Isn't it interesting how little people generally know about the Jesuits? If you spend just a couple hours out of your lives to study about them, you'll see they're likely the most influential group of people in human history. I'm going to give a layman's view of the relationship the Jesuits have in the New World Order.
The leading researcher of the Jesuits is Eric Jon Phelps, who wrote a book called Vatican Assassins. I have listened to many of his interviews and radio shows. His knowledge of the Jesuits is very in-depth and revealing. Also, there was an ex-Jesuit priest called Alberto Rivera, who came out of the Jesuit order in the 80s exposing the Satanic cult, and was killed in the 90's by poison from the Jesuits. These are two people who need to be looked into for anyone interested in the truth about the Jesuits.
Now, the recent Pope is the first Jesuit to be a Pope, that is the white Pope, cause the Jesuits have always had a black Pope, who is actually the leader of the Vatican. This doesn't have anything to do with skin color, but he color of their garments. The Jesuits are called the Society of Jesus. They were formed in the 1500s to fight the Protestant Reformation, but were formed from the Knights of Templar.
The Jesuits have been working on infiltrating America's protestant churches since the beginning of America. See, the whole world is under the control of the Vatican, it's a country all to itself. America wouldn't even recognize the Vatican as a country until the 80s when Reagan officially did this, and invited the Pope over to kiss the ground of America. This meant, finally America had been brought back into the fold of the Catholic Church. It took that long for the Vatican to recapture America and put it in subjection to the Unholy Roman Empire.
Everyday now, America is being conditioned for the coming New World Order, where the persecutions of the true Bible believing Christians and Jews will begin. The new Pope is mixing worldliness and Godlessness into the official Catholic dogma. Those who hate Jesus Christ, are starting to like the Pope and the Catholic church more and more. The protestant churches in America are getting in step with the Pope and becoming worldly as well. The Jesuit infiltration of the protestant seminaries has bore the wicked fruit in the form of a massive apostasy from the faith of Jesus Christ. 95% of the churches in America aren't Biblical and bow down to the Pope of Rome.
There is a new Christianity, which melds all different faiths and includes all beliefs, even Satanism. The Pope will be all inclusive and start a New World Religion, in which on the outward will seem like what everyone has been hoping for: peace, love, tolerance, understanding, and an end to all dogma and judgmental thought. Their common enemy will be the Christians, the “heretical ones” who refuse to stop believing the Holy Bible for what it says. The fundamentalist born-again Christians who read the Authorized Version King James Bible, will become the enemy of this New Age Religion. Also the Torah believing Jews will be persecuted as well. Muslims and all other religions will get in step with the Catholic dogma, because Islam was created by the Catholics anyway and they will be manipulated by thinking their messiah has come.
The common enemy will be the Christians and Jews, and as of now our culture and society are being conditioned into believing the fundamentalist Christians and Jews are the enemies of world peace and progress. This is how the mass killing and persecutions will be allowed to happen in front of everyone, and the world will think it's doing God's work. The state church will lead the fight.
The front line of Satan's forces are in the so called Church itself. Where else would the Devil be most effective from? Satan has worked hard to always infiltrate the Church, sow discord and then take it over in the guise of being Christian. All the evil done in the name of Christianity has been done by Satan, and his main workers of iniquity: the Jesuits.
The Jesuits are running the seminaries and the denominations. The Jesuits are running the government and the central banks. Some people think it's the Zionist Kabbahlistic Jews, but they're just working for the Jesuits. Anyway, the Jews who are in power doing the work of the Vatican are false Jews, they are part of the synagogue of Satan.
The world and all it's leaders bow to the Pope, the Pope thinks he is God on Earth, and there are billions of people who follow after him already. With this new Pope, even more of the world is being conditioned to following after him. The stage is being set for the man of sin to be revealed and the New World Order to emerge in force. The Jesuits are the central soldiers in Satan's army, who have put the pieces in order with their evil deeds. The most vile, wicked, sick, perverted people are being lifted up by the world and the deception is so thick as people think these people are good. The only people who see through this facade is the sincere born-again Christians who only follow the Holy Bible in it's correct manuscript, the 1611 Authorized Version, also called the King James Version-- for English speaking people. The manuscripts this Bible was taken from were written through men by the Holy Ghost, and there is a true version in every language.
