accumulated wealth; although the Constitutions prohibit the application of it to their individual necessities. But still their jurisdiction may be referred to the universal power of their supreme ruler; because it is he who chooses the administering rectors from the class of coadjutors, and he may remove them at his pleasure. 65 They will therefore, of course, be subservient to his will.

66

The bulk of the property given or bequeathed to the militant society, is thus appropriated to the raising of recruits for general or special service. But the Constitutions allow to the professed considerable latitude in their disbursements. They may expend the revenues upon persons who will make themselves useful, upon preachers, confessors, and visitors, and upon some of the professed who are employed in promoting the spiritual or temporal welfare of the colleges. They may even be appropriated to those who are occupied in the business of the colleges, but not within them."7 They may be applied to the payment of proctors, who are retained to support the interests of the society with the Pope, or at the courts of other princes; and to convert the enmity of an opponent

65 Const. P. IV. c. 10. § 1, 2, 3.

66 Ibid. c. 2. § 5. F.

67 "Eorum etiam, qui extra Collegia gerunt illorum negotia." Const. P. IV. c. 2. § 5.

68 Ibid. c. 2. § 5. E.

The General may

to the favour of a friend. 69 apportion the funds of the colleges to the discreet payment of these beneficial expenses; and a very small pittance may be lavished upon a vagrant brother. 70

The scholars regularly trained in these colleges are of two kinds---1. Received, and 2. Approved. The former division comprises all those who are sent to try their skill in collegiate exercises without having passed their noviciate. Any one of the five impediments to probation would be sufficient to prevent their reception as scholars." But when the Vicar of Christ, in consequence of their freedom from such impediments, has pronounced them fit for any of the houses of probation, their fitness for residence in the colleges may also be understood by implication. This early reception does not dispense with the period and exercises of probation; but it amounts to a permission to discharge them in conjunction with the course of college reading; 73 and it is not until after their completion, added to a profession of the three vows, and a promise of perpetual fellowship with the society, that the Jesuits

72

69" Ad ea quæ dicta sunt, reducitur cura conveniens amicos conservandi, et ex adversariis benevolos reddendi."-Const. P. IV. c. 10. C.

70 Ibid. c. 2. § 5. F.

71 Ibid. c. 3. § 2.

72 Ibid. c. 3. A.

73 Examen. IV. § 16.

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are admitted as approved scholars. The vows which are then taken bind them instantly and firmly to the society, but not the society to them; and they must be renewed twice every year, on the festivals of the resurrection and nativity. Although the vow of poverty be made, together with the promise of renouncing their property, yet, with the General's sanction, they may retain possession of their temporalities for such a portion of their time of probation as he may think proper to allow.

The qualities to be desired and commended in the scholars are, acuteness of talent, brilliancy of example, and soundness of body." They are to be chosen men, picked from the flower of the troop; and the General has absolute" power in admitting or dismissing them, according to his expectations of their utility in promoting the designs of the Institute. They are not to be easily approved, lest the spirit of union by which the society is bound, should be weakened by their deficiencies.78

The approved scholars, as well as the coadjutors and professed, are comprised in the body of the society, these being the three classes

74 Const. P. IV. c. 3. § 3, 4.

75 Ibid. c. 3. § 2.

76"Selectos homines etiam inter Coadjutores formatos, aut Scholasticos retineri."--Const. P. VIII. c. 1. § 2.

77 Ibid. P. IX. c. 3. § 1.

78 Ibid. P. X. § 7.

81

When,

of which it is principally composed." therefore, at their their admission, they promise and vow to enter into the society, it must be understood of their progress to one of the two superior classes of coadjutors or professed.s0 But should they not have satisfactorily passed the time and course of their studies, the society is free to reject them from either class, if, in the opinion of the General, their reception would not be pleasant unto God. They are then permitted to depart, absolved from all their vows. In those cases of admission which are distant from the presence of the General, he may communicate his authority not only to provincials, rectors, and visitors, but even, in some cases, when there are none of the professed society within a convenient distance from the candidate for admission, to a bishop or dignitary of the Ichurch who is not a Jesuit.82

The vow which the society requires of the approved scholars, is in form the same as that which is made by the novices. It may not be administered as a sacred promise made unto man in the presence of his fellow-men, but it must be offered unto God alone.83 Yet notwithstanding

79 Const. P. V. c. 1. A.
81 Examen VII. § 1.
83 Const. P. V. c. 4. § 3. D.

80 Const. P. V. c. 1. A.
82 Ibid. § 2. B.

6

this solemn obligation, the Constitutions, in serious mockery of the divine attestation, provide a tacit evasion of it. Perpetual adherence is promised in the vow under this limitation, "omnia intelligendo juxta ipsius societatis Constitutiones;" but the Declarations supply this admirable reservation: "Conditio illa tacita, quæ inesse dicta est in voto coadjutorum, quod ad perpetuitatem attinet, etiam in hoc est intelligenda, scilicet, Si societas eos tenere volet.'"84 The Jesuits, therefore, exalt the society above their God. They compel their members to swear before their Maker, and they suffer them to keep their faith with him inviolate, just as long as the honourable society may think proper. Should the interest of the body require their dismissal, they are freely shorn of all their vows; because the society, setting the Deity at nought, can absolve them perfectly. It can liberate them also for a definite period, to recal them when the general interest may require their return: and then they must re-enter the society, bound, as formerly, by their vow of perpetual poverty and obedience. This may occur, and not unfrequently, when it is desirable that the society should secure the property which a Jesuit would have inherited. He is then made free from all his vows, and sent forth swiftly as an eagle to the prey. But as the lesser bird which

84 Const. P. V. c. 4. § 3. D.