Recovering the apostolic way of life: the new Clerks Regular of the Sixteenth

Century

Mark A. Lewis, S.J.

There is nothing that more constantly trains others in devotion and the

worship of God than the living example of those who have consecrated

themselves to the divine service. . . . Hence it is most appropriate for

clergy called to share the Lord’s portion so to fashion their whole life

and habits that by dress, gesture, gait, and speech, and in every other

way, they express only what is serious, moderate, and wholly devout.1

By the time the Fathers of the Council of Trent passed this decree concerning

clerical conduct in 1562, the demand for reform had already divided the Church in the

West, and fostered a variety of responses within the Roman Catholic Church which

has been broadly characterized as the ‘Catholic reform.’2 The development of the

various congregations of clerks regular, or ‘reformed priests’ in the sixteenth century,

particularly those founded in northern Italy, present a unique perspective on the

emergence of early modern Catholicism and constitute at least part of the context

from which the Tridentine reforms occurred.3 The origins, directions, plans for

reform, and priorities of each of these congregations differed in some ways one from

the other; yet many elements can be found which are common to all.

Three congregations founded in northern Italy, as well as the Jesuits,

contribute to our understanding of this concept of reformed priest, and of the popular

movement which underlay it. The first of these groups was officially identified as the

Order of Clerks Regular at its foundation in 1524, but they came to be known more

popularly as the Theatines. The Theatines demonstrate some of the original concerns

for clerical reform, particularly in the area of personal conduct, dress, and prayer. The

Clerks Regular of St. Paul, popularly known as the Barnabites, with their specifically

pastoral concerns, suggest a second stage of development in the unfolding of this new

style of religious life. Founded in 1530 by Antonio Maria Zaccaria, they were perhaps

the most outspoken of the early groups of clerks regular, using their churches as a

means for developing the consciences of their public and stirring up concern for the

poor. The Clerks Regular of Somasca or Somaschi present yet a third development

with their emphasis on charitable work. When they were originally gathered together

by Girolamo Emiliani in 1534, they referred to themselves as the Society of Servants

of the Poor. The Somaschi dedicated themselves to the specific task of working with

orphans and other needs of the poor, using their hospitals and orphanages as centers

of apostolic activity.

Several key elements, then, can be identified as common to the ‘reformed

priests’ of the sixteenth century: modest dress and moral behavior; dedication to

administering the sacraments; and an advocacy in favor of the poor and marginalized.

To the popular eye, these priests sought to reclaim characteristics of ministry from the

apostolic age.4 The term reformed priest, then, originated among the people who were

being served by these priests.5

Clearly elements of these three congregations of clerks regular affected

Ignatius of Loyola and his first companions at a crucial stage in their journey towards

2

priesthood and religious life. Their experience of these reformed priests during their

sojourn in Venice in 1537 gave the first companions and Ignatius additional ideas as

they formed themselves into the Society of Jesus. The Jesuits, however, added their

own unique elements to the formula of reformed priest. First, they took a much more

universal stance on their activities by placing themselves directly at the service of the

1 Council of Trent, ‘Decree on Reform (Eucharist)’ canon 1, session 22, in

Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, trans. & ed. Norman Tanner (Washington, DC:

Georgetown University Press, 1990), *737. It is worthwhile to note that while

session 22 dealt with the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the first canon from that

session deals with clerical behavior.

2 See John O’Malley, ’Was Ignatius Loyola an early Church reformer: How to

look at early modern Catholicism,’ Catholic Historical Review 77 (1991) 177-193.

3 The expression ‘clerk regular’ became the canonical term applied to most of

the orders founded in the sixteenth century who had been popularly identified as

‘reformed priests.’ See my, ‘The First Jesuits as “Reformed Priests,”’ Archivum

Historicum Societatis Iesu 65 (1996) 111-127. Mario Fois, ‘Il contesto ecclesiastico

ed ecclesiale italiano alla nascità dei Chierici Regolari’ Archivum Historiae

Pontificiae 27 (1989) 418, concludes that it was the ‘reformed priest’ which was the

response of the Catholic Reformation to the intellectual and moral decline of the

clergy. He further suggests that the Council of Trent took and codified this response

and imposed it on the whole Church.

4 Fois, ‘Il contesto ecclesiastico’ 418 observes: ‘The clerk regular [of the

sixteenth century] constituted a perfect recovery of the authentic figure of the

priest, . . . his dual and essential characteristics of the ecclesiastical agent on pastoral

mission to the Christian community and the witness of his own life with the Gospel; a

3

pope in regard to their eventual missions. Further, they employed the Spiritual

Exercises of Ignatius, together with a strong academic preparation, to provide

adequate spiritual and intellectual formation to fulfill their various missions.

