Edmond Paris - The Secret History of the Jesuits

Even the desired countenance of Loyola's sons was emphatically stated:

"They must hold their heads slightly down, without bending it to the left or right; they must not look up, and when they speak to someone, they are not to look them straight in the eyes so as to see them only indirectly..."(18) Loyola's successors retained this lesson well in their memory, and applied it very extensively in the pursuit of their plans.

(17) Gabriel Monod, in Introduction aux "Jesuites", de H. Boehmer, p. XVI (Armand Colin, Paris) (18) Pierre Dominique: "La politique des Jesuites" (Grasset, Paris 1955, p.37).

28 Section I

The privileges of the Company

After 1558, Lainez, the subtle tactician of the Council of Trent, was made general of the Congregation with the power to organise the Order as he was inspired. The "Declarations" which he himself composed with Salmeron, were added to the "Constitutions" to form a commentary; they accentuated even more the despotism of the general elected for life. An admonitor procurator and assistants, residing in Rome too, will help him generally to administer the Order divided then into five congregations: Italy, Germany France, Spain, England and America. These congregations were themselves divided into Provinces grouping the different establishments of the Order. Only the admonitor (or overseer) and assistants are nominated by the Congregation. The general appoints all other officials, promulgates the ordinances which are not to modify the Constitutions, administers the wealth of the Order according to his own wishes and directs its activities for which he is responsible to the pope only.

To this militia so tightly knit in the hand of its chief and which needs the greatest autonomy to make its actions effective, the pope concedes privileges which may seem exorbitant to other religious Orders.

By their Constitutions, the Jesuits were exempt from the cloistered rule which applied to monastic life in general. In fact, they are monks living "in the world" and, outwardly, nothing distinguishes them from the secular clergy. But, contrary to this and other religious congregations, they are not subjected to the bishop's authority. As early as 1545, a bull of Paul II enabled them to preach, hear confession, dispense the sacraments, and say mass; in short, exercise their ministry without having to refer to the bishop The solemnisation of marriages is the only thing they are not allowed to perform.

They have the power to give absolution, change vows for others which are easier to fulfil, or even cancel them.

Mr Gaston Bally writes:

THE PRIVILEGES OF THE COMPANY

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"The general's power concerning absolution and dispensations is even wider. He can lift all punishment inflicted on the members of the Society before or after them entering the Order, absolve all their sins, even the sin of heresy and schism, the falsification of apostolic writings, etc...

"The general absolves, in person or through a delegate, all those who are under his obedience, of the unhappy state arising from excommunication, suspension or interdict, provided these censures were not inflicted for excesses so enormous that others, beside the papal tribunal, knew about them.

He also absolves the irregularity issuing, from bigamy, injuries done to others, murder, assassination... as long as these wicked deeds were not publicly known and the cause of a scandal".(19) Finally, Gregory XIII bestowed on the Company the right to deal in commerce and banking, a right it made use of extensively later on.

These dispensations and unprecedented powers were fully guaranteed to them.

"The popes called even upon princes and kings to defend these privileges; they threatened with the great excommunication "latae sententiae" all those who would try to infringe them. In 1574, a bull of Pius V gave the general the right to restore these privileges to their original scope, against all tempts to alter or curtail them, even if such curtailments were authoritatively documented by papal revocation...

By granting the Jesuits such exorbitant privileges which run counter to the Church's antiquated constitution, the papacy wanted, not only to supply them with powerful weapons to fight the "Infidels", but especially use them as a bodyguard to defend her own unrestricted power in the Church and against the Church". "To preserve the spiritual and temporal supremacy they usurped during the middle ages, the popes sold the Church t o t h e Order of Jesus and, in consequence, surrendered themselves into their hands... If the papacy was supported by the Jesuits, the whole existence of the Jesuits depended on the spiritual and temporal supremacy of the papacy. In that way, the interests of both parties were intimately bound together".(20)

But this select cohort needed secret auxiliaries to dominate civil society: this role fell on those affiliated to the Company called Jesuits. "Many important people were connected in that way with the Society: the emperors Ferdinand II and Ferdinand III, Sigismond III, king of Poland, who had officially belonged to the Company; Cardinal Infant, a duke of Savoy. And these were not the least useful".(21)

(19) Gaston Bally: "Les Jesuites" (Chambery, Imprimerie Nouvelle, 1902, pp.11-13). (20) Gaston Bally, op.cit., pp.9-10, 16-17. (21) Pierre Dominique, op.cit., p.37.

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THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE JESUITS

It is the same today; the 33,000 official members of the Society operate all over the world in the capacity of her personnel, officers of a truly secret army containing in its ranks heads of political parties, high ranking officials, generals, magistrates, physicians, Faculty professors, etc., all of them striving to bring about, in their own sphere, "l'Opus Dei", God's work, in reality the plans of the papacy.

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Section II

The Jesuits in Europe during the 16th and

17th centuries

Chapter 1

Italy, Portugal, Spain

"France", wrote Mr. Boehmer, "is the cradle of the Society of Jesus, but in Italy it received its programme and constitution. Therefore in Italy it first took root and from there it spread abroad".(l)

The author notes the increasing number of colleges and Jesuit academies (128 and 1680); "but", says he, "the history of Italian civilisation during the 16h and 17th centuries shows the results of it most strikingly. If a well-learned Italy thus embraced again the faith and ordinances of the Church, received a new zeal for asceticism and missions, composed again pious poems and hymns for the Church, dedicated conscientiously the painters'

brushes and sculptors' chisels to exalt the religious ideal, is it not because the cultivated classes were instructed in Jesuits' colleges and confessionals?"(2)

Gone were "childish simplicity, joy, vivacity and the simple love of nature..."

The Jesuits' pupils are far too clerical, devout, absorbed to preserve these qualities. They are taken up with ecstatic visions and illuminations; they literally get drunk with the paintings of frightful mortifications and the martyrs' atrocious torments; they need the pomp, glittering and theatrical. From the end of the 16th century on, Italian art and literature reproduce faithfully this moral transformation... The restlessness, the ostentation, the shocking claim which characterise the creations of that period promote a feeling of repulsion instead of sympathy for the beliefs they are supposed to interpret and glorify".(3) It is the mark sui generis of the Company. This love for the distorted, finicky, glittering, theatrical could seem strange amongst mystics formed by the "Spiritual Exercises" if we did not detect in it this essentially ( 1 ) H. Boehmer, op.cit., p.82.

(2) and (3) Boehmer, op.cit., p.82-83.

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THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE JESUITS

Jesuitical aim to impress the mind. It is an application of the maxim: "The end justifies the means" applied with perseverance by the Jesuits in the arts, literature as well as politics and morals.