Society of Jesus
Jesuits, or Society of Jesus, is a religious order, which rose in influence and power far above all the other orders, though strictly prohibiting its members to accept any office in the church, and which, in the art of ruling, excelled the governments of the world no less than its ecclesiastical rivals. No other religious order affords a parallel to this ; for, while those who give themselves only to devotion and religious contemplation, present few distinguishing traits, and, for the most part, differ from one another only in their names, in the fashion and color of their dress, the greater or less strictness of their rules, the number of their penances and devotional exercises ; and while those of the more active class, who operate abroad by their influence at courts and in families, and by engaging in offices of instruction, pastoral care, or charity, are almost universally but monks, the Society of Jesus early raised itself to a degree of historical importance unparalleled in its kind.
A general dispersion of the members throughout society, with the most entire union and subordination, formed the basis of their constitution. The society of Jesus was accordingly divided into several ranks or classes. The novices, who were chosen from the most talented and well educated youths and men, without regard to birth and external circumstances, and were tried, for two years, in separate novitiate-houses, in all imaginable exercises of self-denial and obedience, to determine whether they would be useful to the purposes of the order, were not ranked among the actual members, the lowest of whom are the secular coadjutors, who take no monastic vows, and may therefore be dismissed. They serve the order partly as subalterns, partly as confederates, and may be regarded as the people of the Jesuit «täte. Distinguished laymen, public officers, and other influential personages (e. g. Louis XIV in his old age), were sometimes honored with admission into this class, to promote the interests of the order.
Higher in rank stand the scholars and spiritual coadjutors, who are instructed in the higher brandies of learning, take upon them solemn monastic vows, and are bound to devote themselves particularly, to the education of youth. These are, as it were, the artists of the Jesuit community, are employed as professors in academies, as preachers in cities and at courts, as rectors and professors in colleges, as tutors and spiritual guides in families which they wish to gain or to watch, and as assistants in the missions.
Finally, the nobility, or highest class, is made up of the professed, among whom are admitted only the most experienced members, whose address, energy and fidelity to the order have been eminently tried and proved. They make profession, i.e. take the vows of their order, by binding themselves, in addition to the common monastic vows, by a fourth vow, to the undertaking of missions ; and, when they are not living together in pious ease in their professedhouses, they serve as missionaries among heathens and heretics, as governors of colonies in remote parts of the world, as father-confessors of princes, and as residents of the order in places where it has no college. They are entirely exempt, on the other hand, from the care of the education of youth.
None but the professed have a voice in the election of a general, who must himself be of their number, and who has the right of choosing from them the assistants, provincials, superiors and rectors. The general holds his office for life, and has his residence in Rome, where he is attended by a monitor and five assistants or counsellors, who also represent the five chief nations,-the Italians, Germane, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
The young men were sincere and zealous. They were as resolute as Loyola. When their vows were taken, they yielded to their superiors, and were trained in a politico-religious polity of which a busy-minded people can form no conception. The Jesuits, the most austere of the Romish clergy, were united as one man whose life is a thousand years long, made up of zeal and patience, caution and silence, devotion and resolve, believing conscientiously that they must work for Christ's sake and the salvation of their own souls; and they do work sedulously at the bidding of their superiors, and were willing to toil and suffer and die, in order to extend the dogmatic pretensions of the Vatican.
Being highly-educated men with strong opinions and loyalties, the Jesuits sometimes found themselves in conflict with politicians and military and church authorities. They became a favorite political target, becoming ever more unpopular with the aristocracy, the wealthy and the military throughout Europe and the New World.
Though many died as martyrs on the scaffolds and in the prisons of England and elsewhere, yet their skill in evading detection as well as their courage in living in the midst of their enemies and their great success in winning converts well explain the hatred with which they were regarded in Protestant countries from the beginning, while it gives the historical origin of the tradition of cunning and deceit which has always been associated with the name of Jesuit.
