Ignatius had no better luck at Salamanca. There he was not even allowed to study, but was kept in chains for three weeks while being examined as to his orthodoxy. But as with Alcalá, so with Salamanca. Later on he founded a college in that university also, and made it illustrious by giving it de Lugo, Suárez, Valencia, Maldonado, Ribera and a host of other distinguished teachers. Leaving Salamanca, Ignatius began his journey to Paris, travelling on foot, behinda little burro whose only burden were the books of the driver. It was mid-winter; war had been declared between France and Spain, and he had to beg for food on the way; but nothing could stop him, and he arrived at Paris safe and sound, in the beginning of February, 1528. In 1535 he received the degree of Master of Arts, after "the stony trial," as it was called, namely the most rigorous examination. For some time previously he had devoted himself to the study of theology, but ill health prevented him from presenting himself for the doctorate. He lived at the College of Ste Barbe where his room-mates were Peter Faber and Francis Xavier. Singularly enough and almost prophetic of the future, Calvin had studied at the same college. The names of Loyola and Calvin are cut on the walls of the building to-day. In 1533 Calvin, it is said, came back to induce the rector of the college, a Doctor Kopp, to embrace the new doctrines. He succeeded, and, before the whole university, Kopp declared himself a Calvinist. Calvin had prepared the way by having the city placarded with a blasphemous denunciation of the Blessed Eucharist. A popular uprising followed and Calvin fled. In reparation a solemn procession of reparation was organized on January 21, 1535. There is some doubt, however, about the authenticity of this story.
Ignatius encountered trouble in France as he had in Spain. On one occasion he was sentenced to be flogged in presence of all the students; but the rector of the college, after examining the charge against him, publicly apologized. There was also a delation to the Inquisition, but when he demanded an immediate trial he was told that the indictment had been quashed. Previous to these humiliations and exculpations he had gathered around him a number of brilliant young men, all of whom have made their mark on history.They afford excellent material for an exhaustive study of the psychology of the Saints.
Most conspicuous among them was Francis Xavier, who will ever be the wonder of history. With him were Laínez and Salmerón, soon to be the luminaries of the Council of Trent, the former of whom barely escaped being elevated to the chair of St. Peter, and then only by fleeing Rome. There was also Bobadilla, the future favorite of kings and princes and prelates, the idol of the armies of Austria, the tireless apostle who evangelised seventy-seven dioceses of Europe, but who unfortunately alienated Charles V from the Society by imprudently telling him what should have come from another source or in another way. There was Rodriguez who was to hold Portugal, Brazil and India in his hands, ecclesiastically; and Faber who was to precede Canisius in the salvation of Germany.
Each one of these remarkable men differed in character from the rest. Bobadilla, Salmerón, Laínez and Xavier were Spaniards; but the blue-blooded and somewhat "haughty" Xavier must have been tempted to look with disdain on a man with a Jewish strain like Laínez. Salmerón was only a boy of about nineteen, but already marvelously learned; and Bobadilla was an impecunious professor whom Ignatius had helped to gain a livelihood in Paris, but whose ebulliency of temper was a continued source of anxiety; Rodriguez was a man of velleities rather than of action, and his ideas of asceticism were in conflict with those of Ignatius. The most docile of all was the Savoyard Peter Faber, who began life as a shepherd boy and was already far advanced in sanctity when he met St. Ignatius. In spite, however, of all this divergency of traits and antecedent environment, the wonderful personality of their leader exerted its undisputed sway over them all, not by a rigid uniformity of direction, but by an adaptation to the idiosyncrasies of each. His profound knowledge of their character, coupled as it was with an intense personal affection for them, was so effective that the proud aloofness of Xavier, the explosiveness of Bobadilla, the latent persistency of Laínez, the imaginativeness and hesitancy of Rodriguez, the enthusiasm of the boyish Salmerón, and the sweetness of Faber, all paid him the tribute of the sincerest attachment and an eagerness to follow his least suggestion. Rodriguez was the sole exception in the latter respect, but he failed only twice. Two other groups of young men had previously gathered around Ignatius, but, one by one, they deserted him. All of the last mentioned persevered, and became the foundation-stones of the Society of Jesus.
On August 15, 1534, Ignatius led his companions to a little church on the hill of Montmartre, then a league outside the city, but now on the Rue Antoinette, below the present great basilica of the Sacred Heart. In its crypt which they apparently had all to themselves that morning, they pronounced their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Faber, the only priest among them, said Mass and gave them communion. Such was the beginning of the new Order in the Church. A brass plate on the wall of the chapel proclaims it to be the "cradle of the Society of Jesus." It is almost startling to recall that while in the University of Paris, not only Ignatius but also Francis Xavier and Peter Faber, who were to be so prominent in the world in a short time, were in destitute circumstances. They had no money even to pay for their lodging, and they occupied a single room which had been given them, out of charity, in one of the towers of Ste Barbe. It was providential, however, for in the same college, but paying his way, was a former schoolmate of Faberand like him a native of Savoy. This was Claude Le Jay, or Jay, as he is sometimes called. Of course he had noticed Ignatius and the group of brilliant young Spaniards, but he had little or nothing to do with them until once, when Ignatius was absent in Spain, Faber let him into the secret of their great plan of converting the Turks. The result was that when next year the associates went out to Montmartre to renew their vows, Le Jay was with them as were also two other university men: Jean Codure from Dauphiné and the Picard, Pasquier Brouet, who was already a priest.
It had been arranged that in 1536 when their courses of study were finished and their degrees and certificates secured, they were to meet at Venice to embark for the Holy Land. They were to make the journey to Venice on foot. They set out, therefore, in two bands, a priest with each, taking the route that passed by Meaux and then through Lorraine, across Switzerland to Venice. It was a daring journey of fifty-two days in the dead of winter, over mountain passes, without money to pay their way or to purchase food; with poor and insufficient clothing, across countries filled with soldiers preparing for war, or angry fanatics who scoffed at the rosaries around their necks, and who might have ill-treated them or put them to death; they bore it all, however, not only patiently but light-heartedly, and on January 6, 1537, arrived in Venice, where Ignatius was waiting for them. To them was added a new member of the association, Diego Hozes, who had known Ignatius at Alcalá and now came to him at Venice.
After a brief rest, which they took by waiting on the poor and sick in the worst hospital of the city, they were told to go down to Rome to ask the Pope's permission to carry out their plans. This journey was not as long or as dangerous as the one they had justmade, but the bad weather, the long fasts, the sickness of some of them, the rebuffs and abusive language which they received when they asked for alms, made it hard enough for flesh and blood to bear; however their devotion to the end they had in view, or what the world might call their Quixotic enthusiasm bore them onward. They were apprehensive, however, about their reception in Rome, not it is true, from the Father of the Faithful himself, but from a certain great Spanish canonist, a Doctor Ortiz, who happened to be just then at the papal court, making an appeal to the Sovereign Pontiff in behalf of Catherine of Aragon against Henry VIII.
Ortiz had met Ignatius in Paris and was bitterly prejudiced against him. That, indeed, was the reason why the little band appeared in the Holy City without their leader, but neither he nor they were aware that Ortiz had changed his mind and was now an enthusiastic friend. Hence when the travel-stained envoys from Venice presented themselves, they could scarcely believe their eyes. Ortiz received them with every demonstration of esteem and affection. He presented them to the Pope, and urged him to grant all their requests. Subsequently, Faber acted as theologian for Ortiz, when that dignitary represented Charles V at Worms and in Spain. Of course the Pontiff was overjoyed and not only blessed the members of the little band but gave them a considerable sum of money to pay their passage to the Holy Land. So they hurried back to Ignatius with the good news, and on June 24 all those who were not priests were ordained.
