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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Four hundred years ago, on December 4, 1563, the Council of Trent held its twenty-fifth and last solemn session. During eighteen difficult years it dominated the ecclesiastical affairs of Europe and its influence was felt far and wide even in the temporal order. No one in Christendom was indifferent to its proceedings, for the issues involved in this Council touched in one way or another the lives of all. In the course of the years it was supported and resisted in turn by their Catholic majesties, Charles V and Francis I, as well as by the Protestant Estates of Germany. Vituperated by Luther and Calvin and avoided by the evangelical theologians it became a wall of separation between the old and the new orders. United Christendom, which witnessed its convocation in 1545, had vanished as a reality before its closure in 1563. Assembled under trying conditions it was almost doomed to failure before it commenced; the task, which confronted this reform council, was gigantic. For it was asked to revitalize and renew the Church weighed down with the burden of the centuries. In effect, the reform, which the Fathers of this Council achieved, initiated the transformation of the medieval into the modern Church.
1. Cf. McNally, R. E., S.J., “The Council of Trent and the German Protestants,” Theological Studies 25 (1964) 1–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar for a survey of the split between Catholics and Protestants over the Council of Trent.
2. Cf. Jedin, H., “Ist das Konzil von Trient em Hindernis der Wiedervereinigung?” Ephemerides theologicae Lovanienses 38 (1962) 841–55.Google Scholar
3. Schroeder, H. J., Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent (London 1941), pp. 1–10Google Scholar. According to the bull the Council was to assemble on November 1, 1542.
4. Ibid., p. 9.
5. Jungmann, J., S.J., “Liturgisches Leben im Barock,” Liturgisches Erbe und pastorale Gegenwart (Innsbruck 1960), pp. 108–19Google Scholar, and Bouyer, L., Liturgical Piety (Notre Dame 1955), pp. 1–9.Google Scholar
6. Peters, E. A., Studies of the Spanish Mystics 1 (London 1951) 3Google Scholar. Cf. Pastor, L., The History of the Popes 12 (St. Louis 1912) 1Google Scholar, who remarked of St. Ignatius that he was a man “destined to contribute more powerfully thai any other, by the force and unequalled range of his activity, to purif y the Church and to restore by means of new conquests the balance of her recent loses.”
7. The editio princeps, containing 114 leaves including the title page, measures 6.25 inches in length by 4.25 inches in width. It bears the impress, “Romae apud Antonium Bladum XI Sept. MDXLVIII.”
8. Ignatius' realization of the effective transformation of the cave-experience is intimated in his bewildering question: “What new kind of life is this upon which I am entering?” Cf. Acta Patris Ignatii 3, 21, Fontes Narrativi de S. Ignatio de Loyola 1, ed. Zapico, D. F. S.J. et al. , Monumenta Ignatiana 1, ser. 4 (Rome 1943) 393Google Scholar. Hereinafter cited as Acta Patris Ignatii.
9. Cf. on the genesis of the Exercises de la Boullaye, H. Pinard S.J., Les étapes de rédaction des Exercises de S. Ignace (Paris 1955).Google Scholar
10. Acta Patris Ignatii 2, 18, p. 389.
11. Cf. Brodrick, J., S.J., The Origin of the Jesuits (London 1940), p. 20Google Scholar: “The originality of the Exercises lies in the fact that … the book is not so much a book as the condensed, the suffered experience of a most noble heart that had wrestled with God and won emancipation at tremendous cost.”
12. Note the rubric in the Rules for Electtion: “Directions for the amendment and reformation of one's way of living in his state of life.” Cf. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, tr., Puhl, L. J., S.J. (Westminster 1957), p. 78Google Scholar. Hereinafter cited as Spiritual Exercises.
13. Ibid., p. 1.
14. Bremond, H., A Literary History of Religious Thought in France 3 (London 1936) 17Google Scholar, names Pierre de Bérulle (d. 1629) the father of theocentrism. For Bremond Ignatius was anthropocentric. But cf. on “the modem simplicist tendency to label schools of spirituality” in these terms Lawlor, F. X., S.J., “The Doctrine of Grace in the Spiritual Exercises,” Theological Studies 3 (1942) 520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15. Spiritual Exercises, p. 43.
16. Ibid., p. 44.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid., p. 61: “Consider how the Lord of all the world chooses so many persons, apostles, disciples, etc., and sends them throughout the whole world to spread His sacred doctrine among all men, no matter what their state or condition.”
19. Cf. n. 14 supra.
20. Cf. H. Bremond, op. cit., 3, 47, 60, 61, 336.
21. Cf. on the literary antecedents of the Exercises Watrigant, E. S.J., La Genèse des Exercises de saint Ignace de Loyola (Amiens 1907)Google Scholar and Rahner, H. S.J., The Spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola (Westminster 1953).Google Scholar
22. Cf. on the mysteries of the life of Christ in the Exercises Fitzmyer, J. A. S. J., “The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and Recent Gospel Study,” Woodstock Letters 91 (1962) 246–74.Google Scholar
23. Cf. Jungmann, J. S.J., “Die Abwehr des Germanischen Arianismus und der Umbruch der Religiösen Kultur im Frühen Mittelalter,” Liturgisches Erbe und Pastorale Gegenwart, (Innsbruk 1960), pp. 1–86, esp, pp. 65–78Google Scholar. As H. Bremond op. cit., 3, 55 conceives it, Ignatius stresses “the actions” of Christ, Bérulle “the states.”
24. Cf. Martz, L. L., The Poetry of Meditation (New Haven 1954), esp. pp. 25Google Scholar et ff., for the influence of the Ignatian compositio loci on the poetic imagery of Robert Southwell, S.J., John Duane and others.
