Of a Third Sort of Union and Association Very Harmful to Religion

THE third sort of associations and particular friendships is worse and more contrary to union and fraternal charity than the preceding; it is when sundry individuals unite and ally themselves to alter the institute of a religious order and the established rule and holy enactments thereof. St. Bernard on the words of Canticles (i. 5), The children of my mother have fought against me, writes: “Not that the spouse, the Church, forgets what she has suffered from Gentiles, Jews, and persecutors, but this she more expressly laments and feels with peculiar keenness, I mean the war that is waged by enemies within our own house, a war far direr and more deadly than anything that foreign enemies can do.” We may apply the same saying to a religious order, as a chief member of the Church. The children of my mother have fought against me, those whom I have reared, given them their studies and their degrees at so much cost and labor to myself; these arms that I gave them to fight against the world and convert souls to God, they have turned against me and with them make war upon their mother; see if this is not a grief to feel. Still, deplorable as it is, we ought not to be surprised at such a persecution. Blessed St. Francis experienced it in his days in his order; and the Catholic Church even in the lifetime of the apostles suffered this persecution at the hands of her own children, who rose up against her with the errors and heresies that they invented. The members follow in the wake of their Head, Who is Christ, Who traveled by this road of labors and persecutions, because thereby the elect are purified as gold in the crucible. So says St. Paul: There must be factions and divisions, that those who are truly good may be made manifest among you (I Cor. xi.

19); and Christ our Lord: It needs must be that scandals come, nevertheless woe to that man by whom scandal cometh (Matt. xviii. 7). Scandals in the Church, scandals in religion, for we are men. But that is no excuse; woe to him that causes the scandals; it were better for him if he had never been born.

The glorious St. Basil speaks gravely and severely against these combinations. “If any of their own accord cut themselves off from the rest of the community and seek to make a society within the Society, this is a vicious society and these are evil associations. It is a sedition and a division.” A malicious machination it is in religion when people go about to alter and adulterate the established customs of their first institute, and all the worse the more they color it with pretence of improvement and reform. St. Basil says that such persons are first to be admonished and corrected in private and afterwards before others, according to the order laid down in the Gospel; and if they are none the more amended by that, let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican (Matt. xviii. 17). Such a one should be counted excommunicate and separated from the rest, like the sick of a contagious malady, that he may not infect the others. And our Father recommends the same in his Constitutions, according to the Apostle: Would that they were cut off that trouble you (Gal. v.12). Cut off the rotten member that it may not infect the rest.

It is easy to see how great this evil is and how harmful to religious, since by the mere exposition of it, its poisonous nature is shown, and so it should not be necessary to take the trouble of opening it out further. But the matter of itself is so grave that we will here enlarge upon it and show cause sufficient for us not only to abhor, but to detest and abominate so great an evil, and remain rooted in attachment to our institute. Religious life is not an invention of men, but of God; and so the things laid down for the preservation and increase of a religious order must not be taken for human inventions, as though they were the contrivance of some particular individual; they are the contrivances and inventions of God. As God took and chose the blessed St. Francis for the founder of his order, and the blessed St. Dominic for the founder of his, and our blessed Father Ignatius for the founder of the Society, and so of the rest; He gave them and showed them the means and so the particular manner of going about the work that was most suitable for the well-being and progress of the order, beyond what they could have discovered for themselves, because God’s works are perfect (Deut. xxxil. 4), and in any other way this work of God would have remained mutilated and imperfect.

So in the Life of our Father, from an answer he gave, meeting something said by Father James Laynez, we may gather that the more substantial things of our institute— what we may call its sinews and foundations—were revealed and inspired by God our Lord to our blessed Father Ignatius. God Himself being author and source of this order, took Ignatius for its head and His principal instrument in the work of foundation. This may likewise be gathered from the method he is said to have observed in making and writing the Constitutions and the abundant prayers and tears which every word cost him of those words which he has left us in writing. Thus, to determine whether it was fitting or not that the churches of our professed houses should have any revenue for the upkeep of the fabric—a point which is not the most substantial of our institute—he said mass for forty consecutive days and gave himself to prayer with more fervor than usual. Hence we may see how much communication and consultation he had with God over the Constitutions, and the light that our Lord gave him to choose and determine that which would be most agreeable to His Divine Majesty. And that we may not seem to pitch our voice too high or to be crying our own wares—although the reason already given is sufficient of itself—we have other testimony stronger than this (John v. 36), and it is well that we should allege it, for it is very important for us to be well grounded on this principle.

