{
    "system": "GoGuides Verified Text",
    "api_version": "verified-text-v1",
    "status": "ok",
    "response_type": "verified_text_record",
    "source_key": "britannica_1911",
    "source_title": "Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)",
    "license_code": "public_domain",
    "attribution": null,
    "license_url": null,
    "chunk_id": "1911:jesuits:29a179ce39f0",
    "title": "JESUITS",
    "section": null,
    "hash_alg": "sha256",
    "hash_sha256": "72284a7eec53e30b70bdb91d50d2d0d0cf07a2ffa4692397f166c55d715d705b",
    "normalizer": {
        "name": "ggnorm",
        "version": "1.0"
    },
    "verified_text": "jesuits, the name generally given to the members of the society of jesus, a religious order in the roman catholic church, founded in 1539. this society may be defined, in its original conception and well-avowed object, as a body of highly trained religious men of various degrees, bound by the three personal vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, together with, in some cases, a special vow to the pope's service, with the object of labouring for the spiritual good of themselves and their neighbours. they are declared to be mendicants and enjoy all the privileges of the other mendicant orders. they are governed and live by constitutions and rules, mostly drawn up by their founder, st ignatius of loyola, and approved by the popes. their proper title is \"clerks regulars of the society of jesus,\" the word _societas_ being taken as synonymous with the original spanish term, _compania_; perhaps the military term _cohors_ might more fully have expressed the original idea of a band of spiritual soldiers living under martial law and discipline. the ordinary term \"jesuit\" was given to the society by its avowed opponents; it is first found in the writings of calvin and in the registers of the parlement of paris as early as 1552. _constitution and character._--the formation of the society was a masterpiece of genius on the part of a man (see loyola) who was quick to realize the necessity of the moment. just before ignatius was experiencing the call to conversion, luther had begun his revolt against the roman church by burning the papal bull of excommunication on the 10th of december 1520. but while luther's most formidable opponent was thus being prepared in spain, the actual formation of the society was not to take place for eighteen years. its conception seems to have developed very slowly in the mind of ignatius. it introduced a new idea into the church. hitherto all regulars made a point of the choral office in choir. but as ignatius conceived the church to be in a state of war, what was desirable in days of peace ceased when the life of the cloister had to be exchanged for the discipline of the camp; so in the sketch of the new society which he laid before paul iii., ignatius laid down the principle that the obligation of the breviary should be fulfilled privately and separately and not in choir. the other orders, too, were bound by the idea of a constitutional monarchy based on the democratic spirit. not so with the society. the founder placed the general for life in an almost uncontrolled position of authority, giving him the faculty of dispensing individuals from the decrees of the highest legislative body, the general congregations. thus the principle of military obedience was exalted to a degree higher than that existing in the older orders, which preserved to their members certain constitutional rights. the soldier-mind of ignatius can be seen throughout the constitutions. even in the spiritual labours which the society shares with the other orders, its own ways of dealing with persons and things result from the system of training which succeeds in forming men to a type that is considered desirable. but it must not be thought that in practice the rule of the society and the high degree of obedience demanded result in mere mechanism. by a system of check and counter check devised in the constitutions the power of local superiors is modified, so that in practice the working is smooth. ignatius knew that while a high ideal was necessary for every society, his followers were flesh and blood, not machines. he made it clear from the first that the society was everything and the individual nothing, except so far as he might prove a useful instrument for carrying out the society's objects. ignatius said to his secretary polanco that \"in those who offered themselves he looked less to purely natural goodness than to firmness of character and ability for business, for he was of opinion that those who were not fit for public business were not adapted for filling offices in the society.\" he further declared that even exceptional qualities and endowments in a candidate were valuable in his eyes only on the condition of their being brought into play, or held in abeyance, strictly at the command of a superior. hence his teaching on obedience. his letter on this subject, addressed to the jesuits of coimbra in 1553, is still one of the standard formularies of the society, ranking with those other products of his pen, the _spiritual exercises_ and the _constitutions_. in this letter ignatius clothes the general with the powers of a commander-in-chief in time of war, giving him the absolute disposal of all members of the society in every place and for every purpose. he pushes the claim even further, requiring, besides entire outward submission to command, also the complete identification of the inferior's will with that of the superior. he lays down that the superior is to be obeyed simply as such and as standing in the place of god, without reference to his personal wisdom, piety or discretion; that any obedience which falls short of making the superior's will one's own, in inward affection as well as in outward effect, is lax and imperfect; that going beyond the letter of command, even in things abstractly good and praiseworthy, is disobedience, and that the \"sacrifice of the intellect\" is the third and highest grade of obedience, well pleasing to god, when the inferior not only wills what the superior wills, but thinks what he thinks, submitting his judgment, so far as it