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6. The Jesuits in Rome—the Syllabus

One can read, in a book from the Abbe Brugerette, the following passage in the chapter entitled “The clergy under the Second Empire”:

“Particular devotions, old or new, were honoured more and more at a time when romanticism still exalted the senses to the detriment of austere reason. The worship of saints and their relics, restrained for so long by the cold breath of rationalism, had taken a new vigour. The worship of the holy Virgin, thanks to apparitions at La Salette and Lourdes, acquired an extraordinary popularity. Pilgrimages to these places privileged by miracles multiplied.

“The French Episcopate… favoured new devotions. It warmly and thankfully welcomed, in 1854, the encyclical letter of Pius IX proclaiming the dogma of the Immaculate Conception… It was also the episcopate, brought together in Paris, in 1856, for the baptism of the imperial Prince, who asked Pius IX that the feast of the Sacred-Heart… should be made into a solemn feast of the universal Church”.(46)

(46) Abbe J. Brugerette: “Le pretre francais et la societe contemporaine”, (Ed. Lethielleux Paris 1933, I, pp. 183-184).

These few lines clearly show the preponderant influence exercsied by the Jesuits under the Second Empire, in France as much as over the Holy See, As we saw earlier on, they were and remain the great propagators of these “particular devotions, old or new”, this “perceptible” and almost sensual piety made the masses excessively scrupulous in religious matters, especially women. As far as that is concerned, we must admit that they were realists. The time had gone—already under Napoleon III—when the public as a whole, the learned and the ignorant, took a deep interest in theological questions. Intellectually, Catholicism had ended its career.

It is then more by necessity than because of their formation that the sons of Loyola endeavoured, during the 19th century and today, to awaken superstitious religiosity, especially amongst women who make up most of the flock; this was to counter-balance “rationalism”, For the secondary education of girls, the Order promoted the founding of several congregations of women. “The most famous and active was the “Congregation des Dames du Sacre-Coeur”; in 1830, it comprised 105 houses with 4,700 teachers and its influence over the higher classes was very important”.(47)

As far as the worship of Mary is concerned, which was always so dear to the Jesuits, it was greatly helped, under the Second Empire, by the very opportune “apparitions” of the Virgin to a little shepherdess of Lourdes; this happened two years after Pius IX promulgated the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (1854), at the instigation of the Company of Jesus. The main acts of this pontificate were all victories for the Jesuits whose all- powerful influence over the Roman Curia affirmed itself more and more. In 1864, Pius IX published the encyclical letter “Quanta Cura”, accompanied by the “Syllabus” which anathematized the best political principles of the contemporary societies.

“Anathema on all that is dear to modern France! Modern France wants the independance of the state; the ‘Syllabus’ teaches that the ecclesiastical power must exercise its “authority without the assent and permission of the civil power. Modern France wants the liberty of conscience and liberty of worship; the’Syllabus’ teaches that the Roman Church has the right to use force and reinstate the Inquisition. Modern France acknowledges the existence of several types of worship; the ‘Syllabus’ declares that the Catholic religion must be considered as the only religion of the state and all others are excluded. Modern France proclaims that the people are sovereign; the ‘Syllabus’ condemns universal suffrage. Modern France professes that all French people are equal before the law; the ‘Syllabus’ affirms that ecclesiastics are exempt from ordinary civil and criminal tribunals.”

“These are the doctrines taught by the Jesuits in their colleges. They are at the front of the army of counter-revolution… Their mission consists of bringing up the youth put in their care with a hatred for the principles on which French society rests, principles laid down by former generations at a great cost. By their teaching, they try to divide France into two and call into question all that has been done since 1789. We want harmony, they want strife; we want peace, they want war; we want France to be free, they want her enslaved; they are a combatant society receiving its orders from outside; they are fighting us, let us defend ourselves; they threaten us, let us disarm them”.(48)

(47) H. Boehmer, op.cit., p.290.
(48) Adolphe Michel: “Les Jesuites” (Sandoz et Fischbacher, Paris 1879, pp.77 ss)

