The Secret History of the Jesuits – by Edmond Paris
5. The privileges of the Company
Contents
After 1558, Lainez, the subtle tactician of the Council of Trent, was made general of the Congregation with the power to organise the Order as he was inspired. The “Declarations” which he himself composed with Salmeron, were added to the “Constitutions” to form a commentary; they accentuated even more the despotism of the general elected for life. An admonitor procurator and assistants, residing in Rome too, will help him generally to administer the Order divided then into five congregations: Italy, Germany France, Spain, England and America. These congregations were themselves divided into Provinces grouping the different establishments of the Order. Only the admonitor (or overseer) and assistants are nominated by the Congregation. The general appoints all other officials, promulgates the ordinances which are not to modify the Constitutions, administers the wealth of the Order according to his own wishes and directs its activities for which he is responsible to the pope only.
To this militia so tightly knit in the hand of its chief and which needs the greatest autonomy to make its actions effective, the pope concedes privileges which may seem exorbitant to other religious Orders.
By their Constitutions, the Jesuits were exempt from the cloistered rule which applied to monastic life in general. In fact, they are monks living “in the world” and, outwardly, nothing distinguishes them from the secular clergy. But, contrary to this and other religious congregations, they are not subjected to the bishop’s authority. As early as 1545, a bull of Paul II enabled them to preach, hear confession, dispense the sacraments, and say mass; in short, exercise their ministry without having to refer to the bishop The solemnisation of marriages is the only thing they are not allowed to perform.
They have the power to give absolution, change vows for others which are easier to fulfil, or even cancel them.
Mr Gaston Bally writes:
“The general’s power concerning absolution and dispensations is even wider. He can lift all punishment inflicted on the members of the Society before or after them entering the Order, absolve all their sins, even the sin of heresy and schism, the falsification of apostolic writings, etc… “The general absolves, in person or through a delegate, all those who are under his obedience, of the unhappy state arising from excommunication, suspension or interdict, provided these censures were not inflicted for excesses so enormous that others, beside the papal tribunal, knew about them.
He also absolves the irregularity issuing, from bigamy, injuries done to others, murder, assassination… as long as these wicked deeds were not publicly known and the cause of a scandal”.(19)
Finally, Gregory XIII bestowed on the Company the right to deal in commerce and banking, a right it made use of extensively later on.
These dispensations and unprecedented powers were fully guaranteed to them.
“The popes called even upon princes and kings to defend these privileges; they threatened with the great excommunication “latae sententiae” all those who would try to infringe them. In 1574, a bull of Pius V gave the general the right to restore these privileges to their original scope, against all tempts to alter or curtail them, even if such curtailments were authoritatively documented by papal revocation… By granting the Jesuits such exorbitant privileges which run counter to the Church’s antiquated constitution, the papacy wanted, not only to supply them with powerful weapons to fight the “Infidels”, but especially use them as a bodyguard to defend her own unrestricted power in the Church and against the Church”. “To preserve the spiritual and temporal supremacy they usurped during the middle ages, the popes sold the Church to the Order of Jesus and, in consequence, surrendered themselves into their hands… If the papacy was supported by the Jesuits, the whole existence of the Jesuits depended on the spiritual and temporal supremacy of the papacy. In that way, the interests of both parties were intimately bound together”.(20)
But this select cohort needed secret auxiliaries to dominate civil society: this role fell on those affiliated to the Company called Jesuits. “Many important people were connected in that way with the Society: the emperors Ferdinand II and Ferdinand III, Sigismond III, king of Poland, who had officially belonged to the Company; Cardinal Infant, a duke of Savoy. And these were not the least useful”.(21)
(19) Gaston Bally: “Les Jesuites” (Chambery, Imprimerie Nouvelle, 1902, pp.11-13). (20) Gaston Bally, op.cit., pp.9-10, 16-17. (21) Pierre Dominique, op.cit., p.37.
It is the same today; the 33,000 official members of the Society operate all over the world in the capacity of her personnel, officers of a truly secret army containing in its ranks heads of political parties, high ranking officials, generals, magistrates, physicians, Faculty professors, etc., all of them striving to bring about, in their own sphere, “l’Opus Dei”, God’s work, in reality the plans of the papacy.
