Jack Chick talked a lot about the Jesuits and the Jesuit Order.
He worked with Edmond Paris and his wife so Chick could publish
an English translation of his French book, The Secret History of the Jesuits.
It was only because of Jack that I really got into investigating the Jesuits.
But the first thing I realized was this:
Jesuits are not what they appear to be. I learned a lot of information in a testimony
by a young man who escaped from the Jesuits --in 1824.
Hi, I'm David Daniels from Chick Publications.
Maybe once a century, the Lord allows a person
to expose the Whore of Babylon in its various forms.
A modern example is Alberto Rivera. An 1800s example is this young man,
Jacopo Leone. Let me tell you his story.
Jacopo Leone was a child prodigy. He had a special talent:
In the early 1820s, he had invented a form of shorthand.
He liked to daydream in class, but he could be called upon at any moment.
So, he quickly wrote down in abbreviated form
every word his teacher said. Then, when he caught him daydreaming
(or reading another book) and told him to recite what was just said,
he could recite it, word for word! Frustrating, but brilliant!
The problem was, even in the 1820s, schools more existed to squash
creativity than to encourage it.
There was only one exception to this rule that Jacopo knew of: the Jesuits!
So 19-year-old Jacopo finished his studies at the Seminary of Vercelli.
Then he spent some time with Luigi Quarelli, arch-priest of Langosco,
halfway between Turin and Milan, in northern Italy.
Luigi recommended that he try to gain admittance into
the Jesuit Order. According to Luigi:
"...none were admitted into it but such as were distinguished for intellect,
wealth, or station."
That inflated his ego! So he wrote to Jan Philipp Roothaan, S.J.,
a Dutch priest who was rector of a Jesuit college in Turin.
Jacopo saw the Jesuits as the most noble of the Orders.
Roothaan recommended Jacopo take the preliminary exams.
In September of 1824 he was met by Roothan
at the "House of First Probation," where all applicants are probed,
to see if they are worthy to become Jesuits.
Jacopo had never been treated more kindly. Roothan talked with him
as if he were his closest friend and confidant.
–Of course, that was the way it was supposed to feel.
"It would be difficult for me to convey
an idea of the consummate art employed to sound a conscience,
to descend into the very depths of the inmost heart,
and to make all its chords resound, the individual remaining, all the while,
unconscious of the analysis which is going on,
so occupied is he by the pleasant flow of the conversation,
so beguiled by the air of frank good-nature with which the artful process is conducted."
In other words, Jacopo was being psychoanalyzed,
before the days of Freud, just like Alberto said,
which you'll see in a few minutes. But Roothan had a larger purpose.
Roothan wanted to make sure
that Jacopo desired to be a Jesuit more than anything else in the world,
and that he was already willing to submit everything to the Jesuit Order.
And what Roothan wanted was more than just Jacopo's testimony.
This form of questioning is described right here in The Constitutions
of the Jesuit Order. (But that's another video!)
Jacopo was approved and proceeded to the Jesuit Monastery
at Chieri, Turin, Italy. He described what happened next:
"On my arrival, they placed in my hands
the rules which related to this first phasis of my new existence.
I was immediately initiated into the exercises of Saint Ignatius,
and of other saints --all Jesuits.
It is by this sudden and complete immersion of the soul
that they acquire their unlimited power over so many young men,
unarmed by experience, and totally without defence...."
What Jacopo did next was sit in silence,
with the windows shuttered, while his "guardian angel"
(the "father" over each novice) lectured him on the Jesuit views of sin,
the world and eternal punishment. He told Jacopo that
those who don't absolutely submit to the rules of Ignatius of Loyola are:
"...as an army of rebels, angels of darkness, whom Satan inspires and governs,
and against whom battle must be waged, until the day of final victory
by the army of the faithful, led on by those angels of light
and chiefs of the sacred militia, the Jesuits. As for the enemy's camp,
he spoke of nothing in it but its reeking pestilence and corruption."
