HOW THE GREAT SECRET SOCIETY OBTAINED ITS REPUTATION.
WE must now return to Loyola at Rome.
He sent Araoz, and Villanouva into Spain. In Valencia, so great were the multitudes that flocked to hear the Jesuit preacher, Araoz, that no cathedral could contain them, and a pulpit had to be erected for him in the open air! Rodriguez was dispatched to Portugal, as confessor to the king at his own request, and in twelve months’ time he had succeeded in his mission: the first Jesuit College was founded in that land, and its twenty-five novices were sons of the Portuguese nobility. Francis Xavier went to India, and there acquired “the name of an apostle and the fame of a saint.” Salmeron and Brouet were dismissed to England, entrusted by Loyola with a special political mission, and having received secret instructions from the Pope. Cordur and fifteen others, at Loyola’s command, entered France, and obtained a foothold by promising to submit to episcopal rule―a promise made with a mental reservation which removed the necessity for keeping it! Laynez―Loyola’s right hand, his ablest councilor, and his successor―was directed to Venice, where a congregation of nobles listened to his eloquent sermons with breathless attention, and the highest families submitted themselves to the “spiritual exercises.” Lejay was dispatched to Austria, and began to pave the way for the Jesuits to seize the entire direction of the seminary at Vienna, and to convert Cologne into the “Rome of the North.” Bobadilla and Faber were sent as the van of an invading host into Germany, directing their efforts towards the universities, and establishing free schools for the poor. On the old battlefield of the Reformation, where a century before Rome had suffered her first great losses, Loyola’s successful soldiers made their appearance; and here, as in every other country we have named, the sound of their master’s feet was behind them―stakes, scaffolds, crime, and war following in their train.
Loyola himself remained at Rome to conquer the Pope. He obtained favor after favor from the Pope’s hand. Costly buildings, hospitals, refuges, and orphanages rose up in Rome, in addition to a splendid profess-house, for the members of the “Four Vows.” Two churches became the property of the Jesuits by gift from the Vatican; but most of all worth having, in Loyola’s estimation, was the extension of the privileges granted by the Pope’s first Bull.
Loyola’s persuasive powers were so successful that, not only was he permitted by a special edict to take as many members as he wished, but the extraordinary sanction was given, that the General of the Order in future should have the absolute power of making and altering its rules without reference to the Pope, either by way of information or request!
But the Pope’s gratitude to the Jesuits found a further outlet. Two years later they were given the right to ascend any pulpit, to grant absolution for the most heinous sin, to exempt from all Church penalties and curses, vows and pilgrimages, and to administer the sacraments without referring to the clergy or bishop of the district. Bitter indeed was the indignation of the ordinary father confessor when he found his penitents preferring absolution at the hands of a “Black Cloak” to his own, but loss of influence and loss of income had to be endured.
The constitution of this wonderful company was, however, by no means complete. Now that unlimited power was put into Loyola’s hands “to add to the number,” a fresh difficulty presented itself to his far-seeing mind. If the number of those admitted was to be increased by thousands, and multitudes of men were to be entrusted with the innermost thoughts and ideas of the Society, would it be possible to control so vast a body of privy councilors with the perfect harmony which was so essential to its existence? It was then that Loyola created a third class of members in addition to the Novices and Professed, viz., the Coadjutors, “spiritual” and “secular.” The pupils of Loyola boast that crowned heads have belonged to the latter division of this class.
But further and unheard-of prerogatives were yet to be granted to the Order by the Pope, and these privileges were embodied in a Bull, which came to be named their “Great Sea of Privilege.”
The General of the Jesuits was to have such power that if he “deemed it necessary for the honor of God,” he could refuse to receive a messenger from the Pope. The keys of Peter were to have no power over a Jesuit, since the Pope himself would not be able to release him from his life-long vows. No cardinal or prelate of the Roman Church could borrow at will the services of any member without appeal to the General. Further, the permit―outrageous in the eyes of the Romish Church at large―was granted that “the General, or those who may be ordered by him, shall have the power to grant absolution for all and every kind of sin, whether committed before or after entering the Order.” No Jesuit was to confess to a priest of any order but his own; neither was he to enter any other sect, unless it were that of the Carthusians, who, we should remember, observed the command of perpetual silence. Thus the Order carefully preserved its own secrets.
