Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus - shortened s.j. : Societas Jesu - is a congregation catholic founded by Ignace de Loyola and approved in 1540. One calls his members the Jésuite S ( for the other directions of the word “Jesuit”, to see the article Jésuite ).

History

Foundation

Expansion

The Jesuits will try to convert the the Far East and the natives with the America S.

François Xavier arrives at Goa in 1542 and at the Japan the July 27th 1549. The samurai Mitsuhide Akechi grants to them the stronghold of Nagasaki in 1580. But Japan is then during an unstable political transitional period and Hideyoshi Toyotomi withdraws this stronghold to them as of 1587 and country expels them.

In 1582, begins the Mission Jesuit in China. The father Matteo Ricci is recognized like a par by the mandarins, civils servant Chinese well-read men and becomes in fact the first Sinologue. Alexandre of Rhodos romanize the Vietnamese alphabet in 1623. Two missionaries Jesuits, Johann Gruber and Albert Dorville reach Lhassa in Tibet in 1661.

In Americas, the Jesuits settle with Quebec in 1625. They take part in the Spanish Missions of California. In South America, particularly with the Brazil and the Paraguay, the mission Jesuit causes the reprobation of the Spanish and Portuguese colonists since she is opposed to the slave system encomiendas . The Jesuits create reduction S, centers in which the natives are taught reading and writing and christianized, and by withdrawn to the growers there. First is created as of 1609 at the Indians Guarani S (see the film " Mission" denouncing the slave system and the imperialism of the colonists vis-a-vis the Indians). One also owes to the Jesuits the foundation of several cities, of which São Paulo in 1554.

In these areas of the world, the Company fights against the Protestant influence. Very committed in the Counter-Reformation, she is opposed to the Révolution copernician and the standpoint of Galileo by the voice of Robert Bellarmin in particular. It is in the Spanish Netherlands (whose Protestants of the United Provinces made secession during XVIe century) that they are most numerous proportionally with the population. One allots Notion of Wallonia at the XVIIe century and Flanders to them which operate the first layout of the linguistic first Frontière, separating Flemish Wallons and in what will become the Belgium.

But the Protestantism or new science is not its only sources of concern. The Company must face violent persecutions due to its innovation, with its unconditional support for the Pape, the effectiveness of sound Organization centralized, and for its theological positions. Although it is influential near the sovereigns of Europe and the nobility, that her dignitaries confess, the economic interests of the colonists will end up carrying it: the order is dissolved on the Spanish grounds and Portugueses in 1767.

In France

In 1580, the Jesuits installed a Maison Professes with Paris, in the district of the Marais, which accommodated best the Théologien S and Scientifique S.

One decided to build a large vault beside the house professes, the church Saint-Louis (today church Saint-Paul Saint-Louis). In May 1641, the Cardinal of Richelieu gave the first mass in this church. The nobility came to listen to the sermons of the Prédicateur S. Madam de Sévigné went to all the Messe S in this church to listen to the Sermon S of the father Louis Bourdaloue, celebrates Prédicateur. One heard there also the music of large the French type-setters of the time, Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Jean-Philippe Rameau in particular, which was Masters of music there.

In 1656 - 1657, at the request of the Jansenist S, Blaise Pascal attacked the Jesuits in Provincial the on the question of the Casuistique. Marc Fumaroli foot-note on this subject:

In America

At the 16th century, the populations Indigène S are exploited by the colonial system known as of encomiendas . This system makes it possible to the colonists to have the labor for the exploitation of their fields. In 1550 and 1551, the conferences of Valladolid recognize and duty the principle of equal rights of all the men and their vocation with the Liberté. The culture of the Indien S then starts to be recognized. They can start to be educated and catechized.

In spite of that, certain colonists continue to misuse the Indians, reducing them to the state Serf S. In reaction, the religious orders develop a new manner of évangéliser the Indians: control and promotion of the Langue S natives, study and safeguarding of the local habits, installation of an social organization and economic progress of the communities autochtones. Gathering the Indians around their Monastery S, they protect them from excesses of the encomienda, and sédentarisent them.

As of their arrival with the Peru, in 1566, the Jesuits fall under this manner of making. They develop the system of the " réductions". This word refers to the attempt to gather ( reducere in Latin) in the same place an indigenous population and to thus reduce them to the civil life. The Jesuits create missions for the Indians Mojos (or Moxos), Chiquitos and Guaranis. While misant on the strict respect of all the protective provisions of the Indians in the Spanish Legislation, they attract each other the good graces of the Spanish Fonctionnaire S.

