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The Struggle for Constitutional Government in the Early Years of the Society of Jesus*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
It is generally recognized that the centralized organization and strict discipline of the Jesuits played an important role in the Order's successful agitation against Protestantism during the Counterreformation. It is little known that during this period of great accomplishment the Society went through one of the most serious crises of its 400 years of existence—a rebellion, centered in Spain, against the allegedly dictatorial rule of the general and for a quasi-democratic form of governnient. This movement reveals the intrusion of constitutional ideas into an organization which usually has been held up as the prototype of autocracy and monolithic cohesion.
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References
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53. Decree 2, Ibid., p. 566.
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61. Ibid., chap. x, p. 118.
62. Ibid., p. 120.
63. Ibid.
64. Ibid., xi, 122.
65. Ibid., xii, 125–126.
66. Ibid., p. 127.
67. Ibid., xiii, 128
68. Ibid., p. 129.
69. Ibid.
70. Ibid., p. 130.
71. Ibid., xiv, 133.
72. Ibid., p. 134.
73. Ibid., xv, 138.
74. Ibid., p. 139.
75. Ibid., xvii.
76. Ibid., xviii.
77. Boehmer, p. 100.
78. Discurso, xix, 156.
79. Ibid., p. 160.
80. Ibid., Conclusion de este tratado, p. 164.
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82. Harney, p. 310.
83. Boehmer, p. 189.
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