In that eventful era, each warring party put forward leaders capable of upholding the interests of their class to the end. Such figures were also in the feudal-Catholic gallery. And to this category belonged the founder of the Jesuit order Ignatius Loyola. He was considered a completely exceptional person, the savior of the papacy from collapse. Hence the keen interest in Loyola, and efforts to find in the smallest detail an explanation of certain features of the course of history.
It is easier to form a clear understanding of the first steps of the Jesuit order, knowing about its founder.
And this is what attracts attention, which biographers prefer not to go into: in spite of such enchanting details of the official and unofficial life, the name of Loyola did not thunder at all during his lifetime. Mainly those churchmen with whom he came in direct contact knew about him. But they did not hear anything about the miracles of Loyola and did not consider him God's chosen one. Moreover, he was more than once persecuted, suspected of heresy and even betrayed to the Inquisition.
No one could hear about the miracles of Loyola then for the simple reason that the Jesuits began to spread fictions about them only after his death. In the first two editions of the voluminous life, written by the Jesuit Ribadeneira, nothing intelligible is said about the miracles of Loyola. These editions were published in 1572 and 1587, the second of them - thirty-one years after Loyola's death. It was only at the beginning of the 17th century that a new version of the life appeared, where the author tried to explain why he had allegedly "neglected" miracles before: it turns out that he thought that Loyola's holiness was beyond doubt to everyone. In the third edition, he corrected his mistake, and it is here that the set of supposed miracles of the founder of the Jesuit order is encountered for the first time.
The rules of canonization, that is, enrollment as a saint, require that the candidate represented has “attested” miracles in his soul. It was at the beginning of the 17th century that the Jesuits decided to elevate Loyola to the rank of a saint. This was necessary for the glorification of the "Society of Jesus", which had already penetrated into many countries of Europe and was currying favor with the popes. The church and, of course, the Jesuits themselves created loud advertising for him. Loyola's miracles were "witnessed" by the church authorities, in 1662 the Pope declared him a saint, and the Jesuits managed to take care of the rest.
What remains of Loyola's church life, if you throw out fictions and embellishments from there?
In his biography, two people appear, as it were, different in many respects: Loyola before his "conversion" and Loyola in the second half of his life, when he appeared before the world as an intolerant fanatic fanatic, an ambitious, dexterous politician, a connoisseur of the human heart, who knows how to act far-sighted and merciless, cunningly, with cold calculation, sometimes very well understanding the confused situation, maneuvering, hiding, waiting. In this second Loyola, the very spirit of Jesuitism was embodied, which does not disdain any means in the struggle.
It must be said, however, that in his youth Loyola was alien to both fanaticism and theocratic aspirations. No matter how sophisticated the authors of the life were, attributing to him "righteousness" from an early age and the desire to render the greatest services to the church in his youth, he, undoubtedly, for a very long time could not think that his future would be at least somewhat similar to how it took shape in the end.
Loyola was born in 1491. He was a well-born but not wealthy Spanish nobleman. There was such a case in the life of young Loyola.
“In March 1515, in Pamplona (this is the capital of the Spanish autonomous region of Navarre),” writes G. Bemer (“The Jesuits”, M., 1913, pp. 103-104), with a friend because of the young knight, who, since the end of February, had been awaiting his trial in the prison of the episcopal palace. During the merry nights of the carnival, the young criminal committed a number of "huge crimes" in the province of Guipuzcoa (a province in northern Spain, part of the Basque Country), together with one cleric, escaped from the harsh hands of the Corregidor, fled to Navarre and now claimed that he was also a cleric and, therefore, does not depend on the royal court, but must be held accountable for his misdeeds before the more lenient tribunal of the church. Unfortunately, the corregidor was able to prove that the accused was leading a completely non-spiritual life. Therefore, the Corregidor energetically demanded from the spiritual court the surrender of the fugitive. The only thing left for the church judge was to satisfy this requirement. It is very likely that the prisoner was handed over to a secular tribunal and subjected to severe punishment."
Loyola - “That was the name of the young knight,” Bremer continues. "The acts undoubtedly prove that Don Ignatius was not a saint at that time and did not at all strive to become one."
In May 1521, the thirty-year-old Loyola, at the head of the garrison, defended the fortress of the very city of Pamplona from the French, where he had serious troubles with the spiritual and secular authorities seven years ago. The fighting in the border town of Pamplona went between Spain and France. By that time, Loyola had the rank of captain and led the defense of the fortress, which ended in the defeat of the Spaniards.
In battle, he was severely wounded in both legs. The French spared their opponent and provided him with all the necessary medical assistance: the French doctors performed his first operation on his leg. He was sent home with fractures for treatment and was soon horrified to find that one bone had grown crooked. For a man endowed with an insatiable ambition, such as Loyola, this misfortune was unbearable, because it did not give up hope of returning to military life.
And Loyola went to the extreme: he ordered to break the bone again. It is easy to imagine how painful this operation was at the level of surgery at the time. However, Loyola endured everything. The bone was broken, and it healed again. But when the splints were removed a second time, a protruding piece of bone was found near the knee, which interfered with walking. Loyola again turned to the surgeons and ordered that this piece be sawed off. I had to go through another painful operation - all in vain: one leg became shorter than the other. Loyola did not want to give up here either: a special gate was invented, with which he stretched his leg day after day. The new torture was worth the previous ones, but the disfigured leg still remained short for life.
All of Loyola's biographers cite this curious story to show the strength of his endurance, will, and thus try to find the origins of the fanatical tenacity with which he subsequently overcame obstacles.
To deny Loyola in recognition of such qualities, indeed, it is impossible - it was a strong-willed nature.
It is easy to imagine the despair Loyola fell into. But the situation was not hopeless: a promising spiritual field was opening up ahead.
Then one could meet fanatic monks in monasteries who spent their lives in self-torture, fasting and prayer. But there was also a widespread type of churchman-businessman who looked at the spiritual career as a source of enrichment. No wonder the nobles vied with each other to secure "grain" church positions for their younger sons, when they could not inherit either great wealth or a prominent position in society.
Ignatius Loyola was the thirteenth child in the family! Even in his childhood, Loyola's parents decided to make him a priest over time and even performed some procedures: in particular, he had tonsure, a bald patch, drilled on the top of his head. Young Loyola took advantage of this to demand an ecclesiastical rather than a secular court during the troubles in Pamplona. But, generally speaking, he then remembered parenting plans as something funny, until everything turned so that he had to go down this path.
Biographers say that once he, still bedridden, asked for romance of chivalry. But his relatives, perhaps, thought that it was more appropriate for him to think about the salvation of his soul: instead of novels, he received legends about the saints and a description of the life of Christ. And now, under the influence of this reading, a turning point took place in Loyola's mind - he came to confidence in his calling to become a "pleaser of God."
A year has passed since the Pamplona siege. Loila decided to carry out his new plans. He could do it simply by disappearing from the "world" in all humility. One way or another, where to start, he apparently had no doubts: he spent the night in the Montserrat Monastery, in the chapel of the Mother of God, left his weapon there - a sword and a dagger, then changed his officer's uniform to rags, began to begging, causing amazement and rumors of friends, and, finally, in order to make the whole district talk about himself, he took the traditional last step - he began to "save himself" in a cave.
Presumably, it was a rather comfortable cave: it was there that the newly-born hermit wrote the book "Spiritual Exercises", which the Jesuits made one of their main guides.
He arrived in Jerusalem in September 1523. There was a representation of the Franciscan Order. They tried to explain to Loyola that his idea was meaningless, that they would not be able to listen to him and would not listen, that the stated content of future sermons was doubtful, and even if there were listeners and understood his Spanish speeches, the matter would have ended in trouble with the authorities and the population, altogether not disposed to convert to another faith.
He realized that, with his meager knowledge, he could not achieve the goal, and, returning to Barcelona, sat down to Latin.
Two years passed in this way. Loyola, together with four young people, went first to Alcala to enter the university and finally master theological science, then he left for Salamanca and, finally, to France, to Paris, where the famous Sorbonne was located - the theological faculty, one of the most authoritative the Catholics have centers of theology.
Loyola did not stay at any university. He was attracted not by teaching, but by preaching.
At Alcala, Loyola was arrested by the Holy Inquisition: he was reported as a heretic, such a strange impression was produced by his chaotic speeches even in Spain, which had seen all sorts of examples of preaching zeal. But all the same, it turned out well: he did not have anything behind his soul, except fanaticism, devotion to the Pope. He was released.
Gradually Loyola came to the idea that the time had come for a very special asceticism, that an unprecedented order was needed, which would become a reliable support for the popes and knew no other goals than strengthening the papal power. It took him several years until he thought about this plan thoroughly, attracted a group of like-minded people and, with their help, raised a fairly large amount of money needed to get started.
On August 15, 1534, Loyola and his six followers gathered in one of the Parisian churches and made three ordinary monastic vows, adding to them a new one - the vow of unquestioning obedience to the Pope. This day should be considered the first in the history of the Jesuit order.
Although the then Pope Pave III was not inclined to increase the number of spiritual orders. He hesitated for a long time and the Jesuit order was approved only on September 27, 1540. In Loyola's plans, the Pope saw an opportunity to fulfill his long-standing desire - to create something like the papal janissaries, who unconditionally, without sparing their lives, would serve their master in the fight against Protestantism and heresies. He considered it especially important that Loyola and his comrades gave themselves at his complete disposal and did not indicate this in their founding bull, where he emphasized that they “dedicated their lives to the eternal service of Christ, us and our successors - the Roman high priests” (quote from the book: PN Ardashev. "Reader on General History", part 1, 1914, p. 165).
Ignatius Loyola became the first general of the new society.
He could hardly have imagined that after his death his teaching would continue and find followers in many countries of the world, including in Ukraine, where recently so-called Jesuit colleges began to form, the main task of which today is to prepare fanatically loyal fighters.
So, in the media, reports began to appear about the destruction near Horlivka in 2014 of a special Ukrainian unit of militants "The Hundred Jesus Christ", who were trained in a Jesuit college. “The unit, which is part of the special battalion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs“Shakhtarsk”, was formed from members of the Brotherhood of Dmitry Korchinsky. At the head of the hundred was the head of the Odessa Brotherhood, Dmitry Linko, whose militants, along with the visiting radicals of the Right Sector, killed and burned people in the Odessa House of Trade Unions on May 2,”the message says.
