Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/450

 330 General History of Europe The Jesuits rapidly spread not only over Europe but throughout the whole world. Francis Xavier, one of Loyola's original little band, went to Hindustan, the Moluccas, and Japan. Brazil, Florida, Mexico, and Peru were soon fields of active missionary work at a time when Protestants as yet scarcely dreamed of PRINCIPAL JESUIT CHURCH IN VENICE The Jesuits believed in erecting magnificent churches. This is a good ex- ample. The walls are inlaid with green marble in an elaborate pattern, and all the furnishings are very rich and gorgeous carrying Christianity to the heathen. We owe to the Jesuits' reports much of our knowledge of the condition of America when white men first began to explore Canada and the Mississippi Valley. 557. Accusations brought against the Jesuits. Protestants soon realized that the new order was their most powerful and dangerous enemy. Their apprehensions produced a bitter hatred which blinded them to the high purposes of the founders of the