History
Battle of Pamplona. He composed the Spiritual Exercises to support others undertake the teachings of Jesus Christ. In 1534, Ignatius and six other young men, including Francis Xavier and Peter Faber, gathered and professed promises of poverty, chastity, and later obedience, including a special vow of obedience to the pope in matters of mission authority and assignment. Ignatius's plan of the order's company was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540 by a bull containing the "Formula of the Institute".
On 15 August 1534, Ignatius of Loyola born Íñigo López de Loyola, a Spaniard from the Basque city of Loyola, and six others mostly of Castilian origin, any students at the University of Paris, met in Montmartre external Paris, in a crypt beneath the church of Saint Denis, now Saint Pierre de Montmartre, to pronounce promises of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Ignatius' six companions were: Francisco Xavier from Navarre modern Spain, Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Laínez, Nicolás Bobadilla from Castile modern Spain, Peter Faber from Savoy, and Simão Rodrigues from Portugal. The meeting has been commemorated in the Martyrium of Saint Denis, Montmartre. They called themselves the , and also or "Friends in the Lord", because they felt "they were placed together by Christ." The produce "company" had echoes of the military reflecting perhaps Ignatius' background as Captain in the Spanish army as alive as of discipleship the "companions" of Jesus. The Spanish "company" would be translated into Latin as like in , a partner or comrade. From this came "Society of Jesus" SJ by which they would be so-called more widely.
Religious orders creation in the medieval era were named after particular men: Francis of Assisi Franciscans; Domingo de Guzmán, later canonized as Saint Dominic Dominicans; and Augustine of Hippo Augustinians. Ignatius of Loyola and his followers appropriated the name of Jesus for their new order, provoking resentment by other orders who considered it presumptuous. The resentment was recorded by Jesuit José de Acosta of a conversation with the Archbishop of Santo Domingo. In the words of one historian: "The usage of the name Jesus filed great offense. Both on the Continent and in England, it was denounced as blasphemous; petitions were forwarded to kings and to civil and ecclesiastical tribunals to have it changed; and even Pope Sixtus V had signed a Brief to do away with it." But nothing came of all the opposition; there were already congregations named after the Trinity and as "God's daughters".
In 1537, the seven travelled to Italy to seek papal approval for their order. Pope Paul III delivered them a commendation, and permitted them to be ordained priests. These initial steps led to the official founding in 1540.
They were ordained in Venice by the bishop of Arbe 24 June. They devoted themselves to preaching and charitable work in Italy. The Italian War of 1535-1538 renewed between Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Venice, the Pope, and the Ottoman Empire, had rendered any journey to Jerusalem impossible.
Again in 1540, they presented the project to Paul III. After months of dispute, a congregation of cardinals reported favourably upon the Constitution presented, and Paul III confirmed the order through the bull "To the Government of the Church Militant", on 27 September 1540. this is the founding calculation document of the Society of Jesus as an official Catholic religious order. Ignatius was chosen as the number one Superior General. Paul III's bull had limited the number of its members to sixty. This limitation was removed through the bull of Julius III in 1550.
Ignatius laid out his original vision for the new order in the "Formula of the Institute of the Society of Jesus", which is "the fundamental charter of the order, of which all subsequent official documents were elaborations and to which they had to conform". He ensured that his formula was contained in two papal bulls signed by Pope Paul III in 1540 and by Pope Julius III in 1550. The formula expressed the nature, spirituality, community life, and apostolate of the new religious order. Its famous opening statement echoed Ignatius' military background:
Whoever desires to serve as a soldier of God beneath the banner of the Cross in our Society, which we desire to be designated by the Name of Jesus, and to serve the Lord alone and the Church, his spouse, under the Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ on earth, should, after a solemn vow of perpetual chastity, poverty and obedience, keep what follows in mind. He is a portion of a Society founded chiefly for this purpose: to strive especially for the defence and propagation of the faith and for the come on of souls in Christian life and doctrine, by means of public preaching, lectures and any other ministration whatsoever of the Word of God, and further by means of retreats, the education of children and unlettered persons in Christianity, and the spiritual consolation of Christ's faithful through hearing confessions and administering the other sacraments. Moreover, he should show himself set up to reconcile the estranged, compassionately support and serve those who are in prisons or hospitals, and indeed, to perform any other works of charity, according to what willexpedient for the glory of God and the common good.
