FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:[41]It seems to have been on account of this slanderous attack on the Pope, as well as to give it an air of impartiality, that General Roothaan publicly denied that the Jesuits had assisted the author. The learned Abbé Guettée, in theHistoire des Jésuites, which he published soon afterwards, tells us that, not yet knowing his hostility to them, some of the Jesuits of Paris freely acknowledged to him their share in the work. In any case, the Jesuits were obviously in close co-operation with the writer, since he speaks constantly of having before his eyes unpublished documents which belonged to the Society.[42]There were, of course, more important issues at stake in the Swiss struggle. The franchise was narrow, and the government aristocratic in the cantons, and the central or federal power was weak. The Radicals mainly aimed at reforming these features, but they were hardly less inflamed at the privileges given to the Jesuits. In Valais the fathers travelled free on the public services.[43]Historians usually include among the causes the enforcement of a system of secular education only in the schools. But—as Sir Robert Stout kindly pointed out to me—the Catholic prelates in their letter to the French Minister of the Interior, dated 30th May 1806, had previously "willingly" accepted this arrangement. They agreed that it was enough to teach religion in the churches.

[41]It seems to have been on account of this slanderous attack on the Pope, as well as to give it an air of impartiality, that General Roothaan publicly denied that the Jesuits had assisted the author. The learned Abbé Guettée, in theHistoire des Jésuites, which he published soon afterwards, tells us that, not yet knowing his hostility to them, some of the Jesuits of Paris freely acknowledged to him their share in the work. In any case, the Jesuits were obviously in close co-operation with the writer, since he speaks constantly of having before his eyes unpublished documents which belonged to the Society.

[42]There were, of course, more important issues at stake in the Swiss struggle. The franchise was narrow, and the government aristocratic in the cantons, and the central or federal power was weak. The Radicals mainly aimed at reforming these features, but they were hardly less inflamed at the privileges given to the Jesuits. In Valais the fathers travelled free on the public services.

[43]Historians usually include among the causes the enforcement of a system of secular education only in the schools. But—as Sir Robert Stout kindly pointed out to me—the Catholic prelates in their letter to the French Minister of the Interior, dated 30th May 1806, had previously "willingly" accepted this arrangement. They agreed that it was enough to teach religion in the churches.

CHAPTER XVI

THE LAST PHASE

Ifwe attempt to sum up in few words the story of the Jesuits during the first few decades after their suppression, we must say that there was little change in their spirit, and that they were wholly bent on returning to their former position. In actual conduct there is a material change. The industrial and commercial system, which had formed one of the most irregular roots of their power in the earlier centuries, has disappeared; they no longer haunt the courts of kings as they had done; they, as a rule, show less arrogance to the non-Jesuit clergy and the bishops; they are less lax in their casuistry; they shrink from regicide. Much of this change is, however, plainly attributable to their new situation. There is, for instance, hardly a single country where they enjoy an unbroken prosperity for even thirty years during the first half of the nineteenth century, so that we could hardly look for large estates or traffic; and their foreign missions are only slowly and laboriously constructed. As to regicide, the new age has a more humane way of dealing with superfluous kings. If they do not counsel kings, it is clearly not from lack of desire to do so. On the whole, let us say that the dreadful age, as they conceive it, into which they are reborn has improved their conduct in spite of themselves.

We have now to see how, as the age increases in wickedness, to use their phrase, the Jesuits continue toimprove: how they retain their worst features only in lands which they pronounce godly and just, and are so innocent as to cast suspicion on the dark legends about them where heresy and unbelief abound. This last phase of Jesuit activity is very important, yet too close to us for proper historical study. Enough can be said, however, to show that what may be called the intermediate view of Jesuit degeneration is disputable. There are those (i.e.all Jesuits and their admirers) who hold that the Jesuits were never open to grave censure as a body; and there are those who maintain that the Jesuit of the nineteenth or twentieth century is as bad as the Jesuit of the seventeenth, and would poison a pope or forge a cheque complacently in the interest of the Society. A third view is that their heavy and repeated chastisements have made their evil features a thing of history. During the first half of the nineteenth century, however, we have seen that they had no idea of burying their past; they were to co-operate with kings in restoring the old order, and we have not the least ground to think that, had they restored it, they would have used their power otherwise than they did in the seventeenth century. It remains to see if they become wiser in the next half-century.

