SOCIETY
87
SOCIETY
a decree of perpetual banishment against them. In
effect, though peace was made ere long with the pope,
it was fifty years before the Society could return.
Italy during the first two centuries of the Society
was still the most cultured country of Europe, and the
Italian Jesuits enjoj-ed a high reputation for learn-
ing and letters. The elder Segneri is considered the
first of Italian preachers, and there are a number of
others of the first class. MafTei, Tor.sellino, Strada,
Pallavicino, and Bartoli(q.v.) have left historical works
which are still highly prized. Between Bellarniine
(d. U>21) and Zaccharia (d. 1795) Italian Jesuits of
note in theology, controversy, and subsidiary sciences
are reckoned by the score. They also claim a large
proportion of the saints, martyrs, generals, and mis-
sionaries. (See also Bellecius; Bolgeni; Bosco-
vich; Possevinds; Scaramelli; Viva.) Italy was
divided into five provinces, with the following figures
for the year 1749 (.shortly before the beginning of the
movement for the Suppression of the Society) : Rome,
848; Naples, 667; Sicily, 775; Venice, 707; Milan,
625; total, 3622 members, about one-half of whom
were priests, with 178 houses.
Spain. — Though the majority of Ignatius's com- panions were Span- iards, he did not gather t hem t oget her in Spain, and the first Jesuits paid only passing visits there In 1.544, however, Father Araoz, cousin of St. Ignatius ami a very eloquent preacher, came willi six companions, and then their succes> was rapid. On 1 September, 1547, Ig- natius established the provinceof Spain with seven houses and about forty re- ligious; St. Francis Borgia joined in 1548; in 1550 Lainez accompanied the Spanish troops in their African cam- paign. With rapid
success came unexpected opposition. Melchoir Cano, O.P., a theologian of European reputation, attacked the young order, which could make no effective reply, nor coidd anyone get the professor to keep the peace. But, very unpleasant as the trial was, it eventually brought advantage to the order, as it advertized it well m university circles, and moreover drew out de- fenders of unexpected efficiency, as Juan de la Pena of the Dominicans, and even their general, Fra Fran- cisco Romeo. The Jesuits continued to prosper, and Ignatius subdivided (29 September, 1554) the existing province into three, containing twelve houses and 1.39 religious. Yet there were internal troubles both here and in Portugal under Simon Rodriguez, which gave the founder anxieties. In both countries the first houses had been established before the Con- stitutions and rules were committed to writing. It was inevitable therefore that the discipline intro- duced by Araoz and Rodriguez should have differed somewhat from that which was being introduced by Ignatius at Rome. In Spain, the good offices of Borgia and the visits of Father Nadal did much to effert a gradual unification of s)-stem, though not without difficulty. These troubles, however, affected the higher ofllcials of the order rather than the rank and file, who were animated by the highest motives. The great preacher Ramirez is said to have attracted
500 vocations to religious orders at Salamanca in
the year 1564, about fift3' of them to the Society.
There were 300 Spanish Jesuits at th<' death of Igna-
tius in 1556; and 1200 at the clo.se of Borgia's gcner-
alate in 1572. Under the non-Spanish generals who
followed there was an unpleasant recrudescence of
the nationalistic spirit. Considering the quarrels
which daily arose between Spain and other nations,
there can be no wonder at such ebidlitions. As has
been explained under Acquaviva, Philip of Spain lent
his aid to the discontented parties, of whom the vir-
tuous Jos6 de Acosta was the spokesman. Fathers
Herndndez, Dionysius Vdsquez, Henriquez, and Mari-
ana the real leaders. Their ulterior object was to
procure a separate commissary-general for Spain.
This trouble was not quieted till the fifth congrega-
tion, 1593, after which ensued the great debates de
auxiliis with the Dominicans, the protagonists on
both sides being Spaniards. (See Congregatio de
Auxiliis; Grace, Controversies on.)
Serious as these troubles were in their own sphere, they must not be allowed to obscure the fact that in the Society, as in aU Catholic organizations of that day, Spaniards played the greatest roles. When we enumerate their great men and their great works, they defy all comparison. This consideration gains further force when we remember that the success of Ihr Jesuits in Flan- ders :[n<l in the parts of Italy then united with the Spanish crown was largely due to Spanish Jes- uits; and the same is true of the Jesuits in Portugal, which country with its far- stretching colonies was also under the Spanish Crown from l.')M to KVfO, though neither the organiza- tion of the Portu- guese Jesuits nor the civil government of the country itself was amalgamated with those of Spain. But it was in the more abstract sciences that the Spanish genius shone with its greatest lustre; Toledo (d. 1596), Molina (1600), de Valentia (1603), Vdsquez (1604), Sudrez (1617),Ripalda (1648), de Lugo (1660) (qq. V.) — these form a group of unsurpas.sed brilliance, and there are quite a number of others almost equally remarkable. In moral theology, Sdnchez (1610), Azor (1603), Salas (1612), Castro Palao (1633), Torres (Turrianus, 1635), Escobar y Mendoza (1669). In Scripture, Maldonado (1583), Salnier6n (1.585), Fran- cisco Ribera (1591), Prado (1595), Percira (1610), Sancio (1628), Pineda (1637). In secular literature mention may be made especially of de Isla (q. v.), and Balta.sar Gracidn (1.584-1658), author of the "Art of Worldly Wisdom" (El ordculo) and "El criticon", which seems to have suggested the idea of "Robinson Crusoe" to Defoe.
Following the almost universal custom of the later seventeenth century, the kings of Sjiain generally had Jesuit confessors; but their attempts at reform were too often rendered ineffective by court in- trigues. This was especially the c;i,se with the Austrian, Father, later Cardinal, Everard Nidhard (confes.sor of Maria Anna of Austria), and P6re Daubenton, confessor of Philip V. After the era of the great writers, the chief glory of the Spanish
