The Autobiography of St. Ignatius Part 5

The world represents him as a man of few and stern words, in appearance severe and dark, and yet a man in whom intellect is ever prominent, but intellect elevated by the grandeur of a soul of chivalry and by an exquisite delicacy of charity--this was the real character of St. Ignatius. This will be seen in the brief glimpse given of his life and his spirit of charity, his absorbing love for souls, in his work of founding missions, his greatness of mind and heart, in the work originated by him, and carried on by his followers, in the cause of higher education.

His character stands prominently on the horizon of history. He cannot be ignored, nor is his existence or his work ignored.

His enemies have not pa.s.sed him by without notice, and his friends, the friends of G.o.d, have rejoiced that, as G.o.d sent him forth to teach and produce fruit that the fruit might remain, the fruit has remained.

St. Ignatius sends his voice down the centuries as a great individuality. He has spoken as a man of G.o.d, as a man of ideas, a man of energy. He has made his influence felt throughout the universe, not only in the civilized world, but in the uncivilized portion, to bring it into civilization, or to bear to it the advantages of civilization.

Other great men have spoken and have sent forth their influence.

Theirs has been a message to the civilized world; it has been limited to one point of view. It has been prowess on the battlefield or on the seas, work in the ship of state or in the fields of science. But Ignatius has not been limited to any one of these. He is the founder of a Religious Order that has sent pioneers into all these fields and forests of valor or research; he is the writer of the Spiritual Exercises that have won a fame gained by but few authors; he is the father of many saints; he is the educator of generations; he is the inspirer of scientific, literary, theological, philosophical investigation, and the promoter of discoverers and of pioneer missionaries in the Old and the New World.

Ignatius was born, in 1491, at the chateau of Loyola, and at fifteen years of age he was a page in the court of King Ferdinand, and then a soldier under the Duke of Navarre, his relative. The army of Francis I penetrated into Navarre, and, at the siege of Pampeluna, Ignatius, Captain of Infantry, was wounded by a cannon ball. His life is given in the preceding pages.

I shall refer only briefly to it, and to his conversion. He was a young knight fond of gayety and feats of arms, and for some time after he received the wound he was confined to his bed while his broken leg was set; and while awaiting his slow recovery he read the lives of the saints and of Christ, as these were the books given to him in place of the novels he had asked for, as no others were in the house.

In reading the lives of the saints his heart was touched. His eyes were opened to the vanity of life and the reality of eternity compared with the worldliness of the life he had been leading.

Inspired with enthusiasm at the lives of the saints, he said, "What they have done, I can do." The event of his life proved the earnestness of his purpose.

He resolved to undertake a life of penance and self-denial, and, while occupied with these holy resolutions, he wrote in a book the princ.i.p.al events of the life of Christ and His glorious Mother. It was at this time that Our Lord sent him a vision to strengthen and console him. He beheld one night, as he was holding his vigils, the glorious Queen of the angels, who appeared to him holding in her arms her Blessed Son, enlightening him with the splendor of glory and charming him by her sweet presence.

To her he ascribes the inspiration of the Spiritual Exercises, and his Order, imitating its founder, has shown the most unbounded affection and devoted filial love toward the Virgin Mother of Christ.

At Alcala St. Ignatius studied, and there won for the Society of Jesus, Laynez, Salmeron, and Babadilla. He afterward founded there a college where Vasquez, Suarez, and St. Francis Borgia expounded the Holy Scriptures. St. Ignatius sent Father de Torres to Salamanca to found the famous college where the ill.u.s.trious professors, Cardinal de Lugo, Francis Suarez, Maldonatus, Gregory of Valencia, Francis Ribera, and many other ill.u.s.trious men were professors.

At the University of Paris, in 1534, on the 14th of March, St.

Ignatius received the degree of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy, having received the degree of Bachelor of Arts two years before. The University of Paris had the honor of having as pupils St.

Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, Peter Faber, Claude le Jay, Simon Rodriguez, John Codura, Paschasius, Brouet, Martin Olave, all honored with the academic degree.

Among the earlier colleges founded by St. Ignatius were the following:--

In 1542 the College of Coimbra, in Portugal, arose. In 1546 St.

Francis Borgia founded the College of Gandia. In 1556 the College of Ingolstadt was founded. In 1552 a college was founded at Vienna, and in 1556 one at Prague. In 1553 the Roman College was fully founded.

