The Jesuits, 1534-1921

Luigi Lanzi, the Italian archæologist, was born at Olmo near Macerata in 1732, and entered the Society in 1749. At its Suppression, the Grand Duke of Tuscany made him the assistant director of the Florentine Museum. He devoted himself to the study of ancient and modern literature, and was made a member of the Arcadians. The deciphering of monuments, chiefly Etruscan, was one of his favorite occupations and resulted in his writing his "Saggio di lingua etrusca" in 1789. Four years later he produced his noted "History of Painting in Italy." His other works included a critical commentary on Hesiod's "Works and Days," with a Latin and an Italian translation in verse; three books of "Inscriptiones et carmina," translations of Catullus, Theocritus and others, besides two ascetic works on St. Joseph and the Sacred Heart respectively. He died in 1810 four years before the Restoration.

Angelo Mai is one of the very attractive figures at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He had studied at the seminary of Bergamo and had as professor, Father Mozzi, a member of the suppressed Society. When the saintly Pignatelli opened the novitiate at Parma in 1799, Mozzi joined him and young Angelo who was then seventeen years old went there as a novice. He was sent to Naples in 1804 to teach humanities, but was obliged to leave when the French occupied the city. He was then summoned to Rome, and ordained a priest. While there, he met two exiled Jesuits from Spain: Monero and Monacho, who besides teaching him Hebrew and Greek, gave him his first instructions in paleography, showing him how to manipulate and decipher palimpsests. In 1813 he was compelled by the order of the duke to return to his native country, and was appointed custodian of the Ambrosian Library at Milan. There he made his first great discoveries of a number of precious manuscripts, which alone sufficed to give him an important place in the learned world. In 1819 at the suggestion of Cardinals Consalvi and Litta, the staunchest friends of the Society, Pius VII appointed him librarian of the Vatican, with the consent of the General.

From all this it is very hard to understand how Mai is generally set down as having left the Society. Albers says so in his "Liber sæcularis," Hurter in his "Nomenclator," as does Sommervogel in his "Bibliotheca," and his name does not appear in Terrien's list of those who died in the Society. In spite of all this, however, the expression "left the Society" seems a somewhat cruel term to apply to one who was evidently without reproach and who was asked for by the Sovereign Pontiff. He was made a cardinal by Gregory XVI, a promotion which his old novice master Father Pignatelli had foretold when Angelo was summoned to be librarian at Milan. He continued his work in the Vatican and gave to the world the unpublished pages of three hundred and fifty ancient authors which he had discovered.

Father Hugo Hurter calls Francesco Zaccaria of the old Society the most industrious worker in the history of literature. This praise might well be applied to himself if it were only for his wonderful "Nomenclator literarius theologiæ catholicæ." It is a catalogue of the names and works of all Catholic theological writers from the year 1564 up to the year 1894. Nor is it merely a list of names for it gives an epitome of the lives of the authors and an appreciation of their work and their relative merit in the special subject to which they devoted themselves; it thus covers the whole domain of scholastic, positive and moral theology, as well as of patrology, ecclesiastical history and the cognate sciences such as epigraphy, archæology and liturgy. It consists of five volumes with two closely printed columns on each page. The last column in the second volume is numbered 1846. After that come fifty-three pages of indexes and a single page of corrigenda in that volume alone. It is worth while noting that there are only six errors in all this bewildering mass of matter; there are, besides, three additions, not to the text, but to the index, from which the names of three writers were accidentally omitted.

So condensed is the letterpress that only a dash separates one subject from another. Nevertheless, thanks to the ingenious indexes, both of persons and subjects, the subject sought for can be found immediately. Finally, between the text and the indexes are two marvellous chronological charts. By means of the first, the student can follow year by year the growth of the various branches of theology and know the names of all the authors in each. The second chart takes the different countries of Europe – Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Germany, England, Poland and Hungary – and as you travel down the years in the succeeding centuries you can see what studies were most in favor in different parts of the world and the different stages of their history. Not only that, but a style of type, varying from a large black print, down to a very pale and small impression, gives you the relative prominence of every one of the vast multitude of authors. Such a work will last to the end of time and never lose its value, and how Father Hurter, who was the beloved spiritual father of the University of Innsbruck, whose theological faculty he entered in 1858, and who, besides publishing his unusually attractive theology and editing fifty-eight volumes of the Fathers of the Church, could find time and strength to produce his encyclopedic "Nomenclator" is almost inconceivable.

In the year 1907, the scheme of a Catholic Encyclopedia was launched in New York. The editors chosen were Dr. Charles Herbermann, for more than fifty years professor of Latin and the most distinguished member of the College of the City of New York; Mgr. Thomas Shahan, the rector of the Catholic University at Washington, and later raised to the episcopal dignity; Dr. Edward A. Pace, professor of philosophy in the same university; Dr. Condé Benoist Pallen, a well-known Catholic publicist, and Father John J. Wynne of the Society of Jesus.

The scope of the work is unlike that of other Catholic encyclopedias. It is not exclusively ecclesiastical, for it records all that Catholics have done not only in behalf of charity or morals, but also in the intellectual, and artistic development of mankind. Hence, while covering the whole domain of dogmatic and moral theology, ecclesiastical history and liturgy, it has succeeded in giving its readers information on art, architecture, archæology, literature, history, travel, language, ethnology, etc., such as cannot be found in any other encyclopedia in the English language. Only the most eminent writers have been asked to contribute to it, and hence its articles can be cited as the most recent exposition of the matters discussed. It appeared with amazing rapidity, the whole series of sixteen volumes being completed in nine years. To it is added an extra volume entitled "The Catholic Encyclopedia and its Makers," which consists of photographs and biographical sketches of all the contributors.

The encyclopedia has proved to be an immense boon to the Church in America. The chief credit of the publication is generally accorded to Father John Wynne, who is a native of New York. It was he who conceived it, secured the board of editors, and, as his distinguished associate, Bishop Shahan, declared with almost affectionate eagerness at a public session of the faculty and students of the ecclesiastical seminary of New York: "it was he who encouraged and sustained the editors by his buoyant optimism in the perilous stages of its elaboration." This information may be helpful abroad to show that the Society in America is doing something for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. The apostolic character of the work is further enhanced by the fact that funds are being established in various dioceses to enable each seminarian to become the personal owner of the entire set from the very first moment he begins his studies. The effect of such an arrangement on the ecclesiastical mind of the century is inestimable. It is also being placed by the Knights of Columbus and by rich Catholics in battleships and the United States' military posts, as well as in civic libraries and club houses.

The first catalogue of Jesuit writers was drawn up by Father Ribadeneira in 1602-1608. Schott and Alegambe continued the work in 1643, and Nathaniel Bacon or Southwell, or Sotwel, as he was called on the Continent, published a third in 1676. Nothing more, however, was done in that line by the old Society, and it was not until the twenty-first congregation, at which Father Roothaan presided, that a postulatum was presented asking for the resumption of this valuable work. Something prevented this from being done for the time being, and it was not until 1853 that the work was undertaken by the two Belgians, Augustine and Aloys de Backer.

Up to 1861 a series of seven issues appeared, but as by that time the number of names had increased to ten thousand, a new arrangement had to be made, and in 1869 the work appeared in three large folios. In 1885, on the death of Augustine de Backer, Charles Sommervogel took up the work. Providentially he was well equipped for the task, for although he had been continually employed at other tasks, sometimes merely as a surveillant in a French college, he had contrived to publish in 1884 a "Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymeset pseudonymes des religieux de la Compagnie de Jésus." He began by recasting all that his predecessors had done, and it was only after four years that he had published the first volume. Others, however, followed in quick succession, and in 1900 the ninth volume appeared. The tenth volume, an index, was unfinished at the time of his death, but has since been completed by Father Bliard. Besides his articles in the "Etudes," he had also put into press a "Table méthodique des Mémoires de Trévoux," in three volumes, a "Bibliotheca Mariana S. J." and a "Moniteur bibliographique de la Compagnie de Jésus." He had intended to publish a revised edition of Carayon's, "Bibliographie historique," but was prevented by death.

As far back as 1658, Pope Alexander VIII did not hesitate to declare that "no literary work had ever been undertaken that was more useful or more glorious" than the "Acta Sanctorum" of Father Bollandus and his associates, nor did the learned Protestants of those days refrain from extolling the scientific spirit in which the work was being conducted. The "Acta," which began in the middle of the seventeenth century and which is still going on, reads like a romance. The account of it by De Smedt tells us how the first writers had only a garret for a library, and were forced to pile their books on the floor; how Cardinal Bellarmine denounced the work as chimerical; how the Carmelites were in a rage because Papebroch denied that Elias was the founder of their order; how the Spanish Inquisition denounced the work and condemned the thirty volumes as heretical, and how finally it reached its present status.

