The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

After his early period of religious devotion, Van Gogh made a sharp turn towards despising the clergy and all things having to do with religious infrastructure. This attitude is reflected by his frequent use of the insult “jesuitism,” which traditionally refers to the practices of the Jesuit Order, and the negative stereotypes of cunning and deception sometimes associated with them. Van Gogh did not limit his use of the term in reference to just the Jesuits, however, but rather applied it to any Christian group he perceived negatively. In reference to his own father and uncle, both ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church, for example, he told Theo that their “slanders are nothing more nor less than Jesuitisms” (206). 

At times, his intolerant language took on an even more hostile tone. In a letter to Anthon van Rappard, he insisted, “the reasoning of the artless fellow who asked of your work, ‘Does he paint for money?’, is the reasoning of a bloody idiot… a common trick of bloody idiots and idle little Jesuits” (376). As can be seen here, Van Gogh used references to the Jesuits as a catch-all insult against anything that made him angry.