Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/646

 626 JESUITS of candidates for membership. Some circum- stances or qualities form absolute impediments to admission, such as illegitimate birth or in- famous descent, public heresy or apostasy, such crimes as murder or enormous secret sins, the brand of a degrading judicial sentence, matri- monial ties, membership even for one day in another religious order, and insanity or notable weakness of intellect. Less serious impedi- ments, such as ill temper, obstinacy, injudicious enthusiasm or visionary devotion, the being involved in debt, &c., may be compensated by other redeeming qualities and circumstances. The first probation consists of a period of some weeks spent by the candidate in a house of the society, during which he is given to read the Examen Generate, taken from the first part of the constitutions, containing a series of ques- tions, which he is required to answer truthfully. His examiner is bound to the strictest secrecy as to the answers. These questions involve every possible impediment to his admission. He is required also to declare if he is perfectly free in his determination to enter, or if he is led to do so by friendship for any member of the society. He is finally asked if he is willing that all letters written by him or addressed to him shall be opened by the superior; if he consents that the superior shall admonish him of all imperfections and faults which he may remark in him, and that his companions shall report the same to the superior ; and, finally, if he will be content to accept any grade, occu- pation, or office in the society which may be assigned to him. The candidate, having waived his natural rights on these points, is admitted to his second probation or noviceship, which lasts two years and one day from the date of his first entrance. During the first year the novices devote a full month to the performance of the "Spiritual Exercises," which they are required to master as an indispensable instru- ment of future utility to others. The whole two years are given up to spiritual things. They teach the elements of Christian doctrine to children and the poor, serve the sick for a month in some hospital, and travel during another month from place to place without money, and subsisting on the charity received by the way. They have also daily conferences or lessons on the constitutions and rules of the society. The severest scrutiny is exercised with regard to the capacity and dispositions of each novice, and every means is employed to encourage him to correct what is faulty and to perfect what is praiseworthy in his conduct. Such as are destined for the priesthood are called "scholastic novices;" the others, who are to be lay brothers, are not allowed to rise any further in secular knowledge. They must be content with what tkey already possess, and apply themselves to the acquisition of humility and solid piety. At the end of these two years, the novices pronounce the simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, with a formal promise to enter the society at a future day, implying an engagement to accept readily any degree which may be given them therein. Such as are destined to study now assume the name of formed scholastics (scholastici for- inati). If they are young enough, a space of two years, called juniorship or juvenate, is spent by them in cultivating Latin and Greek letters and rhetoric ; then tbree years are given in a scholasticate to mental and moral philosophy and the sciences. The professors in these special seminaries are all men who have them- selves passed through the entire curriculum of sacred and profane science, and have either made the profession of the four vows, or are destined to do so in due time. Every six months the scholastics undergo a most search- ing examination before four sworn examiners, who send sc-parately their sealed suffrages to the general and the local provincial. At the end of the philosophical course the scholastic is sent to teach in a college, both for the pur- pose of enabling him to apply his acquired knowledge and of training him to the science of governing men. Should his age permit, he begins with the lowest grammar and leads his scholars up to humanities and rhetoric. This is called by the French cours de regence, and is followed by the study of theology, Scripture, canon law, and church history, which lasts four years. The half-yearly examination here be- comes still more rigorous, and at the end of the third year it is increased in length and severity. Should the candidate break down in this, he is not allowed to proceed in his fourth year of study. At the end of the third year the scho- lastics are raised to the priesthood. The fourth year closes with the examen ad gradum, or the examination which qualifies the success- ful candidate for the profession of the four vows, the highest rank in the society. Three months in advance of the day appointed for this, the candidate is given a series of theses embracing the substance of dogmati- cal theology, intellectual philosophy, and the natural sciences. He is freed from every other occupation in order thoroughly to prepare him- self for the ordeal. The examination takes place before a commission of four examiners presided over by the rector, and lasts two hours, each examiner being bound by his oath to propound the most searching questions and formidable objections during half an hour. The suffrage, delivered sealed to the general and the provincial, attests that the " candidate is (or is not) able to teach the whole of theolo- gy, philosophy, and the sciences in any univer- sity." This intellectual ordeal is one regular condition for obtaining the degree of professed ; the other and a more indispensable condition is proficiency in solid virtue as well as in learn- ing. Sometimes young men of extraordinary eloquence are allowed, after passing this last examination, to spend two years more in Bib- lical and patristic studies. Generally, how- ever, they pass from the theologate to what is known as the third "probation," which is an