The Society of Jesus Is Founded

In the account of his life that he dictated in his last years, Ignatius of Loyola says that until he was twenty-six his delight was in soldiering and in making a name. Defending the citadel of Pamplona against the French, he had one leg broken and the other injured by a cannon ball (Ignatius, Autobiography pp. 19–20). During his recovery he asked for romances, was given a life of Christ and a book of saints’ lives, and by reading them began to love spiritual things (Ignatius, Autobiography pp. 23–24). After a pilgrimage to Jerusalem he resolved to study, in order to be better fitted to save souls (Ignatius, Autobiography pp. 80–81). His book of Spiritual Exercises begins from one principle: “Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul” (Ignatius, Spiritual Exercises Principle and Foundation).

At the University of Paris Ignatius befriended Peter Faber and Francis Xavier, whom he won, he says, by giving them the Exercises (Ignatius, Autobiography p. 122). He and his companions resolved to go to Venice and then to Jerusalem, to spend their lives there helping souls; if they could not stay in Jerusalem they would go to Rome and offer themselves to the pope, to be used as he thought best (Ignatius, Autobiography p. 126). In Venice those who were not yet priests were ordained. No ship sailed for the East that year, and after the year of waiting they went to Rome. On the way, in a church a few miles from the city, Ignatius felt that God the Father placed him with Christ his Son (Ignatius, Autobiography pp. 136–140) (Ignatius, Autobiography pp. 140–141).

On 27 September 1540 Paul III approved their way of life in the bull Regimini militantis Ecclesiae (Paul III, Regimini militantis Ecclesiae editors’ note to the Formula). It names ten priests, masters of arts of Paris, with Ignatius, Faber and Xavier among them, and recites the statement of their way of life that they had drawn up, the Formula of the Institute (Paul III, Regimini militantis Ecclesiae §§ 1–3). Whoever wishes to serve as a soldier of God under the banner of the cross in the Society, which they wish to bear the name of Jesus, joins a community founded for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine and for the spread of the faith, by preaching, spiritual exercises, works of charity and the teaching of children and the unlettered (Paul III, Regimini militantis Ecclesiae § 4 (Formula, paragraph 1)). Beyond the obedience every Christian owes the pope, the members bind themselves by a special vow to go at once wherever he sends them, whether to the Turks or other unbelievers, even in the lands called the Indies, to heretics and schismatics, or to the faithful (Paul III, Regimini militantis Ecclesiae § 6 (Formula, paragraph 3)). They vow obedience to their superior and perpetual poverty, though the Society may hold colleges with endowments for its students (Paul III, Regimini militantis Ecclesiae Formula, paragraphs 6–8). The pope limited the Society to sixty members (Paul III, Regimini militantis Ecclesiae § 16).

Xavier sailed from Lisbon for India on 7 April 1541 (Xavier, Letters, letter 10, Goa, 18 September 1542); his mission is told in Francis Xavier in India and Japan.