Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/681

JESUITS and Italian, from a MS. taken from him when he was in prison. The evils he specifies are the spy system (which he declares to be carried so far that, if the general s archives at Home should be searched, not one Jesuit s character would be found to escape), the monopoly of the higher offices in the hands of a small clique, the narrow range of study, and the absence of encouragement and recompense for the best men of the society. But any fair examination of the constitutions will show that all these belong to the original scheme of government, and should have been challenged on that ground, if at all. Yet, on the broad issue, Pascal s censures have in the main been justified by the subsequent teaching of the society, for the lax casuistry which he held up to ridicule has been formally reproduced in the most modern and popular Jesuit text book on the subject, that of F. Gary, while the works of Liguori and Scavini, though not of direct Jesuit origin, are yet inter penetrated with the same opinions. And the result of dis passionate examination of these and kindred works always bearing in mind that no Jesuit writings can be published without special licence from the general, after careful scrutiny and review is that the three principles of proba- bilism, of mental reservation, and of justification of means by ends, which collectively make up what educated men intend by the term " Jesuitry," are recognized maxims of the society. As the last of these three is at once the most odious in itself and the charge which is most anxiously repelled, it is well to cite three leading Jesuit theologians in proof. Busembaum, whose Medulla Theologize has been more than fifty times printed, and lately by the Propaganda itself, lays down the maxim in the following terms : " Cum finis est licitus, etiam media sunt licita," and, " Cui licitus est finis, etiam licent media." Layman, similarly, in his Theologia Moralis, "Cui concessus est finis, concessa etiam sunt media ad finem ordinata ; " and Wagemann, in his Synopsis Theologies, Iloralis, yet more tersely, " Finis determinat probitatem actus." In point of fact, many rules of conduct based on these three principles have gradually percolated, as might have been expected, into popular catechisms, and so have weakened the plea that we are dealing only with technical manuals for a professional class ; while the plausible defence from the fair average honesty and morality of the lay-folk taught by a clergy which uses these manuals, amounts simply to a confession that the ordinary secular conscience is a safer guide in morals than a Jesuit casuist, since the more nearly the code deducible from his text-books is conformed to the more widely must the pupil diverge from all accredited ethics. Two causes have been at work to produce the universal failure of the great company in all its plans and efforts. And first stands its lack of powerful intellects. Nothing can be wider from the truth than the popular conception of the ordinary Jesuit as a being of almost superhuman abilities and universal knowledge. The company is with out doubt a corps cFelite, and an average member of it is of choicer quality than the average member of any equally large body, besides being disciplined by a far more perfect drill. But it takes great men to carry out great plans, and of great men the company has been markedly barren from almost the first. Apart from its mighty founder, and his early colleague Francis Xavier, there are absolutely none who stand in the very first rank. They have had, no doubt, able administrators, like Acquaviva ; methodical and lucid compilers, like the Bollandists and Cornelius a Lapide ; learned and plausible controversialists, like Bellarmine ; elegant preachers, as Bourdaloue, Segneri, and Vicyra; dis tinguished mathematicians, like Le Seur, Jacquier, and more lately Secehi ; but even their one boldest and most original thinker, Denis Petau, has produced no permanent influence over the current of human thought. They have had no Aquinas, no Anselm, no Bacon, no Richelieu. Men whom they trained and who broke loose from their teaching, Pascal, Descartes, Voltaire, have powerfully affected the philosophical and religious beliefs of great masses of man kind, but respectable mediocrity is the brand on the long list of Jesuit names in the catalogues of Alegambe and De Backer. This result is due chiefly to the destructive pro cess of scooping out the will of the Jesuit novice, to replace it with that of his superior (as a watchmaker might fit a new movement into a case), and thereby annihilating in all instances those subtle qualities of individuality and origin ality which are essential to genius. Men of the highest stamp will either refuse to submit to the process, or will come forth from the mill with their finest qualities pulverized and useless. Nor is this all. The Ratio Studiorum, as devised by Acquaviva, and still followed in the colleges of the society, lays down rules which are incompatible with all breadth and progress in the higher forms of education. True to the anti-speculative and traditional side of Loyola s mind, it prescribes that even where religious topics are not in question, the teacher is not to permit any novel opinions or discussions to be mooted ; nor to cite himself, or allow others to cite, the opinion of an author not of known repute ; nor to teach or suffer to be taught anything con trary to the prevalent opinions of acknowledged doctors current in the schools. Obsolete and false opinions are not to be mentioned at all, even for refutation, nor are obj ac tions to received teaching to be dwelt on at any length. The professor of Biblical literature is always to support and defend the Vulgate reading, and to cite the Hebrew and Greek only when they can at least be reconciled therewith ; while all versions except the LXX. (which is to be spoken of respectfully) are to be passed over entirely, save when they help to confirm the Vulgate text. In philosophy, Aristotle is to be always followed, and Aquinas generally, care being taken to speak respectfully of him even when abandoning his opinion. It is not wonderful that, under such a method of training, highly cultivated commonplace should be the inevitable average result, and that in pro portion as Jesuit power has become dominant in Latin Christendom, the same doom of intellectual sterility, and consequent loss of influence with the higher and thoughtful classes, has spread from the part to the whole. The second cause which has blighted the efforts of the company is the lesson, too faithfully learnt and practised, of making its corporate interests the first object at all times and in all places. The most brilliant exception to this rule is found in some of the foreign missions of the society, and notably in that of St Francis Xavier. But Xavier quitted Europe in 1541, before the new society had hardened ii>to its final mould, and never returned. His work, so far as we can gather from contemporary accounts, was not done on the true Jesuit lines, though the company has reaped all its credit ; and it is even possible that had he succeeded Loyola as general of the Jesuits the institute might have been seriously and healthfully modified. It would almost seem that careful selection was made of the men of greatest piety and enthusiasm, such as Anchieta, Baraza, and Brebeuf, whose unworldliness made them less apt for the diplomatic intrigues of the society in Europe, to break new ground in the various foreign missions, where their successes would throw lustre on the society, and their scruples need never come into play. But such men are rare, and as they died off, their places had to be filled with more sophisticated and ordinary characters, whose one aim was to increase the power and resources of the society. Hence the con descension to heathen rites in Hindustan and China. The first successes of the Indian mission were entirely amongst the lowest class ; but when Robert de Nobili, to win the