The Bollandists did not immediately feel the blow that struck the rest of the Society of Jesus in 1773. Indeed, the commissioners announced that the government was satisfied with the labors of the Bollandists and was disposed to exercise special consideration in their behalf. In 1778 they removed to the Abbey of Caudenberg in Brussels, and the writers received a small pension. In 1788 three new volumes were published. Meantime Joseph II had succeeded Maria Theresa, and the sky began to darken. On October 16, 1788, the government decided to stop the pension of the writers, and their books and manuscripts which the official inspectors denounced as "trash" were ordered to be sold. After a year, the Fathers made an offer to the Premonstratensian Abbot of Tongerloo to buy the books and manuscripts for what would be equivalent now to about $4,353; the money, however, was to be paid to the Austrian government and not to the owners of the library. Happily the writers found shelter in the monastery with their books and, though the Brabantine Revolution disturbed them for a time, they continued at their work unmolested until 1794, when they issued another volume.

It was fortunate that they had succeeded in putting that volume into print, for that very year the French invaded Belgium and both Premonstratensians and Bollandists were obliged to disperse. Some of the treasures of the library were hidden in the houses of the peasants, and others were hastily piled into wagons and carried to Westphalia, with the only result that could be anticipated – the loss of an immense amount of most valuable material; a certain number of the books were returned to the abbey, and left there in the dust until 1825. As there was no hope, at that time, of the Bollandists ever being able to resume their work, the monks disposed of most of the library treasure at public auction, and, what was not sold, was given to the Holland government and incorporated in the library of the Hague. The manuscripts were transported to Brussels and deposited in the Burgundian Library. They are still there.

In 1836 a hagiographical society in France under the patronage of Guizot and several bishops proposed to take up the work of the Bollandists and an envoy was sent to purchase the documents from the Belgian government. The proposition evoked a patriotic storm in the little country, and a petition was made to the minister of the interior, de Theux, imploring him to lose no time in securing for his native land the honor of completing the work, and to entrust the task to the Jesuit Fathers, who had begun it and carried it on for two centuries. The result was that on January 29, 1837, the provincial of Belgium appointed four Fathers who were to live at St. Michel in Brussels. The government gave them an annual subsidy of six thousand francs, but this was withdrawn in 1868 by the Liberals and never restored, though the Catholics have been in control since 1884.

There are more than one hundred volumes to the credit of the writers up to the present time, sixty-five of which are huge folios. What they contain may be learned from the most competent of all authorities, Charles de Smedt, the Bollandist director, who wrote the most complete and scientific account of the Bollandist collection for the Catholic Encyclopedia. It is sufficient to state that in the opinion of the most distinguished and capable scholars in the field, the work of the later Bollandists is in no wise inferior to the work of their illustrious predecessors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

In reviewing a recent publication of a Bollandist work, the scholarly "American Historical Review" (July, 1920) has this to say: "It is to be hoped that a more widely diffused knowledge of what the Bollandists have been doing for human learning, historical and literary, may bring American aid to fill the gaps in their resources caused by the devastations of war. It is a pleasure to know that the Princeton University Press intends to issue an English translation of Father Delehaye's admirable book, which gives an account of the labors of the Bollandists from 1638 down to the present day."

It has been said that the Jesuits had a way of keeping their most brilliant members before the public eye while sending their inferior men to the missions to be eaten by the savages. That this is not an accepted opinion in America is evidenced by the publication of what are called the "Jesuit Relations," in seventy-two volumes, by a firm in Cleveland, Ohio, whose members had no affiliation with Catholics or Jesuits, and whose venture involved immense financial risks. "The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents" is the title of the work. The subsidiary title is "Travels and Explorations of Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1610-1791. The Original French, Latin and Italian Texts, with English Translations and Notes, illustrated by Portraits, Maps and Facsimiles."

The editor is Reuben Gold Thwaites, Secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. In his preface he says: "American historians from Shea and Parkman down have already made liberal use of the 'Relations,' and here and there antiquarians and historical societies have published fragmentary translations. The great body of the 'Relations' and their allied documents however have never been Englished; hence these interesting papers have never been accessible to the majority of historical students. The present edition offers to the public for the first time an English rendering side by side with the original.

"The authors of the journals which form the basis of the 'Relations' were for the most part men of trained intellect, acute observers, and practiced in the art of keeping records of their experiences. They had left the most highly civilized country of their times to plunge at once into the heart of the wilderness and attempt to win to the Christian Faith the fiercest savages known to history. To gain these savages it was first necessary to know them intimately, their speech, their habits, their manner of thought, their strong points and their weak. These first students of American Indian history were not only amply fitted for their task but none have since had better opportunity for its prosecution. They performed a great service to mankind in publishing their annals, which are for historian, geographer and ethnologist our best authorities.

