In Spain the Society was less prosperous. The historic struggle at
Alcalà had ended in the capture of the university by the Jesuits,
but at Seville, Valladolid, and other towns there was persistent
opposition, and at Grenada a dangerous agitation arose because a Jesuit
confessor compelled a penitent to name her accomplice in vice. Borgia
himself had many enemies at court, and the opposition to him culminated
at length in an attack which compelled him to fly to Portugal. Two
works of piety which he had written in earlier years were denounced
to the Inquisition and condemned. It is said by the Jesuits that the
suspected passages in his books were interpolated by the man who
published them, and the point is of little interest. Borgia did not
remain to face the questions of the Inquisitors, and the King became so
angry with him that, when he was invited by Lainez to the metropolitan
house at Rome, the Spanish fathers warned Lainez that if any dignity
were conferred on Borgia it would be deeply resented at the court.
This trouble had hardly ended in the disgrace and flight of Borgia when
a very grave domestic quarrel arose in the Castilian province. Lainez
had sent Father Natalis from Rome to inspect the province, and the
Castilian Provincial, Father Araoz (nephew of Ignatius), discovered
that Natalis had secret instructions to destroy his position at court.
Araoz, the oldest Jesuit in Spain, and a favourite at court, had won a
position of comfort and power which was certainly not consistent with
the personal ideal of the Society. When, however, they endeavoured
to dislodge him, he took a drastic revenge on the Roman authorities.
Natalis was collecting and sending to Rome a good deal of money, when
an instruction was suddenly issued from the court pointing out that
it was against the laws of the kingdom to send money abroad or send
men to study in other countries. This order was openly attributed by
the Jesuits to the influence of Father Araoz. An angry quarrel ensued,
and one of the friends of Araoz produced the secret instructions
which Lainez had given to Natalis and some father had stolen. We need
not enlarge on this quarrel. It is more interesting to note that the
Jesuits urged that their action in sending money to Rome did not come
under the royal order since the Church has no frontiers. For some
years the affairs of the Society in Spain remained in a very troubled
condition, in spite of their great prosperity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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