MATTER IN WHICH FATHERS MUST CONDUCT THEMSELVES PART V

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and that they are given a director elected and established by the confessor of the family, to be permanently and always
subject to all the reprehensions and habits of the Society; and if any do not wish to submit to all, they must be sent to
the houses of their fathers, or to those from which they were brought, accusing them directly of extravagance and of
glaring and stained character.

9. The care of the health of the widows, and to proportion some amusement, it is not the least important that we
should care for their salvation; and so, if they complain of some indisposition, we must prohibit the fast, the hair cloth
girdle, and the discipline, without permitting them to go to church; further continue the direction, cautiously and secretly
with such, that they may be examined in their houses; if they are given admission into the garden, and edifice of the
college, with secrecy; and if they consent to converse and secretly entertain with those that they prefer.

10. To the end that we may obtain, that the widows employ their utmost obsequiousness to the Society, it is the duty
to represent to them the perfection of the life of the holy, who have renounced the world, estranged themselves from
their relations, and despising their fortunes, consecrating themselves to the service of the Supreme Being with entire
resignation and content. It will be necessary to produce the same effect, that those who turn away to the Constitutions
of the Society, and their relative examination to the abandonment of all things. We must cite examples of the widows
who have reached holiness in a very short time; giving hopes of their being canonized, if their perseverance does not
decay; and promising for their cases our influence with the Holy Father.

11. We must impress in their souls the persuasion that, if they desire to enjoy complete tranquility of conscience it
will be necessary for them to follow without repugnance, without murmuring, nor tiring, the direction of the confessor, so
in the spiritual, as in the eternal, that she may be found destined to the same God, by their guidance.

12. Also we must direct with opportunity, that the Lord does not desire that they should give alms, nor yet to fathers
of an exemplary life, known and approved, without consulting beforehand with their confessor, and regulating the
dictation of the same.

13. The confessors must take the greatest care, that the widows and their daughters of the confessional, do not go
to see other fathers (i.e. non-Jesuit priests) under any pretext, nor with them. For this, we must praise our Society as
the Order most illustrious of them all; of greater utility in the Church, and of greater authority with the Pope and with the
princes; perfection in itself; then dismiss the dream of them, and menace them, that we can, and that we are no
correspondents to them, we can say, that we do not consent to froth and do as among other monks who count in their
convents many ignorant, stupid loungers who are indolent in regard to the other life, and intriguers in that to disorder,
&c.

14. The confessors must propose and persuade the widows to assign ordinary pensions and other annual quotas to
the colleges and houses of profession for their sustenance with especially to



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the professed house at Rome; and not forgetting to remind them of the restoration of the ornaments of the temples and
replenishing of the wax, the wine, and other necessaries for the celebration of the mass.

15. If they do not make relinquishment of their property to the Society, it will be made manifest to them, on apparent
occasion in particular, when they are found to be sick, or in danger of death; that there are many colleges to be
founded; and that they may be excited with sweetness and disinterestedness, to make some disbursements as merit for
God, and in that they can found his eternal glory.

16. In the same manner, we must proceed with regard to princes and other well doers, making them to see that such
foundations will be made to perpetuate their memory in this world, and gain eternal happiness, and if some malevolent
persons adduce the example of Jesus Christ, saying, that then he had no place to recline his head, the Society bearing
his name should be poor in imitation of himself, we must make it known and imprint it in the imagination of those, and of
all the world, that the Church has varied, and that in this day we have become a State; and we must show authority and
grand measures against its enemies that are very powerful, or like that little stone prognosticated by the prophet, that,
divided, came to be a great mountain. Inculcate constantly to the widows who dedicate their alms and ornaments to the
temples, that the greater perfection is in disposing of the affection and earthly things, ceding their possession to Jesus
Christ and his companions.

17. Being very little, that which we must promise to the widows, who dedicate and educate their children for the
world, we must apply some remedy to it.



CHAPTER VIII.

