Instruments of Catholic renewal: new orders, mystics, and control

Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), a Basque nobleman converted after a battlefield injury, gathered his first companions at the University of Paris and obtained papal approval for the Society of Jesus through the bull "Regimini militantis Ecclesiae" (1540), serving as its first superior general until his death. The order grew from ten founding members to more than a thousand Jesuits by 1556, developing a centralized structure of strict obedience to the pope and the superior general, and its "Ratio Studiorum" (1599) organized a vast network of colleges that trained Catholic elites across Europe. Francis Xavier led its missionary expansion into Asia, reaching India and Japan, while in China Matteo Ricci pursued a strategy of cultural accommodation, and in Paraguay Jesuits established the Guaraní reductions from 1609.