rather than
spread over Europe. The republic went,
as Carlyle saws of Danton, its own wild
road whittier that let it. Its road led it
into strange extremes of thought and
passion, and belief and unbelief, and af-
ter n while the reaction set in, and the
church of Rome began TO assume her
power. Then it was that Plus VII. re-es-
tablishel the order of Jesuits. 1t is
somewhat curious to think how an insti-
tuition having for its central principle of
organization the VOWS Of obedience, pow
erty, and charity came to be at once ST.
powerful, SO courtly, 80 proud, the coun-
sellor and teacher of kings. and every
where i'll the end SO much III antagonism
with thrones and authorities of all kinds. |
The Jesuits were the ultramontane of the |
nltramontanes, if we may describe them |
by words that belong i'll their present |
- a.-ss II Al NO. .Ho,:ern pciiUd OF the /
worlds history. Yet even with the vat-
can itself they were always more or less |
i'll controversy and collision. They |
accomplished some of the greatest educa- |
tional works during their time, and yet |
they are almost everywhere. accused of |
having kept their pupils, where they
could, III ignorance on the most impor-
tant questions of social apd moral
government. Formed on the principle of
absolute obedience to their general, and
through him to the pope, they yet seem
ed never to establish themselves any
where without getting into n hostile atti-
iude to the ruling authority. They had
the art or the fortune TO make themselves
powerful and famous even through the
mouths Of their enemies. The ordinary
man OF the world everywhere knows most
of the Jesults carry with them, even in
England, sort Of mysterious terror to
many men, from the reports which exag
gerated alarm and detestation have spread
abroad. Among people better educated
than the average We find the Jesuits still
brought conspicuously into notice by the
attacks of an enemy. Pascal's immortal
letters have done rs much for the Jesuits
in literature as Burke's eloquent out
bursts did for Marie Antoinette.
Pascal undoubtedly did them some
injustice. He did them that one injustice
which is SO common i'll all controversy,
of assuming that the very worst of their
doctrines represented the ordinary char
acter of the men. He took the most obi
GUS dogma found i'll certain Of the
Jesuit writers, and he not merely put
these forward as fair illustrations of what
the Jesuits themselves must have beliey-
ed, but also as fair illustrations of the
sort of lives which all the Jesuits might
be expected TO lead. Philosophically, of
course, doctrine ought to be judged at
It's best, but i'll the world of polemics and
politics 1t is generally found that n doe
trlne Is Judged at its worst, and further
more that the doctrine is held to repre-
sent the action and conduct of those who
teach 1t. There must, however, be bet
ter explanation of the manner in which
every state i'll Europe has successfully
dealt with the Jesuits. 1t would be i'm
possible for reasonable human beings to
believe that there could he IL society en-
tirely good Ill itself and i'll its purpose,
winch yet never failed to get into misun-
lerstandings with the ruling powers of
every country i'll which it found itself
settled. To them their order il more
than their country. 1t may be that i'll
instances the .Iesuits were the victims of
the jealousy and the stupidity of some of
TIA" rulcrs who declared against them.
The one historical fact remains that they
Ia! always, sooner or later, come into
collision with every power under whose
protection they lived 1t is surprising
indeed t" find that the feeling against the
jesults can still exist in any State To
us III England the alarm about them
seems like the alarm about witch. But
If history Were always to repeat itself,
md never TO advance, then the expulsion
pf the Jesuits from France would seem
To lie one of the necessary incidents of
the revolution of time