METHODS BY WHICH THE CHILDREN OF RICH WIDOWS

MAY BE CAUSED TO EMBRACE THE RELIGIOUS STATE,

OR OF DEVOTION.

1. To secure our object, we must create the custom, that the mothers treat them severely, and show to them, that we
are in love with them. Coming to induce the mothers to do away with their tastes, from the most tender age, and
regarding, restraining, &c., &c., the children especially; prohibiting decorations and adornments when they enter upon
competent age; that they are inspired in the vocation for the cloister, promising them an endowment of consideration, if
they embrace a similar state; representing to them the insipidity that is brought with matrimony, and the disgust that has
been experienced in it; signifying to them the weight they would sit under, for not having maintained in the celibate.
Lastly, coming to direct in the conclusions arrived at by the daughters of the widows, so fastidious of living with their
mothers, that their feet will be directed to enter into a convent.

2. We must make ourselves intimate with the sons of the widows, and if for them an object or the Society, and cause
them to penetrate the intent of our colleges, making them to see things that can call





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their attention by whatever mode, such as gardens, vineyards, country houses, and the farm houses where the masters
go to recreate; talk to them of the voyages the Jesuits have made to different countries, of their treating with princes,
and of much that can capture the young; cause them to note the cleanliness of the refectory, the commodiousness of
the lodges, the agreeable conversation we have among ourselves, the suavity of our rule, and that we have all for the
object of the greater glory of God; show to them the preeminence of our Order over all the others, taking care that the
conversations we have shall be diverting to pass to that of piety.

3. At proposing to them the religious state, have care of doing so, as if by revelation; and in general, insinuating
directly with sagacity, the advantage and sweetness of our institute above all others; and in conversation cause them to
understand the great sin that will be committed against the vocation of the Most High; in fine, induce them to make some
spiritual exercises that they may be enlightened to the choice of this state.

4. We must do all that is possible that the masters and professors of the youth indicated shall be of the Society, to
the end, of being always vigilant over these, and counsel them; but if they cannot be reduced, we must cause them to
be deprived of some things, causing that their mothers shall manifest their censure and authority of the house, that they
may be tired of that sort of life; and if, finally, we cannot obtain their will to enter the Society, we must labor; because we
can remand them to other colleges of ours that are at a distance, that they may study, procuring impediment, that their
mothers show endearment and affection, at the same time, continuing for our part, in drawing them to us by suavity of
methods.



CHAPTER IX.

UPON THE AUGMENTING OF REVENUE IN THE COLLEGES.

1. We must do all that is possible, because we do not know if bound with the last vow of him, who is the claimant of
an inheritance, meanwhile we do not know if it is confirmed, to not be had in the Society a younger brother, or of some
other reason of much entity. Before all, that which we must procure, are the augmentations of the Society with rules to
the ends agreed upon by the superiors, which must be conformable: for that the Church returns to its primitive splendor
for the greater glory of God; of fate that all the clergy shall be found animated by a united spirit. To this end, we must
publish by all methods, that the Society is composed in part of professors so poor, that are wanting of the most
indispensable, to not be for the beneficence of the faithful; and that another part is of fathers also poor, although living
upon the product of some household property; but not to be grievous to the public, in the midst of their studies, their
ministry, as are other ordinary mendicants. The spiritual directors of princes, great men, accommodating widows, and of
whom we have abundant hope, that they will be disposed at last to make gifts to the Society in exchange for spiritual
and eternal things, that will be proportioned, the lands and temporalities which they possess; for the same, carrying
always the idea, that we are not to lose the



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occasion of receiving always as much as may be offered. If promises and the fulfillment of them is retarded, they are to
be remembered with precaution, dissimulating as much as we can the coveting of riches. When some confessor of
personages or other people, will not be apt, or wants subtility, that in these subjects is indispensable, he will be retired
with opportunity, although others may be placed anticipated; and if it be entirely necessary to the penitents, it will be
made necessary to take out the destitute to distant colleges, representing that the Society has need for them there;
because it being known that some young widows, having unexpectedly failed, the Society not having the legacy of very
precious movables, having been careless by not accepting in due time. But to receive these things, we could not attend
at the time, and only at the good will of the penitent.

