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X. THE ETHICS OF POST-TRIDENTINE ROMAN CATHOLICISM

It is a false assumption often made by Protestants that the great awakening was wholly a break with Rome. The Council of Constance (1414) began a distinct reformation, which, however, seemingly defeated resulted in many most important changes in the Roman policy. The attitude of the University of Paris was significant. It made a steady demand for exactly the step which at first marked Luther's attitude. Already in 1409 Gerson1 asked for a council, and he took the high ground of the supremacy of a council over the Pope. Gerson's mysticism was not metaphysical, but rather a religious and sentimental emotionalism. It included the "contemplation, ecstasy, rapture, melting, transformation, union, exultation, joy, joy to be in the spirit," etc., and is not exclusive of the discursive reason. Gerson was a nominalist, but sought to avoid the scepticism of nominalism far short of resting simply on authority. We have immediate knowledge of God, and the powers of the mind are discussed under the two heads of "cognitive and effective."4 At the same time his ethics does not mark any advance upon mystical scholasticism of the type of Bonaventura, for example; and Dionysius and the Fourth Gospel are used uncritically.

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1 Gerson, Jean Charlier, born December 14, 1365, died July 12, 1429. The founder, in a sense, of Gallicanism. Chief works (from our point of view) are: "Espistola de Reformatione Theologiæ" (1400); "De Monte Contemplationis"; "De Mystica theologia speculativa"; "De Mystica theologia practica." Editions of his works, Paris, 1606 (“Opera . . . auctiora et castigatiora, inque partes quatuor distributa . . . Accessit vita Gersonis . . .," edited by E. Reicher, in four parts). An edition by M. L. Ellies Du Pin, Antwerp, in 5 vols., 1706. The best monograph said to be that of Schwab (Johann Baptist): "Johannes Gerson. Eine Monographie," Würzburg, 1858. The writer has not seen it.

'Opera omnia, Antwerp edition, 1706, tom. II, pars 2, p. 161.

"Consideratio prima de triplici Theologia," pars 1, consid. 2, p. 366; vol. III, Antwerp edition.

"Expedit ad ipsius Theologiæ mysticæ cognitionem speculativam acquirendam, naturam animæ rationalis, et ejus potentias, tam cognitivas, quam affectivas cognoscere," "De mystica Theol.," pars 2, consid. 9 (p, 369, Antwerp edition).

At one point, however, he rises to a high level. He asserts in true Neoplatonic sense the immediate vision. Intelligence is unified, and is capable of receiving light immediately from God in which and through which the first principles are known to be true.' Then he brings this immediate knowledge in the "Theologia Practica" into direct relationship with morals. It is a pity that tradition blinded him to the ultimate logic of this position, and that thus he oscillates between reason and authority, between freedom and casuistry. He was, however, a thoroughgoing Catholic, and his persecution of Huss and maintenance of orthodoxy was the outcome of his real basis in authority. At the same time he was an exceedingly independent critic of the existent authority and one of the great forces making for actual living righteousness. Both the councils of Pisa and Constance were earnest and to some degree markedly successful attempts at reformation. It is noteworthy that Gerson undertook popular expositions of the Ten Commandments' very much in the spirit of the later Lutheran exposition.

When, therefore, the great awakening came, Rome became again profoundly conscious of what was at stake. At first the insurrection in the north was treated with contempt. Then as the revolt spread it was forced home upon Rome that her imperial ambition was endangered, and she began the work of reconstruction. In this work Ignatius de Loyola3 (Don

1 "In qua et per quam principia prima cognoscuntur esse vera et certissima, termini es apprehensis," "De mystica Theologia," pars 2, consid. 10 (p. 371, Antwerp edition).

"Opusculum Tripertium, de præceptis Decalogi," Antwerp edition, tom. I,

P. 426.

'Ignatius Loyola, was born 1491, and his work bears the stamp of his Spanish birth and his military training. His religious experience was profound and real. He dedicated himself to the church before he knew of her danger through Protestantism, and only his experience at Venice seems to have awakened him to his real mission. For full literature, see Otto Zöckler's article, "Jesuitenorden," in Herzog-Hauck's "Realencyklopädie," vol. VIII, Leipsic, 1900, pp. 742-784, and V. Frins's article, “Jesuiten," in Wetzer and Welte's “Kirchenlexikon,” vol. VI, Freiburg-i.-B., 1889, cols. 1364-1424. The popular "life" by Bouhours, Dominique. "La vie de S. Ignace, Fondateur de la Compagnie de Jésus," Paris, 1679, Nouvelle édition, "revue et corrigée," 2 vols., Avignon, 1821. An

Inigo Lopez de Recalde of Loyola) was a chief instrument. In a most remarkable manner he reflected the nobler side of Roman Catholic ethics and faith. His own experience of excessive asceticism led him to rational views of its value, such views as modern and intelligent Roman Catholicism holds today.' He became the father of modern missions and the foundation of a thorough-going view of life from the point of view of authority, absolute and final. Moreover, the Jesuitism which he founded drew firmly and consistently the only conclusion open to Roman Catholic reasoning from the premises, and

English translation "by a person of quality," London, 1686. The 6th book is added by Butler (Alban) to his "Life," Dublin, 1841. The writer has not seen Genelli's "Das Leben des heiligen Ignatius von Loyola... Mit Benutzung der authentischen Acten, besonders seiner eigenen Briefe," Innsbruck 1848; "The Life of St. Ignatius of Loyola . . . Translated from the German of Christoph Genelli by C. Sainte Foi; and Rendered from the French by T. Meyrick, London, 1871. Nicolini's (Giovanni Battista) "History of the Jesuits, Their Origin, Progress, Doctrine and Designs," London, 1854, in Bohn's "Illustrated Library," is intemperate in tone. Döllinger (Ignaz) and Reusch (F. H.): “Moralstreitigkeiten in der römisch-katholischen Kirche seit dem XVI. Jahrhundert mit Beiträgen zur Geschichte und Charakteristik des Jesuitenordens," Nördlingen, 1889, 2 vols., mentioned later, is invaluable.

