­chapter 1 The Confident Society: Mission Building 1540–1555​

‘He is a member of a Society founded chiefly for this purpose: to strive especial- ly for the defence and propagation of the faith’.1 – ​ Formula of the Institute, 1550 In 1550, the made a striking change to its Formula of the In- stitute, the statement that defined its rule and mission. For the first time ever, the ‘defence of the faith’ became the Society’s principal purpose. In the first decade of the the Jesuits’ apostolate, their pastoral ministry had emerged as an effective means of addressing one of the fundamental aims of the sixteenth-​ century Church: defending Catholic orthodoxy.2 By the end of that decade, this aim was enshrined in the Jesuit mission. In May 1551, the Jesuits would be empowered for this mission within an eye-​ wateringly generous gift from Pope Julius iii.3 Calling on the pope after dinner, Jesuit father Alfonso Salmerón knelt at the pontiff’s feet and asked him to grant Jesuit confessors the power to absolve heretics anywhere in the world.4 Julius consented immediately. In so doing, he gave a religious order that was just ten years old a power that put them on par with inquisitors and bishops across the Italian peninsula.5 Current explanations of the privilege to absolve heresy focus on the rela- tionships and power dynamics between the Jesuits, Julius iii and the Roman Inquisition.6 Such explanations tell part us of the privilege’s history but fail

1 Antonio M. de. Aldama, The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus: the formula of the Institute (: Centrum Ignatianum Spiritualitatis, 1990), p.3. 2 For various arguments on the chronology of the Counter-​Reformation see Firpo, La presa di potere and Gleason, ‘Who was the First Counter-Reformation​ Pope?’, Catholic Historical Review, 81 (1995), pp.179–​184. On the correlation of the mission of the Jesuits and the Church seee McCoog, The Society of Jesus in Ireland, Scotland, and England, 1589–​1597: Building the Kingdom of Saint Peter upon the King of Spain’s Monarchy (London: Routledge, 2016), pp.1–​3; Mostaccio, ‘A Conscious Ambiguity’, pp.418–​9; O’Malley, ‘Introduction’ in O’Malley, Bailey, Harris and Kennedy (eds), The Jesuits II: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts, 1540–1773​ , pp.xxiii-​ xxvii; Ulderico Parente, ‘Note sull’attività missionaria di Nicolás Bobadilla nel mezzogiorno d’Italia prima del Concilio di Trento (1540–​1541)’, Rivista Storica Italiana, 117 (2005), pp.64–​79. 3 For the papal bull see A. Tomassetti (ed.), Bullarum diplomatum et privilegiorum, vol. 6, pp.422–​6. 4 For an account of the meeting see arsi, Institutum 222, f.297. 5 Ibid. 6 Firpo, La presa di potere, pp.65–6​ and Prosperi, Tribunali della coscienza, pp.xv-​xvii, 236–​7 and pp.496–​7.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020 | DOI:10.1163/9789004413832_003 36 chapter 1 to explain the motivations and actions of the Jesuits who solicited the pow- er. Moreover, they do not explain the impact of the privilege when the Jesuits used it to work entirely autonomously or under the orders of powerful secular leaders in Italy. This chapter will propose an alternative interpretation of the privilege, which addresses the Jesuits’ own motivations for soliciting the power and the benefits of using the privilege in the service of secular princes as well as the pope. In this chapter we shall see that the power was solicited by the Jesuits and conceded by Julius iii for pragmatic rather than political reasons. Using the privilege to absolve heresy, the Jesuits could win over and reconcile her- etics whom they converted but who could or would not approach a bishop or inquisitor because ecclesiastical authorities were absent in their region or simply because they were too afraid to confess to them. Through case studies of the Society’s role at the Councils of Trent and and their mission to Corsica, we shall see that the experiences of the early Jesuits and of Julius iii were key to their shared belief in the practical necessity of the privilege. Jesuits soliciting the privilege based their arguments on their personal experience of frightened or neglected penitent-​heretics in the mission field. Julius iii per- sonally knew of the benefits of private absolutions from his time as a cardinal when he had organised similar temporary powers of absolution to allow Jesu- its to reconcile penitents who were too terrified to approach the Holy Office. Presenting the exact context of the privilege’s solicitation, concession and ear- liest use, this chapter will demonstrate that it was the pastoral pragmatism of the Society, Julius iii and their mutual allies, that motivated the solicitation, concession and use of the privilege to absolve heresy, not politics or cynical manipulation. Moreover, the ability to work outside of the normal ecclesiastical hierarchy had political and institutional advantages for the Jesuits, not just pastoral ben- efits. As their authority was granted by the pope rather than delegated by the local bishop, the Jesuits could work independently or collaborate with secular and ecclesiastical authorities of their choice. This included the very cardinal-​ inquisitors whom Firpo claims that Julius iii sought to undermine, as well as Italian and foreign princes. The Jesuits’ freedom to serve any patron or to work alone facilitated what Silvia Mostaccio has termed the ‘conscious ambiguity’ of the early Society, allowing the Jesuits to respond deftly to calls to obedience from their Superior General, the pope and local temporal and ecclesiastical leaders –​ even when these calls conflicted. With this political agility, the Jesu- its ensured that the alliances that they made through their pastoral service to Church and state were advantageous for both their pastoral ministry and their broad institutional ambitions. If we consider the benefits of the privilege for