CHAPTER IX
THE final matter for which Ignatius had now to provide, that his Society might be permanent, was the drawing up of Constitutions. As with St. Francis of Assisi, this was the last thing attended to, and was preceded by temporary regulations. Necessarily, practice and experience precedes theory, which is to a certain extent based upon them. As an interim aid, he distributed among the professed members a set of written rules, nine in number, which may perhaps here be quoted.
" I. The Fathers are constantly to occupy their hearts with God; whether in their cells or in the world, they are never to leave His divine presence. The life of Jesus is to be their example. This Divine model must be impressed upon their souls.
" 2. They are to see in their superiors the image of God Himself, assured that obedience is a guide which cannot mislead; to reveal all their thoughts as well as actions to those appointed over them, knowing that we must ever mistrust our own judgment.
" 3. When conversing with their sinful fellowcreatures, they are to use such precautions as would be reasonable in regard to a drowning man, so that two might not perish together. The sinner should be dear to every one of the Society; not only as the child of their common Father, but each should love him as himself. In argument, the greatest vigilance must be used to banish all desire oi triumph. There is but one rational end to be
proposed in discussion, the establishment of truth; the spirit as well as the words must be guided by this only.
" 4. They are to keep silence when necessity does not oblige them to speak; and then no worldly, nor vain-glorious, nor idle talk must in any way mix in the conversation.
" 5. If it please God to work great things through their means, they must count themselves as nothing but a worthless instrument, such as was the jawbone of an ass in the hand of Samson. To be satisfied with their own judgment, or wisdom, or prudence would be a folly. A Religious must consider himself best rewarded for what he does for his neighbour when he receives reproach and contumely, such as the world gave to the labours of Gur Divine Lord.
" 6. If any Fathers fall into an obvious transgression, likely to dimish the esteem in which the whole body is held, they ought not to be discouraged; but should thank God for having shown their weakness, so that they may walk humbly and carefully in future, and that their brethren may take warning; remembering that all are formed from the same clay, and praying earnestly for the defaulter.
" 7. During time of recreation they must observe the modesty which the Apostle requires at all times, neither mirthful to excess nor too grave.
" 8. They must never neglect a present opportunity of doing good, for the sake of some greater future good; for this is an artifice of the devil to turn away our minds from the common works which we might perform.
" 9. Let each remain firm in his vocation as if 161 X the roots were laid deep in the foundations of the Lord's house. For as the enemy often inspires the solitary with the desire of living in a community, so he frequently makes those who are called to convert souls desire solitude, and would fain lead them in a path contrary to that which it is their duty to follow."
Such was the preliminary sketch (we might say) which Ignatius made of his Society on the practical daily side. But in drawing up the veritable Constitutions he proceeded slowly, with infinite labour, and (above all) with infinite meditation and prayer. His elaborate and patient caution is illuminated by a chance fragment of his journal, which escaped when he burned all his papers before his death — an act dictated, one guesses, at least partly by his resolve not to court even posthumous publicity, and singularly contrasting with the spirit of our own day, which seeks even to forestall posthumous fame. Therein he had debated a single point of the Constitutions; whether (that is) the churches and sacristies of the Professed houses should be allowed endowments. He had strictly written out the reasons />rd? 2ind con, pondering them, it appeared, no less than forty days. Yet this was but one item of the numerous considerations which were developed with equal precaution. This, and all his other written projects, he then laid on the altar, otFering them for the Divine approval during Mass. And, before doing so, he had already gone through prelusive meditation and prayer. The act was an integral part of his living sensibility to the Divine presence and personality: it was native with him to consult God as with a son to consult his father, nor was he less confident in a personal answer.
