In this work, John W. O’Malley offers, in elegant, clear prose, a historical sketch of the relationship between the Society of Jesus and the popes, a topic that “has never before been addressed in a comprehensive way” (1). The book is particularly timely: the election of the Argentinian Jesuit Jorge Mario Bergoglio to the papacy in March 2013 has created a new scenario—for the first time in history the pope is a Jesuit—attracting our attention to the connections between the Society of Jesus and the papacy.

The first two chapters are key to understanding the context: the author describes the relationship of other religious orders (in particular the mendicant orders) with the popes and explains the nature of the fourth vow that gives popes the authority to send Jesuits on apostolic missions (circa missiones). This vow is a feature specific to the Society of Jesus and has often been misinterpreted both inside and outside the Society. Nine chapters follow, highlighting moments at which the relations between the Society of Jesus and the popes have been particularly significant or problematic. Chapter 3 deals with Ignatius and the popes of his day, in particular his friendly relationship with Paul III (1534–49) and the more difficult relationship with Paul IV (1555–59). The great patron of the Society, Gregory XIII (1572–85), and his support of Jesuit educational institutions in Rome, are discussed in chapter 4. Chapter 5 describes the long and complex period of the generalate of Claudio Acquaviva (1581–1615), including the Society’s internal debates with the memorialistas—a group of Spanish Jesuits who “ardently believed the Society had to be reorganized to limit the authority of the general and empower the local provinces” (46)—and the De auxiliis controversy, the dispute over grace and free will in which Jesuit and Dominican theologians were strongly opposed. Chapter 6 starts with a description of the Society’s “smooth sailing” (58) at the beginning of the seventeenth century and ends with two dramatic episodes in the relationship between the Jesuits and the popes that occurred at the end of that century: the Chinese rite controversy, in which the missionary approach of the Jesuits in China was severely questioned, and the debates about moral theology during the generalate of Tirso González de Santalla (1687–1705). Chapter 7 describes the growing tension with the popes during the eighteenth century, the expulsion of Jesuits from Portugal, Spain, France, and the Bourbon Kingdom of Italy, and chapter 8 discusses the suppression of the Society in 1773 by Pope Clement XIV (1769–74). The restoration of the Society (1814) is the topic of chapter 9, and chapter 10 tells the story of “the long ultramontane century” (95), when “the support the Jesuits received from Pius VII (1800–23) and Leo XII (1823–29) presaged two centuries when their relationship with the popes was closer than even before” (97), but also the Jesuits’ more complex relationship with Pius IX (1846–78). An important chapter on the generalate of Pedro Arrupe (1965–83), the most influential and controversial Jesuit superior of the twentieth century, and the misunderstandings and friction between the Society of Jesus and Paul VI (1963–78) and John Paul II (1978–2005), conclude the book.

As part of the flourishing historiography on the Society of Jesus, this small book is a concise and fascinating journey through five centuries, and it suggests a diachronic approach to Jesuit studies that allows us to understand the continuities and changes within the Society during the longue durée. The book, offering a bird’s-eye view on this exciting topic, will arouse further discussion; and, in fact, a discussion is already underway. On the other side of the ocean, a volume with the same title was published almost simultaneously (I gesuiti e i papi, ed. Michela Catto and Claudio Ferlan [2016]). The approach of I gesuiti e i papi is completely different—it does not provide a general overview, but instead offers seven original essays on just as many case studies from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries from the same diachronic perspective, showing that the archives are filled with documents just waiting for historians.

The Jesuits and the Popes, written in the brilliant, elegant style that characterizes all of John O’Malley’s work, is accompanied by a series of illustrations representing the Society’s long historical journey, from the painting of Ignatius kneeling in front of Paul III to the photographs of Pope Francis’s visit to Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia in September 2015.