We left them on the eve of the revolution of 1848. Except in Switzerland, where their obstinacy in asserting their rights had been one of the chief causes of a civil war and made their prospects worse than ever, they still dreamed of erasing the revolution from the chronicle of Europe and beginning again at 1750. Hence the fearful storm of 1848 broke on them almost unexpectedly. They had only recently been forced to retire from France, so that the outbreak in that country affected them little. But the storm passed on to Austria and Italy, even Rome, and drove the Jesuits before it.A Jesuit writer observes sadly that "the first attack of the revolutionaries everywhere was on the Jesuits." Naturally; there were no more vehement opponents in Europe of the new age which the revolutionary movement represented. They had themselves traced the revolutionary spirit to their temporary absence from the schools of Europe, and the revolutionaries[44]concluded that the reign of terror had had their support. So from Rhineland, Austria, Galicia, Venice, Turin, Rome, Naples, and Sicily—the only Provinces of the Society which seemed secure—the Jesuits were driven by armed and angry crowds, and a vast colony of bewildered refugees shuddered in Belgium.

The Emperor of Austria was forced on 7th May to sign their expulsion from the whole of his empire, but it was in Italy that they suffered most. Since 1840 the authorities of the Society had received a succession of painful shocks. The Carlists had lost and the fathers had been driven from Spain: in 1845 they had been forced to dissolve the communities in France: in 1847 the Swiss Catholics had lost, and the Jesuit houses had been wrecked. They had attached themselves everywhere to losing causes. Manning was in Rome in the winter 1847-48, and his diary records the coming of the revolution to Rome, and flight of the Jesuits. PiusIX.had exhausted his Liberalism, and the Romans were uneasy and suspicious. Then, in January and February 1848, news came that the revolutionaries had triumphed in Sicily and Naples, and the Jesuits were flying north. By March the Jesuits at Rome were ready to fly at a moment's notice, as Manning found when he visited them. On 29th March they were expelled; and in thesame month the Viennese conquered their Emperor, the Venetians rebelled and drove out the Jesuits, and the Piedmontese won a Liberal Constitution from Charles Albert. Manning speculates on the causes of the intense hostility to the Jesuits, and traces it to their alliance with ultramontanism and political reaction.

As the historian tells, the revolution of 1848 had in most countries only a temporary triumph, and in the course of 1849 and 1850 the Jesuits returned to their provinces. In very many places they returned to find their comfortable home a heap of ruins, but the storm had had one consoling effect. It had proved that the Jesuits were the chief enemies of Liberalism, and to the Jesuits must be entrusted the task of extinguishing such sparks as remained of the revolutionary fire. PiusIX.had been driven to Gaeta, while the Romans set up their short-lived Triumvirate and declared papal rule at an end. He returned to Rome in the spring of 1850, when French troops had cleared out his opponents, and from that moment he became the closest ally of the Jesuits. His first act was to canonise several members of the Society. He took a Jesuit confessor, and, with the aid of Cardinal Antonelli and the Society, set up the selfish and repressive system which the English ambassador described as "the opprobrium of Europe."

At last, it seemed, the spectre of revolution was definitively laid, and a prospect of real restoration lay before the Society. At Rome the Jesuits had enormous power. Their influence is seen in the declaration of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 and the appalling Encyclical against modern culture and aspirations of 1864. To them in 1866 the Pope entrusted his chief organ, theCiviltà Cattolica, and they had a large part in agitating for, and ultimately passing, the declaration that the Pope is infallible in 1870. During all thisperiod they controlled Catholic culture, if not the Papacy. Their power was at the same time restored in Sicily, Naples, and Venice, so that Italy (except Piedmont) was covered with their colleges and residences. In Austria the Emperor, embittered by his hour of humiliation, now opened the whole of his dominions to them, and they collected fathers from all parts of the world to come and restore the prosperity of the Austrian Province. In Belgium they prospered luxuriantly; and they made quiet and stealthy progress in Holland, Bavaria, Switzerland, Saxony, and Prussia, where they were not authorised. In France NapoleonIII.cancelled the decrees against them, and cherished them as one of the supports of his throne. In England they found a friend in Wiseman and made rapid progress; in the United States they were growing with the phenomenal growth of the population. The age of trouble was over. The sage old fathers at the Gesù and the Roman College saw chaos returning to order.

