Loyola University Maryland - Evergreen / Green and Gray Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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from that of privates, directed all obedience, not to the man, but to authority and to God. The only permanent tenure of office is that of the General elected by and ultimately responsible to the General Congregation of representatives from all Prov- inces. His men are ready for rapid detail or quiet mobilization under a military obedience. But the “regular” is expected to meet with initiative and adaptability the situation he is assigned to deal with. Ignatius, sometimes an abrupt man, had nevertheless the Odyssean, the fatherlike quality, the quality we call in America “businesslike.” He saw graft, pettiness and corruption in high places, his reforms hampered, but he never raved as a Sav- onarola did — and he got results. He died without fuss, without gesture. T M rent was the battleground where the Society first met the Reformation. Laynez and Salmeron were papal theologians at that great council of the Church. Laynez was the guiding star of its deliberations. In education meanwhile, Ignatius had started the Roman and German colleges in Rome. The Roman College is now the Gregorian University and draws its teachers as well as students from all over the world. The Educational Code of the Jesuits was formulated in several editions of an instrument entitled the Ratio Studiorum (Educational System), first appearing under Father Claudius Acquaviva, a general elected young and lasting long. The main principles of this System are the developmen t of the whole man, close personal attention to the student by his instructor, contact of the minds of teacher and taught ranging from any given subject through the whole gamut of mental experience. Its outstanding feature is its emphasis on exercise (mental 15

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ing God, are the notes of his own experiences in a cave at Manresa where he prayed and wrestled alone. The world was still divided in the traditional way of the Middle Ages into war- riors, farmers and clerks or clerics — so Ignatius, though over thirty, had to go to Of Ignatius, the Soldier of Christ. The “Exer- cises” as Key to char- acter of Order. school. At the University of Paris he won companions whose names you may read on page 8. Due to a real love of God, these men wanted to visit the Holy Land, but the Pope had other work for them. We repeat the motive, love. because it is hard for us of little faith to remember that men can have a warm human emotion toward God — the necessary root of life for John, Paul, Augustine, Benedict, Bernard, Francis, Dominic, Ignatius. Pope Paul III commissioned them as a religious order or company. Loyola wished obedience to be the special mark of the Society, a providential fact at a time when so many were jumping the traces. Often pictured as an autocrat, the founder actually mellowed the usual religious rules, was opposed to any honors for Jesuits, gave commanders no different living 14

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and with the pen) on the part of the student. The Ratio exercised scholars constantly in composition, since the power of expression was highly valued in Renaissance edu- cation where the pupil was much younger than nowadays when his formal education was complete. The Council of Trent. The Ratio must be studied in the light of the ‘Spiritual Exercises.” As The Ratio Studiorum. Robert Beiiarmine. their title indicates, these latter begin all reforms of the social order from within the individual heart by self-” exercise.” If we remember this we can better understand what the ‘‘education of the whole man” insisted upon by Jesuits means. The system is not voluntaristic. It favors inquiry and broad cultivation of the intelligence where innately possible. But let us remember the emphasis of the Exercises in the contemplations, applica- tions of the senses, etc., upon the imagination, the power of recalling and seeing things as they really exist, not in mere abstract. Every tyro in psychology is aware that man chooses effectively and acts only when sufficient emotional force breaks down the dam of velleity and irresolution. But man feels deeply consequent upon realization, not mere knowledge. Insight into reality must supplement con- viction about it. Hence the stress laid in Jeusit education upon literature and imagination. The Latin and Greek classics were a staple in Jesuit education inherited from the late Renaissance. The unhealthy neo-paganism of the period was surgically amputated from education by the Society. An important educational factor was the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin, organized in Rome before Aloysius Gonzaga joined the Society and rapidly spread all over the world. It is the parent of Catholic Action. But no more, for nowadays the Sodalists are vocal not only towards Heaven but to their fellow men. We will make space to mention Robert Beiiarmine — the 16