Edmond Paris - The Secret History of the Jesuits

In spite of all, the esteem for the Jesuits was so great that emperor Kang-Hi felt obliged to call them back in 1669, and ordered solemn funerals for the remains of Iam Io Vam (Jean-Adam Shall). These unusual honours were only the start of exceptional favours".(6) A Belgian Father, Verbiest, followed Shall at the head of the missions— and also the Imperial mathematical Institute. He was the one who gave to Peking's Observatory those famous instruments whose mathematical ( 5 ) "Le Crapouillot", op.cit. p.44. (6) H. Boehmer, op.cit., p. 168.

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precision is concealed by chimeras, dragons, etc. Kang-Hi, "the enlightened despot", who reigned for 61 years, appreciated the services of that scientist who gave him wise advice, accompanied him to war and even managed a foundry for cannons. But this profane and war-like activity was directed "ad majorem Dei gloriam", as the good Father reminded the emperor in a note he sent him before his death: "Sir, I die happy as I used nearly every moment of my life to serve Your Majesty. But I pray Him very humbly to remember, after my death, that my aim in all I did was to procure a protector for the most holy religion in the universe; and this protector was you, the greatest king in the East".(7)

However, in China as in Malabar, this religion could not survive without some artifice. The Jesuits had to bring the Roman doctrine to the chinese level, identify God with heaven (Tien) or the Chang-Ti (Emperor from on-high), blend Catholic rites with Chinese rites, accept Confucian teachings, the cult of the ancestors, etc.

Pope Clement XI, who was told of it by rival Orders, condemned this doctrinal "laxism" and, as a result, all the missionary work of the Jesuits in the Celestial Empire collapsed.

The successors of Kang-Hi proscribed Christianity and the last Fathers left in China died there and were never replaced.

(7) "Correspondence" of Verbiest (Brussels 1931, p.551).

Section III

Chapter 2

The Americas: The Jesuit State of

Paraguay ■

The missionaries of the Society of Jesus found the New World much more favourable to their proselytism than Asia. There, they found no old and learned civilisations, no religions solidly established, nor any philosophical traditions, but only poor and barbarian tribes, unarmed spiritually as well as temporally before the white conquerors. Only Mexico and Peru, with the memory of Aztec and Inca gods still fresh in their minds, resisted this imported religion for quite a long time. Also, the Dominicans and Franciscans had already established themselves solidly. It was then amongst the wild tribes, nomadic hunters and fishermen, that the sons of Loyola exercised their devouring activity; the results they obtained varied according to the fierceness and opposition of the various populations.

In Canada, the Hurons, peaceful and docile, accepted easily their catechism, but their enemies, the Iroquois, attacked the stations created around Fort Sainte-Marie and massacred the inhabitants. The Hurons were practically exterminated within ten years and, in 1649, the Jesuits had to leave with about three hundred survivors.

They did not make a strong impression when they went through the territories which, today, make up the United States, and it was only during the 19th century that they started putting some roots down in that part of the continent.

In South America, the Jesuits' action met with some good and bad fortunes, In 1546, the Portuguese had called them to work in the territories they possessed in Brazil; while converting the natives, they encountered many conflicts with civil authority and other religious Orders. The same thing happened in New Granada. But Paraguay was the land for the great

"experience" of Jesuitical

colonisation; this country spread then from the Atlantic to the Andes and comprised territories which, today, belong to Brazil, Uruguay and

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Argentina. The only means of access through the virgin jungle was on the Paraguay and Parana rivers. The population of that land was made up of nomadic and docile Indians, ready to bow to anyone's domination as long as they were supplied with enough food and a little tobacco.

The Jesuits could not find better conditions to establish, away from the corruption of whites and half-castes, the perfect type of colony, a city of God according to their heart's desire. At the start of the 17th century, Paraguay was made into a Province by the general of the Order who had been given all powers by the Court of Spain, and the "Jesuit State"

developed and flourished.

These good savages were duly catechised and trained to live a sedentary life under a discipline as gentle as it was strong: "as an iron hand in a velvet glove".

These patriarchal societies deliberately ignored liberties of any kind. "All that a Christian possesses, and uses, the hut in which he lives, the fields he cultivates, the livestock which provide his food and clothes, thie arms he carries, the tools he works with, even the only table knife given to every young couple when they set up home, is "Tupambac" God's property From the same conception, the "Christian" cannot dispose of his time and person freely. The suckling child is under his mother's protection. As soon as he can walk, he is in the Fathers' or their agents' power... When the child grows up, it learns, if it is a girl, to spin and weave, and if it is a boy, to read and write, but only in guarani; for Spanish is severely prohibited so as to prevent all trading with the corrupted Creoles... As soon as a girl is fourteen and a boy sixteen years of age, they are married, as the Fathers are anxious not to see them fall into some carnal sin... None of them can become priest monk, and even less Jesuit... They have practically no liberty left. But they are obviously very happy, materially speaking... In the morning, after mass, each gang of workers go to the fields one after another, singing and preceded by some holy image; in the evening, they come back to the village in the same manner, to hear the catechism or recite the rosary. The Fathers have also thought out some honest entertainments and recreations for the "christians" ...

"The Jesuits watch over them like fathers; and, like fathers also, they punish the smallest mistakes... The whip, fasting, prison, pillory on the public square, public penance in the church, these are the chastisements they use... So, the "red" children of Paraguay know no other authority than that of the good Fathers. They do not even vaguely suspect that the king of Spain is their sovereign".(8)

Is this not a picture somewhat caricatured the perfect picture of the ideal theocratic society?

But let us consider how it affected the intellectual and moral (8) and (9) H. Boehmer, op.cit., pp. 197 ss.

THE AMERICAS: THE JESUIT STATE OF PARAGUAY

57

advancement of the beneficiaries of that system, these "poor innocents" as they were called by the marquess de Loreto: "The missions' high culture is nothing more than an artificial product from an hot-house, carrying in itself a seed of death. Because, in spite of all this breaking in and training, the Guarani remained deep down what he was: a lazy savage, narrow-minded, sensual, greedy and sordid. As the Fathers themselves say, he only works when he feels the overseer's goad behind him. As soon as they are left to themselves, they are indifferent to the fact that the harvest is rotting in the field, implements are deteriorating and the herds are scattered; if he is not watched when working in the fields, he can even suddenly unyoke an ox and butcher it on the spot, light a fire with the wood of the plough and, with his companions, start eating the half-cooked flesh until none of it is left. He knows that he will get 25 lashings of the whip for it, but also that the good Fathers would never let him starve to death".(9)