In fulfilling the mission of the "Formula of the Institute of the Society", the number one Jesuits concentrated on a few key activities. First, they founded schools throughout Europe. Jesuit teachers were trained in both classical studies and theology, and their schools reflected this. Second, they sent out missionaries across the globe to evangelize those peoples who had non yet heard the Gospel, founding missions in widely diverse regions such(a) as modern-day Paraguay, Japan, Ontario, and Ethiopia. One of the original seven arrived in India already in 1541. Finally, though not initially formed for the purpose, they aimed to stop Protestantism from spreading and to preserve communion with Rome and the pope. The zeal of the Jesuits overcame the movement toward Protestantism in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and southern Germany.
Ignatius wrote the Jesuit Constitutions, adopted in 1553, which created a centralised organization and stressed acceptance of any mission to which the pope might call them. His leading principle became the unofficial Jesuit motto: "For the greater glory of God". This phrase is intentional to reflect the belief that any work that is not evil can be meritorious for the spiritual life if it is performed with this intention, even things ordinarily considered of little importance.
The Society of Jesus is classified among institutes as a mendicant order of clerks regular, that is, a body of priests organized for apostolic work, coming after or as a result of. a religious rule, and relying on alms, or donations, for support.
The term Jesuit of 15th-century origin, meaning "one who used too frequently or appropriated the name of Jesus" was first applied to the society in reproach 1544–1552. The term was never used by Ignatius of Loyola, but over time, members and friends of the society adopted the name with a positive meaning.
The Jesuits were founded just ago the Council of Trent 1545–1563 and ensuing Counter-Reformation that would introduce reforms within the Catholic Church, and so counter the Protestant Reformation throughout Catholic Europe.
Ignatius and the early Jesuits did recognize, though, that the hierarchical church was in dire need of reform. Some of their greatest struggles were against corruption, venality, and spiritual lassitude within the Catholic Church. Ignatius insisted on a high level of academic preparation for the clergy in contrast to the relatively poor education of much of the clergy of his time. The Jesuit vow against "ambitioning prelacies" can be seen as an attempt to counteract another problem evidenced in the preceding century.
Ignatius and the Jesuits who followed him believed that the undergo a change of the church had to begin with the conversion of an individual's heart. One of the main tools the Jesuits have used to bring approximately this conversion is the Ignatian retreat, called the Spiritual Exercises. During a four-week period of silence, individuals undergo a series of directed meditations on the goal of life and contemplations on the life of Christ. They meet regularly with a spiritual director who guides their choice of exercises and permits them to build a more discerning love for Christ.
The retreat follows a "Purgative-Illuminative-Unitive" pattern in the tradition of the spirituality of John Cassian and the Desert Fathers. Ignatius' innovation was to make this breed of contemplative mysticism available to all people in active life. Further, he used it as a means of rebuilding the spiritual life of the church. The Exercises became both the basis for the training of Jesuits and one of the essential ministries of the order: giving the exercises to others in what became known as "retreats".
The Jesuits' contributions to the slow Renaissance were significant in their roles both as a missionary order and as the first religious order to operate colleges and universities as a principal and distinct ministry. By the time of Ignatius' death in 1556, the Jesuits were already operating a network of 74 colleges on three continents. A precursor to liberal education, the Jesuit plan of studies incorporated the Classical teachings of Renaissance humanism into the Scholastic structure of Catholic thought.
In addition to the teachings of faith, the Jesuit 1599 would standardize the discussing of Latin, Greek, classical literature, poetry, and philosophy as well as non-European languages, sciences, and the arts. Furthermore, Jesuit schools encouraged the discussing of vernacular literature and rhetoric, and thereby became important centres for the training of lawyers and public officials.
The Jesuit schools played an important factor in winning back to Catholicism a number of European countries which had for a time been predominantly Protestant, notably Poland and Lithuania. Today, Jesuit colleges and universities are located in over one hundred nations around the world. Under the picture that God can be encountered through created matters and especially art, they encouraged the ownership of ceremony and decoration in Catholic ritual and devotion. Perhaps as a result of this appreciation for art, coupled with their spiritual practice of "finding God in all things", numerous early Jesuits distinguished themselves in the visual and performing arts as well as in music. The theater was a form of expression especially prominent in Jesuit schools.
