Jesuits !

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 326, 18 July 1879, Page 5

Jesuits !

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF PAUL FEVAL BY T. F. GALWEY, BALTIMORE, 1879. A GLANCE AT THE MISSIONS.-^ Continued.) While some of the Jesuits diffused Catholicity among pagan and ESSSi?T -ll°l? orßi.? trilg?led t0 brin S ba«k to obedSetho European heretics and schismatics, in revolt against the Ckurch Wa hSI^ 1 XK JVJ V. *nd Bobadina, three g oftheoriginal JesulTs Sled G^^ fr °^ the T umerabl« army of apostates and rebefs who failed Germany with murder and sacrilege. They are soon followed Xj^fSTn S7S 7 the bleßßed Peter Canisius,* S StoSSIS S £2?/%' a man of attract^e eloquence, profound science and of inexhaustible resources in polemics. The Lutherans them ™11£7.:" "•"is no ™*ot -M-8M -8 *. t™tb r Xh Ss '" Bui S b? ye all thing 8 he abounded in charity. Every day Cani |||s and Salmeron both Professors in the Uni^tyTffiSS Httl 2SJ • r8 \ta^ Caie °f the Bick in the b 08 Pita1 ' or toWnS little children in school or eveu in the public square w««, t natura* ™wrf was persecution. Canisius wrote to Father Laynez who had become General of the Company of JesS after Loyola's death : « Our enemies are striving by calumny to take away a reputation which Ido not intend to defend 7 The Tie ddng SllL/t™ hh ™o™<? "S tbe Otber Fatbers- Soon P^haps they wm pass from threats to Wows and to the most cruel treatment. 7 May T^lli^i^i^o^^ 7 try to in >ure U8 ' the more we mJy broX£ W Ch fT tjr> ,i Th6y Om" Pe™ecutor ß, but they are our brothers. We must love them on account of the love of Jesus Christ Snorfnce^ 18 '"""^ &M b6CaUSe they sin ' Perhaps through *h» m Cann. Ot bdp re ™arkin? here, that these beautiful thoughts and the discreet manner of expressing them constitute what is called par excellence « Jesuitism," that is to say, apparent hypocrisy P Jesuitism is merely charity, insulted by those who live so far away from it as never to have seen or heard it.

However, intellects were convinced, and above all many hearts were touched "The Jesuits," says another Protestant writer, Doctor .Leopold Kanke,f speaking of their labours in Germany, "lacked ?^?v IT 1 T" Prudence- You «* them spreading out successively into all the places that surround them, drawing the masses Their churches are the most frequented. Is a Lutheran found anywhere well versed m the Bible, whose teaching has influence in his neighbourhood, they employ every means to convert him, and they nearly always succeed, so habituated are they to controversy 1 The electoral prince of Mayence, Schweichardt, Maximilian of Bavaria. the archduke Ferdinand, all of them eminent men, were pupils of the Jesuits school, so skilful in provoking vast and lofty thoughts in the minds of their disciples. These princes were themselves reformers, and they had accomplished through their faith the restoration of religion. 11 F?< yy LOUL 0U wish to see» now > what part those who are so readily called obscurantists" played in the history of superstition ? Here is an extract from the biography of Father Frederick von Spee.t one of the most renowned writers of his time. Indignant at the frequent abuses which then followed the criminal prosecution of sorcerers, h« courageously undertook the defence of the victims against blinded judges and a fanatical public. The impression produced in France and Germany by the publication of his book, '< Causa Criminalis " was such that despite popular credulity and the error of the courts, the absurd and bloody legislation that for centuries had governed Europe fell at once into disuse. Shortly after (1635), Father von Spec was at Treves when the imperialists captured that city, occupied by the French. The Jesuit by his zeal and courage saved that great city from pillage and snatched the conquered from death. To him four hundred Frenchmen owed liberty, provisions, clothing and permission to return to their fatherland. But contagion came after the war, and Father von Spec did not follow those who withdrew ; he remained to take care of the sick, and, at forty years of age, he died standing, in the field of honor and of charity. In the reign of Henry VIII, Salmeron and Paschase Brouet travelled through England and Ireland to strengthen and console the Catholics who were subjected to an odious prosecution. But it wag needful to impose a lasting help against the permanent danger. During Elizabeth's bloody reign, whose edicts recall those of Nero and of Diocletian, || a mission of twelve Jesuits was organised under the orders of Edward Campion and of Robert Parsons, both formerly Oxford men. Their heads were at stake, and they knew it. "We have so much to do here," wrote Father Parsons, that we oftea have only two hours to take a little repose." And the illustrious Doctor Allen asserted that in the space of one year (1581) the Fathers had gained more souls in England than they could have gained elsewhere in their whole life. "It is estimated," added he, " that there are ten thousand Catholics more than last year." But blood is needed to fertilise the labours of the apostles. Edmund Campion spilled his. After him several of his brethren won th« palm of martyrdom : John Cornelius, Robert Southwell, Henry Walpole,§ Thomas Bosgrove, Roger Filcock, Francis Page, Henry and Thomas Garnett, Thomas Holland, Rudolph Corby, Henry Morse Richard Bradley, Cansfield, Cuthbert Prescott, Edmund Nevil. . . ' The martyrs were hung to the gibbet, then cut down living, to be quartered, after having their bowels torn out. Ibant gaudentes** as as one of the companions of Peter Olivaint was to say three hundred years later, in 1870, when on his way to execution. Their canticle is silent only when their heart ceases to beat. Voltaire said of their executioners : " The absurdity of these fanatics was joined to madness ; they were at once the most foolish and the most dangerous of men." It is with real joy that we cite that great mind to whom God had given all things, except the priceless gift of faith. He made many false accusations against the Company of Jesus, but many, too, are the pages where his pen does them justice. The cruelty of the fools who slew was overcome by the patience of the wise who knew how to die, and after that long and frightfrl persecution, thanks to the labours of the apostles and the blood of the martyrs, the Catholic faith obtained the " freedom of the city" in England, and again flourished in the " Isle of Saints." The proof that Protestantism, so completely victorious at first, was losing ground, is in the fact that the conntries of the north of Europe all hesitated at the same time. The " plague of the Jesuits," as the preachers called it, attacked those kingdoms where Christian had put a mitre on his footman. Father Anthony Possevin ff preached in the place where Gustavus Vasa had broken the images of Mary, and the people came at the sound of his voice; kings also. He penetrated to Stockholm, received the private abjuration of the king of Sweden, John 111, and then went to Moscow. There the confessor shows himself a diplomat of the first order; at the Kremlin he negotiates peace between the Czar John IV. and the Poles, and then gladly giving up this brilliant role, he returns to Padua to resume his modest functions of professor and preacher. But we have no right to wonder at this absolute obedience, practiced with the utmost humility ; it ia tha rule, and in this case humility was especially productive, for from the hands of this master came Francis do Sales. Less th«n fifty years after the death of Possevin, two of hii brethren, aided by that illustrious pupil of the Jesuits, Rene Descartes, converted the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus to Catholicity. Dr. Ranke, whose impartiality we have already done honour to, writes ! " The activity of the Jesuits reached into all the provinces, among the races of Livonia ; in Lithuania, where they were obliged to combat the ancient serpent-worship; among the Greeks, where often