This is my summary of the Jesuits and the New World Order. These are the end of the end days, and the New World Order which is being formed and already is, will give rise to the Man of Sin, who will rule the world. The common enemy the world will have is the real Jesus Christ of the Holy Bible and those who follow this real Jesus. A false Christ will be promoted and followed by the apostate Christians.
Remember though Christians, our God is an awesome God, and He reigns from heaven above. In this world we will have trouble, but fear not because Jesus Christ has overcome this world. Our mortal lives here are temporary and will come to an end, but eternal life awaits us with our creator in heaven. So we have nothing to fear, but are just here to do the work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Resident Evil: The Jesuit Threat to Humanity
When Martin Luther sparked the spiritual and social revolution in Europe we now know as the Reformation, he sent an arrow deep into the heart of the Vatican power base. As the Reformation spread and enlightenment became commonplace, the Dark Ages ended, didn't they? Apparently they did not. The Vatican, in its lust for power over all human life, soon spawned an advocate who was worthy of the devil himself. He went by the name of Ignatius Loyola. Loyola was a self-made man. He suffered many trials and defeats in his life, but persevered to become the head of what he named the "Society of Jesus" whose members later became better known under their assigned nickname: the Jesuits.
Ignatius Loyola formed the Jesuits as a military order with the stated purpose of overthrowing the reformation started by Martin Luther and restoring the temporal (political) and religious domination of the Vatican in all walks of life. In other words, he wanted to bring back the Dark Ages. The domination of the Vatican and the Pope as Monarch over all Kings, Queens, secular leaders and the rest of humanity was (and still is) the avowed mission of the Society of Jesus.
Loyola's mandate was that the end justified the means, and any means of restoring Vatican domination was acceptable. The mission of the Jesuits was the extermination of all heresy and all heretics. Protestants and all other non-Catholics must be converted or eliminated - either sooner or later. The saying among the Jesuits was that "It is no sin to kill a heretic". This murderous justification apparently became their creed.
They demanded absolute, unquestioning obedience from their members. To achieve the fourth and highest vow of initiation, and thereby be initiated into the actively evil pyramidal top level, a Jesuit must be a loyal member for 35 years. This requirement ensured the smallest possibility of dissent or original thinking ever surviving in anyone reaching leadership role, or from ever altering their stated purpose or mission as set out by founder Ignatius Loyola.
As a military order, they fought many open political wars with European Kings, Queens and statesmen. Their favored tool against such power was assassination. Because of their small numbers, they became experts on poisoning and all known methods of assassination. They were even connected to the Borgias, as in Lucretia Borgia.
In those days most everyone had a confessor. The Jesuits deliberately sought these roles and came to dominate the confessor positions in European society. In that role they were able to use the intelligence they gathered from their political, social and business victims to gain advantage in politics, business and education. The confessor spies then used that information and position coupled with blackmail, bribery and intimidation to seek advantage for the Vatican in every endeavor. The Jesuit intelligence apparatus is unequaled on this planet. They were in place before we ever even dreamed of such an enterprise. Their missionaries carried this intelligence gathering on throughout the world when Columbus opened up the frontier, and no one has ever outdone them. This is one of the secrets of the Jesuit-Vatican control of much of the world.
The other very successful and crucial tactic they employed was to infiltrate all of their enemies. Opposing religions, enemy political structures, business, media and education, both domestic and foreign, were infiltrated by Jesuit missionaries and the many unidentifiable junior Jesuits: those secular followers who were all too willing to accept Jesuit favors and position in exchange for selling their countries and their souls to the Vatican.
