Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette History Faculty Research and Publications History, Department of 1-1-1984 For the Greater Glory of God: St. Ignatius Loyola John Donnelly S.J. Marquette University,
[email protected] Published Version. "For the Greater Glory of God: St. Ignatius Loyola," in Leaders of the Reformation. Ed. Richard L. DeMolen. Selinsgrove PA. Susquehanna University Press, 1984: 153-177. DOI. © 1984 Susquehanna University Press. Used with permission 6 For the Greater Glory of God: St~ Ignatius Loyola JoHN PATRICK DoNNELLY, S.J.* Ignatius Loyola is a central figure, perhaps the prototypical figure of the Counter-Reformation, and the way he has been seen partly reflects the way historians of the early twentieth century have viewed the Counter Reformation. The word Counter-Reformation and its equivalents in all west- · ern languages have negative connotations: it has been seen as a movement that revivifies medieval ideals against humanism or that blocks the mod ernization of the church through the creative, enlightened forces of Protes tantism, thereby insuring a sterile period between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Increasingly, contemporary historians have abandoned such simple ·views. Art historians, for instance, have come to a more favor:. able view of the Baroque and the Jesuit role in art from 1550 to 1700. 1 Historians, such as Jean Delumeau and A. G. Dickens, have tried to study the Counter-Reformation on its own merits, seeing it in relation to the social, intellectual, and cultural development of Catholic Europe and showing how it unleashed forces that remained influential down into the eighteenth century.