Carus, Paul

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THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THEJESUITS.BY THE EDITOR.ALTHOUGH the Company of Jesus^ was founded^ by IgnatiusIx. Loyola for the avowed purpose of conquering the world forthe Church of Rome and of making the Pope the head of theChurch, and although, as has rightly been said of its members, theJesuits,^ they "alone [had] rolled back the tide of Protestant ad-vance . . . and the whole honors of the Counter-Reformation aretheirs singly,"^ it is an undeniable fact that the disciples of Loyolaare far from being recognised as good Roman Catholics by otherRoman Catholic orders. In fact they are frequently regarded withdread and suspicion by bishops, archbishops, and popes, and theirorder has repeatedly been suppressed by the Church. The Jesuitshave been expelled by almost all Roman Catholic governments,and have deemed it wise to establish a most extensive settlementin Protestant Holland. What is the reason of this hostility betweenthe Church and a body of its devoted sons, who have banded them-selves together as a light-horse brigade, ready for immediate ser-vice in any part of the globe and, if need be, willing to die for itscause?The Jesuits appear at first sight as an order which carries theprinciples of the Roman Catholic Church to its furthest extremes,and this in a certain sense is true. Yet there are some new fea-tures in the Society of Jesus which are foreign to the older mo-nastic institutions. While the main purpose of the latter is religious,consisting in the sanctification and salvation of each individualmember, the Society of Jesus absorbs the individual and makes it,1 Also called Societas fesu. The original term " Company of Jesus " is intended to denote aband of soldiers,2 In 1534 ; confirmed by the Pope in 1540. 3 First so called by Calvin about 1550.iEncycl. Brit., s. v. Jesuits, Vol. XIII., p. 648.THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE JESUITS. 4Ithrough discipline and spiritual exercises, subservient to its greataim, which is political, being the acquisition of power and a finalconquest of the world, which is to be ruled by the Pope in Rome.No doubt one reason of the occasional hostility between theChurch and the Society of Jesus is due to the fact that the latterforms a most compact, powerful, and independent organisationwithin the Church, and the Pope is apt to be dominated and eventyrannised over by the Jesuit general, in recognition of which stateof things the people of Rome call the Jesuit general "the blackpope," and say that he is the real ruler of the Church, the powerbehind the throne.That the Jesuit order bears remarkable similarities to theMussulman secret societies, especially the Assassins presided overby "the old man of the mountain," cannot be denied, and the lateAbb6 Charbonnel has collected a number of striking facts to provethat both the idea and the organisation of the Jesuit order was ac-tually derived from the Kwan Mussulmans.^Among other arguments M. Charbonnel collates the Mussulmanand the Jesuit texts of the famous passage perinde ac cadaver, whichdescribes the character of the obedience required of members ofthe society. The Mussulman text says the obedience must be asthat of "a corpse in the hands of the washers of the dead," whilethe Jesuit rule runs as that of "a corpse that allows itself to beturned in all ways."A short time ago a German pamphlet reached our office^ whichcomplains bitterly of the influence of the Jesuits in the RomanChurch. It professes to be written by a Catholic clergyman, andthe tone of the arguments shows that the author is deeply concernedfor the welfare of the Roman Church. His lamentations are keenlyfelt, and he points to the Jesuits as the cause of the degrading con-ditions and reactionary tendencies that prevail in Roman Catholiccountries. He claims that "one can be a good Christian and aworthy member of the Church although averse to Jesuitism " (p. 8).He quotes the opinions of Cardinals Wiseman and Manning and ofother Church authorities against the Jesuits, and mentions thepamphlet of R. Grassmann, Stettin, which unveils the shady sidesof the Jesuit moral theology.The Jesuits have been attacked in all countries and expelled1 See Victor Charbonnel's pamphlet Vorigine tnusulntane des Jisuites, Paris, Fayard Frferes,78 Boulevard St. Michel. Price, fr. 0.50.^ Eine Kassandra-Stimme. Mahnwort an das katholische Volk von einein amtierenden ro-misch-katholischen Priester. Caesar Schmidt, Ziirich, igoi.42 THE OPEN COURT.from many. They are openly denounced for "villany and per-fidy," and the author of the last-mentioned pamphlet says: "Noone who is free from prejudice can deny that there are not manyreasons for these severe judgments" (p. 7). Pope Clement XIV.uses in his breve even stronger terms, accusing them of sowingseeds of discord and jealousy, of disturbing the peace of Christen-dom, of exhibiting an insatiable desire for wordly possessions.Hence have originated disturbances which are world-known andhave caused the greatest grief and vexation to the apostolic see.Such are in brief the reasans why Clement discontinues the orderand declares it as annihilated for ever (st'c/).