INIGO DE RECALDE LOYOLA

INIGO DE RECALDE LOYOLA, the son of a nobleman of Guipuscoa, was born in the year 1491. He was made a page at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, where he distinguished himself in every accomplishment proper to a soldier and courtier; and more than this, it is affirmed that he was noted for the correctness of his behaviour, his respect for religion, and his strict regard to truth. At this early age he gave proof, we are told, of that sagacity which made him, through life, master of the most hidden dispositions of those around him; and of that tact which enabled him to bend all dispositions to his will. He had reached his twenty-ninth year when an incident, so often related, gave a turn to his mind, his purposes, and his course of life; a turn to which, as to an incidental cause, we must trace an evolution deeply affecting the condition of Christendom through three centuries.

The wound, which had spoiled this young gentleman's fortunes as a soldier and as a man of the gay world, had been received at the siege of Pampeluna. The constitutional force of his will, which was displayed in submitting to the cure of a badly set fracture, brought him near to death; but at the last moment he is restored by an immediate intervention—so he believes—of the "Prince of the Apostles." A recovery protracted through many months, and which, as he did not doubt, had taken its rise in a miracle of grace, brought him into acquaintance with books of piety; and the fervour of his temperament, thenceforward, took a corresponding turn. The infinite, the unseen, and the eternal, were accepted by him in place of whatever perishes in the using, and which cloys even in the moment of possession. The limping soldier becomes, not because it was his only alternative, but with the full and free choice of his soul, the man of prayer and of unconditional devotion to the most arduous religious enterprises.

It is of some importance to remark that, on the probable supposition of Loyola's knowledge of Christian history having been derived from one of those picture-book Gospels which were in the hands of the laity at that time, we have a clue to the fragmentary and exceptive character of his first and chief literary work, the Spiritual Exercises. Of Christianity he seems to have known just the main incidents of the life of Christ; but little or nothing of those principles which are to be gathered from the apostolic writings at large. Yet although, even to the last, he was only a slender theologian, he had become, as if by intuition and in the first stage of his religious progress, a profound master of human nature, a skillfully exact physician of souls, a prudent director of the religious conscience, and a master of all varieties of waywardness in religious feeling. It is on this ground that we find him what we should look for in the founder of a religious order.

That difficult subject, the devotion of some of the most eminent Romish saints to the worship and service of the "Blessed Virgin," meets us at the threshold of Loyola's personal history. Easy it may be to deal with this problem in the instance of men like St Bernard, or Bonaventura, or

Ignatius Loyola, on principles purely psychological: the perplexity which meets us springs from the endeavour to make so gross a form of polytheism consist with genuine piety, in the Christian sense of the term. In this place we do not attempt a solution of such a problem; but yet, a passing reference to it belongs to even the most hasty sketch of the Jesuit institute, which has ever shown itself pre-eminently the "religion of Mary." The personal consequences, as they affected the sentiments of this gallant Spaniard and soldier, when he dedicated himself to the "Most Blessed Virgin," are quite intelligible. It is also easy to see, when we look to the ripened Jesuitism of a later time, that a scheme of life founded upon the dethronement of the individual conscience, and the neutralization of genuine morality, should well consist with a sensuous conception of a female divinity, displacing the religious idea of the Eternal and Infinite Being inflexibly true and holy. There is no mystery thus far; but rather a satisfaction in finding that an ethical system such as that of the "Society" has consorted, as if by an instinct, with a theology so deeply corrupted.

It was in the year 1522—a year memorable in the history of the German reformation—that Loyola, by a formal act, dedicated himself, body and soul, to the service of the "Blessed Mother of God;" and it was about this time, we are told, that he composed the book—if book it can be called—entitled Spiritual Exercises, and of which book something more must presently be said. But an ambition, or a philanthropy, which should embrace the human family, had already begun to develop itself within him; and its early promptings led him to undertake nothing less arduous than the conversion of the people of the East, even the Mohammedan nations, Turks, Arabians, Persians. To carry out this vast project his first step was a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The many adventures which befell him in this journey, from which he returned in 1524, we must leave where it may be found, on the ample pages of his biographers. In the end the followers of the false prophet were necessarily abandoned to their errors, and then it was Christendom which he chose as the field of his mission; and on this ground he encountered no similar disappointment, for although the Mohammedan nations remained unconverted, yet he lived to see them environed on all sides, E. and W., by his agents, and, as it were, beleaguered by his institute.