In order to enforce this injunction, the General was empowered to “prosecute, excommunicate, and imprison” any “fugitive;” and to prevent any Jesuit being called in question as to the lawfulness of his deeds, all that concerned the Order was put under the “special protection” of the Pope. All and any of the Professed might, even at the time forbidden of the Pope, say Mass in any place of their own choosing with closed doors: and it was rendered impossible for any Roman bishop to excommunicate them for any irregularity of conduct, or to interfere with any “Christian believer” of their congregations; yet Romish prelates were bound to consecrate Jesuit candidates for the priesthood without payment! It was also arranged that Jesuits might anywhere hold intercourse with heretics (i.e., Protestants) and have the right to settle in their cities, and at the same time they were not to be called upon to visit cloisters or to hear confessions of nuns unless they desired it. No taxes or dues should be paid by them on even Papal holdings; no deeds were required to be drawn up as regards donations or legacies of property; no Church dignitary might hinder the building or do other than at once consecrate a church or burying ground.
The General was empowered to receive into the Order all and sundry, burdened with sin of any kind (except murder or bigamy), and consecrate them as priests—a permission branded with immorality. Dispensations of sins to the extent of forgiveness for seven years, lay in the General’s power to bestow; and not only he, but his missionary Coadjutors might grant absolution of the foulest crimes with all the authority of the Pope himself! University rights were infringed by the privilege which allowed the General to send lecturers on theology to universities without obtaining permission from the authorities. And after providing that the number of members could be extended without limit, and the Professed could take their vows outside Rome, the remarkable document from which we have drawn our information winds up with a threat of excommunication and the interference of a court of justice on all who “hinder, harass, or disturb the Society of Jesus.”
Thus, as the historian Griesinger remarks, “the world lay open before the Jesuits and their proceedings; and even upon the most unjust and violent of them, by order of the supreme ruler of the Church, could no restraint whatever be put.” And, inasmuch as of late years we have been continually asked to believe in the infallibility of the Papal decrees, we must recognize that these “privileges” exist at the present day.
It will be remembered how high a value in his program Loyola attached to education. The best energies of his disciples were exercised upon it, and it is needless to remark that the chief object of the Jesuits of the nineteenth century is precisely the same as that of Loyola’s immediate disciples in the sixteenth century, namely, to get the education of the young―Roman Catholic and Protestant alike―into their own hands. Very soon Jesuit preceptors were established in every Roman Catholic province in the world. In favor of their educational system, over which pious Roman Catholics and even Protestants were infatuated, the rights of the Jesuits were still further enlarged by Pope Paul’s successor, Julius III.
Loyola now proceeded to crown all his previous educational plans by founding in Rome a German college, which he erected and equipped in an elaborate fashion, The country which most of all needed at the moment prompt and energetic action on the part of the Jesuits was decidedly Germany.
But as Loyola had drawn his following from, Spanish, Italian, and French speaking countries, he was nonplussed in dealing with the Protestant controversy, which threatened to, undermine the Romish position in the Fatherland. The Collegium Germanicum became forthwith a nursery for young students whose whole attention would be turned to theology from a controversial point of view. The Jesuit missionaries in Germany were ordered to select a number of the most promising of their disciples to enter the college at Rome, from whence they would be returned later on, fully equipped combatants for the Romish faith in their own country. The scheme proved thoroughly successful.
The Order was now firmly rooted, and he would have been a daring Pope who would
venture to resist it By a wonderful system of subdivision of labor, responsibilities were shared by Deputies, Provincials, Assistants, Admonitors, Stewards, Superiors, Rectors, and so forth, down to the lowest menial; yet all were connected by a mutual supervision, whereby each member of the great secret society became a spy on the one above as well as below him, and a perfect knowledge of every individual and detail connected with him, was thus obtained by the General. As willing puppets the whole Company spread over the world―guided, moved, and controlled by one man, Ignatius Loyola.