2081 lines
99 KiB
D
2081 lines
99 KiB
D
|
32 page printout
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
This disk, its printout, or copies of either
|
|||
|
are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
**** ****
|
|||
|
"Secret Instructions
|
|||
|
of the
|
|||
|
Society of Jesus"
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
or the
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
JESUIT PRIESTS
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Originally circulated in Manuscript until 1612
|
|||
|
when it was published in Cracow, Poland.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Taken From the Edition
|
|||
|
Published in 1882 in San Francisco, California.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Reprinted from the copy in the
|
|||
|
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
|
|||
|
Washington, D.C.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
**** ****
|
|||
|
PREFACE
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
By PERITUS
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The Jesuits are different. Every Catholic Priest knows this.
|
|||
|
The Jesuits have an uncanny manner financially. Operating behind
|
|||
|
the scenes, they seem very inconspicuous, but when the wills of
|
|||
|
rich Catholics, and very many non-Catholics, are filed for probate.
|
|||
|
strangely some Jesuit institution is there for a sizable amount.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
They are so different in their priestly deportment and social
|
|||
|
conduct too, that other priests feel ill at ease and uncomfortable
|
|||
|
in their presence. A priestly "blast" never really gets organized
|
|||
|
until after the Jesuits have gone home. The prevailing atmosphere,
|
|||
|
when they are present, is one of uneasy suspicion. Other priests
|
|||
|
feel as though the "Jebbies" will immediately take off for the
|
|||
|
Bishop's mansion to stool on all of them. This of course is
|
|||
|
ridiculous because most bishops are just as leary of the Jesuits as
|
|||
|
are the working clergy.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Lay people also think that Jesuits are different. They speak
|
|||
|
of the Society of Jesus as the "educated clergy," -- the "teaching
|
|||
|
arm of the church". They have the "most schools" -- which is true.
|
|||
|
The quality of those schools is another question. None of them, at
|
|||
|
least in the U.S. has ever won an award for the volume of
|
|||
|
scientists or philosophers it produced. Voltaire went to a Jesuit
|
|||
|
school. He said later that he learned Latin and nonsense.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The Jesuits write the most books -- which is also true. In
|
|||
|
fact it is said that any Jesuit who can pen one word after another
|
|||
|
seems forced "under obedience" to write a book. Judging by a
|
|||
|
perusal of them, the subject matter or the treatment seems of very
|
|||
|
little consequence.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
1
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The laity are told that the Jesuits are smarter than other
|
|||
|
priests because they go to school longer. The laity do not realize
|
|||
|
that for some years those Jesuits are in their schools not as
|
|||
|
students, but as teachers -- callow, young, inexperienced boys
|
|||
|
carrying on the "great tradition" of Jesuit education.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The laity, Catholic and non-Catholic, are also told that the
|
|||
|
Jesuits are much more selective in their choice of candidates than
|
|||
|
other orders or diocesan seminaries. They pick only the smarter and
|
|||
|
more promising youngsters and thus insure a continuing crop of
|
|||
|
great scholars, teachers, philosophers, orators and, not mentioned,
|
|||
|
ecclesiastical politicians.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The truth is, as clerical wags have put it, that the Jesuits
|
|||
|
have just as large a percentage of lesser I.Q.'s as any other
|
|||
|
church order but they are smart enough to hide the numbskulls in
|
|||
|
their foreign missions to primitive countries. In fact, it has also
|
|||
|
been said, that this is the principal reason why the Jesuits have
|
|||
|
foreign missions.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
However, in spite of these disparaging introductory
|
|||
|
qualifications, there can be no gainsaying the fact that the
|
|||
|
Jesuits possess a hard core of extremely intelligent, intensely
|
|||
|
loyal, politically shrewd, carefully calculating individuals. This
|
|||
|
has been so since the days of their founder, Ignatius of Loyola. A
|
|||
|
catalog of their names would include a large percentage of the
|
|||
|
great minds of the Roman Catholic Church since the sixteenth
|
|||
|
century.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Any honest student of church history must admit that behind
|
|||
|
the scenes, they have been the governing genius of the Vatican --
|
|||
|
even though, more often than not, an evil genius.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The Jesuit Order is an absolute monarchy. Their general, "the
|
|||
|
Black Pope" rules for life. The pattern of their own Order has
|
|||
|
molded their thinking about all other political structures,
|
|||
|
including, but not confined to, the Vatican.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The Jesuits fought the democratic aspirations of the French
|
|||
|
when they helped engineer the "Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve".
|
|||
|
They were the force behind Pope Pius IX and were his principal
|
|||
|
counsellors. The Italian people knew that the Jesuits were the
|
|||
|
strongest opponents of the Unification of Italy and hated them
|
|||
|
accordingly. The Jesuits promoted the dogma of the Immaculate
|
|||
|
Conception and of the Infallibility of the Pope. They wert, the
|
|||
|
experts behind the experts of the First Vatican Council in 1870
|
|||
|
just as they are of the Second Vatican Council.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
It is obvious that an organization so vast (the largest in the
|
|||
|
Roman Church) covering the globe, and engaged in so many
|
|||
|
activities, some open and honorable, and others secret, delicate
|
|||
|
and "jesuitical" would have to have a set of rules and regulations
|
|||
|
for its own internal control much more detailed and stringent than
|
|||
|
the conventional "rules" or "constitutions" of St. Benedict, St.
|
|||
|
Francis or the other run-of-the-mill orders and congregations.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
2
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Knowing also that the bulk of the Jesuits at the grass roots
|
|||
|
did not possess the sagacity, shrewdness and ruthlessness of the
|
|||
|
"boys" in the "back room" in Rome it was necessary that many
|
|||
|
enterprises, such as "advising" rich widows, picking of rich men's
|
|||
|
sons to be prospective Jesuits, or purging the Order of a hapless
|
|||
|
Jesuit who began to think for himself, should be speeded out in
|
|||
|
detail.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
But above all things it was necessary that such regulations
|
|||
|
should be kept secret. They were to be confided only to trusted
|
|||
|
superiors and if accidentally found. they were to be denounced as
|
|||
|
base forgeries.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
They are called the "MONITA SECRETA SOCIETATIS JESU" -- "The
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus."
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The average "lower-case" Jesuit, not being in on the know,
|
|||
|
will sincerely tell indignant devout inquirers that these
|
|||
|
regulations are fictitious. The smart "upper-case" Jesuit knows
|
|||
|
that he had better deny their existence. He might not live to
|
|||
|
regret his indiscretion,
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The existence of the "Secret Regulations of the Jesuits" has
|
|||
|
been proven beyond all possibility of successful legal refutation.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Most unbiased historians of the Roman Catholic Church and of
|
|||
|
the Jesuits acknowledge the existence of the "Monita".
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The British historian, Andrew Steinmetz, in his monumental,
|
|||
|
precisely documented, "History of the Jesuits", published in London
|
|||
|
in 1848, devotes several pages to an analysis of the genuineness
|
|||
|
and history of the "Monita". He outlines the book with the same
|
|||
|
succession of chapters and content as reproduced in this present
|
|||
|
volume. He concludes that "secret regulations" did exist,
|
|||
|
considering 1) overt statements of Jesuit Generals, 2) missing
|
|||
|
chapters in early editions of the official "Constitutions", and 3)
|
|||
|
the actual conduct of the Jesuits, in so many countries and for so
|
|||
|
long. As proof of the latter he cites the catering to the rich, the
|
|||
|
rapid acquisition of tremendous power and wealth and the
|
|||
|
infiltration of the royal powers by the Jesuits as court
|
|||
|
confessors, with their tolerance of licentiousness in order to gain
|
|||
|
power. (Vol. III, p. 363, 364, 365, 366). Of the allegations
|
|||
|
themselves he cites thousands of documented instances in the 1660
|
|||
|
pages of his volumes.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The following paragraphs are from the autobiography of a very
|
|||
|
precise and erudite ex-Jesuit. His death places him and his words
|
|||
|
beyond the customary effective reprisals of the Order.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
"The MONITA SECRETA SOCIETATIS JESU ('Secret Instruction of
|
|||
|
the Society of Jesus') first appeared in print in Cracow in
|
|||
|
1612, after they had already been circulated in manuscript
|
|||
|
form. The editor seems to have been the ex-Jesuit Zahorowski.
|
|||
|
Almost innumerable editions and reprints in all civilized
|
|||
|
tongues followed one another. The latest edition was published
|
|||
|
at Bamberg in 1904."
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
3
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
"The importance of the publication follows from the fact that,
|
|||
|
directly after its appearance, the General of the Order,
|
|||
|
Mutius Vitelleschi, twice (in 1616 and 1617) instructed the
|
|||
|
German Jesuit, Gretser, a prominent theologian of the Order,
|
|||
|
to refute it, and that up to most recent times Jesuit after
|
|||
|
Jesuit has come forward to repudiate it."
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
"It is natural that the Jesuits themselves should deny the
|
|||
|
genuineness in a flood of refutations. But such denials only
|
|||
|
merit the belief or unbelief which the denial of every
|
|||
|
defendant deserves. Only sound proof can turn the scale
|
|||
|
against the genuineness of the Monita. And such proofs have
|
|||
|
not been produced up to now by the Jesuits. Nor has any
|
|||
|
convincing invalidation of the facts advanced on behalf of its
|
|||
|
genuineness been produced.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
"The advocates of their genuineness rely essentially on the
|
|||
|
fact that the manuscript copies of the Monita, upon which the
|
|||
|
printed edition is based, were to be found in Jesuit colleges.
|
|||
|
The discovery of such copies in the colleges of Prague, Paris,
|
|||
|
Roermond (Holland), Munich, and Paderborn is beyond question.
|
|||
|
The copy in the Jesuit house in Paderborn was found 'in a
|
|||
|
cupboard in the Rector's room' (in scriniis rectoris). The
|
|||
|
manuscript copy at Munich, belonging to the contents of the
|
|||
|
library of the Jesuit college of this place, which was
|
|||
|
suppressed in 1773, was only found in 1870 in a secret recess
|
|||
|
behind the altar of the old Jesuit Church of St. Michael at
|
|||
|
Munich. It would be a decisive token of genuineness if it
|
|||
|
could be proved positively that the Prague copy was already
|
|||
|
there in 1611 -- i.e. before the first printed edition in
|
|||
|
1612. J. Friedrich's statement makes this seem probable, but
|
|||
|
not certain. What the Jesuit Duhr writes to the contrary is of
|
|||
|
no value. It is certain, however, that the discovery in Prague
|
|||
|
was so disagreeable to the Jesuits that the chief champion of
|
|||
|
the spuriousness of the MONITA, the Jesuit Forer, considered
|
|||
|
it advisable to pass it over in silence in his work of
|
|||
|
repudiation, Anatomia Anatomiae Societatis Jesu. On the other
|
|||
|
hand, he zealously demonstrated -- what no one disputed --
|
|||
|
that the copy at Paderborn was only brought to light after the
|
|||
|
first edition had been published. Forer's silence is the more
|
|||
|
remarkable, as a manuscript note, intended for his book,
|
|||
|
treats the Prague discovery as a fact. The saying that those
|
|||
|
who keep silence when they could and should speak seem to give
|
|||
|
consent, comes to my mind in the case of this ominous
|
|||
|
silence."