"Many of the 'Relations' were written in Indian camps amid a chaos of distractions. Insects innumerable tormented the journalists; they were immersed in scenes of squalor and degradation, overcome by fatigue and lack of proper sustenance, often suffering from wounds and disease, maltreated in a hundred ways by hosts, who at times, might more properly be called jailers; and not seldom had savage superstition risen to such heights that to be seen making a memorandum was certain to arouse the ferocious enmity of the band. It is not surprising that the composition of these journals is sometimes crude; the wonder is that they could be written at all. Nearly always the style is simple and earnest. Never does the narrator descend to self-glorification or dwell unnecessarily upon the details of his continual martyrdom. He never complains of his lot, but sets forth his experiences in matter of fact phrases.

"From these writings we gain a vivid picture of life in the primeval forests. Not only do these devoted missionaries – never in any field has been witnessed greater personal heroism than theirs – live and breathe before us in these 'Relations,' but we have in them our first competent account of the Red Indian when relatively uncontaminated by contact with Europeans. Few periods of history are so well illuminated as the French régime in North America. This we owe in a large measure to the existence of the Jesuit Relations."

"The existence of these Relations," to use Mr. Thwaites' expression, is due to the scholarly modern Jesuit, Father Félix Martin, the founder and first rector of St. Mary's College at Montreal, who in 1858 induced the Quebec government to reprint the old Cramoisy editions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was Martin who developed in Gilmary Shea, then a Jesuit scholastic in Montreal, the historical instinct; and gave to Parkman much if not all of the information that made that author famous, in spite of the bigotry or lack of comprehension that sometimes reveals itself in his pages. Martin's first publication consisted of three double columned, closely printed and bulky octavos in French. He never dreamed that the interest in the book would grow until the splendid edition of Thwaites in seventy-two volumes would signify to the scientific world the value of these documents "written in canoes or in the depths of the forests," as Thwaites says, "a decade before the landing of the Plymouth Pilgrims."

While these "Relations" about the Canada missions were being published Father Le Gobien began to issue his "Lettres sur les progrès de la religion de la Chine," which ultimately developed into the well-known "Lettres édifiantes et curieuses" describing missionary enterprises all over the world. During the Suppression they were issued in twenty-six duo-decimo volumes. An Austrian Jesuit began in 1720 to translate some of these letters, entitling his work "Neue Welt Bott." It soon became independent of the "Letters" and appeared in five volumes folio. It is still being published.

A certain number of periodicals are published by the Society, the most important of which are the "Civiltà Cattolica," the "Etudes," the "Stimmen aus Maria-Laach" and the "Razón y Fe."

The "Civiltà" was begun in 1850 by express order of Pius IX. Its first editors were Fathers Curci, Bresciani, Liberatore, Taparelli, Oreglia, Piccirillo, and Pianciani, a staff which would insure the success of any publication. Its articles are of the most serious kind, dealing with questions of theology, philosophy, sociology and literature. Its first issue of 4,200 copies appeared at Naples; later it was published at Rome. In 1870 the staff was transferred to Naples, but returned in 1887 to Rome. It is published every fortnight, and at present has a circulation of over 12,000 copies. It is under the direct control of the Pope, and unlike other Society publications of the same kind it is not connected with any house or college. It has received the highest commendations from Pius IX and from Leo XIII.

In 1856 the "Etudes" was begun by the Jesuits in France under the editorship of Daniel Gagarin and Godfroy. In character it closely resembles the "Civiltà." The troubles of 1876 caused its suspension for almost a year, but the various dispersions of the French provinces have not affected it, except perhaps in the extent of its circulation. It is published at Paris, but was at one time issued from Lyons. From a monthly it has developed into a fortnightly review in latter years.

The German Fathers have their monthly "Stimmen aus Maria-Laach," the first number of which appeared in 1865. The defense of the Syllabus called it into being. When the Kulturkampf drove the editors from Maria-Laach, they migrated to Tervuren in Belgium. There they remained until 1880, when they went to Blijenbeck in Holland. In 1910 we find them at Valkenburg, Holland, attached to the Scholasticate. The ability of the staff has placed the "Stimmen" on a very high plane as a periodical.

