SOCIETY
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SOCIETY
other hand they suffered a setback in the so-called
Appellant controversy (1598-1602), which French
diplomacy in Rome eventually made into an oppor-
tunity for operating against Spain. (See Blackwell;
Garnet.) The assistance of France and the influence
of the French Counter-Reformation were now on the
whole highly beneficial. But many who took refuge
at Paris became accustomed to a Galilean atmosphere,
and hence perhaps some of the regalist views about
the Oath of Allegiance and some of the excite-
ment in the debate over the jurisdiction of the Bish-
ops of Chalcedon, of which more below. The feeling
of tension continued until the missions of Pazani,
Conn, and Rosetti, 1635-41. Though the first of
these was somewhat hostile, he was recalled in 1637,
and his successors brought about a peace, too soon
to be interrupted by the Civil War, 1641-60.
Before 1606 the English Jesuits had founded houses for others, but neither they nor any other Enghsh order had yet erected houses for themselves. But during the so-called "Foundation Movement", due to many causes but especially perhaps to the stimu- lus of the Counter-Reformation (q. v.) in France, a full equipment of institutions was established in Flanders. The novitiate, begun at Louvain in 1606, was moved to Liege in 1614, and in 1622 to Watten. The house at Liege was continued as the scholasticate, and the house of third probation was at Ghent 1620. The "mission" was made in 1619 a vice-province, and on 21 January, 1623, a province, with Fr. Rich- ard Blount as first provincial; and in 1634 it was able to undertake the foreign mission of Maryland (see below) in the old Society. The English Jesuits at this -period also reached their greatest numbers. In 1621 they were 211, in 1636, 374. In the latter year their total revenue amounted to 45,086 scudi (almost £11,000). After the Civil War both members and revenue fell off very considerably. In 1649 there were only 264 members, and 23,055 scudi revenue (about £5760) ; in 1645 the revenue was only 17,405 scudi (about £4350).
Since Elizabeth's time the martyrs had been few — one only, the Ven. Edmund Arrowsmith (q. v.), in the reign of Charles I. On 26 October, 1633, had occurred "the Doleful Even-song". A congre- gation had gathered for vespers in the garrets of the French embassy in Blackfriars, when the floor gave way. Fathers Drury and Rediate with 61 (perhaps 100) of the congregation were killed. On 14 March, 1628, .seven Jesuits were seized at St. John's, Clerkenwell, with a large number of papers. These troubles, however, were light, compared with the sufferings during the Commonwealth, when the list of martyrs and confessors went up to ten. As the Jesuits depended so much on the country famiUes, they were sure to suffer severely by the war, and the college at St-Omer was nearly beggared. The old trouble about the Oath of Allegiance was revived by the Oath of Abjuration, and "the three questions" proposed by Fairfa.\, 1 August, 1647 (see White, Thomas). The representatives of the secular and regular clergy, amongst them Father Henry More, were called upon at short notice to subscribe to them. They did so, More thinking he might, "considering the reasons of the ])rcamble", which qualified the words of the oath considerably. But the provin- cial, Fr. Silesdon, recalled him from England, and he was kept out of office for over a year; a punish- ment which, even if drastic for his offence, < annot be regretted, .-IS it providentially led to his writing the history of the Eiiglisli Jesuits down to the year 1635 ("Hist, niissionis anglicanie Soc. Jesu, ab anno salutis MDLXXX", St-Omer, 1660).
With the Restoration, 1660, came a period of greater calm, followed by the worst tempest of all, Oates's plot (q. v.), when the Jesuits lost eight on the scaffold and thirteen in prison in five years, 1678-
83. Then the period of greatest prosperity under
King James II (1685-8). He gave them a college,
and a public chapel in Somerset House, made Father
Petre his almoner, and on 11 November, 1687, a
member of his Privy Council. He also chose leather
Warner as his confessor, and encouraged the preach-
ing and controversies which were carried on with no
little fruit. But this spell of prosperity lasted only a
few months; with the Revolution of 1688 the Fathers
regained their patrimony of persecution. The last
Jesuits to die in prison were Fathers Poulton and
Aylivorth (1690-1692). William Ill's repressive
legislation did not have the intended effect of exter-
minating the Cathohcs, but it did reduce them to a
proscribed and ostracized body. Thenceforward
the annals of the English Jesuits show- little that
is new or striking, though their number and works
of charity were well maintained. Most of the Fathers
in England were chaplains to gentlemen's families,
of which posts they held nearly a hundred during the
eighteenth century.
The church law under which the English Jesuits worked was to some extent special. At first indeed all was imdefined, seculars and regulars living in true happy-family style. As, however, organization devel- oped, friction between parts could not always be avoided, and legislation became necessary. By the institution of the archpriest (7 March, 1598), and bv the subsequent mixlifications of that institution (6 April, 1599; 17 August, 1601 ; and 5 October, 1602), various occasions for friction were removed, and prin- ciples of stable government were introduced. As soon as Queen Henrietta Maria seemed able to pro- tect a bishop in England, bishops of Chalcedon in parlibus infidelium were sent, in 1623 and 1625. The second of these. Dr. Richard Smith, endeavoured, without having the necessary faculty from Rome, to introduce the episcopal approbation of confessors. This led to the Brief " Britannia", 9 May, 1631, which left the faculties of regular missionaries in their pre- vious immediate dependence on the Holy See. But after the institution of vicars Apostolic in 1685, by a Decree of 9 October, 1695, regulars were obliged to obtain approbation from the bishop. There were of course many other matters that needed settlement, but the difficulties of the position in England and the distance from Rome made legislation slow and diffi- cult. In 1745 and 1748 Decrees were obtained, against which appeals were lodged; and it was not till 31 May, 1753, that the "Regulse niissionis" were laid down by Benedict XIV in the Constitution "Apostolicum ministeriuni", which regulated eccle- siastical administration until the issue of the Consti- tution "Romanos Pontifices" in 1S81. In the jear of the Suppression, 1773, the English Jesuits niun- bered 274. (See Coffin, Edward; Ckeswell: Eng- lish Confessors and Martyrs; More, Henry; Penal Laws; Persons, Robert; Petre, Sir Ed- ward; Plow den; Sabran, Louis de; Southwell; Spenser, John; Stephens, Thomas; Redford.)
Ireland. — One of the first commissions which the popes entrusted to the Society was that of acting as envoys to Ireland. Fathers Sahnerdn and Brouet managed to reach Ulster during the Lent of 1542; but the immense difficulties of the situation after Henry VHI's successes of 1541 made it impossible for them to live there in safety, much less to discharge the functions or to commence the reforms which the pope had entrusted to them. Under Queen Mary the Jesuits woukl have returned had there been men ready. There were indeed already a few Irish novices, and of these David Woulfe returned to Ireland on 20 Janu- uary, 1561, with ample Apostolic faculties. He pro- cured candidates for the sees emptied by Elizabeth, kept o|)en a grammar school for some years, and sent several novices to the order; but he was finally im- prisoned, and had to withdr?iw to the Continent. A