The custom that prevails in the Church, in our days, is for a newly-ordained priest to celebrate Mass on the morning following his ordination; but Ignatius and his companions prepared themselves for this great act in an heroic fashion. They buried themselves incaverns or in the ruins of dilapidated monasteries for an entire month, giving themselves up to fasting and prayer, preaching at times in some adjoining town or hamlet. It was on this occasion that the vacillating character of Rodriguez revealed itself. He and Le Jay had taken up their abode in a hermitage near Bassano where a venerable old man named Antonio was reviving in the heart of Italy the practices of the old solitaries of the Thebaid. Rodriguez fell ill and was at the point of death when Ignatius arrived and told him that he would recover. So, indeed, it happened, but singularly enough he was anxious to continue his eremitical life and, without speaking of his doubts to Ignatius, set out to consult the old hermit about it, but became conscience-stricken before he arrived. "O man of little faith, why did you doubt?" was all St. Ignatius said, when Rodriguez confessed what he had done. Nevertheless, that did not cure him, for the desire of leading a life of bodily austerity had taken possession of him and was at the bottom of the trouble which he subsequently caused in Portugal, and also when, in 1554, he wrote entreatingly to Pope Julius III for permission to leave the Society and become a hermit (Prat, Le P. Claude Le Jay, 32, note).
At the end of the retreat, they all returned to Venice, where they waited in vain for a ship to carry them to the land of the Mussulmans. It was only when there was absolutely no hope left, that they made up their minds to go back to Rome, and put themselves at the disposal of the Pope for any work he might give them. As this was fully twenty years after Martin Luther had nailed his thesis to the church door of Wittenberg, it is clear that Ignatius had no idea of attacking Protestantism when he founded the Society of Jesus.
Possibly this stay in Venice has something to dowith the solution of a question which has been frequently mooted and was solemnly discussed at a congress of physicians at San Francisco as late as 1900, namely, why did Vesalius, the great anatomist, go to the Holy Land? The usual supposition is that it was to perform a penance enjoined by the Inquisition in consequence of some alleged heretical utterances by the illustrious scientist. However, Sir Michael Foster of the University of Cambridge, who was the principal speaker at the Congress, offered another explanation. "It is probable," he said, "that while pursuing his studies in the hospitals of Venice, Vesalius often conversed with another young man who was there at the time and who was known as Ignatius Loyola." Such a meeting may, indeed, have occurred, for Ignatius haunted the hospitals, and his keen eye would have discerned the merit of Vesalius, who was a sincerely pious man. Hence, it is not at all unlikely that the young physician may have made the "Spiritual Exercises" under the direction of Ignatius, and that his journey to the Holy Land was the result of his intercourse with the group of brilliant young students, who just then had no other object in life but to convert the Turks.
On the journey to Rome Ignatius went ahead with Faber and Laínez, and it was then that he had the vision of Christ carrying the cross, and heard the promise: "Ego vobis Romæ propitius ero" (I will be propitious to you in Rome.) They were received affectionately and trustingly by the Pope, who sent Laínez and Faber to teach in the Sapienza, one lecturing on holy scripture and the other on scholastic theology; while Ignatius gave the "Spiritual Exercises" wherever and whenever the opportunity presented itself. When the other four arrived, they were immediately employed in various parts of Rome in works of charity and zeal.
It was in Rome that Ignatius first came in personal contact with the Reformation. A Calvinist preacher who had arrived in the city had succeeded in creating a popular outcry against the new priests, by accusing them of all sorts of crimes. As such charges would be fatal in that place above all, if not refuted, the usual policy of silence was not observed. By the advice of the Pope the affair was taken to court where the complaint was immediately dismissed and an official attestation of innocence given by the judge. The result was a counter-demonstration, that made the accuser flee for his life to Geneva. As an assurance of his confidence in them, the Sovereign Pontiff employed them in several parts of Italy where the doctrines of the Reformation were making alarming headway. Thus, Brouet and Salmerón were sent to Siena; Faber and Laínez accompanied the papal legate to Parma; Xavier and Bobadilla set out for Campania; Codure and Hozes for Padua; and Rodriguez and Le Jay for Ferrara. It is impossible to follow them all in these various places, but a brief review of the difficulties that confronted Rodriguez and Le Jay in Ferrara may be regarded as typical of the rest.
In conformity with the instructions of Ignatius, they lodged at the hospital, preached whenever they could, either in the churches or on the public streets, and taught catechism to the children and hunted for scandalous sinners. An old woman at the hospital discovered by looking through a crack in the door that they passed a large part of the night on their knees. At this point Hozes died at Padua, and Rodriguez had to replace him; Le Jay was thus left alone at Ferrara. The duke, Hercules II, became his friend, but the duchess, Renée of France, daughter of Louis XII, avoided him. She was a supposedly learnedwoman, a forerunner, so to say, of theprécieuses ridiculesof Molière, and an ardent patron of Calvin, a frequent visitor at the court along with the lascivious poet Clément Marot, who translated the Psalms into verse to popularize Calvin's heretical teachings. Another ominous figure that loomed up at Ferrara was the famous Capuchin preacher, Bernardo Ochino, a man of remarkable eloquence, which, however, was literary and dramatic rather than apostolic in its character. His emaciated countenance, his long flowing white beard and his fervent appeals to penance made a deep impression on the people. They regarded him as a saint, never dreaming that he was a concealed heretic, who would eventually apostacize and assail the Church. He was much admired by the duchess, who conceived a bitter hatred for Le Jay and would not even admit him to her presence. The trouble of the Jesuit was increased by the attitude of the bishop, who, knowing the real character of Ochino, looked with suspicion on Le Jay as possibly another wolf in sheep's clothing; but his suspicions were soon dispelled, and he gave Le Jay every means in his power to revive the faith and morals of the city. The duchess, however, became so aggressive in her proselytism that the duke ordered her into seclusion, and when he died, his son and successor sent her back to her people in France where she died an obstinate heretic.
From Ferrara Le Jay hastened to Bagnorea to end a schism there, and though neither side would listen to him at first, yet his patience overcame all difficulties, and finally, everybody met everybody else in the great church, embraced and went to Holy Communion. Peace then reigned in the city. The other envoys achieved similar successes elsewhere throughout the peninsula; and Crétineau-Joly says that their joint efforts thwarted the plot of the heretics to destroy theFaith in Italy. The winter of 1538 was extremely severe in Rome, and a scarcity of provisions brought on what amounted almost to a famine. This distress gave Ignatius and his companions the opportunity of showing their devotion to the suffering poor; and they not only contrived in some way or other to feed, in their own house, as many as four hundred famishing people, but inspired many of the well-to-do classes to imitate their example.
With this and other good works to their credit, they could now ask the authorization of the Sovereign Pontiff for their enterprise. Hence on September 3, 1539, they submitted a draught of the Constitution, and were pleased to hear that it evoked from the Pope the exclamation: "The finger of God is here." But they were not so fortunate with the commission of cardinals to whom the matter was then referred. Guidiccioni, who presided, was not only distinctly hostile, but expressed the opinion that all existing religious orders should be reduced to four and hence he contemptuously tossed the petition aside. It was only after a year that he took it up again — he scarcely knew why — and on reading it attentively he was completely converted and hastened to report on it as follows: "Although as before, I still hold to the opinion that no new religious order should be instituted, I cannot refrain from approving this one. Indeed, I regard it as something that is now needed to help Christendom in its troubles, and especially to destroy the heresies which are at present devastating Europe." Thus it is Guidiccioni who is responsible for setting the Society to undo the work of Martin Luther.
The Pope was extremely pleased by the commission's report, and on September 27, 1540, he issued the Bull "Regimini Ecclesiæ," approving "The Institute of the Society of Jesus." In this Bull andthat of Julius III, the successor of Paul III, we have the official statement of the character and the purpose of the Society. Its object is the salvation and perfection of the souls of its members and of the neighbor. One of the chief means for that end is the gratuitous instruction of youth. There are no penances of rule; but it is assumed that bodily mortifications are practised and employed, though only under direction. Great care is taken in the admission and formation of novices, and lest the protracted periods of study, later, should chill the fervor of their devotion, there are to be semi-annual spiritual renovations, and when the studies are over, and the student ordained to the priesthood, there is a third year of probation, somewhat similar to the novitiate in its exercises. There are two grades in the Society — one of professed, the other of coadjutors, both spiritual and temporal.
All are to be bound by the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, but those of the coadjutors are simple, while those of the professed are solemn. The latter make a fourth vow, namely, one of obedience to the Sovereign Pontiff, which binds them to go wherever he sends them, and to do so without excuse, and without provisions for the journey. The Father-General is elected for life. He resides in Rome, so as to be at the beck of the Sovereign Pontiff, and also because of the international character of the Society. All superiors are appointed by him, and he is regularly informed through the provincials about all the members of the Society. Every three years there is a meeting of procurators to report on their respective provinces and to settle matters of graver moment. The General is aided in his government by assistants chosen mostly according to racial divisions, which may in turn be subdivided. There is also an admonitor who sees that the General governs according to the laws of theSociety and for the common good. Disturbers of the peace of the Order are to be sharply admonished, and if incorrigible, expelled. When approved scholastics or formed coadjutors are dismissed they are dispensed from their simple vows. The simple vow of chastity made by the scholastics is a diriment impediment of matrimony. Because of possible withdrawals or dismissals from the Society, the dominion of property previously possessed is to be retained, as long as the general may see fit, but not the usufruct — an arrangement which has been repeatedly approved by successive Pontiffs, as well as by the Council of Trent.
All ambition of ecclesiastical honors is shut off by a special vow to that effect. There is no choir or special dress. The poverty of the Society is of the strictest. The professed houses are to subsist on alms, and cannot receive even the usual stipends. Moreover, the professed are bound by a special vow to watch over and prevent any relaxation in this respect. The rule is paternal, and hence an account of conscience is to be made, either under seal of confession or in whatever way the individual may find most agreeable. A general congregation may be convened as often as necessary. Its advisability is determined at the meeting of the procurators. In the first part of the Constitution, the impediments and the mode of admission are considered; in the second, the manner of dismissal; in the third and fourth, the means of furthering piety and study and whatever else concerns the spiritual advancement, chiefly of the scholastics; the fifth explains the character of those who are to be admitted and also the various grades; the sixth deals with the occupations of the members; the seventh treats of those of superiors; the eighth and ninth relate to the General; and the tenth determines the ways and means of government. Before the Constitutions were promulgated, Ignatiussubmitted them to the chief representatives of the various nationalities then in the Order, but they did not receive the force of law until they were approved by the first general congregation of the whole Society. After that they were presented to Pope Paul III, and examined by four Cardinals. Not a word had been altered when they were returned. The Sovereign Pontiff declared that they were more the result of Divine inspiration than of human prudence.
For those who read these Constitutions without any preconceived notions, the meaning is obvious, whereas the intention of discovering something mysterious and malignant in them inevitably leads to the most ridiculous misinterpretations of the text. Thus, for instance, some writers inform us that St. Ignatius is not the author of the Constitutions, but Laínez, Mercurian or Acquaviva. Others assure their readers that no Pope can ever alter or modify even the text; that the General has special power to absolve novices from any mortal sins they may have committed before entering; that the general confessions of beginners are carefully registered and kept; that a special time is assigned to them for reading accounts of miraculous apparitions and demoniacal obsessions; that before the two years of novitiate have elapsed a vow must be taken to enter the Society; that all wills made in favor of one's family must be rescinded; that in meditating, the eyes must be fixed on a certain point and the thoughts centered on the Pater Noster until a state of quasi-hypnotism results; that the grades in the Society are reached after thirty or thirty-five years of probation, after which the applicant becomes a probationer; the professed are called "ours"; the spiritual coadjutors "externs." The latter do the plotting and have aroused all the ill-will of which the Society has been the object; whereas the professeddevote themselves to prayer and are admired and loved.
There are also, we are assured, secret, outside Jesuits. The Emperors Ferdinand II and III, and Sigismund of Poland are put in that class, and probably also John III of Portugal and Maximilian of Bavaria; while Louis XIV is suspected of belonging to it. The Father-General dispenses such members from the priesthood and from wearing the soutane. "Imagine Louis XIV," says Brou, who furnishes these details, "asking the General of the Jesuits to be dispensed from wearing the soutane!" Unlike the other Jesuits, these cryptics would not be obliged to go to Rome to pronounce their vows. Again, it is said, Pope Paul IV had great difficulty in persuading the Jesuits to accept the dispensation from the daily recitation of the breviary. Perhaps the most charming of all of these "discoveries" is that the famous phraseperinde ac cadaver, "you must obey as if you were a dead body," was borrowed from the Sheik Si-Senoussi who laid down rules for his Senoussis in Africa, about two centuries after St. Ignatius had died. The authors of these extraordinary conceptions are Müller, Reuss, Cartwright, Pollard, Vollet and others, all of whom are honoured with a notice posted in the British Museum, as worthy of being consulted on the puzzling subject of Jesuitry, and yet the Constitutions of the Society and the explanations of them, by prominent Jesuit writers, can be found in any public library.
Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Italy — Election of Ignatius — Jesuits in Ireland — "The Scotch Doctor" — Faber and Melanchthon — Le Jay — Bobadilla — Council of Trent — Laínez, Salmerón, Canisius — The Catechism — Opposition in Spain — Cano — Pius V — First Missions to America — The French Parliaments — Postel — Foundation of the Collegium Germanicum at Rome — Similar Establishments in Germany — Clermont and other Colleges in France — Colloque de Poissy.
Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Italy — Election of Ignatius — Jesuits in Ireland — "The Scotch Doctor" — Faber and Melanchthon — Le Jay — Bobadilla — Council of Trent — Laínez, Salmerón, Canisius — The Catechism — Opposition in Spain — Cano — Pius V — First Missions to America — The French Parliaments — Postel — Foundation of the Collegium Germanicum at Rome — Similar Establishments in Germany — Clermont and other Colleges in France — Colloque de Poissy.
The pent-up energy of the new organization immediately found vent not only in Europe but at the ends of the earth. Portugal gave its members their first welcome when Xavier and Rodriguez went there, the latter to remain permanently, the former only for a brief space. Araoz evangelized Spain and was the first Jesuit to enter into relations with Francis Borgia, Viceroy of Catalonia, who afterwards became General of the Society. A college was begun in Paris and provided with professors such as Strada, Ribadeneira, Oviedo and Mercurian. Faber accompanied Ortiz, the papal legate, to Germany; Brouet, Bobadilla, Salmerón, Codure and Laínez went everywhere through Italy; while Ignatius remained at Rome, directing their operations and meantime establishing orphanages, night refuges, Magdalen asylums, shelters for persecuted Jews, and similar institutions. Strangely enough, Ignatius was not yet the General of the Society, for no election had thus far taken place. Strictly speaking, however, none was needed, for none of the associates ever dreamed of any other leader. However, on April 5, 1541, the balloting took place; those who were absent sending their votes by messenger. That ofXavier could not arrive in time, for he had already left Portugal for the East; indeed he had departed before the official approval of the Order by the Pope — two things which have suggested to some inventive historians that Francis Xavier was not really a Jesuit. They would have proved their point better, if they could have shown Xavier had remained in Europe after he had been ordered away. As a matter of fact; he had been one of the collaborators of Ignatius in framing the Constitutions and was still in Portugal when the news arrived of Guidiccioni's change of mind.