The process of this consultation and communication is revealed by a portion of his journal. Be it remembered that its intimacy was never meant for human eye: otherwise, so alien is it to our experience and comprehension, to the religious — or a religious — spirit of the present day, that we should be tempted to view it as a theatrical exhibition of unwholesome emotionality. We should read it as we would the accidental revelation of a lover's intimate privacies, with the same sense of hearing what we were not intended to hear, the same sense of respectful delicacy. An age which drinks with epicurean emotion the tears of perished lovers, preserved in the lachrymals of dainty editions, is intolerant and disgusted only when the beloved is — God. It should be understood also, in reading, that Ignatius regards the gift of emotional sweetness not as a necessity of religious life, or an evidence of sanctity, but as a favour marking the Divine approval of his plans, a consolation sustaining him in his daily struggle. The extract is headed, " Saturday, the Fifth Mass of the Trinity'*; and the Saint speaks of himself indifferently in the first and the third person — which is a little confusing.
" During my usual prayer, though there was not much at first, after the second half, his soul felt a great devotion, and was exceedingly consoled; it saw also a certain object, and a form of very bright light. While they were making the altar ready, Jesus presented Himself to his mind, and invited me to follow Him; for I am quite convinced that He is the head and guide of the Society, and that it is especially on this account that it ought to practise poverty and renunciation in the highest
degree, though there are also other motives which I have considered in coming to a decision. This idea disposed my mind to fervour and to tears, but also to perseverance. So that, if I had no tears at this Mass, and those of the follov^ing days, the feelings of that time sufficed to support me through all temptations and troubles. While I thought of all this, and was vesting for Mass, my emotions increased. I saw in them a confirmation of the resolve I had taken; I had no other consolations. The Holy Trinity itself seemed to confirm my decision, as the Son communicated Himself thus to me, for I recalled to mind the time when the Father deigned to place me with His Son. When I was vested, the name of Jesus impressed itself upon me more and more; I felt fortified against all attacks. I wept and sobbed afresh.... When I had begun the Holy Sacrifice, I received many graces and pious emotions and gentle tears, which lasted long. As the Mass continued, many inspirations confirmed what I had resolved; and when I raised the Sacred Host, I felt as it were an inward suggestion, and a powerful impulse never to abandon Our Lord, in spite of all obstacles; and this was accompanied by a new delight, and fresh impressions. This... lasted the whole time, even after Mass, and throughout the day. Whenever I thought of Jesus this pious feeling and this fixed purpose returned to my mind.**
This passage not only reveals the manner of these supernal consultations with the Saint's Divine Master, but suggests a further reason for the destruction of the journal. Ignatius no doubt felt that it contained matter over-intimate to be left for the eye of the multitude Saints like Saint i6s
John of the Cross, Saint Teresa, Saint Catherine of Genoa, Saint Gertrude, Blessed Angela da Foligno, have left records — or attempted records — of their most transcendent experiences, for the help and guidance of others following in the like marvellous and difficult w^ay; w^ith a divinely simple disregard, one might say unconsciousness, of any possible self-glorification which might be imputed to them. They set forth their simple experiences with the simple sincerity of poets, and the same sense of a treasury entrusted to them for revelation, the same irresistible urgence to reveal it up to the limits of their expression. But Ignatius, the man of action, with a contemplative aspect, half-soldier, half-poet, has no such urgent impulse towards selfrevelation as have these entire contemplatives, these Divine poets pure and simple. The counterinstinct to hide treasure, overpowered in them by the goad towards self-communication, a Divine no less than a temperamental goad, in him has unchecked force. He destroys and covers his celestial trail. Only from the casual hints of witnesses, the chance-dropped suggestions of conversation, interpreted by aid of these others' heavenly confidences, are we admitted to conjecture in the doer experiences parallel with those of the Paradisal dreamers. Moreover, these dreamers were not all dreamers; Saint Teresa, in particular, has a record of external activity scarce less strenuous than Ignatius's own. So that we really surmise the hidden side of the great Jesuit, and understand the apparent difference between him and these others to be a mere matter of expression, not inward and substantial.
