JESUITS, or SOCIETY OF JESUS, one of the most cele brated monastic orders of the Romish church, was found ed in the year 1540 by Ignatius Loyola. This extraordi nary person was a native of Biscay ; and while serving as an officer in the army of Ferdinand V. of Spain, was dan gerously wounded in the defence of Pampeluna in 1521. During the progress of a lingering cure, he happened to have no other amusement than what he found in reading the lives of the saints. The perusal of their history inspired his enthusiastic and ambitious mind with an ardent desire of emulating their fabulous exploits. Forsaking the mili tary for the ecclesiastical profession, he engaged himself in the wildest and most extravagant adventures, as the knight of the blessed Virgin. After performing a pil grimage to the Holy Land, and pursuing a multitude of visionary schemes, he returned to prosecute his theologi cal studies in the universities of Spain, when lie was about thirty-three years of age. lie next went to Paris, where he collected a small number of associates ; and, prompted by his fanatical spirit or the love of distinction, began to conceive the establishment of a new religious order. He produced a plan of its constitutions and laws, which he af firmed to have been suggested by the immediate inspira tion of heaven, and applied to the Roman pontiff (Paul III.) for the sanction of his authority to confirm the institution. The Pope referred the petition to a committee of cardi nals ; and, upon their representing the proposed establish ment to be unnecessary and dangerous, refused to grant his approbation. Loyola, however, soon found means to re move the scruples of the court of Rome. He proposed, that the members of his society, besides the usual vows of poverty, chastity, and monastic obedience, should take a fourth vow of subserviency to the Pope, binding them selves, without requiring reward or support, to go wherever he should direct for the service of the church, and to obey his mandate in every part of the globe. At a time when the papal authority had received so severe a shock from the progress of the Reformation, and was still exposed to the most powerful attacks in every quarter, this was an offer too tempting to be resisted. The reigning pontiff, though naturally cautious, and though scarcely capable, without the spirit of phophecy, of foreseeing all the ad vantages to be derived from the services of this nascent order, yet clearly perceiving the benefit of multiplying the number of his devoted servants, instantly confirmed by his bull the institution of the Jesuits, granted the most ample privileges to the members of the society, and appointed Loyola to be the first general of the order.
The simple and primary object of the society was, to es tablish a spiritual dominion over the minds of men, of which the Pope should appear as the ostensible head, while the real power should reside with themselves. To accom plish this object, the whole constitution and policy of the order were singularly adapted, and exhibited various pe culiarities, which distinguished it from all other monastic orders. The immediate design of every other religious society was, to separate its members from the world ; that of the Jesuits to render them masters of the world. The inmate of the convent devoted himself to work out his own salvation by extraordinary acts of devotion and self-denial ; the follower of Loyola considered himself as plunging into all the bustle of secular affairs, to maintain the interests of the Romish church. The monk was a retired devotee of heaven ; the Jesuit a chosen soldier of the Pope. That the members of the new order might have full leisure for th' e service, they were exempted from the usual fin • ions of other monks. They were not required to sp. ' their time in the long ceremonial cffices and num bs s mummeries of the Romish worship. They attend ed processions, and practised no austerities. They chaunted nor prayed. " They cannot sing," said their enemies, " for birds of prey never do." They were sent forth to watch every transaction of the world which might appear to affect the interests of religion, and were especially enjoined to study the dispositions and cultivate the friendship of persons in the higher ranks. Nothing could be imagined more open and liberal than the external aspect of the institution, yet nothing could be more strict and secret than its internal organization. The gates of the society were thrown open to the whole world, as if there were nothing in its nature to dread disclosure. 'Men of every description were invited to enter, and talents of every kind were drawn together. It was a company, such as hld never yet appeared, of whith all mankind might be free at pleasure, but or which every member became in reality an irredeemable slave. Other religious orders were in a manner voluntary associations, of which the exe cutive authority might be rested in certain beads ; but whatever affected the whole body as an act of legislation was regulated by the common suffrage of all its members. Loyola, however, influenced perhaps by the notions of im plicit obedience which he had derived from his military profession, resolved that the government of the Jesuits should be-absolutely monarchical. A general, chosen for life by deputies from the several provinces, possessed supreme and independent power, extending to every per son, and applying to every case. By his sole authority he nominated or removed every officer employed in the gov ernment of the society. He administered at pleasure the revenues of the order ; and disposed of every member by his uncontroulable mandate, assigning whatever service, and imposing whatever task, he pleased. To his com mands they were required not only to yield outward obedience, but to resign to his direction the inclinations of their wills, and the sentiments of their understandings. Every member of the order, the instant that he entered its pale, surrendered all freedom of thought and action ; and every personal feeling was superseded by the interests of that body to which he had attached himself. He went where
