Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/215

* JEST. 189 JESUITS. from classic literature spread throughout Europe in the Renaissance period, uniting with that stream of storj- and witty remark which tlows from men of all races and of all times. The earliest of modern jest books, dating from the fifteenth century, were in Latin, and were known as facttiw (q.v. ). A notable volume was the Liber Facetlarutn (1470) of the Florentine Pogglo, of which the best stories found their way into the anecdotal literature of Italy, France, Germany, and England. For Italy niaj' be cited Pietro Aretino and the vast body of novelle, dealing with the incidents of every-day life : and for France the contes and joyeux deiis of Rabelais and his school. Among the earliest Gemian jest books were the Latin I'ucctice of H. Bebel ( 1508) and the Hchimpf und Ernst of the monk Jo- hannes Pauli (15191, largely compilations for which Poggio was freely used. Xative German humor of the period is perhaps best seen in the Low Saxon Ulenspiegel (1515), which in a mu- tilated fonn early passed into France and Eng- land. Ulenspiegel ( i.e. Owl-glass ), from whom the book derives its name, i.s a knavish peasant who play.s his tricks upon his more prosperous countrMiicn. In England there had long been books sharing in the literature of jest. Such, for example, was the Dc Sugis Curialium (twelfth century) of Walter Map. But the flourishing period of the jest book in England, as in the rest of Europe, was during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. From the press of John Rastell issued two interesting collections — The Merry Gents of the IVidojc Edith, in verse (1525), and The Hundred Merry Tales (1526). The latter volume is mentioned by Beatrice in Much Ado About Xothing (II. i. 1.35). These were succeeded by Merry Tales and Quick An- swers (about 1535). containing 114 anecdotes. It became customary for compilers to father their collections upon some well-known historical character who might or might not have been a wit. Famous books of this kind were: The Merry Tales of Skelton (1506), attributed to .John Skelton, who after his death gained the reputa- tion of a wag; The Jests of Scogan (1566?), said to have been gathered by Andrew Boorde ( q.v. ), a witty physician, from the sayings of a fool at the Court of Edward IV.; Tarl- ton's Je^ts (3 parts, 1592, 1600, 1611), named from the great comedian : and The Jests of George Peele (1607), containing perhaps some escapades of the dramatist. This practice of placing a name on the title-page that would sell the book con- tinued into the nineteenth century, receiving its most abused illustration in the collections pur- porting to have been 'transcribed from the mouth of .Joe Miller' ( q.v. ). an actor of the eighteenth centurj'. The Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham, dating from the sixteenth centurv'. were given a habitation in Xottinghamshire. The little pamphlet circulated as a chap-book in England and Scotland well into the nineteenth century. Other collections are PasquiVs Jests, Mixed with Mother Bunch's Merriments (1604) : The Pleas- ant Conceits of Old Uobson, the Merry Londoner (1607); and the racy Wit and Mirth of John Taylor (q.v.), the water poet. These books are only a small section of a vast literature of jest which per-aded popular tales and prepared the way for the realism of the modern novel. The jest was fused with the novel of manners by Theodore Hook (q.v.) in his Sayings and Doings (London, 1824-28). The older English jests were edited by W. C. Hazlitt under the title Shakespeare Jest-Books (3 vols., London, 1864). The interesting jest literature of Germany and its intluence is discussed by C. H. Herford in The Literary Relations of England and Germany in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge. England, 1886). See also the remarks on the Spanish rogue story in the article on the Xot;l. JESTER. A clownish wit, akin to the Court fool (q.v.), often called 'the jester.' or "the King's jester,' and simply one kind of minstrel. ( See Minstrel.) The jester in the Sanskrit drama is represented by the vidusaka, a character of mingled gluttony, cowardice, and knavery, re- deemed only by his unswerving devotion to the king, who is his companion. It is ' noteworthy that the vidusaka is always a Brahman, a fact which is plausibly explained try the "supposition that he was a stock character borrowed by the classic Hindu drama from the folk-plays. In Latin comedy the intriguing slave Davos is per- haps a prototype for ignoble but amusing char- acters in modem comedy. During the iliddle Ages weirdly dressed and clownish devils either terrified or entertained bj' their antics the onlook- ers at the miracles and mysteries. In Spain the gracioso or jesting buffoon has the same func- tion in the dramas of Lope de Vega. Calderon, and other dramatists, as Vidusaka had in India. In Italy Pantaleon, an old buffoon in Venetian costume, and Arlecchius were indispensable per- sonages in the Commedia dell' arte, and they passed through France into England. JESUITS, jez'u-Its (Fr. Jesuite, from Xeo- Lat. Jesuita, from Lat. Jesus), or Societt of .Jesus. A religious Order of the Roman Catholic Church. The preliminarj' step to the foundation of the society was taken when, on August 15, 1534, Ignatius of Loyola (see Igxatius). with six associates — Pierre Le F&vre. a Savoyard ; .James Laynez, Francis Xavier, Alfonso .Salmeron, and Nicholas Bobadilla. Spaniards, and a Por- tuguese, Simon Rodriguez — took, in the chapel on Montmartre, Paris, vows to make a pilgrim- age to the Holy Land and devote themselves to the conversion of the infidels. Owing to the breaking out of war with the Turks, they could not make the pilgrimage as planned, so they ap- plied tliemselves to various spiritual works in and around Venice, from which it had been their intention to sail. They lived more or less in common, but were not united in a formal way until 1538, when the first idea of permanent organization came. They went to Rome, and laid the preliminary sketch of the constitution of their proposed Order before Pope Paul III., who approved it in 1539. The formal creation of the Order of .Jesuits was made by bull dated September 27, 1540. In founding the Jesuits, Ignatius is often said to have contemplated re- pairing the losses occasioned to the Church by Luther; but at this time he had scarcely heard of him. His object was the increase of devotion among the adherents of the Church. The motto of the new Order was Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, often abbreviated A. M. D. G. (to the greater glory of God). The members bound themselves, besides the usual three vows of religious Orders to poverty, chastity, and obedience, by a fourth