DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71557#0344
312
MEMOIR OF
harboured there: " Tell him that I myself will
mount the battlements, and see if he dare to kill a
king's daughter."*
The efforts of the Papacy, and of the Inquisi-
tion, to put down the Reformed faith in Italy, were
materially aided by the co-operation of the Jesuits,
who, about the year 1543, began to attract notice,
and who devoted themselves thenceforward with
intense zeal to uphold the Romish Church in all the
plenitude of its loftiest pretensions. Whatever may
be thought of the ascetic rigidity, the romantic and
high-wrought fanaticism of Ignatius Loyola, their
founder, there can be but one opinion as to the pro-
found sagacity with which this extraordinary man
framed his plans for carrying out the special pur-
poses of the Order. Unqualified, unquestioning,
passive obedience to the will of their superiors, and
to the decrees of the Church, was the fundamental
rule imposed on its members, and this rule was so
entirely to supersede and subjugate the reason,
control the conscience, and chain down the affec-
tions of each, as that he should be ready, at any
moment, and at any sacrifice, to discharge whatever
services might be imposed upon him, without re-
gard to climate, place, or inclination. To appro-
priate, as far as possible, to themselves, those mighty
springs of power, the pulpit, the confessional, and
the education of youth, were the practical means
* MeCrie, p. 218.
MEMOIR OF
harboured there: " Tell him that I myself will
mount the battlements, and see if he dare to kill a
king's daughter."*
The efforts of the Papacy, and of the Inquisi-
tion, to put down the Reformed faith in Italy, were
materially aided by the co-operation of the Jesuits,
who, about the year 1543, began to attract notice,
and who devoted themselves thenceforward with
intense zeal to uphold the Romish Church in all the
plenitude of its loftiest pretensions. Whatever may
be thought of the ascetic rigidity, the romantic and
high-wrought fanaticism of Ignatius Loyola, their
founder, there can be but one opinion as to the pro-
found sagacity with which this extraordinary man
framed his plans for carrying out the special pur-
poses of the Order. Unqualified, unquestioning,
passive obedience to the will of their superiors, and
to the decrees of the Church, was the fundamental
rule imposed on its members, and this rule was so
entirely to supersede and subjugate the reason,
control the conscience, and chain down the affec-
tions of each, as that he should be ready, at any
moment, and at any sacrifice, to discharge whatever
services might be imposed upon him, without re-
gard to climate, place, or inclination. To appro-
priate, as far as possible, to themselves, those mighty
springs of power, the pulpit, the confessional, and
the education of youth, were the practical means
* MeCrie, p. 218.