What happened in Europe was that after 250 hundred years of bloody Jesuit-instigated massacres of Protestants, the bloody Jesuit Inquisitions (some estimates put the total Vatican and Jesuit death toll at 60 million human beings, making Hitler seem like an amateur) and resulting wars with European monarchs and statesmen, the Jesuits had been taking quite a beating themselves. Many had been executed outright, and as a group they were thrown out of almost every country in Europe at one time or another. Even several popes turned against them due to public outcries from some still loyal Catholic countries. But they always somehow managed to regroup and return. When they did, they always extracted bloody revenge on whatever country or ruler had expelled them. They killed the popes who banished them and took over the Vatican completely in the 1700's. This would prevent any further rear-guard actions against them in the future as they had suffered previously. This consolidation of Jesuit control over the Vatican itself marked a new phase in the ongoing battle against Protestantism and all the other non-Catholic "heretics" of the world at large.
The lessons learned from open conflicts with the European powers led to the next and most sinister phase of the Jesuit takeover of world society. They realized that the most effective and efficient method of seizing control of a society was by their already useful tactic of infiltration, but this time in secret. The instruments of that infiltration would be the many secret societies which they targeted and assumed control of. The international nature of the Masonic brotherhood made them an ideal tool for using its membership to advance Jesuit goals. Publicly, the Vatican and the Masons were enemies; but F. Tupper Saussy found evidence linking them, and Jon Eric Phelps notes that Adam Wieshaupt, the founder of modern Bavarian Freemasonry was a Jesuit agent.
The Knights of Malta (formerly Knights Templar) are the premiere secret society of the Vatican these days, but they are subservient to the Jesuit General. Many of America and the Western World's power elite are Knights of Malta.
Once they spread their influence through the secret societies worldwide and coordinated with the English Roundtables to impose a worldwide network of control, the whole phenomena evolved into what we know of today as the New World Order (or what the elite-controlled press so disingenuously refers to as Globalism, as if that is something to be desired). The Globalists have many nicknames, but their agenda is one and the same. It is total control of this planet. They have many factions who compete with one another for position and advantage like a group of churlish relatives, but the ultimate goal is always unchanged. And the Jesuit overlords lurk in the background, pulling all the important strings.
If you know anything about the history of the elite Brotherhood, then you will know that the Rothschild’s banking faction developed the art of financing wars from both sides of a conflict by utilizing the secrets of Central Banking with their ability to create enormous debt loads in the resident populations resulting from the issuance of government authorized fiat money. The incredible profits generated by war, reaped from both the winners and losers, led to a syndrome where induced wars became a way of life for the overlords because of the vast financial profits and additional benefits derived from it.
In addition to massive financial profits, war results in many other '"benefits" for the overlords. Some of the most important to them are increased centralized control of the population by government, increased militarization, and the public fear of conflicts to come, leading them to let their "peace-loving" statesmen do all their thinking for them.
But the Jesuits have a much darker rationale behind all the world conflicts they have overseen in the last 600 years. They have used all of these various wars as cover-ups for their mass exterminations of Protestants and all other non-Catholic peoples worldwide. This is the real horror of the Jesuits and the Vatican. They are the most prolific mass murders in all of human history. No one and nothing else in known human history compares to their record of calculated genocide. Now you know why we must stop this evil. The Vatican, as it is now, is the incarnation of hell itself. There can be no doubt of that.
Here are some Jesuit/Vatican atrocities to mull over.
The Crusades: Who knows how many died? And then the children’s crusades ... Good God.
The Inquisitions: In “Vatican Assassins,” Eric Jon Phelps cites a source that estimates roughly 60 million people were murdered in the various stages of the Inquisitions. Think about that number for a minute. Most of these people were tortured to death.