The monthly "Razón y Fe" was begun by the Spanish Fathers in 1901, and "Studies" by the Irish Jesuits in 1912. This latter, however, admits contributors who are not of the Society. The same may be said of the "Month" (London), the weekly "America" (New York), the "Irish Monthly" (Dublin) and a number of minor periodicals. There are also publications for private circulation, such as the "Woodstock Letters," the "Letters and Notices"; "Lettres Edifiantes" of various provinces of the Society, most of which are printed in the scholasticates, and convey information about the different works of the Society in different parts of the world. They are largely of the character of the ancient "Relations des Jésuites" of the old French Fathers and are of great value as historical material. Finally the American "Messenger of the Sacred Heart" publishes a monthly edition of 350,000, besides millions of leaflets to promote the devotion. There are fifty-one editions of the "Messenger" published in thirty-five different languages.

The reason why the Society has not succeeded in producing since the Restoration any theologians like Suárez, Toletus and others, is the same that prevented Napoleon Bonaparte from winning back his empire when he was a prisoner on St. Helena. Conditions have changed. Suárez, de Lugo, Ripalda and their brilliant associates passed their lives in Catholic Spain which gloried in universities like Salamanca, Valladolid or Alcalá. There those great men wrote and taught; Bellarmine and Toletus labored in Rome and Lessius in Louvain; whereas the Jesuit theologians in our day have been not only debarred from the great universities but robbed of their libraries, sent adrift in the world and compelled to seek not for learned leisure but for a roof to shelter them. They were expelled from France in 1762, and were never allowed to open a school even for small boys until 1850. At present they are permitted to shed their blood on the battle field for their country from which they have been driven into exile. They were banished from Italy repeatedly, and have never secured a foothold in Germany since 1872; they do not exist in Portugal and any moment may see them expelled from Spain. In England and Ireland Catholics were not emancipated until 1829, and it is only grudgingly that the government allows Ireland to have a university which Catholics can safely frequent, and even there no chair of Catholic theology may be maintained with the ordinary revenues. In America everything is in a formative state and what money is available has to be used for elementary instruction, both religious and secular, of the millions whom poverty and persecution have driven out of Europe. It is very doubtful if Suárez and his great associates would have written their splendid works in such surroundings.

As the eye travels over Hurter's carefully prepared chronological chart, it catches only an occasional gleam of the old glory, when the names of the Wiceburgenses, Zaccaria, Mai, Muzzarelli, Arévalo and Morcelli make their appearance in the late sixties of the nineteenth century. But those were the days of the French Revolution and of its subsequent upheavals. The Church itself was in the same straits between 1773 and 1860, and its number of great theologians of any kind is extremely small. Thus, abstracting from the Jesuits, we find in 1773 only Flórez, the Augustinian, who wrote ecclesiastical history; in 1782 the erudite Maronite Assemani, who is classed as a moralist; in 1787 St. Alphonsus Liguori; and in 1793 the Benedictine Gerbert, who is also a moralist. The Barnabite Gerdil appears under date of 1802 as an apologist, and from that year up to 1864 there is no one to whom Hurter accords distinction in any branch of divinity. Perhaps the reason is that the century was in the full triumph of its material civilization and that men derided and despised the dogmatic teachings of religion.

A study of Hurter's "Nomenclator" is instructive. In 1774, the year after the Suppression, there are only four publications by Jesuit authors; in 1775 there are nine; and then the number begins to grow smaller. In 1780 the figure rises to ten, and it is somewhat remarkable that in 1789 and 1790, the first years of the French Revolution, seventeen writers appear. The stream then dribbles along until 1814, the year of the Restoration, when we find only one book with the letters S. J. after the name of its author. The next year there is none.

The Jesuit who illumines the darkness of that period is Thaddeus Nogarola, whom Hurter describes as "a member of the most noble family of Verona." He was born on 24 December, 1729. Consequently he was eighty-five years of age at the time of the Restoration. He wrote on sanctifying grace; and in 1800 he and another Jesuit had a fierce theological battle on the subject of attrition, in which he defended his position with excessive vehemence. In 1806 he had issued his great treatise against Gallicanism. His doughty antagonist re-entered the Society in 1816. He had expressed himself very vigorously on the subject of the Napoleonic oath in France and his books were prohibited in the Cisalpine Republic.