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
These quoted words were written by a German ex-Jesuit, Count
|
|||
|
Von Hoensbroech, after he left the Jesuit priesthood in 1900*
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
"Fourteen Years a Jesuit" Paul Von Hoensbroech, Cassel & Co.
|
|||
|
Ltd. London, New York 1911, Vol II p. 7-9
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The chapter headings are almost verbatim identical with the chapter
|
|||
|
headings of the text reproduced in this booklet.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
And therein lies a story.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
4
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The text of the "Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus"
|
|||
|
reproduced here was found beneath the pallet on an adobe bed in a
|
|||
|
cottage in the Andes Mountains of Peru about a century ago.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Students of the Incas recall that prior to the expedition of
|
|||
|
the National Geographic Magazine under Hiram Bingham, in 1911,
|
|||
|
archaeologists from European countries probed the ruins of this
|
|||
|
people, one of the greatest civilizations in history.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
In 1870 a French archeologist slipped unobtrusively into the
|
|||
|
office of the Secretary of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in San
|
|||
|
Francisco, California.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
He had been sent into the remote recesses of the Andes, where
|
|||
|
Pizarro and his army had conquered the Incas more than three
|
|||
|
centuries before. He had rented a room in a tiny village. This he
|
|||
|
used as a base of his operations. To this spot he returned
|
|||
|
periodically to rest from the dangerously high altitudes and to
|
|||
|
write his reports for shipment back to France.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
While he was away, the family frequently rented the same room
|
|||
|
to overnight guests. One of these happened to be a Jesuit official.
|
|||
|
On his departure he forgot a little book which he had hidden under
|
|||
|
the mattress. The French archeologist accidentally found it.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
It was the "Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus" --
|
|||
|
the top classified manual of procedure for the trusted leaders of
|
|||
|
the Jesuit Order.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
It was in Latin and bore the seal, signature and attestation
|
|||
|
of the General and Secretary of the Order in Rome.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
For the next few days the Frenchman labored furiously
|
|||
|
translating the work in stenographic notes into French. He then
|
|||
|
replaced the book and left.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The Jesuit returned in a few days inquiring nervously about
|
|||
|
his little black packet. He also wanted to know if anyone had
|
|||
|
occupied the room since his departure. On learning of the
|
|||
|
archeologist he began a search so relentless that the Frenchman had
|
|||
|
to leave Peru. He finally reached San Francisco and entrusted his
|
|||
|
precious but dangerous burden to Edwin A. Sherman 32 degree Mason,
|
|||
|
the Secretary of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in California.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Mr. Sherman included the "Secret Instructions" in his book
|
|||
|
"The Engineer Corps of Hell" published in 1882.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
For several years Edwin Sherman was the Masonic Historian of
|
|||
|
California. He was highly esteemed for his great accuracy and
|
|||
|
dependability. This can be verified now by anyone who will inquire
|
|||
|
about him of the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Freemasonry
|
|||
|
at the Grand Lodge office in the Masonic Memorial Temple, 1111
|
|||
|
California St., San Francisco, Calif.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Another point that emphasizes the credibility of this work is
|
|||
|
the identity of this copy, found in the fantastically inaccessible
|
|||
|
heights of the Andes in Peru, with the copy quoted by Count Von
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
5
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Hoensbroech in Germany, Considering that Von Hoensbroech's
|
|||
|
rendition was translated from the German and Sherman's from Latin
|
|||
|
to French and then into English the similarity is still striking.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Here are a few examples:
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Sherman: Ch. XI -- "How We Must Conduct Ourselves Unitedly Against
|
|||
|
Those Who Have Been Expelled From the
|
|||
|
Society."
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Von Hoensbroech: "What Attitude Should Be Taken By Our Followers
|
|||
|
In Regard to Those Dismissed From the Order?"
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Sherman: Ch. VI -- "OF the Mode of Attracting Rich Widows."
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Von Hoensbroech: "How May Rich Widows be Well Disposed Towards
|
|||
|
the Society of Jesus?"
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Sherman: Ch. IV -- "OF That Which We Must Charge the Preachers and
|
|||
|
Confessors of the Great of the Earth."
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Von Hoensbroech: "What Attitude Must be Taken up by
|
|||
|
Court-Chaplains and Princely Confessors?"
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The text that follows is one of the most effective documents
|
|||
|
ever written. The tremendous wealth and power of the Jesuit Order
|
|||
|
is ample proof of that contention.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Those who have observed the Jesuits from the vantage point of
|
|||
|
the secular clergy or of another order have often wondered at their
|
|||
|
astounding success in becoming the recipients of wealthy estates,
|
|||
|
of influencing prominent citizens, Catholic and non-Catholic alike,
|
|||
|
into endorsing and endowing their colleges and universities, of
|
|||
|
instilling their scholastics and other students with a spirit of
|
|||
|
self-dedication and self immolation that would make both the Pope
|
|||
|
and Hitler feel frustrated.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
A careful study of the "Secret Instructions" will give the
|
|||
|
answer. Here is a plan of financial, intellectual and military
|
|||
|
strategy that should make the planners of West Point or Number 10
|
|||
|
Downing Street feel inferior.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Check, for example the following:
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Ch. II -- "THE MANNER WITH WHICH THE FATHERS OF THE SOCIETY MUST
|
|||
|
CONDUCT THEMSELVES TO ACQUIRE AND PRESERVE THE
|
|||
|
FAMILIARITY OF PRINCES, MAGNATES, AND POWERFUL AND RICH
|
|||
|
PERSONS."
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
(Think then how well the Jesuits have done with the local
|
|||
|
State Bar, the Chamber of Commerce, national corporations, wealthy
|
|||
|
foundations, in comparison with the failure of the local corner
|
|||
|
parish clergy. Think how well Georgetown, Fordham, Marquette, and
|
|||
|
Creighton have done in comparison with the Dominicans, the
|
|||
|
Sulpicians or the Franciscans!)
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
6
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Ch. VI -- "OF THE MODE OF ATTRACTING RICH WIDOWS."
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Just read them and weep, brethren! Read especially this
|
|||
|
sentence p. 8 "Insist upon the advantages of widowhood, and the
|
|||
|
inconvenience of marriage, in particular that of a repeated one,
|
|||
|
and the dangers to which she will be exposed, relatively to her
|
|||
|
particular businesses into which we are desirous of penetrating."
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Ch. XI -- "HOW WE MUST CONDUCT OURSELVES
|
|||
|
UNITEDLY AGAINST THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN EXPELLED
|
|||
|
FROM THE SOCIETY."
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
This is a portrait of the pattern of persecution and
|
|||
|
annihilation that every ex-Jesuit, and in truth, every past ex-
|
|||
|
priest knows, and every future dissident can expect.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Ch. XV -- "HOW THE COMPANY MUST BE CONDUCTED
|
|||
|
WITH THE MONKS AND NUNS."
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
(Meaning other religious Orders -- of course)
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Ch. XVI -- "HOW WE MUST MAKE PROFESSION
|
|||
|
OF DESPISING RICHES."
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The gem of them all -- really meaning "How we must pretend to
|
|||
|
despise riches."
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
What more vicious enemies could the bishops and diocesan
|
|||
|
clergy have than those Jesuit Monitors who wrote: "We must inquire
|
|||
|
into and note the defects of the other fathers and when we find
|
|||
|
them, we must divulge them among our faithful friends as though
|
|||
|
condoling over them." (Ch. V. p. 17)
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Read the Jesuits' opinion of other religious orders "calling
|
|||
|
attention to the indolence and stupidity of the Monks as if they
|
|||
|
were cattle." (Ch. XVII P. 41)
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The Jesuits themselves should be concerned with the fact that
|
|||
|
history does repeat itself. In Mexico, in Peru, in France, in
|
|||
|
Italy, in Germany, in Spain, in Portugal, in Paraguay, in Colombia,
|
|||
|
in Brazil, in Argentina, in Chile, in Austria and in very many
|
|||
|
other countries the Jesuits gained so much wealth, in land, in
|
|||
|
buildings and in money, that others became jealous.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
In every country the Jesuits were thrown out. Their property
|
|||
|
and wealth was confiscated.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
The Jesuits are now repeating their history in the United
|
|||
|
States of America. Their landed wealth and holdings are fabulous.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
What makes them think that history will not inexorably and
|
|||
|
inevitably repeat itself again here in America?
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
**** ****
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
7
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
SECRET INSTRUCTIONS
|
|||
|
OF THE
|
|||
|
SOCIETY OF JESUS
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
PREFACE
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
These particular instructions must be guarded and kept with
|
|||
|
careful attention by the superiors, communicated with prudent
|
|||
|
caution to a few of the professors; in the meantime there does not
|
|||
|
exist any other thing so good for the Society; but we are charged
|
|||
|
with the most profound silence, and to make a false show, should
|
|||
|
they be written by any one though founded in the experience we have
|
|||
|
had. As there are various professors who are in these secrets, the
|
|||
|
Society has fixed the rule, that those who know these reserved
|
|||
|
instructions that they cannot pass in any one religious Order,
|
|||
|
whether it be of the Carthusians, to cause them to retire from that
|
|||
|
in which they live, and the inviolable silence with which they are
|
|||
|
to be guarded, all of which has been confirmed by the Holy See.
|
|||
|
Much care must be taken that they do not get out; for these
|
|||
|
counsels in the hands of strange persons to the Society, because
|
|||
|
they will give a sinister interpretation invidious to our
|
|||
|
situation.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
If (unless God does not permit) we reach success, we must
|
|||
|
openly deny that the Society shelters such thoughts and to take
|
|||
|
care that it is so affirmed by those of the Society that they are
|
|||
|
ignorant by not having been communicated, which they can protest
|
|||
|
with truth, that they know nothing of such instructions; and that
|
|||
|
there does not exist other than the general printed or manuscripts,
|
|||
|
which they can present, to cause any doubt to vanish. The superiors
|
|||
|
must with prudence and discretion, inquire if any of the Society
|
|||
|
have shown these instructions to strangers; for neither for
|
|||
|
himself, or for another, they must be copied by no one, without
|
|||
|
permission of the General or of the Provincial; and when it is
|
|||
|
feared that anyone has given notice of these instructions, we shall
|
|||
|
not be able to guard so rigorous a secret; and we must assert to
|
|||
|
the contrary, all that is said in them, it will be so given to be
|
|||
|
understood, that they only show to all, to be proved, and
|
|||
|
afterwards they will be dismissed.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER 1.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
THE MANNER OF PROCEDURE WITH WHICH THE SOCIETY
|
|||
|
MUST BE CONDUCTED WHEN CONSIDERING THE COMMENCING
|
|||
|
OF SOME FOUNDATION.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. To capture the will of the inhabitants of a country, it
|
|||
|
is very important to manifest the intent of the Society, in the
|
|||
|
manner prescribed in the regulations in which it is said, that the
|
|||
|
Society must labor with such ardor and force for the salvation of
|
|||
|
their neighbor as for themselves. For the better inducement of this
|
|||
|
idea, the most opportunely that we practice the most humble
|
|||
|
offices, visiting the poor, the afflicted, and the imprisoned. It
|
|||
|
is very convenient to confess with much promptness, and to hear the
|
|||
|
confessions, showing indifference, without teasing the penitents;
|
|||
|
for this, the most notable inhabitants will admire our fathers and
|
|||
|
esteem them; for the great charity they have for all, and the
|
|||
|
novelty of the subject.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
8
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. To have in mind that it is necessary to ask with religious
|
|||
|
modesty, the means for exercising the duties of the Society, and
|
|||
|
that it is needful to procure and acquire benevolence, principally
|
|||
|
of the secular ecclesiastics, and of persons of authority, that may
|
|||
|
be conceived necessary.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
3. When called to go to the most distant places, where alms
|
|||
|
are to be received, they are to be accepted, no matter how small
|
|||
|
they may be, after having marked out the necessities of ourselves.
|
|||
|
Notwithstanding, it will be very convenient at the moment to give
|
|||
|
those alms to the poor, for the edification of those who do not
|
|||
|
have an exact understanding of the Society; and, "but we must in
|
|||
|
advance be more liberal with ourselves."
