The Jesuits, even by the Catholics were loved or hated. Many people looked on them, how a modern day person would look upon an organisation like the freemasons. They were highly secretive and selective about whom they would let in. This made the ordinary laity wonders what actually went on behind the welcoming front of their organisation. Though the Jesuits seemed to be protecting Catholicism, they always seemed to have some ulterior motives. But the Jesuits did help the laity. They provided education and influenced many young men to improve themselves in order to join them, they also championed the ordinary Catholics rights within Europe and tried to stop the onslaught of Protestantism
One of the reasons the Jesuits remained so mysterious was because of the strict entry process the recruits had to go through in order to gain access to their resources and to actually become a Jesuit. The Jesuits also took part in something called Spiritual Exercises, which were made by their founder St. Ignatius Loyola. These exercises refreshed the soul and the mind, and lasted for weeks. The recruit had to pray and tone himself physically for his life as a Jesuit. By doing this the Jesuits narrowed down the amount of people who could join their order and made it a very elitist organisation
The Jesuits also had a wide reach out of Catholic Italy and also Europe. They spread across to the island of England and Scotland, when it became mainly protestant. Jesuits targeted England as a protestant country as Elizabeth the first had been Ex-communicated. The “Via Media” Her middle way was under threat, because of them. The Jesuits saw England as a great threat to the Catholic way and sent their own hidden Jesuits into the country to aid the remaining Catholics. They also journeyed to countries such as Brazil, in South America, and Countries in Asia to spread Catholicism. By doing this they were spreading their religion. There were covering all their bases. If the Protestants did manage to influence Europe at least Catholicism would still spread.
But we have to remember that the Jesuits were not the only order in existence.
The Oratory of Divine love, the Theatines and the Capuchins. Even before Luther posted his theses on the church door at Wittenberg a distinguished and aristocratic group at Rome had formed a pious brotherhood called the Oratory of Divine Love. Their guiding belief was that the reformation of the church and society begins within the individual soul. The Oratory was never large in number, perhaps 50, yet it had enormous influence. It stimulated reform in the older monastic orders and contributed leaders to the Church of Rome as it laid plans for a general council to deal with internal reform and the Protestant heresy. Among the members of the Oratory who later emerged as significant figures were Jacopo Sadoeto, who debated with Calvin; Reginald Pole, who tried under Bloody Mary to turn England back to Rome; and Gian Pietro Caraffa, who became Pope Paul IV.
The Theatines were a religious order of men, founded by Gaetano dei Conti di Tiene, Paolo Consiglieri, Bonifacio da Colle, and Giovanni Pietro Carafa, afterwards Pope Paul IV. The chief object of the order was to recall the clergy to an edifying life and the laity to the practice of virtue. The Theatines were the first to found papal missions in foreign lands, as in: Golconda, Ava, Peru, Mingrelia, the Islands of Sunda, Borneo and Sumatra. In the nineteenth century the order began to decline, and in 1860, through the well-known suppression of religious orders, it was reduced to a shadow of its former grandness and stature.
The Capuchins were founded by a humble friar who wished to establish a order which was lead by the rules of the strict Franciscan order of monks. By doing this the Capuchins were quickly established as a very strict order perhaps even more strict than the Jesuits.
The Council of Trent allowed the Jesuits to open Schools and colleges so that their influence could be spread more among the people. The college’s were often the only sources of education for the surrounding masses so the Jesuits could coin in on this and educate more young men in catholic way. Also by doing this the Council was educating their wannabe Priests in a way that was proper, and so lessoning the impact of them committing sins and breaking church laws. By doing this the Jesuits were aiding the church not conspiring against it as many people often thought they were doing.
The Popes them selves often thought that the Jesuits could be conspiring against them to gain power in the church itself. But the Popes did sometimes use them as their messengers as spreading the word across Europe and the surrounding lands. They agreed with what they did in England and Germany against the Catholics
When compared to the other new orders, the Jesuits did have a lasting effect within Europe. Their tactics as an army were successful, but obviously not everywhere as the threat of Protestantism still grew within and around Germany. England was admittedly a setback, but we have to think about if anyone could have made a real difference there with the strength of the crown at that time. They tended to blend the old style of Catholicism with a new panache that exited the potential priests e.g.: the spiritual exercises. Because of this their influence fluctuated between the decades and throughout different countries. But they would have been nothing without papal support and the council of Trent’s support in the setting up of Colleges. It is in my opinion that the council of Trent and the Order of the Jesuits both aided the Counter reformation in there own ways which aided the Catholic faith in gaining back some of the trust they had lost from their people.
