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History of the Jesuits: Unveiling the Enigmatic Order's Origin and Doctrines by Nicolini
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
393 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 23, 2010
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September 3, 2022
This is an historical work written in 1852. Despite its age the text was written in an almost contemporary style, making it very easy to read. The book covers the first three hundred years of the history of the Jesuits, a religious catholic order founded in 1540 by Íñigo López de Loyola, a spanish military officer who had a radical change of career after a severe injury. De Loyola became the leader of an army of priests dedicated to act as soldiers at the service of the catholic faith. The religious order was different in many ways; its demanding selection process, the strict vows, the organizational structure and the dedication of its members to defend the catholic faith in all areas of life within society. Jesuits were teachers, community organizers, leaders, confessors, missionaries. They were very adept at building financial means centered on amassing a huge real estate portofolio of schools , colleges, universities and housing buildings. Individually members were supposed to be poor but the order itself was very rich and benefitted from this financial strength to leverage its ability to acccomplish its mission which could include acts such as corrupting officials and paying salaries to spies.
The order of Jesuits quickly became an organization with deep influence on the decision makers of the day by making use of their privileged access as confessors to kings, princes, dukes, ministers, mayors...This is where the Jesuits really shone, their ability to control decision making in areas of policies, laws, nominations was unprecedented. They were at the forefront of all conflicts involving religious beliefs against the protestants and all other religious faiths; this was an era when the Church proclaimed that you could not be saved if you were not within the catholic faith. The Superior General became such an important figure that he was as powerful a political figure as the Pope which created permanent tensions within the Catholic Chuch. The Jesuits networks as teachers and missionaries, their finances, their ability to influence local , regional and national political leaders, their operational principles and adherence to secrecy made them a state within the state of the catholic world.
Jesuit missionaries were part of the colonial invasion of the Americas when europeans committed physical and|or cultural genocide of indigenous populations. Missionaries were well intended at the beginning ; unfortunately imposing their faith to save the souls of the local people was based on a white supremacy prejudice which made them make choices to the detriment of the culture and safety of the first nations.
A good part of the book is dedicated to describing the numerous conflicts between the members of the order and political and religious figures. The order was banned several times in many countries, regions and even disbanded by the Pope; but it survived and even thrived despite all those setbacks because of the deep roots buit in all areas of the societies where they were installed. Eventually, the Church had to recognize that the price of a permanent ban on the order had very significant consequences on its ability to conduct its mission. Destroying the state within the state was too steep a price to pay. And so, despite the numerous scandals of corruption, sexual misconducts (such as confessors developing relationships with married women!) political interference, running spy networks, disobeying orders from the church establisments they had become absolutely essential to the survival of the Catholic Church, warts and all.
The author is very critical of the Jesuits, maybe it is not entirely a fair and balanced picture but all criticisms are related to historical events and facts. But the reason why it is still published is because it is recognized as an important cultural work. I have enjoyed reading about this subject and would like to consult from a contemporary source such as the recent book The Jesuits: A History .
The order of Jesuits quickly became an organization with deep influence on the decision makers of the day by making use of their privileged access as confessors to kings, princes, dukes, ministers, mayors...This is where the Jesuits really shone, their ability to control decision making in areas of policies, laws, nominations was unprecedented. They were at the forefront of all conflicts involving religious beliefs against the protestants and all other religious faiths; this was an era when the Church proclaimed that you could not be saved if you were not within the catholic faith. The Superior General became such an important figure that he was as powerful a political figure as the Pope which created permanent tensions within the Catholic Chuch. The Jesuits networks as teachers and missionaries, their finances, their ability to influence local , regional and national political leaders, their operational principles and adherence to secrecy made them a state within the state of the catholic world.
Jesuit missionaries were part of the colonial invasion of the Americas when europeans committed physical and|or cultural genocide of indigenous populations. Missionaries were well intended at the beginning ; unfortunately imposing their faith to save the souls of the local people was based on a white supremacy prejudice which made them make choices to the detriment of the culture and safety of the first nations.
A good part of the book is dedicated to describing the numerous conflicts between the members of the order and political and religious figures. The order was banned several times in many countries, regions and even disbanded by the Pope; but it survived and even thrived despite all those setbacks because of the deep roots buit in all areas of the societies where they were installed. Eventually, the Church had to recognize that the price of a permanent ban on the order had very significant consequences on its ability to conduct its mission. Destroying the state within the state was too steep a price to pay. And so, despite the numerous scandals of corruption, sexual misconducts (such as confessors developing relationships with married women!) political interference, running spy networks, disobeying orders from the church establisments they had become absolutely essential to the survival of the Catholic Church, warts and all.
The author is very critical of the Jesuits, maybe it is not entirely a fair and balanced picture but all criticisms are related to historical events and facts. But the reason why it is still published is because it is recognized as an important cultural work. I have enjoyed reading about this subject and would like to consult from a contemporary source such as the recent book The Jesuits: A History .
Displaying 1 of 1 review