It is recounted in the chronicles of the Order of St. Francis that the saint retired with two companions to Mount Caynerio, near Reate, to compose and write his rule for presentation to the sovereign pontiff, so that he might obtain the apostolic bull of its confirmation, since hitherto it had not been confirmed by bull, but only by word of mouth, vivae vocis oraculo, by Innocent Il. On that mountain he fasted forty days on bread and water, persevering day and night in continual prayer; so he composed his rule as the Lord inspired and revealed, as is said there and as actually was the case, as will appear presently. Taking the rule written on the mountain, he gave it to keep to Friar Elias, his vicar general, a prudent man according to the world and a learned man. Elias, seeing it founded on greater self-contempt, humility, and poverty than seemed to him expedient, lost the rule on purpose, that it might not be confirmed, but another more to his liking. Father St. Francis, who sought rather to follow the will of God than that of man and made small account of the opinions of the wise men of this world, returned to the mountain to keep another forty days’ fast, and by fasting and prayer to ascertain the will of God and compose another rule. Friar Elias, knowing this, set himself about to thwart what was going on, and assembled some superiors and doctors among the friars and told them how Father St. Francis wanted to make a rule so strict that it was impossible to keep it. They required him as vicar general to go to St. Francis and tell him on the part of them all that they had no mind to be bound by this rule. Friar Elias did not dare to go alone with this message, but said that he would go with them. They all went to the mountain where the holy Father was praying in a lonely cell and, coming near it, Friar Elias called for St. Francis. The saint, knowing his voice, came out of the cell and, seeing so many friars with him, asked what these friars wanted. Friar Elias answered: “They are superiors of the order, who, having heard tell of the new rule that you are making and fearing that you are making it too severe, protest that they have no mind to be bound by it, that you are making it for yourself and not for them.” The saint, hearing these words, fell on his knees and raising his eyes to heaven, said: ‘Lord, did I not tell Thee that these people would not believe me?” And suddenly there came a voice from heaven which said: “Francis, there is nothing of thine in this rule; all that is in it is Mine, and I want the rule kept to the letter, to the letter, to the letter, without gloss, without gloss, without gloss. I know how much human _ weakness can stand and how much I intend to aid it; let them that have no mind to keep it leave the order and leave it to the rest to observe.”’ Francis turned to the superiors and said: “Have you heard? Have you heard? Have you heard? Do you want me to get it said to you a second time?” And Friar Elias and the superiors, out of themselves, trembling and dumbfounded, recognizing their fault, turned on their heels without uttering another word. The holy patriarch returned to compose his rule, neither more nor less than what the Lord had revealed to him; and, having finished the composition, he took it to the sovereign pontiff, who was Honorius III. The pope reading the rule and remarking on its severity and poverty, which seemed very strait and difficult to observe, St. Francis replied: “I, holy Father, have not put one single word into this rule out of my own opinion and judgment; but our Lord Jesus Christ has compiled and composed it, Who alone knows very well all that is necessary and profitable for the salvation of souls and the good estate of the friars and the preservation of this, His order. To Him all the things to come in the Church and in this order are manifest and present; and that being so, I ON UNION AND FRATERNAL CHARITY ek neither ought nor can change anything.” And the pope, moved by the inspiration of God, gave the bull and apostolic confirmation of the rule, ad perpetuam rei memoriam.

In this manner God is wont to inspire and give the rule to the founders of religious orders; and in this manner He inspired and gave it to our holy Father Ignatius. And of this we have another account, even more authentic than the preceding, since we have the apostolic bulls with their leaden seals that say so. Gregory XIII, of happy memory, in the bull and constitution which commences Ascendente Domino and in another which he gave before, commencing Quanto fructuosius, having first set down all the points of our institute and in particular those that seemed to raise some difficulty and about which he had been informed that some both within and without the Society called for investigation, declares and says expressly these formal words: “Wherefore the said Ignatius by divine inspiration ( divino instinctu) so considered that the body of the Society should be organized in its members, orders, and grades.” What clearer language could have been used?

