Note 161 — Chapter IX · 1560-1600. PROCEEDINGS OF THE JESUITS IN THE DIFFERENT COUNTRIES OF EUROPE.

These are some of the numberless privileges that the Jesuits had obtained from different Popes even within the first twenty-five years of their establishment:—They had the privilege of having a private chapel in every house or college, and to celebrate mass even in time of interdict; of absolving from every censure even in cases reserved for the Pope alone; of dispensing from religious vows, or from impediments to marriage; of conferring academical degrees which entitled the graduate to the honours and privileges conferred by the royal universities. They were exempted from tithes and from all other ecclesiastical contributions; and, above all, they were independent of the jurisdiction of the bishops.