is possible for the will to influence and lead the judgment. this _letter on obedience_ was written for the guidance and formation of ignatius's own followers; it was an entirely domestic affair. but when it became known beyond the society the teaching met with great opposition, especially from members of other orders whose institutes represented the normal days of peace rather than those of war. the letter was condemned by the inquisitions of spain and portugal; and it tasked all the skill and learning of bellarmine as its apologist, together with the whole influence of the society, to avert what seemed to be a probable condemnation at rome. the teaching of the _letter_ must be understood in the living spirit of the society. ignatius himself lays down the rule that an inferior is bound to make all necessary representations to his superior so as to guide him in imposing a precept of obedience. when a superior knows the views of his inferior and still commands, it is because he is aware of other sides of the question which appear of greater importance than those that the inferior has brought forward. ignatius distinctly excepts the case where obedience in itself would be sinful: \"in all things _except sin_ i ought to do the will of my superior and not my own.\" there may be cases where an inferior judges that what is commanded is sinful. what is to be done? ignatius says: \"when it seems to me that i am commanded by my superior to do a thing against which my conscience revolts as sinful and my superior judges otherwise, it is my duty to yield my doubts to him unless i am otherwise constrained by evident reasons. ... if submissions do not appease my conscience i must impart my doubts to two or three persons of discretion and abide by their decision.\" from this it is clear that only in _doubtful_ cases concerning sin should an inferior try to submit his judgment to that of his superior, who _ex officio_ is held to be not only one who would not order what is clearly sinful, but also a competent judge who knows and understands, better than the inferior, the nature and aspect of the command. as the jesuit obedience is based on the law of god, it is clearly impossible that he should be bound to obey in what is directly opposed to the divine service. a jesuit lives in obedience all his life, though the yoke is not galling nor always felt. he can accept no dignity or office which will make him independent of the society; and even if ordered by the pope to accept the cardinalate or the episcopate, he is still bound, if not to obey, yet to listen to the advice of those whom the general deputes to counsel him in important matters. the jesuits had to find their principal work in the world and in direct and immediate contact with mankind. to seek spiritual perfection in a retired life of contemplation and prayer did not seem to ignatius to be the best way of reforming the evils which had brought about the revolt from rome. he withdrew his followers from this sort of retirement, except as a mere temporary preparation for later activity; he made habitual intercourse with the world a prime duty; and to this end he rigidly suppressed all such external peculiarities of dress or rule as tended to put obstacles in the way of his followers acting freely as emissaries, agents or missionaries in the most various places and circumstances. another change he introduced even more completely than did the founders of the friars. the jesuit has no home: the whole world is his parish. mobility and cosmopolitanism are of the very essence of the society. as ignatius said, the ancient monastic communities were the infantry of the church, whose duty was to stand firmly in one place on the battlefield; the jesuits were to be her light horse, capable of going anywhere at a moment's notice, but especially apt and designed for scouting and skirmishing. to carry out this view, it was one of his plans to send foreigners as superiors or officers to the jesuit houses in each country, requiring of these envoys, however, invariably to use the language of their new place of residence and to study it both in speaking and writing till entire mastery of it had been acquired--thus by degrees making all the parts of his system mutually interchangeable, and so largely increasing the number of persons eligible to fill any given post without reference to locality. but subsequent experience has, in practice, modified this interchange, as far as local government goes, though the central government of the society is always cosmopolitan. next we must consider the machinery by which the society is constituted and governed so as to make its spirit a living energy and not a mere abstract theory. the society is distributed into six grades: novices, scholastics, temporal coadjutors (lay brothers), spiritual coadjutors, professed of the three vows, and professed of the four vows. no one can become a postulant for admission to the society until fourteen years old, unless by special dispensation. the novice is classified according as his destination is the priesthood or lay brotherhood, while a third class of \"indifferents\" receives such as are reserved for further inquiry before a decision of this kind is made. the novice has first to undergo a strict retreat, practically in solitary confinement, during which he receives from a director the _spiritual exercises_ and makes a general confession of his whole life; after which the first novitiate of two years' duration begins. in this period of trial the real character of the man is discerned, his weak points are noted and his will is tested. prayer and the practices of asceticism, as means to an end, are the chief occupations of the novice. he may leave or be dismissed at any time during the two years; but at the end of the period if he is approved and destined for the priesthood, he is advanced to the grade of scholastic and takes the following simple vows in the presence of certain witnesses, but not to any person:-- \"almighty everlasting god, albeit everyway most unworthy in thy holy sight, yet relying on thine infinite kindness and mercy and impelled by the desire of serving thee, before the most holy virgin mary and all thy heavenly host, i, n., vow to thy divine majesty poverty, chastity and perpetual obedience to the society of jesus, and promise that i will enter the same society to live in it perpetually, understanding all things according to the constitutions of the society. i humbly pray from thine immense goodness and clemency, through the blood of jesus christ, that thou wilt deign to accept this sacrifice in the odour of sweetness; and as thou hast granted me to desire and to offer this, so wilt thou bestow abundant grace to fulfil it.