This being presupposed, let us come to the point and enter into a reckoning with those who seek to form private associations for the altering of a religious institute and of the things established by its founder. Don’t you think it is great pride to have such a high idea of oneself and of one’s judgment and opinions as to dare to say, the road that Ignatius has left us laid down in his Constitutions is not a good one; it would be better for us to go by the road that pleases me? What greater folly and wrong-headedness could there be? The greatness of this infatuation can be seen from another similar to it; one well exemplifies the other. One of the greatest evils and sins there are in the Church of God is heresy. I do not dispute now whether there can be any other sin greater, since it is clear that a greater sin would be the express hatred of God: but those sins are not commonly committed here on earth; there in hell is their place. But I say that of the sins that commonly find place here on earth, they say that heresy, whereby one separates oneself from the Church, is the greatest; and with reason, for besides its destroying the foundation of the whole Christian religion, which is faith, and other reasons that there are, does it not strike you as an excessive and extreme pride? To think that anyone should be so confident in himself and hold so fast to his own judgment as to come to believe and rather take for true what seems good to him and suits his fancy, in preference to what the Catholic Roman Church has settled to be believed, what has been approved in so many councils, where has been assembled the cream of all the good there was in the world as well in learning as in sanctity, and has been confirmed by the blood of so many thousands of martyrs who have died for it, and by innumerable miracles that have been wrought in confirmation of it! To think that a man should come to say: “But I rather believe in my last night’s dream or in what a Martin Luther tells me”—a bad man and a perverse, an apostate, immoral and living in sacrilegious concubinage! What greater pride and folly, what greater blindness and absurdity could there be! But this is the way they go and this is what in their own measure they do, those persons we are speaking of who prefer their own judgment and opinion to his whom God our Lord has taken for head and founder of this religious order, and think that the way they have dreamt of and invented is better than that which God our Lord has inspired and revealed to him whom He was pleased to take for His principal instrument in the foundation of the Society. It isa pride and presumption like that of Lucifer. What? Has God hidden from our Father Ignatius, whom He chose for head and founder, the right way that was proper for the well-being of the order, and has revealed it to you? Is not this enough to make you understand that it is a deceit and delusion of the devil, who wishes to take you for his means ON UNION AND FRATERNAL CHARITY Zits and instrument to make war on the Society, which he so much abhors, and trouble the peace and union of the order, as he took that other, the heretic, to trouble the peace of the Church? “Oh,” you say, “but I am aiming only at the reform of the order.” You deceive yourself; the devil, the father of lies, is blinding you with this false and lying phrase, for this is not to reform the Society, but to destroy and undo the Society. And observe that this is no exaggeration, but a plain and very clear truth. To reform an order is, when the order has fallen and departed from its primitive institute, to take measures for its return to its first principles and keep the rule and arrangement which its first founder bequeathed to it. This is a good and holy work, and many religious orders have gone through it in the desire to maintain themselves in their first institute and rule. But to change the institute and primitive way of life that our first founder has left us, inspired by God, and to seek to introduce another way, different from that, is not to reform the order, but to seek to destroy and undo it and create another order, different from the first, of your own design and fashion and to your own taste, as Friar Elias wanted to do with the order of St. Francis; and so this is not the spirit of God, but of the devil.

The holy Council of Trent dealing with the reformation of religious orders and making some very holy decrees to that effect, our Father General James Laynez laid this supplication before those fathers: ‘Most holy fathers, these decrees of reformation do not seem applicable to our Society of Jesus, seeing that it is at this day a new order, distinct from other orders, and as such has its own distinct methods of procedure, approved by the apostolic see; and by the goodness of God we have not departed from our first institute and rule; and so if these decrees shall be applied to it, it will not be reformed, but destroyed.” The holy council fell in with this reason and replied: ‘Hereby, however, the holy synod does not intend to make any innovation or prohibition to hinder the order of clerks of the Society of Jesus from being able to serve the Lord and His Church according to their pious institute approved by the holy apostolic see” (Trid. Sess. 25, de reform. cap. 16). The holy Council of Trent does not wish nor venture to change the institute and mode of procedure which the Lord gave to the Society by means of our blessed Father Ignatius, as approved by the apostolic see, but on the contrary approved and confirmed it; and have you the hardihood to seek to alter and change it for I know not what human regards and reasons that occur to you?

