The Jesuits and Il Gesu

When entering the mother Church of the Jesuit order in Rome, one is blown away by its stunning and elaborate decorations and beauty. It is impossible for passers by not to notice the looming façade of Il Gesu. Before researching the Jesuits, I was unsure of who these men were, what they believed, and what their significance in history was. It was surprising to see that the Church does not give an accurate portrayal of the ideals of the order. Il Gesu is a contradiction. This essay will give a history of the Jesuits then some insight into the incongruent art of the mother Church.

To fully understand the Jesuits we must first begin with the man who created the order. In 1491 Íñigo Oñaz López de Loyola was born in Northern Spain to a wealthy family. He joined the Spanish Army at a very young age. Íñigo was made for the army; he was intrigued by the action and glory, and was known to have many rendezvous with the local women. In 1521 while defending Pamplona from the French, he was hit by a cannon ball, shattering his right leg and breaking his left. Over the next few months Íñigo went through many painful operations, all of which were unsuccessful. This sadly left him with a permanent limp. During his long recovery he was deprived of his favorite romance novels and ended up stumbling upon the stories of the lives of the saints. Íñigo’s spiritual transformation began during this time. Inspired by the heroic and chivalric Saints, he gave up everything to spend six years doing charity work. He also practiced and analyzed the divine mystery of God and religion. After a vision from God he wrote “The Spiritual Exercises,” which was a guide to his new way of life. It taught how to use meditation as a way of clearing one’s mind and making better decisions. The book also stressed the importance of modeling oneself after Christ as a messenger of God.

To further his religious transformation Íñigo went to study at The University of Paris. Here he became Ignatius of Loyola, which we know him as today. He studied theology and Latin, and continued his studies of the Catholic Doctrine. While at University he gained six followers, all of whom were trained in his “Spiritual Exercises”. It was said that Ignatius had a “strange ability to impress and enlist anyone however reluctant, whose talents he needed for the cause” (Wright) (An interesting observation, it will be an important quality of his later missions). The seven men then swore an oath to go to Rome to serve the Pope after being ordained as Priests in Venice on the way.



In Rome at this time the Pope was struggling with the Reformation. Almost all of Northwestern Europe had broken away from the Catholic Church. The world was expanding; the time of the explorer was coming to a new high. The Americas had been discovered, trade and travel across the continents were becoming more common. With all of these changes there were many people the Church was failing to communicate with. Not only were they unable to speak with them effectively, they could not connect on an emotional level either. They did not know what moved them or what inspired them. Then Ignatius and his men showed up with “an inspiration of Providence that it is impossible to ignore” (Wright). In 1540 Pope Paul II created the Papal Bull Regimini Militantis Ecclesiae officially establishing the men as the Jesuit Order (Society of Jesus).

The Jesuits were different from other orders of their time. They had to take the normal oath: poverty, chastity and obedience to God. But the requirements had an additional oath, which was obedience to the Pope. The Society focused on the spread of the Roman Catholic Doctrine as the Pope interpreted it. To make this possible they focused on education and missionary work. With these goals they brought thousands of souls to the church.

The Pope was able to send the Jesuits all over the world, with their vow to go anywhere he commanded. Because they were a secular clergy, they didn’t have to live in cloisters or have a certain dress. This provided the ability to go out into the world with some ease, and adapt to the dress, culture, and language of the locals. All of this was a way for them to understand the people on a deeper level. With this knowledge it was easier for them to adapt Catholicism to make it more accessible to locals. In the New World the Jesuits saw their greatest success. Mexico and Brazil took to the faith with enthusiasm, and many remain Catholic today.

Not all of the missions resulted in success though. In Japan they hit a great stride early on, but a jealous emperor put it to an end in 1597 by crucifying 54 people of the faith. Even though there are many more stories of failure, the Jesuits remained persistent in their goals. They were willing to go out and be martyrs for their religion, which showed great devotion. This attitude and their successes inspired a new frame of mind in The Church Triumphant, which would bring optimism and self-confidence to Catholics everywhere.

Education was the driving force behind the Jesuits and their mission work. They were the “School Masters of Europe” opening colleges all around the continent, in their mission to educate the world. At their peak in the late 18th century there were 120 colleges in Italy alone. Jesuits were the first to establish the four-year liberal arts education system, which are still used today. Tuition fees and large donations from the wealthy families of the students were the main source of revenue for the Society.

In 1568 the foundational stones of the first Jesuit church were laid. The name Il Gesu was chosen as a dedication to Jesus, which was obviously an important theme for the Jesuits. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (the nephew of the Pope) financed the project. This gave Farnese the ability to have the final say when it came to the design of the church. Giacomo Della Porta won the design for the façade. It is considered the first baroque façade and it was the prototype for Jesuit churches around the world. There are two sections: the upper and the lower register, with a large entablature separating them. Both registers have double pilasters to divide the space. One can see two pediments, first at the top of the building and the other placed over the door. The width of the façade is equal to the height, but the upper register is slightly narrower. Della Porta added volutes to create movement from the lower to upper register. Above the door is the Jesuit emblem, the IHS, which is the Greek abbreviation for Jesus. At the top of the façade, the Farnese family crest looks down on the street, emphasizing the family who was gracious enough to help. Farnese’s own architect Jacopo Vignola was responsible for the rest of the church, but dropped out half way through. Della Porta stepped in and finished the project.