1 Asceticism is an "exercise" to promote efficiency. "Since soul and body both come from the Creator you should take both into account, and for his sake not weaken the bodily nature, for if this is weakened the inner (spirit) cannot be effective." Quoted by Huber from Genelli, pp. 382 ff., of “Das Leben des hl. Ignatius von Loyola."

2 The literature is gathered in the two articles mentioned already, p. 555 (note). Luthardt (Chr. Ernst) has also a most valuable collection of bibliography in his "Geschichte der christlichen Ethik seit der Reformation," Leipsic, 1893, pp. 115-151. The writer has found most useful Huber's (Franz) "Der Jesuiten Orden nach seiner Verfassung und Doctrin, Wirksamkeit und Geschichte," Berlin, 1873 (cf., also, his "Jesuitenmoral, aus den Quellen dargestellt," Bern, 1870), and Gothein's (Eberhard) "Ignatius von Loyola und die Gegenreformation," Halle, 1895. Cf., also, Blaise Pascal's "Les Provinciales” (many editions and translations, the writer has used the edition of M. Prosper Fangere, “Les Provinciales, D'après les manuscrits autographes les copies authentiques et les éditions originales," Paris, 1886, 1895, 2 vols.). But it is most important that some one of the Jesuits, like Gury or Escobar, be studied at first hand to avoid the caricature of their teachings easily made possible by even lengthy quotations. No better guide can be found for the material than Döllinger and Reusch's "Geschichte der Moralstreitigkeiten in der römisch-katholischen Kirche seit dem XVI. Jahrhundert," etc., Nördlingen, 1889, 2 vols.

accepted the Pope as the final and living voice of the sacramental institutional church. They did exactly what the Puritan State also did, they took their authority seriously and tried to apply it to actual human life. It seems almost absurd to accuse Jesuitism of "lowering the ethical standards of the confessional" by their lax casuistry. They found every man of power and prominence with a "pocket chaplain," and they, in the real interests of morality, supplanted these by trained and experienced casuists.

The sympathy of Protestantism for Jansenism is really greatly misplaced. Pascal's' wonderfully clever attacks upon the Jesuits should not blind us to the fact that from the Roman Catholic point of view Jesuitism was right and Jansenism was not only wrong, but dangerously and divisively wrong.

Probabilism is the only logical outcome of the authoritarian position. The Pope has only spoken infallibly upon a few main doctrines. His administrative authority is final, but not infallible. In the confessional the priest has not the advantage of access to infallibility. He has access only to authorities and not to authority. In the actual guidance of complex human life it is not only important but absolutely necessary that no single human authority bind the conscience save that of the one infallible voice where it has spoken, and that the confessor have a flexible rule that he can adapt to every personal need where he has only authorities. That such flexibility can be, nay, will be, abused is undoubted; but all such responsibility can be abused. The Jesuits were not the only father confessors to abuse this trust. But Jesuitism taught in season and out of season that it was a trust. The abuses that grew up pertain to all casuistry. It is the authoritarian system that is wrong and not the probabilism which grew logically out of it.

This probabilism consisted in weighing all the various authorities, and Jesuitism, perfectly correctly, contended that these authorities could not be weighed simply by being numbered,

1 Pascal's ethics are intelligently discussed by Bornhausen, Karl: "Die Ethik Pascals," Giessen, 1907.

but that any one grave doctor's opinion might form a basis of judgment. That this opened the door to all sorts of extravagances Pascal has shown. But no one really gets from his pages a conception of the earnest and sincere though mistaken work the Jesuits were doing in trying to reorganize the confessional as a vital moral force. And the proof is that they did reinstate the confessional. The Jesuit order, like all orders, no doubt became corrupt, and its condemnation, and suspension, 1773, was thoroughly well deserved, although it is also well to remember that it was the unspeakable House of the Bourbons that forced the issue upon Clement XIV and made it a condition of the return of the Papal States.1 Instead of being an instrument of imperial power, the Jesuits had cherished the ambition to wield the power, with the Pope as a puppet and with kings and nations as their real subjects. Imperial ambition has always been unscrupulous whether it has been ecclesiastical or political, and Jesuitism was no exception to the rule.

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At the same time the casuistry which they defended must be the outcome of any legal ethics. The letter of the law is inequitable and unjust, and having been made to fit one set of conditions works intolerable hardship under any other conditions. To make the law really work, and to use "authority" without inhumanity, was, without question, the real goal of probabilism. Jesuitism had exactly the same questions before it with which Pharisaism had to deal, and dealt with them in much the same way and for the same reason-both had substituted the letter for the spirit. The Pharisee said "Corban" (it is devoted) to escape the rigor of rules for filial duty, and the Jesuit sought the way out of impossible positions made actual by legalism, and in trying to do so stumbled into more impossible positions.

Nevertheless, many Protestant critics have been unjust to the ethical discussions of Jesuitism. They occupy, for instance, no peculiar position on the question as to whether the end justifies the means; and for the simple reason that they, like ethical teachers in all ages, are divided on the subject. But this turns The calmest account and discussion of this affair, by Huber, pp. 529 f.