Loyola's military training deeply affected the character
of the new order. The Jesuits, as their Protestant opponents styled them, were
to be an army of spiritual soldiers, living under the strictest obedience to
their head, or general. Like soldiers, again, they were to remain in the world,
and there fight manfully for the Church and against heretics. The society grew
rapidly; before Loyola's death it included over a thousand members; and in the
seventeenth century it became the most influential of all the religious orders.
[21] The activity of the Jesuits as preachers, confessors, teachers, and
missionaries did much to roll back the rising tide of Protestantism in Europe.
[21] In 1773 A.D. the pope suppressed the society, on the
ground that it had outgrown its usefulness. It was revived in many European
countries during the nineteenth century.
JESUIT SCHOOLS
The Jesuits gave special attention to education, for they
realized the importance of winning over the young people to the Church. Their
schools were so good that even Protestant children often attended them. The
popularity of Jesuit teachers arose partly from the fact that they always tried
to lead, not drive their pupils. Light punishments, short lessons, many
holidays, and a liberal use of prizes and other distinctions formed some of the
attractive features of their system of training. It is not surprising that the
Jesuits became the instructors of the Roman Catholic world. They called their
colleges the "fortresses of the faith."
