CHAPTER IV.

THE NUMEROUS COLLEGES OF THE JESUITS AT THE DEATH OF LOYOLA-THEIR FIRST APPEARANCE IN FRANCE, HOLLAND, AND

GERMANY-LAINEZ-HIS

CHARACTER-FRANCIS

BORGIA-AT

TEMPTS ΤΟ REFORM THE ORDER THE DEGRADED STATE OF THEIR COLLEGES-GAIN POSSESSION OF THE PENITENTIARY AT ROME-BELLARMINE-BARONIUS-BORGIA EXCITES THE PERSECUTION OF THE HUGUENOTS-MERCURIAN BECOMES GENERALTHEIR ATTEMPTS ON SWEDEN-CONSPIRE AGAINST ELIZABETH -AQUAVIVA THE PROPAGANDA-REFLECTIONS.

WHEN Loyola deputed Xavier to his splendid embassy in the east, he also laid the foundations of various Jesuit colleges in the different parts of Europe. It may give the reader some conception of his vast designs, when he is informed that his biographer and friend, Ribadeneira, enumerates and describes no fewer than fifty-two of the larger collegiate establishments, and also mentions twenty-four others on a smaller scale. It would be tedious even to furnish a list of all their names. We shall be content to notice only a few of the most eminent. The attention of Loyola was immediately directed towards Spain and Portugal-that European peninsula which has always been distinguished for its attachment to the Roman see. Thither, in 1541, he sent Simon Roderic and Francis Villanova. They founded the Complutensian college, and

another at Coimbra. The former was associated with the celebrated university, which in 1499 had been established by cardinal Ximenes. It consisted of twenty-four colleges, and was the seminary next to Salamanca in repute. In 1514, the splendid Biblical Polyglott was published at the Complutensian press.

In 1545, a Jesuit college was founded at Gandia, Valentia, and another at Valladolid, by Peter Faber, the first convert of Loyola. He had early distinguished himself by his disputations with Bucer, and was also active in the Council of Trent. With the zeal of his master he traversed Belgium, Portugal, and every part of Spain. He died the following year at Rome, at the age of forty-six.

About this time the colleges of Burgos and Salamanca were commenced-the latter owing its origin chiefly to the exertions of the celebrated Francis Strada. It became the most eminent of all the Jesuit establishments in Spain. In 1547, several colleges were founded in Sicily, particularly at Palermo and Messina. At Venice, Genoa, and Padua, they formed academic institutions. Nor was Corsica forgotten in their labours.

In 1554, the society made its first official appearance in France. The bishop of Clermont had become acquainted with Lainez, Salmeron, and Claudius Jay, at the Council of Trent, and now invited the Jesuits to erect two colleges in his diocese. But the college of the Sorbonne at Paris refused to confirm the faculty, which the pope had granted for that object. The French church insisted on its Gallican liberties ; yet such was the cunning of the order, that Ribadeneira observes, "Though they could build no college before the decree of the Sorbonne against them, they built two within a year after."

In Holland, they next formed a flourishing school at

Louvaine and at Tournay, and here Ribadaneira himself was the principal agent. It was at these colleges, conjoined with that at Douay, that the English Jesuits were chiefly educated, in the following century.

But the principal strength of the society was reserved for Germany, as being the head-quarters of the Lutheran Reformation. Salmeron was sent into Poland. At Ingolstadt, Prague, and Vienna, every exertion was made to stop the rising heretics. Canisius was appointed the provincialLe Jay, the intimate friend of Loyola, presided over the college at Vienna. He had traversed every part of Germany and had directed his efforts particularly to Saxony, as the country of Luther. He died August 6th, 1552.

Such was the powerful machinery of Jesuitism, when on the decease of Loyola, 1556, Lainez was chosen as his successor. He was unquestionably a man of strong intellect, and though not equal to Loyola in original and creative genius, was his superior in calm and firm discretion. He had not the soul to feel out "The Spiritual Exercises; but it is believed that he had the lion's share in the craft of "The Constitutions."

In the first Congregation held upon his accession to the office of general, Lainez caused an absolute authority to be granted to him, with a perpetuity of generalship. He also demanded the right of having prisons-thus essentially connecting himself with the Inquisition and with temporal authority. By this manoeuvre, the character of Jesuitism was changed into a system of human policy. It henceforth lost all pretentions to the spirituality which Ignatius had wished it to assume. The Spiritual Exercises" were comparatively forgotten: "The Constitutions" remained in all their vigour.

Lainez had already distinguished himself at the Council of

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Trent, as the devoted advocate of papal authority-he acted, indeed, as the pope's legate. But, in spite of all his address, he was accused of Pelagianism, and deemed somewhat heretical in his sentiments concerning grace and free-will. It is probable that he cared little about theological opinions. He held that all ecclesiastical power is derived, not from heaven, but immediately from the pope—that the court of Rome had a right to reform all the churches of Christendom, but that they had no right to reform the papacy. He flung the right Divine over every prerogative. Thus he acted at the Council, yet he could soon after write to the prince De Condé "The chief cause of this separation" (between the Huguenots and the Romanists) "is the conduct of the ecclesiastics, who, to begin with the supreme head and the prelates down to the inferior members of the clergy, are in great need of reform as to morals, and the exercise of their functions. Their bad example has produced so many scandals, that their doctrine has become an object of contempt, as well as their life."-Such a man was worthy of the office: he was well qualified to be the general of the order.

But the Jesuitism of Lainez never appeared more striking, than in his casuistry and vacillation respecting the reformation of the mendicant orders. Under the mask of humility, the vagrant monks and friars had become the pest and disgrace of the church. It was proposed to remedy this disorder, by allowing them to possess funded property. The Franciscans and Capuchins requested to be exempt, and still to maintain their mendicant habits. Lainez also, at first, pleaded the rules of his order; but on the following day, he changed his opinion. "The Company," he said, "are always inclined to practice mendicancy in the houses of "the professed;" but is not desirous of appearing to do so before * Cretineau, vol. i. p. 395.

the world." The option was then left open, of begging or not, according to circumstances. This is the true doctrine of a Jesuit. It leaves him always at liberty to suit himself to the passing hour.

In 1561, the Conference of Poissy took place, near Paris, between the Romanists and Protestants, and Lainez was deputed by Pius IV., to attend on behalf of the former. Ribadeneira, in his "lives of the Jesuits," pretends that he silenced Beza and Peter Martyr. The dispute related to the real presence in the sacrament of the Lord's supper. There is good evidence that Beza, notwithstanding he was repeatedly interrupted with the cry of "Blasphemy!" showed a decided superiority to his antagonist.

The Council came to a close, December 4th, 1563. Lainez was welcomed to Rome in triumph, The pope offered to raise him to the dignity of a cardinal, but Lainez had the good sense to decline the honour. Had he accepted it, he would have lost his credit with the fraternity. His office, as general, was already of far more importance than that of being the pope's privy councillor. Yet such was the influence of Lainez, that on the death of Paul IV., no less than twelve cardinals voted for him as his successor. He died January,

1565, aged fifty-three.

From this notice of Lainez, it will be apparent that the entire character of Jesuitism assumed another form under his administration, from that which had been originally impressed on it by the founder. It was Loyola's object to confer a spiritual, and as it were, a celestial knight-errantry, on the order, and to distinguish it by a kind of supramundane effect. Its members were to live and act on the motives so graphically delineated in "The Spiritual Exercises." But Lainez was a man who lowered down the standard of Jesuitism to the struggles and exigencies of