Growth and controversy

Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, English Jesuits contributed notably to theological and political controversies.  The first half of the seventeenth century was a period of unrivalled excellence for the province.  Its institutions were strong; its theologians more than competent; its numbers expanding; its first mission to Maryland established (1633).  In 1640 there were 350 members of the province, nearly two hundred of whom worked in England and Wales.

The English Civil War, the Popish Plot (1678), and the Glorious Revolution (1688) devastated the province.  By 1700 it was weaker, poor, disheartened, and tied to the fading dreams of the Jacobite cause.

In the eighteenth century the Society was on the defensive worldwide.  Old foes such as Gallicans and Jansenists received aid from Enlightenment thinkers and centralising secular monarchs in their battle with Jesuits.  Successful defeat of Jacobite rebellions in 1715 and 1745 prompted new demands for an oath of allegiance from Catholics, an oath refused by Jesuits because of its denial of papal deposing power.  Many Catholics conformed or pronounced the oath.