The Holy See’s everlasting pretension to dominate civil society was then reaffirmed, as Renan had already said in 1848, in an article entiled “Clerical liberalism”: “It demonstrated that the people’s sovereignty, the liberty of conscience and all modern liberties were condemned by the Church. It presented the Inquisition as “the logical consequence of the whole orthodox system”, as “the summary of the Church’s spirit”. It added: “When she will be able to, the Church will bring back the Inquisition; if she doesn’t do it, it is because she cannot do it”.(49)

The power of the Jesuits over the Vatican was shown even more strongly, a few years after the ‘Syllabus’, when the dogma of Pontifical Infallibility was promulgated; the Abbe Brugerette wrote that this dogma was to “throw over the tragic years of 1870-1871, which put France into mourning, the brightness of a great Christian hope”.

The same author added: “One can say that, during the first half of the year 1870, the Church of France was not in France anymore; she was in Rome, passionately busy with the General Council which Pius IX had just called at the Vatican…” “According to Monseigneur Pie, this French clergy had completely “thrown off its own liveries, maxims and French or Gallic liberties”. This bishop of Poitiers added that it was done as a sacrifice to the principle of authority, sound doctrine and common right; it placed all that under the feet of the sovereign pontiff, made a throne of it for him and sounded the trumpet, saying: “The pope is our king; not only is his will our command, but his wishes are our rules”.(49a)

The resignation of the whole of a “national” clergy into the hands of the Roman Curia is clear enough and, because of it, the subjection of the French Catholics to the will of a foreign despot who, under the cover of dogma or morals, was going to impose on them his political directions without any opposition. The liberal Catholics protested in vain against the exorbitant pretention of the Holy See to dictate its laws in the name of the Holy Spirit. The Abbe Brugerette informs us, their head, M. de Montalembert, published in the Gazette de France an article in which he vehemently protested against those who “sacrifice justice and truth, reason and history, to the idol they set up at the Vatican”.(50)

(49), (49a) and (50) Abbe J. Brugerette, op.cit., pp.221, 223.

Several notorious bishops such as Fathers Hyacinthe Loyson and Gratry took the same line; the latter not without spirit; Father Gratry said: “He published successively his four Letters to Monseigneur Deschamps. In them, he did not merely discuss historical events, such as the condemnation of Pope Honorius, who, according to him, opposed the proclamation of pontifical infallibility; but, in a sharp and bitter manner, he denounced also the contempt of authoritative Catholics for the truth, and scientific integrity. One of them, an ecclesiastical candidate for the Doctorate of Theology, even dared to justify false decretals before the Faculty of Paris, declaring that “it was not an odious fraud”. And Gratry added: “Even today it is being stated that Galileo’s condemnation was opportune”. “You, men of little faith, with miserable hearts and sordid souls! Your tricks are scandalous. On the day when the great science of nature was raised above the world, you condemned it.”

“Do not be surprised if men, before forgiving you, expect from you confession, penance, deep contrition and amends for your faults”.(51) No need to say that the Jesuits, inspiring agents of Pius IX and all-powerful over the Council, were not anxious about confession, penance, contrition or reparation, at a time when they almost reached the goal they had set themselves at the Council of Trent, in the middle of the 16th century. At that time Lainez already supported the idea of papal infallibility. It only meant consecrating as a dogma a pretention nearly as old as the papacy itself. No other Council until then had been willing to ratify it, but the time seemed just right, then; besides, the patient work of the Jesuits had prepared the national clergy for the surrender of their last liberties; the imminent collapse of the popes’ temporal power—it happened before the Council voted—called for a reinforcement of his spiritual authority, according to the ultramontanes. The argument prevailed and the”dictatus papae” of Gregory VII, principles of the mediaeval theocracy, triumphed right in the middle of the 19th century.

(51) Father Gratry, quoted by the Abbe J. Brugerette, op.cit., p.229.

What the new dogma especially consecrated was the omnipotence of the Company of Jesus in the Roman Church.

