INES G. ZUPANOV - Ines G. Županov

Prologue • 9
argument, even if refuted as an excess of casuistry (of which Jesuits
were often accused by their opponents), was based on words rather
than things. Therefore, the epistolary production organized around
major topics was an effort at normalization, objectification and reification
of missionary realities against hostile suspicions of false representation,
Jesuitical trompe-l'oeil. Hence, it posed invisible limits to
the domain of enunciation and legibility, as well as to contingency
and causality.
A few preliminary remarks might be in order at this point to provide
an understanding of the Jesuit obsession with writing and the
roots and historical ramifications of their texts.
From Letter to History
The impulse to write was built into the foundations of the Society of
Jesus and it was amplified by the distances and 'proximities' that separated
the correspondents, and by the increase in their numbers. 2 *
From ten founding fathers in 1540, the 'Little Company' as it was
informally called, grew into an 'army' of 13,000 'soldiers of Christ' in
1615. Perhaps as early as Loyola's' letter to Pierre Favre in 1542, the
question of how to write, a meta-epistolary question, became one of
the major topics of discussion and of epistolary exchanges. While
complaining about confused and chaotic letters that cannot be
'shown' to other religious figures and laymen interested in a particular
topic, Loyola requested that 'in our correspondence, we should
act to ensure the greatest service to His divine goodness and the
greatest utility to the neighbor'. 27 Having thus defined the goals of
writing as a linchpin connecting the celestial and terrestrial worlds,
he established in detail the blueprint for Jesuit epistolary production.
According to Loyola, a letter should consist of two parts, the first
being a principal letter for the edification of'readers' and 'listeners',
Jesuit or otherwise. This was, therefore, a public part, recounting
26 Ignatius de Loyola's founding gesture of the Society of Jesus was itself a written
document which he and his companions submitted to Pope Paul m in late June or early
July of 1539. The Pope approved it and incorporated it into his bull of 27 September,
1540, Regimini militantis Ecclesiae. The text is in Sti. Ignatii de Loyola Conslitutiones
Societatis lesu, vol. I, Monumenta Constitutionum praevia, Monumenta Histórica
Societatis lesu (hereafter MHSI], Rome, 1934. This document, also known as the Formula
of the institute, became the foundation-stone of the Society and was later
expanded in the Constitutions.
27 Loyola to Favre (Pierre), Rome, 10 December, 1542, in Loyol, .Ecrite, pp. 669-79.