Founded by a wounded soldier, built on radical obedience, and shaped by centuries of missionary reach, intellectual ambition, and conspiracy theory alike — the Society of Jesus is one of history's most consequential and most misunderstood religious orders.
This section covers the Jesuits as a recognised Catholic religious order, not a secret society — though they share territory with the conspiracy-theory landscape covered in Secret Societies (see the Conspiracy Theories chapter below). For orders with a closer historical fit to that section, see Knights of Malta.