Catherine De Medici instigated the butchering of 75,000 French Protestant Huguenots on August 24, 1572. In 1598 Henry IV issued the Edict of Nates to protect them. By manipulating the rescinding of the protective Edict of Nantes in 1685 by the Jesuit confessor to King Louis XIV (using religious blackmail), another HALF MILLION FRENCH HUGUENOTS were butchered by the vile French Catholic Dragonades. In 1655 again, British Protestant hero Oliver Cromwell threatened to invade France and crush the French Crown for a new massacre being waged upon the French Vadois Protestants of valley of Piedmont by six Catholic Regiments by the Duke of Savoy.
The massacre of the poor Irish protestants on October 23rd 1641 - the "Feast" of Ignatius Loyola. How fitting a day for a massacre by these bloodthirsty swine. It is estimated that 150,000 Irish Protestants were butchered in the streets and in their homes. This slaughter took place over an eight-year period. Finally, once again it was Oliver Cromwell who finally invaded Ireland and attacked the Jesuit base at Drogheda and in a rage exterminated the entire Catholic village of 2000. Only this invasion finally ended the massacre of the Protestants. The present day Irish Protestants are still at war with the fanatical Irish Catholic Jesuits, and this is why they need the continued protection of the British Army.
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The New World Order Agenda Of The Jesuits, The Black Pope, And The Vatican | The Secret History Of The Jesuit Order
The goal of the Jesuits has always been domination and a New World Order:
“This Society is, besides, a political engine. . . . Are the Jesuits, then, friends to freedom? . . . In the eyes of the people they exist whenever despotism exists, and disappear whenever liberty appears. Devoted to the past, they are the enemies of the future; so much so, that were it possible, they would even prevent time from advancing. To a superior they sacrifice life and conscience. To their Order they sacrifice individuality. They are neither Frenchmen, Italians, Germans, nor Spaniards. They are not citizens of any country. They are Jesuits only. They have but one family, one fortune, and one end; and all these are included in the word Community. . . . to labour, in short, for one only object, which is not the triumph of religion, but the triumph of the Company of Jesus, and the establishment of its mastery over the world.” (A Glimpse of the Great Secret Society, pp. lxxi-lxxiv; citing Introduction to the Secret Instructions of the Jesuits, Charles Sauvestre, Paris, 1863.)
“It is the bounden duty of every Protestant to vote at the Parliamentary Elections for none who favor the Romish apostasy, because really the whole Romish system is not governed by the Pope, the Infallible, but he who is now known as the Black Pope, the General of the Jesuits.” (The Jesuits: What Are They? Who Are They? What Have They Done? What Are They Doing?, F. A. C. Lillingston, London: Robert Banks & Son, 1900, pp. 31-32.)
“The secret of the Jesuits is that Loyola, their founder [who sought from the beginning to make Jerusalem the capital for his Order], and his cronies, adopted Machiavelli’s The Prince—a book wherein politics is completely divorced from morals—as their textbook. Everything Jesuit, including Fascism, is unavoidably Machiavellian.” (The Great Silence Conspiracy; A Fully Documented Exposure of Romanmasonry, Catholic Action and Fascism, Andrew Sinclair, London: No Publisher, 1965, p. 19.)
“Within twenty years this country will rule the world. Kings and emperors [enforcing the tyranny of the Papal Caesar’s “Holy Alliance” during the Nineteenth Century] will soon pass away [as a result of coming Jesuit assassinations and World War I], and the [socialist-communist] democracy of the United States will take their place. . . . When the United States rules the world, the Catholic Church will rule the world.” (Romanism: A Menace to the Nation, Jeremiah J. Crowley, Aurora, Missouri: The Menace Publishing Co., 1912. p. 573.)
The Jesuits are a political order, and the Vatican is a political body under the guise of religion:
“Yes, it is just, it is necessary to keep in view that, although there be men ready to give their wealth and their lives for the deliverance of the church, this word, the church, has such a magic influence over their minds! yet nothing would be more dangerous than to explain too clearly what the church is, and what it would have. Their feeble vision could not bear the full blaze of the mighty reality which is hidden under so many folds of the religious veil. The moment they discovered the political element their arms would sink powerless, their eager zeal would vanish, and these athletic combatants, so prompt to serve us, would suddenly turn their weapons against us.” (Assistant to the Jesuit General, 1824 Secret Conference at Chieri quoted in The Jesuit Conspiracy: The Secret Plan of the Order, p. 134.)
