In this account of the sweep of 500 years of world history, from the dungeons of the Vatican to the jungles of South America to the royal courts of Europe and Asia this multibiography tells of the growth of the Society of Jesus into Christendom's most powerful order. The often picaresque story takes us to the Paris of Rabelais, where Ignatius, with a handful of his fellow students, formed what would become the Society of Jesus. We follow Francis Xavier to Japan and Matteo Ricci to China. We watch as the Society grows, and as the Black Legend of a calculating, Machiavellian Jesuitry leads to its abolition in 1773 until it was restored 40 years later.