And in 1568 the colleges at Lima, Peru.

The German College founded in Rome by St. Ignatius produced many remarkable men.

From it came 1 pope, Gregory XV, 24 cardinals, 6 electors of the Empire, 19 princes, 21 archbishops, 121 t.i.tular bishops, 100 bishops in _partibus infidelium_, 6 abbots or generals of religious orders, 11 martyrs of faith, 13 martyrs of charity, and 55 others, conspicuous for piety and learning.

This was at the end of the eighteenth century. In our own time in one cla.s.sroom Father Cardella counted seventeen different orders of all different nationalities present at the lectures of theology in the Roman College.

The Roman College was the type of the Jesuit College. It was begun by Francis Borgia, in 1551, at the foot of the Capitol in Rome, with fourteen members of the Order and Father John Peltier, a Frenchman, as Superior.

The professors taught rhetoric and three languages,--Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. There were present there at a given time 2107 students, 300 in theology. The most eminent professors filled the chairs: theologians like Suarez and Vasquez; commentators such as Cornelius a Lapide and Maldonatus; founders of national history schools, as Mariana and Pallavicini; Clavius, reformer of the Gregorian Calendar; Kircher, universal in the exact sciences, while the other colleges throughout the world remained provided with their own required forces and maintained their own prestige.

From this college came forth distinguished men in every line of intellectual life, and general eminence, men of elevated thought and of n.o.ble and generous minds. In particular three characters came--young men that were to fill with admiration of their greatness the succeeding century.

Stanislaus Kostka, a Polish n.o.ble who died at seventeen years of age; Aloysius Gonzaga, an Italian prince of twenty-three; and John Berchmans, a Flemish townsman of twenty-two.

Among some of the famous men educated by the Jesuits we find Bossuet, Corneille, Moliere, Ta.s.so, Fontenelle, Diderot, Voltaire, and Bourdaloue, himself a Jesuit.

When Pere Poree replied to the remark that he was not one of the great poets, he said, "At least you may grant that I have been able to make some of them." A few others were Descartes, Buffon, Justus Lipsius, Muratori the historian, Calderon, and Vico, the author of "Ideas of History," Richelieu, Tilly, Malesherbes, Don John of Austria, Luxembourg, Esterhazy, Choiseul, St. Francis de Sales, Lambertini, afterward Benedict XIV, the most learned of the popes, and the present Pontiff, Pope Leo XIII, renowned for his learning and wisdom.

Nearly all the Jesuit writers had been Jesuit professors, with almost no exception, and nearly all had taught humanities, belles-lettres, and rhetoric. Father Southwell in 1676 numbers 2240 authors, and Father de Backer in 1876 counts 11,100.

AUTHORS

We find some remarkable authors among the Jesuit writers. Foremost come the Bollandists, renowned throughout the world for their monumental work, the "Acta Sanctorum." Similar gigantic works were carried on by Fathers de Backer, Sommervogel, and Pachtler. In the various branches of learning we need mention a few of the greater writers.

In astronomy, we find Ricci, Perry, De Vico, Secchi, Curley, Sestini.

In mathematics, Hagen, Algue.

In naval tactics, "The Jesuit's Book."

In archaeology, Garucci, Marchi, the master of De Rossi.

In Oriental languages, Stra.s.smaier, Harvas, Maas, Van den Gheyn.

In theology, Suarez, Vasquez, Toletus, Maldonatus, Franzelin.

In philosophy, Cominbricenses, Liberatore.

In moral philosophy, Busenbaum, Gury, Toledo, Ballerini, Layman, Lehmkuhl, Genicot.

In asceticism, Alvarez de Paz, Gaudier, Rodriguez, Scaramelli, Grou.

The Spiritual Exercises comprise a whole library. Father Watragan has written a work merely to record the editions and commentaries on these Exercises.

THE EDUCATIONAL PLAN OF ST. IGNATIUS

St. Ignatius had gathered about him a body of picked men. The Roman College, the type of colleges of Jesuit education, would have for its professors only those who had been doctors of the University of Paris.

The outline of the course of education was given by St. Ignatius. It was completed and developed by Aquaviva. The work was still more perfected by Father Laynez, of whom it is said,--