The sixteenth century, of course, saw reform movements among many other

religious Orders. The Dominicans, particularly in Spain and France, underwent

sweeping changes around the turn of the century.6 Among women’s religious Orders,

the move toward an active apostolic life ‘in the world’ was blocked (after a few

important initiatives) in 1566 by the bull Circa pastoralis of Pope Pius V which

mandated strict enclosure of women religious. Perhaps the most significant of the

mendicant reforms was that of the Capuchins in 1525. They too adopted many of the

elements current in the sixteenth-century Catholic reform movements (particularly

preaching, and to a lesser extent, religious education), yet their spirituality remained

rooted in that of St. Francis of Assisi, their medieval antecedent. While the Capuchins

remained rooted in medieval traditions of piety, the clerks regular sought to create

new spiritual supports and institutional structures (or at least revise existing ones), as

well as to provide a new model for the secular clergy who would be active in the

world.7 The focus of this study, therefore, will remain on the new religious style of

recovery, that is, to the apostolica vivendi forma.’ (My translation is from Italian.)

5 John O’Malley, The First Jesuits (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,

1993), 68, notes that ‘people began to call [the first Jesuits] simply “reformed

priests,”’ and ties this to the Formula of the Institute which stipulates that externally

the manner of life should conform to the customs of ‘honest priests.’

4

life found in the clerks regular established during the sixteenth century.

Beginning by looking at the background and development of these new

orders, it becomes increasingly clear that the new articulation of the priesthood which

arises from them constitutes a distinct reform movement among the laity of northern

Italy. Two separate lay confraternities, the oratory of divine love and the company of

st. Ursula, provide such of the background for the reform efforts present in early

modern italy. Since they exercised significant influence on the new foundations of

clerks regular, they too, merit a brief examination.

The roots of clerical reform in northern Italy lay in the medieval confraternity.

Well within that tradition was the Oratory of Divine Love, first established in Genoa

in 1497. Primarily made up of laymen--only four of the thirty-six members could be

priests--the oratory would nevertheless extend its influence towards the clergy.8

Inspired by the work of Caterina Fieschi Adorno (St. Catherine of Genoa, 1447-

1510), the spirituality of the small group emphasized not only the traditional

devotions, but work for the poor and marginalized. In this, the Oratory moved the

focus of charitable activity from within outwards. While not the first benevolent

organization (many other confraternities in italy and elsewhere had begun

6 See, for example, Ricardo García-Villoslada, La Universidad de París

durante los estudios de Francisco de Vitoria, O.P. (1500-1522) (Rome: Pontificia

Università Gregoriana, 1938).

7 Francesco Andreu, ‘Chierici Regolari,’ Dizionario degli Istituti di Perfezione

2: 907-908, lists several other orders of Clerks Regular founded in the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries.

8 John Olin, The Catholic Reformation: From Savonarola to Ignatius Loyola

(New York: Fordham University Press, 1992), 16-17.

5

undertaking similar activities around this same period), it attracted enough notoriety

to be seen as a major point of transition in the history of the Church.9

The impact of the Oratory of Divine Love increased when its founder, Ettore

Vernazza (1470-1524), established a branch in Rome at the beginning of 1514. There,

the Oratory flourished in Trastevere, centered on a hospital for poor incurables near

the church of Santa Dorothea. The number of members there was allowed to reach

sixty, and, no doubt due to the high percentage of clerics in the city, the number of

priests was not as strictly limited. Many of its adherents in Rome would become

important figures in the reform of the Church. The founders of both the Theatines

and the Somaschi, for example, had been members of the Roman branch of the

Oratory. In fact, it was Gaetano of Thiene (1480-1547), one of the Theatine founders

who established the Oratory in Vicenza, Verona, and finally in Venice.10

Not two hundred kilometers from the first Oratory of Divine Love, Angela

Merici (1474-1540), began another confraternity, the Company of St. Ursula in 1535.

She too had been influenced by the spirituality and charitable concerns of the Oratory

of Divine Love which had been founded in Brescia by Bartolomeo Stella shortly after

it had been brought to Rome. Merici, however, had been influenced by other

associations of lay people, and belonged to the Franciscan Third Order. Further, she

was aware of the work not only of the Oratory of Divine Love, but also the

Congregation of the Most Holy Trinity, and the activity of confraternities teaching

catechism under Giacomo Chizzola.11

Merici, however, had begun developing her form of religious life long before

coming in contact with the reform-minded laity of Brescia. Already in 1510 in

Desenzano (her native region) she engaged in works of charity along with her prayer

10 Olin, The Catholic Reformation, 17.

6

and penance. By 1515 she had joined the Franciscan Tertiaries at Salò, and began to

receive the sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist more frequently.12 (this

practice of frequenting the sacraments, extremely rare in the Middle Ages, would

become a hallmark of the Catholic renewal in early modern Europe.) She also made

many pilgrimages, including one to the Holy Land in 1524. It was on her return from

this voyage that she came into contact with Girolamo Emiliani of the Somaschi and

Gaetano of Thiene of the Theatines at Venice. In 1525 she made contact with the

Capuchin reform movement during her pilgrimage to Rome for the jubilee year. In

both Venice and Rome she was encouraged to organize charitable activities by

patriarch and pope respectively. She demurred, however, in favor of a return to her

native land. With the Italian wars and the sack of Rome in 1527, Merici found herself

in Cremona caring for the refugees from that strife. During all of this period, she

appears to have made no special effort to teach catechism.13

When peace arrived, she once again returned to Brescia, having rejected offers

to carry out her charitable work in Milan. By 1532, Merici had begun to gather a

group of women of all ages and classes around her to teach catechism to young girls.