“Under the cover of the Jesuits, who have established themselves at the Vatican since the secular powers have rejected them from all free countries as an association of malefactors, the papacy has aspired to new ambitions. These evil men, who have made the Gospel into a Spectacle of tears and blood and remain the worst enemies of democracy and freedom of thought, dominate the Roman Curia; all their efforts concentrate on maintaining, in the Church, their pernicious preponderance and shameful doctrines.”

“Dedicated to the cause of extreme centralisation, irreducible apostles of theocracy, they are the recognised masters of contemporary Catholicism and stamp their seal on its theology, its official piety and its crooked politics”. “True emissaries of the Vatican, they inspire everything, rule everything, penetrate everywhere, set up “informing” as a system of government, faithful to a casuistry whose profound immorality has been revealed by history and inspired Pascal’s immortal pages of sublime mockery. Through the ‘Syllabus’ of 1864 which they themselves drew up, Pius IX declared war on all free thought and sanctioned, a few years later, the dogma of infallibility which is a real historical anachronism and of which modern science could not care less”.(52)

For those who, against all probability, would persist to see a spiteful exaggeration and disparagement in the lines we just quoted, we cannot do better than present the confirmation itself of these facts, from the very orthodox pen of M. Daniel-Rops. This confirmation carries even more weight by the fact that it was published in 1959, under the title “The Reestablishment of the Company of Jesus”, in the Jesuits’ own publication “Etudes”. It is then in a true speech for the defence that we read: “For many reasons, this reorganisation of the Company of Jesus had a considerable historical importance. The Holy See rediscovered this faithful band, utterly devoted to its cause, and which was to be needed soon after. Many Fathers were to exercise, during that century and until now, a discreet, but deep influence on certain dispositions taken by the Vatican; a kind of proverb was even heard in Rome: “The pope’s penholders are Jesuits”. Their influence was obvious in the development of the worship of the Sacred-Heart as well as in the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, in the editing of the ‘Syllabus’ as well as in the definition of ‘Infallibility’. The “Civilta Cattolica”, founded by the Neapolitan Jesuit Carlo Curci, was supposed to reflect the pope’s thought during most of Pius IX’s pontificate”.(53)

This confession is clear enough. We would only remind the departed spirit of this pious academician that, logically, and judging by all the previous context, it was rather the pope’s thought which was reflected in the opinions of the “Civilta Cattolica”.

No need to say that the Jesuits, all-powerful in Rome, as much because of their spirit as of their organisation, were going to engage the papacy in international politics more and more, as M. Louis Roguelin wrote: “Since she lost her temporal power, the Church of Rome took advantage of every opportunity to regain all the ground she was constrained to abandon, through a recrudescence of diplomatic activities; as her cleverly concealed scheme is to divide in order to reign, she tried to turn every conflict in her favour.”

Boivent, 1927, pp.79 to 81).
(53) Daniel-Rops: “Le Retablissement de la Compagnie de Jesus” (Etudes, September 1959)

According to the plan of Loyola’s subjects, the dogma of Papal infallibility greatly favoured this action of the Holy See, whose importance can be measured from the fact that most states have a diplomatic representative accredited to it. Under the cover of dogma and morals, subjects which in principle restrict the infallible word, the pope today disposes of an unlimited authority over the consciences of the faithful. So, during the 20th century, we see the Vatican actively engaged in the interior and exterior politics of countries, and even govern them thanks to Catholic parties. What’s more, we will see it support “providential” men such as Mussolini and Hitler who, because of its help, will unleash the worst kind of catastrophes.

Christ’s vicar acknowledged profusely the services of this famous society which worked so hard and well in his favour. These “sons of Satan” as some brave ecclesiastics qualified them, are all tarnished, but they can, in return, boast about the august testimonial of complete satisfaction accorded to them by the deceased pope S.S. Pius XII whose confessor, we know, was a German Jesuit.

In this text, published by “La Croix” on the 9th of August 1955, we can read: “The Church does not want auxiliaries of another type than those of this Company… may the sons of Loyola strive to follow the footprints of former ones…”

Today, like yesterday, they are doing just that, to the great evil of the nations.