But the tensions between the two systems (encomiendas and reductions) and the competitions between the Spain and the Portugal, on bottom of disgrace of the Society of Jesus in Europe, will make disappear these companies.

The Jesuits are obliged to leave the missions towards 1767. The reductions are then destroyed except in the missions of Chiquitos and Mojos. However the Clergé diocesan does not succeed in perpetuating the spirit of it. The missions know a progressive decline then. The film Mission popularized the history of the end of the reductions Jesuits.

Difficulties, suppression and restoration

In 1613, a former beginner Polish Jesuit, driven out his congregation, publishes to be avenged the Monita secrete societatis Jesu , a forgery which ensures that the Company had of another goal only the universal domination. This myth will impregnate all the spirits, and in particular the liberal spirits Des. It precedes another famous lampoon, the Protocole of wise of Sion.

In 1704 and 1742, the pope prohibits the impressed Chinese rites of Syncrétisme that the missionaries Jesuits respected in Asia.

In France, the Jesuits have to undergo the attacks of the Jansenists gallicans and members of Parliament, then of the atheism of the philosophers of the Encyclopédie which they answer with their Journal of Trévoux and them Dictionnaire of Trévoux, to end up being prohibited and banished France in 1763 - 1764 closed, and their two hundred colleges. They had just been driven out Portugal in 1759, and will be it still of Spain in 1767.

The opposition against them is so much spread, that the Pape Clément XIV came from there, in 1773, to make the decision to remove the order everywhere in the world, except in Russia where the tsarina Catherine II had prohibited the promulgation of the papal bubble and in Prussia where the king protesting Frederic II, had the skill to mark her disapproval with the pope, while benefitting from the aubaine which constituted all these scientists and these professors to organize teaching and research in its States.

The bubble begin with the clause AD perpetuam rei memoriam and one could read there: It is about impossible that, the company of the Jesuits remaining, the Église can enjoy a true and permanent peace .

The Order was restored in 1814, but the attacks continued throughout the 19th century:

In France, the Jesuits were banished again in 1880, then again with the other congregations in 1901.
In Suisse, it is only in 1973 that was repealed prohibition Constitutionnelle of the activity of the Jesuits. Prohibition went up with 1848 and was at the origin of the Guerre of Sonderbund and the modern Suisse. With the Kulturkampf for backdrop, the banishment of the Jesuits had been confirmed by the Articles of exception at the time of the constitutional revision of 1874.

These banishments did not prevent the Company from investing new fields. The missions began again in North America or with Madagascar. The Jesuits founded there universities during the 19th century.

Last nine priests Jesuits, including five French, belong to the Justes among the Nations. Maurice Schumann declared with the BBC about Pierre Chaillet: You were our spiritual June 18th! .

They in addition launched intellectual reviews like Études to France, Relations in Quebec and Civiltà Cattolica in Italy. After the Second world war, the Jesuits went finally to the Chad or the Japan.

Today

At January 1st 2005, the Society of Jesus gathers 19.850 members divided in 112 countries in the world. Its current general superior is, since 1983, Peter Hans Kolvenbach, of Dutch origin . He succeeds Pedro Arrupe.

In France, the Company regularly publishes its work in several reviews of which most known are Etvdes , Christus and Projet . It is also active in secondary education (seventeen establishments of which the Lycée Saint-Louis-with-Gonzague with Paris) and superior (five establishments of which famous preparatory classes of the private Lycée Holy-Genevieve with Versailles). She has her own faculties of theology and philosophy, gathered in the Center Sevres, with Paris.

In Belgium, the Company publishes in the review the N.R.T the New Theological Review. It has its own faculties of theology and philosophy, of which I.E.T. : the Faculty of Theology of the Society of Jesus to Brussels.

With the the United States, the Society of Jesus publishes since 1909 the review hedomadaire America , regarded as moderate, even liberal, in its standpoint within the Catholic church.

Spirituality

The spirituality of the Company rests on the spiritual Exercises composed by Ignace de Loyola and is characterized by a strict obedience, with the Pape in particular, and a great zeal Apostolique.