In 1853, at the beginning of this happier turn of their fortunes, Roothaan died, and Beckx, the son of a Belgian shoemaker, was elected General. The one cloud on the horizon was Piedmont, where the earlier affection for the Jesuits had died, but it had been proved, apparently, that France and Austria would check the ambition of that State. But France was drawn to Sardinia, and in 1859 Victor Emmanuel began to extend his rule over Italy. From that time until 1870 the Society heard of nothing but disaster. In 1860 Victor Emmanuel annexed Tuscany, Emilia, and Romagna, and the Jesuits were driven from their homes into the Papal States. In the same year Garibaldi landed in Sicily, put an end to the brutal rule of the Catholic King, and ejected the 300 Jesuits from their palatial college at Palermo and other residences. Inthe autumn he entered Naples, and swept further hundreds of the Jesuits before him. We learn from a letter of protest which Father Beckx addressed to Victor Emmanuel, that in the two years the Society had lost 3 institutions in Lombardy, 6 in Modena, 11 in the Papal States, 19 in Naples, and 15 in Sicily. Of 308 Jesuits in their most prosperous Province of Sicily only 8 aged and ailing fathers were allowed to remain on the island. Of 5500 members of the Society no less than 1500 were homeless, and were not even allowed to find shelter in Catholic houses in their native Provinces. In 1866 the Austrians were ejected from Venice, and further scores of Jesuits were driven from their homes. In 1868, it may be added, the Jesuits were again banished from Spain, to which they had returned under IsabellaII.

There was a great concentration of Jesuits in Rome and the remaining Papal States, and desperate efforts were made to secure that at least this remnant of earthly principality should remain loyal to the Pope. To the great joy of the Jesuits an Œcumenical Council gathered at the Vatican, and the design of declaring the Pope personally infallible in matters of faith or morals was eagerly pressed. In the long and heated conflict of affirming bishops and denying bishops, and bishops who thought a declaration inexpedient, the Jesuits were very active, scorning the idea that it could be imprudent to enhance the power of the Pope. Then came the Franco-German War, the withdrawal of the one Catholic force which could save Rome from Victor Emmanuel, and the clouds gathered more thickly than ever. The Jesuits had declared their opinion of the "usurper" too freely to have any illusion as to the issue.

When the Piedmontese troops entered by the breach at the Porta Pia on 20th September, the Jesuits knewthat they were doomed. A detachment of soldiers at once proceeded to the house attached to the Gesù and took up quarters there. Whatever the reason was, the new Italian Government proceeded very slowly in the work of expelling the Jesuits. For some weeks soldiers and fathers lived together at the Gesù—the fathers afterwards said that the soldiers chose the General's room for practising the drum and trumpet—and the various residences were confiscated "in the public interest" at wide intervals. In October the novitiate at St. Andreas, with its large estates, was taken and the novices forced to enlist. In January 1772 one of their smaller churches was handed over to the secular clergy; in January 1873 a second church and the Roman College (which was used by the Ministry of War) were annexed.

At last, in June 1873, a law was published enacting that the monks and religious of all orders must quit Italy. One house was to be reserved at Rome for each order, so that they might communicate with the Vatican, but this privilege was refused to the Jesuits. They were hated by the great majority of the educated Italians, who recalled with anger their support of the bloody reigns of Ferdinand of Naples, FerdinandVII.of Spain, Miguel of Portugal, and GregoryXVI.and PiusIX.They had sided with reaction and lost. There was no general sympathy when, in October, Father Beckx, now a feeble old man of seventy-eight, went sorrowfully to his exile in Florence, and the remaining Italian Jesuits were pensioned and scattered. The novitiate at Sant Andreas was rented by the American Seminary (and Father Beckx was allowed to die there some years later). The Gesù was entrusted to other priests, and the sacred rooms of Ignatius and the other saints of the Society were respectfully preserved. The Roman College became a State school: I remember seeing a vast Congressof Freethinkers hold their fiery meetings in its dark chambers and airy quadrangle thirty years afterwards, at the invitation of the civic authorities of Rome.