“The order of the Jesuits, we have seen, was restored to their former glory, and devilish capacity for mischief, in 1814. There were two reasons for their revival; the sinking cause of civil despotism: the decline of popery, and spiritual tyranny. These tools of the pope, and the legitimates, are now in full operation in Europe. But their zeal and imprudence, every one sees, are causing the tide of public opinion, and the genius of liberty, to set in against them. They blame, and not without reason, our republic, as the prime cause of all this excitement in Europe against them. And, as long as this great and free nation is in the full tide of the most successful experiment of SELF-GOVERNMENT, they know that the people of Europe will not bear much longer with the thrones of tyrants, and the systems of misrule, devised by the priest-ridden and warlike men, in the Dark Ages. . . . Hence all the tyrants of Europe hate us; and seek our downfall with immovable perseverance. And well do the Metterniches, and Schlegels know that popery is just that fatal weapon,—and that the Jesuits are just the cold-blooded conspirators that will work out their salvation for them, in our downfall, if heaven permit human means to achieve it.” (Popery. An Enemy to Civil and Religious Liberty; and Dangerous to Our Republic, William C. Brownlee, New York: John S. Taylor, 1836. pp. 204, 205.)
The United States is just a tool of the Jesuits and Black Pope to wage wars in preparation for the Vatican’s New World Order!
“Within twenty years this country will rule the world. Kings and emperors will soon pass away [as a result of coming Jesuit assassinations and World War I], and the [socialist-communist] democracy of the United States will take their place. . . . When the United States rules the world, the Catholic Church will rule the world.” (Romanism: A Menace to the Nation, Jeremiah J. Crowley, Aurora, Missouri: The Menace Publishing Co., 1912. p. 573.)
“While Romanism is thus going down in the Old World, and even in some parts of the New, it is on the increase in the United States. . . . The old Pope sees that his power is waning in Europe, and longs to establish his tottering throne on a firmer basis in the United States. The Romish press and priesthood already begin to boast that this country will soon be theirs [1871]. Father Isaac Hecker has predicted that such an event will be brought to pass within the next thirty years [1901]. He may be bolder and more hopeful than some of his colleagues, but they all look forward to the time when this republic shall be completely under their control. . . . Successful in her assaults upon this country, and she may put the world back again into the darkness of the Middle Ages.” (The Mystery of Iniquity; Or, Romanism Not Christianity, Jesse S. Gilbert, Newark, New Jersey: Ward and Tichenor Publishers, 1872, pp. 228, 243, 244.)
“The Jesuits direct all the affairs, and shape all the principles of the papal church in the United States [controlling the entire American Hierarchy]. These are startling facts. Though we have long known them—we are shocked at the contemplation of those approaching evils, which this new proof brings so clearly before our minds. Yes, we repeat it; the nation cannot avoid the most dreadful calamities [including Presidential assassinations]—from this fatal and corrupt society, unless prompt and vigorous measures can be taken to deliver it from the impending curse. The Society of Jesus is the enemy of man. The whole human race should unite for its overthrow. Earth and heaven should rejoice together over its tomb.—For there is no alternative between its total extirpation, and the absolute corruption and degradation of mankind.” (Papism in the XIX. Century, in the United States, Robert J. Breckinridge, Baltimore: David Owen & Son, 1841, p. 206.)
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Article On The Jesuit Order
The Jesuit Order, officially known as the Society of Jesus, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola and his companions in 1534. The group formed out of a desire to serve the Church and spread the Christian faith, particularly in response to the Protestant Reformation. Jesuits are characterized by their commitment to education, intellectual rigor, and social justice, operated under a framework of obedience to the Pope and a flexible lifestyle aimed at engaging with the world.