But we stray from the Constitutions. It was his habit, when he had formed his own decision, to rectify or confirm it by conferring with his brethren. At times he would abandon all affairs to concentrate himself on this single important matter. He studied, indeed, the constitution of other Orders. But in the actual drawing up of his Rule he kept before him only the Bible and his beloved a Kempis. Saint Ignatius, said Canon Sega, constructed his Society rather by inspiration than by skill. But in the face of this sedulous labour and the careful comparison of previous rules, it seems truer to say by inspiration and skill. The Saint himself asked his assistant, Polanco, whether he conceived the founders of Orders to be assisted by God in creating their Constitution; and, on Polanco's answering in the affirmative, observed, *' I think so too.*' Nevertheless, Divine direction does not exclude human material and the due exercise of human wisdom. In the ritual of him who talked with the angel on Sinai there are discoverable elements drawn from Chaldaic ritual and the rites of the Pagan nations surrounding the Jews; so that Saint Jerome held the Mosaic religion and religious forms to have combined all that was J3est in the heathen religions about them, that the Jews might not hanker after the " fleshpots of the Egyptians, " and Saint Augustine thought Moses to have "spoiled the Egyptians'* in more than a material sense. Saint Ignatius's inspiration may be abundantly conceded without accounting him more independent of human aids than Moses. His object, as he declares in the outset of the Constitutions, was to combine the pursuit of personal salvation and perfection with the pursuit of the neighbours* salvation and perfection. He wished to combine the active and contemplative lives. It is an aim more vast than Tintoretto's " drawing of Michael Angelo and colour of Titian." But he called on his fellows to attempt what he himself had achieved (if it be not over-rash to say so) in larger measure than any since the Apostle of the Gentiles. On the one side he laid down for the Jesuit, reception of Sacraments, study of the Bible and of religious writings, with the practices of the interior life — mental prayer and the rest. On the other, preaching and catechising, the work of evangelisation all over the world, educational work, controversial work, serving in prison and hospital, confessions, and the work of direction in general.
In nothing did he show greater prescience than in the stress he laid on the mission of the teacher. He saw that the Reformers were striving to lay hold of the rising generation, and that the most effectual means of encountering them was to secure the Catholic training of the young. Therefore he made the instruction of the young a part of the Jesuit's duties. During the first four or five years of his new Order, this instruction was confined to religious teaching. But that, he perceived, was not sufficient. He must provide also secular training. The new doctrines were threatening to capture the Universities; and his Society would have to be a learned Society; as, indeed, became the followers of one who had shown such self-sacrificing resolution in repairing his own defects of knowledge. So he laboured to establish instruction likewise in the sciences — excluding only such as seemed inimical to religion. The significance of the exclusion lay in the fact that alchemy and astrology were then accounted branches of learning — decidedly "odd branches of learning/' as Lancelot says. The little Maximilian of Germany was actually allowed by his father to learn black magic, on condition only that he did not practise it. The first members of the Society had too much on their hands to be capable of carrying out to the full the plans of their Founder; but he required of all the later recruits that they should train themselves in literature and philosophy as well as theology and Scripture.
Such were the general aims of the Society, such the general lines of its training. It was designed specially to meet the new and deadly attack on the Church, along its whole line: the members were to be disciplined and expert Free Lances, ready at the Papal bidding for instant despatch to any menaced point, or to act as forlorn hopes in attack on the most formidable entrenched positions of the enemy. As regards the actual Constitutions, these were among their chief points.
The vows were of two kinds, simple and solemn. The simple vows, however, did not allow the taker to quit at pleasure; they bound him to the Society for life, unless dismissed by the authorities. The Society is distinguished into several grades.
The Lay-brothers or Temporal Coadjutors have no scholastic teaching, and their duties are confined to temporal matters; they take the final vows at thirty, after several years' service.
The Scholastics follow the prescribed course of study, and teach grammar in the schools when they have completed their rhetoric and philosophy.
The Spiritual Coadjutors aid the Professed in their ministry. They are eligible for all but the 169 Y highest posts, and are often chosen to leave the Professed at leisure for preaching. They take the final vows at thirty, after ten years in the Society.
