Council of Trent was gradually accepted in all Roman Catholic countries, and is the final conclusion of the Catholic doctrine. In this manner every attempt at innovation was prevented, and Roman Catholicism was impressed with the character of stability; while development and progress is the essence of Protestantism. Luther's Cathol icism. Luther's work was followed by gratifying results even for the Roman Effect of Church. The Protestant Reformation was also a Catholic Reformation. The formidable and growing opposition from without forced the Church of Rome to reform itself within, in order to preserve its existence. Thus, while religious beliefs and principles had undergone a remarkable transformation, especially in Northern and Central Europe, a Catholic reaction, or counter-revolution, had already commenced, which arrested the progress of the Reformation, and neutral- Catholic ized its results in Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, Italy and Spain, or, in other words, in all the countries subject to either the Austrian or the Spanish branch of the House of Hapsburg. Reaction. tion of the Roman Church. This was partly due to the powerful moral reaction felt almost Purificaequally within and without the Roman Church against the old-time venality and corruption of the clergy. Many virtuous prelates the Catholic greatest and best of whom was Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan -restored the respectability of the Church; and ever since no Pope has disgraced his station by the shameful iniquities of Alexander VI. or the refined voluptuousness of Leo X. As the reforms for which Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli and Calvin had striven were thus effected, the necessity for a separation from the old established Church became less strongly felt. The efforts of the Popes to suppress the Reformation, or to arrest its progress, found their chief support in the Order of Jesuits, which was founded in the year 1540 by the enthusiastic and chivalrous Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish nobleman. During the healing of the wound which he had received at the defense of Pampeluna in 1521, his mind was turned to serious reflection by reading the Lives of the Saints. He accordingly renounced the military profession, and with prayers and penance made a toilsome pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulcher at Jerusalem, but returned to his native land at the command of the papal legate. Ignatius and the Jesuits. Educa tion. So ignorant was Ignatius Loyola at the age of thirty-three that he Loyola's then had to begin his elementary education. With incredible perseverance he acquired the education which he needed, beginning at a school at Barcelona, and completing his studies in the great universities of Alcala, Salamanca and Paris. At each of these places he labored to convert the students to a religious life. Among his early converts at Paris were Peter Faber, Francis Xavier and Peter Laynez. His Three Monastic Vows. Founding of the Society of Jesus. Constitution of the Order. Four Classes of the Order. Jesuit Asceticism. These all went through the "Spiritual Exercises " with him, and he made them fast three days and three nights at a time. In 1534, when Loyola was in his forty-third year, he and six of his young disciples at Paris took upon themselves the three monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, along with a fourth vow to devote themselves to the service of Christ by going as missionaries wherever the Pope might send them. They were to complete their studies first, and the vow was to take effect in three years. In 1540 Ignatius Loyola and his disciples submitted to Pope Paul III. the rules which they had adopted and the purpose to which they had devoted their lives. The Pope approved the new institution, which became incorporated under the name of the Society of Jesus. In 1541 Ignatius Loyola was elected the first General of the Order; but his constitution was not approved until the election of his successor, Peter Laynez, one of his earliest disciples and also a Spaniard. The Pope endowed the Jesuits, as the members of the new Order were called, with great privileges. The Jesuits adopted a monarchical and oligarchical government; and the General of the Order, residing at Rome, knew each member's qualifications and work. The Order was divided into provinces; and the provincial, as well as the local superiors, were appointed by the General, who was aided in the government of the Order by assistants. The Provincials who governed the districts or provinces made reports to the General at regular intervals concerning the conduct and character of the members. In case the General proved unworthy of his trust, the assistants could convoke a general assembly of deputies to investigate charges, and even to go so far as to proceed to depose or expel the offender. The four classes into which this powerful religious association was divided were: 1. The Professed, who, after going through the other stages, had taken all vows; 2. The Coadjutors, who aided the Professed in teaching, preaching and the direction of souls; 3. The Scholastics, employed in study or teaching; 4. The Novices, who passed two years in spiritual exercises, such as prayer and meditation. Strict obedience and perfect subordination in everything compatible with the laws and precepts of Christianity became the soul of this famous religious society. Its members were obliged to disconnect themselves with the rest of the world, their families and friends. Those intending to enter the Order were required to pass through a long period of severe probation, during which their talents and dispositions were carefully examined. Every member of the Order was required to be in the hands of his superior "like a staff in the hands of an old man," or "as clay in the hands of the potter.” The subordination was complete in all the gradations. Ignatius Loyola's military training caused him to constitute his society like soldiers in an army: "Theirs not to reason why, The chief object of the Jesuits was to counteract Protestantism and to suppress the spirit of inquiry awakened by the Reformation. By persecution and seduction they endeavored to win Protestants over to Catholicism; and, by getting the education of youth into their hands, they sought to bring up the young in the doctrines of the Roman Church. The Order acquired immense wealth by donations and legacies, and was thus enabled to establish schools and colleges in every Catholic country of Europe, which attracted the necessitous by imparting instruction gratuitously. The outward and immediate success of the Society of Jesus justified the hopes of its founder and the wisdom of his plans, as the Order soon spread over Catholic Europe, and many of its members were engaged in remote quarters of the globe in proclaiming the Gospel to the heathen. At the time of Ignatius Loyola's death, in 1556, the Jesuits had thirteen provinces, mainly in Spain, Portugal and Italy. Their influence was very great; as