Sometime after he visited the sanctuary of Montserrat, where he hung his shield and sword upon the altar of the Virgin Mary and gave his oath of fealty to the service of God.  A tablet, erected by the abbot of the monastery in commemoration of this event, reads as follows:  “Here, blessed Ignatius of Loyola, with many prayers and tears, devoted himself to God and the Virgin.  Here, as with spiritual arms, he fortified himself in sackcloth, and spent the vigil of the night.  Hence he went forth to found the Society of Jesus, in the year MDXXII.”

After spending ten months in Manresa, Loyola went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, intending to remain there, but he was sent home by the Eastern monks, and reached Italy in 1524.

Now began his struggle for an education.  At the age of thirty-three he took his seat on the school-bench at Barcelona.  In 1526 he entered the University at Alcala.  He was here looked upon as a dangerous innovator, and was imprisoned six weeks, by order of the Inquisition, for preaching without authority, since he was not in holy orders.  After his release he attended the University of Salamanca, but he finally took his degree of Master of Arts at the University of Paris, in 1533.

During this period he was several times imprisoned as a dangerous fanatic, but each time he succeeded in securing a verdict in his favor.  The hostility to Ignatius and his work forms a strange parallel to the bitter antagonism which his society has always encountered.

Nine men, among whom was Francis Xavier, afterwards widely renowned, had been chosen with great care, as the companions of Ignatius.  He called them together in July, 1534, and on August 15th of the same year he selected six of them and bade them follow him to the Church of the Blessed Virgin, at Montmartre, in Paris.  There and then they bound themselves to renounce all their goods, and to make a voyage to Jerusalem, in order to convert the Eastern infidels; if that scheme proved impracticable, they agreed to offer themselves to the sovereign pontiff for any service he might require of them.  War prevented the journey to the Holy Land, and so, after passing through a variety of experiences, Ignatius and his companions met at Rome, to secure the sanction of Pope Paul III. for the new society.  After a year and a half of deliberation and discussion a favorable decision was reached, which was, no doubt, partly facilitated by the growth of the Reformation.  The new society was chartered on September 27, 1540, for the “defence and advance of the faith.”

Ignatius was elected as the general of the order and entered upon his duties, April 17, 1541.  He soon prepared a constitution which was not adopted until after his death, and then in an amended form.  Loyola ended his remarkable and stormy career, July 31, 1556.

Constitution and Polity of the Order

The Institutum, which contains the governing laws of the society, is a complex document consisting of papal bulls and decrees, a list of the privileges which have been granted to the order, ten chapters of rules, decrees of the general congregations, the plan of studies (ratio studiorum), and three ascetic writings, of which the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius constitute the chief part.