JESUITS. The Roman Catholic order known as the Jesuits or the Society of Jesu (Societas Jean) was founded by Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), after whom the Jesuits are called sometimes Ignatians. Ignatius was driven from the Spanish universities of Alcala and Salamanca because he was thought to have an undesir able influence on the students, and went to the University of Paris, where he gained the sympathy of Francis Xavier, James Laynez, Alphonsus Salmeron, Nicholas Bobadilla, Simon Rodriguez, and Peter Faber. These companions, after practising the " Spiritual Exercises " of Ignatius, in 1534 took with him a solemn vow. According to Alban Butler (as quoted in the Cath. Dict.), the tenor of it was " to renounce the world, to go to preach the gospel in Palestine, or, if they could not go thither within a year after they had finished their studies, to offer themselves to his Holiness to be employed in the service of God in what manner he should judge best." Before long there were added to the society Claude de Jay of Savoy, Codure of Dauphine, and Pasquier Brouet of Picardy. All the members described themselves as of the Company of Jesus. Ignatius decided to place his order under " a general whom all, by their vow, should be bound to obey, who should be perpetual, and his authority absolute, subject entirely to the Pope, but not liable to be restrained by chapters " (Albion Butler, /.c.). On Sept. 27, 1540, Pope Paul III. confirmed the order by the bull "Regimini militant's ecclesi," and in April 1541 Ignatius became its first general. The membership of the Society was, and is, divided into four grades: (1) Novices, (2) Scholastics, (3) Coadjutors, and (4) Professed. " Novices are admitted only after a minute and searching examination of their character and social circumstances. The novitiate lasts for two years, which are spent In houses established for the special purpose. Time is there regulated from hour to hour. Reading, meditation, prayer, and devotional exercises, alternate with nursing in the hospitals, travels as beggars, menial services, and ascetic practices. A course of training is gone through which enables the novice to completely break his individual will, and prepares him to be a lit instrument for the will of the society. The
term of probation ended, the novice takes the three monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and enters one of the colleges of the society as a scholastic. There he studies grammar, rhetoric, and literature for two years, and philosophy, physics, and mathematics for three: teaches these subjects through all the classes of the college for live or six years: studies theology for five or six years, and finally completes his education by going through another novitiate of spiritual exercises. . . . After the second novitiate, the scholastic is ordained a priest, and becomes an active member of the society, either as coadjutor or professed, adding to the three common monastic vows, in the former case, that of zealous devotion to the education of the young, in the latter, that of undertaking any task which the Pope might see fit to confide to him " (Schaff-Herzog). According to the Catholic Dictionary, the professed of the four vows (professi quatuor votorum) now form only a small class. In any case, the Jesuit course of training is a very long and thorough one, and it is not surprising that it has produced great scholars and men of consider able administrative power. Their fault has been an over zealous, and, In the view of their opponents, unscrupulous devotion to their cause. They are supposed to act, and to have acted, very largely on the principle that the end justifies the means. They have been charged with mixing themselves up in all sorts of political plots and intrigues. Nor can it be denied that the charge is a lawful one But unfortunately there have been times when plots and intrigues have been the order of the day. To succeed in one's efforts and to promote one's cause, good or bad, meant to meet one intrigue with another, one plot with another plot. When a plot has failed, the promoters of it have represented themselves to be the most innocent of men, and their opponents, whose plot has succeeded, the most execrable of monsters. This is not said by way of excusing the Jesuits, but as a pro test against the many exaggerated statements made by their opponents. See Schaff-Herzog; the Prot. Dict., 1904; the Cath. Dict.; Brockhaus.