During this early period they maintained the characteristics of a lay confraternity,

each living at home while coming together regularly for meetings and prayer at the

church of St. Afra. But it was clear that the women would not simply remain within

the confines of confraternity activity. Merici’s vision that this would be a

congregation of virgins and widows (though without vows or any public

commitment) who would be dedicated to teaching catechism, attending daily mass,

and frequently receiving the sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist was already

beginning to take shape.14

7

Merici’s foundation would eventually develop into a religious order of nuns

(falling under the rules for enclosure required by Pope Pius V in 1566), but even so,

her work represents the first organization of religious women with the specific

purpose of educating young girls.15 Such an education, it was hoped, would bring

about the restoration of the Christian family through the education of future mothers.

The Primitive Rule states: ‘Let each one be concerned with works of charity,

particularly with Christian education. The sisters will teach not only doctrine, but also

right conduct, and will give their students a living model [of Christian life].’16 This

9 For more on the reform trends of late medieval confraternities, see

Christopher Black, Italian Confraternities in the sixteenth century (New York:

Cambridge University Press, 1989). Both Ludwig Pastor, The History of the Popes

from the Close of the Middle Ages trans. R.F. Kerr (St. Louis: B. Herder, 1936), 10:

388-92; and Hubert Jedin, A History of the Council of Trent trans. E. Graf (London:

Thomas Nelson, 1957), 1: 146-47, support this claim.

11 Charmarie J. Blaisdell, ‘Angela Merici and the Ursulines,’ Religious Orders

of the Catholic Reformation ed. Richard L. DeMolen (New York: Fordham

University Press, 1994). 101. Paul Grendler, Schooling in Renaissance Italy:

Literacy and Learning, 1300-1600 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press,

1989), 333-62, discusses the development of the schools for Christian doctrine in

northern Italy from 1536 onwards.

12 Blaisdell, ‘Angela Merici’ 102. Blaisdell also suggests that Merici may have

already begun teaching catechism to children at this time, though she acknowledges

that the contemporary accounts make no mention of it. See Alessandro Tamborini, La

Compagnia e le scuole della dottrina cristiana (Milan: Daverio, 1939), 40-42.

13 Blaisdell, ‘Angela Merici’ 104-105

8

particular concern for the education of young people in Christian doctrine would

become a major apostolic endeavor of more than one order of clerks regular. At the

same time that she enjoined her spiritual daughters to go into the world to help

change it, she encouraged a strong spiritual foundation in the sacraments and personal

prayer so as to protect them from the temptations of it. ‘the Sisters should have a

special zeal for prayer, both mental and vocal . . . . Therefore each one should recite

each day the Office of the Virgin Mary and the seven penitential psalms.’17 This too,

would be a common element with the clerks regular. While perhaps not as influential

as the Oratory of Divine Love, the Ursulines demonstrate that the desire for reform

through education and good example was prevalent enough among the laity in

northern Italy to support and encourage the developing congregations of clerics which

would subsequently develop there.

These two confraternities, then, provided a significant impetus to the

14 Teresa Ledochowska, Angela Merici and the Company of St. Ursula

according to the historical documents trans. M. Neylan (Milan: Àncora, 1968), 1:

103-108.

15 Blaisdell, ‘Angela Merici’ 111-122.

16 Primitive Rule of the Company of St. Ursula, chapter 19, as cited in Marie

Martin, L’Éducation des Ursulines (Rome: Aurora, 1947), v. This is my translation

from her French quotation. However the Italian text published in Ledochowska does

not contain this statement. Ledochowska notes that her transcription is not from the

1546 Rule which is no longer extant.

17 Primitive Rule of the Company of St. Ursula, chapter 5, cited in ibid. My

translation is from her French. Again, the text in Ledochowska indicates different

prayers.

9

development of the clerks regular in the sixteenth century. The Oratory presented a

new model of apostolic behavior tied to the popular piety already strongly developed

in the Middle Ages. The influence of this commitment to charitable and apostolic

activity would be translated into a renewal of the apostolic life of the priest in the new

orders. The lay women who surrounded Angela Merici, for their part, introduced the

notion of an active form of religious life preoccupied with the Christian education of

young girls as the future guides for the moral reform of the family. Their style of life

combined elements of spiritual contemplation (as a means to remain apart from the

temptations of the world) with the activity necessary to confront the problems facing

the early modern Church and society.

