History of the Jesuits: Their origin, progress, doctrines, and designsNicolini, G. B. (Giovanni Battista)
History
History of the Jesuits: Their origin, progress, doctrines, and designs
Nicolini, G. B. (Giovanni Battista)
Jesuits -- History
the Society, to send any one on a mission, to recall missionaries, and to
proceed in all things as he thinks will be best for the greater glory of
God.”[45] Thus, obedience to the Pope depends entirely on the will and
pleasure of the General. Hence the General’s preponderating influence
with the Court of Rome.
The ceremony of taking the vows of the Professed is more solemn than that
of the others. It must take place in the church, which with the others
is not imperative. “First of all, the General, or some one empowered by
him to admit to Profession, when he has offered the sacrifice of the
public Mass in the church, before inmates and others there present, shall
turn to the person who is about to make profession with the most holy
sacrament of the Eucharist; and he, after the general confession and the
words which are used before the communion, shall, with a loud voice,
pronounce his written vow (which it is meet that he should have meditated
on for several days), whereof this is the form:—
“I, N., make profession, and promise Almighty God, before His Virgin
Mother, and before all the heavenly host, and before all bystanders, and
you, reverend father, General of the Society of Jesus, _holding the place
of God_, and your successors; or you, reverend father, Vice-General of
the Society of Jesus, and of his successors, _holding the place of God_,
perpetual poverty, chastity, and obedience, and therein _peculiar care
in the education of boys_, according to the form of living contained in
the Apostolic Letters of the Society of Jesus, and in its Constitutions.
Moreover, I promise special obedience to the Pope in missions, as is
contained in the same Apostolic Letters and Constitutions. At Rome or
elsewhere, on such a day, month, and year, and in such a church.
“After this, let him take the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist.
Which being done, the name of him who makes profession shall be written
in a book which the Society shall keep for that purpose; the name of
the person to whom he made it—the day, month, and year, being also set
down; and his written vows shall be preserved, that an account of all the
particulars may appear for ever, to the glory of God.”[46]
It is this class, and that of the Coadjutors, who are wont to live by
alms, and who, for appearance’ sake, sometimes go begging from door to
door—(this is the case in Italy, at least). But, either from pride or
roguery, they never ask, in our day, anything in their own name, but
always in the name of the poor, the hospitals, and the prisoners, and
thus they win for their order the veneration of the credulous and the
ignorant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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