the Jeßuits were the only Catholic priests ; in Poland, where hundreds il^7clsZ£F y of /esus dedicated themselTCß lo the A^? ere T, a Pi n '** owev 1c1 c , r ' their work bore the seal of the Cross Andrew Bobola.M cruelly martyred by schismatic Cossacks, became ft new patron in heaven of Catholic Poland. iw «Y c Bhall , finish this rapid sketch of the missions in the two worlds Sm^V^I 8 °o tbe lab^ of the Jesuits in the g^t Catholic S£? Z ?&J SP* I*,1 *, and Portugal, the countries of Germany that remained faithful to Borne, and, finally, the Low Countries and Austria ; we shall treat of France in a special chapter. To=n ♦? ' ?? n xcx c °£ the moßt hostile writers against the Company of *™ %£? a P 08l » te Huber » of Munich, passed a correct judgement on !l,f 5 Se / atlOns : " The Order '" **?* he ' "in a short time gained great advantages over Protestantism ; the renovating movement was S 1 wa.™ J taly ' and in German y driven back to the countries of the Worth. In support of this assertion, Huber borrows Macaulay's testimony : "'Protestantism,' says the noble writer cited < was checked m its victorious march and driven back with a giddy rapidity from the foot of the Alps to the shores of the Balticf Before the Order had a century of existence, it had filled the whole world with monuments of its martyrs and of its great struggles for the faith.' " At Home, at Venice, at Padua, and throughout the Italian peninsula, as well as all over that immense empire which united Austria, Bpain, and Flanders under the one sceptre, during two centuries, the Jesuits exposed error, defended the true faith, re-established ecclesiastical ducipkne, encouraged charitable works for the comfort of the nek and the poor, opened asylums for suffering, for want, for repentance, and for old age, and trained the youth to that lovely virtue Which we admire in Aloysius Gonzaga, and in Stanislas Kostka. Altars, too, arose on all sides to honour the saints whom the ComPa s 7 c? f JJ esus fi Ued with its spirit ; Rome venerates St. Ignatius ana bf -Francis de Borgia ; Naples, St. Francis de Hieronimo ; Spain, the blessed Alfonso Rodriguez ; Belgium, the blessed John Berchmans; Holland, Catholic Switzerland, and the Tyrol, the blessed Peter Canisius ;_ France, Bt. Francis Regis,|||| etc. •r «T did these men reach the summit of Christian perfection ? By the exact, the heroic observance of the rules of their institute, by the practice of obedience as defined by St. Ignatius, by constant labours, fidelity to the spirit of that Company of Jesus which has Deen persecuted, and even, for a time, destroyed, but which no one has seriously dreamed of reforming, because no one has ever been able to call it corrupt, except the " solitaires" of Port Royal, whom Voltaire mmseJf has answered, and the foolish good people who live by insulting the Jesuits in our time, and whom surely no one will care to answer. There is, however, a certain vulgar truism which we must overturn on our way. It is the fashion among the makers of doting dictionaries, which go on faithfully copying the same worn-out stupidities since the time of the encyclopaedic deluge, openly to proclaim the decay of those nations which have remained faithful to the Church and to attribute this pretended decline to the Jesuits. Among the invalids cited are Austria. Spain, Portugal. Yesterday they spoke of Mexico, but they are Bilent since Juarez. Why not Italy ? And above all, why not Belgium ? Are they quite sure that England is securely hoodwinked 1 For she begins to perceive heresy at work outside of her, and she has not yet made up her mind that Protestantism is, after all, a profitable commerce to engage in. One might say a good many things as to the inferiority of Catholic countries, for my part I do not admit it in any degree, because I do not place human greatness in the winning of a piece of coin, and because 1 have no devotion for the god called Dollar or Revolver ; but admitting the decline of certain Catholic countries, ia it at all to be compared with the horrible internal malady of certain Protestant countries 1 We need not name those countries, we know them well, and who does not ? And then, were not these Catholic nations Catholic at the time of their splendour? Were they not more Catholic then than now? * c t^ey not fallen little by little, in proportion as they became unfaithful to their beliefs, in proportion as they drank the poison of indifference, of scepticism, and of incredulity ? And then, who is so stupid as to believe there is Jesuit influence in all that ? Are they to be blamed for the poisonous atmosphere which they have done their best to counteract 1 Besides, t te Jesuits were expelled from most of those Catholic states by the intrigues of those who brought about the feebleness of th o?e i states ; they were driven out at the height of the prosperity, which they had largely contributed to produce ; their valuable help waß replaced in those states by . But what is the use of Baying by whom 1 L Spain, Portugal, the kingdom of Naples, the duchy of Parma, the of Austria, are all states that expelled the Jesuits. And was their condition bettered 1 And France ? If she was improved, why complain ? But if, on the contrary, those states have regretted the departure, of the Jesuits, as history affirms, what is the sense of blaming the authors of prosperity with the misfortunes that ensued after their unjust and unwise expulsion ? Let everyone be responsible for his own acts I If what was pure g«ld in the Jesuits' hands has changed into lead for their despoilers, whose is the fault?

