The main goal of the Jesuit order was to fight. “Soft power” technologies of the Jesuit order in Slavic lands

The Jesuit Order (officially the Society of Jesus) was founded in 1536 in Paris by the Spanish fanatic Ignatius of Loyola, who, according to Diderot, devoted his youth to military craft and love pleasures. In 1540, the order was legalized by Pope Paul III.
The order was created on a military model. Its members considered themselves soldiers, Christ's army, and their organization an army. Iron discipline and absolute obedience to superiors were considered the highest virtue of the Jesuits. The end justifies the means - this was the principle followed by the members of the Society of Jesus. Unlike other monastic orders, the Jesuit was not bound by strict monastic rules. The sons of Loyola lived in peace, among the population.

The Society of Jesus is the order most closely associated with the papal throne, whose activities are directly controlled and directed by the Pope. Formally, all other monastic orders depend on the papal throne. However, in the past, they gravitated more towards the local hierarchy and local rulers than towards a leader distant from them catholic church. Another thing is the Jesuits, who swear allegiance to the Pope, his own soldiers, who directly and unquestioningly carry out his orders.
Jesuits were freed from burdensome church services and the mandatory wearing of monastic robes. Moreover, unlike members of other monastic orders, they did not apply for the highest church positions. Only in exceptional cases were they appointed cardinals or bishops, and the path to the papal tiara was generally prohibited for them. The general of the Jesuit order could not expect to turn from a black priest into a white one. Thus, the Jesuits were allowed everything except direct control of the church. They could only rule through others, they could only be a secret spring, a secret power behind the throne.

The largest possession of the Jesuits in Spanish America was the reductions in Paraguay. The Jesuits came to Paraguay at the beginning of the 17th century. There were no gems in this area, no developed Indian societies, so it did not attract much attention from the Spaniards during the Conquest. But the favorable climate, fertile land, allowing for two harvests a year, large masses of Indian population, mainly peace-loving Guarani tribes, made this area very promising for development Agriculture, especially cattle breeding. The Jesuits were also attracted by the fact that there were few Spanish settlers here and the area was located away from major colonial centers. The closest of them - Asuncion and Buenos Aires, were at the beginning of the 17th century just outposts guarding from the outside Atlantic Ocean approaches to the riches of Peru. To the east of the Asuncion - Buenos Aires line lay no man's lands with unknown riches, stretching all the way to the Portuguese possessions, or rather to Sao Paulo. In this huge triangle - Asuncion - Buenos Aires - Sao Paulo, which could accommodate Spain, Portugal and France taken together, lie the Jesuit possessions, the Jesuit republic or state, as they are often called in literature.
These possessions were under the jurisdiction of the Jesuit Paraguayan province (the Jesuit Order was divided into provinces, which usually included several countries). In addition to Paraguay, the Jesuits also had the Mexican and Peruvian provinces in colonial America, with a center in Asuncion, the influence of which extended to what is now Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and the adjacent border zones of Highland Peru (Bolivia) and southern Brazil.

The Jesuits created their first settlements in the region of Guaira on the left bank of the river. Paraguay, but after successful raids by the Brazilian bandeirantes - slave hunters from Sao Paulo (they were also called Mamelukes) - they were forced to leave Guaira and move with their Indian charges to the south. In the 18th century, the Paraguayan Jesuit missions had 30 reductions in the area of the upper and middle reaches of the Parana and Paraguay rivers, between the 25th and 32nd meridians, at the junction of the current republics of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. 8 reductions were located in what is now Paraguay, 15 in Argentina, 7 in Brazil, in what is now the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The largest reduction - Yapeyu - numbered about 8 thousand inhabitants, the smallest - 250, and on average about 3 thousand people lived in the reduction. Currently, these areas are called in Paraguay: Misiones District, in Argentina - the national territory of Misiones, in Brazil - the Mission District (Сmarca de missoes).
In October 1611, the Jesuits received from the Spanish crown a monopoly on the establishment of missions in Paraguay, and the Indians they converted to Christianity were exempted from paying taxes to the crown for 10 years. The Spanish authorities took this step for various reasons: firstly, the area was inaccessible and poor in valuable minerals; secondly, it was inhabited by freedom-loving tribes, the conquest of which would have required great resources and efforts on the part of the colonial authorities; thirdly, the territory where the Jesuits settled adjoined Brazil, which at that time was (thanks to the annexation of Portugal to Spain in 1580) as if in the orbit of Spanish influence, so the Portuguese did not resist the advance of the Jesuits towards their territory - Brazil.