This, plus other "exercises," were designed for one purpose,
to break down the novice, until:
"each individual who has been wrought upon
during a sufficient time,
comes at last to consider himself religiously bound
to the total surrender of his own will." And it worked! In Jacopo's own words:
"for I truly believed that the more
I should identify myself with the society the more I should belong to God;
and in this deadening of every feeling which might stand in the way
of my entire dedication to the order, I perceived nothing
but a just and reasonable consequence of its directing principle:
'that the fewer ties we have with all that might distract us
from our purpose, the more will be our power
to persuade others to acknowledge that authority which it is
the mission of the Jesuits to proclaim,
as the only one upon earth which is not subject to error.'"
Jacopo was overwhelmed at times with the loss of all the things
that he held dear.
Yet never once did he think of "renouncing the Society."
When Jack Chick was arranging the funeral for his daughter,
Carol, back in 2001, one of the men there
asked for the Alberto comic series. He told Jack that he had actually
taken the first year of Jesuit training. He said they were tested over and over,
and each time more candidates were eliminated.
Finally, at the end of the year, there were a number of people standing.
The Jesuit teacher then said, "Those of you who are willing
to submit your entire will to the Jesuit Order
may stay. The rest of you are dismissed."
He couldn't go that far, so that was the end of his Jesuit training.
So this isn't some ancient story. It's still taking place today.
Back to Jacopo.
Over the days, the solitude and gloomy subjects of discussion
broke down both his spirit and his health. The Jesuits offered him a kind of thick wine
that left him feeling sluggish.
He tried to fast, but they kindly insisted he take nourishment.
They told him the greatest saints in the Order
had gone through the same thing and done amazing achievements for God.
For days he sat in solitude, on his knees, reading monks' books and meditations,
while he thought about the beautiful weather outside.
One day he could take it no longer. Jacopo wrote:
"being tempted by the fine autumn weather to breathe the fresh air
and enjoy the sunshine, I begged my guardian angel
to ask permission for me of the rector to walk for a few moments
alone in the garden. 'You have only,' he replied,
'to go to him and ask this permission for yourself;
you may be certain he will grant you whatever favour is in his power.'"
Two days later,
on an especially beautiful autumn day, Jacopo resolved to do just that.
"It was in the afternoon. I quitted my chamber,
and went to the rector's apartment, the door of which I found open,
although the rector was absent. This circumstance surprised me not a little,
as among the Jesuits everything is conducted
with the most exact regularity." This rector was so informal and so personal,
that Jacopo decided to do what he would never do.
He entered the apartment.
That's where he found out what the Jesuits were really about.
As far as Jacopo was concerned, he had entered the abode of angels.
When he saw the apartment lined with books,
he believed they would only be the finest writings obtainable anywhere.
So, since no one was around to tell him No, and he was truly
tired of reading the Exercises all day long, he started looking at the books.
He figured that in any moment the rector would return,
and Jacopo could present his request to go outside.
That's why he didn't hesitate for a moment to take down a book to look at it.
"... I raised my hand to a shelf of the library, and joyfully seized a volume.
To my surprise, I perceived a second row of books behind the first.
Curiosity impelled me to take down the volume
which had been concealed by the first I laid hold on.
The name of the author has escaped my recollection,
but it was, I think, a philosopher of the last century.
I should have looked at it more deliberately, had not a third row of books,
behind the second, struck me by
the peculiar style of the binding. What was my astonishment
when this title met my gaze, 'CONFESSIONS OF THE NOVICES!'
The side edges of the book were marked with the letters of the alphabet.
Could I do less than seek for the initial of my own name?"
Which he did.
"The first pages, written, probably, a few days after my arrival,
contained a rough sketch of my character. I was utterly confounded.
I recognized my successive confessions, each condensed into a few lines.
So clear and accurate was the appreciation given of my temperament, my faculties,
my affections, my weaknesses and my strength,
that I saw before my eyes a complete revelation of my own nature.
What surprised me above all was the conciseness
and energy of the expressions employed
to sum up the characteristics of my whole being.
The favorite images I found in this depository of outpourings of all sorts
from the heart of ingenuous youth, were borrowed from the materials
used in building --hard, fragile, malleable, coarse, precious,
necessary, accessory; a sort of figurative language
which had kept fast hold on my memory. I only regret that I could but glance
with the rapidity of lightning over the pages that concerned myself;
yet this glance sufficed to reveal to me the object of such a work.
An idea may be formed of it from the passage I am about to cite,
and of which I have retained an indelible remembrance.
