JESUITS
872
JESUITS
families. When, in 1753, the Spaniards ceded seven reductions to Portugal, and 30,000 Indians were ordered to leave their villages, an insurrection broke out, which led to the expulsion of the Jesuits by the Spanish gov- ernment. In Mexico the Jesuits joined in 1572^ the other monastic orders in the missionary work. They directed their attention chiefly to the unsubdued tribes, and in 1G80 numbered 500 missionaries in 70 missionary stations. The Jesuit Salvatierra and his companion Pacolo in 1G97 gained firm footing in California, where they gradually established sixteen stations. In New California, which was first discovered by the Jesuit Kiihn, they encountered more than usual obstacles, but gradually tlie number of their stations rose to fourteen. In Florida they met with hardly any success. In New- France, where" the first Jesuit missionary appeared in 1611, father Brebeuf became the first apostle of the Hu- rons. The Abenakis were fully Christianized in 1G89; subsequently nearly the whole tribe of the Illinois, on the ilississippi, was baptized. In Eastern Europe and in Asia Minor the Jesuits succeeded in inducing a num- ber of Greeks and Armenians to recognise the suprem- acy of the pope. After the restoration of the order the Jesuits resumed their missionary labors with great zeal. VII. The Worh at I/ome.—iXhile abroad the order was endeavoring to extend the territory of the Church, their task at home was to check the fiu-ther progress of Protestantism, and every other form of opposition to the Church of Kome, and to become within the Church the most powerful organization. They regarded the pidpit as one of the best means to establish an influence over the mass of the Catholic people, and many members gained considerable reputation as pulpit orators. Bourdaloue, Kavignan, and Felix in France, Segneri in Italy, Tolet in Spain, Vieyra in Portugal, were regarded as among the best pulpit orators in those countries ; but, on the whole, the effect of their preaching was more sensational than lasting. In order to train the youth in the princi- ples of rigid ultramontanism, the constitution of the order enjoine<l upon the members to cultivate with particular zeal catechetics. A large number of catechisms were ac- cordingly compiled by Jesuit authors, among which those of Canisius anil cardinal Bellarmine gained the greatest reputation and the widest circulation. In modern times the gradual introduction of the catechism of the Jesuit Deharbc by the ultramontane bishops is believed to have been one of the chief instruments in the revival of ultramontane principles among the German people. As confessors, the Jesuits were famous for their indul- gent and lax conduct not only towards licentious princes, but towards all who, in their opinion, might be expect- ed to benefit the order. In their works on moral theol- ogy they developed a comparatively new branch, cas- uistry-; and many of their writers developed on the theory of Probubilism (rj. v.) ideas which a large portion of the Church indignantly repudiated as dangerous in- novations, and which, ill some instances, even the popes deemed it necessary to censure. In order to effect among their adherents as strict an organization as the order itself possessed, sf>-callcd " congregations" were formed among their students, and among all classes of society, who obeyed the directions of the order as absolutely as Its own members. Wherever there were or are houses of Jesuits, there is a Jesuitic party among the laity which pursues the same aims as the order. Thus the Jesuits \v\\c. become a power '.vherever they have estab- lished themselves, while, on the other hand, the fanati- cism invariably connected with their movements has always and naturally produced against them a spirit of bitterness and hatred which has never manifested itself to the same degree against any other institution of the Roman Catholic Church. The importance of schools for gaining an influence upon society was appreciated by the Jesuits more highly than had ever before been the case in the Roman Catholic Church. The most fa- mous of their educational institutions was the Roman College {Colkfjium liomaituin). Paul IX ctjnferred upon
it in 155C the rank and privileges of a university; Greg- ory XIII. in 158J, a princely dotation. In 1584 it num- bered 2107 pupils. Flight of its pupils (Urban VIII, Innocent X, Clement IX, Clement X, Innocent XII, Clement XI, Innocent XIII, and Clement XII) ascended the papal throne ; several others (Aloysius of Gonzaga, Camillus of Lellis, Leonardo of Porto IMaurizio) were enrolled among the canonized saints. In 1710 the Jes- uits conferred the academical degrees at 24 universities and 612 colleges, and 157 boarding-schools were under their management. After the restoration of the order the Jesuits displayed the same zeal in cstablisliing schools and colleges, and have revived their rcjnitation of strict disciplinarians, who know how to curb tlie im- petuosity and passions of youth; but neither in the for- mer nor in the present period of their history have they been able to raise one of their schools to that degree of eminence which, as in the case of some of the German universities, must be admitted by friend and foe. The number of writers which the order has produced is im- mense. As early as 1608 Ribadeneyra published a cat- alogue of the writers of the order containing 167 pages. Alegambe (1643) and Southwell (1675) extended it into a large volume in folio. More recently the Belgian Jesuits Augustine and Aloys de Backer began a bibliog- raphy of the order, which, though not yet completed, numbered in 1870 seven volumes (quarto). A new edi- tion of this work, to be published in three volumes (in folio), is in the course of preparation. The following writers of the order belong among those who are best known : Bellarmine, Less, Molina, Petavius, Suarez, To- let, Vasquez, Maldonat, Salmeron, Cornelius k Lapide, Hardouin, Labbe, Sirmond, the Bollandists, Mariana, Perrone, Passaglia, Gury, Secchi (astronomer). Quite recently the order has also attempted to establish its own organs in the province of periodical literature. Publica- tions of this kind are the semi-monthly Civilta Cuflolica of Rome, which is generally regarded as the most daring expounder of the principles of the most advanced ultra- montane school ; Eludes hisioriques of France, The Mouth in England, and the Stimmen von Maria Laach (a month- ly published by the Jesuits of Maria Laach since August, 1871) in Germany.