Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/115

 SOCIETY

91

SOCIETY

the Polish provinces were readjusted into four: — Greater Poland; Lesser Poland; Lithuania; Massovia, counting in all 2359 religious. The Polish Jesuits, besides their own missions, had others in Stockholm, Russia, the Crimea, Constantinople, and Persia. (See Cracow, University of.)

Belgium. — The first settlement was at Louvain in 1542, whither the students in Paris retired on the declaration of war between France and Spain. In 1556 Ribadcneira obtained legal authorization for the Society from Philip II, and in 1564 Flanders became a separate province. Its beginnings, however, were by no means uniformly prosperous. The Duke of Alva was cold and su.spicious, while the wars of the revolting provinces told heavily against it. At the Pacification of Ghent (1576) the Jesuits were offered an oath against the rulers of the Netherlands, which they firmly refused, and were driven from their houses. But this at last won for them Philip's favour, and under Alexander Farnese fortune turned completely in their favour. Father Oliver Manare became a leader fitted for the occasion, whom Acquivi\a him- self greeted as "Pater Provincia;". In a few years a number of well-established colleges had been founded, and in 1612 the province had to be sub- divided. The Flnndro-Belgica counted sixteen colleges and the Gallo-Bdgica eighteen. All but two were day- schools, with no preparatory classes for small bo.vs. They were worked with comparatively small staffs of five or six, sometimes only three professors, though their scholars might count as many hundreds. Teach- ing was gratuitous, but a sufficient foundation for the sup])ort of the teachers was a necessary iircliminary. Though preparatory and elementary education was not yet in fashion, the care taken in teaching catechism was most elaborate. The classes were regular, and at intervals enlivened with music, ceremonies, mystery- plays, and processions. These were often attended by the whole magistracy in robes of state, while the bishop himself would attend at the distribution of honours. A special congregation was formed at Antwerp in 1628, to organize ladies and gentlemen, nobles and bourgeois, into Sunday-school teachers, and in that year their classes counted in all 3000 children. Similar organizations existed all over the country. The first communion classes formed an extension of the catechisms. In Bruges, Brussels, and Antwerp between 600 and 1600 attended the communion classes.

Jesuit congregations of the Blessed Virgin v/ere first instituted at Rome by a Belgian Jesuit, Jean Leunis, in 1563. His native country soon took them up with enthusiasm. Each college had normally four: — (1) for scholars (more often two, one for older, one for younger); (2) for young men on leaving; (3) for grown-up men (more often several) — for working- men, for tradesmen, professional classes, nobles, priests, doctors, etc., etc.; (4) for small boys. In days before hospitals, workhouses, and elementary educa- tion were regularly organized, and supported by the State; before burial-clubs, trade-unions, and the like provided special help for the working-man, these sodahties discharged the functions of such institu- tions, in homely fashion perhaps, but gratuitou.sly, bringing together all ranks for the relief of indi- gence. Some of these congregations were exceedingly popular, and their registers still show the names of the first artists and savants of the time (Teniers, Van Dyck, Rubens, Lipsius, etc.). .\rchdukcs and kings and even four emperors are found among the .sodalists of Louvain. Probably the first permanent corps of army chaplains was that established by Farne.se in 1587. It consisted of ten to twenty-five chaplains, and was styled the "Missio castrensis," and lasted as an institution till 1660. The "Missio navalis " was a kindred institution for the navy. The Flandro- Belgian province numbered 542 in 1749 (232 priests)

in 30 houses: Gallo-Belgian, 471 (266 priests) in 25 houses.

England. — Founded at Rome after the English Schism had commenced, the Society had great diffi- culty in finding an entrance into England, though Ignatius and Ribadeneira visited the country in 1531 and 1558, and prayers for its conversion have been recited throughout the order from 1553 to the present day (now under the common designation of " Northern Nations"). Other early Jesuits exerted themselves on behalf of the English seminary at Douai and of the refugees at Lou\ ain The effect of Elizabeth's expulsion of Citholics from Oxford, 1562-75 \\ IS thit nnn\ look i fiu il i iid Some

.\ Public Catkchism at Vienna, Ijyj From a contemporary print

scores of young men entered the Society, several of these volunteered for foreign missions, and thus it came about that the forerunner of those legions of Englishmen who go into India to carve out careers was the English Jesuit missionary, Thomas Stephens. John Yate (aiios Vincent, b. 1550; d. after 1603) and John IMeade (.see Almeid.\) were pioneers of the mission to Brazil. The most noteworthy of the first recruits were Thomas Uarliishire and \\'illiam Good, followed in time by Blessed Eilniund Campion (q.v.) and Robert Persons. The latter was the first to con- ceive and elaborate the idea of the English mission, which, at Dr. Allen's request, was undertaken in December, 1578.

Before this the Society had undertaken the care of the English College, Rome (see English College), by the pope's command, 19 March, 1.578. But diffi- culties ensued, owing to the miseries inherent in the estate of the rehgious refugees. Many came all the way to Rome expecting pensions, or scholarships from the rector, who at first became, in spite of himself, the dispenser of Pope Gregory's alms. But the alms soon failed, and several scholars had to be dismissed as unworthy. Hence disappointments and storms of grumbling, the records of which read sadly by the side of the consoling accounts of the martyr- doms of men like Campion, Cottam, Southwell, W'alpole, Page, and others, and the labours of a Heywood, Weston, or Gerard. Persons and Crichton too, falling in with the idea, so common abroad, that a counter-revolution in favour of Mary Stuart would not be difficult, made two or three political missions to Rome and Madrid (1582-84) before realizing that their schemes were not feasible (see Per.sons). After the Armada (q. v.), Per.sons induced Philip to establish more seminaries, and hence the foundation.s at Valladolid, St-Omer, and Seville (1589, 1.592, 1593), all put in charge of the English Jesuits. On the