In 1816 four books were published; but the number continues small and 1823 is credited with none. In 1824, there were two publications, one of them by Arévalo, the eminent patrologist, who composed the hymns and lessons of the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians. It is a very sad list from 1826 to 1862, with its succession of ones and zeros. Only three names of any note appear: Kohlmann in 1836, Loriquet in 1845, and de Ravignan in 1858. That period of almost forty years had seen the revolutions of 1830 and 1848, and there was no stability for any Jesuit establishment. Finally, however, in 1862 came Pianciani, Taparelli and Bresciani; and in 1865 and 1866 Tongiorgi and Gury, respectively. It was only then that the Society was able to begin its theological work after its redintegration. The space is not great between 1862 and the present time, but since then there have been Perrone and the great Bollandist and theologian, Victor de Buck, who appeared in 1876; Edmund O'Reilly in 1878; Ballerini and Patrizi in 1881; Kleutgen in 1883; and in 1886 Cardinals Franzelin and Mazzella.

During that period there was no end of confiscations and expulsions, even of those who were not engaged in educational work. Thus the German Jesuits acquired the old Benedictine Monastery of Maria-Laach in 1863 on the southwest bank of a fine lake near Andernach in the Rhineland. There they organized a course of studies for the scholastics as well as a college of writers. Among them were the learned Schneeman, Riess and others who began the great work of the church Councils and the "Philosophia Lacensis," besides publishing the Jesuit "Stimmen." How long were they there? Only ten years. The Kulturkampf banished them from their native land and they had to continue their labors in exile. This has been the story of the Society in almost every European country and in the Spanish Republics of South America and Mexico. In spite of all this, however, Hurter's chart shows that from 1773 to 1894 there have been no less than four hundred Jesuit theologians who published works in defense of the doctrines of the Church, and some of them have achieved prominence.

In philosophy, for instance, there was Taparelli who died in 1863. He was the first rector of the Roman College, when it was given back to the Society by Leo XII. He taught philosophy for fifteen years at Palermo, and in 1840 issued his great work which he called "A Theoretical Essay on Natural Rights from an historical standpoint." It reached the seventh edition in 1883 and was translated into French and German. Next in importance is his "Esame critico degli ordini rappresentativi nella società moderna." Besides his striking monographs on "Nationality," "Sovereignty of the People," "The Grounds of War," he wrote a great number of articles in the "Civiltà" on matters of political economy and social rights. His first great work was in a way the beginning of modern sociology. Palmieri issued his "Institutiones Philosophiæ" in 1874, and at the very outset won the reputation of a great thinker, even from those who were at variance with his conclusions and mode of thought.

In the same branch Liberatore was for a long time preëminent, and his "Institutiones" and "Composito humano" went through eleven editions. Cornoldi's "Filosofia scolastica specolativa" was also a notable production. Lehmen's "Lehrbuch" reached the third edition before his death in 1910. Boedder is well-known to English speaking people because of his many works written during his professorship at St. Beuno's in Wales. Cathrein's "Socialism" has been translated into nine different languages, and his "Moral Philosophy" has enjoyed great popularity. Pesch's position is established; his last work, "Christliche Lebens-philosophie," reached its fourth edition within four years. Kleutgen who is perhaps the best known of these German Jesuits, was called by Leo XIII "the prince of philosophers" and is regarded as the restorer of Catholic philosophy throughout Germany. In Spain, Father Cuevas has written a "Cursus completus philosophiæ" and a "History of Philosophy." Mendive's "Text-book of Philosophy" in Spanish is used in several universities, but the writer who dominated all the rest in that country is admittedly Urráburu, who died prematurely in 1904. His "Cursus philosophiæ scholasticæ," brings up the memory of the famous old philosophers of earlier ages.

It is not only edifying but inspiring to hear that the Venerable Father de Clorivière occupied himself while in prison in the Temple at Paris during the Revolution in writing commentaries on the Sacred Scriptures. He was over seventy years of age and was expecting to be summoned to the guillotine at any moment, but he had plenty of time to write, for his imprisonment lasted five years. Sommervogel credits him with commentaries on "The Canticle of Canticles," "The Epistles of St. Peter," "The Discourse at the Last Supper," "The Animals of Ezechiel," "The Two Seraphim of Isaias," besides Constitutions for the religious orders he had founded, lives of the saints, novenas, and religious poems. He also translated "Paradise Lost" into French. Evidently the commentary written in a prison cell cannot have measured up to the scientific exegesis of the present day, but perhaps for that reason it reached the soul more readily. In any case, the Scriptural students of the modern Society made an excellent start with a saint and a virtual martyr.