2. To attract the prelates, canonicals and other rich ecclesiastics, it is necessary to employ certain arts, and in place
procuring them to practice in our houses spiritual exercises, and gradually and energetically of the affection that we
profess to divine things; so that they will be affectionate towards the Society and that they will soon offer pledges of
their adhesion.

3. The confessors must not forget to ask with the greatest caution and on adequate occasions of those who confess,
what are their names, families, relatives, friends, and properties, informing their successors who follow them, the state,
intention in which they will be found, and the resolution which they have taken; that which they have not yet determined
obtaining, having to form a plan for the future to the Society. When it is founded, whence directly there are hopes of
utility; for it will not be convenient to ask all at once; they will be counseled to make their confession each week, to
disembarrass the conscience much before, or to the title of penitence. They will be caused to inform the confessor with
repetition, of that which at one time they have not given sufficient light; and if they have been successful by this means,
she will come, being a woman, to make confession with frequency, and visit our church; and being a man, he will be
invited to our houses and we are to make him familiar with ourselves.

4. That which is said in regard to widows, must have equal application to the merchants and neighbors of all classes,
as being rich and married, but without children, of that plan by which the Society can arrive to be their heirs, if we put in
play the measures that we may indicate; but over all, it will be well to have present, as said, near the rich devotees that
treat with us, and of whom the vulgar can murmur, when more, if they are of a class not very elevated.

5. Procuring for the rectors of the colleges entrance for all the ways of the houses, parks, groves, forests, lawns,
arable lands, vineyards, olive orchards, hunting grounds, and whatever species of inheritances which they meet with in
the end of their rectory; if their owners pertain to the nobility, to the clergy, or are negotiators, particulars, or religious
communities, inquiring the revenues of each one, their loads and what they pay for them. All these dates or notices they
are to seek for with great skill and to a fixed point, energetically yet from the confessional, then

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of the relations of friendship; or of the accidental conversations; and the confessor meets with a penitent of possible, he
will be placed in knowledge of the rector, obtaining by all methods the one conserved.

6. The essential point to build upon, is the following: that we must so manage, that in the ends we gain the will and
affections of our penitents, and other persons with whom we treat, accommodating ourselves to their inclinations if they
are conducive. The Provincials will take care to direct some of us to points, in which reside the nobility and the powerful;
and if the Provincials do not act with opportunity, the rectors must notice with anticipation, the crops (the field of
operations) that are there, which we go to examine.

7. When we receive the sons of strong houses in the Society, they must show whether they will be easy to acquire
the contracts and titles of possession; and if so they were to enter of themselves, of which they may be caused to cede
some of their property to the college, or the usufruct (profit) or for rent, or in other form, or if they can come for a time
into the Society, the gain of which may be very much of an object, to give a special understanding to the great and
powerful, the narrowness in which we live, and the debts that are pressing us.

8. When the widows, or our married devoted women, do not have more than daughters, we must persuade them to
the same life of devotion, or to that of the cloister; but that except the endowment that they may give, they can enter
their property in the Society gently; but when they have husbands, those that would object to the Society, they will be
catechized; and others who desire to enter as religiousness in other Orders, with the promise of some reduced amount.
When there may be an only son, he must be attracted at all cost, inculcating the vocation as made by Jesus Christ;
causing him to be entirely disembarrassed from the fear of its fathers, and persuading him to make a sacrifice very
acceptable to the Almighty, that he must withdraw to His authority, abandon the paternal house and enter in the Society;
the which, if he so succeeds, after having given part to the General, he will be sent to a distant novitiate; but if they
have daughters, they will primarily dispose the daughters for a religious life; and they will be caused to enter into some
monastery, and afterwards be received as daughters in the Society, with the succession of its properties.

