Upon the floor is a red cross at which the postulant
or candidate kneels. The Superior hands him a small black crucifix,
which he takes in his left hand and presses to his heart, and the
Superior at the same time presents to him a dagger, which he grasps by
the blade and holds the point against his heart, the Superior still
holding it by the hilt, and thus addresses the postulant:
(The Superior speaks:)
My son, heretofore you have been taught to act the
dissembler: among Roman Catholics to be a Roman Catholic, and to be a
spy even among your own brethren; to believe no man, to trust no man.
Among the Reformers, to be a Reformer; among the Huguenots, to be a
Huguenot; among the Calvinists, to be a Calvinist; among other
Protestants, generally to be a Protestant; and obtaining their
confidence, to seek even to preach from their pulpits, and to denounce
with all the vehemence in your nature our Holy Religion and the Pope;
and even to descend so low as to become a Jew among Jews, that you might
be enabled to gather together all information for the benefit of your
Order as a faithful soldier of the Pope. You have been taught to plant
insidiously the seeds of jealousy and hatred between communities,
provinces, states that were at peace, and to incite them to deeds of
blood, involving them in war with each other, and to create revolutions
and civil wars in countries that were independent and prosperous,
cultivating the arts and the sciences and enjoying the blessings of
peace; to take sides with the combatants and to act secretly with your
brother Jesuit, who might be engaged on the other side, but openly
opposed to that with which you might be connected, only that the Church
might be the gainer in the end, in the conditions fixed in the treaties
for peace and that the end justifies the means. You have been taught
your duty as a spy, to gather all statistics, facts and information in
your power from every source; to ingratiate yourself into the confidence
of the family circle of Protestants and heretics of every class and
character, as well as that of the merchant, the banker, the lawyer,
among the schools and universities, in parliaments and legislatures, and
the judiciaries and councils of state, and to be all things to all men,
for the Pope's sake, whose servants we are unto death. You have
received all your instructions heretofore as a novice, a neophyte, and
have served as co-adjurer, confessor and priest, but you have not yet
been invested with all that is necessary to command in the Army of
Loyola in the service of the Pope. You must serve the proper time as the
instrument and executioner as directed by your superiors; for none can
command here who has not consecrated his labours with the blood of the
heretic; for "without the shedding of blood no man can be saved".
Therefore, to fit yourself for your work and make your own salvation
sure, you will, in addition to your former oath of obedience to your
order and allegiance to the Pope, repeat after me:
(Text of the Oath:)
I_______________ , now in the presence of Almighty
God, the blessed Virgin Mary, the blessed St. John the Baptist, the
Holy Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, and all the saints, sacred host
of Heaven, and to you, my Ghostly Father, the superior general of the
Society of Jesus, founded by St. Ignatius Loyola, in the pontification
of Paul the Third, and continued to the present, do by the womb of the
Virgin, the matrix of God, and the rod of Jesus Christ, declare and
swear that His Holiness, the Pope, is Christ's Vice-Regent and is the
true and only head of the Catholic or Universal Church throughout the
earth; and that by the virtue of the keys of binding and loosing given
to His Holiness by my Saviour, Jesus Christ, he hath power to depose
heretical Kings, Princes, States, Commonwealths, and Governments, and
they may be safely destroyed. Therefore to the utmost of my power I will
defend this doctrine and His Holiness's right and custom against all
usurpers of the heretical or Protestant authority whatever, especially
the Lutheran Church of Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and
the now pretended authority and Churches of England and Scotland, and
the branches of same now established in Ireland and on the continent of
America and elsewhere and all adherents in regard that they may be
usurped and heretical, opposing the sacred Mother Church of Rome. I do
now denounce and disown any allegiance as due to any heretical king,
prince or State, named Protestant or Liberal, or obedience to any of
their laws, magistrates or officers. I do further declare the doctrine
of the Churches of England and Scotland of the Calvinists, Huguenots,
and others of the name of Protestants or Masons to be damnable, and they
themselves to be damned who will not forsake the same. I do further
declare that I will help, assist, and advise all or any of His
Holiness's agents, in any place where I should be, in Switzerland,
Germany, Holland, Ireland or America, or in any other kingdom or
territory I shall come to, and do my utmost to extirpate the heretical
Protestant or Masonic doctrines and to destroy all their pretended
powers, legal or otherwise. I do further promise and declare that,