\" the scholastic then follows the ordinary course of an undergraduate at a university. after passing five years in arts he has, while still keeping up his own studies, to devote five or six years more to teaching the junior classes in various jesuit schools or colleges. about this period he takes his simple vows in the following terms:-- \"i, _n._, promise to almighty god, before his virgin mother and the whole heavenly host, and to thee, reverend father general of the society of jesus, holding the place of god, and to thy successors (or to thee, reverend father _m._ in place of the general of the society of jesus and his successors holding the place of god), perpetual poverty, chastity and obedience; and according to it a peculiar care in the education of boys, according to the manner expressed in the apostolic letter and constitutions of the said society.\" the lay brothers leave out the clause concerning education. the scholastic does not begin the study of theology until he is twenty-eight or thirty, and then passes through a four or six years' course. only when he is thirty-four or thirty-six can he be ordained a priest and enter on the grade of a spiritual coadjutor. a lay brother, before he can become a temporal coadjutor for the discharge of domestic duties, must pass ten years before he is admitted to vows. sometimes after ordination the priest, in the midst of his work, is again called away to a third year's novitiate, called the tertianship, as a preparation for his solemn profession of the three vows. his former vows were simple and the society was at liberty to dismiss him for any canonical reason. the formula of the famous jesuit vow is as follows:-- \"i, _n._, promise to almighty god, before his virgin mother and the whole heavenly host, and to all standing by; and to thee, reverend father general of the society of jesus, holding the place of god, and to thy successors (or to thee, reverend father _m._ in place of the general of the society of jesus and his successors holding the place of god), perpetual poverty, chastity and obedience; and according to it a peculiar care in the education of boys according to the form of life contained in the apostolic letters of the society of jesus and in its constitutions.\" immediately after the vows the jesuit adds the following simple vows: (1) that he will never act nor consent that the provisions in the constitutions concerning poverty should be changed; (2) that he will not directly nor indirectly procure election or promotion for himself to any prelacy or dignity in the society; (3) that he will not accept or consent to his election to any dignity or prelacy outside the society unless forced thereunto by obedience; (4) that if he knows of others doing these things he will denounce them to the superiors; (5) that if elected to a bishopric he will never refuse to hear such advice as the general may deign to send him and will follow it if he judges it is better than his own opinion. the professed is now eligible to certain offices in the society, and he may remain as a professed father of the three vows for the rest of his life. the highest class, who constitute the real core of the society, whence all its chief officers are taken, are the professed of the four vows. this grade can seldom be reached until the candidate is in his forty-fifth year, which involves a probation of thirty-one years in the case of those who have entered on the novitiate at the earliest legal age. the number of these select members is small in comparison with the whole society; the exact proportion varies from time to time, the present tendency being to increase the number. the vows of this grade are the same as the last formula, with the addition of the following important clause:-- \"moreover i promise the special obedience to the sovereign pontiff concerning missions, as is contained in the same apostolic letter and constitutions.\" these various members of the society are distributed in its novitiate houses, its colleges, its professed houses and its mission residences. the question has been hotly debated whether, in addition to these six grades, there be not a seventh answering in some degree to the tertiaries of the franciscan and dominican orders, but secretly affiliated to the society and acting as its emissaries in various lay positions. this class was styled in france \"jesuits of the short robe,\" and there is some evidence in support of its actual existence under louis xv. the jesuits themselves deny the existence of any such body, and are able to adduce the negative disproof that no provision for it is to be found in their constitutions. on the other hand there are clauses therein which make the creation of such a class perfectly feasible if thought expedient. an admitted instance is the case of francisco borgia, who in 1548, while still duke of gandia, was received into the society. what has given colour to the idea is that certain persons have made vows of obedience to individual jesuits; as thomas worthington, rector of the douai seminary, to father robert parsons; ann vaux to fr. henry garnet, who told her that he was not indeed allowed to receive her vows, but that she might make them if she wished and then receive his direction. the archaeologist george oliver of exeter was, according to foley's _records of the english province_, the last of the secular priests of england who vowed obedience to the society before its suppression. the general lives permanently at rome and holds in his hands the right to appoint, not only to the office of provincial over each of the head districts into which the society is mapped, but to the offices of each house