# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 05 30_S155
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

carefully ground him in the right doctrine of salvation according to Word and Sacrament, nor lead him further in genuinely evangelical discipline and care. The Jesuits are a chief support of the Roman church.

Philip: Now I should indeed like to hear why the Methodist doctrine and manner cannot form healthy and well-grounded Christians. But first you must also show me (just as you have shown me concerning the true Lutheran Christian of the Scriptures and child of the Church) how the Methodist uses the written Word of God, Law and Gospel — whether in hearing a spoken sermon, or in the household use of Scripture itself.

Martin: Certainly not in that right and healthy manner; otherwise he would not speak so contemptuously of finger-faith and the Catechism, nor would he so readily — whether more from ignorance or malice, the Lord knows — throw the Roman false doctrine and the Lutheran scriptural doctrine of Holy Baptism together, and cast suspicion on the latter under the appearance of the former, without really knowing either one more precisely. But more on this later.

(To be continued.)

(Submitted.)
On the Education and Moral Teaching of the Jesuits.

The Catholic Kirchenzeitung is a zealous defender of the Jesuits. No one can wonder at that, for the Jesuits are a chief support of the Roman church. Their purpose is to make the Roman church the sole ruling one, and to destroy all other churches, by whatever means this can be accomplished. In defending the Jesuits, the Catholic Kirchenzeitung now proceeds, among other things, in such a way that, on the one hand, it decries the opponents of the Jesuit order as enemies of Christianity in general, and on the other hand accuses them of putting forward nothing but invented stories about the Jesuits, and moreover of charging the whole order with offenses that perhaps lie at the door of individual Jesuits only. If the Catholic Kirchenzeitung can prove these assertions, then the conduct of the Jesuits' opponents in their attacks would indeed prove to be very reprehensible; but the cause of the Jesuits would certainly have gained nothing thereby, and would by no means be justified. For even the most repeated, clumsy attacks against an enemy do not in the least prove his unassailability.

Incidentally, we cannot help but remark here in passing that the Catholic Kirchenzeitung itself practices, in the most shameless manner, precisely that procedure of which it complains. Precisely this street-urchin-like slandering of individual persons, precisely this brazen setting-forth of calumnies plucked out of thin air, can be found in almost every issue of the Catholic Kirchenzeitung. — That people throw filth at Dr. M. Luther in order thereby to slander the Lutheran Church is, among the papists, an old, inherited custom which they will also not abandon, because they cannot attack Lutheran doctrine and therefore must already attach themselves to persons, in order nevertheless to vent their spleen. But they are not even content with that; rather, they invent for themselves how, under certain circumstances, a Protestant pastor would have acted, and make this fiction known to their Catholic public. Now when, every single time, an indecent figure emerges from this, a fairly sure conclusion can be drawn about the Catholic newspaper writers. The present writer can truthfully testify that he was kept, precisely for this reason, from taking notice of some articles of the Catholic Kirchenzeitung, because he would have been obliged to publish expressions too filthy and vulgar, with which he did not wish to offend the readers of the "Lutheraner" — even though the Catholic Kirchenzeitung may well have felt free to treat its own readers, whose taste it surely knows, to such things. But let us come closer to our subject. To be sure, a sample of the moral teaching of the Jesuits was already given in the previous volume, and indeed not an invented one, but one drawn from a very reliable source; but since the Catholic Kirchenzeitung still continues to portray the Jesuits as the most harmless of men and the greatest benefactors of mankind, and even indulges the hope of thereby silencing their opponents, this hope shall for the present at least be thwarted for it by what follows, and it will likewise not be fulfilled in the future, until God ceases to preserve for himself a holy Christian Church on earth which bears witness against every hypocrisy and lie. As for the possible reproach of putting forward unfounded things, I hope to meet it myself through the following account; the other possible one, that hostility toward Christianity in general gave rise to this essay, I do not fear, because my conscience testifies to me that it would be unjust, should it be made. — So, to the matter.

Since the Jesuits are regarded by the Roman church as especially suited to direct the instruction of the young, and since the Jesuits themselves are also always intent on getting the schools under their direction, we wish, as a warning to all who will let themselves be warned, to communicate: 1. Something about the Jesuit method of education; 2. Something from Jesuit moral teaching.

1.

The fundamental evil in the instruction given by the Jesuits is that mechanism which strives to destroy the personal will and individual development, and to make of the human being a block of wood, a stick in the hand of an old man. This mechanism, which in the religious instruction and in the devotional exercises of Loyola (the well-known founder of the Jesuit order) is set forth according to precise rules and declared infallible, is meant to prove itself throughout the whole course of instruction. Just as the well-known Exercises (compulsory devotional exercises) have proved successful in religious matters, so similar exercises in all subjects and disciplines are meant to bring the young — and through them the nations — into shape.

That, through the Jesuit method, where it is applied to its full extent, conspicuous and striking results can be achieved, is just as certain as that drilling and goading produce more conspicuous effects than free development. But for that very reason the educational method of the Jesuits, though clever in many respects, has throughout a mechanical veneer. The living, quickening spirit is lacking. It regulates the outward; the inward is meant, if possible, to find itself on its own. It teaches, with great care, how to carry the head decently, always to lower the eyes before the person one is speaking with, to smooth away nicely the wrinkles that form on nose and brow (see Institutiones Societatis Jesu, II, 114) — but against lying and hypocrisy, the chief root of sin, it strikes no blows.

The execution of a mechanical formation succeeds all the more surely for Jesuitism because it keeps its members constantly in practice, within its tightly closed hierarchy (priestly rule), through strict discipline. — The cornerstone of the edifice is unlimited, will-less obedience. Loyola had devoted his life to the proclamation of this principle; indeed, even in the agony of death he summoned his strength and dictated his last thoughts on the virtue of obedience. His condition lent him an image for it: "Let a man be, in the hand of his superior, like a corpse." His disciples have impressed this admonition upon themselves so deeply, and grasped its meaning so well, that they unhesitatingly place the virtue of obedience above everything; even the observance of the divine Law ranks below it. The subordinate who obeys his superior always acts meritoriously, even if by that deed he violated the Law of God. The superior commands a murder or perjury; the divine Law forbids it; nevertheless the Jesuit will obey without hesitation, for he knows that by doing so he provides for his own salvation. The human being no longer belongs to himself in any respect. Each has handed over his entire freedom into the hands of the one who stands above him in the hierarchical order; no one keeps anything for himself, and this treasure of personal freedom, passed thus from hand to hand, falls at last to the Pope, the only free man in the world.

What holds true in the order of the Jesuits is meant to be, in education, the general rule and direction of life.

At the same time, Jesuitism knows quite well how to compensate its pupils for the surrender of their personal freedom and independence. The sweat of labor is wiped away from learning, and entertainment and amusement are systematically brought in. It leads its pupils along pleasant paths, which it has itself carefully laid out and adorned, right and left, with a host of dainty, delightful resting-places; there are pretty little studies in small, elegantly polished writers; everything that can delight the mind and draw it away from lofty, serious thoughts; everywhere