The Jesuits: Their Origin and Order, Morality and Practices, Suppression and Restoration (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

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Excerpt from The Jesuits: Their Origin and Order, Morality and Practices, Suppression and Restoration

The Origin and Rise of the Jesuits.

In 1521, Don Inigo Lopez de Ricalde, the youngest son of the noble house of Loyola, was severely wounded in both legs in the defence of Pampeluna against the French. Fired with the spirit of ancient chivalry, he had panted after knightly honours and renown. Excited by the vivid pictures of legendary romance, his mind was filled with airy dreams of hazardous adventure and feats of daring valour.

- "Races and games,
Or titling furniture, emblazoned shields,
Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds,
Bases and tinsel trappings, gorgeous knights
At joust and tournament."

But stretched on a bed of languishment, with shattered limbs, and little hope of their perfect recovery, how are these gorgeous phantasms to be grasped and realized? To these, alas! he must now bid farewell - farewell for ever. Does he then return to a calm composure of mind, resolved to content himself with the sober realities of life? No. Racked by disappointment and agitated by suffering, as he lay doomed to listless and pining inactivity on his couch, he happened to have had put into his hands a volume of the Lives of the Saints; whether by accident or design history telleth not. But, be that as it may, the effect on his excitable and chivalrous spirit was, in its instantaneousness and power, almost magical. The perusal of that work suddenly changed the entire current of his soul. "Behold," says his biographer, Vieyra, "behold the importance of reading good books! If it had been a book of knight errantry, Ignacio would have become a great knight errant; it was the Lives of the Saints and Ignacio became a great saint. If he had read about knights, he might have proved a knight of the burning sword; he read about saints, and proved a saint of the burning torch." From that hour the chivalry of romance and worldly adventure is…

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