The two principal founders of the Theatines were a rather unlikely pair to

come together to form a new order. Gaetano of Thiene was a scholar, who had

studied civil and canon law as well as theology. His canonical and ecclesiastical

career introduced him to two of the more powerful institutions of the Renaissance: the

papal curia and the university. In addition to his reputation for holiness, he was

known to have been quiet and retiring, seeking the seclusion of an almost monastic

life.18 Despite his noble birth and ecclesiastical career, he did not enjoy the gift or the

personality for leadership. Nevertheless, he saw from his particular vantage point at

Rome the need for reform. It was this that brought him to the Oratory of Divine Love.

What the Oratory had tried to accomplish with its own members (and predominantly

a lay membership), Gaetano wanted to bring to the reform of the clerical state.

It was through the Oratory that Gaetano met Gian Pietro Carafa (1476-1559).

The latter, also born of a noble family, was a man of strong character, not afraid to

18 Antonio Veny-Ballester, San Cayetano de Thiene (Barcelona: Vicente

Ferrer, 1950), 61-62.

10

take bold actions. He was familiar with the highest ecclesiastical circles, having gone

to live with his uncle, Oliviero Cardinal Carafa, when he was only 18. Yet in spite of

his presence at the papal court, the young Carafa remained relatively untouched by

the excesses of the Borgia pope, Alexander VI.19 His own political skill and power

can be seen in his ecclesiastical career. Made bishop of Chieti in 1504, at the age of

28, he received the cardinal’s hat in 1536. In 1536 Paul III appointed him to the

reform commission that produced the Consilium de emendanda ecclesia where he

helped lay the groundwork for many of the reforms which would be taken up at the

Council of Trent. In 1555 he became the only founder of a religious institute to be

elected to the papacy. In Gaetano and Carafa, the elements of sanctity and charity

combined with rigor and political acumen to form a new order of priests strong

enough to live the reformed life that the Church needed.

In 1524, Gaetano and Carafa joined with two other members of the Oratory of Divine

Love, Bonifacio de’Colli and Paolo Consiglieri, to found the Clerks Regular. Their

motivation was simple, to accomplish the same kind of reform of the clergy that the

Oratory had already begun to do so well with the lay elements of society. The

Theatines combined in their foundation the practices of evangelical perfection

traditionally sought by religious orders, and the direct apostolic service to the Church

which was intended by the diocesan priesthood. Whereas the earliest religious orders

in the church had ordained only a few priests among their membership, and then

primarily to serve the needs of their own community, the Theatines intended to be a

religious order almost completely of priests (some lay brothers would be admitted)

whose service would be directed outwards. On the other hand, the secular priest was

not obligated by any vow to the evangelical counsels, and it was the failure to observe

19 Ibid., 226-227.

11

even the promises of his state which led to many of the crises facing the church.20

With the formation of the Theatines, a new way of living religious life and a new

means of carrying out priestly ministry developed. Religious life was transformed

beyond the mendicant innovations offered in the thirteenth century by increasing the

emphasis on direct and continuous priestly care of souls. Their new way of living the

priestly vocation intended to provide a living example for reform.

These aspects of the Theatines present a firm foundation for the term

‘reformed priests’ which was popularly applied to them.21 They sought to possess the

virtues of the religious while remaining among the people. This required them,

however, to abandon some of the practices of the more conventual or monastic

orders. Further, they began to develop a spirituality which would foster a strong

interior life in order to counterbalance the temptations that would come from their

immersion in a secular atmosphere less inclined towards holiness.22 Gaetano’s plan

was to reform the clergy without making them stop being clergy, that is, without

making them either monks or friars. He hoped, rather, to adjust the notion of

evangelical perfection to clerical life. The model, which would be augmented by

subsequent orders, called for a simple lifestyle for the clergy.

The term honestus sacerdos (honorable priest) describes the simple lifestyle

which was sought for the clergy by the Church.23 The Constitutions of the Theatines

shows a clear concern for an apostolic life, but their primary focus centers on the

lifestyle of the boni preti (good priests). Gaetano is supposed to have written, ‘If God

gives me the grace to place under the eyes of secular priests a family of clerks

21 Ignacio Ipparaguire, ‘Nuevas formas de vivir el ídeal religiosa,’ Historia de

la espiritualidad ed. J. Flores (Barcelona: Claracao, 1969), 2: 183.

22 Ibid., 182.

12

regular, I hope, with the innocence, the poverty, the modesty, and the holiness of

these latter, to try to make the seculars abandon their vices and dedicate themselves to

the acquisition of virtues.’24

The idea that the Theatines should be a model for the secular clergy is further

supported by the rules concerning the mode of dress for the community. The Theatine

Rule of 1527 states: ‘No special type of habit or particular color is prescribed to Ours,

rather that shall be adopted which is suitable to clerici honesti and not forbidden by

the holy canons, nor contrary to that which is done in the town or diocese in which

we find ourselves.’25 The simplicity to be found in their style of dress is extended to

all aspects of their exterior life in the papal brief Dudum pro parte of Clement VII

given in 1533: ‘In that which concerns dress, as in that which concerns the exterior

display of the offices, food and all style of life, the habits and praiseworthy practices

of the good clerics of the city or country where they find themselves will be

followed.’26 This first example of reformed priests, then, provides us with a first

characteristic of these new Orders: One similarity of these new Orders for the

ordinary Christian was in their way of dress and comportment, they wore the simple

dress of the local clergy (a black cassock), and maintained a modest style of living.27