It was just one hundred years since the Roman Jesuits had been scattered by ClementXIV.But the catastrophe in Italy was not the only affliction to mark that dark centenary. They had in the previous year, when they were awaiting the sentence of Victor Emmanuel, heard that their fathers were expelled from the new German Empire. For some years they had made quiet, but considerable, progress in Prussia, Bavaria, and Saxony, as well as Austria. They had opened a number of colleges at Cologne and in the Rhine Province, always a rich field for their work, and had institutions at Posen, Münster, Metz, Mayence, Bonn, Strassburg, Essen, Aix-la-Chapelle, Marienthal, Ratisbon, and many other places. From the Rhine Province and Bavaria and Baden they sent so many recruits to the German College at Rome, who would return to work in Germany and further the influence of the Jesuits in seminaries and bishoprics and universities, that Frederick WilliamIII.was compelled to forbid any of his subjects to go to the German College or any other Jesuit institution. Frederick WilliamIV.genially overlooked their progress, and they spread over the States which were presently to form the German Empire.

But the birth of the German Empire coincided with the declaration of papal infallibility, and a strong agitation for the expulsion of the Jesuits arose. The prolonged check on Jesuit activity in Germany had permitted the growth of a more virile and honest culture among the secular clergy, and many of the best Catholic scholars were amazed at the papal claim. Politicians and Protestants generally were concerned about this victory of ultramontanism, and attributed it largely tothe intrigues of the Jesuits. Even before 1870 the Catholic statesmen of Bavaria were in conflict with the Church over its extreme pretensions. When, in 1870, two more Catholic Provinces were added to Germany, bringing its Catholic population up to fifteen millions, Bismarck watched attentively every step in the growth of ultramontanism. The dissenters at the Vatican Council had very serious ground indeed for their plea of inexpediency, as far as Germany was concerned. Even Austria threatened to break its Concordat with the Papacy when the news of the declaration of infallibility arrived. Over Protestant Germany a feeling of intense hostility spread, and the Old Catholics joined in the outcry.

Petitions for the expulsion of the Jesuits began to reach the Reichstag, and the Government proceeded to act. A measure was debated in the Reichstag in June 1872, and on the 4th of July it was signed and promulgated. Six months were allowed for the settlement of their affairs, and in the course of that time the whole of their communities were dissolved. As communities they retired upon Switzerland, Austria, Holland, and Belgium, but the law permitted them to enter the Empire as individual citizens, and Bismarck knew that it availed little to expel Jesuits with a fork. Dr. Falk, a strenuous Liberal, was made Minister of Public Instruction, and he framed a series of measures (the "May Laws") for the complete control of education by the State and for determining the qualifications of teachers in such a way that no disguised Jesuit could return to his desk. The control of schools had hitherto been left generally to the bishops, on whose indulgence or zeal, as far as the Catholic schools were concerned, the Jesuits could generally rely.

A stormy controversy ended in the passing of theLaws, and Germany entered upon that long and bitter struggle of the Catholics against the Government which is known as theKulturkampf. To this day the Jesuits have been unable, in spite of the most industrious intrigue, to secure readmission into the German Empire. They still hover about the frontiers, in Holland, Austria, and Belgium, and maintain large colleges in which hundreds of the sons of the wealthier Catholics are educated in orthodox principles. Individually, they live frequently in Berlin and control the incessant demand of the Centre Party for their rehabilitation. "Exile" has no effect on their growth and prosperity, for the 755 expelled Jesuits of 1872 now number 1186. It is not impossible that they will secure return by some such bargain as that which contributed to the ending of theKulturkampf. Bismarck saw a "red terror" growing more rapidly and threateningly than the "black terror," and he made peace with the Catholic clergy and Rome on the understanding that they would combat Socialism in Germany. Socialism continues to grow, and it would not be surprising if the Emperor at length enlists the sons of Ignatius in his desperate struggle against it. If he does, the Society will find a luxuriant field for growth among the 22,000,000 Catholics of the Empire, until the last deadly struggle with Social Democracy sets in.

For the inner spirit and character of the modern German Jesuits I must refer the reader to Count von Hoensbroech's invaluableFourteen Years a Jesuit(2 vols., Engl. transl., 1911). The whole story from beginning to end is a sober but pitiful indictment of the Jesuits, and shows how little change there is below their accommodating expressions. We find the Jesuits hovering about the houses of the wealthy, using theirinfluence with the women, extorting money by the most questionable means, practising and teaching mental reservation at every turn, and intriguing for political power through the Catholic laity, as they had done through three centuries. When Father Anderledy (a future General of the Society) was convicted, in the 'forties, of maintaining studies in the Cologne residence, contrary to Prussian law, he flatly denied the charge, making the mental reservation that from that moment the school should cease to exist. The Jesuit historian who records the fact says: "What presence of mind!" When Hoensbroech, intending to enter the German service, asked the learned Jesuit Franzelin whether he might take an oath to observe the laws (which then included the May Laws), he was told that he might, with the mental reserve that he did not respect any laws denounced by the Church. Numbers of instances of deliberate lying (with mental reserve) are given, and the work exhibits the character, the training, and the educational activity of the Jesuits in an extremely unattractive light. It is an indispensable document for the study of modern Jesuit character.