The currency of the Company: AD majorem Dei gloriam (“For the greatest glory of God”), explains the diversity of the tasks to which the Jesuits devote themselves. In addition to the teaching, which extends on all the levels, they practice preaching, are missionaries, spiritual advisers, study the Théologie, carry out scientific research, etc

Wishes

All the members of the Company profess the three usual wishes of the catholic monks: those of poverty, chastity and obedience to their superior. With that, the profès pronounce a fourth wish, that of obedience to the pope:

It is good to recall in which intention the Company made the wish obey, without pleading of excuse, as with the Sovereign Vicar of Christ: it was a question of being sent among the faithful ones or the infidels, everywhere where he would judge that it would be useful for a greater divine glory and larger many hearts.

Government

The Society of Jesus is organized according to the Constitutions enacted by Ignace de Loyola between 1541 and 1558. They did not change until 1965.

The company is directed by a Praepositus Generalis , Latin word which indicates a Supérieur general, commonly called General Père who is elected with the head of the congregation until his death or with his resignation. It is confirmed by the pope and has an absolute authority on the Company.

Under its orders “assistants are” who assist it in his work. Their tasks are distributed by geographical areas (for example North America) or by ministry (for example teaching). The assistants train the Advisory counsel near the General.

A general Vicaire assisted of a secretary of the Company deal with the daily administration of the Company.

A “admonitor” also advises the General of the Company. Its role is to prevent it in an honest and confidential way when it acts in an imprudent or contrary way to the guns of the faith, risking disobedience to the pope.

The Company is divided into geographical “Provinces”, each one under the orders of a provincial Superior who is chosen by the General and has authority on all the Jesuits and the ministries of his zone. It is assisted of a socius , equivalent of a general secretary in load of the administration.

Each community of Jesuits is controlled by an assisted vice-chancellor of a “minister” (the Latin word means “servant”).

The general Congregation is the meeting of all the “assistants”, the provincial Superiors and representatives elected by the profès Jesuits. It meets irregularly, in general to elect a new General Superior or to solve main issues concerning the Company.

Teaching

Ignace de Loyola had insisted that the members of the Company have a good level of general Culture. Very quickly teaching became an important activity: in 1548 in Messine (Sicily) the first house of formation for young people opens called " collège". In 1551, it is the creation of the Romain College in Rome. To died of the founder (1556), the Jesuits direct 45 colleges; in 1580, there exist 144 colleges Jesuits, including 14 in France. The experiment lived in the first colleges will be codified in a kind of charter of education: the Ratio Studiorum .

An opinion of Voltaire on the education which it had received

Voltaire, which often preached for and against and that Faguet described as “chaos of clear ideas”, wrote against the Jesuits of many passages that everyone knows. He also wrote this one that one knows less:

Famous establishments

Famous Jesuits

Controversies

Jesuits are sometimes suspected by certain catholics (Jansenists) and many Protestants to be with the source of conspiracy S (cf the Jew Wandering of Eugene Sue).

Adam Weishaupt is one of the most famous Jesuits of the 17th century. He is also the founder of the It S. Another Jesuit, Augustin Barruel, contemporary of the French revolution, develops in his Mémoires to be used for the history of the Jacobinisme the theory of a conspiracy of It wanting to reverse the capacities places from there through the Franc-maçonnerie and the Jacobins in order to control humanity . This Théorie of the plot will have a considerable impact in the counter-revolutionaries mediums and in various theorists of the plot who will follow one another by afterwards.

The Jesuits were sometimes shown to be too influential with the the Vatican. No Jesuit forever elected pope. The General Superior of the Order is sometimes called black pope (in the media). This title is never used by the Jesuits themselves.

The Society of Jesus has as a currency AD maiorem Dei gloriam (For the greatest glory of God), whose initial A.M.D.G. were used as epigraph with the majority of the books which emanated from it. Pierre Larousse wrote on this subject:

At the time when flowered in Montrouge and Saint-Acheul the houses of education of the Society of Jesus, celebrates it currency played a big role in the discipline . The reverend father fouettor (those which were placed under its hand could attest it) had made engrave the four initial ones on the handle of the terrible trip hammer. The race schoolgirl was whipped AD majorem Dei gloriam , glory from which it would undoubtedly extremely well have occurred.

Nowadays, the prejudices against the Jesuits are not as sharp as in the past, because the charges of plot have one limited lifespan. Nevertheless, it is necessary to notice the similarities between the charges launched against the Jesuits and the current theories concerning the Opus Dei.

The Jesuit term is sometimes used in current language like synonym of “hypocrite”. This pejorative direction is former to the birth of the Society of Jesus. See the article: “Jesuit”.

References

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