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
4. All must labor as if we were inspired by the same spirit;
|
|||
|
and each one must study to acquire the same styles, with the object
|
|||
|
of uniformity among so great a number of persons, edifying the
|
|||
|
whole; those who do the contrary must be expelled as pernicious.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
5. In a beginning it is not convenient to purchase property;
|
|||
|
but in case they can be found, some good sites may be bought,
|
|||
|
saying that they are to belong to other persons, using the names of
|
|||
|
some faithful friends, who will guard the secret. The better to
|
|||
|
make our poverty apparent, the property nearest our college must
|
|||
|
belong to colleges the most distant, that we can prevent the
|
|||
|
princes and magistrates from ever knowing that the income of the
|
|||
|
Society has a fixed point.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
6. We must not ourselves go out to reside to form colleges,
|
|||
|
except to the rich cities; for in this we must imitate Christ, who
|
|||
|
remained in Jerusalem; and as he alone, passed by the less
|
|||
|
considerable populations.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
7. We must obtain and acquire of the widows all the money that
|
|||
|
we can, presenting ourselves at repeated times to their sight our
|
|||
|
extreme necessity.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
8. The Superior over each province is the one to whom we must
|
|||
|
account with certainty, the income of the same; but the amount to
|
|||
|
the treasurer at Rome, it is, and must always be, an impenetrable
|
|||
|
mystery.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
9. It is for us to preach and say in all parts and in all
|
|||
|
conversations, that we have come to teach the young and aid the
|
|||
|
people; and this without interest in any single species and without
|
|||
|
exception of persons, and that we are not so onerous to the people
|
|||
|
as other religious orders.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
9
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER II.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
THE MANNER WITH WHICH THE FATHERS OF THE ORDER
|
|||
|
MUST CONDUCT THEMSELVES TO ACQUIRE AND PRESERVE
|
|||
|
THE FAMILIARITY OF PRINCES, MAGNATES AND POWERFUL
|
|||
|
AND RICH PERSONS.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. It is necessary to do all that is possible to gain
|
|||
|
completely the attentions and affections of princes and persons of
|
|||
|
the most consideration; for that, who, being on the outside, but in
|
|||
|
advance, all of them will be constituted our defenders.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. As we have learned by experience that princes and
|
|||
|
potentates are generally inclined to the favor of the
|
|||
|
ecclesiastics, when these disseminate their odious actions, and
|
|||
|
when they give an interpretation that they favor, as is to be noted
|
|||
|
among the married, contract with their relations or allies; or in
|
|||
|
other similar things; assembling much with them, to animate those
|
|||
|
who may be found in this case, saying to them that we confide in
|
|||
|
the assurance of the exemptions, that by intervention of us
|
|||
|
fathers, which the Pope will concede, if he is made to see the
|
|||
|
causes, and will present other examples of similar things,
|
|||
|
exhibiting at the same time the sentiments that we favor, under the
|
|||
|
pretext of the common good and THE GREATER GLORY OF GOD that is the
|
|||
|
object of the Society.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
3. If at this same assembly the prince treats of doing
|
|||
|
something, that will not be agreeable to all the great men, for
|
|||
|
which we are to stir up and investigate, meanwhile, counseling
|
|||
|
others to conform with the prince, without ever descending to treat
|
|||
|
of particulars, for fear there may not be a successful issue of the
|
|||
|
matter, for which the Society will be imputed blame; and for this,
|
|||
|
if this action shall be disapproved, there will be advertences
|
|||
|
presented to the contrary that may be absolutely prohibited and put
|
|||
|
in jeopardy, the authority of some of the fathers, of whom it can
|
|||
|
be said with certainty, that they have not had notice of the Secret
|
|||
|
Instructions; for that, it can be affirmed with an oath, that the
|
|||
|
calumny to the Society, is not true in respect to that which is
|
|||
|
imputed to it.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
4. To gain the good will of Princes, it will be very
|
|||
|
convenient to insinuate with skill; and for third persons, that we
|
|||
|
fathers, are a means to discharge honorable and favorable duties in
|
|||
|
the courts of other kings and princes, and more than any one else
|
|||
|
in that of the Pope. By this means we can recommend ourselves and
|
|||
|
the Society; for the same, no one must be charged with this
|
|||
|
commission but the most zealous persons and well versed in our
|
|||
|
institute.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
5. Aiming especially to bring over the will of the favorites
|
|||
|
of princes and of their servants, by means of presents and pious
|
|||
|
offices, that they may give faithful notice to us fathers of the
|
|||
|
character and inclinations of the princes and great men. Of this
|
|||
|
manner the Society can gain with facility as much to one as to
|
|||
|
others.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
10
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
6. The experience we have had, has made us acquainted with the
|
|||
|
many advantages that have been taken by the Society of its
|
|||
|
intervention in the marriages of the House of Austria, and of those
|
|||
|
which have been effected in other kingdoms, France, Poland, and in
|
|||
|
various duchies. Forasmuch assembling, proposing with prudence,
|
|||
|
selecting choice persons who may be friends and families of the
|
|||
|
relatives, and of the friends of the Society.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
7. It will be easy to gain the princesses, making use of their
|
|||
|
valets; by that, coming to feed and nourish with relations of
|
|||
|
friendship, by being located at the entrance in all parts, and thus
|
|||
|
become acquainted with the most intimate secrets of the familiars.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
8. In regard to the direction of the consciences of great men,
|
|||
|
we confessors must follow the writers who concede the greater
|
|||
|
liberty of conscience. The contrary of this is to appear too
|
|||
|
religious; for that they will decide to leave others and submit
|
|||
|
entirely to our direction and counsels.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
9. It is necessary to make reference to all the merits of the
|
|||
|
Society; to the princes and prelates, and to as many as can lend
|
|||
|
much aid to the Society, after having shown the transcendency of
|
|||
|
its great privileges.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
10. Also, it will be useful to demonstrate, with prudence and
|
|||
|
skill, such ample power which the Society has, to absolve, even in
|
|||
|
the reserved cases, compared with that of other pastors and
|
|||
|
priests; also, that of dispensing with the fasts, and of the rights
|
|||
|
which they must ask and pay, in the impediments of marriage, by
|
|||
|
which means many persons will recur to us, whom it will be our duty
|
|||
|
to make agreeable.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
11. It is not the less useful to invite them to our sermons,
|
|||
|
assemblies, harangues, declamations, etc., composing odes in their
|
|||
|
honor, dedicating literary works or conclusions; and if we can for
|
|||
|
the future, give dinners and greetings of divers modes.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
12. It will be very convenient to take to our care the
|
|||
|
reconciliation of the great, in the quarrels and enmities that
|
|||
|
divide them; then by this method we can enter, little by little,
|
|||
|
into the acquaintance of their most intimate friends and secrets;
|
|||
|
and we can serve ourselves to that party which will be most in
|
|||
|
favor of that which we present.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
13. If there should be some one at the service of a monarch or
|
|||
|
prince, and he were an enemy of our Society, it is necessary to
|
|||
|
procure well for ourselves better than for others, making him a
|
|||
|
friend, employing promises, favors, and advances, which shall be in
|
|||
|
proportion to the same monarch or prince.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
14. No one shall recommend to a prince any one, nor make
|
|||
|
advances to any who have gone out from us, being outside of our
|
|||
|
Society, and in particular to those who voluntarily verified, for
|
|||
|
yet when they dissimulate they will always maintain an
|
|||
|
inextinguishable hatred to the Society.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
11
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
In fine, each one must procure and search for methods to
|
|||
|
increase the affection and favor of princes, of the powerful, and
|
|||
|
of the magistrates of each population, that whenever occasion is
|
|||
|
offered to support, we can do much with efficacy and good faith, in
|
|||
|
benefiting ourselves, though contrary to their relations, allies
|
|||
|
and friends.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER III.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
HOW THE SOCIETY MUST BE CONDUCTED WITH THE GREAT
|
|||
|
AUTHORITIES IN THE STATE, AND IN CASE THEY ARE NOT
|
|||
|
RICH WE MUST LEND OURSELVES TO OTHERS.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. The care consigned to us, that we must do all that is
|
|||
|
possible, for to conquer the great; but it is also necessary to
|
|||
|
gain their favor to combat our enemies.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. It is very conducive to value their authority, prudence and
|
|||
|
counsels, and induce them to despise wealth, at the same time that
|
|||
|
we procure gain and employ those that can redeem the Society;
|
|||
|
tacitly valuing their names, for acquisition of temporal goods if
|
|||
|
they inspire sufficient confidence.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
3. It is also necessary to employ the ascendant of the
|
|||
|
powerful, to temper the malevolence of the persons of a lower
|
|||
|
sphere and of the rabble against our Society.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
4. It is necessary to utilize, whenever we can, the bishops,
|
|||
|
prelates and other superior ecclesiastics, according to the
|
|||
|
diversity of reason, and the inclination we manifest.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
5. In some points it will be sufficient to obtain of the
|
|||
|
prelates and curates, that which it is possible to do, that their
|
|||
|
subjects respect the society; and that obstructing the exercise of
|
|||
|
its functions among those who have the greatest power, as in
|
|||
|
Germany, Poland, etc. It will be necessary to exhibit the most
|
|||
|
distinguished attentions for that, mediating its authority and that
|
|||
|
of the princes, monasteries, parishes, priorates, patronates, the
|
|||
|
foundations of the churches and the pious places, can come to our
|
|||
|
power. Because we can with more facility where the Catholics will
|
|||
|
be found mixed with heretics. It is necessary to make such prelates
|
|||
|
see the utility and merit that we have in all this, and that never
|
|||
|
will they have so much valuation from the priests, friars, and for
|
|||
|
the future from the faithful. If making these changes, it is
|
|||
|
necessary to publicly praise their zeal, although written, and to
|
|||
|
perpetuate the memory of their actions.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
6. For this it is necessary to labor, to the end, that the
|
|||
|
prelates will place in the hands of us fathers, as confessors and
|
|||
|
counsellors; and if they aspire to more elevated positions in the
|
|||
|
Court of Rome, we must unite in their favor and aid their
|
|||
|
pretensions with all our forces, and by means of our influence.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
7. We must be watchful that when the bishops are instituting
|
|||
|
principal colleges and parochial churches, that the faculties are
|
|||
|
taken from the Society, and placed in both vicarious
|
|||
|
establishments, with the charge of cures, and that the Superior of
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
12
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
the Society to be, that all the government of these churches shall
|
|||
|
pertain to us, and that the parishioners shall be our subjects, of
|
|||
|
the method that all can be placed in them.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
8. Where there are those of the academies who have been driven
|
|||
|
out from us, and are contrary; where the Catholics or the heretics
|
|||
|
obstruct our installation, we will compound with the prelates, and
|
|||
|
make ourselves the owners of the first cathedrals; for thus shall
|
|||
|
we make them to know the necessities of the Society.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
9. Over all, we must be very certain to procure the protection and
|
|||
|
affection of the prelates of the Church, for the cases of
|
|||
|
beatification or canonization of ourselves; in whose subjects
|
|||
|
convened further, to obtain letters from the powerful and of the
|
|||
|
princes, that the decisions may be promptly attained in the
|
|||
|
Catholic Court.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
10. If it shall be accounted that the prelates or magnates should
|
|||
|
send commissioned representatives, we must put forth all ardor,
|
|||
|
that no other priests, who are in dispute with us, shall be sent;
|
|||
|
for the reason, that they shall not communicate their
|
|||
|
animadversion, discrediting us in the cities and provinces we
|
|||
|
inhabit; and that if they pass by other provinces and cities, where
|
|||
|
there are colleges, they will be received with affection and
|
|||
|
kindness, and be so splendidly treated as a religious modesty will
|
|||
|
permit.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER IV.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
OF THAT WHICH WE MUST CHARGE THE PREACHERS
|
|||
|
AND CONFESSORS OF THE GREAT OF THE EARTH.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. Those of us who may be directed to the princes and
|
|||
|
illustrious men, of the manner in which we must appear before them,
|
|||
|
with inclination unitedly "to the greater glory of God," obtaining
|
|||
|
-- with its austerity of conscience, that the same princes are
|
|||
|
persuaded of it; for this direction we must not travel in a
|
|||
|
principle to the exterior or political government, but gradually
|
|||
|
and imperceptibly.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. Forasmuch there will be opportunity and conducive notices
|
|||
|
at repeated times, that the distribution of honors and dignities in
|
|||
|
the Republic is an act of justice; and that in a great manner it
|
|||
|
