he people of
Europe. The Protestant lands were soon dotted with schools. They used a
great deal of very valuable time to explain the Catechism, but they gave
instruction in other things besides theology. They encouraged reading
and they were responsible for the great prosperity of the printing
trade.

But the Catholics did not lag behind. They too devoted much time and
thought to education. The Church, in this matter, found an invaluable
friend and ally in the newly-founded order of the Society of Jesus. The
founder of this remarkable organisation was a Spanish soldier who
after a life of unholy adventures had been converted and thereupon felt
himself bound to serve the church just as many former sinners, who have
been shown the errors of their way by the Salvation Army, devote the
remaining years of their lives to the task of aiding and consoling those
who are less fortunate.

The name of this Spaniard was Ignatius de Loyola. He was born in the
year before the discovery of America. He had been wounded and lamed for
life and while he was in the hospital he had seen a vision of the Holy
Virgin and her Son, who bade him give up the wickedness of his former
life. He decided to go to the Holy Land and finish the task of the
Crusades. But a visit to Jerusalem had shown him the impossibility of
the task and he returned west to help in the warfare upon the heresies
of the Lutherans.

In the year 1534 he was studying in Paris at the Sorbonne. Together with
seven other students he founded a fraternity. The eight men promised
each other that they would lead holy lives, that they would not strive
after riches but after righteousness, and would devote themselves, body
and soul, to the service of the Church. A few years later this small
fraternity had grown into a regular organisation and was recognised by
Pope Paul III as the Society of Jesus.

Loyola had been a military man. He believed in discipline, and absolute
obedience to the orders of the superior dignitaries became one of the
main causes for the enormous success of the Jesuits. They specialised
in education. They gave their teachers a most thorough-going education
before they allowed them to talk to a single pupil. They lived with
their students and they entered into their games. They watched them with
tender care. And as a result they raised a new generation of faithful
Catholics who took their religious duties as seriously as the people of
the early Middle Ages.

T