"When a Jesuit of the minor rank is
to be elevated to command, he is conducted into the Chapel of the Convent
of the Order, where there are only three others present, the principal
or Superior standing in front of the altar. On either side stands a
monk, one of whom holds a banner of yellow and white, which are the
Papal colors, and the other a black banner with a dagger and red cross
above a skull and crossbones, with the word INRI, and below them the words IUSTUM, NECAR, REGES, IMPIOUS.
The meaning of which is: It
is just to exterminate or annihilate impious or heretical Kings, Governments,
or Rulers. 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:"
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 insidiously plant
the seeds of jealousy and hatred between communities, provinces, states
that were at peace, and 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 labors 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---
The Extreme Oath of the Jesuits:
"1, _ now, in the presence of Almighty
God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the blessed Michael the Archangel, the
blessed St. John the Baptist, the holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul
and all the saints and sacred hosts of heaven, and to you, my ghostly
father, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, founded by St.
Ignatius Loyola in the Pontificate 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 virtue of the
keys of binding and loosing, given to his Holiness by my Savior, Jesus
Christ, he hath power to depose heretical kings, princes, states, commonwealths
and governments, all being illegal without his sacred confirmation and
that they may safely be destroyed. Therefore, to the utmost of my power
I shall and will defend this doctrine of his Holiness' right and custom
against all usurpers of the heretical or Protestant authority whatever,
especially the Lutheran of Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
and the now pretended authority and churches of England and Scotland,
and branches of the same now established in Ireland and on the Continent
of America and elsewhere; and all adherents in regard that they be usurped
and heretical, opposing the sacred Mother Church of Rome. I do now renounce
and disown any allegiance as due to any heretical king, prince or state
named Protestants or Liberals, or obedience to any of the laws, magistrates
or officers.
I do further declare that the doctrine
of the churches of England and Scotland, of the Calvinists, Huguenots
and others of the name Protestants or Liberals to be damnable and they
themselves damned who will not forsake the same.
I do further declare, that I will help,
assist, and advise all or any of his Holiness' agents in any place wherever
I shall be, in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
England, Ireland or America, or in any other Kingdom or territory I
shall come to, and do my uttermost to extirpate the heretical Protestants
or Liberals' doctrines and to destroy all their pretended powers, regal
or otherwise.
I do further promise and declare, that
notwithstanding I am dispensed with, to assume my religion heretical,
for the propaganda of the Mother Church's interest, to keep secret and
private all her agents' counsels from time to time, as they may entrust
me and not to divulge, directly or indirectly, by word, writing or circumstance
whatever; but to execute all that shall be proposed, given in charge
or discovered unto me, by you, my ghostly father, or any of this sacred
covenant.
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 may go to any part of the world
withersoever I may be sent, to the frozen regions of the North, the
burning sands of the desert of Africa, or the jungles of India, to the
centers of civilization 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 communicated to me.
I furthermore promise and
declare that I will, when opportunity present, make and wage relentless
war, secretly or openly, against all heretics, Protestants and Liberals,
as I am directed to do, to extirpate and exterminate them from the face
of the whole earth; and that I will spare neither age, sex or condition;
and that I will hang, 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
forever their execrable race. That when the same cannot be done openly,
I will secretly use the poisoned cup, the strangulating cord, the steel
of the poniard or the leaden bullet, regardless of the honor, rank,
dignity, or authority of the person or 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 agent of the Pope or Superior of the Brotherhood
of the Holy Faith, of the Society of Jesus.
In confirmation of which, I hereby dedicate
my life, my soul and all my corporal powers, and with this dagger which
I now receive, I will subscribe my name written in my own 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 my feet, and my throat from ear to ear, my belly opened
and sulphur burned therein, with all the punishment that can be inflicted
upon me on earth and my soul be tortured by demons in an eternal hell
forever!
All of which, I, _, do swear by the Blessed
Trinity and blessed Sacraments, which I am now to receive, to perform
and on my part to keep inviolable; and do call all the heavenly and
glorious host of heaven to witness the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist,
and witness the same further with my name written and with the point
of this dagger dipped in my own blood and sealed in the face of this
holy covenant."
(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 cross 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
center of the palm of the left, the other with the forefinger of the
left hand points to the center 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 meaning of which has already been explained.) "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:
Question From whither do you come? Answer The Holy faith.
Q. Whom do you serve?
A. The Holy Father at Rome, the Pope, and the Roman Catholic Church Universal
throughout the world.
Q. Who commands you?
A. The Successor of St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus
or the Soldiers of Jesus Christ.
Q. Who received you? A. A
venerable man in white hair.
Q. How?
A. With a naked dagger, I kneeling upon the cross beneath the banners of
the Pope and of our sacred order.
Q. Did you take an oath?
A. I did, to destroy heretics and their governments and rulers, and to spare
neither age, 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 of murmuring.
Q. Will you do that? A. I
will.
Q. How do you travel? A. In
the bark of Peter the fisherman.
Q. Whither do you travel? A. To the four quarters of the globe.
Q. For what purpose?
A. To obey the orders of my general and Superiors and execute the will of
the Pope and faithfully fulfill the conditions of my oaths.
Q. 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."