תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

XVI.

SECT. III.

church, maintain their influence on the minds ofc E N T. the people, and augment the number of their votaries. And, indeed, various causes contribute PARTL to render the connexion between the pontif and these religious communities much more intimate, than that which subsists between him and the other clergy, of whatever rank or order we may suppose them to be. It was therefore judged necessary, when the success of LUTHER, and the progress of the Reformation, had effaced such a considerable part of the majesty of Rome, to found some new religious fraternity, that should, in a particular manner, be devoted to the interests of the Roman pontif, and the very express end of whose institution should be to renew the vigour of a declining hierarchy, to heal the deep wound it had received, to preserve those parts of the papal dominions that remained yet entire, and to augment them by new accessions. This was so much the more necessary, as the two famous Mendicant societies [r], by whose ministry the popes had chiefly governed during many ages, and that with the greatest success and glory, had now lost, on several accounts, a considerable part of their influence and authority, and were thereby less capable of serving the church with efficacy and vigour than they had formerly been. What the pontif sought for, in this declining state of his affairs, was found in that famous and most powerful society, which, deriving its title from the name of JESUS, were commonly called Jesuits, while they were stiled by their enemies Loyalites, and sometimes Inighists [s], from the Spanish name of their founder []. This founder [r] These two orders were the Franciscans and the Do

minicans.

[] The Spanish name of the founder of the order of Jesuits was Don Inigo de Guipuscoa.

[] The writers who have given the most particular and circumstantial accounts of the order of the Jesuits, are enumerated by Christoph. Aug. Salin, in his Historia August. Confes sionis, tom. ii. P. 73.

XVI.

CENT founder was IGNATIUS LOYOLA, a Spanish knight, SECT.III. who, from an illiterate soldier, became an unpaPARTI. ralleled fanatic; a fanatic, indeed, of a fertile

The nature of the order

and enterprising genius [u], who, after having passed through various scenes of life, came to Rome, and, being there directed by the prudent counsels of persons much wiser than himself, was rendered capable of instituting such an order as the state of the church at that time essentially required [w].

XI. The Jesuits hold a middle rank between and institu- the monks and the secular clerks, and with respect tion of the to the nature of their institute, approach nearer Jesuits. to the regular canons than to any other order. For

though [4] Many Jesuits have written the life of this extraordinary man; but the greatest part of these biographers seem more intent upon advancing the glory of their founder, than solicitous about the truth and fidelity of their relations; and hence the most common events, and the most trivial actions that concern Ignatius, are converted into prodigies and miracles. The history of this enterprising fanatic has been composed with equal truth and ingenuity, though seasoned with a very large portion of wit and pleasantry, by a French writer, who calls himself Herculus Rasiel de Selve *. This work, which is divided into two volumes, is entitled, Histoire de l'admirable Don Inigo de Guipuscoa, Chevalier de la Vierge, et fondateur de la Monorchie des Inighistes, and it has passed already through two editions at the Hague.

[w] Not only the Protestants, but also a great number of the more learned and judicious Roman Catholics, have unanimously denied, that Ignatius Loyola had either learning sufficient to compose the writings of which he is said to be the author, or genius enough to form the society of which he is considered as the founder. They maintain, on the contrary, that he was no more than a flexible instrument in the hands of able and ingenious men, who made use of his fortitude and fanaticism to answer their purposes; and that persons much more learned than he, were employed to compose the writings which bear his name. See Geddes, Miscellaneous Tracts, vol. iii. P. 429.The greatest part of his works are supposed to have proceeded from the pen of his secretary John de Palanco;

This is a feigned name; the real author was Monsieur Le Vier,

an ingenious bookseller, who lived formerly at the Hague.

XVI.

