longer and more severe than any by which conqueror ever trained his troops for enduring hardship, and achieving victory. If the result of the tests to which Loyola subjected them was satisfactory, he enrolled their names in his corps, but not till they had attained the age of thirty. At thirty years Christ entered on His public ministry, and it was deemed becoming that "the companions of Jesus" should not begin their public service till they had attained the same age. The nineteen years going before, they were to spend as novitiates. In this too, they were required to conform themselves to Him who disputed with the doctors in the temple, at the age of twelve, but did not begin to preach till after an interval of nineteen years. The period of Jesuit novitiate has since been shortened to nine years—still a long period when we take into account the disciplinary austerities and mortifications in which these years are passed. A few sentences will enable us to sketch the organisation which Loyola gave the Jesuits. This will help us the better to understand the almost omnipotent power which is wielded by the "Ironsides" of the Papacy.

At the head of the body was placed a "General." He ruled by a code, the "Constitutions" to wit. But as the "Constitutions" were kept secret, and the "General" had the power of interpreting and altering them, his own will was his law. He could make the constitutions speak what he pleased, and he I could do what he would. He was the first of Autocrats, the wearer of the Tiara not excepted.

Under the "General" come six grand divisions or princedoms. These six divisions cover the space betwixt the Indus and the Mediterranean. The kingdoms and nations inhabiting the region so bounded constituted the civilised world of the sixteenth century. The "General" stood with his dragon-foot upon it all. The governors of these six princedoms formed his staff or cabinet.

These six principalities are sub-divided into thirty-seven Provinces. Over each is placed a Provincial, who exercises vigilant oversight over all within his province. These thirtyseven provinces are further sub-divided into houses, colleges, residences, each under a rector or provost, by whom its members are supervised and its affairs directed. From the head downwards, the Jesuit body is a closely knit mechanism, moved by one will, and working for one end. It is a mechanism which has a prodigious capacity of concentration and expansion. It can focus its powers on a single country, or on single man, or spread them out over the earth, and take cognisance of all human affairs.

Since the first partitioning of the world by the Jesuits, and the distribution of their cantonments over it, the globe has been vastly enlarged. The progress of discovery has added the magnificent realm of America on the west, and the scarcely less magnificent territory of Australia on the south, and it has, moreover, brought nearer to us some of the remote countries of the East. The America of the Red Man, it is true, is older than the Jesuits, but the America of the Saxon race has come into existence since their day. These changes were not likely to pass unobserved by the "Order." They saw in them prospective enlargements of their own empire-territories to be subjugated and brought under the sceptre of their General. They planted them pretty thickly with their "Missions," thus surrounding their six great princedoms, which occupied the old world, with a zone of "missions" or "stations," which cover all the newly-added regions of the globe. No country on the face of the earth has been left uncared for by the Jesuits. The vineyard which they cultivate is the world.

From time to time, little companies of a dozen or a score depart from Paris or Rome for these distant mission-fields. True to their first pledge to serve the Papacy without fee or

reward, they do not ask so much even as the expenses of their journey. A loaf of bread and a bottle of wine stowed away in their wallet; a solitary sou in their pocket, and a staff for their hand, are all they receive when sent forth. With this slender equipment they set out with a beaming eye on their long and hazardous way, cheered by the prospect of future brilliant triumphs, or, should they fall in the field, of rewards yet more glorious in Paradise.

The whole condition of the vast empire of which he is monarch, is laid before the "General" at short and regular intervals. From every Provincial there comes to him once a month a full and minute account of the state of matters in his province. Every head of college, residence, and mission, is bound to send in a similar report once a-quarter. The "General" sees by a thousand eyes and hears by a thousand ears. He is thus able intently to watch the progress of the battle at all points, and to know what is going on in every part of the field. He knows where to advance and attack, and where it is prudent to make his troops fall back. He knows every single soldier almost in his vast army, his virtues, his failings, his capabilities. Has he any special work to do? he knows where to find the man to do it. Is it necessary to glorify the Papacy by martyrdom? he knows even where to find one willing to mount the scaffold.

What an organisation! Shape monstrous and dreadful! Its dark wings stretched out to the ends of the earth, and its iron strength gathered up in its one autocratic head at Rome! Where on earth is the cause that may hope to withstand the swoop of so terrible an embodiment of force and wickedness? No cause but one can see the face of this terrible power and live-the cause even in which dwells the Spirit of the Eternal God.

CHAPTER XI.

Spread of the Jesuits in Germany, Poland, &c.

66

LET us track the progress of the Jesuits over Christendom, and survey the trophies-how truly ghastly !—which they have left behind them. Their victories were sung of long beforehand, in doleful though graphic strains. "O thou enemy: Thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.” But we are made to hear the tread of the Avenger following hard behind; for instantly the sacred lyre rings out, "The Lord shall endure for ever. He hath prepared His throne for judgment." And passing on to the closing book of Revelation, we are shown the emblematic execution of that vengeance, when the seven golden-girded and white-vested angels come forth, and pour out their vials "filled," we are told, “with the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever."

The Jesuits made their first appearance in Germany about the time that the Lutheran Reformation had attained its climax. From that hour the Reformation began to go back in all the German countries. The plan pursued by the Jesuits was the following. Their best men they sent to the university seats, and colleges such as Ingolstadt soon fell entirely under their influence. They established small detachments of their order in the chief cities, and there they opened pretentious seminaries. The rest they distributed as schoolmasters over the country districts. They professed a boundless zeal for education, and gave themselves out as experts in the art. Their aim was to draw the youth, and especially the sons of Protestants, into their schools. In this they succeeded. They took care to have a few brilliant examples of their teaching ready for display, but the bulk of their pupils were as

far beneath as the others were above the average of attainment. It was the form not the substance of knowledge which they communicated; training the memory, but dwarfing the judgment; concentrating their attention on a few, and neglecting the many. They found out the art of teaching without educating.

They drilled their scholars in punctuality and obedience. They taught them to observe the fete days, to recite aves and paters, to walk two and two in processions, and to wear crosses and other popish emblems. The wearing of rosaries, says Ranke, was the first sign of the ebb of the Reformation in Germany. They meant no harm, the Jesuits said, by teaching their Protestant pupils these innocent arts. Perhaps so; but in twenty years the sons had forsaken the faith of their fathers, and a new race of Romanists had risen up in the German Fatherland.

But the most melancholy theatre of their tactics was Poland. The ruin of that once cultured and Protestant country lies at the door of the Jesuits. There, too, the school was the great instrumentality with whlch they worked. They began by sending forth a few brilliant Latin scholars, but before many years had passed letters were extinguished, eclipse fell on the national mind, and the light of Poland was turned into darkThe Jesuits made court to the rich; they ingratiated themselves with the muncipalities; they drew castles and lands into their possession, built magnificent colleges and convents, and with the spoils of the nation made war upon the nation. At length there was no access to court but through their good offices; and in the distribution of public honours they took care that their friends should have the lion's share.

ness.

While the polished and clever Jesuit was busy in high places, there were others equally clever in their own way, who operated at the other extreme of the social scale. In the guise of pedlars,