Saint Ignatius, originally a soldier, underwent a profound spiritual transformation after being wounded in battle, leading him to pursue a life of service and contemplation. The order's mission quickly expanded, focusing on education, missionary work, and engagement with diverse cultures across Europe and beyond, including significant efforts in Asia and the Americas. Jesuits became known for their scholarly contributions, often influencing theological debates, and were instrumental in re-establishing Catholicism in regions affected by Protestantism.
Throughout its history, the Society of Jesus has been both influential and controversial, navigating complex relationships with other religious orders and political authorities. Despite challenges, the Jesuit Order has maintained a distinct identity centered on apostolic action, education, and a deep spiritual commitment to serving others. Today, the Jesuits remain a vital force within the Catholic Church, dedicated to education, advocacy for social justice, and interreligious dialogue.
LOCALE Paris, France
DATE August 15, 1534
The Society of Jesus, popularly known as the Jesuits, was formed as a new monastic order largely in response to influence of the Reformation. It became one of the major institutions of the Catholic Counter-Reformation and sent missionaries to Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
Key Figures
Saint Ignatius of Loyola (Iñigo de Oñaz y Loyola; 1491-1556), Spanish aristocrat and founder of the Jesuit Order
Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552), founding member of the Jesuit order and a missionary in Asia
Peter Faber (Pierre Favre; 1506-1546), founding member of the Jesuit order
Simao RodrÃguez (fl. 1534-1540), founding member of the Jesuit order
Diego LaÃnez (fl. 1534-1540), founding member of the Jesuit order
Alphonse Salmerón (fl. 1534-1540), founding member of the Jesuit order
Nicholas Bobadilla (fl. 1534-1540), founding member of the Jesuit order
Saint Francis Borgia (Francisco de Borja y Aragón; 1510-1572), duke of Gandia and Jesuit priest
Saint Peter Canisius (Pieter Kanius; 1521-1597), Dutch Jesuit theologian
Melchor Cano (c. 1509-1560), Spanish Dominican theologian
Gasparo Contarini (1483-1542), Roman cardinal who championed the Jesuits
Paul III (Alessandro Farnese; 1468-1549), Roman Catholic pope, 1534-1549
Paul IV (Gian Pietro Carafa; 1476-1559), Roman Catholic pope, 1555-1559
Matteo Ricci (Li Madou, Li Ma-tou; 1552-1610), Italian Jesuit missionary in China during the Ming Dynasty
Summary of Event
In the spring of 1521, war broke out between France and Spain over the disputed kingdom of Navarre in the Pyrenees. On May 20, at the Battle of Pamplona, a Spanish knight named Iñigo de Oñaz y Loyola (known as Ignacio or Ignatius since 1537), who was about thirty years old, had his right leg shattered by a cannonball. The French subsequently seized the city and sent Ignatius to physicians who made several unsuccessful attempts to set the leg properly. Ignatius was left with a right leg deformed and shorter than the left. Though a second operation corrected the deformity, it still left him with a limp and consequently ended his military career.
During the long convalescence that followed, the man who would become known as Saint Ignatius of Loyola withdrew to his family castle near Loyola in the Basque provinces of northern Spain. There, he read the few popular works of romance and adventure that were available at the time and out of boredom also took to reading religious literature. In addition to the Scriptures, Ignatius read the German Carthusian Ludolph of Saxony’s Vita Christi (wr. fourteenth century, pb. 1474; life of Christ) and Jacopo de Voragine’s hagiography, Legenda aurea (c. 1260, pb. 1470; The Golden Legend, 1483).
Until the time of his injury in 1521, Ignatius relates that his life had been wholly worldly and self-seeking. He had been brought up at the court of a great nobleman, where he received little formal education, but where he was thoroughly trained in the military arts, at that time his sole interest. In 1515, he was arrested for brawling. His readings at home in 1521 awakened in him an unfamiliar religious interest.