notwithstanding, I am dispensed with to assume any religion heretical
for the propagation of the Mother Church's interest; to keep secret and
private all her agents' counsels from time to time, as they entrust me,
and not to divulge, directly or indirectly, by word, writing or
circumstances whatever; but to execute all that should be proposed,
given in charge, or discovered unto me by you, my Ghostly Father, or any
of this sacred order. I do further promise and declare that I will have
no opinion or will of my own or any mental reservation whatever, even
as a corpse or cadaver (perinde ac cadaver), but will
unhesitatingly obey each and every command that I may receive from my
superiors in the militia of the Pope and of Jesus Christ. That I will go
to any part of the world whithersoever I may be sent, to the frozen
regions north, jungles of India, to the centres of civilisation of
Europe, or to the wild haunts of the barbarous savages of America
without murmuring or repining, and will be submissive in all things,
whatsoever is communicated to me. I do further promise and declare that I
will, when opportunity presents, make and wage relentless war, secretly
and openly, against all heretics, Protestants and Masons, as I am
directed to do, to extirpate them from the face of the whole earth; and
that I will spare neither age, sex nor condition, and that will hang,
burn, waste, boil, flay, strangle, and bury alive these infamous
heretics; rip up the stomachs and wombs of their women, and crush their
infants' heads against the walls in order to annihilate their execrable
race. That when the same cannot be done openly I will secretly use the
poisonous cup, the strangulation cord, the steel of the poniard, or the
leaden bullet, regardless of the honour, rank, dignity or authority of
the persons, whatever may be their condition in life, either public or
private, as I at any time may be directed so to do by any agents of the
Pope or Superior of the Brotherhood of the Holy Father of the Society of
Jesus. In confirmation of which I hereby dedicate my life, soul, and
all corporal powers, and with the dagger which I now receive I will
subscribe my name written in my blood in testimony thereof; and should I
prove false, or weaken in my determination, may my brethren and fellow
soldiers of the militia of the Pope cut off my hands and feet and my
throat from ear to ear, my belly be opened and sulphur burned therein
with all the punishment that can be inflicted upon me on earth, and my
soul shall be tortured by demons in eternal hell forever. That I will in
voting always vote for a Knight of Columbus in preference to a
Protestant, especially a Mason, and that I will leave my party so to do;
that if two Catholics are on the ticket I will satisfy myself which is
the better supporter of Mother Church and vote accordingly. That I will
not deal with or employ a Protestant if in my power to deal with or
employ a Catholic. That I will place Catholic girls in Protestant
families that a weekly report may be made of the inner movements of the
heretics. That I will provide myself with arms and ammunition that I may
be in readiness when the word is passed, or I am commanded to defend
the Church either as an individual or with the militia of the Pope. All
of which I,_______________, do swear by the blessed Trinity and blessed
sacrament which I am now to receive to perform and on part to keep this
my oath. In testimony hereof, I take this most holy and blessed
sacrament of the Eucharist and witness the same further with my name
written with the point of this dagger dipped in my own blood and seal in
the face of this holy sacrament.
(He receives the wafer from the Superior and writes
his name with the point of his dagger dipped in his own blood taken from
over his heart.)
(Superior speaks:)
You will now rise to your feet and I will instruct
you in the Catechism necessary to make yourself known to any member of
the Society of Jesus belonging to this rank. In the first place, you, as
a Brother Jesuit, will with another mutually make the ordinary sign of
the cross as any ordinary Roman Catholic would; then one crosses his
wrists, the palms of his hands open, and the other in answer crosses his
feet, one above the other; the first points with forefinger of the
right hand to the centre of the palm of the left, the other with the
forefinger of the left hand points to the centre of the palm of the
right; the first then with his right hand makes a circle around his
head, touching it; the other then with the forefinger of his left hand
touches the left side of his body just below his heart; the first then
with his right hand draws it across the throat of the other, and the
latter then with a dagger down the stomach and abdomen of the first. The
first then says Iustum; and the other answers Necar; the first Reges;
the other answers Impious. The first will then present a small piece of
paper folded in a peculiar manner, four times, which the other will cut
longitudinally and on opening the name Jesu will be found written upon
the head and arms of a cross three times. You will then give and receive
with him the following questions and answers:
From whither do you come? Answer: The Holy faith.
