ABSTRACT
Ignatius of Loyola entered the army as a youth and in 1521 was wounded in a battle against the French at Pamplona. Ignatius of Loyola had a protracted and excruciating convalescence. The Society of Jesus had been designed to serve the Pope in a time of intense religious upheaval. The Protestant Reformation launched by Martin Luther in 1517 had attacked the papacy and the institutional structure of the Roman Catholic priesthood. Jesuits, as members came to be known, pursued a number of activities designed to reverse the Reformation. Many Jesuits were not involved with the Counter——Reformation, however, but in missionary work around the globe. The Society of Jesus was often regarded in Europe with suspicion and, during the late eighteenth century was banned by virtually all governments except, ironically, Protestant England and Orthodox Russia.
