THE JESUITS. THE CHAPTER I. The Jesuits and the Reformation. Jesuits were called into existence to stem and, if possible, roll back the tide of the Reformation. Advanc ing over all opposition, this great religious revival, not yet half-a-century old, had acquired a strength and a breadth truly amazing. From the little Saxon town of Wittemberg it had spread itself out on the east and on the west, on the north and on the south, and now it occupied the vast territory which extends betwixt the shores of the German Sea and the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, comprehending the powerful kingdoms of Saxony, Pomerania, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, and Transylvania. Of states lying farther to the west, the Reformation had been welcomed by Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and the Netherlands. Its career among the Teutonic nations had been one unimpeded continuous victory. In a marvellously short period, the night which for ages. had brooded over Germany had been chased away, and a countless multitude of men, of cities, and of nations, were rejoicing in the light of the new day. B On the west of the Rhine, in Latin Christendom, the march of the Reformation had been equally rapid and equally triumphant. The mountains of Helvetia, so inaccessible to the phalanxes of Austria, had opened their gates to the Reforming host. The half of the cantons of Switzerland had embraced the Protestant faith. On the shores of the Leman, beneath the shadow of the Alps, the movement had found a new centre and a second chief. From the feet of Calvin, evangelical champions were daily going forth to win spiritual victories and extend the area of the heavenly kingdom. The south and west of France were Protestant, and the supremacy of the Reformation in that great country at no distant day seemed all but certain. The brilliant roll of states which had rallied themselves beneath the banner of the new faith had lately received an important accession in the two great kingdoms of England and Scotland. Of the countries of Western Europe only two, Italy and Spain, now remained with the Pope. It had come to a crisis with Rome. She had treated the movement, when it first broke out, and for some time thereafter, with contempt and indifference. It had been announced in the halls of the Vatican that a German monk of the name of Luther had risen up against the Church. But who cared for that? The name, destined soon to be one of terror, had then no significance. The dominion and glory of Rome were beyond the reach of a hundred Luthers. His outcry might awaken a little stir in the remote Germany, but long ere it had crossed the Alps his voice would die away in silence. Pope Leo, from his lofty seat on the Seven Hills, looked down with derision on the puny attempts of the poor monk. As well might Luther try to overturn the Alps as think to shake the stable dominion of a Church which, upheld the authority of kings, and defended by the puissance of armies, had prolonged her sway through sixteen centuries. Nevertheless, before the movement had passed its initial stages, it became evident even to Rome herself that her dominion was beginning to totter. Nations were fleeing from her. Every post was bringing tidings of some new defection. The stars of her firmament were falling. While darkness was gathering in her sky, on the earth around her was dismay, and perplexity, and portents of direful change. A great calamity impended over her who had "sat a queen and believed that, however it might be with other monarchs, she should see no sorrow. The crowns of earthly princes might perish, the Tiara was eternal. The thrones of the world might be cast down, the chair of Peter would stand immoveable to the last age. ST The first attempt to suppress the Reformation was by force of arms. A warning had come down from ancient time that "they who take the sword shall perish by the sword;" but in the moment of pressing peril which had now arrived the warning was forgotten or disregarded. Rome, alas, knew no other weapon; nor for centuries had she employed other in the suppression of her heretical adversaries, as was but too terribly attested by the plains of Southern France and the Valleys of the Waldenses, where the Protestants and Protestantism that were before Luther's day lay buried in the ashes of burned cities and the blood of slaughtered nations. The weapon which had suppressed these revolts of an earlier day would, Rome doubted not, effectually quell the more audacious uprising of the present time. The sword was grasped. The trumpet of war was blown. Spain was by far the mightiest of the European kingdoms of that age. Its dominion, which began where the day rises. and ends where night descends, embraced a world rather than a kingdom. It was this prodigiously powerful State that step ped down into the arena to do battle for Rome. First under Charles V., and next under Philip II.; its whole power was put forth to crush the Reformation. The conflict was long and fearfully sanguinary. Million after million of gold ducats-for Spain was wealthy then-did Charles and Philip lavish on the enterprise; one mighty army after another was swallowed up in their terrible battle-fields; martyrs by the thousand were dragged to the stake; but the attempt, though made with all these rare conditions of success, was abortive. The Reformation remained unconquered. It rose triumphant over soldiers and executioners, over scaffolds and battle-fields; and Rome was at last convinced that she must equip other combatants, and forge other weapons-not indeed throw away the sword altogether, but join therewith an instrumentality more subtle and etherial, if she would succeed in arresting a movement which threatened to sweep away what yet remained to her of her former greatness and glory. It was now that the Jesuits were brought upon the scene. CHAPTER II. Jesuitism. JESUITISM was no new discovery or invention of Ignatius Loyola, though his name stands conspicuously connected therewith. The seed of Jesuitism was in the Popish system, and had been so from the beginning. It grew up and developed by equal stages with the system in which it was held. The first sowers of this evil seed were the Popes of early days, and their coadjutors. When they forsook the objective rule of the Divine Word, and chose as their guide an authority variously known as reason, the inner light, philosophy, they started on a path of which Loyola in the sixteenth century |