The organization of the society is settled, in every important particular, by the original rules and constitutions of St. Ignatius. The opponentS of the Jesuits, however, allege that, in addition to these public and avowed constitutions, there exists in the society, for the guidance of their hidden actions, and for the private direction of the thoroughly initiated members, a secret code, entitled wnita secrete (secret instructions), which was meant to be reserved solely for the private guidance of the more advanced members, and which was not only not to be communicated to the general body, but was to he boldly repudiated by all, should its existence t any time be suspected or dis covered. This singular code, a master-piece of craft and duplicity, was first printed at Cracow in 1612 and has been repeatedly reprinted by the enemies of the Jesuits; but it is indiLmantly tlisclatimed by the society. The accounts of the time and circumstances of its are suspicious and contradictory. The book has been repeatedly con demned, both at Rome and by. other authorities, as well as by the society, and its apocryphal character is now commonly admitted (see Barbier, Dietionnaire des Aro vymes).
The history of the society is so varied in the different countries that it is necessary, although very briefly, to allude to each separately, dividing it into three stages—the rise, the suppression, and the restoration of the order.
In Italy, its early career Was brilliant and unclouded. Before the death of the first general—ignatins—in 1556, the Italian .Tesuits had swelled to 1000 in number, and the order was established in twelve provinces. Their first check in Italy occurred in Venice. In the contest of this republic with Paul V. (q.v.), the Jesuits, taking the side of Home, accepted in 1606 the alternative, proposed by the senate, of leaving the Venetian terri tory; nor was it till 1656 that they were re-established in Venice, from which time they continued to enjoy undisturbed influence in Italy until the suppression of the order.
The earliest settlements of the Jesuits, outside of Italy, were in Portugal and Spain. In 1540 Rodriguez—who was a Portuguese nobleman—and Francis Xavier opened col leges in Portugal, at the invitation of the king. Francis Borgia, duke of Gandia, in Spain; was equally well received in his native country, where the order flourished so rapidly, that, at the time of the suppression, the Spanish Jesuits numbered above 6,000.
In Trance, although a house for novices was founded in Paris by St. Ignatius in 154?, the of Paris opposed their introduction as unnecessary and irreconcilable with its privileges. They were distasteful to supporters of the Galilean liberties, and still more to the Huguenots. The jurists, the parliament, and the partisans of absolut ism were alarmed by the free political opinions which had found expression in sonic of the Jesuit schools. On the other hand, the democratic party attributed to them a sinister use of their influence with courts. And thus their progress in France was slow, and their position at all times precarious. It was with much difficulty that the parliament of Paris consented to register the royal decree which authorized their establishment. In
more than one instance the university protested against their schools as invading its privileges. In the Wars of the League they did not fail to make new enemies; and at length the assassination of Henry III. by Clement (although no evidence of any con nection with the Jesuits appeared in his case), and the circumstance, still more industriously urged against them, that Chatel, who attempted the life of Henry 1V., had at one time been a pupil in their schools, led to their expulsion from France in 1594. They were reinstated, however, in 1603; but, on the assassination of Henry IV. by Ravaillac, the outcry against them was renewed. 'Although it seems quite certain that this clamor was utterly without foundation, yet the opinions held by one of their order, Mariana (q.v.). on the right of revolt, although condemned by the general, gave a color to this and every similar imputation. A less deep but more permanent and formidable movement against them was gradually stirred up at a later period, by a combination of all the causes of unpopularity already described, to which new point was given by the well-known Jansenist controversy, and by the questions as to the imputed laxity of the moral teaching of the Jesuits, and their alleged corrupt and demoralizing casuistry. What the ponderous and indignant prelections of the Sorbonne. and the learned folios of the Dominican and Augustinian schools had failed to accomplish, the wit and bril liancy of the celebrated Letters Provineittles of Pascal (q.v.) effectually achieved. The laxity of some of the Jesuit casuists was mercilessly exposed by this brilliant adversary, who represented it as the authorized teaching of the order, and the crafty maxims and practices popularly ascribed to the• society were placed before the world in a light at once exquisitely amusing and fatal to the reputation of the body. The attempts at rejoinder on the pat t of the Jesuits but screed to fix the ridicule more firmly. Of the thousands who laughed at the happy humor, or sympathized with the vigorous raillery of Pascal, few, indeed, could plod through the learned but heavy scholasticism of his adversaries. In vain the Jesuits insisted that the ohnoxiolis casuists had been condemned by the society itself; in vain they showed where their opinions dithered from those imputed to them. The wit of Pascal remained unanswered ; and whatever were the logical merits of the controversy, no doubt could be entertained as to its popular issue. The pungent pleasantries, too, of the Proringial Letters were but a foretaste of the acri mony of the later Jansenistical controversies, in which the Jesuits stored up for themselves an accumulation of animosities in the most various quarters, the divines, the lawyers, the courtiers, which were destined to bear bitter fruit in the later history of the society in France. Nevertheless, after a long conflict, they enjoyed a temporary triumph in the last years of the regency and the beginning of the reign of Louis XV.