The Distinctiveness of the Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus has a number of features making it distinctive among the religious orders of the Catholic Church. The ten founders all held university degrees, which meant that they established a tradition of a high regard for learning and of articulated procedures, as exemplified in the Formula instituti (the rule of the order) and in the Constitutions. The high degree of authority enjoyed by the superior general was not only itself distinctive, but it led to a distinctly international character to the Jesuit missions. Once the Society undertook the staffing and management of schools, its distinctiveness only increased and led to its having, besides its religious mission, also a cultural and a civic mission.