JESUITS

or the SOCIETY OF JESUS. A society which, at one period, extended its influence to the very ends of the earth, and proved the main pillar of the papal hierarchy,—which wormed itself into almost absolute power, occupying the high places, and leading captive the ecclesiastical dictator of the world,—must be an object of some curiosity to the inquisitive mind. Ignatius Loyola, a native of Biscay, is well known to have been the founder of this, nominally , religious order. He was born in 1491, and became first a page to Ferdinand V., king of Spain, and then an officer in his army. In 1521 he was wounded in both legs at the siege of Pampeluna, when having had leisure to study a book of Lives of the Saints, he devoted himself to the service of the Virgin; and his military ardour becoming metamorphosed into superstitious zeal, he went on a pilgrimage into the Holy Land. Upon his return to Europe, he studied in the universities of Spain, whence he removed into France, and formed a plan for the institution of this new order, which he presented to the pope. But, notwithstanding the high pretensions of Loyola to inspiration, Paul III. refused his request, till his scruples were removed by an irresistible argument addre ed to his self-interest: it was proposed that every member should make a vow of unconditional obedience to the pope, without requiring any support from the holy see. The order was, therefore, instituted in 1540, and Loyola appointed to be the first general. The plan of the society was completed by the two immediate succe ors of the founder, Lainez and Aquaviva, both of whom excelled their master in ability and the science of government; and, in a few years, the society established itself in every Catholic country, acquiring prodigious wealth, and exciting the apprehensions of all the enemies of the Romish faith. To Lainez are ascribed the Secreta Monita , or secret instructions of the order; which were first discovered when Christian, duke of Brunswick, seized the Jesuits’ college at Paderborn, in Westphalia, at which time he gave their books and manuscripts to the Capuchins, who found these secret instructions among the archives of their rector. After this, another copy was detected at Prague, in the college of the Jesuits. The Jesuits are taught to consider themselves as formed for action, in opposition to the monastic orders, who retire from the concerns of the world; and in engaging in all civil and commercial transactions, insinuating themselves into the friendship of persons of rank, studying the disposition of all cla es, with a view of obtaining an influence over them, and undertaking mi ions to distant nations, it is an e ential principle of their policy, by every means, to extend the Catholic faith. No labour is spared, no intrigue omitted, that may prove conducive to this purpose. The constitution of the society is monarchical. A general is chosen for life by deputies from the several provinces. His power is supreme and universal. Every member is at his entire disposal, and is required to submit his will and sentiments to his dictation, and to listen to his injunctions, as if uttered by Christ himself. The fortune, person, and conscience of the whole society are at his disposal, and he can dispense his order not only from the vows of poverty, chastity, and monastic obedience, but even from submi ion to the pope whenever he pleases. He nominates and removes provincials, rectors, profe ors, and all officers of the order, superintends the universities, houses, and mi ions, decides controversies, and forms or di olves contracts. No member can expre any opinion of his own; and the society has its prisons, independent of the secular authority. There are four cla es of members,—the novitiates or probationers, the approved disciples, the coadjutors, and the profe ors of the four vows. The education of youth was always considered by them as their peculiar province,—aware of the influence which such a measure would infallibly secure over another generation: and before the conclusion of the sixteenth century the Jesuits had obtained the chief direction of the youthful mind in every Roman Catholic country in Europe. They had become the confe ors of almost all its monarchs, and the spiritual guides of nearly every person distinguished for rank or influence. At different periods they obtained the direction of the most considerable courts, and took part in every intrigue and revolution. Notwithstanding their vow of poverty, they accumulated, upon various pretences, immense wealth. They claimed exemption from tithes under a bull of Gregory XIII., who was devoted to their interests; and, by obtaining a special licence from the court of Rome to trade with the nations whom they profe ed to convert, they carried on a lucrative commerce in the East and West Indies, formed settlements in different countries, and acquired po e ion of a large province in South America, (Paraguay,) where they reigned as sovereigns over some hundred you sand subjects. Their policy is uniformly to inculcate attachment to the Order , and by a pliant morality to soothe and gratify the pa ions of mankind, for the purpose of securing their patronage. They proclaim the duty of opposing princes who are inimical to the Catholic faith, and have employed every weapon, every artful and every intolerant measure, to resist the progre of Protestant ism. In Portugal, where the Jesuits were first received, they obtained the direction of the court, which for many years delivered to them the consciences of its princes and the education of the people. Portugal opened the door to their mi ions, and gave them establishments in Asia, Africa, and America. They usurped the sovereignty of Paraguay, and resisted the forces of Portugal and Spain, who claimed it. The court of Lisbon, and even Rome herself, protested in vain against their exce es. The league in France was, in reality, a conspiracy of the Jesuits, under the sanction of Sixtus V., to disturb the succe ion to the throne of France. The Jesuits’ college at Paris was the grand focus of the seditions and treasons which then agitated the state, and the ruler of the Jesuits was president of the Council of Sixteen, which gave the impulse to the leagues formed there and throughout France. Matthieu, a Jesuit and confe or of Henry III., was called “the Courier of the League,” on account of his frequent journeys to and from Rome at that disastrous period. In Germany the society appropriated the richest benefices, particularly those of the monasteries of St. Benedict and St. Bernard. Catherine of Austria confided in them, and was supplanted; and loud outcries were uttered against them by the sufferers in Vienna, in the states of Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and elsewhere. Their cruelties in Poland will never be forgotten. They were expelled from Aby in i a, Japan, Malta, Cochin, Moscow, Venice, and other places, for their gro misconduct; and in America and Asia they carried devastation and blood wherever they went. The great object of the persecution of the Protestants in Savoy was the confiscation of their property, in order to endow the colleges of the Jesuits. They had, no doubt, a share in the atrocities of the Duke of Alva in the Low Countries. They boasted of the friendship of Catherine de Medicis, who espoused their cause, and under whose influence the ma acre of St. Bartholomew was executed. Louis XIV. had three Jesuit confe ors, which may explain the revocation of the edict of Nantes. The Jesuits have been notorious for attempting the lives of princes. The reign of Queen Elizabeth presents a succe ion of plots. In her proclamation, dated Nov. 15, 1602, she says, that “the Jesuits had fomented the plots against her person, excited her subjects to revolt, provoked foreign princes to compa her death, engaged in all affairs of state, and by their language and writings had undertaken to dispose of her crown.” Lucius enumerates five conspiracies of the Jesuits against James I. before he had reigned a year. They contrived the Gunpowder Plot. So late as the time of George I. both houses of parliament reported, that the evidence examined by them on the conspiracy of Plunket and Layer had satisfactorily shown that it had for its object the destruction of the king, the subversion of the laws, and the crowning of the Popish pretender; and they state that “Plunket was born at Dublin, and bred up at the Jesuits’ college at Vienna.” Henry III. of France was a a inated by Clement, a Jesuit, in 1589. The Jesuits murdered William, prince of Orange, in 1584. They attempted the life of Louis XV. for imposing silence on the polemics of their order, and were also guilty of innumerable other atrocities. The pernicious spirit and constitution of this order rendered it early detested by the principal powers of Europe; and while Pascal, by his “Provincial Letters,” exposed the morality of the society, and thus overthrew their influence over the multitude, different potentates concurred, from time to time, to destroy or prevent its establishments. Charles V. opposed the order in his dominions: it was expelled in England by the proclamation of James I. in 1604; in Venice, in 1606; in Portugal, in 1759; in France, in 1764; in Spain and Sicily, in 1767, and suppre ed and abolished by Pope Clement XIV. in 1775. Our own age has witne ed its revival, and is even now suffering from the increased energy of its members.