Popery, Puseyism and Jesuitism – Luigi Desanctis
LETTER I. Exercises of St. Ignatius (Loyola).
Contents
[ENRICO TO Eugenio.]
Rome, November, 1846.
My DEAR EUGENIO,-
Yon have good reason to complain of my negligence in having allowed so long a time to pass without writing to you-but, what would you? In the schooldays I have not a moment or time; the autumnal vacation I passed partly in going through all the lessons of the year – and partly in the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius. But now I will no longer be so negligent towards the dear friend of my childhood. I will write to you every week by stealing some hours of sleep.
I am sorry not to be able adequately to answer your request. You wish to know from me what I think about Pius IX. and his reforms. You know well, dear Eugenio, that I understand little or nothing of public affairs, that I lead a very retired life, and attend with all my might to theological studies; consequently, I am the person the least capable of informing you about such things; I converse with none but the good Fathers of the Company of Jesus, who are my masters, my directors, my friends. These good Fathers, however, tell me that the concessions which Pius IX made to the Liberals will be followed by the bringing about of great injury to our most holy religion. This is all I know upon this point–nor do I care to know more.
Perhaps you, who are a Protestant, and educated in the pernicious doctrine of independent examination, will laugh at such fears; but if you had had the fortune to be born within the pale of the Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church, as I have been, you would understand that the religion of Jesus Christ is a yoke, truly a light yoke, as we read in Matthew xi. 30; but, nevertheless, is always a yoke that one should not lighten; it must weigh and press on the neck lovingly but absolutely. Now, to leave the people so much liberty, the good Fathers say, is as if they took off the bridle from the colt. They add, what is true, that Jesus Christ ordained His disciples, and through them all bishops, and especially the Pope, who is the bishop of bishops and His vicar, to constrain and to force all to enter into His Church–compelle entrars, Luke xiv. 23: and it seems that Pius IX. instead, will open the door that all may go out, by causing to return to his States all the Liberals exiled by the most holy Gregory XVI., who are so many rapacious wolves, and who will devour the flock. So say the good Fathers. Besides, I think only of one thing – that is, the salvation of my soul. My masters appear to be satisfied with me, and I hope next year to have finished my theological studies and return to my dear Geneva. Oh, how I could wish to embrace you again as a brother in Jesus Christ! You are good, you are upright in heart, and I hope for your conversion. In the meantime, I will relate to you what has happened to me lately, in order that you may know how much the good Jesuit Fathers are calumniated by those who do not know them.
At the time of the autumn vacation I had the privilege of being admitted to perform the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius in the religious house of St. Eusebius. In the last ten days of October the exercises are performed in that religious house only by ecclesiastics – there were fifty in all; there were a cardinal, four prelates, some parish priests, different brothers, the remainder all priests; I was the only clerk.
The church and house annexed to St. Eusebius, given to the Jesuit Fathers by Leo XII., is situated on the Esquiline Hill, and covers a. great part of the remains of the hot Baths of Gordian. The convent, or house, has been destined by the good Fathers as a retreat for those pious persons who desire to perform the exercises of St. Ignatius; and many times in the year those good Fathers fill that house with persons, who for the small cost of thirty-five paoli are admitted there for ten days to perform these pious exercises under the direction of the Fathers. In your religion there are no such things, and I will, therefore, describe to you with”some precision these exercises, that you may have an idea of the infinite advantages which we Catholics have over Protestants.
At least a week before the day appointed for entrance, it is necessary to present yourself to the Fathers and provide yourself with a ticket. The good Fathers wish to know some days previously who those are who desire to perform the holy exercises, that they may inform themselves about such persons, with the sacred aim of being able better to direct their consciences. Besides, they wish to be secure and know for certain that those who go to these exercises are proper persons, who do not go for evil purposes.
Scarcely do you set foot in the religious house than two Fathers, with pious courtesy, receive you and conduct you to the little cell which is appointed for you; already your name is printed in large letters and put on an elegant card over the door of your cell, which is neat and very simply furnished. A tolerably comfortable bed, a little table, with necessaries for writing, two straw chairs, a prayer chair, a receptacle for holy water, a crucifix, and a card on which are fixed the rules to be observed-that is all the furniture of the cell. About half-an-hour after your entrance one of the Fathers comes to the cell, and with the most affectionate words informs himself of of your health, and in the kindest and most loving manner inquires the motives which urged you to make use of the holy exercises; and that with the sacred aim of being better able to direct your conscience. This first visit over, which is made to all, the bell rings, which calls all to the chapel.