'The amount enthusiasm and imagination with which he is endowed,' said the text,
'might in time be made very useful in varnishing our work.
His want of taste for the grotesque in religion
will do no harm, but it proves that his talent
must be employed in recommending and exalting,
to the more delicate consciences, all that is pure and ennobling in religion.
He would spoil all if we were to let him set to work
on the clumsier parts of the edifice; whilst he will greatly aid its advancement
if he is employed exclusively in the more delicate parts.
Let him be kept, therefore, in the upper regions of thought,
and let him not even be aware of the springs which set in movement
the vulgar part of the religious world. It is important
that he should always have near him, in his moments of depression,
some one to cheer him with brilliant anticipations.
But should his ardour, on the contrary, lead him too far,
some discouragement or disappointment must be prepared for him,
in order to mortify him and keep him in subjection'
"Not an atom of what I had, as, a matter of conscience,
revealed to my guardian angel, or confessor, was omitted in this register.
When I recollect what sweeping inductions were drawn from the trifles
which I had considered myself bound to communicate,
I cannot wonder that such a system, so based on profound study of character,
pursued with so much assiduity and constancy,
and applied on so vast a scale to individuals of every age
and every condition, should place in the hands of the Jesuits
an almost infallible means for attaining the end
which they have proposed to themselves, with such extraordinary determination."
Jacopo started to think back over the statements he had heard
over his lifetime, about the sinister nature of the Jesuit Order.
Never had he thought they could be true, until now.
Even his doubts about the so-called miracle stories told him,
had been related to the rector. He was an open book,
and his personality was set down in this open book.
Jacopo was so intrigued, he grabbed another book that caught his eye,
called The Confessions of Strangers. And here was Jacopo's first major discovery:
"I hastily glanced over a few lines, here and there,
and the small portions that I read induced me afterwards to believe,
that everything in this order is done conformably to the rules
of the little code, known by the name of Monita Secreta,
or Secret Instructions. It was, in fact, a collection of notes
upon persons of every class, of every age, rich men, bachelors, &c.
Here again were circumstantial details -- propensities, fortune, family, relations,
vices and virtues,
together with such anecdotes as were calculated
to characterize the personages. It is only in cases of exception,
as I have since learnt, that a Jesuit remains long in the same place.
If he be allowed to continue his sojourn there,
it is only when the superiors are convinced of the incontestable utility
of the influence which he exercises. Whenever a Jesuit,
particularly one of moderate abilities, has used up the resources of his mind
in any particular place, and when he seems to have
nothing new to produce, the regulations of the order require
that he shall be replaced by another who may, in his tum,
be remarked and admired for a longer or a shorter time.
In these frequent changes there is another advantage:
the new-comer, entering upon the sacred office
of his predecessor, as soon as he has learnt the names
of the persons who choose him for the director of their conscience,
can, by means of the Register of Confessions,
furnish himself, in a few hours, with all the experience
acquired by his colleagues. This artifice endows him
with the infallible power of surprising, confounding, and subjugating the penitents
who kneel beside him; he penetrates them most unexpectedly,
and, in a manner unprecedented, introduces himself
into the most hidden folds of their hearts. It cannot be told with how much art
the Jesuits profit by the astonishment they thus excite,
and how adroitly they tum it to the advancement of their work.
Thus, I have met with rich bigots, old men,
and often with young persons of the weaker sex, who boldly maintain
that the greater number of these reverend fathers
are actually endowed with the spirit of prophecy."
The Jesuits weren't just psychoanalyzing him.
They were doing this with every single person they met,
putting it into code in books like these.
In a future video I'll tell you another story about a Jesuit who showed these things
to a Dominican priest. Think about what can happen now,
with the advent of computers and the internet!
When Alberto said the Vatican had a database on everyone,
he wasn't making it up. Even in the 1800s
--and probably back to the 1500s-- this was going on, on paper and in code.
Jesuits are not what they appear to be.
All the time they are analyzing people to their very core,
to see how they can use them for their purposes.
I need to stop here. But in the next video
we will find out the second discovery that Jacopo made,
when the Jesuit leaders --including the future Jesuit General--
returned to the room and discussed their plans for the world.
Until then, God bless you and have a wonderful day.