Src T. II.

though they resemble the monks in this, that they CENT. live separate from the multitude, and are bound by certain religious vows, yet they are exempt PARTI. from stated hours of worship, and other numerous and burthensome services, that lie heavy upon the Monastic orders, that they may have more time to employ in the education of youth, in directing the consciences of the faithful, in edifying the church by their pious and learned productions, and in transacting other matters that relate to the prosperity of the papal hierarchy. Their whole order is divided into three classes. The first comprehends the professed members, who live in what are called the professed houses; the second contains the scholars, who instruct the youth in the colleges; and to the third belong the novices, who live in the houses of probation [x]. The professed members, besides the three ordinary vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, that are common to all the Monastic tribes, are obliged to take a fourth, by which they solemnly bind themselves to go without deliberation or delay wherever the pope shall think fit to send them; they are also a kind of Mendicants, being without any fixed subsistence, and living upon the liberality of pious and well disposed people. The other Jesuits, and more particularly

Palanco; see La Croze, Histoire du Christianisme en Ethiope, P. 55. 271. The Benedictines affirm, that his book of Spiritu al Exercises is copied from the work of a Spanish Benedictine monk, whose name was Cisneros (see La Vie de M. de la Croze par Jordan) and the constitutions of the Society were probably the work of Lainez and Salmeron, two learned men who were among its first members. See Histoire des Religieux de la Compagnie de Jesus, tom. i. p. 115.

[ocr errors]

[x] Other writers add a fourth class, consisting of the Spiritual and Temporal Co-adjutors, who assist the professed members, and perform the same functions, without being bound by any more than the three simple vows; though, after a long and approved exercise of their employment, the Spiritual Co-adjutors are admitted to the fourth vow, and thus become professed members.

[ocr errors]

CEN T.larly the scholars, are possessed of large revenues, XVI. and are obliged, in case of urgent necessity, to PARTI contribute to the support of the professed members. These latter, who are few in number (considering the multitudes that belong to the other classes), are generally speaking, men of prudence and learning, deeply skilled in the affairs of the world, and dexterous in transacting all kinds of business from long experience, added to their natural penetration and sagacity; in a word, they are the true and perfect Jesuits. The rest have, indeed, the title, but are rather the companions and assistants of the Jesuits, than real members of that mysterious order; and it is only in a very vague and general sense, that the denomination of Jesuits can be applied to them. But, what is still more remarkable, the secrets of the society are not revealed even to all the professed members. It is only a small number of this class, whom old age has enriched with thorough experience, and long trial declared worthy of such an important trust, that are instructed in the mysteries of the order.

The zeal

of the Je

suits for

the inter

Roman

pontif.

[ocr errors]

XII. The church and court of Rome, since the remarkable period when so many kingdoms and provinces withdrew from their jurisdiction, have ests of the derived more influence and support from the labours of this single order, than from all their other emissaries and ministers, and all the various exertions of their power and opulence. It was this famous company, which, spreading itself with an astonishing rapidity through the greatest part of the habitable world, confirmed the wavering nations in the faith of Rome, restrained the progress of the rising sects, gained over a prodigious number of Pagans in the most barbarous and remote parts of the globe to the profession of popery, and attacked the pretended heretics of all denominations; appearing almost alone in the field of controversy, sustaining with fortitude and

resolution

XVI.

resolution the whole burthen of this religious C E N T. war, and surpassing, by far, the champions of an- SECT. III. tiquity, both in the subtilty of their reasonings PARTI. and the eloquence of their discourses. Nor is this all; for by the affected softness and complying spirit that reigns in their conversation and manners, by their consummate skill and prudence in civil transactions, by their acquaintance with the arts and sciences, and a variety of other qualities and accomplishments, they insinuated themselves into the peculiar favour and protection of statesmen, persons of the first distinction, and even of crowned heads. Nor did any thing contribute more to give them that ascendency they have universally acquired, than the cunning and dexterity with which they relaxed and modified their system of morality, accommodating it artfully to the propensities of mankind, and depriving it, on certain occasions, of that severity, that rendered it burthensome to the sensual and voluptuous. By this they supplanted, in the palaces of the great, and in the courts of princes, the Dominicans and other rigid doctors, who had formerly held there the tribunal of confession and the direction of consciences, and engrossed to themselves an exclusive and irresistible influence in those retreats of royal grandeur, from whence issue the counsels that govern mankind [y]. An order of this nature could not but be highly adapted to promote the interests of the court of Rome; and this, indeed, was its great end, and the leading purpose which it never lost sight of; employ

ing

[] Before the order of Jesuits was instituted, the Dominicans alone directed the consciences of all the European kings and princes. And it was by the Jesuits that the Dominicans were deprived of a privilege so precious to spiritual ambition. See Peyrat, Antiquités de la Chapelle de France, livr. i. p. 322.

« הקודםהמשך »