PREFACE

THIS book is an attempt to make the Spiritual Exercises of S. Ignatius Loyola better known to English readers, and especially to directors of retreats. It consists of a literal translation into English of the Spanish text of S. Ignatius, together with an explanatory commentary, some longer Additional Notes, and a translation of the Directorium in Exercitia.

The actual autograph of S. Ignatius has unfortunately been lost. There is, however, in the archives of the Society of Jesus at Rome a copy made by a secretary, with corrections in the handwriting of S. Ignatius, and bearing the title: Exemplar Hispanicum | Exercitiorum Spiritualium | A. S. P. N. Ignatio | Probatum variisque in locis manu propria | Emendatum. It is this MS. which is now commonly called the Autograph, a name given to it by the Fifth General Council of the Society, A.D. 1593, and generally used since that time. The corrections made by S. Ignatius, either in the margin or between the lines, are thirty-two in number.1 None of them affect the substance of the text; they merely give the thought of the Saint with greater clearness and precision. This text was first printed and published at Rome in 1615 under the editorial care of P. Bernardo de Angelis, S.J., secretary of the Company of Jesus, and has often been reprinted. The edition I have used is that published at Barcelona by Francis Rosal, 1892.2 The MS. itself has now been reproduced by phototype.3

Two Latin translations of this MS. were made during the lifetime of S. Ignatius. One of them is a literal but rough and inelegant version, probably the work of the Saint himself; 4

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1 P. Antoine Boone, S.J., Les Corrections Manuscrites des Exercices de S. Ignace. Collection de la Bibliothèque des Exercices, No. 18. Exercicios Espirituales de S. Ignacio de Loyola, Fundador de la Compañía de Jesús, en su texto original. Barcelona, 1892.

2

Ejercicios Espirituales de S. Ignacio de Loyola fundador de la Compañía de Jesús. Reproducción fototípica del original. Roma, Stabilimento Danesi. 1908.

Debuchy, Introduction à l'étude des Exercices Spirituels de Saint Ignace. Enghien, 1906, p. 4.

the other, in more flowing and literary style, is the work of P. André de Freux (Frusius). Both these versions were approved by Pope Paul III in 1548, but the latter alone, probably as being better adapted to the literary taste of the time, was chosen for printing, and was published at Rome on September 11 of the same year, under the care of Polanco, with the simple title : Exercitia Spiritualia, and the monogram IHS. This is still the official text, and is commonly called the Vulgate. The other version generally referred to as the ancient Latin (antiqua versio latina) has never yet been published.1 The MS. is dated by the amanuensis July 9, 1541, and is inscribed on the outer leaf in the hand of S. Ignatius: todos exercicios breviter | en latin, by which he meant not that this was an abbreviation of the Spanish original, but only that the Exercises, which are intended to be amplified by word of mouth, are here to be found in the terse brevity with which he had first written them down. The Vulgate version is of slightly later date, for de Freux did not enter the noviciate till 1541; but it must be earlier than 1548, the year in which both these versions were presented to the Pope for his examination and approval.

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Any translation of the Exercises, if it is to keep close to the original, must of necessity reproduce much of the rugged and often incorrect style of the author. When S. Ignatius made the first rough draft of the Exercises at Manresa he had little education, and still less practice in writing. He has, says Fr. Astrain, no beauties of style. He wrote incorrectly and with difficulty in a rude Castilian which attracts attention from time to time only by the energetic precision with which he has stereotyped certain ideas in concise and indelible phrases. And this arises not from any special literary qualities possessed by the Saint, but from the powerful intuition with which he has penetrated to their foundation the truths of the moral and spiritual order.' 'From a literary point of view,' says J. Janssen,3 'the book of the Exercises is entirely without charm. In its artless simplicity it is in striking contrast with the pedantic works of the humanists of the sixteenth century. It is one of the simplest and most sober of ascetic books that has ever been written ;

But see Preface to the second edition, p. v.

2 Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la Asistencia de España, Madrid, 1902. T.i.p. 147.

