Volume III, Treatise I, Chapter I

Of the End and Institution of the Society of Jesus

“ATTEND to thyself and doctrine”, says St. Paul to Timothy; “be earnest in them. For in doing this thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee”—I. Tim., iv. 16. The end and institution of the society consist in these two things, of which the apostle speaks. Our constitutions and the apostolical bulls expressly declare, “that the end of this society, is that all those who compose it may, with the grace of God, labour not only for their own salvation and perfection, but also seriously apply. themselves to the salvation and perfection of their neighbour”— Cap. i. Exam. §.1. It is not sufficient to apply ourselves after an ordinary manner, but we must, according to the Latin words, tmpenso incumbere, “earnestly apply ourselves”, that is, we must apply ourselves with zeal and ardour to attain this end. Now it is to be observed, that as our constitutions oblige us to labour not only for our own salvation, but for our perfection; even so they will have us labour not only for the salvation of others, but also for their greater perfection and greater advancement in ‘virtue. Hence, Father Aquaviva, in his instructions to confessors, counsels them to be less zealous in attracting a greater number of penitents, than in perfecting their present ‘umber daily more and more. In a word, the same care we have for our own advancement and perfection, we ought also to have for the advancement and perfection of our neighbour.

In effect, it is particularly for this that we have been instituted. For St. Ignatius, on the one hand, perceiving that the Church was furnished with many religious orders, which continually applied themselves to the divine worship and their own spiritual advancement; and considering, on the other, that it was afflicted with an infinity of heresies, disorders, and scandals, “that the harvest was great, and that the workmen were but few”— Mat., ix. 37,—Wwas inspired by God to institute our society, to be, as he himself said, like a kind of flying-camp, that should be ready at the least alarm, and always be in a condition to fight the enemy, and to afford help and succour wherever it should be wanting. And for this reason he would not have us subject to the keeping of choir, or to other spiritual practices, which might interfere with our giving succour to souls. If you should see, says St. Chrysostom, a blind man on the point of falling into a ditch, you would endeavour to save him; how then can we behold our brethren casting themselves headlong into the abyss

of Hell, and not stretch out a hand to draw them back?

We see that even the ancient fathers of the desert, though particularly called by God to solitude, quitted the repose of their cells in times of persecution, and went into towns to oppugn heretics, to instruct the faithful, and encourage them to suffer constantly for the love of Jesus Christ. Thus great St. Anthony did in the days of Constantine. The same was done by the holy old man Acepsimus, who had lived three-score years in the desert without having had any communication with man; and this is what others have done at other times. We have an illustrious example hereof in the reign of the emperor Valence, in the. person of a holy man called Aphraates. This emperor having driven all Catholics, not only out of their churches in towns, but also out of many others in the country, to which they retired to say their prayers and to offer holy sacrifices of praise to God, this holy old man left his cell to protect and defend the flock of Jesus Christ. One day as he went to the place where they were assembled, the emperor, to whom they had discovered him, caused him to be called to him, and asked him whither he went. The saint replied, that he went to offer his prayers to God for the preservation of the empire; and the emperor having told him, he would do much better to go and offer them in his cell, according to the custom of hermits; it is true, courageously replied the holy man, it is there I should offer them, if you did not hinder me from doing so, and it is this I ever did, while the flock of Jesus Christ were permitted peacefully to enjoy their pastors. But now, when they are deprived of them, and in danger of being lost, all things must be renounced for their preservation and defence from the wolves. If a virgin lived in great retirement and modesty, and saw the house of her father on fire, what ought she do? Ought she out of delicacy and modesty remain with folded arms, at the hazard of letting the house be burnt, and of being burnt in it herself?. Or ought she not rather run “and cry out for help, and use her endeavours to put out the fire? Now seeing that the house of. God our Father is at present on fire, and that you yourself, sir, have set it on fire, it is to extinguish this fire, that we, who lived before in retirement, bring help from all places to it.

St. Chrysostom, speaking of the care we ought to have for the salvation of our neighbour, makes use of another very just comparison. If, when we are out at sea, says he, we discover a vessel afar off, in danger of being wrecked, we feel ourselves presently touched with compassion, and how favourable soever the wind is for our own course, we turn and steer towards the place where the vessel is in distress. We approach it, we take in our sails, we cast anchor, we throw out ropes and planks on all sides, and in fine, we do all things imaginable, to endeavour to save those we perceive in danger. It is thus we ought to behave while we navigate the sea of this world. The tempests which continually rise upon it, and the banks and shelves which it is full of, cause every day disastrous shipwrecks. When, then, we see our neighbour in this condition, we must presently quit all our affairs, and run to his succour, since the danger in which he is, admits of no delay.

. Now, it was precisely for this end, and by a particular providence, that God raised our society in those deplorable days, when the Church stood so much in need of assistance. Ecclesiastical historians remark, that upon the very day that Pelagius was born in England, St. Austin was born in Africa; God so uniting the remedy to the disease, that when the one should endeavour to.spread abroad the darkness of his heresy over the whole Earth, the other should be ready to dissipate 3 it a his “light ‘and to tri-

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hoewe IS umph over error by his doctrine. He that writes the life of St. Ignatius, also observes, that in the same year that Luther began to unmask himself, and to declare open war against the Church and against truth, God permitted that St. Ignatius should be wounded in the defence of Pampilona, and that he should be attracted by this means to his service, in order to put him at the head of a new militia, which he designed to raise for the defence of his Church. Jt is in this manner that divine Providence, which continually watches for the salvation of the faithful, never fails to send them extraordinary succours, when they stand in need of them.

The same author, enlarging upon this matter, shows also, that at the same time when the Albigenses and other heretics molested the peace of the Church, and when the field of our Lord was so filled with brambles and thorns, that the good seed was almost choked, God raised St. Dominick and St. Francis to oppose heresy with all vigour, to fight against vice and error by the purity of their lives and doctrine, and in imitation of the ancient fathers, to illumine the world by their light, and to sanctify it by their example. It was also by the infinite providence of God, that when the eastern church was oppressed by infidels, he formed several military religious orders to defend it with sword in hand. And finally, it is the same providence that has

lately established so many religious orders, and our society in

particular, the institution whereof is the subject of the present discourse. For in the beginning of the heresy of Luther, which destroyed the obedience that is due to the pope—which denied the truth of the Blessed Sacrament of the altar—and which wished to abolish the sacrament of penance—God raised our society, which makes a singular profession of obedience to the pope, which engages its religious thereunto by a particular vow, and which applies itself particularly to instruct all persons in the truths of faith concerning the sacraments of penance and the eucharist, to preach the frequent use of them, and to render men worthy of receiving them by a reformation of their lives. And just as a good general, when the battle is begun, observes from a rising ground the state of the combat, in order to send reinforcements wherever they are wanted—to send a squadron here and a battalion there—so Jesus Christ, who is the general of the Christian army, beholds from the heavens above the state of his Church in the different combats it has to sustain; and according to its necessities, he sends from time to time new reinforcements of doctors and heads of orders to succour it; and herein the providence and mercy of our Saviour is very great, never to permit any distemper without applying a remedy to it in due time. Now this is properly the end for which our society has been instituted, as the bull of its confirmation says—it is to defend the faith against heretics, it is to carry it to infidels, it is to preserve it amongst Catholics, by our doctrine and example, for which God has called us.

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