ever he was ordered ; he performed whatever he was com manded ; he suffered whatever he was enjoined ; he be came a mere passive instrument, incapable of resistance. The gradation of ranks was only a gradation in slavery ; and so perfect a despotism over a large body of men, dis persed over the face of the earth, was never before realised. To render the subordination more complete, and to enable the general to avail himself to the utmost of his absolute dominion, he was provided with effectual means of per fectly ascertaining the characters and abilities of the agents under his controul. Every novice, who offered himself as a candidate for admission into the order, was required to manifest his conscience to the superior, or to a person of his appointment ; and not only to confess his defects and vices, but to discover the inclinations, passions, and bent of his soul. This manifestation was renewed every sixth month during the novitiate, which was of con siderable length ; and every member was also constituted a spy upon the candidates, whose words and actions, and every thing of importance concerning them, lie was bound to disclose to the superior. They were required, under this scrutiny, to pass through several gradations of rank, and to have attained the full age of thirty-three years, be fore they were permitted to take the final vows, and to be come professed members. The superiors, under whose immediate inspection they were placed, were thus thoroughly acquainted with their dipositions and talents ; and the most minute details of every one's character and capabilities were regularly transmitted to the head office at Rome. These reports were digested and entered into registers, where the general could survey at one view the state of the society in every quarter of the world ; the qualifications and talents of its members ; and the kind of instruments awaiting his selection for any department in the service. The number of these reports, from the whole thirty-seven provinces of the order, have been cal culated at 6584 annually. Besides these, there may be " extraordinary letters," or such as are sent by the moni tors or spies in each house ; and the provinces were farther bound to state the civil and political circumstances of the various countries where they had their residence. These statements, when relating to matters of importance, were conveyed by a particulr, cypher, known only to the general. The situation and interests of every department were thus intimately known by the head of the whole body ; and the em ployment of every individual member was precisely adapted to his faculties. The meanest talents were in requisition ; and, according to their own expression, " the Jesuits had missionaries for the villages, and martyrs for the Indians." There was thus a peculiar energy imparted to the opera tions of this singular society ; which has been compared to a system of mechanism, containing the greatest possible quantity of power distributed to the greatest possible advantage. " The Jesuits," it was said with justice, "are a naked sword, whose hilt is at Rome." The maxims of policy adopted by this celebrated socie ty were, like its constitution, remarkable for their union of laxity and rigour. Nothing could divert them from their original object ; and no means were ever scrupled, which promised to aid its accomplishment. They were in no degree shackled by prejudice, superstition, or real re ligion. Expediency, in its most simple..and licentious form, was the basis of their morals, and their principles and practices were uniformly accommodated to the circum stances in which they were placed ; and even their bigotry, obdurate as it was, never appears to have interfered with their interests. The paramount and characteristic princi ple of the order, from which none of its members ever swerved, simply this, that its interests were to he pro moted by all possible means, at all possible expences. In order to acquire more easily an ascendency over persons of rank and power, they propagated a system of the most relaxed morality, which accommodated itself to the pas sions of men, justified their vices, tolerated their imper fections, and authorised almost every action, which the most audacious or crafty politician would wish to perpe trate. To persons of stricter principles they studied to re commend themselves by the purity of their lives, and sometimes by the austerity of their doctrines. While sufficiency compliant in the treatment of immoral practices, they were generally rigidly severe in exacting a strict or thodoxy in opinions. " They are a sort of people," said the Abbe Boileau, " who lengthen the creed, and shorten the decalogue." They adopted the same spirit of accommodation in their missionary undertakings ; and their Christianity, cameleon like, readily assumed the colour of every region, where it happened to be introduced. They freely permitted their converts to retain a full prlportion of the old super stitions, and suppressed without hesitation any point in the new faith, which was likely to bear hard on their preju dices, or propensities. They proceeded to still greater lengths ; and, besides suppressing the truths of revelation, devised the most absurd falsehoods, to be used for attract ing disciple's, or even to be taught as parts of Christianity. One of them, in India, produced a pedigree to prove his own descent from Brama ; and another in America assured a native chief that Christ had been a valiant and victorious warrior, who, in the space of three years, had scalped an incredible number of men, women, and children. It was in fact their own authority, not the authority of true reli gion, which they wished to establish ; and Christianity was generally as little known, when they quitted the foreign seem s of their labours, as when they entered them.