The chapel is situated in the centre of the house; four long corridors, where the rooms are, end at the chapel as a centre. It is dedicated to the Virgin, and the picture over the alter represents her seated on a cloud, with the infant Jesus on her left arm, whilst with the right she presents to St. Ignatius the book or the Spiritual Exercises. In the centre of the chapel, upon a green carpet stretched on the pavement, is a large crucifix of brass, and every one coming into the chapel, before going to his place, prostrates himself before that cross and kisses it. When all are in their places a Father comes, seats himself in the arm-chair placed on the altar step, and begins the introductory discourse. The subject of that introductory sermon was taken from St. Mark vi:31: -“Come ye apart into a desert place, and rest awhile.” From that text the good Father showed the absolute necessity for every Christian, and especially for every ecclesiastic, to retire for holy exercises, because Jesus Christ did so in the forty days that He was in the desert, and because He ordered the apostles to do so, as clearly appears from the text. Then he said that all the excesses into which the clergy of the mediaeval age fell were occasioned because they abandoned the practice of the holy exercises; and, therefore, God raised up St. Ignatius to suggest them afresh, but with better method, and the Holy Church has greatly recommended them. He then passed on to give the rules, how to perform them with profit, and spoke until some strokes of the bell warned him that he should cease.
Through an unforeseen circumstance I then came to know the signification of those strokes of the bell. It is because during the time of the sermon those good Fathers, zealous for the greater glory of God and the good of souls, go the round of all the rooms and examine the luggage of all, not to take anything, but only to know what letters, what books, what objects the exerciser has with him, what he writes, and this in order to be enlightened how to regulate his conscience. You see that this is a pious work, carried out for the good of those who perform these holy exercises. The strokes of the bell are to warn the Father that the examination is ended. After the sermon each one goes to his room, and finds upon his kneeling chair a bronze lamp-stand, with one single burner, and a little book printed in large characters, in which is the compendium of the sermon which has been preached, which compendium of every sermon is found each time you go from the preaching to your room. In this you see the wisdom of the Fathers, who do not give liberty to the preacher to say what he wishes, but oblige him to say the things approved by the Elders. After half-an-hour, which ought to be occupied in meditation, you go to the common supper.
During the dinner and the supper one of the Fathers reads the admirable origin of the exercises of “St. Ignatius, the marvelous conversions which accrue from them, and the miracles with which God has willed to manifest His pleasure in and approval of those exercises; all which things were collected and published by Father Carlo Gregorio Rosignoli. After supper each one returns in silence to his room, and then the good Fathers go about visiting all and holding holy conversation with all on matters of conscience. The evening finishes with the examination of conscience, which is made in common, in the chapel. under the direction of the Fathers.
The next day, which is, properly speaking, the first day of the exercises, is entirely devoted to meditation and explanation of the great maxim, called by St. lgnatius the foundation of the Christian life, because it is really the basis of the whole religious edifice; a maxim which has given so many saints to the church, and which is the principal foundation of all the actions of the good Fathers. The maxim is this:_”Man is created in order that he may praise and reverence his Lord and his God, and that serving Him he may save his soul.” The old translation said:_”And that serving Him he may be finally saved.” But the most pious Father Rookan. the General of the Jesuits, has corrected the old translation upon the Spanish autograph, that which the Virgin gave to St. Ignatius in Manresa, which says: “may save his soul.” St. Ignatius proceeds to say that “all the things that are on earth were created on man’s account, in order that these should help him to fulfill the end of his creation.” See how man is ennobled!
From this principle St. Ignatius draws two conclusions ~the first, that “we ought to make use of, or abstain from, created things as far as they are profitable or injurious to the carrying out of our end”; the second, that “we ought to be indifferent in the choice of created things, which are only means to attain the end; hence, in the choice of means, we must not allow our fancy to judge as to their intrinsic value, but we should only see if the means that we select will conduct us to the end or not.” The Christian ought not to consider such things as worldlings, who understand little or nothing of spiritual things, consider them, but ought only to take care to select those means which best. conduce to the attainment of the end. Upon this fundamental maxim they make three long sermons, and I assure you that these are not too much in order to root out that prejudice which our pride has implanted in our heart, viz., wishing to judge the means in themselves, and not rather to judge them in relation to the end.