The Jesuits adapted the Catholic religion to Indian beliefs, acting through tamed Indians who acted as their agitators and propagandists, and enlisted the support of the Indian cacique chiefs, through whom they controlled the reductions. The caciques received their share from the exploitation of Indian workers who were in the position of serfs. The product of their labor on God's field (that was the name of the land that belonged to the church) and in the workshops was appropriated by the Jesuits, who acted as landowners and entrepreneurs. Their wards did not enjoy freedom of movement, could not change jobs, or choose a wife without the prior consent of the Jesuit mentor. For disobedience, the Reduction Indians were subjected to corporal punishment.

The reductions in the descriptions of some Jesuits look like either a kindergarten or an almshouse. The Jesuits, it turns out, did nothing but increase the spiritual and physical benefits of their charges: they taught them reading and writing, music, crafts, the art of war, and took care of their health, rest, and soul. However, upon closer examination of the system established by the Jesuits in reductions, the sunny picture of Guarani life dims, black spots appear very clearly on it. All authors, including the Jesuits, agree that the life of the Indians in reductions was regulated to the limit, including marital relations, which took place at the signal of the bell at 11 pm; The Indians worked from dawn to sunset, the products of their labor were appropriated by the Jesuits. The Guarani lived in poverty, unsanitary conditions, ate poorly, walked barefoot, and died from various epidemics. The Jesuits carried out trials and reprisals against them, punishing them with whips for the slightest violation of the established order. The Jesuits lived in beautiful buildings; the churches built by the Indians sparkled with decorations made of gold, silver and precious stones. The labor of the Indians brought enormous benefits to the order. The Jesuits supplied the international market with large quantities of erba mate (Paraguayan tea), cotton, leather, tanning extract, wax, tobacco, grain and other products obtained as a result of Indian labor.
Access to the reduction depended on the will of the Jesuit authorities, who could deny entry to everyone except the highest clergy and representatives of the colonial administration. Finally, a significant difference between the Jesuit possessions in Paraguay and other missions was the presence of Guarani Indian troops in the reductions. These troops were created and armed with the permission of the Spanish crown after the separation of Portugal from Spain in 1640. Their task was to protect the eastern border from attacks by the Brazilians. Formally they were at the disposal of the colonial authorities, but in reality they were commanded by the Jesuit fathers.

In 1740, the Jesuits were preparing to celebrate their anniversary - the 200th anniversary of the existence of the order. In this regard, General of the Order Retz sent a circular to all provincials with instructions not to make a fuss about the anniversary and to celebrate it strictly in the family circle, given the seriousness of the situation. The general was right: clouds were gathering everywhere over the order; he was accused of a variety of intrigues, intrigues, and crimes. Now the members of the Society of Jesus were reviled not only in Protestant countries, but also in the most devout Catholic countries - Spain, Portugal and France, where real anti-Jesuit parties were formed, advocating the strengthening of royal power and enlightened governance. Opponents of the Jesuit order demanded, first of all, to limit its political and economic influence, prohibit it from interfering in state affairs, expel its representatives from court circles, and deprive the Jesuits of a monopoly on the influential position of royal confessor.

Things did not go well for the Jesuits in Brazil, which was developed by the Portuguese much later than the Spanish possessions. The first Jesuits arrived in Brazil in 1549. They immediately began to clash with the Portuguese settlers over control of the Indians. The Jesuits demanded guardianship over the Indians, while the settlers sought to convert the Indians into slavery. An Indian slave was much cheaper than an African slave.
On this basis, there were constant clashes between both sides, which more than once ended in the expulsion of the Jesuits. In 1640 they were expelled from the São Paulo region, and in 1669 from the northern provinces (Marañon and Paraná). The Jesuits in Brazil, as well as in other countries, not only did not object to the slavery of blacks and the slave trade, but they themselves actively participated in it. Their laments and protests against the settlers' attempts to enslave the Indians were explained not by moral reasons, but by the desire to benefit themselves from monopoly control over the natives.