A settled purpose, large in its bearing, must at this time have lodged itself firmly in his mind; for to secure success in the prosecution of it, he submitted himself, being then in his thirtieth year, to the irksome drudgery of acquiring the learning with which he had formed no acquaintance in his boyhood. If what has been related of their master's course at this time by his disciples be simply true, the humiliations he underwent, the assiduity he displayed, and the proficiency which he made in his college training, afford proof the most striking of a force of mind which must—which could not but, prevail against all difficulties that were not absolutely insurmountable. During these years of personal preparation he continued to exercise his peculiar gifts, both as a spiritual adviser, and as a popular instructor.

About this time when Loyola's course of theological study in the University of Paris was drawing to its close, he looked about for some who should be his companions and coadjutors in carrying forward the scheme which he had already devised for reforming the Catholic world. There can be no doubt that he possessed, in a very eminent degree, the rare faculty which has enabled a few men to surround themselves with, and permanently to retain in their service, minds of superior strength and of more varied accomplishments. Several of those who, to the last, yielded the place of power and honour to Ignatius Loyola, seem to have been more than his equals in grasp of intellect, while they far surpassed him in learning and in knowledge of the

Jesuitism. world. Of these eminent men who became, at length, the Fathers of the Society, the chief were,—Peter Faber, a Savoyard, a man of fervent temper, and devout from boyhood; the heroic Francis Xavier, the illustrious apostle of the Indies, who achieved a high renown for himself independently of Loyola, though not formally alienated from him; James Laynez, who succeeded him as general of the order, and of whose intelligence and astuteness the Jesuit polity was, as it seems, mainly the product—he is believed to have compiled a principal part of the Constitutions of the Society:—Alphonso Salmeron; Nicolas Alphonso, sur-named Bobadilla, a man of a penetrating spirit, and a master in the knowledge of human nature; and Simon Rodriguez d'Arevedo, a Spaniard of noble birth, and many accomplish-ments, as well as ardent piety and devotedness.

To these, who were Loyola's earliest associates, were added others in course of time. One of the most noted of these was Claude le Jay; and it was by their aid, and as yield-ing themselves unreservedly to the will of the master mind, that this band of devotees digested their scheme of life, fixed themselves in their purpose in relation to the church and the world, and imparted coherence and consistency to their individual labours. It was these men who, in concert, framed the Society of Jesus, and who, by that undiverted intensity of purpose which marked them, launched it on its course—a course of unexampled efficiency and power. From this time forward we almost lose the clue whereby to trace Loyola's individual mind, as the mover of the Jesuit polity, or as the mainspring of the Society; for it appears that two, at least, of his companions—Laynez and Faber—lent him the forces and the treasures of their minds entire, and without conditions, as to any share of fame or visible authority; they were content to witness the success of the great enterprise to which they had committed themselves, and to witness in silence its fast-spreading triumphs.

This band of men, dedicating themselves by a solemn act, to the "service of the Saviour," and imploring the protection and favour of "Mary, the Queen of Virgins," con-stituted themselves as a religious body, by vows and solem-nities, on the 15th of August in the year 1534. But this act did not constitute them a "religious order," in the authentic sense which that phrase carries in the Church of Rome. To obtain the Papal sanction, which was needed for this purpose, Loyola sent forward certain of his friends to Rome in the year 1537; and there, for a length of time, they urged their suit with the sovereign pontiff, Paul III. What was at first asked was the apostolic sanction and benediction in behalf of a missionary pilgrimage to the Holy Land—a boon at length accorded. While awaiting at Venice an opportunity for passing over the seas, the three friends, Loyola, Laynez, and Faber, are believed to have matured the principles of the institute, and to have digested those maxims, so peculiar, when brought to bear upon the consciences of the Jesuit agents, and upon secular interests, which have seemed to contradict the first principles of morals, and to tend to the subversion of civil society. Yet these men must be thought of as sincere and devout, and as in a sense philanthropists.

