THE PROTESTANT INSTITUTE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 8449, 23 March 1889, Page 5

THE PROTESTANT INSTITUTE.

The monthly meeting of the Protestant Institute was held in Milton Hall on Wednesday evening, when th-ere was a good attendance of members. After tho transaction of formal business and the •election of two members, an address was delivered by Mr R. N. Adams on Ignatius Loyola, the promoter and organiser of the Jesuits. He introduced the subject by giving a rapid sketch of the religious condition of Europe at tihe en:2 of the fifteenth century, and the danger which threatened the Church of Rome from tho rising power of the Reformation in Germany and other parts of the North. Ho then pointed out that Loyola wa3 born in 1491 of n noble family, was from an early age a page in the court of Ferdinand, aud in 1521 was found a courageous soldier iti defence of his nitive land of Spain, falling wounded into the hands of the Freuch. During his illness, which ■was long, he gavo his mind to reading religious books, aud lihese fired his soul with a desire to emulate the saints of story. He saw visions of Mary, and believed he received messages and inspirations dlirect from Heaven. One of his visions was that of two great military camps—the one at Jerusalem and the other at Babylon—he being chosen a chief captain in one of them. This determined him on a journey to Jerusalem, which was undertaken in 1523. The priests of the holy city refused to accept his aid in driving out the Saracens, and Loyola trudged back again to Barcelona, where he attended a common school for two years; he then went to college in Alcala, and ,'in 1527 he went to France to complete his studies at the university. There he lain the foundation of tho society by which his name has beon rendered famous, choosing Xavier and Fabir as his first disciples. In 1534 he quitted France with nine followers, and coming to Uonwi succeeded in obtaining the Papal sanction to his Society of Jesus, which immediately commenced its work of re-establishing the authority of the Pope with a success which has never attended any other society of human origin. A very brief outlino of the tenets of the society concluded tho address. A vote of thanks, proposed by Mr Beresford and seconded by Dr W. Hammond, brought the proceedings to a close.