Ignatius Loyola's Spiritual Exercises and Popular Religiosity

The genesis of Ignatius Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises (SPEX) is intimately tied to his conversion and subsequent journey as a spiritual pilgrim, which brought him to Montserrat and Manresa. In Manresa, he spent time as a recluse in prayer, going out of his cave shelter to attend liturgies, to beg for his sustenance and to assist at the local hospital. At banks of the River Cardoner, he received an enlightenment that made him understand spiritual matters in a profound way.

As his chroniclers narrate, the substance and structure of the SPEX were written down in 1522 and 1523, but Ignatius continued to revise and restructure the SPEX until 1541, and later in 1546, when the SPEX was being prepared for Papal approval. The Latin version of the SPEX (1546 manuscript in ARSI) gained Papal approval in 1548. Papal approval of the SPEX ratified the Compañía de Jesus, founded on the principles and experience of the SPEX, whose Institute was approved in 1540 by Paul III, the same pontiff who approved the SPEX.

Between 1521, his conversion, and 1527, when he left Spain for Paris, Ignatius was not adept at Latin, the academic language of his days. Thus, his acquaintance with the Gospels, cited in the “Mysteries of the Life of Christ” (SPEX 261-312) came through secondary sources, namely, the popular Vita Christi of the Carthusian, Ludolph of Saxony and the Legenda Aurea (Lives of Saints) by the Dominican Jacobus de Voragine. Thomas a’Kempis’ Imitatio Christi (formerly attributed to Jean Gerson, and referred to as Gerson by Ignatius) also informed Ignatius understanding of Christ. Through these sources, in particular Ludolph, Ignatius was placed in touch with Patristic writings. The Vita and the Legenda overlap in subject matter at some points and both share with the romances, like Amadis di Galle that Ignatius was fond of, the figure of the chivalrous knight on a quest to do great deeds for the honor of a highborn lady, who, because of her exalted status, was unreachable as an object of romance.

The roots of the SPEX in the popular religious works of its time show the SPEX growing out of popular religiosity. In addition, the centrality of the Passion, a recurring theme of the SPEX, and the concern about salvation are rooted in late medieval popular religiosity. Despairing those repetitive acts, like novenas, pilgrimages, vocal prayer could guarantee salvation, Martin Luther’s adage that “faith alone [in Jesus] saves” brought many to the Protestant cause. The more intellectual were drawn to Eramus of Rotterdam’s teaching of moral moderation; while others, in Spain, were drawn to contemplation according to the teaching of the illuminists (alumbrados), who believed that they were guided by the Spirit and could not err on the path to salvation.

While Ignatius and, consequently, the SPEX were suspected and investigated for being sympathetic to Luther and Erasmus and for being illuminist, Ignatius was exonerated of all charges. And while owing much to the popular religiosity of his time and its call for reform, Ignatius forged his own way of renewal, which answered the popular anxiety about salvation while remaining faithful to the Catholic tradition, in particular its teaching about faith and good works, and the sacramental system that animated that Faith.