The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-10-16
THE JESCITS.
; Army Of Men Trained Mentally
and Spiritually.

8 8 . 8 % 3 8 8 8 8 o o @ . o (. 8 g
At Sparta, in the old Greek days.
there was a race whose one aim aim
was the cultivation and hardening of
their physical powers. The Jesuits
have spent just the same eagerness
and culture on their brains. They are
sort of intellectual cosmopolitan
aristocracy of the world. 1t taIes
seventeen years of strenuous study
and training to make Jesuit. Only
the strongest physically and intel
lectually can, as a result, attain to full
rank. A fully-professed Jesuit priest
under the age of thirtyfour is practic-
ally an impossibility.
There is one remarkable feature of
the Jesuits: their oath of obedience
They are bound absolutely, within
reason and right" to obey their super
ior in all that is not sinful. The
Exercises of Ignatius is the famous
book in the study of which their
novices spend two years. 1t has been
justly condemned by many great au-
thorities for its power of breaking the
view that strong will that survives
it has become as steel in the fire.
After two years of novitiate they spend
about seven years in general study
three on philosophy and about five on
theology, besides some six or seven
in teaching. One can understand from
that why the Jesuits have been the
best-equipped schoolmasters the world
has known.
The internal regulations of the
society are very similar to those of an
army in respect of obedience and
executive. There are at the present
time 1880 in the world, collected in
to twenty-five provinces under the con-
troll of provincials. The provinces are
grouped into five assistancies, which
include. as a rule, the races of the
same tongue. Each assistancy has
an assistant, who represents it, and
acts as adviser to the general. Every
official, except the general, who is
elected for life, and can only be de-
posed for some moral. personal error
(such a thing has not occurred in the
400 years of it's existence) is elected
for term. An officer who may be
in the ranks again tomorrow has a
strong incentive against peremptory
or dictatorial behavior. The general,
then, is ruler for life of an extremely
carefully organized army, which is eX-
quisitely trained in the use of the in
tellectual weapon, which speaks every
tongue and has influence in every
country.
And yet among the Jesuits no one
is very eager to be general Every
fully protested member is eligible,
and may be elected to grasp the
handle of what has been compared to
a sword with the head at Rome, and
the point facing to every corner of
the world; but none are. as a rule
ambitious. No one may refuse the
office if elected
The general of the society is one of
the hardest-worked men in hard
working world. Every member of the
1880 may write in complaint or for
advice to the very reverend father Che
is Familiarity known in Rome as the
BLACK Pope~ and though there is a
permanent staff of secretaries, the
general is supposed to pass every
reply. Moreover, he must control men,
many of whom are more brilliant than
himself, and tremendously strong
willed. and in addition he has to con-
duct the external relations of the So
ciety. The political influence of the
Black Pope is a matter of history.
On the death of the Jesuit general,
vicar general whom he has appoint
ed takes command till the new general
is elected.-London Daily Mail.
MAN Halter WEEDS NINTH TIME.
Missouri Woman With Divorce Rec.
ord Changes Her Mind.
Associated Press to The evening Times.