Francis Xavier Patrizi distinguished himself as an exegete. He was one of the first to enter the Society after the Restoration, and was so esteemed for his virtue and ability that he came very near being elected General of the Society. His first publication on "The Interpretation of the Holy Scriptures" appeared in 1844. He translated the Psalms word for word from the Hebrew. His works are packed with erudition, of scrupulous accuracy in their citations, and of most sedulous care in defending the Sacred Text against the Protestants of the early days of the nineteenth century. The "Cursus Scripturæ" of the Fathers of Maria-Laach: Cornely, Knabenbauer, Hummelauer, and others, is a monument of erudition and labor and is without doubt the most splendid triumph of exegesis in the present century.

In 1901, the Sovereign Pontiff appointed and approved a Biblical Commission for the proper interpretation and defense of Holy Scripture. It consists of five cardinals and forty-three consultors. Among the distinguished men chosen for this work we find Fathers Cornely, Delattre, Gismondi, von Hummelauer, Méchineau, and Prat. One of the duties with which the commission was charged was the establishment of a special institute for the prosecution of higher Biblical Studies. In 1910 Father Fonck, its first rector, began the series of public conferences which was one of the assigned works of the Institute. It publishes the "Biblical Annals." The French Fathers in Syria are very valuable adjuncts to this institute, because of their knowledge of Oriental languages. One of them, Father Lammens, was for years the editor of "Bachir," an Arabic periodical.

When Father John Carroll went to England to be consecrated Bishop of Baltimore, he probably met at Lulworth Castle, where the ceremony took place, a French Jesuit of the old Society who had found shelter with the Weld family during the Revolution and was acting as their chaplain. He was Father Grou, a man of saintly life. It was while he was in England that he wrote "La Science de crucifix" the "Caractère de la vraie dévotion," "Maximes spirituelles," "Méditation sur l'amour de Dieu," "L'intérieur de Jésus et de Marie," "Manuel des âmes intérieures," "Le livre du jeune homme." These works were frequently reprinted and translated.

It is very interesting to find that, before the expulsion from France, Father Grou had been an ardent student of Plato and had even published eight books about the great philosopher. He also wrote an answer to La Chalotais' attack on the Society. Sommervogel mentions another book written by him in conjunction with Father du Rocher. It is entitled "Temps Fabuleux," an historical and dogmatic treatise on the true religion.

Among the other noted ascetical writers were Vigitello, author of "La Sapienza del cristiano," Mislei, who wrote "Grandezze di Gesù Cristo" and "Gesù Cristo e il Cristiano," Hillegeer, Dufau, Verbeke, Vercruysse, de Doss, Petit, Meschler, Schneider and Chaignon, whose "Nouveau cours de méditations sacerdotales" has gone through numberless editions; Watrigant has made extensive studies on the "Exercises;" Ramière's "Apostolat de la Prière" made the circuit of the world and gave the first impulse to the League of the Sacred Heart. Coleridge's "Life of Our Lord," consisting of thirty volumes, is a mine of thought and especially valuable for directors of religious communities.

In 1874 Father Camillo Tarquini was raised to the cardinalate for his ability as a canonist. His dissertation on the Regium placet exequatur made him an international celebrity. With him high in the ranks of canonists are Father General Wernz, Laurentius, Hilgers, Beringer, Oswald, Sanguinetti, Ojetti, Vermeersch, and the present Assistant General Father Fine.

Stephen Anthony Morcelli, who is eminent as a historian and is regarded as the founder of epigraphy, was born in Trent, in the year 1737. He made his studies in the Roman College, and there founded an academy of archæology. At the Suppression he became the librarian of Cardinal Albani. He re-entered the restored Society. He was then eighty-four years of age. He had no superior as a Latin stylist. His "Calendar of the Church of Constantinople," covering a thousand years, his "Readings of the Four Gospels" according to various codices, and his notes on "Africa Christiana" are of great value.

Possibly the Portuguese Francis Macedo might be admitted to this list of famous authors. It is true that he left the Society but as he had been a member for twenty-eight years it deserves some credit for the cultivation of his remarkable abilities. Maynard calls him the prodigy of his age. Thus at Venice in 1667 Macedo held a public disputation on nearly every branch of human knowledge, especially the Bible, theology, patrology, history, literature and poetry. In his quaint and extravagant style he called this display the literary roarings of the Lion of St. Mark. It had been prepared in eight days. On account of his success, Venice gave him the freedom of the city and the professorship of moral philosophy at the University of Padua. In his "Myrothecium morale" he tells us that he has pronounced three hundred and fifty panegyrics, sixty Latin harangues, thirty-two funeral orations, and had composed one hundred and twenty-three elegies, one hundred and fifteen epitaphs, two hundred and twelve dedicatory epistles, two thousand and six hundred heroic poems, one hundred and ten odes, four Latin comedies, two tragedies and satires in Spanish, besides a number of treatises on theology such as "The Doctrines of St. Thomas and Scotus," "Positive theology for the refutation of heretics," "The Keys of Peter," "The Pontifical Authority," "Medulla of Ecclesiastical History," and the "Refutation of Jansenism." The Society made him great but failed to teach him humility.