they took possession of the pulpits, schools and confessionals wherever they established themselves. They were the most accomplished and popular preachers and occupied anew the deserted churches. They supplanted other priests in the care of consciences; and, as they taught gratuitously and well, their schools were soon filled with the children of all classes. The efforts of the Jesuits to counteract the Reformation were prosecuted zealously and effectively, contributing immensely in Spain, Italy and Germany to arrest and prevent the spread of Protestantism. Distinguished for their learning, their zeal and their disinterestedness, devoting themselves in the pulpit and in the school with singleness of purpose to the fulfillment of the mission to which they had consecrated their lives, their influence was everywhere felt as a formidable adversary to the Protestant doctrine. Jesuit Zeal for Cathol icism. Spread of Jesuitism. Jesuit Check to Protest antism. Jesuit Learning and Instead of wasting their time in austerites, as did the older monastic orders, the Jesuits were encouraged to cultivate all their intellectual faculties by the liberal pursuits of art, science and general literature. Influence. As they thus became the most accomplished instructors of youth, they acquired a controlling influence over the leading minds of Europe during the most impressible years of life—an influence clearly discernible in the later policy of the Austrian House of Hapsburg. Jesuit Worldwide Work. Jesuit Missions in The General of the Order had the most absolute authority in assigning every member the work for which he was adapted and qualified. While the superior talents of some of the Order directed the subtle diplomacy of European courts, the pious zeal of others found active employment in the most toilsome and self-denying missions among the savagely populated forests of America or in the crowded cities of China and Japan. Jesuit missionaries converted many of the American Indians to Christianity, and were pioneers in the exploration of the Great Lakes America. of North America. In Paraguay Jesuit missionaries gained possession of the civil government of the country, converted and civilized the Indians, and rescued them from the system of slavery under which they had been reduced by the Spaniards and the Portuguese, at the same time teaching them agriculture, building and the arts of social life, and inducing them to exclude all other influences. Mission of St. Xavier and The most illustrious of Jesuit missionaries was the celebrated St. ary Work Francis Xavier, who began his career in the East Indies in 1542, who Francis preached in Goa, Ceylon, Malacca, Cochin-China and Japan, and who baptized hundreds of thousands in those distant lands, dying on his Robert de way to China, in 1551, after a missionary career of nine years. Nobili in Another was Robert De Nobili, who went to India as a missionary in 1605, arriving at Goa, where St. Francis Xavier had landed sixtythree years before, and who made converts to Christianity by disguising himself as a Brahman, in this way practicing Ignatius Loyola's doctrine that the end justifies the means. Asia. Protestant and Catholic Opposi tion to the Jesuits. Macau lay's Remark. The Jesuits encountered great opposition and fierce abuse from other Catholic orders whom they supplanted, as well as from Protestants. They were' accused of all manner of false beliefs and wicked actions. Some of these accusations were well founded, but others were merely the result of the jealousy of their rivals. The system of studies which they introduced into their schools took Europe by surprise, and involved them in a struggle with the Sorbonne of Paris and with the University of Coimbra, in Portugal, and that of Salamanca, in Spain. They were vehemently assailed, their doctrines and practices were bitterly denounced, and their Order was often suppressed even in Catholic countries and by Catholic rulers. Says Macaulay: "With what vehemence, with what policy, with what exact discipline, with what dauntless courage, with what selfdenial, with what forgetfulness of the dearest private ties, with what intense and stubborn devotion to a single end, with what unscrupulous laxity and versatility in the choice of means, the Jesuits fought the battles of their Church, is written in every page of the annals of Europe during several generations. The history of the Order of Jesus is the history of the great Catholic reaction against Protestantism in the seventeenth century." SECTION VII.—SWEDEN'S LIBERATION AND REFORMA- of Christian II. of and Its Result. A COMPLETE political and religious revolution occurred in the three Tyranny Scandinavian kingdoms in the sixteenth century. The tyrant Christian II. of Denmark-" the Nero of the North". -was the last king who reigned over the three Scandinavian kingdoms under the Union of Denmark Calmar. He irritated the Danish and Swedish nobility to such an extent by his severity and cruelty that insurrections broke out in Denmark and Sweden at the same time-a result which led to the dissolution of the Union of Calmar and the establishment of Lutheranism in the three Scandinavian kingdoms. The valiant GUSTAVUS VASA, a brave youth, endowed with the wisdom and valor of his relatives, the Stures, inaugurated the political and ecclesiastical revolution in Sweden, and founded a dynasty of vigorous monarchs, who raised Sweden to the ascendency in the North. He was carried into Denmark as a hostage by Christian II.; but he soon escaped to Lübeck, where he was provided with money and encouraged with promises of the liberation of his native land. Gustavus Vasa of of Stockholm. Vasa in Dalecarlia, In 1520 Christian II. caused ninety-four Swedish nobles to be per- Massacre fidiously masacred at Stockholm. Among these massacred nobles was the heroic Gustavus Vasa's father. This atrocity excited universal horror in Sweden. In the same year the brave Gustavus Vasa landed Gustavus on the shores of Sweden. In the midst of a thousand perils and adventures, he escaped the pursuing emissaries of Christian II., who were constantly at his heels, until he found aid and refuge among the rude inhabitants of the mining region in the North of Dalecarlia. Gustavus Vasa aroused the Dalecarlians to an effort to recover the independence of Sweden, and with a force of hardy peasants he conquered Falun, repulsed the Danish troops and their allies and took Sweden. Upsala. His fame and his call to freedom soon resounded through all lands and brought many warriors to his side. He obtained troops, money and artillery from the Lübeckers and forced the Danish garrison to retreat. After being elected King of Sweden by the Diet of Strengnas, he entered Stockholm in triumph, in June, 1523, thus restoring the independence of Sweden. The restored Kingdom of Sweden remained an elective monarchy for twenty years, but in 1544 the Swedish Diet declared the Swedish crown to be hereditary in the male line of the Vasa family. As the His Libera tion of His Reign, A. D. 1523 1560. The Vasa in Sweden. |