In the election every vote but one went for Ignatius. The missing one was his own. He was dissatisfied and asked for another election. Out of respect for him, the request was granted but with the same result — Such a concession, it may be noted, is never granted now. The one who is chosen submits without a word. The office is for life but provisions are made for removal — a contingency which happily has never arisen. As in the beginning, those elections are held at what are called general congregations. The first one was made up of all the available fathers but at present they consist of the fathers assistant, namely the representatives of the principal linguistic groups in the Society or their subdivisions — a body of men who constitute what is called the Curia and who live with the General; the provincials; two delegates from each province; and finally the procurator of the Society. With one exception, these congregations have always met in Rome; the exception is the one that chose Father Luis Martín in 1892, which assembled at Loyola in Spain. That these elections may be absolutely free from all external and internal influence, the delegates are strictly secluded, and have no communication with other members of the Society. Four days are spent in prayer and in seeking information from the variouselectors, but the advocacy of any particular candidate is absolutely prohibited. The ballot is secret and the voting is immediately preceded by an hour's meditation in presence of the crucifix. The electors are fasting, but the method of voting is such that a deadlock or even any great delay is next to impossible. Up to the time of the Suppression of the Society in 1773, there had been eighteen Generals. In the interim between that catastrophe and the re-establishment, there were three Vicars-General, who were compelled by force of circumstances to live in Russia. In 1802 on the receipt of the Brief "Catholicæ Fidei," the title of the last Vicar was changed to that of General. Since then, there have been eight successors to that post.
St. Ignatius was chosen General on Easter Sunday, 1541. After the election, the companions repaired to St. Paul's outside the Walls and there renewed their vows. On that occasion it was ordained that every professed father should, after making his vows, teach catechism to children or ignorant people for forty days; subsequently this obligation was extended to rectors of colleges after their installation. Ignatius acquitted himself of this task in the church of Our Lady of the Wayside at the foot of the Capitol.
In 1541 we find Salmerón and Brouet on their way to Ireland as papal nuncios. They had been asked for by Archbishop Wauchope of Armagh, when Henry VIII was endeavoring to crush out the Faith in England and Ireland. Wauchope is a very interesting historical character. He had been named Archbishop of Armagh after Browne of that see had apostatized. He was generally known as "the Scotch Doctor," and had been the Delegate of Pope Paul III at Spires where Charles V was striving in vain to conciliate the German princes. With him as advisers were Le Jay, Bobadilla and Faber. What made him especially conspicuousthen and subsequently, was the fact that he had risen to the dignity of archbishop and of papal delegate though he was born blind. This is asserted by a host of authors, among them Prat in his life of Le Jay, and Crétineau-Joly, MacGeoghegan and Moore in their histories.
On the other hand we find in the "Acta Sanctæ Sedis" (XIII) a flat denial of it by no less a personage than Pope Benedict XIV. It occurs incidentally in a decision given on March 20, 1880, in connection with an appeal for a young theologian, whose sight was very badly impaired at the end of his theological course. The appellants had alleged the case of the Archbishop of Armagh and the court answered as follows: "Nec valeret adduci exemplum cujusdam Roberti Scoti, cui quamvis cæco a puerili ætate, concessa fuit facultas nedum ad sacerdotium sed etiam ad episcopatum, ascendendi, uti tenent Maiol. (De irregularitate), et Barbos (De officio episcopi). Respondet enim Benedictus XIV, quod reliqui scriptores, quibus major fides habenda est, Robertum non oculis captum sed infirmum fuisse dicunt;" which in brief means: "Benedict XIV declares that the most reliable historians say that Scotch Robert was not blind but of feeble vision." As Benedict XIV was perhaps the greatest scholar who ever occupied the Chair of Peter, and as his extraordinary intellectual abilities were devoted from the beginning of his career to historical, canonical and liturgical studies, in which he is regarded as of the highest authority, such an utterance may be accepted as final with regard to the "Scotch Doctor's" blindness.
Codure was to have been one of the Irish delegates, but he died, and hence Salmerón, Brouet and Zapata undertook the perilous mission. The last mentioned was a wealthy ecclesiastic who was about to enter theSociety and had offered to defray the expenses of the journey. In the instructions for their manner of acting Ignatius ordered that Brouet should be spokesman whenever nobles or persons of importance were to be dealt with. As Brouet had the looks and the sweetness of an angel, whereas Salmerón was abrupt at times, the wisdom of the choice was obvious. They went by the way of France to Scotland, and when at Stirling Castle, they received a letter from James V, the father of Mary Queen of Scots, bespeaking their interest in his people. Crétineau-Joly says they saw the king personally. Fouqueray merely hints at its likelihood. From Scotland they passed over to Ireland and found that the enemy knew of their arrival. A price was put upon their heads, and they had to hurry from place to place so as not to compromise those who gave them shelter. But in the brief period of a month which they had at their disposal before they were recalled by the Pope they had ample opportunity to take in the conditions that prevailed. They returned as they had gone, through Scotland and over to Dieppe, and then directed their steps to Rome, but they were arrested as spies near Lyons and thrown into prison — a piece of news which Paget, the English ambassador in France, hastened to communicate to Henry; Cardinals de Tournon and Gaddi, however, succeeded in having them released and they then proceeded to the Holy City to make their report.
Eighteen years later, Father Michael Gaudan was sent as papal nuncio to Mary Stuart. He entered Edinburgh disguised as a Scottish peddler and succeeded in reaching the queen. As a Frenchman could not have acted the part of a Scottish peddler, it is more than likely that Gaudan is a gallicized form of Gordon. Indeed, there is on the records a Father James Gordon, S. J., who had so exasperated the Calvinists by hisrefutation of their errors that he was driven out of the country. He returned again, however, immediately, as he simply got a boat to take him off the ship which was carrying him into exile, and on the following day he stood once more upon his native heath, remaining there for some years sustaining his persecuted Catholic brethren (Claude Nau, Mary's secretary).
That the "blind Archbishop" also succeeded in reaching his see is clear from a passage in Moore's "History of Ireland" (xlvii), which tells how during the reign of Edward VI two French gentlemen, the Baron de Fourquevaux and the Sieur Montluc, afterwards Bishop of Valence, went to Ireland as envoys of the French king and were concealed in Culmer Fort on Loch Foyle. They kept a diary of their journey which may be found, we are assured, in the "Armorial-général ou registre de la noblesse de France." The diary relates that while at the Fort "they received a visit from Robert Wauchope, better known by his pen name as Venantius, a divine whose erudition was the more remarkable as he had been blind from birth and was at the time, titular Archbishop of Armagh." He did not, however, remain in Ireland. MacGeoghegan says "he returned to the Continent and died in the Jesuit house at Paris in the year 1551." Stewart Rose in her "Saint Ignatius Loyola and the Early Jesuits" tells us it was at Lyons, but that was impossible, for there was no Jesuit establishment in Lyons until after the great pestilence of 1565, when the authorities offered the Society the municipal college of the Trinity as a testimonial of gratitude to Father Auger. The generosity of this offer, however, was not excessive. The Fathers were to take it for two years on trial. They did so and then the provincial insisted that the gift should be absolute or the staff would be withdrawn. After some bickering onthe part of a number of Calvinist échevins or aldermen, the grant was made in perpetuity and confirmed by Charles IX in 1568.
Meantime, Faber had been laboring in Germany. He was to have been the Catholic orator at Worms in 1540, but conditions were such that he made no public utterance. Melanchthon was present, but whether Faber and he met is not clear. In 1541 Faber received an enthusiastic welcome at Ratisbon from the Catholics, especially from Cochlæus, the great antagonist of Luther. Among his opponents at the Diet were Bucer and Melanchthon; the discussion, as usual, led to no result. In one of his letters he notes the inability of the Emperor to prevent the general ruin of the Faith. From Ratisbon he went to Nuremberg, but as the legate had been recalled, Faber's work necessarily came to an end. Le Jay and Bobadilla succeeded him in Germany. The former addressed the assembly of the bishops at Salzburg, preached in the Lutheran churches, escaped being poisoned on one occasion and drowned on another; he failed, however, to check the flood of heresy, which had not only completely engulfed Ratisbon, but threatened to overwhelm Catholic Bavaria, although Duke William maintained that such an event was impossible. Ingolstadt had already been badly damaged, both doctrinally and morally; and Bobadilla was despatched thither by the legate to see what could be done.