The Clerks Regular of St. Paul, as the Barnabites were officially known,

came into existence only six years after the Theatines. Their founder, Antonio Maria

Zaccaria (1502-1539), was a medical doctor by profession. Thus, the motivation of

his conversion and his initial concerns for the Church were not clerical but rather the

23 Michel Dortel-Claudot, ‘Origine du terme “clercs réguliers,”’ Ius Populi

Dei (Rome: Pontificia Università Gregoriana, 1972); and also his La genre de vie

exterieur de la Compagnie de Jésus (Rome: Pontificia Università Gregoriana, 1971),

present a thorough study of this term from a canonical perspective.

13

conclusions drawn from a noble, professional, and lay perspective. Zaccaria began

with a desire for apostolic labor, which brought him to the priesthood. (In this respect

he, Emiliani, and Ignatius shared a similar experience.) The Barnabites, as a result,

would emphasize their apostolic labor more than the Theatines did. To distinguish

themselves from the Theatines and to emphasize their different outlook, they took the

name Clerks Regular of St. Paul: for them, it was Paul who bridged the two styles of

ministerial life, religious and secular.28

The development of the notion of reformed priesthood from the practice of the

Theatines to that of the Barnabites is subtle, however. Zaccaria maintained the life of

the model priest, resigning his benefices and seeking to serve the needs of the poor. In

doing so he shifted the emphasis from priesthood itself to priestly service, and so the

spirituality of the Barnabites, itself more developed than its Theatine counterpart,

incorporated this shift as well. The Barnabites’ work brought them close to people of

every social class. They could be found in the various social institutions of the day:

churches, hospitals, universities, and prisons. The range of their apostolates was very

broad; they refused to limit their possible ministries.

New and innovative methods were intended to gain attention for their work.

In doing so, they aroused the suspicions of some, and the Barnabites found their

community under the scrutiny of the Roman Inquisition.29 This was partly because of

their foundation of a congregation of spouses to assist them in their ministry. Another

important aspect of this public dimension of their ministry was the solemnity and

splendor which they gave to their celebration of the sacred liturgies. This use of art

and splendor to draw attention to the truths of the faith would later become the

hallmark of the Baroque Church.

14

Zaccaria’s premature death at 35 deprived the Barnabites of their leader and

protector at a crucial time. Even though they had begun on a grand scale, they did not

have a complete organizational structure in place, and they remained the targets of

their detractors. In 1552, perhaps as a result of these accusations, Monsignor

Girolomo Sauli, papal vice-legate in Bologna, proposed to Ignatius of Loyola the

union of the Barnabites and the Jesuits. Ignatius’ response was no doubt intended to

underline his confidence in the Barnabites and the importance of their work:

I would respond to Your Reverence in two points: First, that I love in

the Lord these Fathers, and I have a very good opinion of their virtue

and goodness; the other, that similar unions have been proposed at

other times with two congregations of religious priests, and we have

not found it useful to anyone, for it seems that God Our Lord is better

served by them and by us if such a union were not made.30

The Barnabite contribution to the concept of the reformed priest, then, rested

in the emphasis on apostolic action. This was combined with a spirituality based on

the doctrine of St. Paul, who speaks of ‘our incorporation into Christ.’ The emphasis

on the sanctity of their apostolic work, along with their devotion to the sacramental

ministries of the Church, represent added elements to the concept of the reformed

priest.

The third group of Italian reformed priests, the Somaschi, continued the

emphasis which the Barnabites had placed on apostolic labor, adding to it new

innovations in terms of institutionalization and specialization. Moreover, they

identified themselves with the poor and weak in society to a greater extent than either

30 Monumenta Historicum Societatis Iesu: Monumenta Ignatiana Epistolae

(Rome: IHSI, 1964), 4: 496. Monsignor Sauli’s request is found on 497-98.

15

of their predecessors the Theatines or the Barnabites. Both of these groups worked

with the poor, especially in hospitals (as would the Jesuits) but they differed from the

Somaschi who sought explicit identification with this apostolic work. Hospitals would

be their first and primary locus of apostolic activity, but they would specialize even

further in that apostolate, ultimately focusing on the care of orphaned and abandoned

children.

