The Jesuits

Ignatius de Loyola, founder of the Order of Jesuits, or "Society of Jesus," was born in Guipuzcoa, Spain, in 1491. His real name was Inigo; but he changed it in later life to Ignatius, its Latin form.

He was first a page in the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, and afterward a soldier, until he was thirty years of age.

He was severely wounded in the battle of Pampeluna, and while in the hospital read the "Lives of the Saints" and many religious books, which made him desire to lead a better life. He wished to become a priest at once; but finding that he was too ignorant, he went to school with little boys when he was thirty-three years old.

It was in the Church of the Virgin in Montserrat, that he hung up his arms, and vowed obedience to the Church.

Finally in 1537 he became not only a priest, but the founder of the most celebrated order of the Roman Church, which it cost him great labor and urgency and constancy to establish.

He died in Rome when sixty-four years old, July 31, 1556, and was canonized by the Pope in 1622.

The Society is still governed by the original rules and constitution of St. Ignatius.

The later history of the Society presents different aspects in different countries: it is therefore necessary to study separately, the history divided into three stages,--the Rise, the Suppression, and the Restoration of the Order of Jesuits.

Even in countries where the Roman-Catholic Church has been established, to the exclusion of all other denominations, the Jesuits have been often oppressed, and in many cases banished. The fundamental principle of the order is implicit obedience to the Pope.