amy- Counter Reformation

This summer I noticed that Dostoyevsky referenced the Jesuit order in his book The Brothers’ Karamazov quite a few times. Adding to my curiosity of Roman Catholicism or Catholicism in general, his reference seems to be very negative in parallel to the other monastic orders he references. I still probably do not know too much about the Jesuit order or the Counter Reformation, but I understand Dostoyevsky’s innuendos more from Garrett’s presentation. Like most things, the idea of the Jesuits is a beautiful ideal from the papacy at the time, but its true function turned into something quite different than the intention. The good intentions from the papacy were an attempt to overthrow the corruption of the priesthood and bring the Reformers back to the Catholic Church. The order of the Jesuits seems to mainly function as the right hand men of the pope. Now my impression of all this is one of extreme incredulity. Giving the pope the power of his own personal monastic order is dangerous. It seems that history has not been kind to this order either. Dostoyevsky makes the Jesuit name seem synonymous with trying to intellectually outwit the ideas of the Bible. I find it interesting that the order who is supposed to be closest to the pope is associated with rationalization. I think that Dostoyevsky’s book would be interesting to analyze according to what the book says about monastic life. His book is what really sparked my interest in the Counter Reformation and the contrast between the ideal and the evolution.