Ignatius Loyola's The Secret Society: The Jesuits

The Secret Society: the Jesuits The tolling bell echoes through the crowd that mills about the square, marking the hour from far above the sprawling city. Patrons, artists, merchants, officials, peasants, and others trudge by the looming Catholic Church on their way to begin the scorching hot day. However, while only the shuffling of feet and the murmuring of voices permeates the stifling air outside, more dire happenings are taking place inside the monstrous building that dominates the lives of all. Through the towering arch lies only darkness, lies, and intrigue, truly a world that is anything but what it seems. A priest stands ominous and unmoving in front of the altar, yet he is more than willing to accept bribes to place one in the
Not to mention, to the north heresy and division will grow so rampant that only one man by the name of Ignatius Loyola with the help of his reformative society can fix it (Van Dyke 3). Ignatius Loyola was born Ignacio Lopez de Loyola in Loyola, Spain on December 24, 1491, the year before Christopher Columbus encountered the New World (St. Ignatius Loyola). As the youngest of his 12 siblings, he soon became a page before entering the military as a soldier (Van Dyke 15-18). Nonetheless, Ignatius Loyola’s military career was to be short lived as his leg was shattered by a cannon ball in the Battle of Pampalona; hence, he began reading the religious works of Saint Francis of Assisi and Dominic due to the absence of other genres and developed the desire to enter the priesthood (St. Ignatius Loyola). Nevertheless, because he knew no Latin, Ignatius Loyola was to attend the University of Alaca, the University of Paris, and the College of Saint Barbe in order to obtain the knowledge to become a priest (Ganss 11-13). Consequently, he developed a strong desire to serve the Catholic Church and soon journeyed to a monastery located in Manresa (Tuohy 194). After this journey, he wrote his famous Spiritual Exercises that were seen as “the wisest and most universal
His original goal was to convert Muslims in the Holy Land, yet at the time, the Turkish Wars prevented travel to Jerusalem (Feulop-Miller 65). Therefore, the Society of Jesus converged on Rome in 1538, and after an increase in members to a mere total of ten, the group created a document detailing their intentions and structure (Olin 24-25). Then, The Society of Jesus was confirmed as the Jesuit order by Pope Paul III in 1540 as part of the papal bull Regimini militantis ecclesiae and soon devoted themselves to apostolic work for the pope (Olin 201). Initially, the pope will limit the number of members in the Society of Jesus to 60, but a later edict will retract that original restriction (Olin 208). Subsequently, their motto, “For the Greater Glory of God” or Ad majorem Dei gloriam in Latin, later became salvation for the foundering Catholic Church that faced such transgressions as bishops not present for their congregations while mingling in secular matters, uninterested men and youth as part of the clergy, and simony among other issues (Nardo, 42). While at the time they were quite oblivious to the state of the Roman Catholic Church, their loyalty was first to the pope before even the kings and other high-ranking secular officials; therefore, the pope’s word could be compared to the voice of Christ that many