superstitious practices which made the popular religion little better than gross fetichism. So-called “miraculous” images were commonly paraded through the streets; innumerable statues and sacred relics were exposed to the gaze of crowds of the faithful; the patronage of the saints was assiduously solicited. Among the educated there was a widespread conviction that the piety of the people was ignorant and that their trustful attitude made them the prey of many impostors.
The degree of power to which the representatives of the Society of Jesus had been able to attain in Bavaria was all but absolute.[1] Members of the order were the confessors and preceptors of the electors; hence they had a direct influence upon the policies of government. The censorship of religion had fallen into their eager hands, to the extent that some of the parishes even were compelled to recognize their authority and power. To exterminate all Protestant influence and to render the Catholic establishment complete, they had taken possession of the instruments of public education. It was by Jesuits that the majority of the Bavarian colleges were founded, and by them they were controlled. By them also the secondary schools of the country were conducted.[2]
The prevailing type of education in Bavaria had little more to commend it than the popular type of religion.[3]
- ↑ Forestier, op. cit., p. 108: “Dans aucun pays du monde, si l'on excepte le Paraguay, les fils de Loyola n’avaient obtenu une victoire plus complète, ni conquis une autorité plus grande.” Cf. Mounier, De l’influence attribuée aux Philosophes aux franc-maçons et aux illuminés sur la révolution de France, p. 189.
- ↑ Ibid., pp. 109, 100. Duhr, B., Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Ländern deutscher Zunge im 16. Jahrhundert, Freiburg, 1907, discusses the earlier development. The work of F. J. Lipowsky, Geschichte der Jesuiten in Baiern, München, 1816, 2 vols., is antiquated and is little more than a chronicle.
- ↑ Engel, Geschichte des Illuminaten-Ordens, p. 29.
