SOURCE: Evennett, H. Outram. “St. Ignatius and the Spiritual Exercises.” In The Spirit of the Counter-Reformation: The Birkbeck Lectures in Ecclesiastical History Given in the University of Cambridge in May 1951, edited by John Bossy, pp. 43-66. London: Cambridge University Press, 1968.

In the following essay, originally presented as a lecture in May 1951, Evennett analyzes the Spiritual Exercises St. Ignatius had developed as a technique for conversion and describes their influence.

I attempted in my last lecture the somewhat formidable task of trying to convey what seem to me to be the main characteristics which marked the reinvigoration of Catholic spiritual life during the Counter-Reformation: the main traits of that teaching in regard to spirituality which gradually prevailed in the formation of new generations of parochial clergy in the Tridentine seminaries, in the pastoral activities of religious orders and new congregations of priests, and which was passed down to the...