Loyola,  indeed,  had  the  power  of  doing  this  through  the  Bull
Injunctum  nobis,  but  was  it  advisable  ?  The  professed
members  formed,  so  to  speak,  the  privy  councillors  of  the
General,  and  without  their  consent  the  constitution  of  the  Order
-could  not  be  altered.  A  large  conclave,  however,  would  make
unanimity  difficult,  according  to  the  old  proverb,  "  Many  heads
many  minds."  Some  plan  for  preventing  this  must  be  found,
as  it  would  be  unwise  to  trust  a  large  body  of  men  with  the
innermost  thoughts  and  ideas  of  the  Order,  for  there  must
-always  be  a  greater  number  of  scabbed  sheep  in  a  large  flock

■  than  in  a  small  one.  Thus  prudence,  certainly,  strongly  forbade
■that  thousands  should  be  promoted  to  be  professed  members,
=and  Loyola,  as  well  as  his  associates,  held  the  opinion  that  the
aiumber  of  Jesuits  proper,  that  is  to  say,  of  professed  members,
rshould  be  limited  as  much  as  practicable.*     While,  therefore,  no

■  assistance  could  well  be  gained  in  this  direction,  more  instru-
ments must,  in  some  way  or  other,  be  found  at  any  price.
It  then  entered  into  the  mind  of  Loyola  to  create  a  third

class  of  members,  who  might  be  of  as  much  use  to  the  Order

as  the  professed  members,  without,  however,  having  the  rights  of

the  same.  This  class  he  designated  "  Coadjutors,"  and  he  at  once

-divided  them  into  two   subdivisions,  "the  secular  and  spiritual

*  In  the  year  1715,  when  the  Order  had  attained  its  highest  state  of

prosperity,  when  it  possessed  over  700  colleges  and  numbered  more  than

22,000  members,  there  existed  only  twenty-four  profess-housea,  in  none  of

which  lived  more  than  ten  professed  members.     Proof  sufiioient  that  the

j>rinoiple  above  stated  remained  a  fixed  rule.
