St. Ignatius Of Loyola, The Fertile Ground Of The Counter Reformation

There are good men at all times in the world, who see evil and fight it; and during all this period of transition there were good men in abundance.

But especially was this manifest in the religious orders; in the reform of those that existed and in the foundation of more. The Capuchin reform by Matteo da Bascio (1525); the reform of the Camaldolese by Blessed Paul de Guistiniani (1520-1522); the new congregation of St. Jerome Aemiliani (C.1520); the Theatines of St. Cajetan (1524); the Barnabites under St. Antonio Maria Zaccaria (1520); the Oratorians of St. Philip (1574); and the Oblates of St. Charles Borromeo (1578); all these, within fifty years, shew the movement that was going forward. Even among women it was vigorous. In 15 35 St. Angela Merici founded the Ursulines, the first Order of teaching women in the Church. In Spain and Portugal these reforms found particular welcome; Spain added to them among others the Brothers of Mercy, founded by St. John of God (1540), the Piarists, of St. Joseph of Calasanza, most memorable of all the Carmelite Reform of St. Theresa and St. John of the Cross.

In the midst of this age of transition and adventure, in 1491, was born Inigo Loyola (St. Ignatius Loyola), the youngest son of a noble family of Guipuzcoa, in the Basque provinces of the kingdom of Castile. His father, Don Bertran Yafiez de Ofiez y Loyola, was like other nobles of his time, a master in his own domain; as he was within striking distance of Navarre, the quarrels connected with that province could not but have affected him. There was a large family of thirteen children; the brothers of Inigo, eight in number, all followed the career of arms. At first it seems to have been thought that the youngest, according to a custom not too uncommon, might find for himself a career in the Church. But he soon rebelled; and instead was entrusted to the care of Juan Velasquez de Cuellar, a friend of the Loyola family, and an official of the Royal Treasury under Ferdinand and Isabella. This friend had undertaken to make a career for the boy; obviously therefore it was not for military affairs but affairs of state that from the first he destined and trained.

Link (here) to the book entitled,THE JESUITS By the Most Reverend Alban Goodier S.J.
Archbishop of Hierapolis