9. The Superiors will place in the channel of the circumstances, the confessors of these widows and married people,
that they on all future occasions may act for the benefit of the Society; and when by means of one, they cannot take our
part he will be replaced with another; and if it is made necessary, he will be sent to great distances, of a manner that he
cannot follow understandingly with these families.

10. If we succeed in convincing the widows and devoted persons, who aspire with fervor to a perfect life, and that the
better means to obtain it is by ceding all their properties to the Society, supporting by their revenues, that they will be
religiously administered until their death, conforming to the





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degree of necessity in which they may be found, and the just reason that may be employed for their persuasion is, that
by this mode, they can be exclusively dedicated to God; without attentions and molestations, which would perplex them,
and that it is the only road to reach the highest degree of perfection.

11. The Superiors craving the confidence of the rich, who are attached to the Society, delivering receipts of its
proper hand writing whose payment afterwards will differ; not forgetting to often visit those who loan, to exhort them
above all in their infirmities of consideration, as to whom will devolve the papers of the debt; because it is not so to be
found mention of the Society in their testament; and by this course we must acquire properties, without giving cause for
us to be hated by the heirs.

12. We must also in a grand manner ask for a loan, with payment of annual interest, and employ the same capital in
other speculation to produce greater revenues to the Society; for at such a time, succeeding to move them with
compassion to that which they will lend to us, we will not lose the interest in the testament of donation, when they see
that they found colleges and churches.

13. The Society can report the utilities of commerce, and value the name of the merchant of credit, whose friendship
we may possess.

14. Among the peoples where our fathers reside, we must have physicians faithful to the Society, whom we can
especially recommend to the sick, and to paint under an aspect very superior to that of other religious orders, and
secure direction that we shall be called to assist the powerful, particularly in the hour of death.

15. That the confessors shall visit with assiduity the sick, particularly those who are in danger, and to honestly
eliminate the other fathers, which the superiors will procure, when the confessor sees that he is obliged to remove the
other from the suffering, to replace and maintain the sick in his good intentions. Meanwhile we must inculcate as much
as we can with prudence, the fear of hell, &c., &c., or when, the lesser ones of purgatory; demonstrating that as water
will put out fire, so will the same alms blot out the sin; and that we cannot employ the alms better, than in the maintaining
and subsidizing of the persons, who, by their vocation, have made profession of caring for the salvation of their
neighbor; that in this manner the sick can be made to participate in their merits, and find satisfaction for their own sins;
placing before them that charity covereth a multitude of sins; and that also, we can describe that charity, is as a nuptial
vestment, without which, no one can be admitted to the heavenly table. in fine it will be necessary to move them to the
citations of the scriptures, and of the holy fathers, that according to the capacity of the sick, we can judge what is most
efficacious to move them.

16. We must teach the women, that they must complain of the vices of their husbands, and the disturbances which
they occasion, that they can rob them in secret of some amounts of money, to offer to God, in expiation of the sins of
their husbands, and to obtain their pardon.



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CHAPTER X.

OF THE PARTICULAR RIGOR OF DISCIPLINE

IN THE SOCIETY.

1. If there shall be anyone dismissed under any protest, as an enemy of the Society, whatever may be his condition,
or age; all those who have been moved to become the devotees of our churches; or of visiting ourselves; or who having
been made to take the alms on the way to other churches; or who having been found to give to other fathers; or who
having dissuaded any rich man, and well intentioned towards our Society, or giving anything; or in the time in which he
can dispose of his properties, having shown great affection for his relations with this Society; because it is a great proof
of a mortified disposition; and we conclude that the professions are entirely mortified; or also, that he having scattered
all the alms of the penitents, or of the friends of the Society, in favor of his poor relations. Furthermore, that he may not
complain afterwards of the cause of his expulsion, it will be necessary to thrust him from us directly; but we can prohibit
him from hearing confessions, which will mortify him, and vex him by imposing upon him most vile offices, obliging him
each day to do things that are the most repugnant; he will be removed from the highest studies and honorable
employments; he will be reprimanded in the chapters by public censures; he will be excluded from the recreations and
prohibited from all conversation with strangers; he will be deprived of his vestments and the uses of other things when
they are not indispensable, until he begins to murmur and becomes impatient; then he can be expelled as a shameful
person, to give a bad example to others; and if it is necessary to give account to his relatives, or to the prelates of the
Church, of the reason for which he has been thrust out, it will be sufficient to say that he does not possess the spirit of
the Society.