will be offending God, if the princes do not examine themselves and
|
|||
|
cease carrying their passions, protesting to the same with
|
|||
|
frequency and severity, that we do not desire to mix in the
|
|||
|
administration of the State; but when it shall become necessary to
|
|||
|
so express ourselves thus, to have your weight to fill the mission
|
|||
|
that is recommended. Directly that the sovereigns are well
|
|||
|
convinced of this, it will be very convenient to give an idea of
|
|||
|
the virtues that may be found to adorn those that are selected for
|
|||
|
the dignities and principal public changes; procuring then and
|
|||
|
recommending the true friends of the Society; notwithstanding, we
|
|||
|
must not make it openly for ourselves, but by means of our friends
|
|||
|
who have intimacy with the prince that it is not for us to talk him
|
|||
|
into the disposition of making them.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
13
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
3. For this watchfulness our friends must instruct the
|
|||
|
confessors and preachers of the Society near the persons capable of
|
|||
|
discharging any duty, that over all, they must be generous to the
|
|||
|
Society; they must also keep their names, that they may insinuate
|
|||
|
with skill, and upon opportune occasions to princes, well for
|
|||
|
themselves or by means of others.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
4. The preachers and confessors will always present themselves
|
|||
|
so that they must comport with the princes, lovable and
|
|||
|
affectionate, without ever shocking them in sermons, nor in
|
|||
|
particular conversations, presenting that which rejects all fear,
|
|||
|
and exhorting them in particular to faith, hope and justice.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
5. Never receive gifts made to any one in particular, but that
|
|||
|
for the contrary; but picture the distress in which the Society or
|
|||
|
college may be found, as all are alike; having to be satisfied with
|
|||
|
assigning each one a room in the house, modestly furnished; and
|
|||
|
noticing that your garb is not over nice; and assist with
|
|||
|
promptness to the aid and counsel of the most miserable persons of
|
|||
|
the palace; but that you do not say it of them, but only those who
|
|||
|
have agreed to serve the powerful.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
6. Whenever the death occurs of any one employed in the
|
|||
|
palace, we must take care of speaking with anticipation, that they
|
|||
|
fail in the nomination of a successor, in their affection for the
|
|||
|
Society; but giving no appearance to cause suspicion that it was
|
|||
|
the intent of usurping the government of the prince; for which, it
|
|||
|
must not be from us that it is said; take a part direct; but
|
|||
|
assembling of faithful or influential friends who may be found in
|
|||
|
a position of rousing the hate of one and another until they become
|
|||
|
inflamed.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER V.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
OF THE MODE OF CONDUCTING THE SOCIETY
|
|||
|
WITH RESPECT TO OTHER ECCLESIASTICS WHO HAVE
|
|||
|
THE SAME DUTIES AS OURSELVES IN THE CHURCH.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. It is necessary to help with valor these persons, and
|
|||
|
manifest in their due time to the princes and lords that are always
|
|||
|
ours, and being constituted in power, that our Society contains
|
|||
|
essentially the perfection of all the other orders, with the
|
|||
|
exception of singing and manifesting an exterior of austerity in
|
|||
|
the mode of life and in dress; and that if in some points they
|
|||
|
excel the communities of the Society, this shines with greater
|
|||
|
splendor in the Church of God.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. We must inquire into and note the defects of the other
|
|||
|
fathers (non-Jesuit priests), and when we find them, we must
|
|||
|
divulge them among our faithful friends, as condoling over them; we
|
|||
|
must show that such fathers do not discharge with certainty, that
|
|||
|
we do ourselves the functions, that some and others recommend.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
3. It is necessary that the fathers of our Society oppose with
|
|||
|
all their power the other fathers who intend to found houses of
|
|||
|
education to instruct the youths among the populations where ours
|
|||
|
are found teaching with acceptation and approval; and it will be
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
14
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
very convenient to indicate our projects to princes and
|
|||
|
magistrates, that such people will excite disturbances and
|
|||
|
commotions if they are not prohibited from teaching; and that in
|
|||
|
the last result, the damage will fall upon the educated, by being
|
|||
|
instructed by a bad method, without any necessity; posting them
|
|||
|
that the Society is sufficient to teach the youth. In case the
|
|||
|
fathers bear letters of the Pontificate, or recommendations from
|
|||
|
the Cardinals, we must work in opposition to them, making the
|
|||
|
princes and great men to point out to the Pope the merits of the
|
|||
|
Society and its intelligence for the pacific instruction of the
|
|||
|
youths, to which end, we must have and obtain certifications of the
|
|||
|
authorities upon our good conduct and sufficiency.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
4. Having notwithstanding to form duties, our fathers in
|
|||
|
displaying singular proofs of our virtue and erudition, making them
|
|||
|
to exercise the alumni (graduates) in their studies in methods of
|
|||
|
functions, scholars of diversion, capable of drawing applause,
|
|||
|
making for supposition, these representations in the presence of
|
|||
|
the great magistrates and concurrence of other classes.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER VI.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
OF THE MODE OF ATTRACTING RICH WIDOWS.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. We must elect effective fathers already advanced in years,
|
|||
|
of lively complexion and conversation, agreeable to visit these
|
|||
|
ladies, and whence they can promptly note in them appreciation or
|
|||
|
affection for our Society; making offerings of good works and the
|
|||
|
merits of the same; that, if they accept them, and succeed in
|
|||
|
having them frequent our temples, we must assign to them a
|
|||
|
confessor, who will be able of guiding them in the ways that are
|
|||
|
proper, in the state of widowhood, making the enumeration and
|
|||
|
praises of satisfaction that should accompany such a state; making
|
|||
|
them believe and yet with certainty that they who serve as such, is
|
|||
|
a merit for etemal life, being efficacious to relieve them from the
|
|||
|
pains of purgatory.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. The same confessor will propose to them to make and adorn
|
|||
|
a little chapel or oratory in their own house, to confirm their
|
|||
|
religious exercises, because by this method we can shorten the
|
|||
|
communication, more easily hindering those who visit others;
|
|||
|
although if they have a particular chaplain, and will content to go
|
|||
|
to him to celebrate the mass, making opportune advertencies to her
|
|||
|
who confesses, to the effect and treating her as being left to be
|
|||
|
overpowered by said Chaplain.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
3. We must endeavor skillfully but gently to cause them to
|
|||
|
change respectively to the Order and to the method of the House,
|
|||
|
and to conform as the circumstances of the person will permit, to
|
|||
|
whom they are directed, their propensities, their piety, and yet to
|
|||
|
the place and situation of the edifice.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
4. We must not omit to have removed, little by little, the
|
|||
|
servants of the house that are not of the same mind with ourselves,
|
|||
|
proposing that they be replaced by those persons who are dependent
|
|||
|
on us, or who desire to be of the Society; for by this method we
|
|||
|
can be placed in the channel of communication of whatever passes in
|
|||
|
the family.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
15
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
5. The constant watch of the confessor will have to be, that
|
|||
|
the widow shall be disposed to depend on him totally, representing
|
|||
|
that her advances in grace are necessarily bound to this
|
|||
|
submission.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
6. We are to induce her to the frequency of the sacraments,
|
|||
|
and especially that of penitency, making her to give account of her
|
|||
|
deeper thoughts and intentions; inviting her to listen to her
|
|||
|
confessor, when he is to preach particular promising orations;
|
|||
|
recommending equally the recitation each day of the litanies and
|
|||
|
the examination of conscience.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
7. It will be very necessary in the case of a general
|
|||
|
confession, to enter extensively into all of her inclinations; for
|
|||
|
that it will be to determine her, although she may be found in the
|
|||
|
hands of others.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
8. Insist upon the advantages of widowhood, and the inconvenience
|
|||
|
of marriage; in particular that of a repeated one, and the dangers
|
|||
|
to which she will be exposed, relatively to her particular
|
|||
|
businesses into which we are desirous of penetrating.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
9. We must cause her to talk of men whom she dislikes, and to
|
|||
|
see if she takes notice of anyone who is agreeable, and represent
|
|||
|
to her that he is a man of bad life; procuring by these means
|
|||
|
disgust of one and another, and repugnant to unite with anyone.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
10. When the confessor has become convinced that she has decided to
|
|||
|
follow the life of widowhood, he must then proceed to counsel her
|
|||
|
to dedicate herself to a spiritual life, but not to a monastic one,
|
|||
|
whose lack of accommodations will show how they live; in a word, we
|
|||
|
must proceed to speak of the spiritual life of Pauline and of
|
|||
|
Eustace, &c. The confessor will conduct her at last, that having
|
|||
|
devoted the widow to chastity, to not less than for two or three
|
|||
|
years, she will then be made to renounce a second nuptial forever.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
In this case she will be found to have discarded all sorts of
|
|||
|
relations with men, and even the diversions between her relatives
|
|||
|
and acquaintances, we must protest that she must unite more closely
|
|||
|
to God. With regard to the ecclesiastics who visit her, or to whom
|
|||
|
she goes out to visit, when we cannot keep her separate and apart
|
|||
|
from all others, we must labor that those with whom she treats
|
|||
|
shall be recommended by ourselves or by those who are devoted to
|
|||
|
us.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
11. In this state, we must inspire her to give alms, under the
|
|||
|
direction, as she will suppose, or her spiritual father; then it is
|
|||
|
of great importance that they shall be employed with utility; more,
|
|||
|
being careful that there shall be discretion in counsel, causing
|
|||
|
her to see that inconsiderate alms are the frequent causes of many
|
|||
|
sins, or serve to torment at last, that they are not the fruit, nor
|
|||
|
the merit which produced them.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
16
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER VII.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
SYSTEM WHICH MUST BE EMPLOYED WITH WIDOWS
|
|||
|
AND METHODS OF DISPOSING OF THEIR PROPERTY.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. It will be necessary to inspire her to continue to
|
|||
|
persevere in her devotion and the exercise of good works and of
|
|||
|
disposition, in not permitting a week to pass, to give away some
|
|||
|
part of her overplus, in honor of Jesus Christ, of the Holy Virgin
|
|||
|
and of the Saint she has chosen for her patron; giving this to the
|
|||
|
poor of the Society or for the ornamenting of its churches, until
|
|||
|
she has absolutely disposed of the first fruits of her property as
|
|||
|
in other times did the Egyptians.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. When the widows, the more generally to practice their alms,
|
|||
|
must be given to know with perseverance, their liberality in favor
|
|||
|
of the Society; and they are to be assured that they are
|
|||
|
participants in all the merits of the same, and of the particular
|
|||
|
indulgences of the Provincial; and if they are persons of much
|
|||
|
consideration, of the General of the Order.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
3. The widows who having made vows of chastity, it will be
|
|||
|
necessary for them to renew them twice per annum, conforming to the
|
|||
|
custom that we have established; but permitting them
|
|||
|
notwithstanding, that day some honest freedom from restraint by our
|
|||
|
fathers.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
4. They must be frequently visited, treating them agreeably;
|
|||
|
referring them to spirited and diverting histories, conformable to
|
|||
|
the character and inclination of each one.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
5. But that they may not abate, we must not use too much rigor
|
|||
|
with them in the confessional; that it may not be, that they by
|
|||
|
having empowered others of their benevolence, that we do not lose
|
|||
|
confidence of recovering their adhesion, having to proceed in all
|
|||
|
cases with great skill and caution, being aware of the inconstancy
|
|||
|
natural to woman.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
6. It is necessary to have them do away with the habit of
|
|||
|
frequenting other churches, in particular those of convents; for
|
|||
|
which it is necessary to often remind them, that in our Order there
|
|||
|
are possessed many indulgences that are to be obtained only
|
|||
|
partially by all the other religious corporations.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
7. To those who may be found in the case of the garb of
|
|||
|
mourning, they will be counselled to dress a little more agreeable,
|
|||
|
that they may at the same time, unite the aspect of mourning with
|
|||
|
that of adornment, to draw them away from the idea of being found
|
|||
|
directed by a man who has become a stranger to the world. Also with
|
|||
|
such, that they may not be very much endangered, or particularly
|
|||
|
exposed to volubility, we can concede to them, as if they
|
|||
|
maintained their consequence and liberality, for and with the
|
|||
|
society, that which drives ensuality away from them, being with
|
|||
|
moderation and without scandal.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
8. We must manage that in the houses of the widows there shall
|
|||
|
be honorable young ladies, of rich and noble families; that little
|
|||
|
by little they become accustomed to our direction and mode of life;
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
17
