LE PERSECUZIONI DELLA COMPAGNIA DI GESÙ: Un paradigma identitario tra conflitti storici e mito politico.

The contribution reconstructs the main lines of a central element of Jesuit identity much neglected by historiography: the theme of the persecutions suffered by members of the Society of Jesus. This element of identity dates back to the same founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola, and was developed in particular by one of his main disciples and collaborators, jerónimo Nadal, from the early fifties of the sixteenth century. First, by making Loyola and his companions appear, and then also the first Jesuits, as persecuted– not by the “heretics“ Lutherans or Calvinists, but by Roman Catholics: inquisitors, friars, bishops, cardinals and pontiffs – allowed to justify in the eyes of themembers of the Society the many inquisitorial processes to which St Ignatius and then the first Jesuits had been subjected. Secondly, the ideology of persecution allowed another great element of identity typical of the Society’s origins to be developed, namely the analogy between Ignatius and Christ and between the Jesuits and the apostles. The Society thus became similar to the early Church and was its living“reincarnation”. This paradigm of identity became a true political myth thanks to the important work of Pedro de Ribadeneira, dating back to 1605, dedicated to the «glories and triumphs» of the Jesuits in their persecutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]