Academic literature on the topic 'Jesuits. Lay brothers'

The details of the Gunpowder Plot of November 1605 are well known. This article deals with one of the consequences of the failure of that Plot, the search at Hindlip, Worcestershire, in January 1606, and the sequel to that, as related by the man whose house at Hindlip was searched. It is now generally accepted that Fr. Henry Garnet, the Jesuit Superior, was aware of the Plot from information acquired in confession. The Jesuit Fr. Oswald Tesimond seems certainly to have been privy to the Plot. The authorities, determined to implicate the Jesuits, issued a proclamation against three Jesuits—Garnet, Tesimond and Fr. John Gerard (who was not privy to the Plot)—on 15 January 1605–6. Garnet was in hiding at Hindlip House, a house near Worcester belonging to Thomas Habington, from early December. The house had a large number of secret hiding places. It was searched in January 1606 by a local magistrate, Sir Henry Bromley of Holt, and Garnet, Fr. Edward Oldcorne alias Hall, S. J., and the Jesuit lay brothers Nicholas Owen (who had probably built most of the hides in the house) and Ralph Ashley were discovered. Three of them were later executed; Owen died in the Tower as the result of the torture to which he had been subjected.

Georg Josef Camel (1661–1706) went to the Spanish colony of the Philippine Islands as a Jesuit lay brother in 1687, and he remained there until his death. Throughout his time in the Philippines, Camel collected examples of the flora and fauna, which he drew and described in detail. This paper offers an overview of his life, his publications and the Camel manuscripts, drawings and specimens that are preserved among the Sloane Manuscripts in the British Library and in the Sloane Herbarium at the Natural History Museum, London. It also discusses Camel's links and exchanges with scientifically minded plant collectors and botanists in London, Madras and Batavia. Among those with whom Camel corresponded were John Ray, James Petiver, and the Dutch physician Willem Ten Rhijne.

‘You can never cross the Pont Neuf without seeing a monk, a white horse and a whore’, ran the proverb – which was hard luck on the two ladies who stood there and saw the first two but could not find the third: ‘Pour la catin, vous et moi nous n’en sommes pas en peines’. Members of the religious Orders in their costumes of black, white, brown and grey were a feature of the scene in the streets of every town, and everyone had a monk or nun among their relatives. Voltaire’s sardonic examples of the characteristic features of the civilisation of his day included them: ‘man will always be what he is now; this does not mean to say, however, that there will always be fine cities, cannons firing a shot of 24 lbs weight, comic operas and convents of nuns’. Routine gossip slipped naturally into analogies drawn from the cloister – she is as fat as a monk; they were like children at a window crying out when they first see a Capucin friar; you are like a novice who climbs the walls looking for a lover, while the nuns in the chapel pray for her. Voltaire uses monastic titles in jocular descriptions of himself and his friends. He is the ‘old hermit’, the ‘lay brother’, the ‘solitary’, ‘brother Voltaire, dead to the world and in love with his cell and his convent’, and once, when his play Octave et le jeune Pompée was a flop, he decided to be, for a while, ‘the little ex-Jesuit’, ‘le petit défroqué’. He hopes ‘brother’ Helvétius will be elected to the Academy: ‘these are the most ardent prayers of the monk Voltairius, who from his lonely cell unites himself in spirit with his brethren’. The badinage of monastic seclusion hinted at protest at his long exile from Paris; it also served to mask the social distinctions, which, in spite of familiarity and, even, friendship, were never forgotten between the court grandees and the intellectuals. It was easier for Choiseul to write to him as ‘mon cher solitaire’, just as Voltaire avoided routine sycophancy by writing, with exaggerated deference, to Richelieu as ‘mon héros’.