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
and that they are given a director elected and established by the
|
|||
|
confessor of the family, to be permanently and always subject to
|
|||
|
all the reprehensions and habits of the Society; and if any do not
|
|||
|
wish to submit to all, they must be sent to the houses of their
|
|||
|
fathers, or to those from which they were brought, accusing them
|
|||
|
directly of extravagance and of glaring and stained character.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
9. The care of the health of the widows, and to proportion
|
|||
|
some amusement, it is not the least important that we should care
|
|||
|
for their salvation; and so, if they complain of some
|
|||
|
indisposition, we must prohibit the fast, the hair cloth girdle,
|
|||
|
and the discipline, without permitting them to go to church;
|
|||
|
further continue the direction, cautiously and secretly with such,
|
|||
|
that they may be examined in their houses; if they are given
|
|||
|
admission into the garden, and edifice of the college, with
|
|||
|
secrecy; and if they consent to converse and secretly entertain
|
|||
|
with those that they prefer.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
10. To the end that we may obtain, that the widows employ
|
|||
|
their utmost obsequiousness to the Society, it is the duty to
|
|||
|
represent to them the perfection of the life of the holy, who have
|
|||
|
renounced the world, estranged themselves from their relations, and
|
|||
|
despising their fortunes, consecrating themselves to the service of
|
|||
|
the Supreme Being with entire resignation and content. It will be
|
|||
|
necessary to produce the same effect, that those who turn away to
|
|||
|
the Constitutions of the Society, and their relative examination to
|
|||
|
the abandonment of all things. We must cite examples of the widows
|
|||
|
who have reached holiness in a very short time; giving hopes of
|
|||
|
their being canonized, if their perseverance does not decay; and
|
|||
|
promising for their cases our influence with the Holy Father.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
11. We must impress in their souls the persuasion that, if
|
|||
|
they desire to enjoy complete tranquility of conscience it will be
|
|||
|
necessary for them to follow without repugnance, without murmuring,
|
|||
|
nor tiring, the direction of the confessor, so in the spiritual, as
|
|||
|
in the eternal, that she may be found destined to the same God, by
|
|||
|
their guidance.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
12. Also we must direct with opportunity, that the Lord does
|
|||
|
not desire that they should give alms, nor yet to fathers of an
|
|||
|
exemplary life, known and approved, without consulting beforehand
|
|||
|
with their confessor, and regulating the dictation of the same.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
13. The confessors must take the greatest care, that the
|
|||
|
widows and their daughters of the confessional, do not go to see
|
|||
|
other fathers (i.e. non-Jesuit priests) under any pretext, nor with
|
|||
|
them. For this, we must praise our Society as the Order most
|
|||
|
illustrious of them all; of greater utility in the Church, and of
|
|||
|
greater authority with the Pope and with the princes; perfection in
|
|||
|
itself; then dismiss the dream of them, and menace them, that we
|
|||
|
can, and that we are no correspondents to them, we can say, that we
|
|||
|
do not consent to froth and do as among other monks who count in
|
|||
|
their convents many ignorant, stupid loungers who are indolent in
|
|||
|
regard to the other life, and intriguers in that to disorder, &c.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
14. The confessors must propose and persuade the widows to
|
|||
|
assign ordinary pensions and other annual quotas to the colleges
|
|||
|
and houses of profession for their sustenance with especially to
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
18
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
the professed house at Rome; and not forgetting to remind them of
|
|||
|
the restoration of the ornaments of the temples and replenishing of
|
|||
|
the wax, the wine, and other necessaries for the celebration of the
|
|||
|
mass.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
15. If they do not make relinquishment of their property to
|
|||
|
the Society, it will be made manifest to them, on apparent occasion
|
|||
|
in particular, when they are found to be sick, or in danger of
|
|||
|
death; that there are many colleges to be founded; and that they
|
|||
|
may be excited with sweetness and disinterestedness, to make some
|
|||
|
disbursements as merit for God, and in that they can found his
|
|||
|
etemal glory.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
16. In the same manner, we must proceed with regard to princes
|
|||
|
and other well doers, making them to see that such foundations will
|
|||
|
be made to perpetuate their memory in this world, and gain eternal
|
|||
|
happiness, and if some malevolent persons adduce the example of
|
|||
|
Jesus Christ, saying, that then he had no place to recline his
|
|||
|
head, the Society bearing his name should be poor in imitation of
|
|||
|
himself, we must make it known and imprint it in the imagination of
|
|||
|
those, and of all the world, that the Church has varied, and that
|
|||
|
in this day we have become a State; and we must show authority and
|
|||
|
grand measures against its enemies that are very powerful, or like
|
|||
|
that little stone prognosticated by the prophet, that, divided,
|
|||
|
came to be a great mountain. Inculcate constantly to the widows who
|
|||
|
dedicate their alms and ornaments to the temples, that the greater
|
|||
|
perfection is in disposing of the affection and earthly things,
|
|||
|
ceding their possession to Jesus Christ and his companions.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
17. Being very little, that which we must promise to the
|
|||
|
widows, who dedicate and educate their children for the world, we
|
|||
|
must apply some remedy to it.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER VIII.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
METHODS BY WHICH THE CHILDREN OF RICH WIDOWS
|
|||
|
MAY BE CAUSED TO EMBRACE THE RELIGIOUS STATE,
|
|||
|
OR OF DEVOTION.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. To secure our object, we must create the custom, that the
|
|||
|
mothers treat them severely, and show to them, that we are in love
|
|||
|
with them. Coming to induce the mothers to do away with their
|
|||
|
tastes, from the most tender age, and regarding, restraining, &c.,
|
|||
|
&c., the children especially; prohibiting decorations and
|
|||
|
adornments when they enter upon competent age; that they are
|
|||
|
inspired in the vocation for the cloister, promising them an
|
|||
|
endowment of consideration, if they embrace a similar state;
|
|||
|
representing to them the insipidity that is brought with matrimony,
|
|||
|
and the disgust that has been experienced in it; signifying to them
|
|||
|
the weight they would sit under, for not having maintained in the
|
|||
|
celibate. Lastly, coming to direct in the conclusions arrived at by
|
|||
|
the daughters of the widows, so fastidious of living with their
|
|||
|
mothers, that their feet will be directed to enter into a convent.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. We must make ourselves intimate with the sons of the widows, and
|
|||
|
if for them an object or the Society, and cause them to penetrate
|
|||
|
the intent of our colleges, making them to see things that can call
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
19
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
their attention by whatever mode, such as gardens, vineyards,
|
|||
|
country houses, and the farm houses where the masters go to
|
|||
|
recreate; talk to them of the voyages the Jesuits have made to
|
|||
|
different countries, of their treating with princes, and of much
|
|||
|
that can capture the young; cause them to note the cleanliness of
|
|||
|
the refectory, the commodiousness of the lodges, the agreeable
|
|||
|
conversation we have among ourselves, the suavity of our rule, and
|
|||
|
that we have all for the object of the greater glory of God; show
|
|||
|
to them the preeminence of our Order over all the others, taking
|
|||
|
care that the conversations we have shall be diverting to pass to
|
|||
|
that of piety.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
3. At proposing to them the religious state, have care of
|
|||
|
doing so, as if by revelation; and in general, insinuating directly
|
|||
|
with sagacity, the advantage and sweetness of our institute above
|
|||
|
all others; and in conversation cause them to understand the great
|
|||
|
sin that will be committed against the vocation of the Most High;
|
|||
|
in fine, induce them to make some spiritual exercises that they may
|
|||
|
be enlightened to the choice of this state.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
4. We must do all that is possible that the masters and
|
|||
|
professors of the youth indicated shall be of the Society, to the
|
|||
|
end, of being always vigilant over these, and counsel them; but if
|
|||
|
they cannot be reduced, we must cause them to be deprived of some
|
|||
|
things, causing that their mothers shall manifest their censure and
|
|||
|
authority of the house, that they may be tired of that sort of
|
|||
|
life; and if, finally, we cannot obtain their will to enter the
|
|||
|
Society, we must labor; because we can remand them to other
|
|||
|
colleges of ours that are at a distance, that they may study,
|
|||
|
procuring impediment, that their mothers show endearment and
|
|||
|
affection, at the same time, continuing for our part, in drawing
|
|||
|
them to us by suavity of methods.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER IX.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
UPON THE AUGMENTING OF REVENUE IN THE COLLEGES.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. We must do all that is possible, because we do not know if
|
|||
|
bound with the last vow of him, who is the claimant of an
|
|||
|
inheritance, meanwhile we do not know if it is confirmed, to not be
|
|||
|
had in the Society a younger brother, or of some other reason of
|
|||
|
much entity. Before all, that which we must procure, are the
|
|||
|
augmentations of the Society with rules to the ends agreed upon by
|
|||
|
the superiors, which must be conformable: for that the Church
|
|||
|
returns to its primitive splendor for the greater glory of God; of
|
|||
|
fate that all the clergy shall be found animated by a united
|
|||
|
spirit. To this end, we must publish by all methods, that the
|
|||
|
Society is composed in part of professors so poor, that are wanting
|
|||
|
of the most indispensable, to not be for the beneficence of the
|
|||
|
faithful; and that another part is of fathers also poor, although
|
|||
|
living upon the product of some household property; but not to be
|
|||
|
grievous to the public, in the midst of their studies, their
|
|||
|
ministry, as are other ordinary mendicants. The spiritual directors
|
|||
|
of princes, great men, accommodating widows, and of whom we have
|
|||
|
abundant hope, that they will be disposed at last to make gifts to
|
|||
|
the Society in exchange for spiritual and eternal things, that will
|
|||
|
be proportioned, the lands and temporalities which they possess;
|
|||
|
for the same, carrying always the idea, that we are not to lose the
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
20
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
occasion of receiving always as much as may be offered. If promises
|
|||
|
and the fulfillment of them is retarded, they are to be remembered
|
|||
|
with precaution, dissimulating as much as we can the coveting of
|
|||
|
riches. When some confessor of personages or other people, will not
|
|||
|
be apt, or wants subtility, that in these subjects is
|
|||
|
indispensable, he will be retired with opportunity, although others
|
|||
|
may be placed anticipatedly; and if it be entirely necessary to the
|
|||
|
penitents, it will be made necessary to take out the destitute to
|
|||
|
distant colleges, representing that the Society has need for them
|
|||
|
there; because it being known that some young widows, having
|
|||
|
unexpectedly failed, the Society not having the legacy of very
|
|||
|
precious movables, having been careless by not accepting in due
|
|||
|
time. But to receive these things, we could not attend at the time,
|
|||
|
and only at the good will of the penitent.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. To attract the prelates, canonicals and other rich
|
|||
|
ecclesiastics, it is necessary to employ certain arts, and in place
|
|||
|
procuring them to practice in our houses spiritual exercises, and
|
|||
|
gradually and energetically of the affection that we profess to
|
|||
|
divine things; so that they will be affectionate towards the
|
|||
|
Society and that they will soon offer pledges of their adhesion.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
3. The confessors must not forget to ask with the greatest
|
|||
|
caution and on adequate occasions of those who confess, what are
|
|||
|
their names, families, relatives, friends, and properties,
|
|||
|
informing their successors who follow them, the state, intention in
|
|||
|
which they will be found, and the resolution which they have taken;
|
|||
|
that which they have not yet determined obtaining, having to form
|
|||
|
a plan for the future to the Society. When it is founded, whence
|
|||
|
directly there are hopes of utility; for it will not be convenient
|
|||
|
to ask all at once; they will be counseled to make their confession
|
|||
|
each week, to disembarrass the conscience much before, or to the
|
|||
|
title of penitence. They will be caused to inform the confessor
|
|||
|
with repetition, of that which at one time they have not given
|
|||
|
sufficient light; and if they have been successful by this means,
|
|||
|
she will come, being a woman, to make confession with frequency,
|
|||
|
and visit our church; and being a man, he will be invited to our
|
|||
|
houses and we are to make him familiar with ourselves.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
4. That which is said in regard to widows, must have equal
|
|||
|
application to the merchants and neighbors of all classes, as being
|
|||
|
rich and married, but without children, of that plan by which the
|
|||
|
Society can arrive to be their heirs, if we put in play the
|
|||
|
measures that we may indicate; but over all, it will be well to
|
|||
|
have present, as said, near the rich devotees that treat with us,
|
|||
|
and of whom the vulgar can murmur, when more, if they are of a
|
|||
|
class not very elevated.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
5. Procuring for the rectors of the colleges entrance for all
|
|||
|
the ways of the houses, parks, groves, forests, lawns, arable
|
|||
|
lands, vineyards, olive orchards, hunting grounds, and whatever
|
|||
|
species of inheritances which they meet with in the end of their
|
|||
|
rectory; if their owners pertain to the nobility, to the clergy, or
|
|||
|
are negotiators, particulars, or religious communities, inquiring
|
|||
|
the revenues of each one, their loads and what they pay for them.
