Abstract
[Machine translation] Defections and expulsions, on a voluntary or imposed basis, affected Jesuit organizations since the foundation of the order in 1540. In the face of the impetuous expansion that characterized the Society of Jesus in the second half of the 16th century, the phenomenon of the so-called “resigned” took on alarming dimensions, gradually raising greater concerns among the Jesuit leaders who were then committed to strengthening the still young Ignatian building and containing serious attempts at interference from outside and dangerous disintegrating forces within. The presence of numerous documents on the “resigned” within the ARSI fund Vocationes illustres allows us to return to a topic little visited by the historiography of the ancient Society. Using these sources, the essay focuses on those who, for various reasons, betrayed their vocation, abandoning the path taken. Without reconstructing the individual events in detail, the research intends to frame the resignation phenomenon in the light of specific problems and tensions that shook the entire Jesuit body under the first generals and that reached extreme peaks of crisis between the 16th and 17th centuries: in dramatic ways, the examples of the “resigned” testify to the seriousness of the identity fractures that, in particular, the generalate of Acquaviva tried to bridge by recompacting the entire community around the essential and irreducible nucleus of the Jesuit “form of life”.
Translated title of the contribution | [Machine translation] Failed vocations: the problem of those discharged through the Vocationes Illustres |
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Original language | Italian |
Pages (from-to) | 1049-1067 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | RIVISTA STORICA ITALIANA |
Volume | 132 |
Issue number | 3 |
Publication status | Published - 2020 |
Keywords
- Claudio Acquaviva
- crisi
- identità gesuitica