Chap. II.

III.

IV.

the contrary; yea, in everything prescribed by the Superior-where it cannot definitely be shown that some kind of sin is involved. Let every one convince himself that those who live under Obedience, should be led and governed by Divine Providence through their Superiors, perinde ac si cadaver essent, as a corpse would be, that allows itself to be carried here or there, and handled after any fashion; or like an old man's staff, which suffers itself to be used everywhere, and in any way, that he who holds it wishes."

Concerning Poverty.

On what members of the Society may do, and what not.

On the aid given to those that are in the Society. V. That the Constitution does not impose obligations under the penalty of sin.

On missions.

Part VII

Part VIII

On the means of maintaining union between the members scattered abroad, with one another and with the General.

Part IX

On the General and his mode of government. This chapter deals with the qualities desirable in a General, with his authority and functions, with the limitations and checks upon his power, which are extremely elaborate, and cut down his autocratic prerogatives very greatly.

Part X

How to preserve and increase the Society.

I have also quoted these articles more fully than I had intended, for they bear in every chapter the individual stamp of their author. They are obviously not the work of a trained codifier, such as were the men who drew up

the Constitution of the United States, or The Code Napoleon; they are the labor of a man who wrestles with the difficulty of putting into concise and logical form rules and counsels that he has learned in life through manifold experience, who is accustomed to govern by force of character and emotional intensity, rather than by cold reason. Friends of the Society have greatly extolled this Constitution. One Pope declared that it was more the result of Divine inspiration than of human prudence. Such is the orthodox opinion. Father Astrain, who is notable for moderation and good sense, says: "El Espiritu Sancto fué el principal maestro de Ignacio." Nevertheless, an outsider cannot but remember that Sir William Blackstone praised the Common Law of England as a perfect work of human reason, and Henri de Boulainvilliers, calls the French feudal government le chef-d'œuvre de l'esprit humain. However, the proof of the pudding lies in the eating; not in the judgment of those who merely read the receipt. The Constitution of the Order of Jesus can only be judged by those who are familiar with it in operation. It is less common, however, to find fault with the form and style of the Constitution than with its substance. Protestants have declaimed against what they call the iron constraint put upon the human soul. But if one stops to think, how does the Jesuit training differ, unless perhaps in conscientious intensity, from that at West Point or Saint-Cyr? In a military academy the whole weight of authority comes down on the individual soul. Substitute the flag for the cross, country for church, famous generals and marshals for saints and martyrs, honor for grace, and you will find that the constraint in either case is very much the same. Obedience is of equal obligation, the word of the superior as indisputable, the period of preparation about as long. As for liberty of thought, there is no more room for patriotic agnosticism in West Point than for religious agnosticism in a Jesuit College. In New York state men have been sent to prison for insult to the symbol of our patriotic faith. The difference is that we have lost our belief in supernatural religion, but not as yet our faith in nationality.

But whatever the plausibility of this comparison, there is, in truth, something humanly sacrilegious in coldly criticising a document, every clause of which was prayed over with tears, and offered to the Lord.

CHAPTER XXII

MISSIONS IN ITALY AND IRELAND

THE charter of the Company of Jesus is a declaration of purposes, and the Constitution prescribes the methods by which the Company shall fit itself to carry out those purposes; but documents at best furnish no more than a diagram, or mechanical plan, and tell little or nothing of the organism's vital processes. It will therefore be necessary to describe, or rather to indicate by a few details and episodes, what the Company did; for as we can best estimate the character and talents of a commander-in-chief by following the course of the campaign and the movements of his troops, so by following the doings of the early Jesuits, at first but a dozen, and then gradually increasing in numbers, we shall get a clearer idea of Loyola's genius. I shall therefore take a brief survey of the labors of these new apostles as they trudged from city to city, going about their business of saving souls, and doing whatever they believed to be for the greater glory of God.

As a general rule the Fathers conducted missions. They preached, sometimes in a church, in the cathedral perhaps, sometimes in the streets, either expounding the Bible, or discoursing on ethics or religious topics; they visited the sick in hospitals; they heard confessions, and administered the eucharist; they attended the dying; they gave the Spiritual Exercises; they taught children the catechism, and older boys the doctrines of the Church; they combatted heresy; occasionally they converted a Jew or a Turk; they did their best to persuade persons living in concubinage to marry or to separate. They slept in a hospital or some charity lodging house, and lived upon alms. What they received beyond their immediate needs they gave to the poor. Sometimes they were sent to reform a monastery or

nunnery, sometimes to found a Jesuit college, or to perform some special task imposed by the Pope-ad zizaniam extirpandam quam aliqui Satana operarii superseminaverunt—; but the usual employment was upon evangelical missions. They travelled over a great part of Europe,-Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Southern Germany, the Low Countries, even going to Ireland,-across the seas to Ethiopia, and India, and beyond. It seems plain that the clever Pope, Paul III, and the more clear-sighted prelates, recognized at once the great service that this Company of spiritual knights errant could render to the Papacy; and, indeed, they must have been dull of mind if they did not, for the Papacy had not had such defenders since Francis and Dominic had come to its rescue three hundred years before.

Their missions began even before the Company had been approved by the Pope. In the summer of 1539 the Cardinal of Santangelo, governor of Parma (at that time under papal jurisdiction) took Lainez and Lefèvre with him. A letter from Lainez gives some account of their life there:

To Father Ignatius Loyola

PARMA, June 2nd, 1540.

May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us, Amen. . Spiritual matters here by the grace of our Lord advance every day from good to better. I continue my preaching, with considerable fruit and comfort for the listeners, and as a consequence, not without some opposition, but vincit veritas, and all things work together for good. So it comes about that some do not want me to preach in the cathedral, because they say it interferes with the services, and that the season is over. Nevertheless they are calming down. I don't know how long it will last.

Confessions multiply to a glorious extent; a large number of the parish priests have begun to hear confession once a month, and five churches, beside ours, celebrate the communion every feast day. The Exercises grow day by day,