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Introduction: Snow and Mirrors

Trent Pomplun

in Jesuit on the Roof of the World: Ippolito Desideri's Mission to Tibet

This introduction summarizes the history of research on Ippolito Desideri and situates it within larger trends in Tibetan Studies and the historiography of the Society of Jesus. It argues that recent ... More

This introduction summarizes the history of research on Ippolito Desideri and situates it within larger trends in Tibetan Studies and the historiography of the Society of Jesus. It argues that recent works in Tibetan Studies that make Desideri an emblem of an alleged Western fantasy about Tibet often participate in rather common fantasies about Jesuits and the Society of Jesus. It also exposes one of the salient rhetorical strategies in recent works on the Jesuit missions (namely, that they are finally, just now, escaping the confines of hagiography) to be a longstanding feature of Jesuit historiography that has its own political agenda.Less

Naples, Parma, and the Bourbon Family Pact, 1767–1773

Dale K. Van Kley

in Reform Catholicism and the International Suppression of the Jesuits in Enlightenment Europe

This chapter discusses how the story of the final Spanish phase of the end of the prerevolutionary Society of Jesus is unedifying, even ugly, despite the historian Augustin Theiner's efforts to ... More

This chapter discusses how the story of the final Spanish phase of the end of the prerevolutionary Society of Jesus is unedifying, even ugly, despite the historian Augustin Theiner's efforts to sanctify it. Graceless and inglorious to the end, the final phase of the Bourbon campaign against the Jesuits came to its conclusion with the secretary Macedonio's formal presentation of the brief to a still astonished Ricci and his assistants at the Society's headquarters at Al Gesù Church in Rome on the morning of August 16, the date of the brief's official publication. As of that date in Rome, and by degrees as church and states implemented the papal brief's provisions elsewhere, the once proud Society of Jesus ceased to exist.Less

Portugal and Spain, 1754–1767

Dale K. Van Kley

in Reform Catholicism and the International Suppression of the Jesuits in Enlightenment Europe

This chapter looks at how the role of France in the demise of the Society of Jesus turned out to be as pivotal as the Italian Augustinians had hoped it would be. The plotting and planning began in ... More

This chapter looks at how the role of France in the demise of the Society of Jesus turned out to be as pivotal as the Italian Augustinians had hoped it would be. The plotting and planning began in Rome after Clément's visit there in 1758–1759. Regretting that the Damiens affair in France had not led to a general assault against the Jesuits, Bottari suggested that in order to extinguish the Society without recourse to the papacy, it would “suffice if other important princes such as the King of France or Spain would slay them in his realm,” in which case other states might follow suit. At that point Bottari found inspiration in the example of Portugal, and it is there that the process began.Less

From Windfall to Fall: The Conversos in the Society of Jesus

Marc Rastoin, S.J.

in Friends on the Way: Jesuits Encounter Contemporary Judaism

This chapter discusses the Society of Jesus' acceptance of recruits from Jewish origin or the so-called conversos prior to 1593. This tolerance ended at the Fifth General Congregation in 1593 due to ... More

This chapter discusses the Society of Jesus' acceptance of recruits from Jewish origin or the so-called conversos prior to 1593. This tolerance ended at the Fifth General Congregation in 1593 due to the combined efforts of the Spanish Crown and the majority of Spanish Jesuits themselves. It reveals that several studies have found that the Society's founder and its first Superior General Ignatius Loyola came from a converso family and that he had wished he had been Jewish to have the honor of being from the same race as Jesus and the Virgin Mary.Less

Message

Evonne Levy

in Propaganda and the Jesuit Baroque

The French Marxist Louis Althusser's description of the functioning of ideology sets the stage for a reading of Jesuit propaganda. The proximity— if not the dependence—of Althusser's models of ... More

The French Marxist Louis Althusser's description of the functioning of ideology sets the stage for a reading of Jesuit propaganda. The proximity— if not the dependence—of Althusser's models of ideology on Christian models of subject formation points to its appropriateness for understanding visual propaganda in the Jesuit milieu in particular and the Catholic Baroque in general. The difference between meaning and message can be illustrated by restaging an encounter staged previously by W. J. T. Mitchell: Erwin Panofsky's iconography meeting Althusser's ideological interpellation. This chapter examines the role of the Catholic Church in producing propaganda, along with Althusser's Ideological State Apparatuses. It also looks at St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, and his biographer P. Pedro de Ribadeynera. Finally, the chapter considers the Ignatian cults in Rome during the 1680s-1690s, Andrea Pozzo's frescoes in the Church of St. Ignatius, and the Chapel of St. Ignatius.Less

The Ignatian Charism at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century: November 29, 2006