In fact, I had much difficulty in fully admitting the principle of St. Ignatius; it appeared to me that the salvation of the soul was by the grace of God; that service to the Lord was an effect of that . grace; hence I could not understand how the salvation of the soul was the effect of my service rendered to the Lord. It appeared to me that St. Ignatius should have spoken of grace and of love, but I found nothing of that.
According to the rules, I wrote down my difficulties and consigned them to the Father Director. In the evening there came to me a venerable Father, having in his hand the paper I had written, and he spoke to me in this manner: “One can easily see,” he said, smiling, “that you still suffer from the influence of Geneva. Your Calvinists carry everything to extreme, and their rigorous influence makes itself felt also on the Catholic population; but we shall find a remedy for it. In the meantime, my son,, learn that truth, like virtue, does not exist in extremes, the proper medium is the great doctrine which reconciles all. Recall the theological doctrines which . you have learnt from our Father Perrone, and all your difficulty will vanish. You know that justification, which is the principle of our salvation, is by grace, bull not grace that is entirely gratuitous; to receive it, it is necessary that the man should be prepared for it, and he merits it if not de condigno, but at least de congruo. You must remember that the Council of Trent in the 6th Session, at the 9th Canon fulminates anathema against the Protestants who teach that man is justified by faith and not by works. Remember the doctrine of our Cardinal Bellarmino, who, commenting on the chapter cited at the Council of Trent, says in his Book I. on Justification, chapter xiii., that it is necessary that justification should find in the man seven dispositions – that is, faith, fear, hope, love of God, penitence, hatred to sin, and the purpose of receiving the Sacraments. You know that justification can, or ought to, be augmented by us through mortification, and the observance of the commandments of God and the Church, as the Council of Trent teaches at the 6th session, Chapter X. With these considerations all your difficulties will vanish; the salvation of the soul in a certain sense is by grace, although we may and ought to merit it. It is grace because it is a favour of God, but it depends on ourselves, inasmuch as we prepare ourselves to receive justification, and, receiving it, we augment it even to the attainment of life eternal. You see, then, with what reason St. Ignatius teachers us that we save ourselves in serving God. Then, with regard to love, if St. Ignatius does not mention it, he does not exclude it. But here,” continued the good Father, “I warn you; the book of the exercises was given to St. Ignatius by the Virgin with her own hands, as you see in the picture in the Chapel; it is, therefore, a divine revelation; hence you must be on your guard against pushing criticism too far; 1ess discussion, my son, and more submission.”
You cannot think how much good these words of the Father Director did me. They imposed silence on Satan, who suggested in my mind all those difficulties; and from that time I set myself, with all docility. to discern in the book of the holy Patriarchs his divine doctrine.
The third day the meditations are -first, an the sin of the angels; secondly, on the sin of Adam; thirdly, on the sins of men, always applying the great foundation maxim, that is, that sin is a deviation from the end, and that this consists specially in choosing the wrong means to attain it. That day and the two that follow are designed to instill into the sinner a salutary fear; hence all is arranged with that view. The shutters of the windows are almost entirely shut, and only sufficient light is allowed to enter the room to prevent you from stumbling. This will seem a trifle; but that solitude, that silence, that darkness, united to the gloomy ideas of the meditations, to terrify, that you feel impelled at once to open all your conscience to the good Fathers. Besides this, the rule prescribes that you should mortify yourself as to food and sleep. All these things together are a blessed combination to produce such fervour as it is difficult to resist.
During the fourth day mediation is continued upon subjects of holy terror-you meditate upon death and judgment. And here I wish to relate a little anecdote which will show you the holy art that the good Fathers adopt to cause the good impression on of those holy maxims to remain on the mind. Returning to my room full of fervour after the first meditation of the morning, which was upon death, I threw myself on my knees on my prayer chair, and bending down my forehead to pray with great fervour, I was thrown back by a. blow, occasioned by my forehead having struck against a hard body which was placed upon my prayer chair. I looked in’ terror, and imagine what was my fright to find that I had struck my forehead against a skull, placed there in order to be a speaking image of death. After the second sermon on the same subject, I went to my prayer chair with greater caution; but instead of the skull I found a coloured picture pasted upon cardboard; it was the . representation of a dead body in complete dissolution, rats ran over it from all sides to satisfy themselves with this putrifying flesh; : the limbs were falling away, and the worms swarmed upon the dead body. Under the picture there was this motto: -“Such as I am, thou wilt be.” I defy the hardest heart to resist such shocks. After the sermon on hell, I found the picture of a lost soul surrounded with flames, demons, and serpents, and with monsters of every kind tormenting it.