In all that has been said, has the reader discovered or not, the motives of the really extraordinary hatred that surrounds the Company of Jesus? For myself, I reply YES and NO. Yes, for the enemies of the Church ; no, for its friends. The enemies ©f the Church have every reason to hate the Jesuits;

XX Born in Poland in 1590, put to death for the faith at Yanov, May 17th 1657 beatified by Pope Pius IX, October 30th, 1853. The martyr Olivaint has written a life of this martyr. blmentxiL'' 111 3lßt ' 1697 ' De °' 318t ' 1716> canonlzed AprU 6th > 1737 > h ? Po P c

the friends of the Church have every reason to esteem and to love them. And it would not be frank to deny that there is something in our words that tends to confuse the servants with the master, the Jesuits with the Church, The Company of Jesus is nothing in comparison with the Church, which alone has the promise of immortality. The Company of Jesus could disappear without causing the slightest disturbance of the rock on which the divine edifice reposes. But " all the enemies of the Church are ever, and before all, the enemies of the Jesuits:' That is what emphatically entitles them to the confidence of Catholics. " . . . . The Company of Jesus has the unequalled glory of being struck, accused, and calumniated by the united enemies of the Church. A singular privilege, a glorious prerogative, which makes their name the most glorious that it is given to Christians to bear in our times."*

We have just seen them at work outside France. Let us now return home and see what they have done here ; that, in the mouths of the enemies of God and of our country, their name has become the grossest insult applied not only to every priest, to every Catholic, but even to every honourable man, honourably serving his country. Read the " Liberal" journals, enter the " Liberal" clubs, and you will see they apply the name of Jesuit to employers, proprietors, statesmen of every opinion, to all who know how to read and not to blackguard. The gendarmes are Jesuits, the prefects, the marshals, the Brothers of Christian Doctrine ! The Protestant ministers themselves are Jesuits ! the magistrates, Jesuits 1 the soldiers, Jesuits ! Jesuits 1 Jesuits J Never were men celebrated by such a unanimous outcry against them If this is not glory, where is it ?