But over time, clouds began to gather over the order. In 1764, France banned the Jesuit order. This decision was preceded by the scandalous case of the Jesuit abbot Lavalette, who robbed his partners in trade with Martinique. Parliament and a special royal commission that examined the activities of the order came to the conclusion that the subordination of the French Jesuits to a foreign general living in Rome was contrary to the laws of the kingdom and the duties of its subjects. The king, not wanting to take extreme measures, proposed that the papal throne appoint a vicar from among the French Jesuits - the local head of the order, responsible to French laws. The Papal throne rejected this proposal. Then on August 6, 1762, the Parliament of Paris, the highest court of the country, decided to ban the Jesuit order and expel its members from the country, simultaneously accusing them, according to the best traditions of the Inquisition, of sympathizing with Arianism, Nestorianism, Lutheranism, Calvinism and many other heresies, the spread of heretical defilements.
This decree was legalized by the king two years later, in 1764. The Pope, at a secret consistory, rejected the decision of the French king as illegal, but did not dare to publicly state this. The shame of the Jesuits did not end there. Their headquarters in Paris - a palace on the Rue de Pau de Fort - was taken over by the Freemasons, who in 1778 accepted into their ranks in this former holy of holies the Society of Jesus - Voltaire, a former student of the Jesuit fathers, and then their most merciless enemy.
The ban of the Jesuit order in France strengthened the position of its opponents in Spain. They began to wait for the right moment to follow the example of Paris and Lisbon.

The King of Spain, Charles III, initially favored the Jesuits, but his attitude towards the order soon changed. The former king of Naples, Charles III was a great admirer of Bishop Palafox, who once predicted that he would take the Spanish throne. When this prediction came true, Charles III, wishing to posthumously thank the prophetic bishop, asked the Pope to elevate him to the rank of blessed. The Pope categorically refused. Palafox, being the bishop of Puebla in Mexico, was known as an implacable enemy of the Jesuits. Naturally, the Jesuits, whose influence at the papal court was still significant, could not allow their enemy to be beatified.
The intrigues of the Jesuits and the pope's refusal to grant his request aroused the king's displeasure. It turned to anger when Charles III was informed that the Jesuits intended to overthrow him and place his brother Louis on the throne, that they were spreading rumors that the king’s father was Cardinal Alberoni, who served as an adviser at the Neapolitan court.

On March 23, 1766, a rebellion broke out in Madrid against the Neapolitan finance minister Leopoldo de Gregorio, Marquis of Schillaci, who had forbidden the Spaniards to wear wide-brimmed hats and long cloaks. The Jesuits took part in the riots. Procurator of the Order Isidoro Lopez and Patron of the Order, former minister Ensenada, called for the overthrow of the king. This overflowed the patience of Charles III, and he agreed to ban the order. An Extraordinary Royal Council was convened, which considered the report of ministers Rod and Campomanes on the activities of the Jesuits in the Spanish Empire.
The report was compiled on the basis of revealing documents of the former Jesuit Bernardo Ibáñez de Echavarri. Ibáñez, while in Buenos Aires in the 50s, during Valdeliros’s mission there, sided with the latter, for which he was expelled from the order. Returning to Spain, Ibáñez wrote a number of notes, including the essay The Jesuit Kingdom in Paraguay, exposing the subversive activities of the Jesuits in this province. Ibáñez's materials, after his death in 1762, were transferred to the government.

On April 2, 1767, the royal council issued a decree - the Pragmatic, the full name of the document - His Majesty's Pragmatic Order, expelling, according to the law, from these kingdoms, the members of the Society, confiscating their property, prohibiting the restoration at any time in the future, and enumerating other measures.
The King, it was said in the Pragmatics, decided to prohibit the Order of Loyola, to expel all its members from the Spanish possessions and to confiscate their property, prompted by the most serious reasons relating to my duties to ensure the subordination, tranquility and justice of my peoples, and for other urgent, just reasons. , necessary and obligatory reasons which are known only to my royal conscience.
Jesuits of all ranks and degrees, including novices, were expelled. All property of the Order, whether movable or real estate, was confiscated in favor of the royal treasury. A Council was established for the management of former Jesuit property (Junta de temporaridades), the income from which was to be used for educational purposes and for the payment of pensions to expelled members of the order.
Expelled Jesuits who wished to leave the order and return to a secular state could ask the king to allow them to come to Spain, giving an oath under oath to the chairman of the Royal Council to cease all communication with members of the order or its general and not to act in their defense. Violation of the oath was equivalent to high treason. Former Jesuits were prohibited from church and teaching activities. Residents of Spain and its possessions, under pain of severe punishment, were not allowed to correspond with members of the order.