The German Jesuits were, as I said, expelled in 1872; the Italian Jesuits followed in 1873. At that time the Jesuits of France were enjoying the reaction of public opinion which followed the attempts of the Communists. Under NapoleonIII.they had quickly recovered, and as early as 1855 there had once more been appeals for their expulsion. They returned to their schools and colleges after the disturbances of 1871, and the Conservative Government permitted them to prosper. A reaction set in in the later 'seventies, when Gambetta vigorously led the anti-clerical forces and began to denounce the Society. The Catholics had almost succeeded in overthrowing the Republicand enthroning the Duc de Chambord. When (in 1877) they went on to demand the employment of French troops for the re-establishment of the Pope in his temporal power, they lost the cause of their Church. From that year Catholicism has decreased in France, shrinking from 30,000,000 to about 5,000,000 followers in thirty years.

Within two years there was an enormous growth of the anti-clerical feeling, especially against the Jesuits. They, and the great majority of the religious orders, had no legal right to existence in France. Only three or four Congregations, of a philanthropic character, were authorised by French law. Yet these useful bodies made no progress, while the unauthorised Congregations held property of the value of 400,000,000 francs. Jules Ferry now became Minister of Education, and framed a law to prevent any member of an unauthorised Society from teaching. When the Catholic Senate rejected it, the unauthorised Congregations were dissolved by decree (1880). Once more the Jesuits were banished from France, and 2904 members of the Society were added to the number of exiles. In 1880 more than half the Jesuits—or 7400 Jesuits—were excluded from their respective countries.

As France was still overwhelmingly Catholic, the successive Governments were unable to enforce the law, and the Jesuits quietly returned to their work. It is enough to say that during the next twenty years, until France had become predominantly non-Catholic and disposed to insist on their exclusion, the 2900 Jesuits actually increased their number; the property of the unauthorised Congregations rose in value from 400,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 francs; the higher education was controlled to a great extent by the Jesuits, whose pupils passed largely into the army and navy. It is hardlynecessary to recall the successive blunders by which the Jesuits (and other religious) brought on themselves the sentence of expulsion in 1901. In 1886 Boulanger became Minister of War and popular idol. His Radical friends soon distrusted him, and the Monarchists and Catholics fanned the popular agitation to have him made Dictator. In this case we have positive and sufficient information of the complicity of the Jesuits. Count von Hoensbroech, then a young Jesuit, heard from the lips of Father du Lac, the most prominent of the French Jesuits, that he had collected large sums of money for the "Deliverer of France" and the overthrow of the "dirty and impious Republic."[45]We can hardly doubt that they had been equally zealous for the Duc de Chambord, and were later as zealous for the cause of the Duc d'Orleans.

Boulanger fled, to escape arrest, in 1889, and the Republicans added to the reckoning against the Jesuits. In 1897-99 occurred the famous agitation for the retrial of Dreyfus, and once more the Jesuits ranged themselves on the losing side of tyranny and prejudice. By the end of the century France had become overwhelmingly non-Catholic, and was not disposed to tolerate further the intrigues and wealth of bodies which had no legal existence in the country. The Jesuits, in particular, were a menace to the Republic. The new century opened therefore with an anti-clerical campaign which is still fresh in our memories. Waldeck-Rousseau passed his Associations' Bill in 1901, and the Jesuits now were once more expelled. Combes and Rouvier completed the work in subsequent years. There is, however, no very drastic action taken against invading religious, and the Jesuits frequent Paris as they do Berlin. The number of members of the French Provinces of the Society has risen to 3071 (many of whom are on the foreign missions),and from comfortable homes in England (where we have 226) and other countries, with their funds safely invested, they await the day of recall. But the general collapse of the Church in France makes it certain that they will never be readmitted.

Apart from the Latin-American Republics, in connection with which it would be tedious to enumerate the various expulsions and recalls of the Jesuits, and Portugal the Society has made great progress in other countries. Of Portugal little need be said; the situation is similar to that in France. The Jesuits had no authorised existence in the country, and, when Portugal was at length enabled to assert its will (after the revolution of 1910), it sharply dismissed them. Here again the country is predominantly non-Catholic, if we confine our attention to voters, and the Jesuits are never likely to return.

Spain has become the refuge, and almost the last hope in the Latin world, of the expatriated Jesuits. In the corrupt and worthless reign of IsabellaII.they had been suffered to return to their posts and prosper. Properly speaking, they have had no legal right to exist in Spain since they were abolished by Christina in 1835. The Concordat of 1852 stipulates for the admission of the Oratorians and Vincentians and "one other" Congregation; but casuistic skill has interpreted this to mean "one for each diocese," and all have been admitted. The abominable rule of their patroness Isabella ended in revolution in 1868; the frivolous Queen was deposed, and the Jesuits shared the fate of her other strange favourites. With the accession of AlfonsoXII., however, they returned to Spain, and obtained the wealth and power which they enjoy to-day.

The secrecy of the Society emboldens its apologists to make the most audacious denials of these constantcharges of wealth, power, and intrigue, but it constantly happens that some confiscated document or disaffected admirer betrays them. Such an instance may be quoted in connection with the Spanish Jesuits. In 1896 a devout Catholic, a former pupil and employee of the Jesuits, Señor Ceballos y Cruzada, quarrelled with and turned against them. In the little work in which he expounds his grievances (El Imperio del Jesuitismo) he tells us some interesting facts about their wealth and activity. There is in Spain a vast Catholic Society known as the Association of Fathers of Families, which is quite as much concerned with sound politics as sound morals. Señor Ceballos shows how the Jesuits secretly use and direct it for their political aims, and for thwarting rival ecclesiastical bodies. As to their wealth, he says that they have 11 colleges worth from 1,000,000 to 12,000,000realeseach, while their chief house at Loyola has property of incalculable value. At his own college, at Deusto, there were about 300 pupils paying 1500pesetasa year each; in none of them is education gratuitous. The schooling is very poor and antiquated, and few of their scholars later rise to any distinction. It is curious to know that these wealthy Jesuit institutions have the British flag ready to be hoisted in case of revolution (which they yearly expect).

There is, however, little need for proof of the wealth and political influence of the Jesuits in Spain. In the struggle which is proceeding between the reformers, of all parties, and the supporters of the deeply corrupt political system, the Jesuits use their whole strength as educators, and intrigue far beyond their schools, in the interest of corruption; and, true to their maxim of educating and capturing the sons of the wealthier classes, they have permitted the mass of the people to remain at an appalling level of illiteracy. The greatmajority of the men of Spain, in the large towns, hate them intensely, and await with impatience the day when, like their Portuguese neighbours, they will expel their insidious enemies. A few years ago a drama entitledPaternidadwas put upon the stage of one of the chief theatres at Barcelona, and received with the wildest enthusiasm. It was written by a Catholic priest, Segismondo Pey-Ordeix, and represented the Jesuits of modern Spain as practising the most corrupt devices known in the history of the Society. The sternly critical works of the great Spanish writer, Perez Galdos, are just as enthusiastically received at Madrid and in all the cities. Spaniards watch with indignation the concentration of exiled Jesuits on their territory. To the exiled French communities of 1880 were added the 147 Jesuits of Cuba and the Philippines in 1898, and these are now reinforced by the Portuguese. They now number 3859. In 1901, 1906, and recently, the Liberals have attempted or threatened to deal with them; but there is too much collusion in the Cortes between the opposing parties, and the Jesuits have too strong an influence at the Palace: I am informed that the present Queen has surrendered entirely to the pressure of the Queen-mother and the Jesuits. Unless the King has the courage to lighten the labouring vessel of royalty by sacrificing the Jesuits, which would give him immense popularity, Spain will, within ten years, follow the example of Portugal.

Several of the South American Republics, and Mexico, have already reached a state of permanent triumph of the Liberal elements, and expelled the Jesuits for ever. As this work proceeds with the growth of education, it is natural to presume that they will all in time exclude the Jesuits. Italy also will return to its strict law, when the Government discoversthat the shrinking influence of the Papacy is no longer a valuable ally against advanced schools. At present the law is not enforced, and there are large numbers of Jesuits in the country; the Italian Province numbers more than a thousand members. At Rome they control the Gregorian University, the German and Latin-American Colleges, the Biblical Institute, and other papal establishments. Restrained in some measure by LeoXIII., they have recovered all their influence at the Vatican under the present mediæval Pontiff, and they are amongst the most ardent supporters of the reactionary policy with which he is paralysing higher culture in the Church of Rome. The higher secular clergy are little less anxious than the Socialists and Freemasons to see them suppressed. The same forces are at work against them in Belgium, where they number 1200 (including foreign missionaries), and Austria. A coalition of Liberals and Socialists in Belgium would at any time put an end to the Catholic power, as the anti-clerical voters are in the majority, and the Jesuits would not long survive the change.

Yet one of the most singular features of the whole singular story of the Jesuits is that they have increased enormously during this half-century of afflictions. The growth of the Society during the last hundred years is seen in the following table:—

Of the present members, 3531 are on the foreign missions; and the re-opening of these fields, under lessadventurous conditions, accounts for much of the growth of the Society. The advance of the United States and the British Colonies, with their large percentage of Irish and Italian immigrants, accounts for a good deal of the remainder. The Jesuits of the United States now number 2300; and there are 373 in Canada and 100 in Australasia. It is most probable that the future of the Jesuits lies in the Protestant countries. Probably the Jesuits will, in twenty years' time, be excluded from every "Catholic" kingdom, yet number more than 20,000.

Their progress and activity in England may be more closely described in illustration of this tendency. We saw how the survivors of the old English mission joined with the Fathers of the Faith in 1814 and 1815 to re-establish the Society. They then numbered 73, and had several chapels, besides the estate and house at Stonyhurst. They advanced with the general body of the Roman Catholics, especially when the stronger current of immigration from Ireland began in the forties. The secular clergy were still very much opposed to them, however, and Dr. Griffiths, the Vicar Apostolic of the London district, refused to allow them to set up a community in the metropolis. After years of pressure at Rome they secured the interest of Dr. (later Cardinal) Wiseman, and were admitted to settle in Farm St., among the wealthiest Catholics. When Wiseman succeeded Griffiths in 1847 (and the hierarchy was established in 1850) they were cordially patronised and made greater progress. They then numbered 554. With the accession of Manning the patronage ceased and their work was restricted. They were eager to found schools for middle-class boys; but Manning sternly refused, in defiance of the favour of PiusIX., and they were compelled to establish their schools at such places as Beaumont and Wimbledon, outside his jurisdiction. When they pressed for a school of higher studies, a kind of Catholic university, Manning hastily founded his ill-fated school at Kensington and refused their co-operation, with the natural result that the wealthier Catholics, under the influence of the Jesuits, would not support it. Bishop Vaughan of Salford was not much more indulgent to them.

The secret of Manning's opposition is said by his biographer to have been his wish to raise the dignity of the secular priesthood, which Catholics are too apt to think lower than the monastic state. This was, however, not merely a mystic theory on the part of the Cardinal. He despised the comparative indolence and petty hypocrisies of the religious orders generally, and had a particular dislike of the intrigue, the secrecy, the insubordination, and the pursuit of wealthy people, of the Jesuits.[47]Manning refused sacerdotal faculties to his nephew, Father Anderdon, and forced the Jesuits to surrender a site in West London for which they had paid more than £30,000. Cardinal Vaughan, however, relaxed his coercive policy when he was transferred to Westminster.

The English Province has now (1912) 729 members, and about fifty churches; though theCatholic Directorygives only 285 English Jesuit priests, and 226 French refugees, in this country. The feeling against them amongst the secular clergy and the other religious Congregations is almost as strong as ever. Their obvious preference for the wealthier quarters of cities is sneeringly discussed in clerical circles, and it is said that they intrigue incessantly to draw the more comfortable Catholics from other parishes. The poverty of their literary and scholastic output,—mainly, a number of slight and superficial controversial works, more intent on making small points than on substantial and accurate erudition,—and their remarkable failure to produce men of distinction, are regarded as a grave reflection on their body, in view of their wealth, numbers, and leisure. It is not, however, believed that they indulge any other intrigue than an amiable zeal among the Catholic laity to add to their own comfort and prestige.[48]

