caa a22 4500 386318840 CHVBK 20180307111618.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e198810 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0034193200020185 doi S0034193200020185 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0034193200020185 McCoog Thomas M. ‘The Slightest Suspicion of Avarice': The Finances of the English Jesuit Mission [Elektronische Daten] [Thomas M. McCoog] THE instructions given to Robert Parsons and Edmund Campion upon their embarkation for England in 1580 left no doubt that, no matter what the English government might say, their tasks were the confirmation of the faith of the Catholics there and the recovery of those who, through ignorance, had lapsed. In order to attain these objectives, Father General Everard Mercurian urged the Jesuits to an exemplary life of extraordinary virtue. Amongst the more specific recommendations, the General exhorted the missionaries, in words that echoed the Society's Constitutions, to avoid ‘even the suspicion of avarice and greed.' They were, therefore, neither to seek nor to accept any alms unless their need became extremely urgent. Even then, they should only ask one or two of their loyal friends for assistance. If the Jesuits could only turn to their friends as a last resort, if they could neither elicit nor accept alms from the people whom they served, one wonders how the General thought the mission's expenses would be met? For a document as reasonable and as thorough as the instructions, it is surprisingly naive about finances, a naiveté that would with experience give place to sophistication. Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1988 Recusant History Cambridge University Press 19/2(1988-10), 103-123 0034-1932 19:2<103 1988 19 BCH https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034193200020185 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034193200020185 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- McCoog Thomas M. NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Recusant History Cambridge University Press 19/2(1988-10), 103-123 0034-1932 19:2<103 1988 19 BCH CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge