Today, the word Jésuite generally designates a member of the Society of Jesus, that it is Prêtre Jesuit , Frère Jesuit or Étudiant Jesuit (also called Scolastique ), or like adjective, with what has relationship with the Society of Jesus. But it had an older direction.

Origin of the word

At the end of the the Middle Ages, in Northern Europe, one meets the Latin word jesuita in the direction of “good Christian”, disciple of Jesus. In the 14th century, Ludolphe of Saxony (known as the Carthusian monk), in its Vita Christi , written: With the sky, we will be called Jesuits by Jesus himself, i.e. `saved by the Lord' . By derision and semantic slip, those which exaggerated and were posed too obviously as “good Christians” were qualified “Jesuits”. In this direction become negative, the word so common that it will be in handbooks of preparation to the sacrament of penitence, was undoubtedly written by Oratorien S: I show myself to have been pharisee, Jesuit and hypocritical .

The Jésuates

Some two centuries before the Society of Jesus, a evangelic fraternity rested by Jean Colombini (1304-1367) became an religious order, in 1367, under the popular name of Pauvres Jésuates .

First companions of Ignace de Loyola

Ignace about Loyola, when it refers to the group of students who with him pronounced their wishes with Montmartre (Paris) in 1534, speaks about its friendly in the Lord . After the official foundation of the Society of Jesus, in 1540, when the `Amis' started to circulate in Italy and elsewhere, the popular voice gave them different names. One spoke about reformed Prêtres in Italy of north, of Apôtres to the Portugal (what displeased to the official commentator Constitutions, Jerome Nadal, which recalled that there were only twelve Apôtre S), of Ignaciens ' in Spain (Ignace opposed it), of ` Paulistes ' with Goa in India (by association with the Saint Paul college founded by Saint François Xavier), etc

In a letter of January 1545, the Father Pierre Canisius written: has Cologne (Germany), it is by the term of `Jésuites' that the members of the Company are generally known . It seems well that the Luthérien S, being ironical about the official name of `Society of Jesus' sought to rehabilitate the pejorative direction of the mot. Although it perceives the mockery of it, and that it itself is called the dog in the lampoons Lutherans, this last was not opposed to this name which “associated them with the cross of Christ”.

Saint Ignace and Jesuits

The word " jésuite" does not find itself in the texts founders of the Society of Jesus, and Ignace de Loyola does not employ it in its writings. As much it was due much to the official name of `Society of Jesus', because related to its religious experiment of Storta, as much it is quiet on the term `Jesuit'. It is not opposed to it and does not encourage it either.

The term was quickly spread. With the Council of Thirty, the statements indicate already as `Jesuits' the members of the Company who took share with the deliberations. In 1562, reference is made to the father Jacques Lainez like Generalis Jesuitarum . They will be other opponents with the Company, the Janséniste S, which will popularize more the term of Jesuit by their lampoons.

Even if it is largely used inside as outside the Society of Jesus, the term of Jesuit is not official. It forever be defined like tel.

Famous Jesuits

In Philosophy and Theology

  • Francisco Suárez (1548-1617), Theologist, regarded as one of largest the Scolasticien S after Saint-Thomas d' Aquin, it inspired the reductions in Paraguay and the Méditations Metaphysics via its Disputationes Metaphysicae .
  • Robert Bellarmin, (1542-1621), theologist, made an unhappy remark with Galileo (1633), by referring to a passage of the Bible where Josué stops the sun (later work of interpretation said that the ground is " firm and inébranlable" , and not " fixed and immobile" , psalm 93 (92))
  • Baltasar Gracián (1601-1658), writer and Spanish philosopher
  • Louis Bourdaloue (1632-1704), theologist and Prédicateur celebrates at the court of Louis XIV
  • François of Aix of the Chair, confessor of Louis XIV during 34 years.
  • the cardinal Henri de Lubac (1896-1991), theologist, author of the Drama of atheistic humanism , played a very great part in the preparation of the Concile the Vatican II.
  • Karl Rahner, (1904-1984), German theologist, influenced much the council the Vatican II.
  • Pierre Teilhard of Chardin, anthropologist and theologist French.
  • the cardinal Jean Daniélou

In Sciences

Many Jesuits played a big role in sciences, in particular in Natural history, with the image of most prolific among them, the anthropologist Pierre Teilhard of Chardin and:

Many Jesuits left in remote regions where they studied the fauna and the local Flore. It is the case of:

In economy

In Spain, the School of Salamanque, starting from the theory of the natural Right , proposed a theory of value, and justified the private property and the Liberté of the exchange S. Its principal authors were Jesuits: This tradition was taken again by the economists traditional French and the Austrian School.
  • Leonardus Lessius (1554 - 1623), first theologist to be been interested in ethics of the commercial and banking businesses.

Mission S and anthropology

In the field of the inculturation of the local Churches, the missiology, the decolonization it is appropriate to quote:
  • holy François Xavier, missionary who knew Ignace de Loyola with the college Sainte Beard in Paris, left for India and remained three years with the Japan.
  • Matteo Ricci, missionary and scientist, author of History of Christian forwarding to the Kingdom of China .
  • Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), astronomer-missionary in China, reformer of the Chinese calendar.
  • Antoine Thomas (1644-1709), astronomer-missionary in China.
  • Joseph-Marie Amiot, missionary and scientist, left in China and a treaty brought back from there.
  • Pierre Charles (1883-1954), missiologist, universal character and universalist, to whom Jean Lacouture devoted ten pages in his book on the Jesuits.

Art schools and Architecture

  • Pierre Huyssens (1577-1637), brother, architect of the religious baroque of the Netherlands.
  • Daniel Seghers (1590-1661), brother, artist-painter specialist in the floral compositions.
  • Andrea Pozzo (1642-1709), brother, painter, author of the large frescos of the church St Ignace in Rome.

Poetry and Musique

  • Domenico Zipoli (1688-1726), musician Italian baroque, first to be settled on the New Continent.
  • Gerald Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), large English poet.
  • Aime Father Duval, singer (composer-songwriter) with success in the years 1950-1960, called the " Brassens in soutane" .

Sources

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