Returning, in conclusion, to the question at the beginning of this chapter, we find it impossible to give a general answer and embrace all the existing Jesuits in a formula. The Jesuits of Spain, with their political machinations, their sordid legacy-hunting, and their eagerness to support the Spanish Government in the judicial murder of their enemies, are a very different body from the Jesuits of England or Germany or the United States. The Jesuits of Cuba and the Philippines were, until 1898, little different from the more parasitical Jesuit missionaries of the seventeenth or eighteenth century. The modern age has affected the Jesuits much as some ancient revolution in the climate of the earth modified its living inhabitants. Where the old tropical conditions more or less linger (say, in Chile or Peru) the Jesuits are hardly changed; and we find the alteration in exact proportion to the environment. There is no change in the inner principles and ideals. "All for the Glory of the Society," as Mgr. Talbot sardonically translated their Latin motto, is still the ruling principle; theSociety remains the Esau of the Roman clerical world. It still chiefly seeks the wealthy and powerful; it is the arch-enemy of progress and liberalism in Catholic theology; its scholarship is singularly undistinguished in proportion to its resources;[49]it embarks on political intrigue, even for the destruction of State-forms, whenever its interest seems to require; it is hated by a very large proportion of the Catholic clergy and laity in every country. Let a liberal Pope again come to power and Modernism prevail, and it is not impossible that Catholicism itself will again angrily suppress the perverse and irregular construction of the Spanish soldier-diplomatist, and insist that religious ideals shall be pursued only by scrupulously clean and unselfish exertions.

FOOTNOTES:[44]I use the phrase of historians, but may observe that this was, in the main, a middle-class movement to secure liberty of opinion and other elementary political rights.[45]Fourteen Years, ii. 164.[46]It must be borne in mind always that "members" does not necessarily mean priests. Rather less than half are priests: the remainder are scholastics or lay coadjutors.[47]I am speaking here on what I heard, in clerical days, from men who were intimate with Manning. Purcell'sLifeis misleading. The author intended to be candid, but the Jesuits and others made such threats, when it became known what disclosures the book would contain, that he was compelled to omit much. The suppression of truth has greatly injured its historical value.[48]There are in Count von Hoensbroech's book some scathing reflections on the character and culture of the English Jesuits. The Count underwent part of his Jesuit training in England.[49]Let me recall that I do not personally expect the Society to produce anything but theologians, and of these it has produced many in the nineteenth century. In controversial theology, however, the work of the Jesuits is grossly unscholarly and casuistic; truth seems to be a secondary consideration. But it is so often claimed that the Jesuits are a learned body in the more general sense, that it is necessary to invite reflection on their record. Of the fifteen thousand living Jesuits, and their predecessors for a century, who has won even secondary rank in letters, history, or philosophy? In science there are only Father Secchi, the single distinguished product of their science-schools, and Father Wasmann, whose philosophy (apart from his observations) is the laughing-stock of biology.

[44]I use the phrase of historians, but may observe that this was, in the main, a middle-class movement to secure liberty of opinion and other elementary political rights.

[45]Fourteen Years, ii. 164.

[46]It must be borne in mind always that "members" does not necessarily mean priests. Rather less than half are priests: the remainder are scholastics or lay coadjutors.

[47]I am speaking here on what I heard, in clerical days, from men who were intimate with Manning. Purcell'sLifeis misleading. The author intended to be candid, but the Jesuits and others made such threats, when it became known what disclosures the book would contain, that he was compelled to omit much. The suppression of truth has greatly injured its historical value.

[48]There are in Count von Hoensbroech's book some scathing reflections on the character and culture of the English Jesuits. The Count underwent part of his Jesuit training in England.

[49]Let me recall that I do not personally expect the Society to produce anything but theologians, and of these it has produced many in the nineteenth century. In controversial theology, however, the work of the Jesuits is grossly unscholarly and casuistic; truth seems to be a secondary consideration. But it is so often claimed that the Jesuits are a learned body in the more general sense, that it is necessary to invite reflection on their record. Of the fifteen thousand living Jesuits, and their predecessors for a century, who has won even secondary rank in letters, history, or philosophy? In science there are only Father Secchi, the single distinguished product of their science-schools, and Father Wasmann, whose philosophy (apart from his observations) is the laughing-stock of biology.

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