Both in Spain and in the overseas possessions, with the exception of Mexico, the operation to arrest the Jesuits and expel them went off without much hindrance. Resorting to tricks and tricks, local authorities managed to concentrate the Jesuits lured from the missions in the designated places and arrest them.
This gave rise to the legend that the ship that delivered the royal Pragmatics to the colonies allegedly brought a secret notification from the Jesuit general to his charges about their impending deportation.
Anticipating that the Jesuits might mobilize fanatical supporters from the local population in their defense, the Viceroy of Mexico, the Marquis de Croix, in an address to the residents, demanded unquestioning submission to the royal Pragmatics and strictly forbade any discussion of it.
This menacing appeal had no effect on the supporters of the Jesuits, who rebelled in the cities of San Luis Potosi, Guanajuato and Valladolid (now the city of Morelia). It took an army of 5 thousand soldiers to extract the Jesuits from there. It took four months to quell the riots. The Spanish authorities mercilessly dealt with supporters of the Jesuits: 85 people were hanged, 664 were sentenced to hard labor, 110 were deported.

In the La Plata area, the order to expel the Jesuits could only be carried out a year after it was received. Only on August 22, 1768, the authorities were able to concentrate all (there were about 100 of them) Paraguayan Jesuits in Buenos Aires, from where they sailed to Spain on December 8 of the same year, arriving in Cadiz on April 7, 1769. In total, 2260 Jesuits were expelled from the American colonies, 2154 arrived at the port of Santa Maria, the rest died on the road. 562 Jesuits were expelled from Mexico, 437 from Paraguay, 413 from Peru, 315 from Chile, 226 from Quito, 201 from New Granada. Most of those expelled were Spaniards, but there were also several hundred Creoles; 239 Jesuits were natives of Italy, Germany, Austria and some other European countries. Thus ended the history of what was once one of the most powerful Catholic orders in Europe.

He was a product of the Counter-Reformation era. In fact, it was created to rehabilitate the Catholic Church. At the same time, historians are far from clear about his activities. Why? Let's look at some interesting facts.

Fact No. 1. First, let's talk about who the founder of the Jesuit order was. Ignatius of Loyola was a Spanish aristocrat by birth who devoted his youth to war. Some consider Ignatius of Loyola a saint, while for others he is an ordinary religious fanatic. He himself admitted that he was “brave in courting women, he valued both his own and other people’s lives cheaply.” But after being seriously wounded during the defense of Pamplona in 1521, Inigo de Loyola decided to radically change his life. After and then in France, he became a priest. Even during his studies, Ignatius, together with 6 like-minded people, took vows of chastity, non-covetousness and missionary work. The order was officially established in 1540. It is quite possible that it was Loyola who contributed to the fact that the order was organized almost on a military model.

Fact No. 2. The Jesuit Order is largely a missionary organization. True, the preaching methods used by the Jesuits are far from biblical examples. After all, they always tried to achieve success in this matter as soon as possible. For example, when preaching in China, the Jesuits first of all studied the customs of the local residents. They presented Christianity as a unique variety of Chinese religion. Thus, the Jesuits behaved like admirers of Confucius. In particular, members of the order, according to pagan rites, made sacrifices to Confucius and their ancestors, used the sayings of the mentioned philosopher to substantiate Christianity, and hung plaques in temples with the inscription “Worship the sky!” The Jesuit order operated in the same way in India. While preaching to the Indians, they remembered the existence of castes. For example, the Jesuits rejected any close communication with pariahs (“untouchables”). The latter even received communion at the end of a long stick. What the Jesuits preached was a bizarre mixture of Christian and pagan beliefs.

Fact No. 3. “The end justifies the means” is the famous motto followed by the Jesuit Order. Indeed, to achieve their goals, the Jesuits used any means: deception, bribery, forgery, slander, espionage and even murder. When it came to the interests of the order, there could be no moral barriers for the Jesuit. Thus, many historians are sure that it was the Jesuits who arranged the murder of the French king Henry of Navarre. Members of the order openly justified the murder of the tyrant ruler. The Jesuits are also credited with organizing the so-called Gunpowder Plot, which occurred in England in 1605. The Swedish king Gustav Adolf called members of this order the perpetrators of the disasters throughout Germany. Because of their active activities, the Jesuits were expelled from Portugal, Spain, France and Naples. Therefore, it is not surprising that now Jesuits are often called hypocrites, as well as cunning and crafty people.

Jesuits(Order of the Jesuits) - the unofficial name of the “Society of Jesus” (lat. Societas Iesu listen)) - a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church, whose members take a vow of direct unconditional submission to the Pope. This monastic order was founded in 1534 in Paris by the Spanish nobleman Ignatius of Loyola and approved by Paul III. Members of the order, known as "Jesuits," have been called "the foot soldiers of the Pope" since the Protestant Reformation, in part because the order's founder, Ignatius of Loyola, was a soldier before becoming a monk and eventually a priest. The Jesuits were actively involved in science, education, upbringing of youth, and widely developed missionary activities. The motto of the order is the phrase “ Ad majorem Dei gloriam", which is translated from Latin as "To the greater glory of God."