Avery Cardinal Dulles

in Church and Society: The Laurence J. McGinley Lectures, 1988-2007

This chapter, intended to complete a series of four on the Jesuit founders whose jubilees were celebrated in 2006, discusses the role of the Ignatian charism today. It first ... More

This chapter, intended to complete a series of four on the Jesuit founders whose jubilees were celebrated in 2006, discusses the role of the Ignatian charism today. It first explains the notion of the Ignatian charism. A charism is a gift of grace, conferred not for one's personal sanctification, but for the benefit of others. Then it speaks of the gifts that Saint Ignatius possessed in an eminent way and that he handed down with God's help in the Society he founded. The discussion looks into the Ignatian vision, the principles for the Society of Jesus, directives of the recent popes, and contemporary challenges faced by Jesuits. It argues that the greatest need of the Society of Jesus is to be able to project a clearer vision of its purpose. In this respect the recent popes have rendered great assistance.Less

Catholics and Muslims in the Court of Jahangir (1608–1611)

Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam

in Writing the Mughal World: Studies on Culture and Politics

This chapter discusses the early modern encounter between the Jesuits of the Society of Jesus and the Mughal empire, as it returns to the Jesuit materials, which are read together and contrasted ... More

This chapter discusses the early modern encounter between the Jesuits of the Society of Jesus and the Mughal empire, as it returns to the Jesuit materials, which are read together and contrasted Rashomon-like with a recently discovered text of prime significance, the Majālis-i Jahāngīrī of the Mughal intellectual 'Abdus Sattar ibn Qasim Lahauri. This exercise can reveal a better sense of the courtly intellectual milieu as well as the inter-religious debates (munāzara) that characterized a good part of this period, and which were important precursors to those of the colonial period. Once such debate is the meeting between the Jesuits and 'Ali 'Adil Shah, in which the latter engages the former on relative trivia rather than on major doctrinal matters. What is of consequence is not the usual Jesuit capacity to make sense of, and translate, the world at large, but their manifest incomprehension.Less

Jesuit

Jan Machielsen

in Martin Delrio: Demonology and Scholarship in the Counter-Reformation

This second, biographical chapter charts Martin Delrio’s career within the Society of Jesus until his death in 1608. Drawing on archival documents from Rome and elsewhere it seeks to make sense of a ... More

This second, biographical chapter charts Martin Delrio’s career within the Society of Jesus until his death in 1608. Drawing on archival documents from Rome and elsewhere it seeks to make sense of a career that spanned the width and breadth of Europe. Many of Delrio’s surviving letters document numerous conflicts and disagreements with his superiors and could superficially be read as evidence of disobedience and a troubled relationship with authority. This chapter argues, however, that this is too facile a reading of the Ignatian ideal of obedience. Even so, Delrio’s itinerant existence suggests a mind that was not truly at peace anywhere.Less

Writing Missions

in Sojourners in a Strange Land: Jesuits and Their Scientific Missions in Late Imperial China

Matteo Ricci's De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu (1615) was the first sustained history of the Jesuit mission in China, as well as the history of a particular sort of ... More

Matteo Ricci's De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu (1615) was the first sustained history of the Jesuit mission in China, as well as the history of a particular sort of apostolic life. Within its pages, the Jesuits' engagement with mixed mathematics in the Chinese mission fields was first transformed from an occasionally convenient tactic to a manifestation of authentic evangelical action. The Society of Jesus's foundational legislative text, Constitutions, stipulated a regular correspondence patterned on the order's administrative structure. The Constitutions' prescriptions represent but a starting point for grasping the development of administrative letter-writing practices within the Society. This chapter examines the emergence of mission histories from the rich substratum of Jesuit correspondence that linked members of the Society of Jesus. In the hands of De Christiana's editor, Nicolas Trigault, the first history of the Jesuit mission in China doubled as a vita of Ricci, the saintly missionary mathematician.Less

“Do as I Do, Not as I Say”: The Pedagogy of Action

Elizabeth A. Dreyer

in Jesuit and Feminist Education: Intersections in Teaching and Learning for the Twenty-first Century

This chapter has two primary goals. First, it lifts up the active engagement of women in the ministries of the Society of Jesus, through which they became teachers by example—keeping in mind the ... More

This chapter has two primary goals. First, it lifts up the active engagement of women in the ministries of the Society of Jesus, through which they became teachers by example—keeping in mind the social, ecclesial context of sixteenth-century Europe. Second, it contrasts this portrait with the image of women found in Hugo Rahner's Saint Ignatius Loyola: Letters to Women. There are 139 extant letters exchanged between Ignatius and women—89 written by Ignatius, 50 written by women. The chapter focuses on the letters to and from Ignatius, and female royalty, nobility, and select friends.Less

Printing Confucius in Paris

Nicholas Dew

in Orientalism in Louis XIV's France

This chapter reveals Melchisédech Thévenot's role in the production of the first substantial translation of the Confucian classics to appear in Europe, the Confucius Sinarum Philosophus (1687). The ... More