Toward the end of his convalescence, Ignatius experienced a vision of the Virgin and the Christ child and, by early March, 1522, resolved to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem as penance for past sins. He spent some time in retreat at the great Benedictine abbey of Monserrat, and then he went to the town of Manresa near Barcelona, existing as a virtual hermit, begging his daily food, and living in a cell of the Dominican priory or, occasionally, in a cave. He had new mystical experiences and began to sketch out his basic ideas about the religious life, which would by 1548 become the highly influential book Ejercicios espirituales (1522-1548; The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, 1736).
Ignatius left Manresa for Rome sometime in late February, 1523, with a view to obtaining papal approval for his trip to the Holy Land. On July 24, he set sail on a Venetian ship and, on September 3, arrived at Jerusalem, only to be persuaded by the Franciscans in charge of the shrines there that no worthwhile work could be accomplished because of the Turks.
He returned home and decided to educate himself. He went to Barcelona, where for two years he attended classes in elementary subjects with the children of the city. In 1526, he enrolled at the University of Alcalá founded by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros. By now, he had acquired three followers who came with him to Alcalá from Barcelona. Although a layperson, Ignatius began to give spiritual advice to those who sought it, and this action aroused the suspicions of the Inquisition, which imprisoned him for a time but did not convict him of heresy.
He was, however, forbidden to teach. To escape this stricture, Ignatius went to the University of Salamanca in July, 1527, where the Inquisition again imprisoned him and again forbade him to teach but acknowledged his orthodoxy. After his release, he walked to Paris, where, in 1528, he enrolled in the University of Paris, first at the Collège de Montaigu and then at the Collège Sainte Barbe. He was desperately poor in Paris and begged for his daily living. He made an extended begging tour of the Netherlands and England to accumulate enough funding for an entire academic year. He received the licentiate in theology in 1534 and an M.A. in 1535. At Sainte Barbe, Ignatius acquired two roommates: Francis Xavier, a fellow Basque, and Peter Faber, a Savoyard. They were to become, with Ignatius himself, the first Jesuits.
By 1534, Ignatius had six followers in Paris: Xavier, Faber, Simao RodrÃguez, Diego LaÃnez, Alphonse Salmerón, and Nicolas Bobadilla. On August 15, the group met in an abandoned church in Montmartre and took vows of poverty and chastity, as members of religious orders customarily did; they also vowed to go to the Holy Land within a year or, if that were not possible, to place themselves in the hands of the pope for whatever purpose he might choose. This meeting is commonly considered to be the moment at which the Jesuit Order was founded, although it did not yet have a name.
Taken gravely ill a few months later, Ignatius returned to Spain and then traveled to Italy, where he settled at Venice to await his companions. Through incredible difficulties, the little group walked from Paris to Venice. A delegation was sent to Rome, where Pope Paul III blessed their pilgrimage, but war between Venice and the Turks made the journey impossible. In 1537, by papal permission, all those in the group who were not yet priests, including Ignatius, were ordained at Venice. At that time they also chose as their title “the Society of Jesus,” which is still the official name for the Jesuit Order.
At Rome, where he had gone to obtain Paul III’s approval for the new order, Ignatius became immensely popular as a spiritual adviser, but he also attracted animosity for his attacks on a popular preacher of the Augustinian order, whom he accused of preaching Lutheran doctrine. The Inquisition once again investigated Ignatius’s case, but again he was acquitted.
The small group at Rome and the others elsewhere in Italy had already embarked on the work of preaching, teaching religion to children, and operating charitable houses. Ignatius and his companions at Rome gave regular theological lectures to Paul III, who came to hold them in high regard.
In 1539, the Jesuits began to draw up their rule, the Formula Instituti, which was adopted by a vote of the members. Vows were to be taken and were to be binding under pain of sin, but all members were to have a voice in important policy decisions. There was to be absolute obedience to the pope, but a Jesuit was to deal with the pope only indirectly through his own superiors. Except for houses of study, neither any individual Jesuit nor the order as a whole was to own any property or money beyond what was necessary for immediate needs.