› L'Allemagne et la Réforme (trad. fr.), Paris, Plon. T. iv. p. 402. Quoted by Debuchy.

utterly devoid of all learned rhetoric, exaggeration, or mystic heights.' Along with maxims and counsels expressed purposely with the utmost brevity, there are, as Fr. Debuchy says, 'a few outpourings of the soul in certain colloquies; but their intense pathos resides, not in the words, but altogether in the poignant situation, brought about by the author, of the sinner before the crucifix, of the knight in presence of his king, of the creature at the feet of the Creator."

It would have been easy to give a more smooth and flowing English version by translating from the Vulgate, but this would have been, in many places, to paraphrase rather than to translate the original Spanish. It seemed best, therefore, in the case of a book where the language is so terse and full of meaning to keep as closely as possible to the actual words of the author, even at the risk of reproducing the harsh, and often ungrammatical, character of his style. Only so could the translation serve as a basis for the commentary which is intended to bring out and explain the meaning of the exact words in which he has expressed his thought.

The text, and all quotations from it in the notes, are printed in italic type: quotations from other sources are distinguished in the ordinary way. In the Spanish Autograph the headings of the different sections are not very clearly distinguished from the rest of the text. In order to make the arrangement of the book clearer to the eye I have printed their initial words in italic capitals at the head of each section, and added within square brackets a few other headings which are not in the original.

Throughout the commentary I am greatly indebted to the invaluable notes of Fr. Roothaan (Exercitia Spiritualia S. P. Ignatii de Loyola, cum versione literali ex Autographo Hispanico, Notis illustrata, Roehampton, 1881), large portions of which I have translated, sometimes abridging, sometimes on the other hand amplifying them from other sources, and with my own remarks. In addition to the notes of Fr. Roothaan the books I have chiefly used are Gagliardi, Commentarii seu Explanationes in Exercitia Spiritualia S. P. Ignatii de Loyola (Brugis, 1882); Suarez, De Religione Societatis Jesu, Lib. IX. 2; Luis de la Palma, Praxis et brevis Declaratio Viae Spiritualis (Star

1 Introduction à l'étude des Exercices, etc., p. 7.

2 The three chapters in which Suaraz comments on the Exercises have been printed separately by Lethielleux, 10 rue Cassette, Paris.

aviesiae, 1889); Diertins, Exercitia Spiritualia S. P. Ignatii Loyolae cum sensu eorundem explanato (Augustae Taurinorum, 1838); Ferrusola, Commentaria in Librum Exercitiorum S. P. Ignatii Loiolaei, Hispanice scripta, Latine reddidit Jacobus Nonell (Barcinone, 1885); Nonell, Ars Ignatiana (Barcinone, 1888); Denis, Commentarii in Exercitia Spiritualia S. P. N. Ignatii (Mechliniæ, 1891); Hummelauer, Meditationum et Contemplationum S. Ignatii de Loyola Puncta (Friburgi Brisgoviæ, 1896). The Additional Notes are meant to bring out the special teaching of the several Exercises, especially of those which are sometimes called the Capital Exercises, viz. the Foundation, the Kingdom of Christ, the Two Standards, the Three Classes, and the Three Modes or Degrees of Humility, and to show their relation to one another. A few of them, however, treat of the matter and form of the Exercises of the several Weeks, and of some other subjects which could not conveniently be discussed in the commentary. They should be studied in connexion with the several portions of the Exercises to which they relate.

Lastly, I have translated the Directorium in Exercitia. This most useful treatise is an official body of instructions drawn up for those who give the Exercises to others. The first edition of it was published in 1591, and, after careful consideration and correction by some of the most experienced Fathers of the Society, it appeared in its final and authoritative form by command of the General, Claudius Aquaviva, in 1599 (see Preface to the Directory, p. 271, and Translator's Note, p. 272). It comes to us, therefore, with the highest authority, and should be carefully studied in connexion with the several parts of the Exercises on which its chapters comment.

The whole of this book, both the translation and the commentary, was ready for the press in June, 1914. Circumstances, however, arising out of the war, have prevented its publication until now. The delay has given me the advantage of reading Father Rickaby's Commentary which appeared in 1915. I have availed myself of this opportunity to add in a few places some words and explanations taken from his notes. These are acknowledged in the places where they occur.

Oxford.

W. H. L..