The Cambridge Companion To The Jesuits

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO THE JESUITS Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) obtained papal approval in 1540 for a new international religious order called the Society of Jesus. Until the mid-1700s the ‘Jesuits’ were active in many parts of Europe and far beyond. Gaining both friends and enemies in response to their work as teachers, scholars, writers, preachers, missionaries, and spiritual directors, the Jesuits were formally suppressed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773 and restored by Pope Pius VII in 1814. The Society of Jesus then grew until the 1960s; it has more recently experienced declining membership in Europe and North America, but expansion in other parts of the world. This Companion examines the religious and cultural significance of the Jesuits. The first four parts treat the period prior to the Suppression, while part V examines the Suppression and some of the challenges and opportunities of the restored Society of Jesus up to the present. Thomas Worcester, S. J., is Associate Professor of History at the College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts. He is the author of Seventeenth-Century Cultural Discourse: France and the Preaching of Bishop Camus, and co-editor (with Pamela Jones) of From Rome to Eternity: Catholicism and the Arts in Italy, ca. 1550–1650. He is also co-editor (with Franco Mormando) of Piety and Plague: From Byzantium to the Baroque, and he is a member of the editorial board for Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits. Cambridge Collections Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 Cambridge Collections Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 CAMBRIDGE COMPANIONS TO RELIGION A series of companions to major topics and key figures in theology and religious studies. Each volume contains specially commissioned chapters by international scholars which provide an accessible and stimulating introduction to the subject for new readers and non-specialists. Other titles in the series THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE edited by Colin Gunton (1997) I S B N 0 521 47118 4 hardback ISBN 0 521 47695 8 paperback THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION edited by John Barton (1998) I S B N 0 521 48144 9 hardback ISBN 0 521 48593 2 paperback THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO DIETRICH BONHOEFFER edited by John de Gruchy (1999) I S B N 0 521 58258 x hardback I S B N 0 521 58751 6 paperback THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO LIBERATION THEOLOGY, FIRST EDITION edited by Christopher Rowland (1999) I S B N 0 521 46144 8 hardback I S B N 0 521 46707 1 paperback THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO KARL BARTH edited by John Webster (2000) I S B N 0 521 58476 0 hardback ISBN 0 521 58560 0 paperback THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO CHRISTIAN ETHICS edited by Robin Gill (2001) I S B N 0 521 77070 x hardback ISBN 0 521 77918 9 pap