December 2005 Christian Spirituality By George A Lane SJ

CONTEMPLATIVE CLIMATE IN 16TH-CENTURY SPAIN Continue from ...... Along with the glories of sixteenth-century Spanish mysticism, there were also dangers, delusions, and excesses, particularly in a kind of latent heresy called illuminism. Those identified with the movement are known as the Alumbrados or Illuminati. They claimed to have reached such a height of mystical union with God that it was no longer necessary for them to pay any attention to any authority, even the hierarchical church. If one had this direct contact with God in mystical experience, it was no longer believed possible to commit sin or to be mistaken in one's religious ideas. But the Inquisition was also at the height of its power in Spain at this time, and it did not take long for it to catch up with the Alumbrados. Many of them were questioned and imprisoned. the Inquisition with its peculiarly successful methods did much to stamp out this Alumbrado movement. From all this we can move back to the question of the effect of this climate on the Society of Jesus. At the death of Ignatius Loyola in 1556, more than half, perhaps almost two-thirds, of all Jesuits from this Spain which we have been describing - this Spain which had such a tremendous longing for mystical union with God, for flight from the world, for identifying Christian perfection with the contemplative life. In view of these facts, then, we simply raise the question, how could the Society of Jesus after the death of Ignatius fail to be effected by the religious currents we have described?

- To Be Continued - © Copyright Shalom 2005. All rights reserved.