|
|||
|
All these dates or notices they are to seek for with great skill
|
|||
|
and to a fixed point, energetically yet from the confessional, then
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
21
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
of the relations of friendship; or of the accidental conversations;
|
|||
|
and the confessor meets with a penitent of possibles, he will be
|
|||
|
placed in knowledge of the rector, obtaining by all methods the one
|
|||
|
conserved.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
6. The essential point to build upon, is the following: that
|
|||
|
we must so manage, that in the ends we gain the will and affections
|
|||
|
of our penitents, and other persons with whom we treat,
|
|||
|
accommodating ourselves to their inclinations if they are
|
|||
|
conducive. The Provincials will take care to direct some of us to
|
|||
|
points, in which reside the nobility and the powerful; and if the
|
|||
|
Provincials do not act with opportunity, the rectors must notice
|
|||
|
with anticipation, the crops (the field of operations) that are
|
|||
|
there, which we go to examine.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
7. When we receive the sons of strong houses in the Society,
|
|||
|
they must show whether they will be easy to acquire the contracts
|
|||
|
and titles of possession; and if so they were to enter of
|
|||
|
themselves, of which they may be caused to cede some of their
|
|||
|
property to the college, or the usufruct (profit) or for rent, or
|
|||
|
in other form, or if they can come for a time into the Society, the
|
|||
|
gain of which may be very much of an object, to give a special
|
|||
|
understanding to the great and powerful, the narrowness in which we
|
|||
|
live, and the debts that are pressing us.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
8. When the widows, or our married devoted women, do not have
|
|||
|
more than daughters, we must persuade them to the same life of
|
|||
|
devotion, or to that of the cloister; but that except the endowment
|
|||
|
that they may give, they can enter their property in the Society
|
|||
|
gently; but when they have husbands, those that would object to the
|
|||
|
Society, they will be catechized; and others who desire to enter as
|
|||
|
religiouses in other Orders, with the promise of some reduced
|
|||
|
amount. When there may be an only son, he must be attracted at all
|
|||
|
cost, inculcating the vocation as made by Jesus Christ; causing him
|
|||
|
to be entirely disembarrassed from the fear of its fathers, and
|
|||
|
persuading him to make a sacrifice very acceptable to the Almighty,
|
|||
|
that he must withdraw to His authority, abandon the paternal house
|
|||
|
and enter in the Society; the which, if he so succeeds, after
|
|||
|
having given part to the General, he will be sent to a distant
|
|||
|
novitiate; but if they have daughters, they will primarily dispose
|
|||
|
the daughters for a religious life; and they will be caused to
|
|||
|
enter into some monastery, and afterwards be received as daughters
|
|||
|
in the Society, with the succession of its properties.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
9. The Superiors will place in the channel of the
|
|||
|
circumstances, the confessors of these widows and married people,
|
|||
|
that they on all future occasions may act for the benefit of the
|
|||
|
Society; and when by means of one, they cannot take our part he
|
|||
|
will be replaced with another; and if it is made necessary, he will
|
|||
|
be sent to great distances, of a manner that he cannot follow
|
|||
|
understandingly with these families.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
10. If we succeed in convincing the widows and devoted
|
|||
|
persons, who aspire with fervor to a perfect life, and that the
|
|||
|
better means to obtain it is by ceding all their properties to the
|
|||
|
Society, supporting by their revenues, that they will be
|
|||
|
religiously administered until their death, conforming to the
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
22
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
degree of necessity in which they may be found, and the just reason
|
|||
|
that may be employed for their persuasion is, that by this mode,
|
|||
|
they can be exclusively dedicated to God; without attentions and
|
|||
|
molestations, which would perplex them, and that it is the only
|
|||
|
road to reach the highest degree of perfection.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
11. The Superiors craving the confidence of the rich, who are
|
|||
|
attached to the Society, delivering receipts of its proper hand
|
|||
|
writing whose payment afterwards will differ; not forgetting to
|
|||
|
often visit those who loan, to exhort them above all in their
|
|||
|
infirmities of consideration, as to whom will devolve the papers of
|
|||
|
the debt; because it is not so to be found mention of the Society
|
|||
|
in their testament; and by this course we must acquire properties,
|
|||
|
without giving cause for us to be hated by the heirs.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
12. We must also in a grand manner ask for a loan, with
|
|||
|
payment of annual interest, and employ the same capital in other
|
|||
|
speculation to produce greater revenues to the Society; for at such
|
|||
|
a time, succeeding to move them with compassion to that which they
|
|||
|
will lend to us, we will not lose the interest in the testament of
|
|||
|
donation, when they see that they found colleges and churches.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
13. The Society can report the utilities of commerce, and
|
|||
|
value the name of the merchant of credit, whose friendship we may
|
|||
|
possess.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
14. Among the peoples where our fathers reside, we must have
|
|||
|
physicians faithful to the Society, whom we can especially
|
|||
|
recommend to the sick, and to paint under an aspect very superior
|
|||
|
to that of other religious orders, and secure direction that we
|
|||
|
shall be called to assist the powerful, particularly in the hour of
|
|||
|
death.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
15. That the confessors shall visit with assiduity the sick,
|
|||
|
particularly those who are in danger, and to honestly eliminate the
|
|||
|
other fathers, which the superiors will procure, when the confessor
|
|||
|
sees that he is obliged to remove the other from the suffering, to
|
|||
|
replace and maintain the sick in his good intentions. Meanwhile we
|
|||
|
must inculcate as much as we can with prudence, the fear of hell,
|
|||
|
&c., &c., or when, the lesser ones of purgatory; demonstrating that
|
|||
|
as water will put out fire, so will the same alms blot out the sin;
|
|||
|
and that we cannot employ the alms better, than in the maintaining
|
|||
|
and subsidizing of the persons, who, by their vocation, have made
|
|||
|
profession of caring for the salvation of their neighbor; that in
|
|||
|
this manner the sick can be made to participate in their merits,
|
|||
|
and find satisfaction for their own sins; placing before them that
|
|||
|
charity covereth a multitude of sins; and that also, we can
|
|||
|
describe that charity, is as a nuptial vestment, without which, no
|
|||
|
one can be admitted to the heavenly table. in fine it will be
|
|||
|
necessary to move them to the citations of the scriptures, and of
|
|||
|
the holy fathers, that according to the capacity of the sick, we
|
|||
|
can judge what is most efficacious to move them.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
16. We must teach the women, that they must complain of the
|
|||
|
vices of their husbands, and the disturbances which they occasion,
|
|||
|
that they can rob them in secret of some amounts of money, to offer
|
|||
|
to God, in expiation of the sins of their husbands, and to obtain
|
|||
|
their pardon.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
23
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER X.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
OF THE PARTICULAR RIGOR OF DISCIPLINE
|
|||
|
IN THE SOCIETY.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. If there shall be anyone dismissed under any protest, as an
|
|||
|
enemy of the Society, whatever may be his condition, or age; all
|
|||
|
those who have been moved to become the devotees of our churches;
|
|||
|
or of visiting ourselves; or who having been made to take the alms
|
|||
|
on the way to other churches; or who having been found to give to
|
|||
|
other fathers; or who having dissuaded any rich man, and well
|
|||
|
intentioned towards our Society, or giving anything; or in the time
|
|||
|
in which he can dispose of his properties, having shown great
|
|||
|
affection for his relations with this Society; because it is a
|
|||
|
great proof of a mortified disposition; and we conclude that the
|
|||
|
professions are entirely mortified; or also, that he having
|
|||
|
scattered all the alms of the penitents, or of the friends of the
|
|||
|
Society, in favor of his poor relations. Furthermore, that he may
|
|||
|
not complain afterwards of the cause of his expulsion, it will be
|
|||
|
necessary to thrust him from us directly; but we can prohibit him
|
|||
|
from hearing confessions, which will mortify him, and vex him by
|
|||
|
imposing upon him most vile offices, obliging him each day to do
|
|||
|
things that are the most repugnant; he will be removed from the
|
|||
|
highest studies and honorable employments; he will be reprimanded
|
|||
|
in the chapters by public censures; he will be excluded from the
|
|||
|
recreations and prohibited from all conversation with strangers; he
|
|||
|
will be deprived of his vestments and the uses of other things when
|
|||
|
they are not indispensable, until he begins to murmur and becomes
|
|||
|
impatient; then he can be expelled as a shameful person, to give a
|
|||
|
bad example to others; and if it is necessary to give account to
|
|||
|
his relatives, or to the prelates of the Church, of the reason for
|
|||
|
which he has been thrust out, it will be sufficient to say that he
|
|||
|
does not possess the spirit of the Society.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. Furthermore, having also expelled all those who may have
|
|||
|
scrupled to acquire properties for the Society, we must direct,
|
|||
|
that they are too much addicted to their own judgment. If we desire
|
|||
|
to give reason of their conduct to the Provincials, it is necessary
|
|||
|
not to give them a hearing; but call for the rule, that they are
|
|||
|
obligated to a blind obedience.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
3. It will be necessary to note, whence the beginning and
|
|||
|
whence their youth, those who have great affection for the Society;
|
|||
|
and those which we recognize their affection until the furthest
|
|||
|
orders, or until their relatives, or until the poor shall be
|
|||
|
necessarily disposed, little by little, as carefully said, to go
|
|||
|
out; then they are useless.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER XI.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
HOW WE MUST CONDUCT OURSELVES
|
|||
|
UNITEDLY AGAINST THOSE
|
|||
|
WHO HAVE BEEN EXPELLED FROM THE SOCIETY.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. As those whom we have expelled, when knowing little or
|
|||
|
something of the secrets, the most times are noxious to the Society
|
|||
|
for the same, it shall be necessary to obviate their efforts by the
|
|||
|
following method, before thrusting them out; it will be necessary
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
24
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
to obligate them to promise, by writing, and under oath, that they
|
|||
|
will never by writing or speaking, do anything which may be
|
|||
|
prejudicial to the Society; and it will be good that the Superiors
|
|||
|
guard a point of their evil inclinations, of their defects and of
|
|||
|
their vices; that they are the same, having to manifest in the
|
|||
|
discharge of their duties, following the custom of the Society, for
|
|||
|
that, if it should be necessary, this point can serve near the
|
|||
|
great, and the prelates to hinder their advancement.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. Constant notice must be given to an the colleges of their
|
|||
|
having been expelled; and we must exaggerate the general motives of
|
|||
|
their expulsion; as the little mortification of their spirit; their
|
|||
|
disobedience; their little love for spiritual exercises; their self
|
|||
|
love, &c., &c. Afterwards, we must admonish them, that they must
|
|||
|
not have any correspondence with them; and they must speak of them
|
|||
|
as strangers; that the language of all shall be uniform, and that
|
|||
|
it may be told everywhere, that the Society never expels any one
|
|||
|
without very grave causes, and that as the sea casts up dead
|
|||
|
bodies, &c., &c. We must insinuate with caution, similar reasons to
|
|||
|
these, causing them to be abhorred by the people, that for their
|
|||
|
expulsion it may appear plausible.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
3. In the domestic exhortations, it will be necessary to
|
|||
|
persuade people that they have been turned out as unquiet persons;
|
|||
|
that they continue to beg each moment to enter anew into the
|
|||
|
Society; and it will be good to exaggerate the misfortunes of those
