The Jesuits, 1534-1921: A History of the Society of Jesus from Its Foundation to the Present TimeCampbell, Thomas J. (Thomas Joseph)
History
The Jesuits, 1534-1921: A History of the Society of Jesus from Its Foundation to the Present Time
Campbell, Thomas J. (Thomas Joseph)
Jesuits -- History
But the enemy was not yet beaten. Anonymous petitions kept pouring in
upon the Inquisition, "all of them," says Astrain, "bearing the stamp of
the atrabilious Vásquez, the rigorist González, the under-handed
Enríquez, and the sombre Abreo." Besides the old demands, a new one was
made, namely, the investigation of the Society by an official of the
Inquisition. Finally, in the provincial congregation of 1587, the hand
of Vásquez was visible when a general congregation was asked for
unanimously and a request made for a procurator for the Spanish
provinces. Meantime, Philip had been wrought upon and he supported the
petition for the visit of an inquisitor, who was none other than D.
Jerónimo Manrique, the Bishop of Cartagena, a choice which shows that
these Jesuit insurrectos were not gifted with the shrewdness usually
attributed to their brethren. For apart from the odiousness of having an
unfriendly outsider investigate, it so happened that Manrique had a very
unsavory past, and when that was called to the attention of Sixtus, the
whole foolish project collapsed of itself, and King Philip confessed his
defeat.
All this finally convinced Sixtus V that there was something radically
wrong with the Society, and he ordered the Congregation of the Holy
Office (the Roman Inquisition) to examine the Constitutions. Aquaviva
protested that it was unjust to judge the Order from anonymous writings,
many of them forgeries by a single individual; and that the faults were
alleged not with a view to correction, but to alter the Institute
radically. With regard to the proposal of a capitular government,
several objectionable consequences, he said, must follow, such as
ambition, simony, laxity of discipline, and the like, and he emphasized
the fact that Sixtus himself, only a short time before, had urged the
appointment of Italian superiors in France. He convinced the Pope, also,
that the exclusiveness advocated by the Spaniards, in refusing subjects
from other parts of the world would soon shrivel up the Spanish
provinces themselves. Finally, a capitular government in missionary
countries was a physical impossibility, and would disrupt the whole
Order. Indeed, when Cardinal Colonna mentioned the word "capitular" to
the Pope, His Holiness interjected: "I don't want chapters in the
Society. You would have one in every city and every family; and that
does not suit the system of the Jesuits."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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