A book about Jesuit origins, this text studies an early document ghost-written for Pope Paul III by one of the first Jesuits. This document--recently rediscovered in the Vatican archives and never-before-published--clearly reveals how the first Jesuits understood themselves and their order. It goes beyond commentary on a single document. It situates early Jesuit decisions in the ferment of the Reformation, bringing in key people--popes, cardinals, early Jesuits and other religious leaders, the saints and the strugglers.