Book contents
- Front Matter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Translations, references, and orthography
- Introduction
- 1 The character of the Society of Jesus
- 2 The Society's organisational ideas
- 3 The Society and political matters
- 4 The Church, the Society, and heresy
- 5 The confrontation with reason of state
- 6 Reason of state and religious uniformity
- 7 Jesuit reason of state and fides
- 8 Reason of state, prudence, and the academic curriculum
- 9 The theory of political authority
- 10 Limited government, compacts, and states of nature
- 11 The theory of law
- 12 The common good and individual rights
- 13 Tyrannicide, the Oath of Allegiance controversy, and the assassination of Henri IV
- 14 The papal potestas indirecta
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- IDEAS IN CONTEXT
1 - The character of the Society of Jesus
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Front Matter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Translations, references, and orthography
- Introduction
- 1 The character of the Society of Jesus
- 2 The Society's organisational ideas
- 3 The Society and political matters
- 4 The Church, the Society, and heresy
- 5 The confrontation with reason of state
- 6 Reason of state and religious uniformity
- 7 Jesuit reason of state and fides
- 8 Reason of state, prudence, and the academic curriculum
- 9 The theory of political authority
- 10 Limited government, compacts, and states of nature
- 11 The theory of law
- 12 The common good and individual rights
- 13 Tyrannicide, the Oath of Allegiance controversy, and the assassination of Henri IV
- 14 The papal potestas indirecta
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- IDEAS IN CONTEXT
Summary
The Society of Jesus was not the first religious order to find itself involved in political controversy or in articulating a political theology. The same had been true of its great medieval predecessors, the Franciscans and Dominicans. But as it was originally conceived, there was nothing about the Society to suggest to it that it should follow their precedent. On the contrary, it had every reason to be exceedingly careful about being seen to ‘meddle in politics’. Its concern with respublica grew out of the avocations it accumulated, each of which left its mark on the form and content of Jesuit political thinking. It is therefore necessary to begin with some account of how the Society understood itself and what kinds of work it came to undertake.
The Society's original ‘charters’ anticipated neither its later public prominence, nor its mushroom growth, nor many of the employments in which it came to specialise. The Formula of the Institute, a brief summary of the purposes and organisation of the Society submitted by Ignatius of Loyola and his companions to Paul III in 1539, described the primary purpose of the new ‘community’ as simply ‘the advancement of souls in Christian life and doctrine and … the propagation of the Faith by the ministry of the Word, spiritual exercises and works of charity, specifically (nominatim) by way of the instruction of boys and unlettered persons in Christianity’.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Jesuit Political ThoughtThe Society of Jesus and the State, c.1540–1630, pp. 8 - 22Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004