In most theological libraries which are even moderately equipped one sees long lines of books on which the name of Muzzarelli appears. They are of different kinds; ascetical, devotional, educational, philosophical and theological, and many of them have been translated into various languages. He belonged to the old Society, entering it only four years before the suppression. He was then twenty-four years of age. As he was of a noble family of Ferrara, he held a benefice in his native city at the time of his banishment, and a little later, the Duke of Parma made him rector of the College of Nobles. Pius VII called him to Rome and made him theologian of the Penitentiaria, which meant that he was the Pope's theologian. When the Society was re-established in Naples, he asked permission to join his brethren there, but the Pope refused. It was just as well, for Napoleon's troops soon closed the establishment. When Pius VII was carried off a prisoner in 1809, Muzzarelli was also deported. He never returned to Rome, but died in Paris one year before the Restoration of the Society. He was not however forgotten in his native city, which regarded him as one of its glories. Among his works were several of an ascetic character such as "The Sacred Heart," "The Month of Mary," and also a "Life of St. Francis Hieronymo."

There were also a few modern Jesuits who were conspicuous in moral theology. First, in point of time was Jean-Pierre Gury, who was born in Mailleroncourt on January 23, 1801. He taught theology for thirty-five years at Annecy and at the Roman College. He died on April 18, 1866. His work was adopted as a text-book in a number of seminaries, because of its brevity, honesty and solidity. It is true that his brevity impaired his accuracy at times, as well as the scientific presentation of questions, but his successors such as Seitz, Cercia, Melandri and Ballerini filled up the gaps by the help of the decisions of the Congregations and the more recent pronouncements of the Holy See. Besides his "Moral Theology" he also published his "Casus conscientiæ." That made him the typical "Jesuit Casuist," and drew on him all the traditional hatred of Protestant polemicists, especially in Germany. His work did much to extirpate what was left of Jansenism in Europe.

Antonio Ballerini held the chair of moral theology in the Roman College from 1856 until his death in 1881. In the cautious words of Hurter he was "almost the prince of moralists of our times." Besides his "Principi della scuola Rosminiana" he wrote his remarkable "Sylloge monumentorum ad mysterium Immaculatæ Conceptionis illustrandum," and in 1863 issued his "De morali systemate S. Alphonsi M. de Ligorio." In 1866 appeared his "Compendium theologiæ moralis." The style was somewhat acrid, and sharp, especially in the controversy it provoked with the out-and-out defenders of St. Alphonsus. His annotations were a mine of erudition and revealed at the same time a very unusual intellectual sagacity and correctness of judgment. His book, on the whole, exercised a great influence in promoting solid theological study; and its denunciation of the frivolous reasons on which many opinions were based and the unreliableness of many quotations decided the tone of subsequent works by other authors. Following Ballerini were other Jesuits such as Lehmkuhl, Sabbetti, Noldin, Genicot and Palmieri, who won fame as moralists.

Palmieri was not only a theologian, a moralist and a philosopher, but an exegete. He taught Scripture and the Oriental languages in Maastricht for seven years, and in 1886, published a Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians and another on the historicity of the Book of Judith. He was among the first to sound the alarm about Loisy's heterodoxy and he wrote several books against the Modernistic errors. His reputation rests chiefly on his dogmatic theology; every two years, from 1902, he issued treatises that immediately attracted attention for their brilliant originality and exhaustive learning. He died in Rome on May 29, 1909. "This superlatively sagacious man," says Hurter, "blended Gury and the super-abundant commentaries of Ballerini into one continuous text, injecting, of course, his own personal views into his seven great volumes, with the result that it is a positive pleasure to read him." The wonderful theological acumen manifested in this, as in his other works apparently restored him to favor with Leo XIII, who disliked some of his philosophical speculations. Hence, when Father Steinhüber was made cardinal, Palmieri was appointed to succeed him as theologian of the Penitentiaria.

Besides all this, Palmieri gave a delightful revelation of his affectionate character as a devoted son, when he wrote, at the request of his mother, a Commentary of Dante. Ojetti says that "he brought all the profundity of his philosophy and theology to his task and produced a work which astonished those who were able to appreciate the depth of the thought and the scientific erudition employed in the exposition of each individual canto."