La milizia come “maniera de ser” dei gesuiti: missione, martirio, obbedienza

Obedience was one of the essential characters of the Jesuit way of being
and it determined also the ideals of sacrifice and martyrdom. During the xvi
century, we can distinguish two moments. Ignatius of Loyola, reader of Erasmus,
saw in Christ’s sacrifice also a reflection of his human nature. Bellarmine
affirmed that between God’s sacrifice and human martyrdom it was
a gap: Christ’s death was the accomplishment of the prophecy of the Old Testament
of the death of God; in human and missionary martyrdom the Jesuits
saw the testimony of the «imitatio Christi». But in order to be an action of
religion the death of Jesuit had to be inspired by the will of obedience to the
hierarchy of the Company, which directed the “militia”.