in particular. there is no standard of electoral right in the society except in the election of the general himself. by a minute and frequent system of official and private reports he is informed of the doings and progress of every member of the society and of everything that concerns it throughout the world. every jesuit has not only the right but the duty in certain cases of communicating, directly and privately, with his general. while the general thus controls everything, he himself is not exempt from supervision on the part of the society. a consultative council is imposed upon him by the general congregation, consisting of the assistants of the various nations, a _socius_, or adviser, to warn him of mistakes, and a confessor. these he cannot remove nor select; and he is bound, in certain circumstances, to listen to their advice, although he is not obliged to follow it. once elected the general may not refuse the office, nor abdicate, nor accept any dignity or office outside of the society; on the other hand, for certain definite reasons, he may be suspended or even deposed by the authority of the society, which can thus preserve itself from destruction. no such instance has occurred, although steps were once taken in this direction in the case of a general who had set himself against the current feeling. it is said that the general of the jesuits is independent of the pope; and his popular name, \"the black pope,\" has gone to confirm this idea. but it is based on an entirely wrong conception of the two offices. the suppression of the society by clement xiv. in 1773 was an object-lesson in the supremacy of the pope. the society became very numerous and, from time to time, received extraordinary privileges from popes, who were warranted by the necessities of the times in granting them. a great number of influential friends, also, gathered round the fathers who, naturally, sought in every way to retain what had been granted. popes who thought it well to bring about certain changes, or to withdraw privileges that were found to have passed their intentions or to interfere unduly with the rights of other bodies, often met with loyal resistances against their proposed measures. resistance up to a certain point is lawful and is not disobedience, for every society has the right of self-preservation. in cases where the popes insisted, in spite of the representations of the jesuits, their commands were obeyed. many of the popes were distinctly unfavourable to the society, while others were as friendly, and often what one pope did against them the next pope withdrew. whatever was done in times when strong divergence of opinion existed, and whatever may have been the actions of individuals who, even in so highly organized a body as the society of jesus, cannot always be successfully controlled by their superiors, yet the ultimate result on the part of the society has always been obedience to the pope, who authorized, protected and privileged them, and on whom they ultimately depend for their very existence. thus constituted, with a skilful union of strictness and freedom, of complex organization with a minimum of friction in working, the society was admirably devised for its purpose of introducing a new power into the church and the world. its immediate services to the church were great. the society did much, single-handed, to roll back the tide of protestant advance when half of europe, which had not already shaken off its allegiance to the papacy, was threatening to do so. the honours of the reaction belong to the jesuits, and the reactionary spirit has become their tradition. they had the wisdom to see and to admit, in their correspondence with their superiors, that the real cause of the reformation was the ignorance, neglect and vicious lives of so many priests. they recognized, as most earnest men did, that the difficulty was in the higher places, and that these could best be touched by indirect methods. at a time when primary or even secondary education had in most places become a mere effete and pedantic adherence to obsolete methods, they were bold enough to innovate, both in system and material. putting fresh spirit and devotion into the work, they not merely taught and catechized in a new, fresh and attractive manner, besides establishing free schools of good quality, but provided new school books for their pupils which were an enormous advance on those they found in use; so that for nearly three centuries the jesuits were accounted the best schoolmasters in europe, as they were, till their forcible suppression in 1901, confessedly the best in france. the jesuit teachers conciliated the goodwill of their pupils by mingled firmness and gentleness. although the method of the _ratio studiorum_ has ceased to be acceptable, yet it played in its time as serious a part in the intellectual development of europe as did the method of frederick the great in modern warfare. bacon succinctly gives his opinion of the jesuit teaching in these words: \"as for the pedagogical part, the shortest rule would be, consult the schools of the jesuits; for nothing better has been put in practice\" (_de augmentis_, vi. 4). in instruction they were excellent; but in education, or formation of character, deficient. again, when most of the continental clergy had sunk, more or less, into the moral and intellectual slough which is pictured for us in the writings of erasmus and the _epistolae obscurorum virorum_ (see",
    "source_url": "https://archive.org/details/EB1911WMF",
    "observed_at": "2026-02-08 18:43:16",
    "integrity": {
        "hash_check": "match",
        "hash_scope": "full_normalized_text",
        "computed_sha256": "72284a7eec53e30b70bdb91d50d2d0d0cf07a2ffa4692397f166c55d715d705b"
    },
    "machine_use": {
        "read": true,
        "cite": true,
        "decision": "verified_public_domain_text"
    },
    "goguides_data_license": "https://www.goguides.com/data-license",
    "goguides_data_license_version": "2.0",
    "documentation": {
        "white_paper_url": "https://www.goguides.com/white-paper.php",
        "pdf_url": "https://www.goguides.com/whitepapers/goguides-ai-source-clearance-white-paper.pdf"
    }
}