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
Echsfeld, Erfurt, Aschaffenburg, Mayence, Coblentz, Trèves, Würzburg,
Spires and other places soon felt the effects of the zeal of these
students of the Collegium Germanicum. Their manner of life meant
hardship and danger of every kind; assaults by degenerate Catholics and
infuriated heretics; vigils in miserable huts and pest-laden hospitals,
resulting sometimes in sickness and violent death; but "these messengers
of the devil," as the preachers called them, kept at their work and soon
won back countless numbers of their countrymen to the Faith. Similar
establishments also grew up at Braunsberg, Dillingen, Fulda, Munich and
Vienna. Representatives of other religious orders entered into the
movement and gave it new life and vigor. Janssen (IX, 313) informs us
that the foundation of seminaries for poor students also was due to
Canisius and his fellow-workers. At their suggestion Albert V founded
the Gregorianum at Munich in 1574; and Ingolstadt, Würzburg, Innsbruck,
Halle, Gratz and Prague soon had similar establishments. As early as
1559 Canisius assumed the responsibility for two hundred poor students,
and by having them live in common was able to supply all their needs.
After each of his sermons in the cathedral, he went around among the
great personages assembled to hear him, to ask for alms to keep up his
establishments. Father Voth, following his example forty years later,
collected 1400 florins in a single year for the same purpose.
The work of regeneration was not restricted to the foundation of
ecclesiastical seminaries. Janssen (l.c.) gives us an entire page of
the names of colleges taken from the "Litteræ annuæ," in some of which
there were nine hundred, one thousand, and even thirteen hundred
scholars. Between 1612 and 1625 Germany had one hundred Jesuit colleges.
In all of them were established sodalities the members of which besides
performing their own religious exercises in the chapel, visited the
hospitals, prisons and camps and performed other works of charity and
zeal. On their rosters are seen the names of men who attained eminence
in Church and State--kings, princes, cardinals, soldiers, scholars, etc.
These sodalities had also established intimate relations with similar
organizations all over Europe. Naturally, this intense activity aroused
the fury of the heretics. Calumnies of every kind were invented; and in
1603 a preacher in Styria announced that the most execrable and
sanguinary plots were being formed to drown the whole Empire in blood in
order to nullify the teaching of the Evangel. "O poor Roman Empire!" he
exclaimed, "your only enemies, the only enemies of the Emperor, of the
nation, of religion are the Jesuits." Janssen adds: "The facts told a
different story."
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