“Entrar con la loro per uscir poi con la nostra”: Claudio Acquaviva and Jesuit missionary stratеgy in XVI century

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of Rome on the practices and Jesuit missionary strategy in the early modern period. It discusses in particular select letters by the Superior General Claudio Acquaviva, to demonstrate how Roman governance controlled the development of the new missionary policy in Asia in order to preserve the one “Jesuit way”. While Jesuit headquarter in Rome acknowledged the necessity of adjustments to the local circumstances, it preserved the right to set the limits of accommodation “not to become the antithesis to our order”. Acquaviva over and again stressed the priority of main virtues of the Society: patience, humility, poverty, mercy, as well as sacrifice and thought that the Indian province is an integral part of homogeneous Jesuit space. This case study thus helps address the broader question of how geographic distance impacted on the practices and missionary concepts of the Society. It debates widespread opinion that Rome couldn’t play a significant role in far-away regions due to infrastructural difficulties and unusual cultural challenges