25. Spiritual Exercises, p. 52.
26. Note the judgment of Dudon, P. S.J., St. Ignatius of Loyola (Milwaukee 1949), p. 206Google Scholar: “ … the derivation [of the Exercises] from Cisneros is a fable.”
27. In the preface to the editio princeps (1548) p. 6 Ignatius writes that the Spiritual Exercises are derived not so much from books as from his own inner experiences and the knowledge which he gained in directing souls.
28. Spiritual Exercises, pp. 157–61.
29. P. Dudon S.J., op. cit., p. 459.
30. Spiritual Exercises, p. 157.
31. Ibid., p. 160.
32. P. Dudon S.J., op. cit., p. 458.
33. Cf. for example the Directorium 12. 3 of Juan de Polanco, 5.3., Ignatius' personal friend and secretary, in Monumenta Ignatiana, ser. 2, Exercitia Spiritualia (Madrid 1919) 829Google Scholar. Hereinafter cited as Exercitia Spiritualia.
34. Cf. Nadal, Jecome S.J., Epist. 4, 826Google Scholar, on Ignatius' lack of formal education at the time of the first drafts of the Exercises. Cf. also P. Dudon S.J., op. cit., p. 213, n. 23. At Alcalá he was forbidden to preach until he had finished four more years of study. Cf. Acta Patris Ignatii 6, 62, p. 451.
35. Acta Patris Ignatii 6, 58, p. 443. The inquisitors at Alcalá, thinking Ignatius to be one of the Illuminati (Alumbrados), “threatened him with capital punishment.”
36. Ibid., 7, 69, p. 461.
37. Cf. Societatis Iesu Constitutiones et Epitome Instituti (Rome 1949), p. 9Google Scholar. Hereinafter cited as Constitutiones.
38. Constitutiones 4, 4, 10, pp. 47–8.
39. Ibid., 4, 8, 5, p. 157.
40. L. Pastor, op. cit., 12, 18: “The Society of Jesus in all ages has seen in the Exercises, and particularly in the meditation on the ‘Two Standards,’ the patteril of its existence.”
41. Cf. Astrain, A. S.J., Historia de la Compañí de Jesüs 1 (Madrid 1902) 366–84.Google Scholar
42. The pope, however, did not act until he first had the book examined by three competent censors.
43. Cf. von Ranke, L., tr. Austin, S., The History of the Popes of Rome 1 (Philadelphia 1841) 149–50.Google Scholar
44. Characteristic of and essential to the Society is a special solemn vow of obedience to the Holy See. Cf. Constitutiones 1, 1, 5, p. 31.
45. Cf F. X. Lawlor, S.J., op. cit., p. 524 where these words of Joseph de Guibert, S.J., are cited.
46. Cf. Karrer, O, Der heilige Franz von Borja (Freiburg 1921) pp. 249–74.Google Scholar
47. Acta Patris Ignatii 6, 57, p. 441.
48. de Cámara, L. González, Memoriale 226Google Scholar, Fontes narrativi de S. Ignatio de Loyola 1, ed. D. F. Zapico, S.J. et al., Monumenta Ignatiana 66, ser. 4 (Rome 1943) 658.Google Scholar
49. “St. Charles Borromeo introduced them among the clergy of the province of Milan.” Cf. L. Pastor, op. cit., 12, 18.
50. Cf. Braunsberger, O. S.J., Beati Petri Canisii Societatis Iesu Epistulae et Acta 1 (Freiburg 1896) 76–7Google Scholar. Cf. Brodrick, J. S.J., Saint Peter Canisius (New York 1935), pp. 36–7.Google Scholar
51. Cf. Brodrick, J. S.J., Saint Peter Canisius, pp. 153 et ff.Google Scholar
52. After making the Exercises he rejoiced that “now, once more, a teacher had at last arisen who could speak to the heart.” Cf. L. Pastor, op. cit., 12, 18.
53. Cf. on the apostolate of Claude Jay, Chronicom Societatis Iesu by Polanco, Juan S.J., Vita Ignatii Loiolae 2, Monumenta historica Societatis Iesu (Madrid 1894), esp. p. 265Google Scholar. where Father Jay is mentioned as the retreat master of Cardinal Truchsess.
54. Cf. L. Pastor, op. cit., 12, 18.
55. The manuscript was “copied by John Helyar, priest and fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, at some date between May 1534 and March 1537, probably at Paris.” Cf. Crehan, J. S. J., “Saint Ignatius and Cardinal Pole,” Archivum historicum Societatis Iesu 25 (1956) 72–98.Google Scholar
56. Cf. the harsh letter of Ignatius dated August 18, 1554 in which he outlines for Peter Canisius a strong program against the Protestants. Cf. Brodrick, J. S.J., Saint Peter Canisius, pp. 211–14.Google Scholar
57. Cf. Constitutiones 4, 8, 5, p. 158: “Quando … omnia tradentur, raris hominibus, vel qui de vitae suae statu deliberare velint, tradi oportebit.”
58. Cf. Epistola S.P. Ignatii ad scholasticos Conimbricenses (Rome 1926), p. 21.Google Scholar
59. Constitutiones 5, 3, B, p. 193; 7, 2, E, 1963). pp. 225–26; Examen 6, 2, p. 63. Cf. on the vow obliging the professed to instruct in sacred doctrine Constitutiones 5, 3, 3, p. 192.
60. Cf. on Ignatius' concept of the apostolate of preaching n. 59 supra, and on his liberal attitude towards frequent Holy Communion P. Dudon, S.J., op. cit., pp. 418 et ff.
61. Cf. Ehses, E., ed. Concilii Tridentini Actorum Pars 6 (Freiburg 1924) 1083.Google Scholar
