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
The principal theologians who appeared on the Jesuit side of
this controversy were Toletus, Bellarmine, Lessius, Molina, Padilla,
Valencia, Arubal, Bastida and Salas.
While these constitutional and theological wars were at their height a
discussion of quite another kind was going on in the immediate
surroundings of the General. It was to determine what amount of prayer
and penitential exercises should be the normal practice of the Society.
Maggio and Alarcón, two of the assistants, were for long contemplations
and great austerities, while Hoffæus and Emmanuel Rodrigues advocated
more sobriety in those two matters. Aquaviva decided for a middle
course, declaring that the Society was not established especially for
prayer and mortification, but, on the other hand, that it could not
endure without a moderate use of these two means of Christian
perfection. As this was coincident with the Spanish troubles, these five
holy men were like the old Roman senators who were speculating on the
improvement of the land which was still occupied by the Carthaginian
armies. Meantime, another storm was sweeping over the Society in France.
When Henry IV entered Paris in triumph, his former enemies, the Sorbonne
and the parliament, hastened to pay him homage; but something had to be
done to make the public forget their previous attitude in his regard.
The usual device was resorted to of denouncing the Jesuits. A complaint
was manufactured against the College of Clermont, about the infringement
of someone's property rights, and the rector was haled to court to
answer the charge. The orator for the plaintiffs was Antoine Arnauld,
the father of the famous Antoine and Angélique, who were to be, later
on, conspicuous figures in the Jansenist heresy. Absolutely disregarding
the point at issue, Arnauld launched out in a fierce diatribe against
the Jesuits in general; "those trumpets of war," he called them, "those
torches of sedition; those roaring tempests that are perpetually
disturbing the calm heavens of France. They are Spaniards, enemies of
the state, the authors of all the excesses of the League, whose
Bacchanalian and Catalinian orgies were held in the Jesuit college and
church. The Society is the workshop of Satan, and is filled with
traitors and scoundrels, assassins of kings and public parricides. Who
slew Henry III? The Jesuits. Ah, my King!" he cried, "when I contemplate
thy _bloody shirt_, tears flow from my eyes and choke my utterance." And
yet every one knew that it was his own clients, the Sorbonne and the
parliament, who were the centre of all "the orgies of the League"; that
it was they who had glorified the assassin of Henry III as a hero, and
made the anniversary of his murder a public holiday; that it was they
who had heaped abuse on Henry IV, and had sworn that he never should
ascend the throne of France, even if he were absolved from heresy by the
Pope, and had returned to the Faith. The travesty of truth in this
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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