BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES: The Jesuits and the Popes: A Historical Sketch of their Relationship

“The pope's Marines”: this popular image of the Jesuits suggests the unquestioning loyalty and top-down execution of orders characteristic of an elite corps of soldiers in relation to its commander-in-chief. While owing its continued existence to papal fiat, and despite its famous “fourth vow” of special obedience to the pope in matters of mission, the Society of Jesus's “partnership” (1) with the papacy in a common spiritual quest—a reciprocal relationship of mutual benefit, albeit not one between equals—had its fair share of ups and downs, including moments of tension and high drama. At the close of the final chapter, O'Malley broaches the election of Francis. (Besides the two cardinals mentioned in the text, Martini and Bergoglio, some say the seventeenth-century Robert Bellarmine was also a likely Jesuit candidate for the papacy.) The book ends with a page of “Further Reading” (119), which is useful but unfortunately lacking in bibliographical information.