Here is an excerpt from the Jesuit Oath:
“I do further declare, that I will help and assist and advise
all or any of his Holiness’ agents in any place wherever I shall
be, and do my utmost to extirpate the heretical Protestant or
Liberal 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
propagating of the Mother Church’s interest, to keep secret
and private all her agents’ counsels, from time to time as they
may instruct me, and not to divulge directly or indirectly, by
word, writing, or circumstances whatever; but to execute all
that shall be proposed given in charge or discovered unto me,
by you, my ghostly father …
“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
unhesitatingly obey each and every command that I may receive
from my superiors in the Militia of the Pope and Jesus Christ.
“That I will go to any port of the world, whatsoever, without
murmuring and will be submissive in all things whatsoever
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
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 sex, age nor 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 wall, in order to annihilate forever
their execrable race.
“That when the same cannot be done openly, I will secretly
use the poison cup, the strangulation cord, the steel of the
poniard, or the lead bullet, regardless of the honor, rank, dignity
or authority of the person or persons whatsoever 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.”
That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life and believe this book is the last self-help aid I shall ever need.
I love the Jesuit emphasis on finding God in everything, utilizing our desires to serve God, methods of prayer and silence, and finding my vocation. I just hope the Jesuits I run into won’t intend to flay, strangle and bury me alive if they perceive that I am a heretic.
