History of the Jesuits: Their origin, progress, doctrines, and designs

by G. B. Nicolini

Those are the written precepts; but the sly and abominable acts to which the Jesuits resort in order to model the man to the standard of the Society, are numerous, and differ according to circumstances and to the character of the Novice. But, in all cases, before the biennium is elapsed, either the man is dismissed, or he has lost all ideas, all hopes, all desires of a personal nature; he is a man without will, submitting blindly to obey any order, and devoting soul and body to the aggrandizement of the Society.

II. THE SCHOLARS.

To promote the objects of their Society, the Jesuits rely in a great measure upon the talent and learning of its members. Hence their decided preference for candidates with superior mental endowments, and their assiduous attention to the prosperity and good management of their colleges and universities, which were at one time the best regulated and most efficient in Europe. Their judicious arrangement of the studies, their admirable superintendence, their exemplary discipline, their many inducements to application, rendered the Jesuit colleges the resort of all those who aspired to eminence in the literary or learned world. The greatest men in all the Catholic countries of Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were educated by the Jesuits.

All the property bequeathed or given to the Society is made over to the colleges and universities, which, however, have not the power of administering it. In these colleges are trained the Scholars, of whom there are two sorts—the Received and the Approved. The former are candidates for membership, who are being tried for their skill in learning previous to entering upon the noviciate; the latter are those who have completed their noviciate, and taken the vows. Every Novice and Scholar aspires to enter the class of the Coadjutors, or that of the Professed, in which two classes reside all the power and authority of the order. The vows of the Scholars are the same as those of the Novices.

III. COADJUTORS.

The third class of Jesuits consists of Temporal and Spiritual Coadjutors. The Temporal Coadjutors, however learned they may be, are never admitted to holy orders. They are the porters, cooks, stewards, and agents of the Society. The Spiritual Coadjutors are priests, and must be men of considerable learning, in order that they may be qualified to hear confessions, to teach, preach, &c. The rectors of the colleges, and the superiors of the religious houses, are appointed from this class. They are sometimes permitted to assist in the deliberations of the general congregation, but have no voice in the election of the General.

Besides undergoing the first probation, and the noviciate, the Coadjutors must submit to a third year of trial, in order to afford a stronger proof of their aptitude. It is here worthy of remark, that in the case of a porter or a cook, there is required a year of trial more than is thought necessary to qualify the scholar who is to preach, and teach the Catechism. The porters and cooks must know something of worldly business, and, consequently, there is the greater need that they should be faithful and trustworthy. Here is the formula of the vow taken by the Coadjutors:—“I, N., promise Almighty God, before His Virgin Mother, and before all the heavenly host, and you, reverend father, General of the Society of Jesus, holding the place of God, and of your successors; or you, reverend father, Vice-General of the Society of Jesus, and of his successors, holding the place of God, perpetual poverty, chastity, and obedience, and therein, peculiar care in the education of boys, according to the manner expressed in the Apostolical Letters, and in the Constitutions of the said Society. At Rome, or elsewhere, in such a place, day, month, and year.

“Then let him take the most holy body of Christ; and let the rest of the ceremony be the same as in the case of the Professed.”[44] The clause, “peculiar care in the education of boys,” is omitted in the vow when taken by the Temporal Coadjutors.

IV. THE PROFESSED.

This fourth class, the first in order of power and dignity, may be said to constitute, alone, the Society. The probation required for it is longer and more rigorous than that of any of the other classes. Two additional years of trial must be endured, in order to gain admission into it. This is partly to prevent the class becoming too numerous. The Professed must, in terms of the Constitutions, be priests, above twenty-five years of age, eminent in learning and virtue. In addition to their acquirements in literature and philosophy, they must devote four years specially to the study of theology. Their admission is the immediate act of the General, who seldom delegates his power for that purpose, as he generally does for admitting to the other classes. Solemn vows are taken by this class only; those of the other classes are designated merely as simple vows. Besides the three ordinary vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the Professed take a fourth—to obey the Holy See, and to go, as missionaries, into whatever part of the world the Pope pro tempore chooses to send them. My readers will remember, that it was this fourth vow which overcame the crafty Pope Paul’s objections to sanction the order. But this pontiff, with all his cunning, was no match for Loyola, who quite nullified this vow by the formula in which he embodied it. According to this formula, the vow is made only in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution. Now, the Constitution enacts, “that the General shall have all power over every individual of the Society, to send any one on a mission, to recall missionaries, and to proceed in all things as he thinks will be best for the greater glory of God.”[45] Thus, obedience to the Pope depends entirely on the will and pleasure of the General. Hence the General’s preponderating influence with the Court of Rome.