In an important divergence from the practice of all other religious orders, the Jesuits decided that their members would not be required to have communal prayers at specified times of the day, lest this practice interfere with their work in the world. Each Jesuit was instead to pray privately. There was to be no distinctive dress for the order, and no rigorous fasts or penances would be observed, lest such practices undermine the energy that was needed for work in the world.
Despite powerful opposition by two cardinals, the new order was championed by the most important prelate at the Vatican, Cardinal Gasparo Contarini, and Pope Paul III officially approved it by his bull Regimini Militantis Ecclesiae (for the rule of the Church militant) on September 27, 1540. The bull limited the group to sixty members, but this barrier was quickly lifted, and within fifteen years the new order had more than one thousand members. Ignatius was unanimously elected the first general of the order, holding the post until his death on July 31, 1556. He was later proclaimed a saint of the Church. At all times, the order remained faithful to the pope.
From the beginning, the Jesuits were among the leading scholars of Europe, and Alphonse Salmerón and Diego LaÃnez, early members of the order, were two of the leading theologians of the Council of Trent to argue for taking a strict attitude toward the Protestants, in contrast to the more moderate attitude advocated by the Augustinians and others. Although the Jesuits worked primarily with children and the poor, their high intellectual caliber appealed to the elite. By the end of the sixteenth century, the order had become identified with the education of aristocratic youth at secondary and university levels.
Individual Jesuits also became highly influential as private tutors and confessors to important laymen. Yet, it is important to note that the early Jesuits were slow to become involved in university work because of Ignatius’s belief that they should be ready to go on any mission assigned to them and should not be tied to institutions. Their first college for lay students was in the duchy of Gandia in Spain, opened reluctantly at the behest of Duke Francis Borgia, who himself became a Jesuit priest after the death of his wife in 1546 and was eventually made general of the order.
Significance
The Jesuits soon emerged as powerful opponents of the Protestants. Peter Canisius led a group of Jesuits who were successful in reconverting certain parts of Lutheran Germany to the Catholic Church, and another small group, at great personal risk, was largely responsible for keeping Roman Catholicism alive in Elizabethan England. The order continued to make enemies, including the noted Spanish Dominican theologian Melchor Cano, with whom LaÃnez once had a bitter quarrel. Pope Paul IV was also unfriendly to the society, although it continued to grow during his pontificate. A protracted quarrel developed between Dominican and Jesuit theologians on the issue of human free will, with the Jesuits placing greater stress than the Dominicans on the human ability to choose freely their spiritual destiny. Jesuit moralists gained a reputation for laxity in that they usually sought to interpret moral laws in a sense favorable to worldly men.
The phenomenal growth of the Society of Jesus was helped by the period of European expansion, opening up a vast opportunity for accomplishing Christ’s commission to “go into all the world and preach the gospel.” Because of their early influence on King John III of Portugal, the Jesuits under Father José de Anchieta achieved tremendous success in Brazil and also in Paraguay. They confronted some initial problems, however, in Asia, where there were more complex ancient cultures with established higher religions having their own scriptures and developed religious philosophies. Yet, even in Asia, the initial efforts of Francis Xavier bore fruit in India, Ceylon, Malaya, Melaka, and Japan. The Chinese mission was continued by Father Matteo Ricci. Jesuit missionaries’ reports back home—the so-called relations—brought a wealth of reliable information about Asia, Africa, and the Americas to Europe.
By the seventeenth century, the order was one of the largest in the Church and was engaged in virtually every kind of religious activity as well as numerous secular activities. The name of the order became a byword in Europe and America. As Father William Bangert has observed, “apostolic action, Christian Humanism, and the interior ideal of being with Jesus—in order to serve—may help to explicate the singular identity that the Society of Jesus has preserved through over four centuries of history.”