The fifth day the sermons were upon individual judgment, universal judgment, and upon the judgment that Jesus Christ will execute in an especial manner upon ecclesiastics; and I assure you that those sermons were not less terrifying, During these day of’ terror, the good Fathers came to hear the confessions of the exercisers, and each one prepared to give a general confession of his whole life, beginning from infancy.
The sixth day a new method begins; the shutters of the windows are opened wider to give greater light, the corridors themselves are more illuminated, all mortifications are suspended, and the table is more delicate. The great meditations on the two banners and their followers occupy this day, in which the application of the great fundamental maxim is particularly given; and on this day, for those who can understand it, there is the development of the great spiritual machinery of the holy exercises. In the meditations on the two banners, St. Ignatius conducts the Christian first to the plains of Damascus, where God created man, and makes him see Jesus, who, raising His Cross, invites men to follow Him in the way of abnegation, humility, and penitence, but few are those who follow Him. Then, with a truly inspired impetus, he transports the man to the vast plains of Babylon, and here he shows Satan, seated on a chair of fire and smoke, who calls men to follow him by the path of pleasure, and many follow him. Man must enlist under one of the Captains, enroll himself under one of these two banners. Well, then the exerciser imagines himself there in the midst, on the point of choosing. Oh, dear Eugenio, what a solemn moment in my life was that day! That day was a day of exaltation of spirit, and God was sensibly felt in all.
After the sermon we went to our rooms, and all the good Fathers were in movement to visit all, and thus maintain their fervour. On that day is made the so-called exercise of election., and this is what it consists in. Either you are already in a fixed and immutable state, as for example, are the priests; or you have not yet definitively chosen, as in my case; in both cases you ought to make your exercise of election. It is done thus. You divide a sheet of paper into three columns; in the first you write the reasons which you have, or which you have had, to choose that state in which you are, or desire to be; in the second, the reasons which made you, or will make you, contented in that state; in the third, the contrary reasons. That page ought to be, in a word, the state of your conscience, in order to listen to the counsel of the good Fathers, who, from their experience, will direct you in your eleolion. If you con. sign this writing to the Father Director, as almost all do, it is in order that he may better know the state of your conscience, and, besides, he receives it under the seal of the confessional, and after he has read it, he burns it.
And here I will refute another calumny which is spoken against these good Fathers, viz., that the house of St. Eusebius is, at it were, a snare to entice young men and make them Jesuits. It is false, my dear friend, quite false; and I will give you a proof. I, for example, had chosen to become a Jesuit, as it appeared to me the most secure means of saving myself; however, the Father Director made me observe that I had not chosen well the means that would conduce to the greater glory of God, but had allowed myself to be led away by my egotism. “The greater glory of God exacts,” said he to me, “that you return to your own country; there God will open a wide field for you, and were you a Jesuit, you would not be able to return there. Remain then a Jesuit in heart and not in dress; maintain our friendship, allow yourself to be directed, by us, but return to your country as a simple priest, and God will be therein more glorified.”
After so solemn a day the exercises that remained were not so interesting. On the seventh day you meditate on the life of Jesus Christ as a whole, because it is the model of the life of a Christian, and specially of a priest. On the eighth day you meditate on Hie passion and death; on the ninth, on the resurrection, the ascension, and the descent of the Holy Spirit. On the tenth, there is only a sermon on the love of God. The morning of the ninth day the Reverend Father General came to perform Mass and to give a pious exhortation on devotion to the Sacred Heart of Mary, and on the obligation that all ecclesiastics have to propagate such devotion. After that we were taken leave of by the good Fathers, with tears in their eyes.
Do you not see, my dear Eugenio, with what holy arts those good Fathers seek the salvation of souls and the glory of God? Your Calvinists and Methodists do nothing of the kind. I came out of that holy house quite another man to what I was when I went in. I could wish that all men were Catholics, and as much as in me lies I shall do all that I can for the special conversion of Protestants; indeed, God has already put me on the track of an Anglican minister. I have begun with him the work of conversion, and I have good hopes of it. In the next letter I will tell you how I met with him, and what is the result of the discussion commenced. Adieu, dear Eugenio; love always your
Enrico.
