The Society of Jesus is a religious order founded by Saint Ignatius Loyola. He called it "The Company of Jesus" to indicate its true leader and its soldier spirit. In the 1540 Bull of Paul III approving its formation, it is called "Societas Jesu". The term "Jesuit" (of fifteenth-century origin, meaning one who used too frequently or appropriated the name of Jesus) was first applied to the society in reproach (1544-1552), and was never employed by its founder, though members and friends of the society in time accepted the name in its good sense. The Society ranks among religious institutes as a mendicant order of clerks regular, that is, a body of priests organised for apostolic work, following a religious rule, and relying on alms for their support.

The founder, Ignatius Loyola, began his self-reform and the enlistment of followers entirely prepossessed with the idea of the imitation of Christ, and without any plan for a religious order or purpose of attending to the needs of the day. Unexpectedly prevented from carrying out this idea, he offered his services and those of his followers to the pope who at once employed him in such works as were most pressing at the moment. It was only at this time, and just before the first companions departed at the pope's command for various countries, that the resolution to found an order was taken, and that Ignatius was commissioned to draw up the Constitutions. This he did slowly and methodically, not codifying them for the first six years. Then three years were given to formulating laws, and in the last six years of the saint's life the Constitutions were finally revised and put into practice everywhere.

The Society was not founded with the avowed intention of opposing Protestantism. Neither the papal letters of approbation nor the Constitutions of the order mention this as the object of the new foundation. When Ignatius began to devote himself to the service of the Church, he had probably not even heard of the names of the Protestant Reformers. His early plan was rather the conversion of Muslims. The name "Societas Jesu" had been born by a military order approved and recommended by Pius II in 1450, the purpose of which was to fight against the Turks and aid in spreading the Christian faith. The early Jesuits were sent to Protestant countries only at the special request of the pope, and to Germany - the cradle-land of the Reformation - at the urgent solicitation of the imperial ambassador. From the very beginning the missionary labours of the Jesuits in India, Japan, China, Canada, Central and South America were as important as their activity in Christian countries. As the object of the society was the propagation and strengthening of the Catholic faith everywhere, the Jesuits naturally endeavoured to counteract the spread of Protestantism. They became the main instruments of the Counter-Reformation. The re-conquest of southern and western Germany and Austria for the Church, and the preservation of the Catholic faith in France and other countries were due chiefly to the Jesuits.

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