This chapter reveals Melchisédech Thévenot's role in the production of the first substantial translation of the Confucian classics to appear in Europe, the Confucius Sinarum Philosophus (1687). The Jesuit Philippe Couplet (1623–1693) was in charge of supervising the printing of the translation, which had evolved over almost a century as a collaborative work. The business of publication was handled at the Bibliothèque du roi in Paris, which at the time was under the control of Thévenot. New sources are used to cast light on the relationship Couplet had with Thévenot and the library.Less

The Rahner Brothers and the Discovery of Jerónimo Nadal

Philip Endean

in Karl Rahner and Ignatian Spirituality

This chapter focuses on the beginning of Karl Rahner's career, particularly on his collaboration with Hugo, his elder brother and fellow Jesuit, regarding early Jesuit writings. The Rahner brothers ... More

This chapter focuses on the beginning of Karl Rahner's career, particularly on his collaboration with Hugo, his elder brother and fellow Jesuit, regarding early Jesuit writings. The Rahner brothers also produced a German version of Jerónimo Nadal's work on prayer to introduce Nadal and his ideas not only to the Ignatian specialists but also to the Jesuit circulation. The Rahner brothers took two of Nadal's concepts to exemplify Ignatius's ideals: ‘finding God in all things’ and ‘contemplative in action’. The Rahner brothers emphasized Nadal's concepts to establish a claim that the charisma of Ignatius and the Society of Jesus relies on the ability to find God both in prayer and in action.Less

Secularization (1782)

Pamila Gupta

in The relic state: St Francis Xavier and the politics of ritual in Portuguese India

The fourth chapter explores the ritual contours of Xavier’s “First Solemn Exposition” which was staged in 1782. It addresses the increasing "secularization" of Xavier as he becomes a symbol and agent ... More

The fourth chapter explores the ritual contours of Xavier’s “First Solemn Exposition” which was staged in 1782. It addresses the increasing "secularization" of Xavier as he becomes a symbol and agent of colonial state authority in the midst of escalated tensions between the Estado da Índia and the Society of Jesus operating in Goa, including parallel concerns over the physical deterioration of Xavier's corpse—its state of "desiccation"—, and which culminates in the expulsion of this religious order in 1759. The role of official and unofficial documentation in both serving and disrupting church and state doctrine is detailed. In many ways, these acts of communication—the bequeathing of titles, monies, and vestments, and the various prohibitions against opening Xavier's casket—are indexical of differing investments in the corpse of St. Francis Xavier on the part of colonial officials and Jesuit missionaries, as well as anxieties concerning their respective positions (and positionings) throughout the 18th century.Less

‘Replant the uprooted trunk of the tree of faith’: the Society of Jesus and the continental colleges for religious exiles

M. Thomas and S.J. McCoog

in Insular Christianity: Alternative models of the Church in Britain and Ireland, c.1570–c.1700

This chapter offers a detailed investigation of the manner in which continental colleges, institutions of critical importance for the future evolution of insular Catholicism, were established for the ... More

This chapter offers a detailed investigation of the manner in which continental colleges, institutions of critical importance for the future evolution of insular Catholicism, were established for the benefit of the various national and linguistic groupings who inhabited the archipelago and the tensions which were aroused between English, Irish, Scots and Welsh groupings in their pursuit of often scarce resources. Recently Christopher Highley has noted the reluctance of English and Irish Catholic refugees on the continent to cooperate. While accepting the importance of this observation, the chapter, however, highlights the role played by Robert Parsons in the foundation not only of English colleges but also Scots and Irish institutions and concludes that the stirrings of national sentiment which did occur by no means precluded any co-operation between the different national communities of exiles on the continent.Less

The Jesuits, the Inquisition, and History

Katrina B. Olds

in Forging the Past: Invented Histories in Counter-Reformation Spain

This chapter shows how Higuera’s tweaking of local factional and religious interests helped to make his scholarship controversial, even when its content was, in fact, remarkably anodyne. Higuera had ... More

This chapter shows how Higuera’s tweaking of local factional and religious interests helped to make his scholarship controversial, even when its content was, in fact, remarkably anodyne. Higuera had tried to bring his vision of the sacred past to life by means of direct advocacy and archaeological subterfuge in the infamous incident of the “discovery” of the temple of Saint Thyrsus (San Tirso) in Toledo in 1594. The resulting controversy divided learned opinion in Toledo. It also brought Higuera to the attention of Jesuit superiors all the way to Rome. Higuera’s woes with the Jesuits were not unique, nor were his appeals for help to the Spanish Inquisition. Yet it is worth emphasizing that, in spite of his difficult relationship with his superiors, Higuera was dedicated to the Society of Jesus.Less