IGNATIUS DIACONUS: Older contemporary of Ignatius, patriarch of Constantinople, with whom he is frequently confounded; b. about 780. He became diaconus and ekeuophylax of the "great church" at Constantinople about 810, and after 830 metropolitan of Nicaea. Useful as sources of history are his biographies of the patriarchs Tarasios (ed. J. A. Heikel, Helsingfors, 1889) and Nicephorus (ed.. De Boor, in the Opuscula historica of Nicephorus, Leipsic, 1880). Ignatius seems to have compiled also a Vita Gregorii Decapolitani. He also wrote poems, including one on the fall, remarkable for its dramatic form. Among the dramatis personae are God, Adam, Eve, and the serpent (ed, C. F. Müller, Kiel, 1886).
Bibliography: Krumbacher, Geschichte, pp. 716-717 et passim; F. Hirsch, Byzantinsche Studien, Leipsic, 1876.
IGNATIUS, FATHER: See Lyne, Joseph Leicester.
IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA (INIGO LOPEZ DE RECALDE): Founder of the Jesuit order; b. at the castle of Loyola, near Aspeitia (16 m. e.w. of San Sebastian) in the province of Guipuscoa, Spain, probably Christmas night, 1491; d. at Rome July 31, 1556.
He came of a knightly family, spent his youth at the court of Ferdinand, had few educational advantages, and,early entered the army. He was highly sentimental and fond of stories of chivalry. Severely wounded at the battle of Pampeluna (May 20, 1521); he was for months an invalid in his father's castle. During this period of severe suffering a life of Christ and legends of the saints came into his hands. He read them with avidity, and became fired with an ambition to follow Christ in a life of self-denying labor and to emulate the heroic deeds of Francis of Assisi, Dominic, and other great monastic leaders. Amatory and ambitious thoughts he attributed to Satan, and aspirations after holiness and Christian service to the Holy Spirit. He resolved to devote his life to the conversion of infidels in the Holy Land. On recovering he exchanged clothes with a beggar and visited the Dominican monastery of Montserrat (Mar. 25,1522), where he hung his military accouterments before an image of the Virgin. He soon entered the monastery of Manresa, where he practised the most rigorous asceticism with frequent confessions and masses and the performance of the most disagreeable and menial tasks. He is said to have had visions of the Trinity, of the mystery of the creation, of the union of deity and humanity in Christ (in the Eucharist). The contemplation of any religious act or meditation on any of the great facts of redemption brought before his susceptible mind realistic images of the events concerned. The Virgin became the object of his chivalrous (almost idolatrous) devotion. Greatly concerned about his sins and the sins of the world, he pictured most vividly the continuous conflict between Christ and his hosts and Satan and his hosts. Military imagery played a prominent part in his religious contemplations. Before he left Manresa he had wrought out his "Spiritual Exercises," which were to exert a potent influence in the winning and training of converts and in revolutionizing the methods of propagandism in the papal Church; "the mill into which all Jesuits are cast; they emerge with characters and talents diverse; but the imprint remains ineffaceable" (Cretineau-Joly). In the summer of 1523 he left Manresa for Jerusalem via Barcelona and Venice. He journeyed wholly without money or supplies. On Sept. 4 he visited the Holy Sepulcher. Finding no way to maintain himself in missionary work in Palestine, he returned to Venice (Jan., 1524), convinced that he could accomplish little without scholastic training. Early in the year he went to Barcelona and took his place (though thirty-three years old) among the school-boys to learn the rudiments of Latin. In two years he was able to enter the University of Alcala, and in the autumn of 1527 he removed to the University of Salamanca. At both universities he incurred the censure of the authorities through his efforts to win converts among the students by inducing them to subject themselves to courses of training in the "Spiritual Exercises." Early in 1528 he entered the University of Paris where he remained over seven years, perfecting his literary and theological education and winning associates. For disturbing the students by getting them absorbed in the "Spiritual Exercises" he narrowly escaped disgraceful punishment at the hands of the authorities. He spent the vacations in the Netherlands among his fellow countrymen, who generously supplied his wants. By 1534 he had won to his mode of life and inspired with his purpose and enthusiasm Peter Faber, Francis Xavier (q.v.), Alfonso Salmeron, Jacob Laines, and Nicholas Bobedilla (Spaniards), and Simon Rodrigues (a Portuguese).
On Aug. 15, 1534, these brethren with Ignatius, in the St. Mary's Church at Montmartre, vowed on the completion of their studies to enter upon
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The time for the confirmation of the order had arrived. A congregation of cardinals reported favorably upon the constitution presented, and Paul III. became convinced that it was the work of the Holy Spirit. He confirmed the order through the bull Regimini militantis (Sept. 27, 1540), but limited the number of its members to sixty. This limitation was removed through the bull Injunctum nobis (Mar. 14, 1543). Ignatius was unanimously chosen general by the members who were then in Rome, and with great solemnity they pledged him absolute obedience and recognized him as "holding the place of God" in relation to them.
From this time onward the life of Ignatius was identified with the history of the Company of Jesus (see Jesuits). No doubt he had much to do with the preparation of the "Constitutions," "Rules," "Institutions," etc. Many of his letters have been preserved. His tract "On the Virtue of Obedience" and his "Spiritual Exercises" best set forth the spirit of the man and of the order as he founded it. As general he spent most of his time in Rome, where, in close touch with the pope and the curia, he directed the work of the order that soon became world-wide in its scope. It is probable that no man ever combined so much of religious enthusiasm, often verging on fanaticism, with such fixity of purpose and such a wise adaptation of means to ends. He identified the "greater glory of God" to which he professed devotion, with the universal triumph throughout the world of the papal Church, which he wished to see brought up to his own standard of zeal and self-sacrifice.
Bibliography: The "Spiritual Exercises," editio princeps, Rome, 1548, has been reproduced in most European languages and in many missionary tongues and in innumerable editions. His letters appeared in incomplete form in Cartas de S. Ignacio de Loyola, 6 vols., Madrid, 1874-89. The earliest lives are collected, with commentary, in ASB, July, vii. 409-853. The most of the lives of Ignatius are by Jesuits. Among the most noteworthy biographies are: N. Orlandinus, Rome, 1615; D. Bartoli, Rome, 1650, Venice, 1673; new ed. by J. Terrien, Lille, 1893 (regarded in the order as the official biography); D Bouhours, Paris, 1679, republished Avignon, 1821, Eng transl., ed. A. Butler, London, 1841; S. Du Terrial, Paris, 1844; C. Genelli, Innsbruck, 1848, ed. V. Kolb, Vienna, 1894; H. Baumgarten, Strasburg, 1880; E. Gothein, Halle, 1885; C. Clair, Paris, 1891; Stewart Rose (Caroline Rose Erskine, Countess of Buchan), New York, 1891; T. Hughes, Ignatius de Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits, London, 1892; M. Malzac, Ignace de Loyola, essai de psychologie religieuse, Paris, 1898; H. July, Paris, 1899; W. van Nieuwenhoff, 2 vols., Regensburg, 1901; N Greff, Der heilige Ignatius von Loyola und seine Zeit, Kaldenkirchen, 1903. The works on the history of the order generally contain a sketch, more or less ambitious, of the life of the founder. Consult also: J. Cretineau-Joly, Hist. de la compagnie de Jesus, 6 vols., Paris, 1859; Ranke, Popes, i. 135-149, 164-177. The bull Regimini militantis is in Reich, Documents, pp. 216-219, and is condensed in Robinson, European History, ii. 161-165.
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