One cardinal said never. Ten men answered with Masses.

ROME, Papal States, September 27, 1540 AD — In November 1538 AD, Saint Ignatius of Loyola and his companions offered themselves to Pope Paul III in Rome. They wanted the Church to accept them as a new order. They would be bound by a vow to go wherever the Pope sent them.

His nine companions were all priests with master’s degrees from Paris. St. Ignatius had once been a soldier. A French cannon ball broke his leg at Pamplona in 1521 AD.

In September 1539 AD, at Tivoli, a cardinal read their rule to the Pope. The Pope gave it his spoken approval on the spot. Then he ordered a bull to be written, the document that would make them an order.

The cardinal who threw it aside

In December the rule was handed to another cardinal, Cardinal Bartolomeo Guidiccioni, to check. He was sure the Church should not admit any new orders. He threw the rule aside and could not bear to look at it. He said that whatever it was, he would make sure the Church never approved it. Every religious order, he said, grew slack over time. When it was old, it did the Church more harm than the good it had done when it was young.

St. Ignatius answered the cardinal with prayer. He ordered thousands of Masses said for the approval. He gave each of his companions a share to say wherever he was working.

In March 1540 AD, with no bull signed, the companions were already being sent away from Rome. The King of Portugal had asked for six of the ten. On March 4 Simon Rodrigues sailed for Portugal and the Indies. Twelve days later Saint Francis Xavier set out overland after him. St. Ignatius stayed in Rome, and he told the man who spoke there for Portugal, the Portuguese ambassador: “Jesus, my Lord ambassador, if six out of ten go to India, what is there left for all the rest of the world?”

Never, and then yes

In the end, and without any warning, Cardinal Guidiccioni changed his mind. He asked to see the rule and read it. He still believed the Church should admit no new orders. But he thought this rule was so good that he would make it the one exception. He won over the two other cardinals who were checking it. Then the man who had promised the rule would never be approved went to the Pope and pleaded for it.

Cardinal Guidiccioni set the terms. The new order could take in no more than sixty men. That limit would last until experience showed what was good for the Church. Early in September the Pope ordered the bull issued with that limit.

On September 27, 1540 AD, Pope Paul III issued the bull. St. Ignatius and his companions became a religious order called the Society of Jesus. Their rule, written in their own words, opens: “Whoever wishes to serve as a soldier of God beneath the banner of the cross in our Society, which we desire to be designated by the name of Jesus, and to serve the Lord alone and his vicar on earth.”

St. Ignatius had promised those Masses in return for the approval. As soon as the bull was issued, he and the companions began saying them. A year later they still were. St. Ignatius sent two of the companions, Paschase Broët and Alfonso Salmerón, to Ireland for the Pope. He wrote into their instructions: “Be careful about the Masses for Cardinal Guidiccioni, and let me know when you write how many you have said.”