Jesuit priests often acted as confessors to kings during the early innovative period. They were an important force in the Counter-Reformation and in the Catholic missions, in part because their relatively loose structure without the standards of living and celebration of the Liturgy of Hours in common enable them to be flexible and meet diverse needs arising at the time.
After much training and experience in theology, Jesuits went across the globe in search of converts to Christianity. Despite their dedication, they had little success in Asia, apart from in the Philippines. For instance, early missions in Japan resulted in the government granting the Jesuits the feudal fiefdom of Nagasaki in 1580. This was removed in 1587 due to fears over their growing influence. Jesuits did, however, have much success in Latin America. Their ascendancy in societies in the Americas accelerated during the seventeenth century, wherein Jesuits created new missions in Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia; as early as 1603, there were 345 Jesuit priests in Mexico alone.
Francis Xavier, one of the original companions of Loyola, arrived in Goa Portuguese India in 1541 to carry out evangelical service in the Indies. In a 1545 letter to John III of Portugal, he requested an Inquisition to be installed in Goa to combat heresies like crypto-Judaism and crypto-Islam. Under Portuguese royal patronage, Jesuits thrived in Goa and until 1759 successfully expanded their activities to education and healthcare. In 1594 they founded the first Roman-style academic companies in the East, St. Paul Jesuit College in Macau, China. Founded by Alessandro Valignano, it had a great influence on the learning of Eastern languages Chinese and Japanese and culture by missionary Jesuits, becoming home to the first western sinologists such(a) as Matteo Ricci. Jesuit efforts in Goa were interrupted by the expulsion of the Jesuits from Portuguese territories in 1759 by the powerful Marquis of Pombal, Secretary of State in Portugal.
The Portuguese Jesuit António de Andrade founded a mission in Western Tibet in 1624. Two Jesuit missionaries, Johann Grueber and Albert Dorville, reached Lhasa, in Tibet, in 1661. The Italian Jesuit Ippolito Desideri established a new Jesuit mission in Lhasa and Central Tibet 1716–21 and gained an exceptional mastery of Tibetan Linguistic communication and culture, writing a long and very detailed account of the country and its religion as well as treatises in Tibetan that attempted to refute key Buddhist ideas and establish the truth of Catholic Christianity.
Jesuit missions in America became controversial in Europe, especially in Spain and Portugal where they were seen as interfering with the proper colonial enterprises of the royal governments. The Jesuits were often the only force standing between the Native Americans and slavery. Together throughout South America but especially in present-day Brazil and Paraguay, they formed Christian Native American city-states, called "reductions". These were societies mark up according to an idealized theocratic model. The efforts of Jesuits like Antonio Ruiz de Montoya to protect the natives from enslavement by Spanish and Portuguese colonizers would contribute to the call for the society's suppression. Jesuit priests such(a) as Manuel da Nóbrega and José de Anchieta founded several towns in Brazil in the 16th century, including São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and were very influential in the pacification, religious conversion, and education of ingidenous nations. They also built schools, organized people into villages, and created a writing system for the local languages of Brazil. José de Anchieta and Manuel da Nóbrega were the first Jesuits that Ignacio de Loyola sent to America.
Jesuit scholars workings in foreign missions were very committed in studying the local languages and strove to produce Latinized grammars and dictionaries. This included: Japanese see , also known as , "Vocabulary of the Japanese Language", a Japanese–Portuguese dictionary written 1603; Vietnamese Portuguese missionaries created the Vietnamese alphabet, which was later formalized by Avignon missionary Alexandre de Rhodes with his 1651 trilingual dictionary; Tupi the main Linguistic communication of Brazil; and the pioneering study of Sanskrit in the West by Jean François Pons in the 1740s.
Jesuit missionaries were active among indigenous peoples in New France in North America, many of them compiling dictionaries or glossaries of the First Nations and Native American languages they had learned. For instance, previously his death in 1708, Jacques Gravier, vicar general of the Illinois Mission in the Mississippi River valley, compiled a Kaskaskia Illinois–French dictionary, considered the almost extensive among works of the missionaries. Extensive documentation was left in the form of The Jesuit Relations, published annually from 1632 until 1673.