Whom do you serve? Answer: The Holy Father at Rome, the Pope, and the Roman Catholic Church Universal throughout the world.
Who commands you? Answer: The Successor of St.
Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus or the Soldiers of
Jesus Christ.
Who received you? Answer: A venerable man in white hair.
How? Answer: With a naked dagger, I kneeling upon the cross beneath the banners of the Pope and of our sacred order.
Did you take an oath? Answer: I did, to destroy
heretics and their governments and rulers, and to spare neither age, nor
sex, nor condition; to be as a corpse without any opinion or will of my
own, but to implicitly obey my Superiors in all things without
hesitation or murmuring.
Will you do that? Answer: I will.
How do you travel? Answer: In the bark of Peter the fisherman.
Whither do you travel? Answer: To the four quarters of the globe.
For what purpose? Answer: To obey the orders of my
General and Superiors and execute the will of the Pope and faithfully
fulfil the conditions of my oaths.
Go ye, then, into all the world and take possession
of all lands in the name of the Pope. He who will not accept him as the
Vicar of Jesus and his Vice-Regent on earth, let him be accursed and
exterminated.
[Note: The following books on (or particularly relevant to) the Jesuits are held by the EIPS Library:
Anon.: The Female Jesuit. London, 1851
Anon.: The Mystery of Jesuitism. London, 1658
Anon.: The Secret Instructions of the Jesuits. London, 1824
Anon.: The Secret Instructions of the Jesuits. London, 1824
Barrett, E.B.: The Jesuit Enigma. London, 1929
Barthel, M: The Jesuits. New York, 1984
Bert, M.P.: Gury's Doctrines of the Jesuits. London, 1947
Blakeney, R.P.: Alphonsus Liguori. London, 1852
Brodrick, J., S.J.: The Origin of the Jesuits. New York, 1960
Bungener, L.L.F.: The Jesuits in France or The Priest and the Huguenot. London, 1859
Coape, H.C.: In a Jesuit Net. London, no date
Dalton, E.: The Jesuits. London, 1843
De Courson, R.: Concerning Jesuits. London, 1902
Gallahue, J.: The Jesuit. New York, 1973
Goodier, A.: The Jesuits. London, 1929
Griesinger, T.: History of the Jesuits. London, 1903
Groves, H.C.: The Doctrines and Practices of the Jesuits. London, 1889
Hanna, S.: Jesuitism: or Catholic Action. Belfast, 1938
Hastings, M.: Jesuit Child. Newton Abbot, 1972
Hillerbrand, H.: The Reformation. A Narrative History related by Contemporary Observers and Participants. Ann Arbor, 1989
Lathbury, T.: The State of Popery and Jesuitism in England. London, 1838
Lehmann, L.H.: The Secret of Catholic Power. New York, no date
Liguori, A.M.: The Council of Trent. Dublin, 1846
MacPherson, H.: The Jesuits in History. London, 1914
Martin, M.: The Jesuits. New York, 1987
Nicolini, G.B.: History of the Jesuits. London, 1854
Paisley, I.R.K.: The Jesuits. Belfast, no date
Paris, E.: The Secret History of the Jesuits. London, 1975
Ridley, F.A.: The Jesuits: A Study in Counter-Revolution. London, 1938
Roberts, Archbishop, S.J.: Black Popes. London, 1954
Robertson, A.: The Roman Catholic Church in Italy. London, 1903
Seebohm, F.: The Epoch of the Protestant Reformation. London, 1877
Seymour, M.H.: Mornings among the Jesuits at Rome. London, 1850
Steinmetz, A.: History of the Jesuits. London, 1848 (3 Vols.)
Walsh, W.: The Jesuits in Great Britain. New York, 1903
Wild, J.: Canada and the Jesuits. Toronto, 1889
Wylie, J.A.: Jesuitism: Its Rise, Progress and Insidious Workings. London, no date
Ybarra, T.R. (translator): The Kaiser's Memoirs, by Wilhelm II. New York, 1922]
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