10 LOYOLA A^B THE JESUITS. 



commanded to recognize the representative of God 

 on earth. Thus the young zealot makes no slav- 

 ish sacrifice of intellect and will ; at least, so he is 

 taught : for he sacrifices them, not to man, but to 

 his Maker. No limit is set to his submission: if 

 the Superior pronounces black to be white, he is 

 bound in conscience to acquiesce.^ 



Loyola's book of Sioiritual Exercises is well 

 known. In these exercises lies the hard and nar- 

 row path which is the only entrance to the Society 

 of Jesus. The book is, to all appearance, a dry and 

 superstitious formulary ; but, in the hands of a skil- 

 ful dh-ector of consciences, it has proved of terrible 

 efficacy. The novice, in solitude and darkness, day 

 after day and night after night, ponders its images 

 of perdition and despair. He is taught to hear, in 

 imagination, the bowlings of the damned, to see 

 theu' convulsive agonies, to feel the flames that 

 burn without consuming, to smell the corruption 

 of the tomb and the fumes of the infernal pit. He 

 must picture to himself an array of adverse armies, 

 one commanded by Satan on the plains of Babylon, 

 one encamped under Christ about the walls of 

 Jerusalem ; and the perturbed mind, humbled by 

 long contemplation of its own vileness, is ordered 

 to enroll itself under one or the other banner. 

 Then, the choice made, it is led to a region of 

 serenity and celestial peace, and soothed with im- 

 ages of divine benignity and grace. These medi- 

 tations last, without intermission, about a month, 



1 Those who wish to know the nature of the Jesuit virtue of obedi- 

 ence will find it set forth in the famous Letter on Obedience of Loyola 