^We have no personal reason to be prejudiced against the Jes-uits. We know some members of the order whom we respect fortheir scholarship and other praiseworthy qualities. We know atthe same time from the testimony of impartial observers that theJesuits are purer and more rigidly moral than any other RomanCatholic order. For instance. Professor Worcester, one of theAmerican commissioners to the Philippines, speaks highly of theJesuits on this account, and contrasts them favorably with theother Spanish monks. We also grant that the Jesuits are goodpedagogues, although their scheme of instruction is scholastic, noteducational. Their aim is not to develop manliness and indepen-dence but amenableness and obedience. Lastly we may fairly con-cede that many accusations of the Jesuits are unfair. Yet, on theother hand, we cannot help asking ourselves: How did the Jesuitsincur this general hostility of the authorities of the Church whosehonor they defend and whose power they endeavor to enhance?The author of the article on the Jesuits in the EncyclopcediaBritannica says (Vol. XIII., p. 649):"Two most startling and indisputable facts meet the studentwho pursues the history of this unique society. The first is theuniversal suspicion and hostility it has incurred,— not, as mightreasonably be expected, merely from those Protestants whoseavowed and most successful foe it has been, nor yet from the ene-mies of all clericalism and religious dogma, to whom it is naturallythe embodiment of all they most detest, but from every RomanCatholic state and nation in the world, with perhaps the insignifi-cant exception of Belgium. Next is the brand of ultimate failurewhich has invariably been stamped on all its most promisingschemes and efforts. It controlled the policy of Spain, when Spainwas aiming, with good reason to hope for success, at the hegemony1 Cf. Wolf, Gesch. der Jesuiten^lU., p. 433.fE.THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE JESUITS. 43of Europe, and Spain came out of the struggle well-nigh the lastamongst the nations. It secured the monopoly of religious teach-ing and influence in France under Louis XIV. and XV. only to seean atheistic revolution break out under Louis XVI. and sweep overthe nation after a century of such training. It guided the actionof James II., lost the crown of England for the house of Stuart,and brought about the limitation of the throne to the Protestantsuccession. Its Japanese and Red Indian missions have vanishedwithout leaving a trace behind; its labors in Hindustan did butprepare the way for the English empire there; it was swept out ofits Paraguayan domains without power of defence; and, having inour own day concentrated its efforts on the maintenance of thetemporal power of the popes, and raised it almost to the rank of adogma of the Catholic faith, it has seen Rome proclaimed as thecapital of united Italy, and a Piedmontese sovereign enthroned inthe Quirinal."The present number of 7he Open Court contains an article onthe Jesuits which is written in their defence and attempts to provethe justice of their cause by pointing out that they are good Ro-man Catholics and that their views are not peculiar to themselves,but are genuine, Simon-pure doctrines of the Church herself, hav-ing been held by her most distinguished thinkers and saints fromtime immemorial. He would seem to Protestants thus to throwthe opprobrium which attaches to the Jesuits proper, on the Churchherself, virtually identifying Jesuitism with Romanism. The apol-ogy our author offers may, thus, in certain circles, have the countereffect from what he intended.M. Ladaveze is an able author, and we doubt whether thecause which he so ardently espouses could be better defended, atleast on the assumption that Romanism is the truth. The Jesuitshave lately been expelled from France, and it is probable that theywill turn their faces toward the United States, where liberal insti-tutions and the belief in Religious Liberty are so firmly establishedthat a disturbance of their settlements is highly improbable. Willthey find a congenial soil here ? Will they adapt themselves withthe same ingenious instinct of assimilation as they exhibited inChina and in other countries? Will they succeed in making pros-elytes among the liberty-loving Americans ? Will the United States,having inherited the Spanish colonies, adopt the policy of Spain?Or will Jesuitism rouse the opposition of the people, and will theenterprises of the society here too end in failure? All these queriesare open questions, and who will venture to make prophecies!

The Roman Catholic Church and the Jesuits.

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The Roman Catholic Church and the Jesuits.

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