2. The Americas: The Jesuit State of Paraguay

The missionaries of the Society of Jesus found the New World much more favourable to their proselytism than Asia. There, they found no old and learned civilisations, no religions solidly established, nor any philosophical traditions, but only poor and barbarian tribes, unarmed spiritually as well as temporally before the white conquerors. Only Mexico and Peru, with the memory of Aztec and Inca gods still fresh in their minds, resisted this imported religion for quite a long time. Also, the Dominicans and Franciscans had already established themselves solidly. It was then amongst the wild tribes, nomadic hunters and fishermen, that the sons of Loyola exercised their devouring activity; the results they obtained varied according to the fierceness and opposition of the various populations.

In Canada, the Hurons, peaceful and docile, accepted easily their catechism, but their enemies, the Iroquois, attacked the stations created around Fort Sainte-Marie and massacred the inhabitants. The Hurons were practically exterminated within ten years and, in 1649, the Jesuits had to leave with about three hundred survivors. They did not make a strong impression when they went through the territories which, today, make up the United States, and it was only during the 19th century that they started putting some roots down in that part of the continent.

In South America, the Jesuits’ action met with some good and bad fortunes, In 1546, the Portuguese had called them to work in the territories they possessed in Brazil; while converting the natives, they encountered many conflicts with civil authority and other religious Orders. The same thing happened in New Granada. But Paraguay was the land for the great “experience” of Jesuitical colonisation; this country spread then from the Atlantic to the Andes and comprised territories which, today, belong to Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. The only means of access through the virgin jungle was on the Paraguay and Parana rivers. The population of that land was made up of nomadic and docile Indians, ready to bow to anyone’s domination as long as they were supplied with enough food and a little tobacco. The Jesuits could not find better conditions to establish, away from the corruption of whites and half-castes, the perfect type of colony, a city of God according to their heart’s desire. At the start of the 17th century, Paraguay was made into a Province by the general of the Order who had been given all powers by the Court of Spain, and the “Jesuit State” developed and flourished.

These good savages were duly catechised and trained to live a sedentary life under a discipline as gentle as it was strong: “as an iron hand in a velvet glove”. These patriarchal societies deliberately ignored liberties of any kind. “All that a Christian possesses, and uses, the hut in which he lives, the fields he cultivates, the livestock which provide his food and clothes, thie arms he carries, the tools he works with, even the only table knife given to every young couple when they set up home, is “Tupambac” God’s property From the same conception, the “Christian” cannot dispose of his time and person freely. The suckling child is under his mother’s protection. As soon as he can walk, he is in the Fathers’ or their agents’ power… When the child grows up, it learns, if it is a girl, to spin and weave, and if it is a boy, to read and write, but only in guarani; for Spanish is severely prohibited so as to prevent all trading with the corrupted Creoles… As soon as a girl is fourteen and a boy sixteen years of age, they are married, as the Fathers are anxious not to see them fall into some carnal sin… None of them can become priest monk, and even less Jesuit… They have practically no liberty left. But they are obviously very happy, materially speaking… In the morning, after mass, each gang of workers go to the fields one after another, singing and preceded by some holy image; in the evening, they come back to the village in the same manner, to hear the catechism or recite the rosary. The Fathers have also thought out some honest entertainments and recreations for the “Christians” …

“The Jesuits watch over them like fathers; and, like fathers also, they punish the smallest mistakes… The whip, fasting, prison, pillory on the public square, public penance in the church, these are the chastisements they use… So, the “red” children of Paraguay know no other authority than that of the good Fathers. They do not even vaguely suspect that the king of Spain is their sovereign”.(8)

Is this not a picture somewhat caricatured the perfect picture of the ideal theocratic society?

But let us consider how it affected the intellectual and moral advancement of the beneficiaries of that system, these “poor innocents” as they were called by the marquess de Loreto: “The missions’ high culture is nothing more than an artificial product from an hot-house, carrying in itself a seed of death. Because, in spite of all this breaking in and training, the Guarani remained deep down what he was: a lazy savage, narrow-minded, sensual, greedy and sordid. As the Fathers themselves say, he only works when he feels the overseer’s goad behind him. As soon as they are left to themselves, they are indifferent to the fact that the harvest is rotting in the field, implements are deteriorating and the herds are scattered; if he is not watched when working in the fields, he can even suddenly unyoke an ox and butcher it on the spot, light a fire with the wood of the plough and, with his companions, start eating the half-cooked flesh until none of it is left. He knows that he will get 25 lashings of the whip for it, but also that the good Fathers would never let him starve to death”.(9)

(8) and (9) H. Boehmer, op.cit., pp. 197 ss.

In a book recently published, we can read the following concerning the Jesuits’ punishments: “The culprit, dressed in the clothes of a penitent, was escorted to church where he confessed his fault. Then he was whipped on the public square according to the penal code… The culprits always received this chastisement, not only without murmurs, but also with thanksgivings…” “The guilty one, having been punished and reconciled, kissed the hand of the one who struck him, saying: “May God reward you for freeing me, by this light punishment, from the eternal sorrows which threatened me”.(10)

After reading this, we can understand Mr. H. Boehmer’s conclusion: “The Guarani’s moral life enriched itself very little under the Fathers’ discipline. He became a devout and superstitious Catholic who sees miracles everywhere and seems to enjoy flagellating himself until blood appears; he learned to obey and was attached to the good Fathers, who cared so well for him, with a filial gratitude which, even though not very deep, was nevertheless very tenacious. This not very brilliant result proves that there was some important defect in the educative methods of the Fathers. What was that defect? The fact that they never tried to develop, in their “red” children, the inventive faculties, the need for activity, the feeling of responsibility; they themselves invented games and recreations for their christians, they thought for them instead of encouraging them to think for themselves; they merely submitted those who were under their care to a mechanical “breaking in” instead of educating them”.(11)

(10) Clovis Lugon: “La Republique communiste chretienne des Guaranis” p.197. (11) H. Boehmer, op.cit. pp.204-205.

How could it be otherwise when they themselves had gone through a “breaking in” lasting fourteen years? Were they going to teach the Guaranis and their white pupils to “think for themselves”, when they were absolutely forbidden to do so?

It is not a Jesuit of old, but a contemporary one who writes: “He (the Jesuit) will not forget that the characteristic virtue of the Company is total obedience of the action, the will, and even the judgement… All the superiors will be bound in the same way to higher ones and the Father General to the Holy Father… It was so arranged as to render the Holy See’s authority universally efficacious, and saint Ignatius was sure that teaching and education would henceforth bring back to Catholic unity a Europe torn apart”.

It is with the hope of “reforming the world”, wrote Father Bonhours, “that he particularly embraced this means: the instruction of youth…” (12)

The education of Paraguay’s natives was done on the same principles the Fathers used to apply, now apply and will apply on everyone and everywhere; their aim, deplored by Mr. Boehmer, but which is ideal to the eyes of those fanatics: the renouncement of all personal judgement, all initiative, a blind submission to the superiors. Is it not that “height of freedom”, “the liberation from one’s own bondage” praised by R.P. Rouquette and which we mentioned earlier on?

In fact, the good Guaranis had been “liberated” so well by the Jesuitical method for more than one hundred and fifty years that, when their masters left during the 18th century, they went back into their forests and returned to their ancient customs as if nothing had happened.

(12) F. Charmot, s.j.: “La Pedagogie des Jesuites” (Edit. Spes, Paris 1943, p.39).

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