The First Jesuits.

John O'Malley has written the first scholarly examination of the "way of proceeding" of the first Jesuits, from the year of papal approval of the Society in 1540 to the death of Lainez in 1565. O'Malley focuses especially on the three people who had the greatest impact on shaping the Society's "way of proceeding" during this period, Ignatius, Polanco, and Nadal. O'Malley does an excellent job of working through an enormous amount of primary material, which gives his description of the first Jesuits a freshness of perspective and a high degree of reliability. O'Malley is also to be highly commended for writing such a clearly organized and cogently argued book on the basis of such a wealth of research.

O'Malley has two objectives in his book: to seek to understand the early Jesuits as they understood themselves, and to see the contexts into which the Jesuits inserted themselves (3). O'Malley is particularly concerned to eradicate the common stereotype which portrays the Jesuits as "a religious order under strict military discipline" (11), who submitted themselves in obedience to the pope in order to counter the Protestant Reformation. Instead, O'Malley claims that the Jesuits were what they did, and what they did was ministry, with the intention of "helping souls." O'Malley begins by portraying the full range of Jesuit ministries, culminating in the opening of the schools; he then turns to the discussion of the theological and ecclesiological contexts of Jesuit ministry. O'Malley is especially sensitive to the tensions which the schools created for the Jesuits, as they moved from an ideal of "itinerant preachers of the Gospel" to "being resident schoolmasters" (239).

The primary way the early Jesuits sought "to help souls" was to promote a more deeply interiorized ethical and religious life (196). The first Jesuits sought to do this through the Exercises, which were developed by Ignatius as an effective way to make possible for others his own religious experience (247). Hence the first Jesuits sought "to help souls" by seeking to be "mediators of an immediate experience of God that would lead to an inner change of heart or a deepening of religious sensibilities already present," by leading others to "an acceptance of the lived reality of God's action in their lives" (19). However, the Exercises were part of the larger Jesuit ministry of consolation. O'Malley paints a compelling and convincing picture of the Jesuit ministries of catechesis, preaching, penance, and Eucharist, which were all focused on the consolation of the faithful out of accommodation to their spiritual needs (142).

These concerns for interiority and consolation clearly place the early Jesuits in the traditions stemming from the Devotio Moderna in the work of Desiderius Erasmus on the one hand, and Gasparo Contarini on the other (369). Erasmus in particular is constantly in view in this book, even though O'Malley seems ambivalent about his role. At times he seems at pains to distinguish Ignatius from Erasmus (163, 256), while at other times he identifies their ideals and goals (90, 214, 314). The Jesuit emphasis on the mercy of God and on consolation and joy also has deep affinities with Contarini and the spirituali, as O'Malley notes. However, O'Malley demonstrates that the Jesuits consistently distanced themselves from Erasmus and the spirituali when they came under suspicion (262, 31520), thereby disclosing one of the more disturbing elements of the early Jesuits' "way of proceeding": their commitment to the good of their Society was apparently greater than their loyalty to those who shared their ideals.

Randall C. Zachman UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME