[ [16] They were published in the English Historical Review, July 1888.
[ [17] So the chief Jesuit manual now in use, Lehmkuhl's Theologia Moralis, i. 330; from which I was taught casuistry.
THE FIRST CENTURY OF JESUITISM
As the long reign of General Acquaviva was followed by the almost equally long reign of General Vitelleschi, it will be convenient once more to take his tenure of office as a stage in the history of the Society, and consider the action of the fathers in their various provinces. The death of Vitelleschi, in 1645, will then complete the first century from the establishment of the Society, and we may pause to deduce from the enormous mass of detail a few general truths in regard to Jesuit character. From that point onward I propose to follow the fortunes of the Society continuously in each province down to the year of its suppression in the eighteenth century.
The election of Father Mutio Vitelleschi did not pass without incident. The Spanish electors determined to make an effort to recover the supreme office from the Italians, and their tactics were not edifying. When they reached Rome, at an early date, they learned that Vitelleschi was the favoured candidate, and they proceeded to describe him to the various voters, as they arrived, in most uncomplimentary language. He seems to have been a mild and inoffensive old man, of little ability and no distinction, a Roman by birth. There is, doubtless, a good deal of exaggeration in the rancorous charge of the Spaniards, that he was worldly and ambitious and had hitherto been chiefly occupied with the cultivation of wealthy ladies. When these statements did not seem to affect his prospect of election, the Spanish fathers appealed to the Spanish and French ambassadors; and, when the ambassadors declined to assist them, they sought the Pope and confided to him the vices of Father Vitelleschi. Paul V. genially dismissed them with an assurance that, if he were such as they described him, he could have no hope of securing the votes of forty of the shrewdest and most religious members of the Society. In point of fact, he received thirty-nine votes, and he wisely dissuaded the Congregation from inflicting on the Spaniards the punishment which his admirers demanded. I may add that it now took more than a hundred decrees of the Congregation to regulate the disorderly life of the Society; though we shall still find it singularly unaffected by this mass of stern legislation.
The long generalship of Mutio Vitelleschi (1615-1645) is, says Crétineau-Joly, "a monotonous stretch of felicity." When, however, we turn to the official Jesuit historian, Cordara, who continues the Historia Sociatatis, we find that the year which immediately followed the election was marked by serious disturbances or scandals at Castellone, Genoa, Artois, Paris, Lyons, Freiburg, and Worms, and in Sicily, Béarn, Castile, Poland, and Hesse-Cassel. We shall further see that the monotony of the thirty years is relieved by a scandalous bankruptcy of the fathers at Seville, a temporary expulsion from Malta, Bohemia, and Hungary, a combined attack upon the Society by the leading universities of Europe, the publication of the Secret Instructions, the complete extinction of the great Japanese mission and the new mission in Abyssinia, and a quite normal succession of scandals and tribulations in France and Catholic Germany. The serious historian cannot therefore dismiss the generalship of Vitelleschi with a short assurance that it was a period of virtue, heroism, and prosperity. We must, as before, carefully consider the life of the Society in each of its provinces.
The record of the Society in Italy is an uninteresting chronicle of small scandals and unobtrusive work. The former class may be briefly illustrated by the adventures of the Neapolitan Jesuit, Father Onufrio de Vermi, in the year 1623. The historian tells us that the honours awarded him by his illustrious penitent the Count d'Elda so inflated his spirit that he rebelled against his authorities. Passing over to Spain, he contrived to secure a bishopric from the queen, and was expelled from the Society on the charge of ambition. It is needless to quote such trifles as these from the chronicles. The outstanding event at Rome under the rule of Vitelleschi was the canonisation of Ignatius and Xavier in 1622. Their place in the distinguished gallery it would be invidious to question, but the curious student of such matters would find it interesting to trace the appearance of the miracles which were needed to secure canonisation for them. In the case of Xavier, whose life was spent in the Far East, it would be easy to adduce evidence of miracles, and difficult to examine it. The miracles of Ignatius are more interesting. When Ribadeneira, who knew him, first wrote his life, he seemed not to have heard of any miracles; when, however, forty years later, the question of canonisation was mooted, Father Ribadeneira corrected his defect by publishing a shorter life which shone with miracles. As time went on, the monarchs of Europe—wherever the Jesuits had influence—began to press the Pope to canonise Ignatius and Xavier, and in 1622 the Jesuits obtained that supreme assurance of the sanctity of their founders. It need hardly be said that they illuminated Europe with their festivities, and made considerable profit by the honour, which they represented as unsought by themselves.