The Professed, finally, are the core of the Society. They consist of those whose virtues and attainments reach a sufficient standard. They constitute an inner and privileged body without exact parallel in other Orders. Privileged, however, only because from them are chosen the holders of certain posts of trust as General, the GeneraFs assistants, and the Provincials. They take the solemn vows, after fifteen to eighteen years in the Society. Beside the Professed is an honorary grade — the Professed of the three vows, as distinguished from the abovementioned Professed of t\iQ^ four vows. It is not, in fact, a separate grade; but — like honorary titles in all bodies — is conferred on those of the Spiritual Coadjutor rank, in recognition and reward of special service; conferring on them the dignity of the true Professed without their elegibility for the highest posts.
Such are the actual grades; but — as in all Orders — there is likewise the Novitiate stage. This is not a grade, but a state of probation, deciding first a candidate's fitness to enter the Society at all; secondly, in what capacity he should enter — as Laybrother or Scholastic (that is, as laic or priest). The Novice must be born in wedlock, and, as a rule, must not be an only son; an only son Ignatius was loth to receive. He must not for even a day have worn the habit of any other Order, or have professed heretical doctrine; he must not be engaged in marriage or bound by any sort of obligation; he must have no deformity or incapacity of body or mind, no evil temper or nature (though the Saint exercised discrimination here, as is shown by his admission of Ribadeneira). The neophyte must not be less than fifteen or more than fifty — a wide enough latitude. His relations were considered, and whether he had been moved to enter by friendship with any member of the Society — in which case he was assigned a longer period of consideration before beginning the Novitiate, since his motive was in some measure suspect. He was warned of the necessity for entire devotion to God. It was demanded of him if he were willing that his shortcomings should be noted by his fellows and commented on to his Superiors, and himself to do the like in regard to his comrades at the requirement of his Superiors. Finally, he was asked to receive humbly whatsoever grade should be assigned him.
It is a characteristic matter, demarcating the aim of the new Society from that of such an Order (for instance) as its antithesis, the Franciscan, that Ignatius was specially gratified when the needed tests were successfully passed by youths of the governing class. Cceteris paribus^ he held, what fitted a man for success in the world, that fitted him also for success in the spiritual life. The new Society was in one sense an aristocratic Order; or, as we should rather say, an intellectual aristocracy, an aristocracy of ability, address, and social management. Ready to sway and preach to the people, as it had already shown, its more special aim was to influence the classes in whose hands lay the active or intellectual control of the world and the world's business. On the whole, existing Orders had more or less ignored these classes, had passed them by as
** the world " in excelsis^ with which the servants of Christ had neither part nor lot. Received if they hearkened and approached salvation, these had not been specially addressed. Now a Society sought out and attacked the world in its chosen and privileged stronghold. Upon the young scions of nobility who were so markedly attracted by him, Ignatius relied to deal with sovereigns and statesmen, the principalities and powers against whom the standard of Christ was now advanced — not to overthrow but to capture and enlist them.
The Novitiate begins with a month's retreat, during which the Novice passes through the " Spiritual Exercises " and a General Confession. After this, he assumes the habit of the Society. The first Novitiate is for two years. There is a little learning by heart each day, to train the memory, but no secular study. Novices teach the elements of Christian doctrine to children and the poor, serve in the hospital for a month, go on a pilgrimage for another month, living on charity during the journey. The authorities of the hospital or the pilgrimage report on their behaviour. When approved Scholastics they pass to another House, where they begin the prescribed course of study, modified at the discretion of the Superior, according to individual character. By the Saint's new plan, they were first thoroughly trained in classics and languages. Afterwards they took rhetoric, poetry, and philosophy, besides theology and Scripture. Nor did Ignatius ever cease to say Open Sesame to literature. Careful examination preceded the taking up of a new study. There was a caveat that only the most sanctioned authors, the safest teaching, should be adopted in all subjects;
and in regard to the Scriptural writings, the scholars were not merely to be taught exegesis, but also the defence of the text authorised by the Church.