|
|||
|
who have perished miserably, after having separated from the
|
|||
|
Society.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
4. It will also be opportune to send forth the accusations,
|
|||
|
that they have gone out from the Society, which we can formulate by
|
|||
|
means of grave persons, who will everywhere repeat that the Society
|
|||
|
never expels any one but for grave causes; and that they never part
|
|||
|
with their healthy members; the which they can confirm by their
|
|||
|
zeal, and show in general for the salvation of the souls of them
|
|||
|
that do not pertain to them; and how much greater will it not be
|
|||
|
for the salvation of their own.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
5. Afterwards, the Society must prepare and attract by all
|
|||
|
classes of benefits, the magnates, or prelates, with whom those who
|
|||
|
have been expelled begin to enjoy some authority and credit. It
|
|||
|
will be necessary to show that the common good of an Order so
|
|||
|
celebrated as useful in the Church, must be of more consideration,
|
|||
|
than that if a particular one who has been cast out. If an this
|
|||
|
affliction preserves some affection for those expelled, it will be
|
|||
|
good to indicate the reasons which have caused their expulsion; and
|
|||
|
yet exaggerate the causes the more that they were not very true;
|
|||
|
with such they can draw their conclusions as to the probable
|
|||
|
consequences.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
6. Of all modes, it will be necessary that they particularly
|
|||
|
have abandoned the Society by their own free will; not being
|
|||
|
promoted to a single employment or dignity in the Church; that they
|
|||
|
would not submit themselves and much that pertains to the Society;
|
|||
|
and that all the world should withdraw from them that desire to
|
|||
|
depend on them.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
25
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
7. Procuring soon, that they are removed from the exercise of
|
|||
|
the functions celebrated in the Church, such as the sermons,
|
|||
|
confessions, publication of books, &c., &c., so that they do not
|
|||
|
win the love and applause of the people. For this, we must come to
|
|||
|
inquire diligently upon their life and their habits; upon their
|
|||
|
occupations, &c., &c., penetrate into their intentions, for the
|
|||
|
which, we must have particular correspondence with some of the
|
|||
|
family in whose house they live, of those who have been expelled.
|
|||
|
In surprising something reprehensible in them or worthy of censure,
|
|||
|
which is to be divulged by people of medium quality; giving in
|
|||
|
following the steps conducive to reach the hearing of the great,
|
|||
|
and the prelates, who favor then, that they may be caused to fear
|
|||
|
that the infamy will relapse upon themselves. If they do nothing
|
|||
|
that merits reprehension, and conduct themselves well, we must
|
|||
|
curtail them by subtle propositions and captious phrases, their
|
|||
|
virtues and meritorious actions, causing that the idea that has
|
|||
|
been formed of them, and the faith that is had in them, may little
|
|||
|
by little be made to disappear; this is of great interest for the
|
|||
|
Society, that those whom we repel, and more principally those who
|
|||
|
by their own will abandon us, shall be sunk in obscurity and
|
|||
|
oblivion.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
8. We must divulge without ceasing the disgraces and sinister
|
|||
|
accidents that they bring upon them, notwithstanding the faithful,
|
|||
|
who entreat for them in their prayers, that they may not believe
|
|||
|
that we work from impulses of passion. In our houses we must
|
|||
|
exaggerate by every method these calamities, that they may serve to
|
|||
|
hinder others.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER XII.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
WHO MAY COME THAT THEY MAY BE SUSTAINED
|
|||
|
AND PRESERVED IN THE SOCIETY.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. The first place in the Society pertains to the good
|
|||
|
operators; that is to say, those who cannot procure less for the
|
|||
|
temporal than for the spiritual good of the Society; such as the
|
|||
|
confessors of princes, of the powerful, of the widows, of the rich
|
|||
|
pious women, the preachers and the professors who know all these
|
|||
|
secrets.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. Those who have already failed in strength or advanced in
|
|||
|
years; conforming to the use they have made of their talents in and
|
|||
|
for the temporal good of the Society; of the manner which has
|
|||
|
attended them in days that are passed; and further, are yet
|
|||
|
convenient instruments to give part to the Superiors of the
|
|||
|
ordinary defects which are to be noted in ourselves, for they are
|
|||
|
always in the house.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
3. We must never expel but in case of extreme necessity, for
|
|||
|
fear of the Society acquiring a bad reputation.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
4. Furthermore, it will be necessary to favor those who excel
|
|||
|
by their talent, their nobleness and their fortune; particularly if
|
|||
|
they have powerful friends attached to the Society; and if they
|
|||
|
themselves have for it a sincere appreciation, as we have already
|
|||
|
said before. They must be sent to Rome, or to the universities of
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
26
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
greater reputation to study there; or in case of having studied in
|
|||
|
some province, it will be very convenient that the professors
|
|||
|
attend to them with special care and affection. Meanwhile, they not
|
|||
|
having conveyed their property to the Society, we must not refuse
|
|||
|
them anything; for after confirming the cession, they will be
|
|||
|
disappointed as the others, notwithstanding guarding some
|
|||
|
consideration for the past.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
5. Having also especial consideration on the part of the
|
|||
|
Superiors, for those that have brought to the Society, a young
|
|||
|
notable, placed so that they are given to know the affection made
|
|||
|
to it; but if they have not professed, it is necessary to take care
|
|||
|
of not having too much indulgence with them, for fear that they may
|
|||
|
return at another time, to carry away those whom they have brought
|
|||
|
to the Society.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER XIII.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
OF THE YOUTH WHO MAY BE ELECTED TO BE ADMITTED
|
|||
|
INTO THE SOCIETY,
|
|||
|
AND OF THE MODE OF RETAINING THEM.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. It is necessary that much prudence shall be exercised,
|
|||
|
respecting the election of the Youth; having to be sprightly,
|
|||
|
noble, well liked, or at the least excellent in some of these
|
|||
|
qualities.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. To attract them with greater facility to our institute, it
|
|||
|
is necessary in the meanwhile, to study that the rectors and
|
|||
|
professors of colleges shall exhibit an especial affection; and
|
|||
|
outside the time of the classes, to make them comprehend how great
|
|||
|
is God, and that some one should consecrate to his service all that
|
|||
|
he possesses; and particularly if he is in the Society of his Son.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
3. Whenever the opportunity may arrive, conducive in the
|
|||
|
college and in the garden, and yet at times to the country houses,
|
|||
|
that in the company of ourselves, during the recreations, that we
|
|||
|
may familiarize with them, little by little, being careful,
|
|||
|
notwithstanding, that the familiarity does not engender disgust.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
4. We cannot consent that we shall punish them, nor oblige
|
|||
|
them to assemble at their tasks among those who are the most
|
|||
|
educated.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
5. We must congratulate them with gifts and privileges
|
|||
|
conforming to their age and encouraging above all others with moral
|
|||
|
discourses.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
6. We must inculcate them, that it is for one divine
|
|||
|
disposition, that they are favorites among so many who frequent the
|
|||
|
same college.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
7. On other occasions, especially in the exhortations, we must
|
|||
|
aim to terrify them with menaces of the eternal condemnation, if
|
|||
|
they refuse the divine vocation.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
27
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
8. Meanwhile frequently expressing the anxiety to enter the
|
|||
|
Society, we must always defer their admission, that they may remain
|
|||
|
constant; but if for these, they are undecided, then we must
|
|||
|
encourage them incessantly by other methods.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
9. If we admonish effectively, that none of their friends, nor
|
|||
|
yet the fathers, nor the mothers discover their vocation before
|
|||
|
being admitted; because then, if then, they come to the temptation
|
|||
|
of withdrawing; so many as the Society desires to give full liberty
|
|||
|
of doing that which may be the most convenient; and in case of
|
|||
|
succeeding to conquer the temptation, we must never lose occasions
|
|||
|
to make them recover spirit; remembering that which we have said,
|
|||
|
always that this will succeed during the time of the novitiate, or
|
|||
|
after having made their simple vows.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
10. With respect to the sons of the great, nobles, and
|
|||
|
senators, as it is supremely difficult to attract them, meanwhile
|
|||
|
living with their fathers, who are having them educated to the end,
|
|||
|
that they may succeed in their destinies, we must persuade,
|
|||
|
vigorously, of the better influences of friends that are persons of
|
|||
|
the same Society; that they are ordered to other provinces, or to
|
|||
|
distant universities in which there are our teachers; careful to
|
|||
|
remit to the respective professors the necessary instructions,
|
|||
|
appropriate to their quality and condition, that they may gain
|
|||
|
their friendship for the Society with greater facility and
|
|||
|
certainty.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
11. When having arrived at a more advanced age, they will be
|
|||
|
induced to practice some spiritual exercises, that they may have so
|
|||
|
good an exit in Germany and Poland.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
12. We must console them in their sadness and afflictions,
|
|||
|
according to the quality and dispositions of each one, making use
|
|||
|
of private reprimands and exhortations appropriate to the bad use
|
|||
|
of riches; inculcating upon them that they should depreciate the
|
|||
|
felicity of a vocation, menacing them with the pains of hell for
|
|||
|
the things they do.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
13. It will be necessary to make patent to the fathers and the
|
|||
|
mothers, that they may condescend more easily to the desire of
|
|||
|
their sons of entering the Society, the excellence of its institute
|
|||
|
in comparison with those of other orders; the sanctity and the
|
|||
|
science of our fathers; its reputation in all the world; the honor
|
|||
|
and distinctions of the different great and small. We must make
|
|||
|
enumeration of the princes and the magnates, that, with great
|
|||
|
content, have lived until their death, and yet living in the
|
|||
|
Society. We must show how agreeable it is to God, that the youth
|
|||
|
consecrate themselves to Him, particularly in the Society of his
|
|||
|
Son: and what thing is there so sublime as that of a man carrying
|
|||
|
the yoke of the Lord from his youth. That if they oppose any
|
|||
|
objections because of their extreme youth, then we must present the
|
|||
|
facility of our institute, the which not having anything to molest,
|
|||
|
with the exception of the three vows, and that which is most
|
|||
|
notable, that we do not have any obligatory rule, nor yet under
|
|||
|
penalty of venial sin.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
28
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER XIV.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
UPON RESERVED CASES AND MOTIVES THAT NECESSITATE
|
|||
|
EXPULSION FROM THE SOCIETY.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. To most of the cases expressed in the Constitutions, and of
|
|||
|
which only the Superior or the ordinary confessor, with permission
|
|||
|
of this, can absolve them, where there is sodomy, unnatural crime,
|
|||
|
formication, adultery, of the unchaste touch of a man, or of a
|
|||
|
woman; also if under the pretext of Zeal, or whatever motive, they
|
|||
|
have done some grave thing against the Society; against its honors
|
|||
|
and its gains; these will be just causes for reason of the
|
|||
|
expulsion of the guilty.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. If anyone confesses in the confessional of having committed
|
|||
|
some similar act, he will not be promised absolution, until he has