2. Furthermore, having also expelled all those who may have scrupled to acquire properties for the Society, we must
direct, that they are too much addicted to their own judgment. If we desire to give reason of their conduct to the
Provincials, it is necessary not to give them a hearing; but call for the rule, that they are obligated to a blind obedience.

3. It will be necessary to note, whence the beginning and whence their youth, those who have great affection for the
Society; and those which we recognize their affection until the furthest orders, or until their relatives, or until the poor
shall be necessarily disposed, little by little, as carefully said, to go out; then they are useless.



CHAPTER XI.

HOW WE MUST CONDUCT OURSELVES

UNITEDLY AGAINST THOSE

WHO HAVE BEEN EXPELLED FROM THE SOCIETY.

1. As those whom we have expelled, when knowing little or something of the secrets, the most times are noxious to
the Society for the same, it shall be necessary to obviate their efforts by the following method, before thrusting them
out; it will be necessary



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to obligate them to promise, by writing, and under oath, that they will never by writing or speaking, do anything which
may be prejudicial to the Society; and it will be good that the Superiors guard a point of their evil inclinations, of their
defects and of their vices; that they are the same, having to manifest in the discharge of their duties, following the
custom of the Society, for that, if it should be necessary, this point can serve near the great, and the prelates to hinder
their advancement.

2. Constant notice must be given to an the colleges of their having been expelled; and we must exaggerate the
general motives of their expulsion; as the little mortification of their spirit; their disobedience; their little love for spiritual
exercises; their self love, &c., &c. Afterwards, we must admonish them, that they must not have any correspondence
with them; and they must speak of them as strangers; that the language of all shall be uniform, and that it may be told
everywhere, that the Society never expels any one without very grave causes, and that as the sea casts up dead
bodies, &c., &c. We must insinuate with caution, similar reasons to these, causing them to be abhorred by the people,
that for their expulsion it may appear plausible.

3. In the domestic exhortations, it will be necessary to persuade people that they have been turned out as unquiet
persons; that they continue to beg each moment to enter anew into the Society; and it will be good to exaggerate the
misfortunes of those who have perished miserably, after having separated from the Society.

4. It will also be opportune to send forth the accusations, that they have gone out from the Society, which we can
formulate by means of grave persons, who will everywhere repeat that the Society never expels any one but for grave
causes; and that they never part with their healthy members; the which they can confirm by their zeal, and show in
general for the salvation of the souls of them that do not pertain to them; and how much greater will it not be for the
salvation of their own.

5. Afterwards, the Society must prepare and attract by all classes of benefits, the magnates, or prelates, with whom
those who have been expelled begin to enjoy some authority and credit. It will be necessary to show that the common
good of an Order so celebrated as useful in the Church, must be of more consideration, than that if a particular one
who has been cast out. If an this affliction preserves some affection for those expelled, it will be good to indicate the
reasons which have caused their expulsion; and yet exaggerate the causes the more that they were not very true; with
such they can draw their conclusions as to the probable consequences.

6. Of all modes, it will be necessary that they particularly have abandoned the Society by their own free will; not
being promoted to a single employment or dignity in the Church; that they would not submit themselves and much that
pertains to the Society; and that all the world should withdraw from them that desire to depend on them.