Today the number of Jesuits is 19,216 people (2007 data), of which 13,491 are priests. There are about 4 thousand Jesuits in Asia, 3 thousand in the USA, and in total Jesuits work in 112 countries of the world, they serve in 1,536 parishes. The Order allows many Jesuits to lead a secular lifestyle.

Geographically, the Order is divided into “provinces” (in some countries where there are many Jesuits, there are several provinces; and vice versa, some provinces unite several countries), “regions” dependent on one or another province, and “independent regions”. Jesuits living in the territory of the former USSR, with the exception of the Baltic countries, belong to the Independent Russian Region.

Currently, the head (general) of the order is the Spaniard Adolfo Nicolas, who replaced Peter Hans Kolvenback. The main Curia of the order is located in Rome, in a historically significant complex of buildings, and includes the famous church Holy Name Jesus.

History of the order

Opposition to the Society of the Courts of the Great Catholic Monarchs of Europe (Spain, Portugal, France) forced Pope Clement XIV to abolish the order in 1773. The Last General Order was imprisoned in a Roman prison, where he died two years later.

Society in the 19th and 20th centuries

The abolition of the order lasted forty years. Colleges and missions were closed, various undertakings were stopped. The Jesuits were added to the parish clergy. However, according to various reasons The society continued to exist in some countries: in China and India, where several missions remained, in Prussia and, above all, in Russia, where Catherine II refused to publish the papal decree.

The society was restored in 1814. Collegiums are experiencing a new flourishing. In the context of the “industrial revolution”, intensive work is being carried out in the field technical education. When lay movements emerged at the end of the 19th century, the Jesuits took part in their leadership.

Intellectual activity continues, among other things, new periodicals are created. It is necessary, in particular, to note the French magazine “Etudes”, founded in the city. Ivan-Xavier Gagarin. Centers for social research are being created to study new social phenomena and influence them. The organization Action Populaire was created in the city in order to promote changes in social and international structures and help the working and peasant masses in their collective development. Many Jesuits also practice fundamental research in the field of natural sciences, experiencing its rise in the 20th century. Of these scientists, the most famous is paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Jesuits also work in the world of mass communication. They have been working on Vatican Radio from the time of its founding to the present day (in particular, in the Russian section).

Second World War became for the Society, as well as for the whole world, a transitional period. In the post-war period, new beginnings arise. The Jesuits are involved in creating a "work mission": priests work in the factory to share the conditions in which the workers live and make the Church present where there was none.

Theological research is developing. The French Jesuits study the theology of the Fathers of the Church and undertake the first scientific edition of the Greek and Latin patristic writings, which replaces the old edition of Father Minh: this is a collection of Christian Sources. Work on it continues today. Other theologians become famous in connection with the Second Vatican Council: Fr. Karl Rahner in Germany, Fr. Bernard Lonergan, who taught in Toronto and Rome.

The ban on the activities of the Jesuits lasted until the fall of the monarchy in March 1917.

The Soviet government and its ideology treated the Jesuits extremely negatively, presenting them as some kind of immoral spy service of the Catholic Church. In particular, they attributed the principle “The end justifies the means” (in fact, the saying belongs to Niccolo Machiavelli).

Famous Jesuits

St. Ignatius de Loyola (1491-1556) - founder of the order.
St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552) - missionary and preacher, preached in Asia - from Goa and Ceylon to Japan.
Baltasar Gracian y Morales (1600-1658) - famous Spanish writer and thinker.
Antonio Possevino (1534-1611) - papal legate, visited Russia.
José de Acosta (1539-1600) - explorer South America, for the first time expressed a theory about the settlement of the American continent by settlers from Asia.
St. Martyr John de Brebeuf (Jean de Brebeuf) - explorer of the North. America, tortured by Indians.
Francisco Suarez (1548-1617) - Spanish theologian and philosopher.
Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) - founder of the Jesuit mission in Beijing.
Mansiu Ito (-) - head of the first Japanese embassy to Europe.
Adam Kokhansky (-) - scientist, mathematician.
Jean François Gerbillon (-) - French Jesuit scientist and missionary in China.
Giovanni Saccheri (1667-1733) - scientist, mathematician.
Lorenzo Ricci (1703-1775) - general of the Jesuit order; After the destruction of the order by Pope Clement XIV, he was imprisoned in the fortress of St. Angela, where he died. Known for his response to a proposal to reform the order: “Sint ut sunt aut non sint.”
Michel Corrette (1707-1795) - French composer and organist.
Martin Poczobut-Odlanitsky (1728-1810) - Belarusian and Lithuanian educator, astronomer, mathematician, rector of the Main Vilnius School (1780-1803).
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) - English poet.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) - French theologian, philosopher, paleontologist.