Faber had, meantime, returned to Germany. In spite of attacks by highwaymen, imprisonment, ill-treatment at the hands of disorderly bands of soldiers and heretics, he reached Spires and completely revived the spirit of the clergy. From there he hastened to Cologne, but in the midst of his work he was sent off to Portugal for the marriage of the king's daughter. By the time he reached Louvain, he was sick andexhausted, so that the order to proceed to Portugal had to be rescinded. He then returned to Cologne, where he again met Bucer and Melanchthon, who were endeavoring to induce the bishop to apostatize. Apprehensive of their success, he had them both expelled from the city. Again he was summoned to Portugal, and in 1547 the king, at his instance, gave the Society the college of Coimbra. Similar establishments were begun about the same time in Spain — at Valencia, Barcelona and Valladolid, chiefly through the influence of Araoz.
Le Jay, meanwhile, had been made professor of theology at Innsbruck, on the death of the famous Dr. Eck, and the university petitioned the Pope to make his appointment perpetual; but he was clamored for simultaneously by several bishops, and we find him subsequently at Augsburg, Salzburg, Dillingen and elsewhere, battling incessantly for the cause of the Faith. He succeeded in inducing the bishops assembled at Augsburg to prohibit the discussion of religion at the Diet, and a little later he assisted at the ecclesiastical council of the province. With him at this gathering was Bobadilla, who, says the chronicler, "resembled him in energy and zeal but was altogether unlike him in character." Le Jay was gentle and persuasive; Bobadilla, impetuous and volcanic. Bobadilla's fire, however, seems to have pleased the Germans. He strengthened the nobles and people of Innsbruck in their faith, was consulted by King Ferdinand on the gravest questions, scored brilliant successes in public disputes, and was made socius of the Apostolic nuncio at Nuremberg, where, it was suspected, a deep plot was being laid for the complete extirpation of the Faith. At the king's request, he attended the Diet of Worms, and by his alertness and knowledge rendered immense service to the Catholic party. He was shortly afterward summoned by the king to Vienna where he preached to the people incessantly and revived the ecclesiastical spirit of the clergy. He was again at Worms for another diet, and persuaded both the emperor and Ferdinand to oppose the Lutheran scheme of convoking a general council in Germany. At the suggestion of St. Ignatius, an appeal had been made to the bishops, through Le Jay, to establish seminaries in their dioceses. They all approved of the project; and several immediately set to work to carry it out.
When the Diet adjourned, Le Jay left Germany to take part in the Council of Trent, while Bobadilla remained with the king as spiritual adviser to the court and general supervisor of the sick and wounded soldiers of the royal armies. In the latter capacity he acquitted himself with his usual energy — his impetuosity of character often bringing him into the forefront of battle, where he merited several honorable scars for his daring. He also succeeded in falling a victim to the pestilence which was ravaging the country; he was robbed and maltreated by marauders, but came through it all safely, and we find him at the Diets of Ratisbon and Augsburg, everywhere showing himself a genuine apostle, as the Archbishop of Vienna informed Ignatius. The king offered him a bishopric, but he refused. He was soon, however, to know Germany no more.
The Council of Trent had already been in session for three years, when Charles V issued an edict known as the Interim, which forbade any change of religion until the council had finished its work; but at the same time he made concessions to the heretics which angered the Catholics both lay and clerical. Bobadilla was especially outspoken in the matter and in a public discourse was imprudent enough to condemn the imperial policy. Clearly he had not yet acquired thecharacteristic virtue of his great leader. Not only did he not mend matters by his intemperate eloquence, but he created an aversion for the Society in the mind of Charles V, which lasted till the time of St. Francis Borgia. Besides, he virtually blasted his own career. He was ordered to Naples by St. Ignatius and forbidden to present himself at the Jesuit house as he passed through Rome. He appears only once later and then in a manner scarcely redounding to his credit: objecting to the election of Laínez as vicar, although he had previously voted for him and obeyed him for a year. Happily the brilliant services of his fellow Jesuits who were at the Council of Trent and elsewhere, as well as his own splendid past, averted any very great damage to the Society.
Although Ignatius had been invited to be present at the sessions in Trent, he sedulously avoided the prominence which that would have given him personally; moreover, absence from his post as General of the newly-formed Institute would have materially interfered with the task of preparing successors to the great men who were already at work. Thus, Salmerón and Laínez were the Pope's theologians and Father Faber was summoned from his sick bed in Portugal to assist them, but he arrived in Rome only to die in the arms of Ignatius and never appeared at the council. Le Jay was present as theologian of the Cardinal Archbishop of Augsburg; Cavallino represented the Duke of Bavaria; and later Canisius and Polanco were added to the group. The coming of Canisius was due more or less to an accident. He had been laboring at Cologne to prevent the archbishop, Herman von Weid, from openly apostatizing; when the concessions to Melanchthon and Bucer had become too outrageous to be tolerated, he had hurried off to meet the emperor and King Ferdinand to ask for thedeposition of the prelate. With the king he met Truchsess, the great Cardinal of Augsburg, and had no difficulty in gaining his point, but the Cardinal was so fascinated by the ability of the young pleader that he insisted on taking him to Trent as his theologian in spite of the protests of the whole city of Cologne.
Naturally, many of the Fathers of the Council had their suspicions of these new theologians. They were members of a religious order which had broken with the traditions of the past, and they might possibly be heretics in disguise. Moreover, they were alarmingly young. Canisius was only twenty-six, Salmerón thirty-one, Le Jay about the same age, and Laínez, the chief figure in the council, not more than thirty-four. But the indubitable holiness of their lives, their amazing learning, and their uncompromising orthodoxy soon dissipated all doubts about them. Laínez and Salmerón were especially prominent. They were allowed to speak as long as they chose on any topic. Thus, after Laínez had discoursed for an entire day on the Sacrifice of the Mass, he was ordered to continue on the following morning. Entire sections of the Acts of the council were written by him; and by order of the Pope both he and Salmerón had to be present at all the sessions of the council, which lasted with its interruptions from 1545 to 1563. Bishoprics and a cardinal's hat were offered to Laínez; and, at the death of Paul IV, twelve votes were cast for him as Pope. Indeed one section of the cardinals had made up their minds to elect him, but when apprised of it, he fled and kept in concealment until the danger was averted. He was at that time General of the Society.
After the first adjournment of the council, these men whose stupendous labors would appear to have called for some repose were granted none at all. Thus, we find Laínez summoned by the Duke of Etruria to found acollege in Florence. The Pope's vicar wanted him to look after the ecclesiastical needs of Bologna, whither he repaired with Salmerón, while Le Jay was working at Ferrara and elsewhere in the Peninsula. The most remarkable of them all, however, in the matter of work during these recesses was undoubtedly Peter Canisius (Kanees, Kanys or De Hondt, as he was variously called.) One would naturally imagine that he would have been sent back to Cologne to the scene of his former triumphs. On the contrary, he was ordered to teach rhetoric in the newly-founded college of Messina in Sicily. He was then recalled to Rome, where he made his solemn profession in the hands of St. Ignatius; after this he started with Le Jay and Salmerón to Ingolstadt, where he taught theology and began his courses of catechetical instructions which were to restore the lost Faith of Germany.