The article analyses the iconographic programme of the altars of St Trinity Church of the convent of former Bernardine nuns (Sisters of the Third Order of St Francis) in Kaunas until its closure in 1864 and reveals the expression of the spirituality of this order in the sacral art as far as the surviving few sources and heritage allow. In order to achieve the goal, the following objectives were established: (1) to reconstruct the old interior of the altar ensemble, (2) to reveal the most important peculiarities of the Bernardines’ spirituality, and (3) to highlight the logical connections between art and Bernardine spirituality in church art through the icono-theological approach. Scarce earliest sources indicate that the most venerated representation of the Virgin Mary and the relics of the True Cross were in the church in the first half of the seventeenth century, and the Feast of the Discovery and Exaltation of the Holy Cross was celebrated. These hints suggest that piety to the Crucifix and the Mother of God was prevalent at that time. The cult of the Crucifix is associated with the common origin of Franciscan religious devotion, which encourages following the example of St Francis by contemplating the suffering of Jesus Christ. Also, it is not difficult to infer that based on the name of the church, the high altar should have been dedicated to the Holy Trinity; therefore, there should have been appropriate piety practices. It is believed that the fraternity of the Holy Trinity was active from the time of the completion of the church. The main accents of iconography of the altars of the Bernardine Church in Kaunas were formed after the disasters in the mid-seventeenth century, the last fire in 1668. The Holy Trinity was the dominant accent of piety. A painting dated to the early eighteenth century that reflects the post-Tridentine recommendations for visual arts decorated the high altar of the same name. In the early eighteenth century, the exceptional piety to St Joseph also gains prominence: in 1703, the fraternity of St. Joseph was established and a separate altar was dedicated to this saint. The feasts of the Holy Trinity and St Joseph were celebrated. It is believed that the Bernardine nuns in Vilnius, who had settled in the city a little earlier, influenced the piety to the Holy Trinity. A highly developed and majestic iconography distinguished their high altar, visually emphasising the figure of the Crucifix. The exceptional piety of the Bernardine nuns of Krakow to St Joseph influenced the cult of this saint. The first Bernardine nuns came to Lithuania from Krakow and, without doubt, the Lithuanian nuns must have kept in touch with the nuns from Krakow. Devotion to the Virgin Mary and the Crucifix was further developed. Two altars in the church were dedicated to the Mother of God (Mary, Consoler of the Afflicted and Our Lady of Sorrows); also, there were altars of Jesus at the Pillar and the Crucifix. The relics of the True Cross preserved and venerated in the altar of the Crucifix are mentioned from the first half of the seventeenth century. The Feast of the Discovery and Exaltation of the Holy Cross was celebrated. The Bernardine nuns venerated the Franciscan saints and close followers and brothers of St Francis. This is confirmed by the altars of St Francis of Assisi (stigmatisation plot), St Clare, and St Anthony of Padua in the church. A closer study into the lives of the lesser-known saints who can be easily confused with other popular saints of the same name revealed a rich gallery of Franciscan saints, especially females, among them. Bernardine nuns had a separate altar and a feast dedicated to St Elizabeth of Hungary, the patron of the Third Order of St Francis and one of the most venerable followers of the example of St Francis’ life. In the context of other Bernardine monasteries in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Bernardine nuns in Kaunas stood out for their veneration of this saint. Bernardine nuns also distinguished St Rose of Viterbo, St Agnes of Assisi, and St Barbara, whose cult is associated with active devotion of the Lithuanian Bernardines to this saint. The iconography of the Bernardine Church was influenced by the Convent of St George the Martyr in Kaunas, whose church was naturally richer and whose iconographic programme covered a broader spectrum. Interestingly, it also contained images or sculptures of all the above-mentioned saints associated with the Franciscan Observants, including the female saints lesser known to other communities of believers, while individual altars were dedicated to St Rose from Viterbo and St Barbara. The ensemble of church altars, which had been gradually evolving from the seventeenth century, and the practices of piety hardly changed until the closure of the convent in 1864. It is unfortunate that due to the lack of sources, many assumptions and questions remain, and one can only hope that further research into the interior of the church will lead to more discoveries.