ST. IGNATIUS AND THIS JESUITS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 29, 7 November 1884, Page 31

ST. IGNATIUS AND THIS JESUITS.

If ever there was a society, (says the Liverpool Catholic Tknes^ iv speaking of the recent celebration of the feast of St. Ignatius, which could claim to be proof against .adversity, it is the community founded by Ignatius of Loyola. From its very inception it has continually experienced trials and vicissitudes of no ordinary kind. It has struggled against them all, and betrayed a vitality which is indestructible. If we turn to the pages of history we are forcibly reminded that growth and decay are not only the law of individual life_ but that of society itself. Where are now the great empires which were raised up in antiquity by military art and diplomatic' skill ? The first Assyrian Empire was destroyed in the flames which consumed Sardanapalus. The second was shattered into pieces by Cyrus, and the Persian Empire which he founded on its ruins has also perished off the face of the earth, overthrown by Alexander the Great. The Macedonian Empire was likewise broken into fragments, and the Roman Empire was laid desolate in the East and in the West. In the same way early historical records show how great cities and powerful societies sprang up in various countries, but in the course of time lost their prestige and completely disappeared. Of those institutions of the past all that now remains is the name. They succumbed in accordance with the general law of decay. One common feature pervades the story of their last days. When the breath of dissolution set in, no matter how they struggled against it, they went down irretrievably. In view of this an interesting historical problem presents itself to the mind in considering the troubles and difficulties which the Society of Jesu9 has surmounted, nay .theapparent death from which it baa more than once risen to energy. In battling for the Church the Jesuits have gone into the foremost points of danger, and have aroused the fiercest; enmity of the foes oE xeligion. The force of intolerance could not go further than it has gone on many an occasion against them. They have been met not merely by open methods of warfare, but by all the forms of opposition that the ingenuity of malevolence could devise, and their opponents have many a time sung pseans over what was believed to be their utter collapup ; but the Jesuits have always revived and entered on fresh action with unrelated effort. Macaulay has told in words which have become familiar to every one at all acquainted with English literature now the great Order went forth conquering and to conquer. " 4 In spite of oceans and deserts, of hunger and pestilence, of spieß and penal laws, of dungeons and racks, of gibbets and quartering blocks, Jesuits were to be found under every disguise and in every country : scholars, physicians, merchants, serving-men ; in the hostile court of Sweden, in the old Manor houses of Cheshire, among the hovels of Connaaght, arguing, instructing, consoling, stealing away the hearts of the young, animating the courage of the timid, holding up the crucifix before the eyes of the dying." The history of their s'ruggles is in a fact a record of triumph b. By a strange coincidence, St. Ignatius was born in the same year as Luther, and the first signal achievement of the society was the effective opposition it offered to the so-called •' Reformers." Luther and Loyola have been rather aptly described by a Protestant writer as the action and reaction of that time. .Between the Jesuits and tha Lutherans there was certainly a most striking contrast. The " Reformers ' announced principles destructive of all spiritual authority. The Jesuits affirmed as their Sret and most important rule complete submission to superior ecclesiastical power. Luther and his followeis in showy language appealed lo the pasMons ; the Jesuits, whilst not less brilliant, addressed themselves with logical precision to tiie intelect. Luther was always a boor. The Jesuit was ever refined ; his weapons, offensive and defensive, were used with delicacy and discretion, but were not the less keen. His devotion to the cause of religion in times of difficulty since the days of Ignatius, has rendered his name amongst unreflecting Protestants a by-word for deceit. When they have been driven out of countries because of t'neir ability in beariDg the brunt of the Church's battle, the Jesuits have returned and faced the teirorsof death to secure the salvation of individual souls. Like other prie9ts they have at such critical periods adopted various disguises, and have done s.o with such success that non-Catho-lics in many instances supposed them gifted with an occult power somewhat akin to necromancy. Yet, there have not been wanting Protestants ready to take a just and generous view of their actions and motives. M. Dallas, a Protestant writer, has given to the world an appreciative account of what they bave done for religion and civilization in some parts o.y;he world. " These men," be says, " planted the Christian Faith in the extremities of the East, injapan, in the Molucca Islands ; Sty announced it in China, in 'Ihibet and Further India, in Ethiopia a Caffraria. Others in tuo opposite hemisphere appeared on the snowy wastes of North America, and presently Hurons were civilized and Canada ceased to be peopled only by barbarians. Others almost in our own days, nothing degeuerate, succeeded to humanize new hard featured tribes, even to assemble them in Christian churches in California. They were but a detachment from the body of their brethren, who at the same time were advancing with rapid progress through Cinaloa, among the uuknown hordes of savages who roved through the immense tracts to the north of Mexico. Others again in great numbers, from the school of Ignatius, with most inflexible peiseverance amidst every species of opposiii m, continued to gather new nations into the Church, to form new colonies of civilized cannibals, for the Kings of Spain and Portugal, in the horrid wilds of Brazil, Maragnon, and Paraguay. Here truly flowed the milk and honey of human happiness." But it is not merely as missionaries that the Jesuits have laid the civilized world under obligations. From their colleges and schools have gone forth men deeply versed in the most profound sciences, whilst they themselves have shed light on every path of human knowledge. In this country to-day, both in the school and the mission-field, they arc giving proof of a devotion worthy of the brightest period in their annals. They may indeed well be stimulated by tbe example given to them by heroio Jesuit

Fathers who knew how IS to dj and suffer bravely " here, in the penal times. The blood of Jesuits flowed freely at Tyburn, and nearly every part of England has been consecrated by the trials and sufferings of Jesuits. Fortunately, oinoe those day a happy change has come to pass in this country. Active hostility to Catholicism, and to the Jesuits has entirely disappeared, and the Society is able to celebrate the Feast of its founder with the knowledge that it has fnll freedom to carry out its observances.