Spreading God's Word in a German University (App.1, No. 18 : XII 239-247 : Latin): Companions Setting out to Germany 24 September 1549 from Rome

Abstract

This document, an instruction with its numbered parts rather than a letter, illustrates the careful thought given by Ignatius to new projects, in this case a proposed new university college in Ingolstadt. Balancing the somewhat interested approach to friendships, one finds principles of great tolerance and gentleness that give a more humane tone to the single-minded search for God's greater glory. This text effectively demolishes the portrait of Ignatius as a military general marshalling his troops for battle against the Protestant heretics that his pugnacious disciple, Pedro de Ribadeneira, so successfully propagated in Spain's Golden Age. Instead we find a kindly, wise man, struggling to reach the hearts and minds of a people dear to him in the love of Christ.