On the way to the scene of his labors, he received a doctor's degree at Bologna. In 1550 he was made rector of the University of Ingolstadt, but was nevertheless, sent to Vienna to found a new college. He was simultaneously court preacher, director of the hospitals and prisons, and, in Lent, the apostle of the abandoned parishes of Lower Austria. He was offered the See of Vienna, but three times he refused it, though he had to administer the diocese during the year 1557. Five years prior to that he had opened colleges at Prague and Ingolstadt, after which he was appointed the first provincial of Germany. He was adviser of the king at the Diet of Ratisbon, and by order of the Pope took part in the religious discussions at Worms. He began negotiations for a college at Strasburg, and made apostolic excursions to that place as well as to Freiburg and Alsace. While taking part in the general congregation of the order in Rome, he was sent by Pope Paul IV to the imperial Diet of Pieterkow inPoland. In 1559 he was summoned by the emperor to the Diet of Augsburg, and had to remain in that city from 1561 to 1562 as cathedral preacher; during this time it is recorded that besides giving retreats, teaching catechism and hearing confessions, he appeared as many as two hundred and ten times in the pulpit. In 1562 he was back again as papal theologian at Trent, where he found himself at odds with Laínez, then General of the Society, on the question of granting the cup to the laity — Laínez opposing this concession, which he advocated. He remained at the council only for a few sessions, but returned again after having reconciled the Emperor with the Pope. The Emperor's favor, however, he lost later when he changed his views about Communion under both species, and also by reason of an unfounded charge of revealing imperial secrets which had been made against him.
In that year Canisius opened the college of Innsbruck and directed the spiritual life of Magdalena, the saintly daughter of Ferdinand I. In 1564 he inaugurated the college of Dillingen and became administrator of the university of that place; he was also constituted secret nuncio of Pius IV to promulgate the decrees of the council in Germany. His mission was interrupted by the death of the Pope, and although Pius V desired him to continue in that office, he declined, because it exposed him to the accusation of meddling in politics. In 1566 he was theologian of the legate at the Diet of Augsburg and persuaded that dignitary not to issue a mandate against the so-called religious peace. He thus prevented another war and gave new life to the Catholics of Germany. In 1567 he founded a college at Würzburg, and evangelized Mayence and Spires. At Dillingen he received young Stanislaus Kostka into the Society conditionally and sent him to Rome; he settled a philosophical dispute at Innsbruck andestablished a college at Halle. At last in 1569 at his own request he was relieved of his office of provincial, which he had held for thirteen years; in 1570 he was court preacher of the Archduke Ferdinand II; in 1575 he was papal envoy to Bavaria, and theologian to the papal legate at the Diet of Ratisbon. He introduced the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin at Innsbruck, and at the command of the Pope built a college at Freiburg, where he remained for the rest of his life.
For years Canisius had urged his superiors and had also pleaded at the Council of Trent for the establishment of colleges of writers in various countries to defend the Faith. He was in constant touch with the great printers and publishers of the day, such as Plantin, Cholin and Mayer; he brought out the first reports of foreign missions, and induced the town council of Freiburg to establish a printing-press. All this time he was actively writing, and the list of his publications covers thirty-eight quarto pages in the "Bibliothèque des écrivains de la C. de Jésus." He was commissioned by Pius V to refute the Centuriators of Magdeburg — the society of writers who, under the inspiration of Flacius Illyricus, had undertaken to falsify the works of the early Fathers of the Church, century by century, so as to furnish a historical proof in support of Luther's errors. In 1583 he united in one volume the two books which he had previously issued in 1571 and 1577, styling them "Commentaria de Verbi corruptelis," having in the meantime published the genuine texts of Saints Cyril and Leo.
His "Catechism" was his most famous achievement. It consisted of two hundred and eleven, and later, of two hundred and twenty-two doctrinal questions, and was intended chiefly for advanced students; but there were annexed to it a compendium for children, and another for students of the middle and lower grades.It is recognized as a masterpiece even by Protestant writers such as Ranke, Menzel, Kawerau and others. Two hundred editions of it in one form or another were published during his lifetime in twelve different languages. "I know my Canisius" became a synonym in Germany for "I know my catechism." In brief, he did more than any other man to save Germany for the Church, and he is regarded as another St. Boniface. He died on November 21, 1597 and was beatified by Pius IX on April 17, 1864. The Catechism appears to have been first suggested by Ferdinand I to Le Jay who took up the work enthusiastically. But instead of crowding everything into one volume, he divided it into three: the first, a summa of theology for the university; the second, a volume for priests engaged in the ministry; while the third was for school teachers. He laid the matter before St. Ignatius, who assigned the first part to Laínez and the second to Frusius, then rector of Vienna. But as Frusius died, and Laínez was made General of the Society, Canisius undertook the entire work.
Apparently, it was from Le Jay also that the idea came of founding the Collegium Germanicum in Rome, though Cardinal Morone claims it as his conception. Le Jay, indeed, had discussed the matter with him, but had previously made a much more serious study of the question with Cardinal Truchsess, Archbishop of Augsburg. As the purpose of the Collegium was to supply a thoroughly educated priesthood to Germany, Truchsess could appreciate the need of it more than Morone, whose ideas about the need of good works, the vital question in Germany at the time, were extremely curious, according to his own account of a stormy interview he had with Salmerón on that topic. He reproached Salmerón for making too much of good works. Indeed Morone had been at one timeunder the surveillance of the Inquisition on account of certain utterances. His orthodoxy, however, must have been above suspicion, because of the exalted position he occupied.
Le Jay was broken-hearted when Maurice of Saxony, the leader of the imperial troops, swung his whole army over to the very Lutherans whom he had just defeated at Muhlberg. The awful condition of religion in the Empire preyed upon his mind to such a degree that he died at Vienna on Aug. 6, 1552, at the age of fifty-two. Canisius, who preached the funeral oration, said that he was "a worthy successor of Faber, and that his instinct was so correct that the character he gave to the college of Vienna over which he presided was adopted as the model throughout Germany." Ranke might be quoted on that point also. He points out that "at the beginning of 1551 the Jesuits had no fixed place in Germany — Le Jay was appointed rector only in June of that year — but in 1566 they occupied Bavaria, Tyrol, Franconia, a great part of the Rhine Province and Austria, and had penetrated into Hungary and Moravia. It was the first durable anti-Protestant check that Germany had received."
Under normal conditions, Spain would of course, have received these distinguished sons of hers with open arms; but, unfortunately, a deplorable state of affairs prevailed in the highest circles both of Church and State, almost as open and as shameless as in other parts of Europe. Princes and nobles held the titles of bishops and archbishops and appropriated the revenues of dioceses. That alone made any effort in the way of reform impossible. Added to this, Bobadilla's indiscretion in attacking the policy of Charles V in Germany had, as we have already said, predisposed that monarch, and consequently many of his subjects, against the whole Society; but as the Emperor didnot openly interfere with them they established colleges in Barcelona, Gandia, Valencia and Alcalá, as early as 1546; but two years later, when they made their appearance in Salamanca, they found an implacable foe in the person of the distinguished Dominican theologian, Melchior Cano.