These "Fathers," after a year of waiting at Venice, found they might excuse themselves from the mission they had proposed, namely, to convert the Mohammedan nations, and instead of so impracticable a task they turned themselves toward that of renovating the Catholic world. A new ap-plication at Rome for authority was now needed; and in this instance Loyola himself took the lead, as the originator of the order, "the Company of Jesus," and having at length obtained this grace, he thenceforward exercised the sway belonging to him as its "General." The profession made at this time included not merely the three vows of "obedi-ence, poverty, and charity;" but that of an unreserved submission to the papal will, in all cases, and a dedication

of body and soul to the service of the church, and to the Jesuitism. maintenance of the papal authority, especially as it was at that time imperilled by the prevalent heresy of which Martin Luther had been the mover. This last condition, al-though not verbally expressed, was no doubt clearly under-stood, and distinctly kept in view, as well by the Jesuit fathers in offering themselves to the service of the papal authority, as by this authority in accepting so timely an aid. The papal bull which constituted the Society as a religious order, by Paul III., is dated 1540. It was not until after the date of this authentic recognition that Loyola's election as superior, or general, for life was formally made and openly recognised.

Loyola possessed in a high degree that administrative faculty which displays itself in the distribution of tasks, in the classification of labours, in order, carried into the most minute details of daily life in large establishments. It was as thus gifted that he constituted the central Jesuit estab-lishment at Rome; in which he secured economy in all things, time especially, and the appointment of offices ac-cording to the individual ability of each member. It was here that he realized, in the highest perfection, the mech-anism in which living agents are at once the means and the material. At the same time, and while himself extensively employed as a spiritual adviser, or physician of souls, and as a popular preacher also, the general originated and controlled various missions to the several European states, as well as to heathen lands. So it was, that, within a few years from the date of the papal bull, the Society had established itself in almost every country in Europe, as well as in many places throughout the Old World and the New. Everywhere the Jesuit had come to be in request as the man who, beyond any others, was perfectly accomplished for whatever task it was which he undertook; and it was he who never failed to do his work well, whether it were as professor of the sciences or as a schoolmaster, or as the guide of souls, or as confes-sor, or as the adviser of princes and statesmen, or even as the superintendent of affairs purely secular and commercial. Houses of the "Order of Jesus" in Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Italy, Sicily, India, had become the centres of an influence toward which the eyes and thoughts, the fears and the desires of minds, high and low, cultured and rude, were incessantly directed. Each of these potent estab-lishments, with their "provincials," maintained submissive de-pendence upon the home of the order at Rome. Thus it was that the general held in his sole hand the reins of a spiritual government which was rapidly spreading itself over, and beyond the limits of the Christianized world.

With that prudence which belonged to Loyola as having once been a man of the world, he, with inexorable firmness, held his Society exempt from the cure of the souls of women, though this had been importunately urged upon him; those instances alone excepted in which ladies of the highest rank, by placing themselves under the guidance of a Jesuit father, might be usefully employed at the courts of princes in silently promoting the designs, or in protecting the interests, of the Society. With a like firmness, and at the dictate of the same sagacious perception of the remoter consequences of any course of action, he maintained that rule of the order which forbids a Jesuit to accept ecclesiastical dignities of any sort. Princes would gladly have welcomed Jesuit bishops in their dominions; but the general inexorably re-fused to give way to this desire, the issue of which, had he allowed it, must have been to open, in the view of ambi-tious members of the Society, a prospect of honour and of ease which would never consist with their devotion to its proper purposes, or with their perfect submission to the will of him to whose control they had surrendered every-thing.