The layout of the inside of Il Gesu was revolutionary. Jesuits focused on preaching and wanted a simple design to emphasize it. As a result the nave became shorter and wider, with only one aisle. The high ceiling made for better acoustics, allowing the voices of the preachers to travel further and louder. Additional side pulpits permitted multiple sermons to take place at one time. This layout proved so successful in communicating with the mass amounts of people showing up for sermons that it became the norm for all future churches.

Decorations inside Il Gesu did not start until over a century after it was completed. The Jesuits planned for the inside to be simple and somber, reflecting the themes of the façade, and maintain focus on the preaching. But wealthy donors had other visions for the décor. When people sent their children to a Jesuit college it was a prestigious action. They wanted others to be impressed. But when they would then visit the Jesuit mother church, there was nothing impressive about it (at least not in the eyes of the wealthy). So the donors paid for all of the decorations inside the church, neglecting the considerations of the early Jesuits. This is apparent when you first enter Il Gesu, now famous for its ornate chapels and frescoed ceilings.

On the inside of the Nave ceiling is the Triumph in the Name of Jesus. Painted in the 17th century by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, known as Baciccio, who was recommended for the job by Bernini. The Triumph took him four years to complete and it remains one of the highlights of the church. The painting gives the feeling that the roof gave out and everything is being pulled up toward the heavens. In the center barely visible is the Jesuit emblem with a halo around it, as if it is shining down from heaven. One can see the holy ascending into heaven and the sinful falling away from it towards Hell. Baciccio was very skilled with his methods to give us this three-dimensional feeling. The stuccowork is so thick it actually sticks out up to 5 inches in some parts. He also used a dark glaze on the gilding to give more illusions of shadows. To say the least, the ceiling is certainly impressive and eye catching.



When one moves further into Il Gesu and reaches the Transept, the Chapel of St. Ignatius is on the left. Like the ceiling, it was completed in the late 17th century by a Jesuit Lay brother named Andrea Pozzo. Everyday at 5:30 the church fills with people and an elaborate light show begins. Music plays and at the height of all the excitement the painting of the altar piece drops and reveals a silver statue of St. Ignatius rising to heaven. Today the statue is a cast plated with silver. Pope Pius VI melted down the original in order to pay war ransoms set by Napoleon. On both sides of the altar are sculptures showing some triumphs Ignatius helped accomplish. To the right “Religion striking down Heresy” shows a woman holding a cross and heretics shunning away from it in pain, with a small Putti ripping apart a heretical book. On the left “Faith over Idolatry” shows a woman with a cross standing over a dragon with a barbarian king begging at her feet. One also sees the depiction of a heretic a woman with mangled hair trying to pull the king back. The chapel is incredibly ornate, which is contradictory and ironic when thinking of what Ignatius had in mind for the décor of the church.



On the opposite side of the Chapel of Ignatius is the Chapel of St. Francis Xavier, designed by Puerto ad Corona. Francis Xavier was one of the original founders of the order, and the second Jesuit saint. In a silver box making up the altarpiece, there is his skeletal arm, which was glorified because of his preaching abilities. There is a painting above glorying his death and martyrdom in Asia. He is surrounded by very inaccurate depictions of the Chinese natives. Above that is a relief in the stucco above the painting of him being carried into Heaven.


Following the Themes of Martyrdom we see through out the Il Gesu the High Altar is dedicated to the circumcision of Christ, done by Girolamo Muziano. This was a very important event for the Jesuits. It was the first time Christ shed blood, which foreshadowed his eventual crucifixion, and when he was given his name. The painting in place is currently a 19th century replacement of the original.

Il Gesu stands today as a complete misinterpretation of the Jesuit order; a giant contradiction for everything they stood for. They attempt to justify this as the changing of the times, or adapting to what the people wanted. I see it as a tragedy, for as intelligent as the Jesuits were, they were manipulated. There was no way of stopping the donors from gilding the ceilings and completely marbleizing the high altar. Now when people enter the Mother Church of the Jesuits, they are given an inaccurate interpretation of who they were and what they did for the Catholic faith.



Bibliography

The First Jesuits / John W. O'Malley. Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press 1993

The Jesuits: The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church / Malachi Martin. New York: Simon and Schuster 1988

Ignatius of Loyola: Founder of the Jesuits / John Patrick Donnelly. New York: Pearson/Longman 2004

Gods Soldier's: Adventure, Politics, Intrigue, and Power: History of the Jesuits / Jonathan Wright. New York: Doublepay 2004

The Jesuits : missions, myths and histories / Jonathan Wright. London: HarperCollins, 2004

Rome/ Mauro, Paola, Eric & Jack Lucentini. 2006

The Jesuits and The Arts 1540-1773/ edited by John W. O'Malley and Gauvin Alexander Bailey ; original Italian edited by Giovanni Sale. Philadelphia : Saint Joseph's University Press, 2005

Photos

http://www.siprep.org/faculty/mahlbach/images/stIgnatius_000.jpg

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