|
|||
|
promised to reveal to the Superior, outside of the confessional,
|
|||
|
the same or by his confessor. The Superior will operate the better
|
|||
|
for it, in the general interests of the Society; further, if there
|
|||
|
is founded hope of the careful hiding of the crime, it will be
|
|||
|
necessary to impose upon the guilty a convenient punishment; if
|
|||
|
otherwise he can be expelled much before. With all the care that is
|
|||
|
possible, the confessor will give the penitent to understand that
|
|||
|
he runs the danger of being expelled.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
3. If any one of our confessors, having heard a strange person
|
|||
|
say, that he had committed a shameful thing with one of the
|
|||
|
Society, he will not absolve such a person, without his having
|
|||
|
said, outside of his confession, the name of the one with whom he
|
|||
|
has sinned; and if he so says, he will be made to swear that he
|
|||
|
will not divulge the same, without the consent of the Society.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
4. If two of ourselves have sinned carnally, he who first
|
|||
|
avows it will be retained in the Society; and the other will be
|
|||
|
expelled; but he who remains permanent, will be after such
|
|||
|
mortification and bad treatment, of sorrow, and by his impatience,
|
|||
|
and if we have occasion for his expulsion, it will be necessary for
|
|||
|
the future of it that it be done directly.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
5. The Society being a noble corporation and preeminent in the
|
|||
|
Church, it can dismiss those that will not be apt for the execution
|
|||
|
of our object, although giving satisfaction in the beginning; and
|
|||
|
the opportunity does not delay in presenting itself; if it procures
|
|||
|
continuous maltreatment; and if he is obliged to do contrary to his
|
|||
|
inclination; if they are gathered under the orders of gloomy
|
|||
|
Superiors; if he is separated from his studies and from the
|
|||
|
honorable functions, &c., &c., until be gets to murmuring.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
6. In no manner must we retain in the Society, those that
|
|||
|
openly reveal against their Superiors, or that will complain
|
|||
|
publicly, or reservedly, of their companions, or particularly if
|
|||
|
they make them to strangers; nor to those who are among ourselves,
|
|||
|
or among persons who are on the outside, censure the conduct of the
|
|||
|
Society in regard to the acquisition or administration of temporal
|
|||
|
properties, or whatever acts of the same; for example, of crushing
|
|||
|
or oppressing many of those whom we do not wish well, or that they
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
29
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
the same having been expelled, &c., &c. Nor yet those, that in
|
|||
|
conversation, who tolerate, or defend the Venetians, the French and
|
|||
|
others, that have driven the Society away from the territories, or
|
|||
|
that have occasioned great prejudices.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
7. Before the expulsion of any we must vex and harass them in
|
|||
|
the extreme; depriving them of the functions that they have been
|
|||
|
accustomed to discharge, dedicating them to others. Although they
|
|||
|
may do well, it will be necessary to censure them, and with this
|
|||
|
pretext, apply them to another thing. Imposing by a trifling fault
|
|||
|
that they have committed the most severe penalties, that they blush
|
|||
|
in public, until they have lost all patience; and at last will be
|
|||
|
expelled as pernicious to all, for which a future opportunity will
|
|||
|
present itself when they will think less.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
8. When some one of the Society has a certain hope of
|
|||
|
obtaining a bishopric, or whatever other ecclesiastical dignity, to
|
|||
|
most of the ordinary vows of the Society he will be obliged to take
|
|||
|
another; and that is, that he will always preserve good sentiments
|
|||
|
towards the Society; that he will always speak favorably of it;
|
|||
|
that he will not have a confessor that will not be to its bosom;
|
|||
|
that he will do nothing of entity without having heard the justice
|
|||
|
of the same. Because in consequence of not having observed this,
|
|||
|
the Cardinal Tolet the Society had obtained of the Holy See, that
|
|||
|
no swinish descendants of Jews or Mahometans were admitted, that he
|
|||
|
did not desire to take such vows; and that for celebrity that is
|
|||
|
out, he was expelled as a firm enemy of the Society.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER XV.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
HOW THE SOCIETY MUST BE CONDUCTED
|
|||
|
WITH THE MONKS AND NUNS.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. The confessors and preachers must guard well against
|
|||
|
offending the nuns and occasioning temptations contrary to their
|
|||
|
vocation; but on the contrary, having conciliated the love of the
|
|||
|
Lady Superiors, that we obtain to hear, when less, their
|
|||
|
extraordinary confessions, and that it is predicted that we may
|
|||
|
hope soon to receive some gratitude from them; because the
|
|||
|
abbesses, principally the rich and noble, can be of much utility to
|
|||
|
the Society, by themselves, and by their relatives and friends; of
|
|||
|
the manner with which we treat with them and influence of the
|
|||
|
principal monasteries, the Society will little by little arrive to
|
|||
|
obtain the knowledge of all the corporation and increase its
|
|||
|
friendship.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. It will be necessary, notwithstanding, to prohibit our nuns
|
|||
|
from frequenting the monasteries of women, for fear that their mode
|
|||
|
of life may be more agreeable, and that the Society will see itself
|
|||
|
frustrated in the hopes of possessing all their properties. We must
|
|||
|
induce them to take the vow of chastity and obedience, at the hands
|
|||
|
of their confessors; and to show them that this mode of life will
|
|||
|
conform with the uses of the Primitive Church, placed as a light to
|
|||
|
shine in the house, and that it cannot be hidden under a measure,
|
|||
|
without the edification of their neighbor, and without fruit for
|
|||
|
the souls; furthermore, that in imitation of the widows of the
|
|||
|
Gospel, doing well by giving themselves to Jesus Christ and to his
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
30
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Society. If they were to know how evil it can possibly be, of the
|
|||
|
life of the cloisters; but these instructions must be given under
|
|||
|
the seal of inviolable secrecy that they do not come to the ears of
|
|||
|
the monks.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER XVI.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
HOW WE MUST MAKE PROFESSION OF DESPISING RICHES.
|
|||
|
["How we must pretend to despise wealth."]
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. With the end of preventing the seculars from directing
|
|||
|
attention to our itching for riches, it will be useful to repel at
|
|||
|
times alms of little amount, by which we can allow them to do
|
|||
|
services for our Society; though we must accept the smallest
|
|||
|
amounts from people attached to us, for fear that we may be accused
|
|||
|
of avarice, if we only receive those that are most numerous.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. We must refuse sepulture to persons of the lowest class in
|
|||
|
our churches, though they may have been very attached to our
|
|||
|
Society; for we do not believe that we must seek riches by the
|
|||
|
number of interments, and we must hold firmly the gains that we
|
|||
|
have made with the dead.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
3. In regard to the widows and other persons who have left
|
|||
|
their properties to the Society, we must labor with resolution and
|
|||
|
greater vigor than with the others; things being equal, and not to
|
|||
|
be made apparent, that we favor some more than others, in
|
|||
|
consideration of their temporal properties. The same must be
|
|||
|
observed with those that pertain to the Society, after that they
|
|||
|
have made cession of their property; and if it be necessary to
|
|||
|
expel them from the Society, it must be done with discretion, to
|
|||
|
the end that they leave to the Society a part for the less of that
|
|||
|
which they have given, or that which they have bequeathed at the
|
|||
|
time of their death.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
CHAPTER XVII.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
METHODS TO EXALT THE COMPANY.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
1. Treating principally all, though in things of little
|
|||
|
consequence, we must have the same opinion, or at least exterior
|
|||
|
dignity; for by this manner we may augment and strengthen the
|
|||
|
Society more and more; to overthrow the barrier we have overcome in
|
|||
|
the business of the world.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
2. Thus strengthening all, it will shine by its wisdom and
|
|||
|
good example, that we shall excel all the other fathers, and
|
|||
|
particularly the pastors, &c., &c., until the people desire us to
|
|||
|
all. Publicly divulging that the pastors do not need to possess so
|
|||
|
much knowledge; with such they can discharge well their duties,
|
|||
|
stating that they can assist them with the counsels of the Society;
|
|||
|
that for this motive they can dedicate themselves to all classes of
|
|||
|
studies.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
31
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Secret Instructions of the Society of Jesus
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
3. We must inculcate this doctrine with kings and princes,
|
|||
|
THAT THE CATHOLIC FAITH CANNOT SUBSIST IN THE PRESENT STATE,
|
|||
|
WITHOUT POLITICS; but that in this, it is necessary to proceed with
|
|||
|
much certainty. Of this mode, we must share the affection of the
|
|||
|
great, and BE ADMITTED TO THE MOST SECRET COUNSELS.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
4. We must entertain their good will, by writing from all
|
|||
|
parts interesting facts and notices.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
5. It will be no little advantage that will result, by
|
|||
|
secretly and prudently fomenting dissensions between the great,
|
|||
|
ruining or augmenting their power. But if we perceive some
|
|||
|
appearance of reconciliation between them, then we of the Society
|
|||
|
will treat and act as pacificators; that it shall not be that any
|
|||
|
others shall anticipate to obtain it.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
6. As much to the magnates as to the people, we must persuade
|
|||
|
them by all possible means, that the Society has not been, but by
|
|||
|
especial Divine Providence, conforming to the prophecies of the
|
|||
|
Abbot Joachim, for to return and raise up the Church, humbled by
|
|||
|
the heretics.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
7. Having acquired the favor of the great and of the bishops,
|
|||
|
it will be an entire necessity, of empowering the curates and
|
|||
|
prebendaries to more exactly reform the clergy, that in other times
|
|||
|
lived under certain rule with the bishops, and tending to
|
|||
|
perfection; also it will be necessary to inspire the abbeys and
|
|||
|
prefaces; the which it will not be difficult to obtain; calling
|
|||
|
attention to the indolence and stupidity of the monks as if they
|
|||
|
were cattle; because it will be very advantageous for the Church,
|
|||
|
if all the bishoprics were occupied by members of the Society; and
|
|||
|
yet, as if it was the same apostolic chair, particularly if the
|
|||
|
Pope should return as temporal prince of all the properties; for as
|
|||
|
much as it is very necessary to extend little by little, with much
|
|||
|
secrecy and skill, the temporalities of the Society; and not having
|
|||
|
any doubt that the world will enter the golden age, to enjoy a
|
|||
|
perfect universal peace, for following the divine benediction that
|
|||
|
will descend upon the Church.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
8. But if we do not hope that we can obtain this, supposing
|
|||
|
that it is necessary that scandals shall come in the world, WE MUST
|
|||
|
BE CAREFUL TO CHANGE OUR POLITICS, CONFORMING TO THE TIMES, AND
|
|||
|
EXCITE THE PRINCES, FRIENDS OF OURS TO mutually make terrible wars
|
|||
|
THAT EVERYWHERE THE MEDIATION OF THE SOCIETY WILL BE IMPLORED; that
|
|||
|
we may be employed in the public reconciliation, for it will be the
|
|||
|
cause of the common good; and we shall be recompensed by the
|
|||
|
PRINCIPAL ECCLESIASTICAL DIGNITIES; and the BETTER BENEFICIARIES.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
9. In fine, that the Society afterwards can yet count upon the
|
|||
|
favor and authority of the princes, procuring THAT THOSE WHO DO NOT
|
|||
|
LOVE US SHALL FEAR US.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
**** ****
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
**** ****
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
BANK of WISDOM
|
|||
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
32
|
|||
|
|