Descartes, Corneille, Moliere, Lope de Vega, J. Joyce and many other prominent writers and scientists were educated in Jesuit schools.

Jesuits in world literature

Beranger - "Holy Fathers"
Blasco Ibañez - "Jesuit Fathers"
Stendhal "Red and Black" - paints a picture of the Jesuit school
Dumas, Alexandre (father) - “The Vicomte de Bragelonne, or Ten Years After”
Father d'Orgeval - novel "Angelique" from 13 volumes by Anne and Serge Golon
James Joyce - main character novel “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, Stephen Dedalus, studies at a Jesuit school
Eugene Sue - "Ahasfer"

Jesuit anti-Semitism

According to the research of philosopher and historian Hannah Arendt, it was Jesuit influence that was responsible for the spread of anti-Semitism in Europe. For example, the Jesuit magazine Civiltà Cattolica, which was one of the most influential Catholic magazines, was at the same time “highly anti-Semitic.”

Bibliography

Marek Inglot SJ Society of Jesus in Russian Empire(1772-1820) and his role in the widespread restoration of the Order throughout the world - Moscow: Institute of Philosophy, Theology and History.
Michelle Leroy The Myth of the Jesuits: From Beranger to Michelet - Moscow: Languages of Slavic Culture, 2001.
Heinrich Böhmer History of the Jesuit Order - Collection AST Publishing House, 2007
Gabriel Monod On the History of the Society of Jesus - Collection Jesuit Order Fact and Fiction AST Publishing House, 2007

An accident that changed history

The founder of the future order was the young Basque nobleman Ignatius de Loyola. He dreamed of knightly deeds and a beautiful lady. Blood boiled in his veins, and he, like his glorious ancestors, considered it his duty to defend Spain and baptize the infidels. In 1521, he did not even suspect that he would do this for the rest of his life not with a sword, but with a cross.

The founder of the Jesuit Order dreamed of becoming a knight

The year 1521 changed his fate beyond recognition. During the defense of one of the castles of Navarre from the French, the brave Loyola was wounded in the leg. The bone was crushed. Even after two operations and training on a specially made device, which caused unbearable pain, one of Ignatius’s legs remained shorter than the other. One could forget about the knight's career. In the castle where he stayed to recover from his wound, there was not a single chivalric romance, and Loyola had to read church books. The despairing nobleman had an epiphany: he would continue the work of Francis and Benedict, perpetuating his name with piety and humility.

After several years of the strictest grueling fasts, self-flagellation and seven-hour prayers, Loyola began to look more like a begging old man than a young nobleman of noble birth. He gathered like-minded people around him, and in 1534, in the Cathedral of Saint-Denis, they celebrated the first mass of the future Jesuits. Wanting to go to Jerusalem to baptize infidels, they turned to the Pope with a request to establish their special order. So, in 1540 it began official history Society of Jesus.

Educators of the Catholic Church

Unlike other monastic orders, the Jesuits did not lock themselves in their cells, preferring itinerant sermons and constant interaction with the church and flock. In less than 50 years they have become one of the most influential organizations Europe XVI century. The followers of Ignatius de Loyola were assisted by representatives of the ruling dynasties: for example, they gained the favor of the daughter of Emperor Charles V, Juana of Austria.

They preached asceticism and piety, took into the care of orphans and people sick with plague and syphilis, the epidemic of which overtook Venice in the 16th century. With the money of the order they organized large-scale Catholic carnivals and organized a network educational institutions throughout Europe. In France, more than 40 thousand students studied at Jesuit colleges, including Descartes, Montesquieu and Moliere. Poor students were allowed to study for free. Such colleges were not only centers for the dissemination of Jesuit ideas, but also a significant breakthrough in the history of European education as a whole. It is believed that modern pedagogy has still not been able to surpass the system of education and training of the Jesuits.

The Jesuit slogan is “the corpse is in the hands of the owner,” that is, the Pope.

The Jesuits also accompanied punitive expeditions into colonial Latin America, where they used their favorite persuasion technique: they frightened the natives with images of hell. Missionary in Latin America It was beneficial not only to the Catholic Church, but also to the purse of the order: many Jesuits did not shy away from participating in the robbery of the treasures of the pagan temples of the Indians.

