The devotion of the Jesuits to the Papacy, was in reality the masterful Spanish spirit of that epoch, masking its world-grasping ambition under the guise of obedience to Rome.

This does not mean that the founders and first organizers of the Company of Jesus consciously pursued one object while they pretended to have another in view.

The impulse which moved Loyola was spontaneous and romantic.

The world has seen few examples of disinterested self-devotion equal to that of Xavier.

Yet the fact remains that Jesuitry, taking its germ and root in the Spanish character, persisting as an organism within the Church, but separate from the ecclesiastical hierarchy, devised the doctrine of Papal absolutism, and became the prime agent of that Catholic policy in Europe which passed for Papal during the Counter-Reformation.