From the pulpit and platform and in the press Cano denounced and decried the new religious, not only as constituting a danger to the Church, but as being nothing else than the precursors of Antichrist. His own Master-General wrote a letter eulogizing the Society and forbidding his brethren to attack it; but this had no effect on Melchior, nor did the fact that the new Order was approved by the Pope avail to keep him quiet. Finally, in order to mollify him he was made Bishop of the Canaries, but he actually resigned that see in order to return to the attack. His hostility continued not only till his death, but after it; for, before he departed, he left in the hands of a friend a document which was of great service to the enemies of the Society at the time of the Suppression. "God grant," he wrote, "that I may not be a Cassandra, who was believed only after the sack of Troy. If the religious of the Society continue as they have begun, there may come a time, which I hope God will avert, when the Kings of Europe would wish to resist them but will be unable to do so." One of the reasons of Cano's hostility to the Society was that the Fathers urged Catholics to frequent the sacraments (Suau, Vie de Borgia, 136). This opposition of Cano was backed by the Archbishop of Saragossa, who was Francis Borgia's uncle. Bands of street children carrying banners on which hideous devils were painted marched to the new church of the Society and pelted it with stones. Then the mob drove the luckless Fathers out of the city; when Borgia's sister shelteredthe exiles in her castle her uncle, the archbishop, excommunicated her. But that was the way of the world in those days. Even the illustrious Cardinal Carranza was kept in the prison of the Spanish Inquisition for seventeen years, because of something discovered in his writings by his brother Dominican Melchior Cano (Suau,op. cit., 136).
Little by little, however, the prejudices were dissipated, and both Alcalá and Salamanca called Strada to lecture in their halls. Nevertheless, each new success only raised a fresh storm. Thus it was bad enough when the rector of the University of Salamanca, Anthony of Córdova, who was just about to be made a cardinal, entered the Society; but the excitement became intense when, in 1550, Francis Borgia, who was Duke of Gandia, Viceroy of Catalonia, a friend of the Emperor, a soldier who had distinguished himself in the invasion of Provence, and whose future usefulness was reckoned upon for the service of his country, let it be known that he, too, was going to become a Jesuit. To prevent it, the Pope was urged to make him a Cardinal, but Borgia, who was then in Rome, fled back to Spain. When, however, he finally appeared as a member of the Order, houses and colleges were erected wherever he wished to have them: at Granada, Valladolid, Saragossa, Medina, San Lucar, Monterey, Burgos, Valencia, Murcia, Placentia and Seville. In 1556 Charles V was succeeded by Philip II, who asked that the cardinal's hat should be given to Borgia, but the honor was again refused. On three other occasions the same offers and refusals were repeated.
By the time Francis Borgia became General of the Order it had already developed into eighteen provinces, with one hundred and thirty establishments, and had a register of three thousand five hundred members.Besides attempting to convert the Vaudois heretics, the Society maintained the missions of Brazil and the Indies and established new ones in Peru and Mexico; by the help of the famous Pedro Menéndez, who is the special object of hatred on the part of American Protestant historians, it sent the first missionaries to what is now Florida in the United States. Segura and his companions were put to death on the Rappahannock; and Martínez was killed further down the coast, while Sánchez, a former rector of Alcalá, reached Vera Cruz in Mexico in 1572 with twelve companions to look after the Spaniards and natives and to care for the unfortunate blacks whom the Spaniards were importing from Africa.
When Pius V was elected Pope, there was a general fear that he would suppress the Society; but the Pontiff set all doubts at rest when, on his way to be crowned at St. John Lateran, he called Borgia to his side and embraced him. He also made Salmerón and Toletus his official preachers, and gave the Jesuits the work of translating the "Catechism" of the Council of Trent and of publishing a new edition of the Bible. He was, however, about to revoke the Society's exemption from the office of choir; but Borgia induced him to change his mind on that point, and even obtained a perpetual exemption from the public recitation of the Office, as well as the revocation of the restriction of the priesthood to the professed of the Society. Moreover, when there was danger of a Turkish invasion, Borgia was sent with the Pope's nephew to Spain and France to organize a league in defence of Christendom, while Toletus accompanied another cardinal to Germany.
Philip II had asked for missionaries to evangelize Peru, and hence at the end of March, 1568, Portillo and seven Jesuits landed at Callao, and proceeding toLima established a church and college there on a magnificent scale. It was easy to do so, however, for the Spanish colonists were rolling in wealth. At the same time, the Indians and negroes were not neglected. In 1569 twelve new missionaries arrived, and one of them, Alonzo de Barzana, to the amazement of every one, preached in the language of the Incas as soon as he came ashore. He had been studying it every moment of the long journey from Spain. In 1574 a college was established at Cuzco, in an old palace of the Incas, and another in the city of La Paz.
At this stage of the work the first domestic trouble in the New World presented itself. Portillo, the provincial, was admitting undesirable candidates into the Society, and placing the professed in parishes, thus flinging them into the midst of the civil and ecclesiastical turmoil which then prevailed. In spite of his abilities, however, he was promptly recalled to Spain. It is very gratifying to learn that outside the domestic precincts, no one ever knew the reason of this drastic measure. Freedom from parochial obligations left the Fathers time for their normal work, and they forthwith established schools in almost every city and town of Peru. The training school on Lake Titicaca, especially, was a very wise and far-seeing enterprise, for there the missionaries could devote themselves exclusively to the study of the native language and to historical, literary and scientific studies. The result was that some of the most eminent men of the period issued from that educational centre. It is said that the printing-press they brought over from Europe was the first one to be set up in that part of the New World. Titicaca flourished as late as 1767, but at that time Charles III expelled the Jesuits from Peru and Titicaca ceased to be.
The Society had a long and desperate struggle, before it could gain an educational foothold in France. Possibly it was a preparation for the future glory it was to win there. Its principal enemies were the University of Paris and, incidentally, the Parliament, which came under the influence of the doctors of the Sorbonne. The first band of Jesuits arrived under the leadership of Domenech, who had been a canon in Spain but had relinquished his rich benefice to enter the Society — an act which seemed so supremely foolish in the eyes of his friends that they accused Ignatius of bewitching him. Later, he became a sort of Saint Vincent de Paul for Italy. He found Palermo swarming with throngs of half-naked and starving children, and immediately built an asylum for them. He established hospitals, Magdalen asylums, refuges for the aged, and went round the city holding out his hand for alms to repair the dilapidated convents of nuns, whom the constant wars had left homeless and hungry. Giving the Spiritual Exercises was one of his special occupations.
In the group, also, was Oviedo, the future Patriarch of Abyssinia, who was to spend his life in the wilds of Africa. There too was Strada, orator, poet and historian, who was to be one of the most illustrious men of his time; he taught rhetoric for fifteen years in the Roman College, was the official preacher and the intimate friend of Popes Clement VIII and Paul V, and wrote a "History of the Wars of Flanders," which met with universal applause. Finally, there was the famous young Ribadeneira, then only a boy of fourteen; he had left one of the most brilliant courts of Europe — that of Cardinal Farnese, the brother of princes and popes — and later became famous as a distinguished Latinist, a successful diplomat, the chosen orator at the inaugural ceremonies of the Collegium Germanicum,an eminent preacher at Louvain and Brussels, and an envoy to Mary Tudor in her last illness. He was provincial, visitor and assistant under Borgia and Laínez, the great champion of the Society in Spain against Vásquez and his fellow-conspirators, and an author whose works in his native Castilian are ranked among the classics of the language.
Their staunch friend was du Prat, the Bishop of Clermont, who gave them the palace which had been, up to that time, his residence when visiting the metropolis. Before that shelter was assured to them, they had lived as boarders, first in the Collège des Trésoriers and then in the Collège des Lombards, not as Jesuits, but as ordinary students whose similarity of taste in matters of piety seemed to the outside world to have drawn them together. Of course, their real character soon became known, and then their troubles began. A college was attempted at Tournon in the following year, with Auger as rector, but the civil war was raging and before a twelve-month, Adrets, the most bloodthirsty monster of the Huguenot rebellion, whose favorite amusement was to make his prisoners leap off the ramparts to the rocks below, put an end to everything Catholic in Tournon.
