SPIRITUAL
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SPIRITUAL
Blessed Virgin in the composing of the "Exercises" at
Manresa. It is not based on any written testimony
of the contemporaries of St. Ignatius, though it be-
came universal in the seventeenth century. Possibly
it is founded upon eajher oral testimony, and upon a
revelation made in 1600 to the Venerable Marina de
Escobar, and related in the "Life of Father Balthazar
Alvarez". This tradition has often been symbolized
by painters, who represent Ignatius writing from the
Blessed Virgin's dictation.
Although Ignatius had been educated just like the ordinary knights of his time, he was fond of cali- graphy and still more of reading; his convalescence at Loyola enabled him to gratify this double inclina- tion. We know that he nTOte there, in different col- oured inks, a quarto book of 300 foUos in which he seems to have gathered together extracts from the only two books to be found in the castle, which were "The Flower of the Saints" in Spanish, and "The Life of Jesus Christ" by Ludolph of Saxony or the Carthusian, published in Spanish at Alcald, 1502 to 1503. "The Flower of the Saints" has left no ap- parent trace in the "Exercises", except an advice to read something similar after the second week. Lu- dolph's influence is more noticeable in expressions, ascetic principles, and methodic details. The part of the "Exercises" treating of the life of Christ, is especially indebted to him.
Ignatius, having recovered his health and deter- mined to lead a hermit's life, left Loyola for Mont- serrat and Manresa. He spent the greater part of the year 1522 in the latter town, three leagues distant from Montserrat, under the direction of his confessor, Dom John Chanones. According to a witness in the process of canonization Ignatius went to see Chanones every Saturday. He could moreover have met him or other Benedictines at the priory of Manresa, which was dependent on Montserrat. It is possible that he received from them a copy of the "Imitation of Christ" in Spanish, for he certainly had that book at Manresa; they must have given him also the "Ejer- citatorio de la vida espiritual", of Dom Garcia de Cisneros, published at Montserrat in 1500. Riba- deneira in his letter to Fr. Gir6n thinks it very prob- able that St. Ignatius was acquainted with this Castil- ian work, that he availed himself of it for prayer and meditation, that Chanones explained different parts to him, and that the title "E.xercises" was suggested to him by the "Ejercitatorio". The Benedictines made use of this book for the conversion or edification of the pilgrims of Montserrat; in fact the tradition of the monastery relates that Chanones communicated it to his penitent. The "Exercises" borrow very httle expressly from the "Imitation of Christ". There is, however, to be noticed a general concordance of its doctrine and that of the "Exercises", and an invita- tion to read it.
Was the "Ejercitatorio" more closely followed? In trying to solve this question it is not sufficient to draw conclusions from the resemblance of the titles, or to establish a parallel with a few details; it is necessarj- above all to compare the plans and methods of the two works. Whilst the "Exercises" consider the word "week" in its metaphorical sense and give liberty to add or to omit days, the "Ejercitatorio" presents a triple series of seven meditations, one and not several for each day of the real week. The whole series of twenty-one meditations is exhausted in just three weeks, which answer to the three lives: the purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive. The author seeks only to raise the "cxercitador" gradually to the con- templative life, whereas St. Ignatius leads the exerci- tant to determine for himself the choice of a state of life amongst those most jileasing to God. The "Ejer- citatorio" does not mention anything of the founda- tion, nor of the kingdom, of the particular examina- tion, of the election, of the discernment of spirits, nor
of the rules for rightly regulating one's food and for
thinking with the Orthodox Church, nor of the three
methods of praying. Only a few counsels of Cisneros
have been adopted by St. Ignatius in the annotations
2, 4, 13, 18, 19, 20, and the additions 2, 4. Some of
Cisneros's ideas are to be found in the meditations of
the first week. The other weeks of St. Ignatius are
entirely different. The similarities are so reduced in
fact to a very small number.
But the work of Cisneros itself is only a compilation. Cisneros admits having reproduced passages from Cas- sian, Bernard, Bonaventm'e, Gerson etc.; moreover, he does not give the names of the contemporaries from whom he copied. Amongst other books Cisne- ros read and copied the "De spiritualibus ascen- sionibus" of Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen (1367-98) and the " Rosetum exercitiorum spiritualium " of John Mombaer, or Mauburnus (d. 1502), who was also indebted to Gerard. Almost all in Cisneros that pertains to the method of spiritual exercises is ex- tracted from the "Rosetum". The different ways of exercising oneself in the contemplation of the life and passion of Jesus Christ are taken from the "De spiritualibus ascensionibus". All Cisneros's borrow- ings were disclosed by Fr. Watrigant (see bibli- ography). Zutphen and Mombaer, hke Thomas h, Kempis, belonged to the Society of the Brothers of Common Life, founded towards the end of the four- teenth centurj- by Gerard de Groote and Florence Radewyns. This society caused a revival of spiritual life by the pubUcation of numerous ascetic treatises, several of which appeared under the title of "Spirit- ual Exercises". The Brothers of Common Life, or the Devoti, devoted themselves also to the reform of the clergj' and monasteries. The Benedictine Con- gregation of ValladoUd, on which Monserrat was de- pendent, had been under the influence of Lewis Barbo, who was connected with the brothers. We must therefore conclude that Ignatius may have profited by the result of Zutphen's and Mauburnus's labours whilst he read Cisneros or Ustened to Chanones's ex- planations at Manresa. Later, when he understood Latin, during his studies at the Universities of Alcali and Paris, or while travelling in Flanders he may him- self have become acquainted with the works of the Devoti. A greater analog>' is to be noticed between Zutphen and Ignatius, two practical minds, than be- tween Loyola and Cisneros.
Originality of the work. — We may therefore look upon the question of a supposed plagiarism on the part of St. Ignatius to the detriment of Cisneros, as being definitively settled. This question was raised by Dom Constantine Cajetan, or rather by some one who assumed his name, in a treatise pubUshed at Venice in 1641: "De religiosaS. Ignatii . . . per patres Benedictinos institutione . . . ". The Jesuit John Rho answered him in his "Achates" (Lyons, 1644). Both the attack and reply were put on the Index, no doubt on account of their excessive acrimony. Besides, the general a.^seinbly of the Con- gregation of Monte Cassino which met at Ravenna in 1644, by a decree dissociated itself from the ag- gressor. The quarrel was afterwards renewed on sev- eral occasions, chiefly by the heterodox, but always without success. Benedictines and Jesuits agree to acknowledge that if St. Ignatius owes amihing to Montserrat, he has retained his entire originality. Whatever may be said about the works he read and what he borrowed, his book is truly his own. A writer is never blamed for having previously searched and studied, if his own work is impressed with his per- sonality, and treats the subject from a new point of view. This has been successfully accomplished by St. Ignatius, and with all the greater merit, as he could not change anything of the traditional truths of Chris- tianity, or pretend to invent mental prayer.
Ignatius's originality appears at first sight in the
