In an email reacting to my lecture on the Jesuits of Jewish origins at

the Jesuit Ricci Institute of Macau in November 2007, a Jesuit told

me briefl y the story of his Jewish lineage. While his other Sephardic

ancestors went to Istanbul, Baghdad, Tehran, and—through the Silk

Road—up to Shanghai, where they remained Jewish until today, both

his grandparents were descendants of Jews who settled in Palermo and

Trabia (Sicily), where they converted to Catholicism in order to survive

(in the baptismal registers, which are still extant, they are described

as “usurers”). Yet, they kept practicing Judaism secretly. From Friday

evening through Saturday evening, his grandfather would hide the

image of baby Jesus from a large framed picture of St. Anthony that

he kept in his home. It was, in fact, a wind-up music box. On Fridays

he would wind up the mechanism and push a button, so that Jesus

would disappear out of St. Anthony’s arms, hidden in the upper frame

of the picture. On Saturdays, he then would push the button again, so

that Jesus would come back out from hiding into St. Anthony’s arms.

Chapter Title: INTRODUCTION

Book Title: The Jesuit Order as a Synagogue of Jews

Book Subtitle: Jesuits of Jewish Ancestry and Purity-of-Blood Laws in the Early

Society of Jesus

Book Author(s): Robert Aleksander Maryks

>>9643884

Furthermore, the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola (c. 1491–

1556), had many contacts with infl uential Erasmists (and alumbrados)

during his studies at Alcalá de Henares,16 as we shall see in Chapter

Two. Indeed, his positive approach to conversos (and Jews) pre-dates

the foundation of the Society of Jesus in 1540, despite the assertion of

many experts to the contrary. His openness towards conversos may

have been motivated by the fi nancial support that he had sought from

their network in Spain and in the Spanish Netherlands before founding the Society and that he would continue to seek as the superior

general of the Jesuits. In spite of this down-to-earth concern, Loyola

undoubtedly was, as Henry Kamen powerfully put it, “a deep and sincere spiritual Semite.”17

In communion with Loyola, Nadal insisted that the Jesuit Constitutions

did not discriminate between candidates of the Society on the basis of

lineage.26 Nadal, therefore, during his visit to Iberia admitted a handful of converso candidates. In a heated debate over the admission of

one of them, Luis (Diego) de Santander (c. 1527–99), Nadal franklyand proudly replied: “We [Jesuits] take pleasure in admitting those of

Jewish ancestry.”27

In this perspective, the anti-discrimination policy of the early Jesuit

leadership constituted an act of bold and tenacious resistance to the

early modern Iberian Zeitgeist. As a result, the minority of Jesuits of

Jewish ancestry, socially and psychologically bonded one to another or

dissociated from one another, shaped the history of the early Society of

Jesus. Th ey held the highest administrative offi ces, defi ned the Society’s

institutional development and spirituality, revised Loyola’s historiography by assigning it an infl ated anti-Protestant character, fi lled the

ranks of linguistically adroit missionaries in Asia and the Americas,

authoritatively represented the Society at the Council of Trent, signifi cantly contributed to the transformation of the Society into the fi rst

teaching order and to the placement of Greco-Roman culture in the

center of the Jesuit school curriculum, (infl uenced by the Dominicans

from the School of Salamanca) boldly off ered a new epistemological

frame to casuistry as a transition from medieval Tutiorism to modern

Probabilism,30 developed a new discipline of moral theology, and

staff ed the papal penitentiary offi ce at St. Peter’s basilica in Rome. Some

came from families who generously supported the work of the Society

and the foundation of a number of Jesuit colleges; others enthusiastically engaged in many other extraordinary literary, diplomatic, and

scientifi c endeavors (especially popular among them were diff erent

missions dealing with “heretics” and schismatics). “By their sanctity

and learning they rendered the Society illustrious,” as the Jesuit García

Girón de Alarcón put it.31

On a much larger scale than the historian Marcel Bataillon has

intuitively suggested,32 these contributions by Jesuits of Jewish ancestry helped to shape Early Modern Catholicism33

>>9643969

Fuck it….we all got to go sometime.

I always liked the waves.

Why would anyone want to be a cop today? Probably a lot will start quitting and they will have to hire a bunch of nigg…

Oh I see what they are doing.