CHAPTER SEVEN - Prophetic Toolchest

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PROPHETIC TOOL CHEST
act as spies upon their masters. They established colleges for the sons of princes
and nobles, and schools for the common people; and the children of Protestant
parents were drawn into an observance of popish rites. All the outward pomp and
display of the Romish worship was brought to bear to confuse the mind, and
dazzle and captivate the imagination; and thus the liberty for which the fathers
had toiled and bled was betrayed by the sons. The Jesuits rapidly spread
themselves over Europe, and wherever they went, there followed a revival of
popery.
The most potent force ever to come against Protestantism was the Jesuit Order. Ignatius
Loyola, or Don Inigo Lopez De Loyola (1491 – 1556) was the founder of this society. In
1491 Inigo was born at Guipuzcoa in the castle of Loyola. He was the son of a man who
belonged to the higher Spanish nobility; and consequently at a young age, Inigo had
access to the royal court. As Inigo grew older, he was knighted, and he served the military
in Pamplona (See Will Durant, The Reformation, 905). Inigo constantly had the vision of
glory on his mind, and “a chance came to distinguish himself: the French attacked
Pamplona, Inigo heartened the defense with his bravery; the enemy captured the citadel
nevertheless, and Inigo’s right leg was fractured by a cannon ball (May 20, 1521)”
(Durant, The Reformation, 906). With Inigo’s dream of military glory being removed
from him, he was soon to find a whole new path that was to make him the founder of the
most influential organization that the world has ever seen.
After Inigo’s injury, he was taken to the castle of Loyola to heal. In the time Inigo
spent at his ancestral castle, he studied fanciful books about Christ and the saints:
Ludolfus’s Life of Christ and Flos Sanctorum. These fanciful books inspired Inigo so
much that he began to seek glory through sainthood. He endeavored—at least in thought
—to capture Jerusalem from Islamic control. (This is still one of the Jesuit ambitions.)
It is alleged that in Inigo’s resolve to go to Jerusalem, he had a vision of the Virgin Mary
holding her child, and the Virgin told Inigo that he would receive victory over
concupiscence—victory over all fleshly inclinations. Loyola then committed himself to
Mary and Christ in his spiritual conquest (See Durant, The Reformation, 906).
On the way to Jerusalem, Loyola came to Montserrat where he spent three
days in confession and penance. We are told: “All the night of March 24 – 25, 1522, he
spent alone in the chapel of a Benedictine monastery, kneeling or standing before the
alter of the Mother of God. He pledged himself to perpetual chastity and poverty”
(Durant, The Reformation, 906). In The History Of The Jesuits, G. B. Nicolini explains
that, in this visit:
[Loyola] “became daily absorbed in the most profound meditations, and made a
full confession of all his past sins, which was so often interrupted by his
passionate outbursts of penitent weeping, that it lasted three days. To stimulate
his devotion, he lacerated his flesh with the scourge, and abjuring his past life, he
hung up his sword beside the Alter in the church of the convent of Monserrat
(Hsitory Of The Jesuits: Their Origin, Progress, Doctrines, And Designs, 12, 13).
When Loyola set out for Jerusalem again, he came to the port of Barcelona where he
found shelter in a cave near Manreze. He spent almost a year here “practicing austerities
that brought him close to death” (Durant, The Reformation, 907). Loyola brought himself
through the most horrible tortures in order to gain control over his mind and body; but in
truth, he was in the process of losing his mind to the control of demons. The torturing of
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By D. S. Farris