The storm-troopers of the counter reformation. Is this an accurate description of the Jesuits?

However due to this corrupt act of selling indulgences it caused a division in the church, Luther posted his 95 theses as a response to this corruption. This was the beginning of the Protestant reformation, this movement tried to address the problems that had been practiced in the church over the last thousand years. The Lutherans however were a moderate movement compared to the Calvinist movement that began in Geneva. These movements took a lot of followers away from the traditional Catholic Church and curbed the power, which it use to hold over Europe. The religious wars of Europe now began as Princes and Kings declared their religions, many of which were trying to gain power by subverting the traditional rulers.

As a response to the wars that broke out and an effort was made to regain Protestant followers and convert them back to the Catholic Church. The Papacy established many councils to address the internal problems of the church and to establish a firm position against the Protestant reformers. ‘The picture painted has been one of a largely political movement that was a reaction to the actions of Luther, Calvin and their supporters’. This was a campaign of many councils; theses include the Council of Trent and the Lateran Councils, which only managed to reaffirm the churches stern opposition against the Protestants.

Conversely Catholicism was seeing a strong religious resurgence among the common follower. The most important of these revivals in spiritual life is the Society of Jesus. This was not a reactive response to the problems that the Protestants had caused the church but was a spiritual embracement that was established separately from the counter reforms the church was pursuing at the time. Ignatius Loyola was the creator of the Society of Jesus and he established a group that was based on his strong will, determination and the military discipline he had been indoctrinated with in the army. The description of the Jesuits as Storm troopers is than somewhat accurate. The initial Jesuit movement, unlike the Counter Reformation, was a movement of Spiritual enlightenment and Christian embracement.

Loyola was from a minor aristocratic family, as a child he obtained many of qualities that would make him a great leader. He was certain to become a soldier in the Spanish soldier in the army but he had epiphany in 1521 after he was wounded in battle. ‘In a series of deeply religious experiences resulting from a detailed thinking and ‘feeling’ through of the life and sufferings of Jesus, he became convinced that God wished him to dedicate his life to helping others to acquire a similar spirituality’

However Ignatius first aim was not targeted at the new Protestant movement but at Islam. Loyola believed it was his duty to convert the Muslim population of the Holy land. He believed that the land where Jesus was from should be re-Christianized. Ignatius failed and returned to Europe to educate himself further. While he was educating himself Loyola picked up several followers, when Loyola thought he was ready to return to the Holy Land he and his supporters embarked to Venice until it was politically safe to the Holy Land. But within a year the men had resigned to the fact that they could not make it to the Holy Land. Nonetheless their time in Venice was not wasted they had gained a reputation as being great and noble men due to their humane acts towards the unfortunate of the city. The group of ten men then made their way to Rome where they would personally offer their services to the Pope.

‘Paul III agreed to their establishment as the Society of Jesus in 1540. What was envisaged by Paul was a small brotherhood of up to 60 men who would carry out charitable works wherever and however he directed them. It was not imagined that this new organization would be more than very limited local significance’.

It is this writer’s belief that the dedication in which the Jesuits showed to the Pope is how they got involved in the Counter Reformation. The Jesuits had pledged their alliance to the Pope and the military like structure Loyola had implemented on the Jesuits meant that the Pope had a dominance over the Society of Jesus. Also the Jesuits firm belief in compliance, due its military structure, means they would definitely oppose the individuality preached by the Protestants.

The Jesuits influence in the new European religious-political field was almost instant. ‘One of the features that marked out the Society of Jesus from many similar groups that emerge in Catholic communities during the first half of the sixteenth century was its powerful strategy of wining support’.  This method was base on Loyola’s spiritual exercises and dealing with people on a single client basis. This form of regaining support was highly controversial, it was very flexible spiritual activity that was based on Loyola’s own experiences, however many of the Protestants attack this act and considered it to be a form of brainwashing. Loyola however managed to regain many of the converted Catholics back and even expanded Catholicism to other regions.

Another strategy of support the Jesuits pursued was an active involvement in the surrounding community; they had abandoned the old monastic ways of the church. This form of activity was instilled into the Society’s programme of induction. It is this writer’s belief this is what made the Jesuits so adaptable, they had a firm grasp on the surrounding events of their community. Therefore unlike the monastic movements of the last 500 years was able to dissect the problems that the church faced in those regions.

‘Already by the 1560s the Jesuits considered themselves, and were widely considered by others, the elite of the reform movement, the shock troops of a revived Catholicism’. They were a movement of highly educated and spiritually resilient priesthood. They were prepared to go wherever the pope instructed them to go and they willing to adept to any circumstances so they could get their message across. This was due to Society realistic approach to focus on any task and it readiness to acclimatize to harsh conditions. This however was attack by many the Society’s enemies as a vermin like tactic to a spiritual process and therefore indecent.

On the other hand it wasn’t the societies success at galvanize support in Europe but their many pilgrimages across the ever expanding world that gained them much respect. The Jesuit pilgrimages were very ardent attempts of gaining new support for Catholicism. The reason they were more successful than its opponents to gain more followers was once again its adaptability and its flexibility. The pilgrimages were followed in the example of Francis Xavier, one of Loyola’s initial followers. He followed in the Jesuit ideal to live life as a closely as possible to Jesus, he had no self-regard for his own well-being and was deeply involved in the communities he traveled to. His activities abroad only managed to strengthen support in Europe for the Jesuits; this is why his pilgrimages were so important. Also missionary acts and educational activities were the two most consuming pursuits of the Society during the Reformation.

‘During the first 50 years of its existence the Society provided much of the manpower used by the papacy to reverse the spread of Protestantism’. They managed to stem much of the spread of Calvinism in France and make themselves a strong presence in the Netherlands. However the strongest effects of the Jesuits were to be felt in Germany, the main region for Religious wars. Peter Canisius was the most influential of all the Jesuits in Germany.

Canisius pursued several policies that he hoped would curb the problem of Protestantism in Germany. Canisius realized that if a leader denounced Catholicism that the whole region would probably follow suit, Canisius therefore sent many Jesuits to advise the Princes in spiritual and political problems. Canisius’s major success was Ferdinand of Austria. Canisius made Ferdinand quite resilient against the ever-growing pressures the Princes of Germany exerted on him.

The Princes wanted the Peace of Augsburg to be readdressed and to remove the clause that the Prince had to remove himself from his position. ‘It is likely that Ferdinand would have given way to this demand as the price to be paid was gaining support against the Turks had not Canisius frequently reminded him that to do so would to be to endanger his soul’. Under Canisius’s guidance the Emperor averted several other major Protestant problems, including his own son becoming a Lutheran.

The second problem Canisius addressed in Germany was the lack of quality Priest and Parish Priests. He began a plan of educating to priests to high standard.

‘It is normally asserted by historians that the Jesuit colleges spearheaded the Counter Reformation in Germany. Certainly it was the availability of large numbers of well-trained and well-motivated priests that made it possible to capitalize on the support of leading princes, especially Habsburgs, and to bring a Catholic revival in much of southern Europe and the Rhineland’.

By 1600 the Jesuits had managed to open 40 colleges, all staffed solely by Jesuits. The German campaign was on e of the major successes of the Jesuits in the Reformation.

The reason why the Society of Jesus became such an important movement in the Counter Reformation was

‘…they proclaimed the paramount value of action…they understood the value of the practical adaptation of mean to an ends. They realized that individual efforts towards reformation would be unavailing if these were not co-ordinated and sanctioned from above; and hence, were more than any others they were instrumental in establishing the authority of the papacy on a firm basis’.