But while the mitre and the hat were interdicted to the Jesuit fathers, the office of confessor to kings and queens

Jesuitism. and emperors was eagerly accepted by them whenever proffered. The reality of power, not its semblance or its pomps, was thus secured for the purposes of the Society; and it was thus that the general, while strictly abstinent as to the honours, and as to the revenues of the church, held in his hand, available for uses of whatever kind, the consciences of potentates, the revenues of kingdoms, and, in a word, all things earthly that might be employed for extending and confirming a universal ghostly domination.

There were moments when this spiritual empire seemed to be threatened from within; and when a mind, a will, an intelligence, springing up in some quarter, and as one might say, not drawing its sap from the root of the Society, brought the sovereignty of the one mind into question. The most noted of these instances was that which occurred in Portugal, where the provincial Rodriguez had acquired at court, as well as in the college over which he presided, a very great personal influence—an influence too great to consist with that submissiveness which was the rule of the Society. Loyola overcame, at length, yet not without much difficulty, this rising opposition; but the extreme peril through which he had carried his institute on this occasion, impelled him to preclude, if possible, a recurrence of the like danger, by embodying in a letter those principles upon a thorough understanding of which the Society might repose. The Letter on the Virtue of Obedience, addressed to the Portuguese fathers, sets forth, in terms beyond the possibility of mistake, those axioms of the Jesuit institute which constitute its very life, and which may be regarded as peculiarly characteristic of it.

Loyola had governed the Company of Jesus sixteen years: these had been years of incessant toil, and often of urgent and deep anxiety. In sustaining this burden his constitutional energy had been quite expended; and thus, as worn out, he tranquilly expired at Rome, in his sixty-fifth year, July 1556.

Minds which, on the scale of intellectual power, occupy extreme positions, the highest and the lowest, have often this feature in common, that through their course they are possessed by one idea, one form of thought, one purport and end of existence. The difference between those of the lofty and those of the low position is this, that while the latter are habitually ruled by their single idea, the former always rule it. A mind of the lower sort, when it is of the religious order, becomes, according to its temperament, the enthusiast, the fanatic, the zealot, the devotee, or the mystic transcendentalist. A mind of the higher sort, whose element also is religion, shapes an orbit for itself athwart the social system, draws a train of satellites in its track, gives a new direction to human affairs, takes a place in history, and, in a word, is such an one that Ignatius Loyola might fitly be pointed out as among the most illustrious samples of the class.

Loyola's one idea, if it be allowable to think of him as the founder of a religious order, was that of ruling the world in respect of its now present and its palpable interests, not by the universal diffusion of religious motives, not by fixing the eyes of mortal men upon the invisible and the eternal as their aim; but by using the invisible and the eternal as the fulcrum of his lever of government. It was, we must assume, his sincere belief—and his sincerity we should not question—that all things would go well in the world, in a world-wise sense, if only it were brought into a state of absolute, unreasoning, ungrainsaying submissiveness to a single hand, ruling it for its good. But inasmuch as no immovable prop for any such universal domination can be found within, or upon the world itself, it must be sought for and found in the world overhead, and in the world underneath of this. This then is JESUITISM, as imagined and originated by its founder.

Loyola's individual religious sentiment, and his benevo-

lence also, impelled him, at the same time, to labour for Jesuitism. the purely religious welfare of the masses of the people, wherever he might have access to them. He was a zealous and effective street preacher and teacher, as well as from the pulpit, and in the house, and the closet. This was his occupation, in season and out of season.

But when we look into the Jesuit system, considered as an institute framed for exerting a lasting influence in the world, we find it adapted to purposes of a very different order. To ascertain what those purposes are, we may either appeal to the notorious facts of its history, through a track of two centuries, or we may examine the constitutional documents of the Society, such as they were framed and left in the hands of Loyola's immediate successors. In fact, both these courses of inquiry should be pursued, and we now proceed to indicate, very briefly, in what manner, as we think, they should be carried forward.