The success of the order irritated many of his contemporaries. The main slogan of the Jesuits during the life of Ignatius de Loyola became “the corpse in the hands of the owner,” that is, the Pope. Members of the order were ready to do anything to protect the interests of their master, and this frightened opponents of the Catholic Church.

Enemies surround

At the height of the Reformation, in 1572, the Society of Jesus made it its main task to exterminate the heresy of the Protestants. They considered the followers of Martin Luther and John Calvin to be “creatures of the plague.” The Jesuits' opponents paid them the same favors: they called Loyola the offspring of the devil, whom he gave birth to out of annoyance at Luther.

The Jesuits converted Indians to Christianity by frightening them with images of hell.

England waged a particularly brutal war against the Jesuits under Elizabeth I, who suspected them of political espionage. Jesuits, accused of agitation and subject to the "anti-Catholic law", were executed in a terrible manner. Thomas Cottam, who confessed to being a spy, was hanged in 1582 and then immediately thrown into a vat of boiling water. Robert Sutwell was quartered and his dead body was displayed at the four main gates of London. Catholic Englishmen of those times pretended to be Protestants, went to church services and tried to “turn away their ears” when the priest preached a sermon. However, the terror of the Anglican Church spurred the Jesuits to fight even more fiercely. Those executed by order of the English queen were revered as martyrs.

Caricature of the Jesuit Order

There was also unrest within the Catholic Church. The success of the Jesuit Order began to interfere with and overshadow other organizations that served the Pope. Society began to be portrayed as arrogant and selfish, and was often accused of violence against those who came to confession. In addition, many Catholics were irritated by the presumptuous name of the order - the Society of Jesus, and they got the Pope to forbid the Jesuits to be called that. The enemies of the Jesuits were just waiting for the right opportunity when they would make a mistake.

Loyola was called the son of the devil, whom he gave birth to out of frustration with Luther

Careless political games and exile

December 27, 1594. A Catholic fanatic, the son of a tailor, Jean Chatel, attempted to assassinate King Henry IV of France, who was a Protestant before his accession to the throne. Having missed, he, instead of stabbing the king, cut off a piece of his lip with a dagger. Under torture, Chatel constantly referred to the Jesuits, in whose school he studied. This became the reason that allowed opponents of the Jesuit Order to accuse them of treason. What followed was a pogrom in the Jesuit quarter of Paris and their expulsion, first from the capital and then from the country.

Constant suspicions of Jesuit interference in politics were not unfounded. Although the top of the Order remained neutral at that time, the rest of its members actively participated in politics, defending the interests of the Pope. The decline of the order began with the expulsion of the Jesuits from France. Their numerous communities were closed.

In Europe, an anti-Jesuit myth was actively developed: members of the order were presented as regulars in brothels, and they were accused of cruelty and the high mortality rate of orphans, whom they did not monitor well enough. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Jesuits, who had excellent knowledge of pharmaceuticals, were considered the main poisoners of Europe. The royal courts of Europe, where figures of the Enlightenment began to play a special role, united in opposition against the Jesuits, who were believed to be involved in most of the murders of the highest persons of the time.

The Jesuits were suspected of treason and promoting the positions of the Pope to the detriment of the interests of the state. The order began to be called nothing more than “soldiers of the Lord” or “black guard of the Vatican.” Moreover, rumors spread throughout Europe about the Jesuits’ plans to create their own “state within a state” and about organizing uprisings in the colonies. The Jesuits were perceived as rivals secular power, and educators actively contributed to the dissemination of this judgment.

The example of France was followed a century later by Portugal, Spain, and Austria. In 1773, the Pope was forced to sign a bull banning the existence of the order, which served him faithfully for more than 200 years. Victory lights burned all night in Lisbon.

Today, many people hear the word “Jesuit”; its meaning has long since acquired additional dimensions, denoting not only belonging to one of the most famous and still influential orders of the Catholic Church, but also a cunning and resourceful person who cannot be trusted. However, these “dogs of the Lord” themselves prompted this, creating an essentially unique system, extremely simple in its core, but acquiring a very ingenious and interesting form.

Jesuit, who is this? A little history

Like many, it has its own founder, who is currently canonized. The history of the Jesuits goes back more than one century, which began in the first half of the 15th century, when the Spanish knight-dreamer Ignatius of Loyola decided to radically change his life and devote his remaining years to issues of the church, religion, faith, and create a kind of army of spiritual knights. And if at the beginning of the journey almost no one knew what each Jesuit was, who he was, and what the goals of the entire order were, now it is impossible not to notice their trace in the history of all subsequent eras, not only for a professional historian or clergyman, but also for an amateur. to an amateur.