Quite other esteem, and other regard and reverence did he pay to our institute and its founder—that cardinal of whom there is related in the Life of our Father a thing very much to our purpose. It is related there that the Cardinal of the Holy Cross, Marcellus Cervini, who came afterwards to be pope and took the name of Marcellus I, a little before he was raised to the see of the sovereign pontiff, had a long argument with Father Doctor Olave, a distinguished theologian of the Society, upon that constitution which we have that none of the body can accept any dignity outside of the Society unless compelled thereto by obedience put upon him by one who can command him under pain of sin, and that even the General cannot issue such a@ command except by order and mandate of the sovereign pontiff, and of this all the professed make a special vow. The cardinal said that the Society would render a greater service to the Church of God by providing it with good bishops than by giving it good preachers and confessors and that the fruit would be all the greater inasmuch as a good bishop can do more than a poor clerk. He alleged many reasons to this effect, to which Father Olave replied, giving him to understand that the greatest service that the Society could render to holy Church was by keeping itself in its proper purity and lowliness, thereby to serve it for a longer period and in greater security. And since in the end the cardinal, thinking his own reasons the better, stuck to his opinion, Doctor Olave said to him: “If reasons are not enough to convince your illustrious lordship and make you change your mind, the authority of our Father Ignatius, who thought so, is enough to make us believe that that is the better arrangement.’”’ Thereupon the cardinal said: ' “Now I give in and say that you are right, for supposing I thought that reason was on my side, nevertheless the authority of Father Ignatius in this matter would weigh with me more than all the reasons in the world. And even reason itself says the same; for since God our Lord chose him to plant in His Church an order like yours and to spread it all over the world with such fruit of souls and to rule and govern it with such a spirit of prudence as we see has been done and is done, it is also to be believed, and it would seem that it cannot be otherwise, that the same God has revealed and disclosed the manner in which He wishes this order to serve Him and preserve itself for the future.” With how greater reason should we ourselves who are religious and should be children of obedience, subject ourselves and submit our judgment when we see that a thing is a rule and constitution of the Society, ordained by him whom our Lord has given us to be its head and founder. And this especially, seeing that it has been since so much approved and confirmed by all the sovereign pontiffs who have been, from then up to this time, and by the holy Council of Trent; and that on this score the Lord has blessed and made such use of the Society, producing such fruit by its means for these sixty years and more! Trespass not over the ancient boundaries which thy fathers have set, says the Wise Man (Prov. xxii. 28).

An so to repress such presumption and venturesomeness, His Holiness Gregory XIII in his bull and constitution, Ascendente Domino, after having approved and confirmed anew the Institute and manner of life of the Society and in particular the things which some might wish to amend, commands in virtue of holy obedience, and under pain of excommunication latae sententiae and of incapacity for any office or benefice ipso facto without further declaration, that no one of any state, rank, and pre-eminence whatsoever shall presume in any manner to impugn or contradict any point of the Institute or Constitutions of the Society, either directly or indirectly, not even under color of disputation or wish to know the truth; and if any doubt arises on these points, he says that it is well that the apostolic see be consulted thereupon or the General of the Society or other persons to whom the matter shall be committed, and that none other shall dare to meddle therewith. The same, even at greater length, is enacted by his successor Gregory XIV in another constitution made on this head, which commences Ecclesiae Catholicae, in very grave words. ‘Considering,” he says, “that it would be to the no small prejudice of religious discipline and detriment of all religious life, if what has been in holy fashion laid down by founders of orders and received and approved many times by the same order in its general congregations and, what is more, established and confirmed by this holy apostolic see, should be, not to say changed, but even altered or impugned under any pretext whatsoever, We command in virtue of holy obedience all persons of whatsoever state and condition they be, ecclesiastical or secular or religious, even though they be of the same Society, under pain of excommunication latae sententiae and of being held disqualified and incapable of any office and dignity and of privation of active and passive voice, which penalties are incurred ipso facto without further declaration, absolution therefrom reserved to the apostolic see; and renewing the constitution of Gregory XIII, our predecessor, and all the penalties therein contained, [We command] that none shall presume to impugn or contradict any point of the Institute or Constitutions or decrees of the Society, either directly or indirectly, or under color of greater good or zeal or any other pretext what- ON UNION AND FRATERNAL CHARITY Ah ever.” And he adds another thing very special and substantial, that none is to propose or give in any memorials on the said subject, for anything to be added or struck out or changed except to the sovereign pontiff immediately, or intermediately through his nuncio or apostolic legate, or to the General of the Society or to the general congregation. And our present Holy Father Paul V, in the bull that he issued in the year 1606 confirming the Institute and privileges of the Society, makes special mention of these two constitutions of Gregory XIII and Gregory XIV and approves and grants them anew. Hence it appears what pitfalls there are about this matter, since none can transgress herein without the gravest penalties and without incurring the greater excommunication ipso facto, whether he be of the Society or out of it, religious, cleric, or layman, of whatsoever state, rank, condition, and vre-eminence he be.

Let us, then, conclude with the conclusion of St. Paul writing to the Corinthians: For the rest, brethren, rejoice, be perfect, exhort one another, be of one mind, have peace (II Cor. xiii. 11). Let us rejoice, my Fathers and brothers, and be glad that the Lord has drawn us to an order so holy and professing such perfection; and let us speak ever of this perfection and how to keep ourselves in great peace and union, exhorting and animating one another thereto; and in this way the Lord, Who is the author and fountain of peace and love, will ever be with us.

aim FIFTH TREA TIS E townie