Under James I they were accused of complicity in an alleged attempt to blow up both ouses of Parliament, and though clearly proven to be innocent of the charge, Father Garnet, who was said to have been cognizant of the plot, was executed, and the accusation is still believed. Guy Fawkes' Day commemorates the event and perpetuates the calumny. It is probably in connection with this occurrence that the supposed Jesuit doctrine of "the end justifying the means" was first accredited to them and the accusation made that "it was their office," as Macaulay assures his readers, "to plot against the thrones and lives of apostate kings, to spread evil rumors, to raise tumults, to inflame civil wars and to arm the hands of the assassin."
The first one who is accused of formulating the doctrine of the end justifying the means is Father Wagemann of Innsbruck 1762. Even the murders of Henry III and Henry IV of France were ascribed to them, and under Charles II of England six Jesuits were accused by Titus Oates of conspiracy and put to death. These and other charges have been repeatedly disproved, yet writers of romance, and even writers of history, never fail to find readers credulous enough to accept them as true.
In the end, the Jesuits were expelled from the Spanish Empire in 1767. In some countries of Europe the same hostility still pursued them. In the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 their houses were closed and the members driven out of the country. In the Kulturkampf inaugurated by Bismarck they were the first victims, and all the efforts of the Centre party failed to secure their re-entrance into Germany. Similarly they were the first to be struck in the religious persecution in France.
To explain the fatuous, almost suicidal course pursued by Pius IX in his later years, so utterly out of touch with the spirit of his times, so petty and absurd, the student must look to the Society of Jesus, which controlled church and pope for its own short-sighted purposes. Where patience, cunning and intrigue are of avail, the sons of Loyola are beyond all others in dexterity. But where there is great contest, in which the free intelligence of the world is ranged against their emasculated mentality, they failed utterly. At their bidding he signed and gave apostolic authority to the encyclical and catalogue of errors of December 8, 1864. Again at Jesuitical demand he issued the screed of lies against Freemasonry on September 25, 1865. And yet again, under the same guidance, he called the Vatican council, which formulated the reprobations of the Syllabus into dogma, and declared the decrepid pontiff to be, in all that pertains to the spiritual life of humanity, infallible and beyond possibility of error in pronouncing upon faith and morals. Pope Pius IX committed himself, his successors and the policies of the church to an impossible medievalism. Had Satan himself designed to wreck the church, he could not have chosen a policy more likely to destroy for it the respect of thinking men.
Since its rehabilitation the society continued to increase in spite of constantly increasing difficulties. In the beginning of 1916 it counted 17,008 members; of whom 8,448 were priests, and 4,413 scholastics in preparation for the priesthood. In the United States the beginning of 1917 there were 2,626 Jesuits, with colleges and churches in the principal cities and with flourishing missions among the Indians of the Rocky Mountains and Alaska. In Cuba and the Philippines their schools have achieved remarkable success.
As the largest male religious order of the Catholic Church, by the 21st Century the Society of Jesus was present in virtually every country in the world, organized in roughly 100 Provinces and Regions. In addition to being present to most local churches and cultures, the Society is an international body, and sought ways to strengthen ministries via international collaboration. One form of that collaboration is the close relationship between two Provinces that called twinning. In addition, the Society has created structures called Conferences which bring together Provinces in major geographical areas so that they might work together more effectively, both within Conferences and among Conferences. Finally, the General Curia in Rome, guided by the Superior General, coordinates the worldwide work of the Society.
The Christian Life Community is an international association of men and women who form communities aimed at a deeper life of faith and service, following the Ignatian charism. The Christian Life Community is an international association of Christians: men and women, adults and young people, of all social conditions, who want to follow Jesus Christ more closely and work with Him for the building of the Kingdom. Christian Life Community was not just a new name, given in 1967, but represented the rebirth, almost a new beginning. This new identity of CLC was expressed in the General Principles, approved in 1971 and revised in 1990. The CLC way of life is shaped by the features of Ignatian Christology: austere and simple, in solidarity with the poor and the outcasts of society, integrating contemplation and action, in all things living lives of love and service within the Church, always in a spirit of discernment.
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