The membership of the order, during the period from 1841 to 186G, increased from 3566 to 8l55. At the be- ginning of 1867 the numerical strength of the order was as follows :
Assistant's District.
Province. | r.lH.iibrs. Priests.
1 It'llV
1. Rome
45d
352 222 2il2 223 443 602 185 (i53 2(53 566 650 702 54G 492 7(!8 IS 312 16T 238 204
245 194 141 173 128 160 260 70 260 V5 224 306 316 271 144 183 10 151 77 SO 75
2. Germany
3. France
4. Spain
5. England
2. Naples (scattered)..
3. Sicily (scattered)...
4. Turin (scattered). . .
5. Venice (scattered)..
1. Austria
'2. BelEfiuni
3. Gallicia
5 Holland
t. Champagne
3. Lyons.
1. Aragou (scattered).
2. Castile (scattered).
3. Mexico (scattered).
'2 Ireland
Total, 21 provinces, 8331 members (3563 priests, 2332 scholastics, and 2436 brothers).
VI. The Labors of the Order in the ]\liss{onar}j Field. —From the beginning of the order, the extension of the Church of Pome in pagan countries constituted one of the chief aims of the Jesuits, whose zeal in this field was all the greater, as they hoped that here the losses inflicted upon the Church by Protestantism would be more than balanced by new gains. The energy which they have displayed as foreign missionaries is recognised on all sides ; the si)irit of devotion and self-sacrifice of many of th^ members, which is illustrated by the martjTdom of about 800 of the order, has also niet with deserved recognition even among Protestants. On the other hand, within their own CJiurch. charges were brought against Jesuit missions, as a class, that they received candidates for baptism too easily, and without having sufficient proofs of their real conversion, and
that they were too accommodating to pagan views ana customs. These charges led to long controversies be- tween the Jesuits ancl other monastic orders, and to several decisions of the popes against them. In India, the first missionary ground occupied by the Jesuits, Xavier and his companions, Camero and Mansilla, in- duced a large number of natives to join the Church of Home. In Travancore forty churches had to be built for the converts, and Francis Xavier is reported to have baptized 10,000 pagans within one month. As it was soon discovered that the chief obstacle to the mission was the rigid caste system, the Jesuits concluded to let some members of the order adopt the mode of life of the Brahmins, and others that of other castes. According- ly, the Jesuits Fernandez, Dc Nobili, and others began to practice the painful penances of the Brahmins, en- deavored even to outdo them in the ligor of these pen- ances, and thus, making the people believe that they were Bralimins, or Indians of other castes, they made in some districts considerable progress. The Catholic con- gregations in IVIadura, Carnate, ]\Iogar, and Ceylon are said to have numbered a native population of upwards of 150,000. Japan was also visited by Francis Xavier, who arrived there with t^vo other missionaries in 1549. They gained the favor of several Daimios, and, with their efficient aitl, made considerable progress. In 1575 the number of Roman Catholics was estimated at 40,000 ; in 1582 three Christian Daimios sent ambassadors to pope Gregory XIII ; in 1613 they had houses of pro- fessed at Nagasaki, Miaco, and Fakata, coUeges at Na- gasaki and Arima, and residences at Oasaca and seven other places. During the persecution which broke out in the 17th century and extirpated Christianity, more than a hundred members of the order perished, together with more than a million of native Christians. The first Catholic missionaries in China were the Jesuits Roger and Ricci. The latter and several of his success- ors, in particidar father Adam Schall, gained confidera- ble influence upon the emperors by means of their knowledge of astronomy and Chinese literature, and the ninnber of those whom they admitted to the Cliurcli was estimated as early as 16(53 at 300,000. They show- ed, however, so great an accommodation with regard to the pagan customs that they were denounced in Rome by other missionaries, and several popes, in particular Benedict XIY, condemned their practices. In Cochin China the first Jesuits arrived in 1614, in Tunkin in 1627. In both counti'ies they succeeded, in spite of cruel persecutions, in establishing a number of congre- gations which survived the downfall of the order. They met with an equal success in the Philippine Islands, and in the Marianas ; but their labors on the Caroline Isl- ands were a failure. Their labors in Abyssinia, Moroc- co, and other parts of Africa, likewise, did not produce any lasting results. Congo and Angola were nominally converted to Christianity by Jesuit and other missiona- ries, but even Roman Catholic Avritcrs must admit that the religion of the mass of the population differed but little from paganism, into which they easily relapsed as soon as they found themselves without European mis- sionaries. In 1549, Ignatius Loyola, at the request of khig John III of Portugal, sent Emanuel de Nobrega and four other Jesuits to Brazil, where they gathered many man-eating Indians in villages, and civilized them. Among the many Jesuits who followed these pioneer missionaries, Joseph de Anchieta (f 1597) and the celebrated pidpit orator Anthony Yieira (about the middle of the 17th centllr^•) are the most noted. Among the Jesuits who labored in the American provinces of Spain was Peter C'laver, who is said to have baptized more than 300,000 negroes, and is called the apostle < f the negroes. In 1586 they were called by the bishop of Tucuman to Paraguay, which soon became the most prosperous of all their missions. The Christian tribes were gathered by the missionaries into the so-caUcd missions, and in 1730 the tribe of the Guaranis alone numbered in thirty-two towns from 30,000 to 40,000