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
As a matter of fact the Jesuits have laid before the public the
inventories of their possessions and those plain and undisguised
statements could easily be found if there was any sincere desire to get
at the truth. Thus Foley has published in his "Records of the English
Province" (Introd., 139) an exact statement of the annual revenues of
the various houses for one hundred and twenty years. Dühr in the
"Jesuiten-fabeln" (606 sqq.) gives many figures of the same kind for
Germany. Indeed the Society has been busy from the beginning trying to
lay this financial ghost. Thus a demand for the books was made as early
as 1594 by Antoine Arnauld who maintained that the French Jesuits
enjoyed an annual revenue of 1,200,000 livres, which in our day would
amount to $1,800,000. Possibly some of the reverend Fathers nourished
the hope that he might be half right, but an official scrutiny of the
accounts revealed the sad fact that their twenty-five colleges and
churches with a staff of from 400 to 500 persons could only draw on
60,000 livres; which meant at our values $90,000 a year--a lamentably
inadequate capital for the gigantic work which had been undertaken.
Arnaulds under different names have been appearing ever since.
How this "vast wealth" is accumulated, might also possibly be learned by
a visit to the dwelling-quarters of any Jesuit establishment, so as to
see at close range the method of its domestic economy. Every member of
the Society, no matter how distinguished he is or may have been,
occupies a very small, uncarpeted room whose only furniture is a desk, a
bed, a wash-stand, a clothes-press, a prie-dieu, and a couple of
chairs. On the whitewashed wall there is probably a cheap print of a
pious picture which suggests rather than inspires devotion. This room
has to be swept and cared for by the occupant, even when he is advanced
in age or has been conspicuous in the Society, "unless for health's sake
or for reasons of greater moment he may need help." The clothing each
one wears is cheap and sometimes does service for years; there is a
common table; no one has any money of his own, and he has to ask even
for carfare if he needs it. If he falls sick he is generally sent to an
hospital where, according to present arrangements, the sisters nurse him
for charity, and he is buried in the cheapest of coffins, and an
inexpensive slab is placed over his remains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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