Origins of the order

The “dogs of the Lord” also have their own history. originated in 1534, when its founder Loyola, together with his faithful friends and spiritual knights, took vows of poverty, chastity and service for the glory of the Church, and three years later they took orders and became preachers, firmly deciding to follow the path of converting infidels and caring for them by believers . By 1539, the priests of this order (the future) were already in Rome, where they attracted everyone's attention with their ideas and faith in them, which was unique during the decline of the monasteries and the Catholic Church itself as a whole. Perhaps it was precisely the not-so-favorable position of the latter that prompted Pope Paul III to quickly give the green light to the official creation of the order, and subsequently to patronize in every possible way those who called themselves the Society of Jesus, but in reality became soldiers of Christ in every sense.

Personnel training

However, getting into the ranks of the Jesuits was easy, perhaps, only at the very beginning. Visionary churchmen quickly realized that information rules the world, and they spared no time in training their adherents. That is why they taught for at least 12 years: first, at least two years of novitiate or obedience. This was followed by the adoption of standard monastic vows: obedience, mendicancy and celibacy, another two years of learning languages - Latin, ancient Greek (with mandatory reading of ancient authors - of course, in the original), a year of exact sciences (mathematics, physics). Next came philosophy, and only then for another 4 years the novices studied church history, theology, law, becoming coadjutors (clergy who have the right to return to social life). Only the zeal for study, diligence, natural abilities and successful final exams demonstrated throughout all stages made it possible to proudly declare that yesterday’s student of the college is now a Jesuit priest, with all the rights and responsibilities.

Last Vow

Now it was possible to take the fourth and final vow, which it was no longer possible to refuse until the end of one’s days - the vow of unquestioning submission to the pope and only to him. The Jesuits did not waste time on trifles and obeyed exclusively the charter of the order or directly to the pontiff. They did not recognize any other authority over themselves.

Prevalence and elimination

It took the Order just over a century to weave its networks both in the European states of that time, as well as in China, Japan, India, Paraguay, the Philippines, and did not forget to settle in Imperial Russia, which turned out to be very far-sighted. When in 1773 Pope Clement XIV was forced to make a strong-willed decision and ban the Society of Jesus everywhere with the bull Dominus ac Redemptor Noster, only Catherine II did not want to listen and allowed the Jesuits to continue their activities in the territory subject to the empress. The abolition of the order itself lasted four decades, during which they were included in the parish clergy. But already in 1814, the Jesuits regained their rights and regalia.

Charter and discipline

The Jesuit charter consisted of 9 points, the essence of which was that its participants, in addition to the obligatory monastic oaths, also took a vow of unquestioning obedience to the abbot of the society, as well as the head of the Catholic Church. Moreover, there was virtually no way to retreat - by becoming a Jesuit, a person lost the right to independently dispose of himself and was one of the links in a great system, which, however, worked flawlessly.

The order was also distinguished by very strict discipline and strict centralization, within the framework of which supreme power was in the hands of the general (from “general mentor”, not to be confused with the military), who was still unofficially considered the “black pope” and was elected for life.

Role in the educational process

One of the main tasks that the Jesuits set for themselves and successfully implemented was the numerous educational institutions created in almost all missions. Thus, it was the Jesuit college that prepared for itself educated and well-trained novices, whom many years of “drilling” turned into obedient dolls in the hands of the leadership. By the way, by the end of the 18th century, under their constant control was most of higher and middle educational institutions in Europe.

How to get away with it - learning from the Jesuits

But the Jesuits are remembered not only for their good intentions and educational activities, but also for their original theory, which allows one to be “justified” when committing any actions, even very, very sinful ones, it is enough just to believe that this was done in the name of another, good goal. You could also use a “mental slip” and make false promises. Therefore, it is not surprising that the question: “Jesuit - who is this?” - one could hear in response that this is a liar weaving a network of intrigues.

Today's day in the life of the order

Centuries have passed, Ignatius of Loyola has long been canonized and canonized, and the current Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) is precisely a representative of this order. In addition, there are about 17.7 thousand Jesuits in the world, who are still subject to strict discipline and hierarchy. Employees of the Catholic Church are trained in special colleges controlled by the Society of Jesus. However, only time changes, people remain the same. And now practically no one asks the question of who a Jesuit is, since everyone knows the answer.