JESUITS, a religious order of the Catholic Church whose members, like those of similar societies, solemnly bind themselves to aspire to perfection by leading a life of chastity, by re nouncing the possession of all personal prop erty, and by obedience to lawful superiors in all that does not contravene the law of God. A certain number of them add a special vow of obedience to the Pope. They are called the Society or Company of Jesus, the latter desig nation expressing more correctly the military idea of the founder, which was to establish, as it were, a new battalion in the spiritual army of the Catholic Church. There are no female Jesuits, nor are there crypto or secret Jesuits. Romances are mostly responsible for such myths. Nor does the society form, as is some times fancied, a sort of sect within the Church. R. W. Thompson, ex-Secretary of the United States navy, in his 'Footprints of the Jesuits,' asserts that they are such, and independent of the Pope, and in one instance he accuses them of being idolaters. As a matter of fact the Society of Jesus has always inculcated ardent devotion to the Pope, the most uncompromising orthodoxy and an intense Catholic spirit. The descriptions of Jesuits as crafty, unscrupulous men constantly engaged in dark plots against all who stand in their way, are inventions of their enemies and have no foundation in fact. Finally they are not monks, as they are some times described. Technically they are classed among churchmen as clerics, living according to a rule and are properly regular clerics.
The special object of the society beside the personal sanctification of its members is to propagate the Christian faith chiefly by teaching and preaching. Their teaching is restricted mainly to the higher studies, and includes litera ture, mathematics, science, philosophy, theology and the cognate branches. Their preaching ad dresses itself to all classes, but, by predilection, and at stated periods in a Jesuits life, by ex press injunction, it concerns itself with cate chizing the ignorant and instructing the inmates of hospitals and penal institutions, while it ad dresses itself also to more cultured and spiritual audiences. One special and characteristic
feature of its ministry is known as the °Spirit ual Exercises° or °Retreats° which it may he regarded as having introduced, or revived in the modern church, and are now a universal ascetic practice with the clergy and religious communities as well as with a considerable number of the laity. A °Retreat° is a with drawal from worldly occupations for a more or less protracted period in order to scrutinize the state of the soul and to take means to amend one's life, or to strive for higher Christian per fection. The method of these °Exercises° is laid down in a small manual written by the founder of the society. The book itself, which is at first sight fragmentary, and only sugges tive in its character, is not easily understood or explained except by those who are trained to interpret it.
The society was founded by Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish nobleman, who after being disabled in fighting for his country, betook himself to the solitude of a cave near the little town of Manresa, Spain, where he passed some months in prayer and severe bodily austerities. Later, desirous of working more effectively for the salvation of his fellow men, he determined to become a priest, and for that purpose studied in the universities of Alcala and Salamanca, and finally in Paris, where he gathered about him six companions, among whom were Francis Xavier, the future Apostle of Japan, Peter Faber, whom, with Ignatius and Xavier, the Church was to honor subsequently as a saint, and also Salmeron and Laynez, who were con spicuous luminaries at the Council of Trent which was then about to be convened against the doctrines of Luther, Calvin and others who had just then arisen.
On 15 Aug. 1534 these seven men organized themsleves into a society and pronounced their vows in the crypt of a little chapel in what is now Rue Antoinette, a short distance below the crest of the hill of Montmartre in Paris. It was only six years afterward that Pope Paul III gave them and the others who had joined them meantime his solemn approval.