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Summary
- Jesuits are Catholics. The Society of Jesus is a religious order within the Catholic Church, not a separate branch of Christianity.
- Ignatius of Loyola, a Basque soldier whose leg was shattered at Pamplona in 1521, wrote the Spiritual Exercises during his convalescence. Paul III approved the order in 1540.
- Three practical differences: no common choir office, because it would tie them to a building; a fourth vow of obedience to the pope concerning missions; and formation of ten to fifteen years.
- Clement XIV suppressed the order outright in 1773. It survived largely in Russia, where Catherine the Great declined to publish the brief, and Pius VII restored it in 1814.
- “Jesuitical” entered English as an insult and remains in dictionaries. Francis, elected 2013, is the only Jesuit pope.
Bibliography (Click to show)
Sources: standard histories of the Society of Jesus for Ignatius’s wounding at Pamplona (1521), the Spiritual Exercises, papal approval by Paul III in 1540 (Regimini militantis Ecclesiae), the fourth vow, the suppression by Clement XIV in 1773 and the restoration by Pius VII in 1814, including the order’s survival in Russia. “Jesuitical” is recorded in standard English dictionaries with its pejorative sense. Francis was elected in 2013.
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