The strict system thus laid down for the students was a reaction from the irregularity which had sterilised Ignatius's own first efforts at study; and his early experience, again, suggested the limitation of his scholars to the appointed hours of prayer, and the prohibition of outside employment, which might distract them from study. To a like cause was due the enforcement of sanctioned authors. He conceived himself in those Spanish days of study to have been adversely affected by the reading of Erasmus. On the side of needful indulgence, these Scholastics were given seven hours of sleep; their studies were confined to a couple of hours at - a time; they were allowed recreation-days, and each week had a country excursion to assigned places where they spent a certain number of hours. By a peculiar regulation the scholars kept their own property during this period, and it was administered for their subsistence by their Superiors. If they left the Society, the balance was returned to them on their departure. This was to avert the necessity of their seeking ahns, which would have interrupted the concentration of mind on study. But it should be noted that Ignatius did not extend to the Collegiate Houses the rule which forbade the Jesuit convents to receive endowments.
The Scholastics had, of course, fixed hours of prayer; they had examination of conscience twice a day, and weekly Communion; they made the " Spiritual Exercises '' once a year. Twice a year they had three days' retreat, disclosed their spiritual
State to their Superior, and made a confession covering the previous six months, after wrhich they renewed their vows. The Superiors strictly watched their conduct and advance, both scholastic and spiritual: those whose studies were unsatisfactory, the Rector either relegated (with their consent) to the Temporal Coadjutors (the Lay-brethren) or dismissed altogether.
Ten years or over these studies lasted. Then, before passing to the work of the Society, the young Jesuit reverted for a year to the pure spirituality of his early Novitiate. This was the " third year of the Novitiate,'' the year in schola affectus^ " in the school of the heart." After this long sojourn in the waterless regions of the arid intellect, his heart was to be moistened by the revivifying dews of quiet and unperturbed prayer, by human work among the lowliest of his brethren, labouring for Christ among children and peasants.
Such was the unsparing training of the Scholastic. The pick of these chosen men passed into the ranks of the Professed. Those less favoured by gifts might still be used, though (as we have seen) they did not take the fourth vow. The three first vows of the Professed bound them to poverty, chastity, obedience, and (as a corollary of the last vow) particularly to the instruction of children. The fourth vow bound them to missionary service at the bidding of the Pope, without obstruction of their personal will in the matter of that service It was that last and missionary vow from which all but the complete Professed were excluded; because only they were engaged in missionary work and preaching. The Professed Houses, as we have said, could have no endowments, but were to depend entirely on alms: the Professed bound themselves against any alteration of this rule, unless in the direction of greater stringency. They should normally have no contribution-box in their churches, no Mass offerings or stipends for spiritual work. Every member must, if ordered, undertake the quest of alms. All, in accordance with the fourth vow, must be ready at a moment's notice to set forth on mission work, and without money. They must seek no advancement within the Order, nor accept any dignity without. They are bound to inform concerning any who violate this rule. This rigid refusal of dignities and absence of endowments were among their most striking distinctions in the sixteenth century, when the laxity and rich endowments of the Religious Orders — as even, our own history teaches — gave specious pretext for spoliation, and special temptation to the spoiler. The four solemn vows of the Professed bound so irrevocably that they could not be annulled even by the General: he had to gain the Papal assent before he could dismiss one of this grade from the Society.
From the ranks of the Professed the General was chosen, by the convoked representatives of the Society. He in his turn had sole authority to nominate Provincials, Superiors of the Pro/essed, and Rectors of colleges. He was bound to live in Rome, nor to be long absent thence: but by weekly letters (or as nearly weekly as might be) from his subordinate authorities he was kept in touch with matters provincial, and even with the minutiae affecting individual members. The Provincials, moreover, were to forward yearly reports to Rome: while every three years a deputy, chosen by the provincial ^75
Congregation, must bear to Rome the catalogue of each Province containing the name, age, gifts, and qualities of all its members. In nominating a member to any office, three people are severallyentrusted v^ith the collection of information concerning him, to aid the General in his decision.
