Giovanni Battista Nicolini on the True Nature of Jesuits – A Fascinating Quote

“"... take the Jesuit for what he ought or appears to be, and you commit the greatest of blunders. Draw the character after what the Jesuit seems to be in London, you will not recognize your portrait in the Jesuit of Rome. The Jesuit is the man of circumstances. Despotic in Spain, constitutional in England, republican in Paraguay, bigot in Rome, idolater in India, he shall assume and act out in his own person, with admirable flexibility, all those different features by which men are usually to be distinguished from each other. He will accompany the gay women of the world to the theatre, and will share in the excesses of the debauchee. With solemn countenance, he will take his place by the side of the religious man at church, and he will revel in the tavern with the glutton and the sot. He dresses in all the garbs, speaks all languages, knows all customs, is present everywhere though nowhere recognized –and all this, it should seem (O monstrous blasphemy!), for the greater glory of God – ad majorem Dei gloriam."”

Giovanni Battista Nicolini

Giovanni Battista Nicolini was an Italian ex-Catholic known for his critical history of the Jesuit society.

This quote reveals the complex figure of the Jesuits as adaptable and multifaceted actors in history and society, whose true nature is often hard to grasp. It reminds us that people and institutions are never one-dimensional.

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