SOCIETY
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SOCIETY
fessed priests. All had therefore to be professed of
three vows, until Gregory XIII (December, 1572)
allowed the original practice to be restored. Under
his administration the foreign missionary work of the
order greatly increased and prospered. New mis-
sions were opened by the Society in Florida, Mexico,
and Peru.
(41 Everard Mercurian, Belgian, 23 April, 1573-1 August, 1580. Fr. Mercurian was born in 1514 in the village of Marcour (Luxemburg), whence his name, which he signed Everard de Marcour. He became the first non-Spanish general of the Society. Pope Gregory XIII, without commanding, had expressed his desire for this change. This, however, caused great dissatisfaction and (i]iiiosi(ion .among a number of Spanish and Portuguese nicmlicrs, which came to a crisis during the generalate of Father Mercurian's successor. Fat her Claudius Acquaviva. Fat her Tolet was entrusted with the task of obtaining the submis- sion of Michael Baius to the decision of the Holy See; he succeeded, but his success served later to draw on the Society the hatred of the Jansenists. Father Mer- curian, when general, brought the Rules to their final form, compiUng the "Summary of the Con.stitutions" from the manuscripts of St. Ignatius, and drawing up the "Common Rules" of the Society, and the particu- lar rules for each office. He was greatly interested in the foreign missions and established the Maronite and English missions, and sent to the latter Blessed Ed- mund Campion and Father Robert Persons. Father Everard Mercurian passed thirty-two years in the Society, and died at the age of sixty-six. At that time the Society numbered 5000 members in eighteen provinces.
(5) Claudius Acquaviva, or Aquaviva (q. v.), Neapolitan, 19 February, 1581-31 January, 1615 (for the disputations on grace, see Congregatio DE AuxiLiis). After Ignatius, Acquaviva was per- haps the ablest ruler of the Society. As a legislator he reduced to its present form the final parts of the Institute, and the Ratio Studiorum (q. v.). He had also to contend with extraordinary obstacles both from without and within. The Society was banished from France and from Venice; there were grave differ- ences with the King of Spain, with Sixtus V, with the Dominican theologians; and within the Society the rivalry between Spaniard and Italian led to unusual complications and to the calling of two extraordinary general congregations (fifth and sixth). The origin of these troubles is perhaps eventually to be sought in the long wars of religion, which grad- ually died down after the canonical absolution of Henry IV, 1595 (in which Fathers Georges, Toledo, and Possevinus played important parts). The fifth congregation in 1593 supported Acquaviva steadily against the oppo.sing parties, and the .sixth, in 1608, completed the union of opinions. Paul V had in 1(50(5 re-confirmed the Institute, which from now onwards may be considered to have won a stable position in the Church at large, until the epoch of the Suppres- sion and the Revolution. Missions were established in Canada, Chile, Paraguay, the Phihppine Islands, and China. At Father Acquaviva's death the Society num- bered 13,112 members in 32 provinces and 559 houses.
(6) Mutius Vilelleschi (q. v.), Roman, 15 Novem- ber, 1615-9 February, 1645. His generalate was one of the most pacific and progressive, especially in France and Spain; but the Thirty Years' War worked havoc in Germany. The canonization of Sts. Ignatius and Francis Xavier (1622) and the first centenary of the Society (1640) were celebrated with great rejoicings. The great mi.ssion of Paraguay began, that of Japan was stamped out in blood. England was raised in 1619 to the rank of a province of the order, having been a mission until then. Mis- sions were eslabhshed in Tibet (1624), Tonkin (1627), and the Maranliao (1640).
(7) Vincent Caraffa (q. v.), Neapolitan, 7 January,
164&|-8 June, 1649. A few days before Father Ca-
raffa's election as general, Pope Innocent X published
a brief "Prospero fehcique statui", in which he
ordered a general congregation of the Society to be
held every nine years; it was ordained also that no
olBce in the Society except the position of master of
novices should be held for more than three years.
The latter regulation was revoked by Innocent's suc-
cessor, Alexander VII, on 1 January, 1658; and the
former by Benedict XIV in 1746 by the Bull "Devo-
tam", many dispensations having been granted in
the meantime.
(8) Francis Piccoloinini, of Siena, 21 December, 1649-17 June, 1651; before his election as general he had been professor of philosophy at the Roman College; he died at the age of sixty-nine, having passed fifty-three years in the Society.
(9) Aloysius Goitifredi, Roman, 21 January, 1652- 12 March, 1652; Father Gottifredi died at the house of the professed Fathers, Rome, within two months after his election, and before the Fathers assembled for the election and congreg.ation had concluded their labour. He had been a professor of theology and rector of the Roman College, and later secretary of the Society under Father Mutius Vitelleschi.
(10) Goswin Nickel, German, b. at Jiilich in 1582; 17 March, 1652-31 July, 1664. During these years the struggle with Jansenism was growing more and more heated. The great controversy on the Chinese Rites (1645) was continued (see Ricci, Matteo). Owing to his great age Father Nickel obtained from the eleventh congregation the appointment of Father John Paul Oliva as vicar-general (on 7 June, 1661), with the approval of Alexander VII.
(11) John Paul Oliva, Genoese (elected vicar cvm jure successionis on 7 June, 1661), 31 July, 1664-26 November, 1681. During his generalate the Society established a mission in Persia, which at first met with great success, four hundred thousand converts being made within twenty-five years; in 1736, however, the mission was destroyed by violent persecution. Father Oliva's generalate occurred during one of the most difficult periods in the history of the Society, as the controversies on Jansenism, the droit de regale, and moral theology were being carried on by the opponents of the Society with the greatest acrimony and violence. Father John Paul Oliva laboured earnestly to keep up the Society's high reputation for learning, and in a circular letter sent to all the houses of study urged the cultivation of the oriental lan- guages.
(12) Charles de Noyelle, Belgian, 5 July, 1682-12 December, 1686. Father de Noyelle was born at Brussels on 28 July, 1615; so great was his reputation for virtue and prudence that at his election he received unanimous vote of the congregation. He had been assistant for the Germanic provinces during more than twenty years; he died at the age of seventy, after fifty years spent in the Society. Just about the time of his election, the dispute between Louis XIV of France and Pope Innocent XI had culminated in the publication of the "Declaration du clerge de France" (19 March, 1682). This placed the Society in a diffi- cult position in France, as its spirit of devotion to the papacy was not in harmony with the spirit of the "Declaration". It required all the ingenuity and ability of Pere La Chaise and Father de Noyelle to avert a disaster. Innocent XI wa.s dissatisfied with the position the Society adopted, and threatened to suppress the order, proceeding even so far as to for- bid the reception of novices.
(13) Thyrsus Gonzalez (q. v.), Spaniard, 6 July, 1687-27 Oct., 1705. He interfen>d in the contro- versy between Probabilism (q. v.) and Probabilior- ism, attacking the former dnetrine with energy in a book published at DiUingcn in 1691. As Probabilism
