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137. JESUITS IN THE AMERICAS GREGORY XIII (1502-1585) Pope who resisted the Protestants, established many colleges and seminaries headed by the Jesuits, aided Irish Catholic rebels against Elizabeth I. Important manuscript document issued in his name and headed "GREGORIVU PP XIII" as Pope, 1p. 15" x 7", Rome, Feb. 10, 1579 in Latin, an order that Jesuits in the New World be allowed the same rights, privileges and recognition as others in their order are accorded elsewhere in the world. In part: "...it seems reasonable that those who live under the same religious rule and practice should enjoy the same spiritual rights and that a difference of the grantings of those rights does not discriminate between those whom anassociation joins in the same religious order...Pope Pius V...granted fully various rights and powers to...[Jesuits] stationed in west India, and also particularly those rights which had been granted to the same priests already existing in east India...[those rights granted] in west India or even in the provinces of Brazil and Peru, [should] also be granted and imparted to those who are in the provinces of east India...[also] to the province of New Spain [Mexico] so that there be no difference..." One vertical fold, else boldly penned and very good. At the time, there were perhaps no more than 2,000 Jesuit missionaries in all of the territories mentioned, yet they won over thousands of converts before the 1773 Suppression. $500-700
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