Girolamo Emiliani was initially a member of the Oratory of Divine Love and

as a priest also concerned with clerical reform.31 As a result of his conversion and

vocation, which was very similar to that of Ignatius, Emiliani began to work in

hospitals in northern Italy but with an organizational fervor that led him to establish

institutional structures for his work.32 He worked with Gaetano de Thiene in Venice at

the Oratory of Divine Love. A trip to Brescia in 1525 might also have brought him in

contact with Angela Merici who was already active teaching catechism there.33 It is

around this period that he himself took a special interest in teaching catechism to the

orphans under his care. In 1527, when the sack of Rome forced the Theatines to take

refuge in Venice, he began a long spiritual relationship with Gian Pietro Carafa, who

guided him through much of the early period of the Somaschan foundation. In 1528,

Emiliani established his first apostolic center, an orphanage attached to a parish, in

Venice. Within a few years he had gathered a group of men around this work, mostly

to guarantee its continued financial viability. Emiliani referred to his companions as

the Society of Servants of the Poor. The use of the term “society” (compagnia in

Italian) implied a new identity within the development of the reformed priest. It not

only included a sense of action but it also suggested fraternity and union. (Angela

Merici’s foundation would also make use of this term, as would Ignatius, and his first

“companions in the Lord.”) The Somaschi continued to establish orphanages,

16

hospitals and other fixed institutions of charity throughout the life of Emiliani. This

attitude towards apostolic action both institutionally structured and tied to the

interrelationship among the members would come to predominate as a characteristic

of the clerk regular.

The Somaschan contribution to the development of the concept of the

reformed priest would be the establishment of centers for apostolic and charitable

activity. Yet while establishing their charitable institutions, the Somaschi failed to

institutionalize themselves, and at the death of Emiliani in 1537 still found themselves

without papal approbation. Once they lost their founder they lacked a unifying

personality to bring a specific spiritual identity to their movement. It is no wonder

then, that they sought to unite with the newly established Society of Jesus as early as

1547.34 Failing in that attempt, they did unite with the Theatines in the same year.

However by 1555 they had separated from them and were again seeking approval on

their own. Other small groups of priests joined them after this: In 1566, the preti

reformati di Santa Maria Piccola di Tortona united with them, as did the preti del

Buon Gesù in 1612.35

Their own decision to establish schools grew out of the spiritual care which

they sought to give to orphans. They began, as did Angela Merici and as would

Ignatius, by teaching catechism to their charges. Eventually they established colleges

and seminaries. Yet in spite of this development, the Somaschi remained primarily a

congregation with institutional concerns centering on orphanages and hospitals.

The first three groups of clerks regular, then, each gave some clarity to the

clarity to the movement. The need for the reform of the Church brought forth a

variety of means to accomplish it. Following the initial impetus of the Oratory of

Divine Love in Italy, the later bands of reformed priests focused on personal holiness

17

and the reform of clerical ligroups identified themselves as reformed priests. One

group came to be known unofficially as the Reformed priests of the Virgin. When

they were approved by Clement VIII they were given the title Clerks Regular of the

Mother of God. The preti reformati di Santa Maria Piccola di Tortona was another

small group that included “reformed priest” in its title. They too, sought entrance into

the Society of Jesus before they became incorporated into the Somaschi. In December

of 1553, several of these clerics of Tortona approached Diego Laynez (1512-1565),

one of Ignatius’ first companions. Laynez reported to Ignatius:

There are some clerics, servants of God, they have been neither

brothers nor clerics in any other order, there are four here, and some

others in Tortona. One of them confesses the orphans in the large

hospital, another confesses many in the city, and preaches, and knows

laws and canons, Latin and Greek, and knows also the positive

doctors; he particularly wants to enter the Society and I believe the

others do too.36

Ignatius did not seem hesitant to accept them but appeared to prefer accepting these

new members on a case by case basis: ‘Concerning these clerics of Tortona [who

have shown desire to enter], it does not seem bad to me if they are accepted there,

especially the one that you wrote had letters.’37

In some ways, the Society of Jesus represents the culmination of the

development of the clerk regular in the sixteenth century, for most of the Orders

founded after the sixteenth century were modelled after the Jesuit way of life.38

Initially it would seem that Ignatius and his companions, all former students of the

36 MHSI: Monumenta Lainii, 1: 244-45. The letter is dated 2 December 1553,

and my translation is from the Spanish.

18

University of Paris and from a wide variety of nations and backgrounds, would have

little in common with the movement of clerical reform in northern Italy. But, having

completed their studies in France, the small band of scholars had decided to make a

pilgrimage to the Holy Land. While waiting for the pilgrim ship for the year 1537, the

companions found themselves in Venice preparing force preparing fo their ordination.

There they divided up their dwellings and apostolic labors. Some lived with the

Theatines at the hospital of the Incurables, others at the hospital of Sts. John and Paul.

Ignatius remained at the priory of the Trinity, the residence of one of his early

benefactors. Only a few months earlier, Girolamo Emiliani had lodged at the same

place.39 The apostolic experience and lifestyle of these new clerks regular suited the

first companions of Ignatius and so there was a natural affinity between them. As

1537 passed and it became clear that their pilgrimage to the Holy Land would not be

possible, the first Jesuits put into effect the second option of their vow to go to the

Holy Land. Were it not possible to travel there, they had promised to place

themselves at the feet of the pope to be missioned at his behest. This action, decided

at Paris in 1534, marks a major difference between the Jesuits and the other clerks

regular of Italian origin. The Society of Jesus began and was sustained by an

international membership and a much broader vision of mission. While the other

clerks regular would only gradually move out of Italy, the first new recruits to the

Society of Jesus were on the road to Paris months before the official approval of the

Order. Nevertheless, the first companions naturally incorporated the example of their

fellow reformed priests into the deliberations concerning their next step as a religious

community.

In the following year, the companions found themselves in Rome caring for

the poor victims of a particularly harsh winter and resulting famine while discerning

19

the future of their companionship. Even as they decided to form a religious Order,

they were being called reformed priests (and at times Theatines) by the people they

served, since they so clearly resembled them. Two events indicate another specific

element that Ignatius and his companions would bring to the development of this

reform movement.

In 1539 the newly named papal legate to Parma, Ennius Filonardi, cardinal of

Sant’ Angelo, asked for two of these reformed priests to join him there in order to

preach and dispute with the heretics.40 Ignatius’ response reports simply that ‘two of

our company went with him.’41 These priests, Diego Laynez and Pierre Favre (1506-

1546), went to Parma where they taught catechism and lessons on Scripture,

preached, heard confessions, and urged people to reform their lives.42 Another letter

in a similar vein came from Lattanzio Palliotti, a priest of Fermo, who wrote to

Ignatius at ‘the convent of reformed priests in Rome’ in December, 1552, asking him

‘to send as soon as possible two of your reformed priests . . . to illumine and direct in

the way of the Lord God some priests there who desire to live a reformed life.’43

These two letters introduce more clearly the outward aspect of the work of the

Society of Jesus. Their concern for reform extended beyond their own personal

priestly life, it was now tied to preaching and sacramental ministry as well. By 1547,

at least twelve of the thirty-five Jesuits living in Rome were directly involved in its

religious and moral reform.44 The specifically Ignatian influences also begin to

emerge in these texts. Laynez and Favre in Parma seem to be continuing what they

had been doing during their trip to Venice a few short years before, namely

preaching, teaching, and giving good example. But in addition to their own work,

they were reforming other clergy.

44 Garcia-Villoslada, San Ignacio de Loyola, 528.

20

An important part of this aspect of their work was the use of the Spiritual

Exercises of Ignatius. This powerful tool in the hands of the first Jesuits was used as

an aid in the conversion of the person making them. The Exercises, aimed at personal

conversion, were given to key individuals, to those people whose conversion would

have a broader impact on society. By giving the spiritual exercises to some members

of the clergy in Parma, Laynez and Favre no doubt hoped to build up a solid family

of local clergy who could, by their pious association and reformed ministries,

challenge the successful inroads that had been made by Protestants in that part of

Italy. The priests in Fermo, no doubt hearing of the value of the Exercises, sought

from Ignatius this tool in order to make use of it in the process of their own

conversions. Thus this small band of ‘friends in the Lord’ came to expand their

particular style of reform in ever widening circles.

The characteristics which emerge from the new Orders of clerks regular, then,

fall into two basic categories—personal holiness and apostolic action. In both these

categories abundant example was given by the behavior of the Oratory of Divine

Love. Within that tradition of the lay confraternity, Angela Merici introduced the

notion of engaging in the active apostolate of education while safeguarding personal

holiness through a firm commitment to prayer. Each of the three Italian congregations

of clerks regular added to and refined the characteristics of clerical reform. The

Theatines placed a great emphasis on a simple lifestyle and good example. The

Barnabites sought to insert themselves more deeply into the apostolic life of the

Church through the various ministries of the Word, preaching and the sacraments.

The Somaschi organized centers of apostolic activity away from the parish or

conventual church. By focusing on hospitals, orphanages, and other institutions, they

created a new kind of tool for reform. Common through all of this was the idea of

21

reform through good example, and the importance of a spirituality for the active life

in the world.

The Society of Jesus shared the elements common to the other congregations

of reformed priests/clerks regular founded during this period. But Ignatius’ vision for

the Society of Jesus was much more universal than that of the other founders. He saw

the Society as an instrument of service to the whole Church. Thus as early as 1537 the

first companions had opted to make themselves available to the pope for service to

the universal Church. Ignatius expresses his vision of the rationale for the Society's

universal mission in the Constitutions where he observes, ‘The more universal the

good is, the more is it divine.’45 Ignatius also emphasized the need for a solid spiritual

and intellectual formation. In his Constitutions for the Order, he devotes a

considerable amount of time to the development of an orderly system for Catholic

education.46 Part of this system required the establishment of seminaries for the

training of priests in a proper intellectual and spiritual atmosphere. In this he saw one

of the first specific missions for his young Society.

The concern for reform found in the Society of Jesus, especially in its concern

for the education of priests, fit into the reform plans outlined at the Council of Trent.