But the General is not without aid or check. The Congregation of the Society chooses along with the General, and also from the ranks of the Professed, Assistants representing the several nationalities, who act as agents and intermediaries with him in the affairs of those nationalities, whose business they execute under his supervision. The Congregation further elects a Companion, who conveys to the General any strictures which the Assistants may judge necessary on his government, acting — one might say — as a sort of super-conscience. All these are watchers, as well as counsellors of the General, and may even in emergency depose him, whether by summoning a Congregation or of their own act. In the latter case, they must first obtain the votes of the Provinces, written or oral, before taking action. Such procedure, of course, presupposes some grave and extraordinary scandal, personal or administrative. A similar body, it may be noted, surrounds the several Provincials, in the shape of four consultors and a companion or admonisher.
Ignatius specially inculcated the twin spirit of fraternity and obedience. Superiors were to be reverenced as representing the authority of the Divine Fatherhood, and trusted as representing its tenderness. Hence the lowliest member might fearlessly write to the General, if he wished and thought it necessary, trusting in his privilege of paternal audience. On the other hand, every
Superior should be regarded with no less respect than the General himself. The members were to look on each other as brethren, vie with each other only in charity and good works, and extend a special benevolence to strangers. They were to observe one rule, modified as little as might be by differences of nation and climate; and each House was to speak the common language of the country in which it was established. Lastly, prompt dismissal might fall on such as broke the Society's rules, failed in its works, or above all failed in its spirit. Outside the Professed, the vows of such members were annulled, and they were free to take up secular business: their dismissal was to be effected with every care for their reputation, that it might not injure their after-careers. As already mentioned, any moneys they had brought to the Society were restored.
The Congregation of the bociety has been frequently mentioned. It comprises two delegates from each Province, who are chosen by the Professed and the several Provincials. It meets to elect the General with his assistants, and may also be convoked for extraordinary need, besides having legislative function within the bounds laid down by the Society.
Ignatius divided his Constitutions into ten parts. The first concerned the admission, the second the rejection, of Novices; the third and fourth, health, devotions and studies; the fiftli, the several grades from the four vows downward; the sixth and seventh, the duties of the Professed and Spiritual Coadjutors; the eighth and ninth, the General; the tenth, the preservation and progress of the Society. But the Constitutions were not completed at once; they were growing under his hand all his life, and 177 Z till shortly before his death, passing through emendation and addition, with sedulous consultation of his brethren. Moreover (as in the case of the Franciscans), though the Constitutions proper have never been touched, the elaborate book of the complete Institute did not take its present shape till later. But Ignatius, like Francis, laid the foundations on vs^hich the subsequent structure arose. The subsequent changes or additions have doubtless been in the direction of more authority for rule and greater elaboration of directions: thelgnatian was a more individualistic and elastic Society. Such is the case in the earlier stage of most societies, while the first fervour is still in many ways a law unto itself, and the full possession of interior law makes superfluous the multiplication of external provisions. Such was paramountly the case with Christianity itself. Ignatius himself claimed for his Constitutions finality only " so far as differences of time, place, and circumstances permit '*; and the Congregations are suffered to introduce modifications, but not the General alone. He wrote this memorable work in Spanish, constant as ever to his native tongue, and his secretary Polanco translated it into Latin.
We can scarcely realise now how much of the
Jesuit aim was novel in the sixteenth century. For example, it comes upon one with surprise that ministry in hospitals and prisons had never been a special duty with any previous Order — which does not mean that members of previous Orders had not practised it. Nor was any Order bound to foreign missions. But above all, their educational obligations were a new thing. The teaching of children and the poor had no body of men vowed to its performance, and its neglect was among the abuses which drew down the censure of the Council of Trent; while, in gratuitously undertaking the higher education of youth, the Jesuits were absolutely original. In his missionary assault, by preaching and ultimately by writing, upon the people of power and intellect, who were the brain and marrow of the anti-Catholic movement, he confronted the present; in his masterly seizure of the school, he confronted the future. He not only confronted, but anticipated it: he tore from the revolt the coming generation, and levied immediate posterity under the Catholic banner. If the coming years prospered a counter-reformation, a sudden return-tide of Catholicism which swept back and swamped the Renascence, that counter-movement was prepared in the Jesuit schools.