Crétineau-Joly is of opinion that the recognition of the Society in France was retarded by its refusal to admit the famous Guillaume Postel in its ranks. It seems absurd, but it happened just then that France had gone mad about Postel; and Marguérite de Valois used to speak of him as the "Wonder of the World." He was indeed a very remarkable personage. Though only self-instructed, he knew almost every language; he had plunged in the depths of rabbinical and astrological lore; to obtain an intimate knowledge of the Orient, he had accompanied the Sultan in an expedition against the Persians; he had spent vastsums of money in purchasing rare manuscripts; he was sought for by all the universities; he drew immense crowds to his lectures, and wrote books about every conceivable subject, but at the same time with all his genius he was undoubtedly insane. So that when he went to Rome and told about his spiritual communications with the mythical Mère Jeanne, and how he proposed to unite the whole human race, by the power of the sword or the word, under the banner of the Pope and the King of France, who, he said, was a lineal descendant of the eldest son of Noe, the perspicacity of a Loyola was not needed to understand his mental condition. His rejection ought to have been a recommendation rather than a reproach.
When established in their new house, the Jesuits received scholars and asked for affiliation to the university, but the request was peremptorily refused, for the alleged reason that they were neither secular priests nor friars, but a nondescript and novel organization whose purpose was mysterious and suspicious. Besides, they were all Spaniards — a genuine difficulty at a time when Charles V and Francis I were threatening to go to war with each other. It happened also that the Archbishop of Paris, du Bellay, was their avowed enemy; he denounced them as corrupters of youth, and expelled them from the little chapel of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which a Benedictine abbot had put at their disposal. Finally, when the war seemed imminent, the foreigners were sent away, some to Lyons and some to Louvain. For a time, those who remained were shielded by the papal nuncio at Paris, but he was recalled. Then the Archbishop of Rheims and the Cardinal of Lorraine appeared as their protectors. They had even secured the grant of a charter for the college and were very hopeful of opening it, but, as the concession had to be passed on by the Parliamentbefore it became effective, they were as badly off as ever. Besides this, their lack of friends had left the college without funds, for the teaching given in their house was gratuitous — a practice which formed the chief educational grievance alleged by the university. Evidently a staff of clever professors who taught for nothing constituted a menace to all other institutions. Conditions became so desperate that at one time there were only four pupils at Clermont. Nevertheless, with an amazing confidence in the future success of the Society in France, it was just at this moment that St. Ignatius established the French province, and sent the beloved Pasquier Brouet as superior.
Brouet had already given proofs of his ability in dealing with difficulties; for with Salmerón he had faced the danger of death in Ireland, and when there was question of creating a Patriarch of Abyssinia or Ethiopia, another place of prospective martyrdom, he was the first choice, though Oviedo was ultimately selected, probably because of his nationality. Shortly after his arrival, a new college was attempted at Billom, but Father de la Goutte who was appointed rector was captured by the Turks and died on an island off the coast of Tunis. A substitute, however, was appointed, and in a few years the college had five hundred students on its roll. Applications were made also for establishments at Montarges, Périgueux and elsewhere. In 1560 the first friend of the Society in France, the Bishop of Clermont, died, leaving rich bequests in his will to the colleges at Paris and Billom, but they were disallowed by the courts because the Society was not an authorized corporation. For, in spite of the fact that not only the sanction of Henry II but also that of Francis II had been given, yet the university and the Archbishop of Paris had contrived by all sorts of devices to delay the complete official recognition of theestablishment. In the long fight that ensued against this injustice, Father Cogordan, who was the procurator of the province, distinguished himself by his resourcefulness in facing and mastering the various situations.
The opposition finally collapsed in a very dramatic fashion. Charles IX was on the throne, but the reins of government were in the hands of his mother, Catherine de' Medici, who, contrary to the express wish of the Sovereign Pontiff, had consented to the demands of the Huguenots for a general assembly, where the claims of the new religion might be presented to the representative Catholics of the kingdom. The Colloquy, as it was called, took place at Poissy in 1561. The experience of Germany in permitting such gatherings had shown very clearly that, instead of conducing to religious peace, they only widened the breach between Catholics and Protestants. For the calm statement of dogmatic differences was ignored by the appellants, and the sessions were purposely turned into a series of disorderly and virulent denunciations and recriminations.
The Colloquy in this instance was very imposing. The queen mother, Charles IX and the whole court were present. There were five cardinals, forty bishops and a throng of learned divines from all parts of France. Cardinal de Tournon presided; Hôpital was the spokesman for the crown; while the King of Navarre and the Prince de Condé represented the Huguenot party. Among the Protestant ministers were Theodore Beza and Peter Martyr, the ex-friar. Eight days had gone by in useless squabbles when into the assembly came James Laínez, who was then General of the Society, and had been sent thither by the Pope to protest against the Colloquy. Beza had already been annihilated by the Cardinal of Lorraine, and Peter Martyr was speaking when Laínez entered.The great man who had held the Council of Trent enthralled by his leaning and eloquence listened for a while to his unworthy adversary and then arose. Addressing the queen, he said: "It may be unseemly for a foreigner to lift his voice in this presence, but as the Church is restricted to no nation, it cannot be out of place for me to give utterance to the thoughts that present themselves to my mind on this occasion. I will first advert to the danger of these assemblies and will especially address myself to what Friar Peter and his colleague have advanced."
The use of the name "friar" publicly pilloried the apostate. He writhed under it, but he could not escape. It recurred again and again as the tactics of Beza and his associates were laid bare. Then, turning to the queen, Laínez said: "The first means to be taken to avoid the deceits of the enemy is for your Majesty to remember that it is not within the competency either of your Majesty or any other temporal prince to discuss and decide matters pertaining to the Faith. This belongs to the Sovereign Pontiff and the Councils of the Church. Much more so is this the case when, as at present, the General Council of Trent is in session. If these teachers of the new religion are sincerely seeking the truth, let them go there to find it." After adding his authority to the splendid reply already uttered by the Cardinal of Lorraine, Laínez said: "As Friar Peter has asked us for a confession of faith, I confess the Catholic Faith, for which I am ready to die; and I implore Your Majesties, both you, Madame, and your son, the Most Christian King, to safeguard your temporal kingdom if you wish to gain the Kingdom of Heaven. If on the contrary you care less for the fear and love of God than the fear and love of man, are you not running the risk of losing your earthly as well as your heavenly kingdom? I trust that thiscalamity will not fall upon you. I expect, on the contrary, that God in his goodness will grant you and your son the grace of perseverance in your faith, and will not permit this illustrious nobility now before me, and this most Christian kingdom, which has been such an example to the world, ever to abandon the Catholic Faith or be defiled by the pestilential touch of these new sects and new religions."
This discourse was a particularly daring act, on the part of Laínez. According to a recent authority (Martin, Gallicanisme et la Réforme, 28, note 4), Du Ferrier, the government delegate at Trent, circulated a note which said among other things: "As for Pius IV we withdraw from his rule; whatever decisions he may have made we reject, spit back at him (respuimus) and despise. We scorn and renounce him as Vicar of Christ, Head of the Church and successor of Peter." Far from reprehending his ambassador for these furious words, Charles IX and, of course, Catherine praised the ambassador unreservedly. Catherine had busied herself previous to this in trying to persuade the different governments to have a council in which the Pope should have nothing to say, one whose object would be, not to define dogma or enforce discipline, but, to draw up a formula of reconciliation which would satisfy Protestants. Even the French bishops, though admitting that the Pope was a supreme power in the Church, denied that he had supreme power over it, and refused to acknowledge "his plenitude of power to feed, rule and govern the Universal Church." The separation of France from the Church was at that time openly advocated. Since such were the conditions in France at that time, it is clear that Catherine never expected an attack of the kind that Laínez treated her to. She burst into tears and withdrew from the Colloquy. There was neveranother public session. Crétineau-Joly says that Laínez told Condé: "The queen's tears are a bit of comedy;" but such an utterance from a man of the character of Laínez and in such surroundings, where the insult would have been immediately reported to the queen, is simply inconceivable. He could never have been guilty of such an unpardonable indiscretion.