Many of the canons concerning clerical reform drew their inspiration from the

activities of the Jesuits. The presence of three Jesuits at the Council actively

supported the foundation of new seminaries. While the extent of the influence of

reformed priests such as the Jesuits had on the Council cannot be easily or definitively

determined, the consensus of scholarship indicates that much of the reform legislation

concerning the clergy derived from their examples and influence.

If the Jesuits indeed mark a culmination of the reform movement of the clerks

regular, then they clearly built on a well-established foundation. Because of the

22

initiatives of laypeople concerned for the state of the Church, the exchange of ideas,

examples, and programs for reform in Venice, Milan, Brescia, and other parts of

northern Italy created an atmosphere for the rearticulation of the synthesis of the

contemplative and the active, and a recovery of the apostolic way of life for the

ordinary clergy.

20 Many of the clerical abuses of this period are outlined in the report

Consilium de emendanda ecclesia, translated in The Catholic Reformation, 186-197.

Cf. Lewis, ‘The First Jesuits as “Reformed Priests,”’ 113-115.

24 Michel Dortel-Claudot, Mode de vie, niveau de vie et pauverté de la

Compagnie de Jésus (Rome: Centrum Ignatianum Spiritualis, 1973), 28. This is my

translation from the French. Dortel-Claudot is quoting Veny-Ballester, San Cayetano

de Thiene, 270. However, Dortel-Claudot related to me in an interview at Rome in

1991 that he was unable to trace the reference to this strong statement of purpose.

25 Johannes Silos, Historiae Clericorum Regularum a Congregatione condita

(Rome, 1650), 1: 74. Quoted and translated into French by Dortel-Claudot in Mode

de vie, 26. My translation is from the French, the original text is in Latin.

26 Clement VII, Dudum pro parte (7 March 1533). Quoted and translated in

Dortel-Claudot, Mode de vie, 26. This is my translation from the French, the original

text is in Latin.

27 Ricardo Garcia-Villoslada, San Ignacio de Loyola (Madrid: Biblioteca de

Autores Cristianos, 1986), 414. The early Jesuits were commonly referred to as

‘Theatines’ by the people of Rome both because of the style of their dress, and their

apostolic activities.

28 Ipparaguire, ‘Nuevas formas de vivir el ídeal religiosa,’ 184.

23

29 Mario Scaduto, Storia della Compagnia di Gesù in Italia: L’época di

Giacomo Lainez il governo 1556-1565 (Rome: Civiltà Cattolica, 1964), 543.

31 Biographers of the seventeenth century place his ordination in 1518, shortly

after his conversion, but Giuseppe Landini, S. Girolamo Miani (Rome: Curia

Generalizia Chierici Regolari Somaschi, 1945), 345, note 9, suggests a much later

date. Sebastiano Raviolo, L’Ordine dei Chierici Regolari Somaschi (Rome: Curia

Generalizia Chierici Regolari Somaschi, 1957), 17ff. hints at 1527/28, while P.

Bianchini, ‘Chierici regolari Somaschi’ in Dizionario degli Istituti di Perfezione

(Rome: Edizioni Paolini, 1975), 2: 977, remains silent on the issue.

32 Similarities included their nobility of birth, dissolute youth, service to court

and ladies, conversion after injury/capture in battle, and their initial labor in hospitals.

33 Raviolo, L’Ordine dei Chierici Regolari Somaschi, 20-21.

34 Scaduto, Storia della Compagnia di Gesù in Italia, 546-48. Ignatius’ reply

to the Somaschi was polite but negative ( MHSI: Monumenta Ignatiana Epistolae 1:

476ff.). Scaduto notes that some Somaschi joined the Society of Jesus on their own in

1559 since their own congregation had still not received canonical approval.

35Bianchini, ‘Chierici regolari Somaschi,’ 977.

37 MHSI: Monumenta Ignatiana Epistolae, 6: 51. The letter is dated 16

December 1553, and my translation is from the Spanish. Scaduto, in an interview at

Rome on February 15, 1991, suggested that while a few small groups of reformed

24

priests entered en bloc, the tendency was to accept them individually. He mentioned

that many disciples of Bl. Juan d'Avila in Spain entered in this fashion.

38 Andreu, ‘Chierici Regolari,’ 908.

39 Garcia-Villoslada, San Ignacio de Loyola, 401. Scaduto, Storia della

Compagnia di Gesù in Italia, 545, suggests that Ignatius lived with the Barnabites

while at Venice.

40Pietro Tacchi-Venturi, Storia della Compagnia di Gesù in Italia (Rome:

Civiltà Cattolica, 1950), I/2: 194; II/1: 220-21.

41 MHSI: Monumenta Ignatiana Epistolae, 1: 153.

42 Juan Polanco in MHSI: Historia Societatis Iesu, 1: 82.

43 MHSI: Epistolae Mixtae, 2: 867-68.

45 Ignatius Loyola, The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and their

Complementary Norms ed. & trans. John Padberg (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit

Sources, 1996), Part. VII, ch. 2: 622d. [p. 284]

46 Ibid., Part IV.

25