I Gesuiti ed il loro ruolo, eng., Tesine universitarie di Storia Moderna

Scarica I Gesuiti ed il loro ruolo, eng. e più Tesine universitarie in PDF di Storia Moderna solo su Docsity! The role of the Jesuits in early modern Europe and Catholicism The Jesuits are a religious order of the Catholic Church. The movement was founded by Ignatius of Loyola in Paris in 1540 and officialized in Rome by Pope Paul III in the same year. In a period of debauchery of the Catholic Church where the care of the spirit has lost any importance , and where more relevance e was given to the luxury and to the enjoyment of material goods rather than the faithful. The abandonment of the original evangelical teachings by the high ecclesiastical class and the consequent individual perdition in materialism over time have turned into a general decline in ecclesiastical values which have ended up characterizing an era. Indeed, the Jesuits believed that any reformation of the Catholic Church could start only with the reformation of the of the individual1. . In this paper we will analyse firstly the birth and the reasons that lead to the movement birth; secondly, we will take a look at the important impact that they had on society of the early modern Europe; lastly, we will analyse the relationships between the Catholic Church of Rome and the European rulers. The Jesuits order In the 16th century, the need for a reform of the Catholic Church was increasingly felt by the sides and classes of the society, including some exponents of the Church itself. The Catholic Church had lost its simplicity and purity of spirit by becoming absent and no longer devoted to the care of the faithful but mainly dealing with material goods and its own economic enrichment. The worldly affairs touched even the pope Julius II and the papacy in general; insisting on the perspective of the loss of values by the Church, it is possible to see in the construction of the Basilica of San Pietro in 1506, described as the largest church in the world1, the most spectacular and also shameful physical manifestation of the corruption and dissolution which meandered in ecclesiastical circles. Nonetheless, the biggest scandal of the Catholic Church was the infamous sale of the indulgences substantially used to gather resources and to finance the numerous works of patronage that the Church promoted. This unbecoming tradition continued with Pope Leo X in 1513, who granted the plenary indulgence to basically satisfy the need of money that the perverse patronage mechanism has set in motion,. This general moral decline has culminated with the Counter-Reformation, spiritual, theological and liturgical renewal of the Catholic Church. The birth of the Jesuit order could be interpreted in our theoretical framework as a sort of internal response the needs of ecclesiastical renewal generally felt; in the same category could fall also other religious movements like Calvinism, Lutheranism and Zwinglism. The founder of the movement was Ignazio da Loyola, a Spanish soldier who later on became a priest. In 1520 he began to draw close to God and then began to preach and give spiritual exercises which caught the attention of the Curia and then the Spanish Inquisition. The spiritual exercises were not based on theological and scholastic 11 Society of Jesus. (2020, May 14). Wikipedia. Retrieved 16 May 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Jesus 11 trd. ‘Spesso descritta come la più grande chiesa del mondo.’ Cardinale P. Poupard, Guida alla città del Giubileo, Bergamo, 2000. knowledge, but on a personal, subjective religious experience, centered on a path of visionary experiences and especially of inner enlightenment2. In 1528 he went to Paris, where he met Pietro Fabro, Francesco Saverio, Giacomo Lainez, Alfonso Salmerone, Simone Rodríguez and Niccolò Bobadilla with whom he founded the Jesuit order. On August 15, 1534, the foundations of the order were laid in Montmartre through the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience with the intention of going to the Holy Land;. In 1540 they went to Rome where they obtained the official recognition from Pope Paul III as a religious order 3. The order of Jesuits is founded in love for Christ and animated by the spiritual vision of their founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, to help others and seek God in all things. As members of a worldwide society within the Catholic Church, the Jesuits are committed to the service of faith and the promotion of justice4. The Foundation of Colleges The Jesuit order grew rapidly and assumed a primary role in the defense of the Counter- Reformation and in the awakening of Catholicism1, leading to a renewal of attention to religious faith and the service of the church2. Due to the decline in the few clergy schools, the Jesuits decided to devote themselves to education. Initially, they wanted to limit the schooling only to Jesuits, but given the requests of the laity, the learning was extended for them too. The first college was founded in Messina in 1548, whose teaching was based on a principle truly dear to Jesuits: gratuity. The colleges, which had to support themselves, became economic centers because of the numerous funding from the wealthiest families, not only in Europe but also in mission countries. In 1551 the Roman college was founded, which became the center of the educational system. The complex system of schools was based on the ‘Ratio atque istitutio studiorum', which basically are norms on which the educational structure have been based. Humanistic and scientific studies have flanked all the colleges created by the Jesuits in Europe for the study of philosophy and theology. The historian A. Romano in the article 'Les collèges jésuites dans le monde moderne' states that as far as the scientific disciplines related to the Jesuits are concerned, one can speak of real 22 trd. ‘fondato non sul sapere teologico e scolastico, ma su una personale, soggettiva esperienza religiosa, al cui centro stava un percorso di esperienze visionarie e soprattutto di illuminazioni interiori.’ Pavone, S. ‘Le origini 1540-1580, Ignazio di Loyola e i primi gesuiti’, 𝘐 𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘪 𝘥𝘢𝘭𝘭’𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘢 𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘦, Laterza ed. (Gius. Laterza & FigliSpa, 2004), 21. 33 Pavone, S. ‘Le origini 1540-1580, Ignazio di Loyola e i primi gesuiti’, 𝘐 𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘪 𝘥𝘢𝘭𝘭’𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘢 𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘦, Laterza ed. (Gius. Laterza & FigliSpa, 2004), 14-61. 44 The Jesuit Mission: Seeking God in All Things. (18 November 2018) https://www.georgetown.edu/news/the-jesuit- mission-seeking-god-in-all-things/. 11 Jesuit. (26 December 2019). In The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Jesuits. 22 Revival, religious. https://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/religion/christian/protestant/revival-religious.