[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/ChickTracts https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/evil_jesuits.jpg]]]]

->''Si cum Iesuitis itis, non cum Iesu itis.''[[labelnote:Translation]]If you walk with the Jesuits, you do not walk with Jesus.[[/labelnote]]
-->--A saying almost as old as the order itself

A character type generally found in works set or written in the TheCavalierYears, although some are later examples, this is what you get when you cross the ChurchMilitant with WickedCultured. In RealLife, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Jesus Society of Jesus]], also known by their shorthand name "Jesuits", are a Christian (specifically, Roman Catholic) religious order known for their military character (reinforced by the fact that their founder, Basque nobleman [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_of_Loyola Ignatius of Loyola]], was a knight who took the habit after having a spiritual awakening while recovering from wounds received in battle during the UsefulNotes/ItalianWars, in order to provide the Church an active arm in world affairs), their commitment to broaden Renaissance education, and their missionary endeavors. Among their religious opponents, chiefly the early Protestants, they accrued a reputation for [[KnightTemplar finding clever arguments to excuse any kind of behavior]]. Common plots have such characters throw off their habit to assume the appearances of laity, sometimes becoming military leaders or advisers.

The historical basis for the Society's negative archetype comes largely from their work during [[UsefulNotes/TheProtestantReformation the Counter-Reformation]]. For [[TheMiddleAges many centuries]], the Roman Catholic Church relied extensively on secular authorities (especially the Holy Roman Emperor and, later, the King of France) to combat heresy by providing a civil basis for investigating unorthodox beliefs and/or practices and, if need be, administering appropriate civil action against the offending party. However, during the height of the Protestant Reformation, various governments in northwestern Europe declared themselves independent of the Church's spiritual authority as a precedent for their secular sovereignty, adopting one form of Protestantism or another as the ''de facto'', if not ''de jure'', state religion.[[note]]Lutheranism was recognized as a legal alternative to Roman Catholicism by the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, while Calvinism was not legalized until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.[[/note]] As a result, the Church was often without (legal) recourse to counter what they saw as the epidemic heresy of Protestantism in these regions, where Catholic and Protestant populations were often engaged in sectarian violence.

In light of these facts, as well as reforms created by the Council of Trent, which stressed using education as the most effective means of combating Protestantism, the Jesuits were often called upon to travel to states in which local Protestant rulers were repressing Roman Catholic populations, or at least disrupting ecclesiastical hierarchy, and engage in what essentially amounted to clandestine missionary work: supporting (often secret) worship, teaching doctrine, and ingratiating themselves with local ministers in order to encourage them to convert, or at least be lenient towards Catholics. Predictably, Protestant governments used their efforts as the occasion to propagandize against the Roman Catholic Church, promoting a view of it as foreign and reactionary, and Jesuits in particular as sinister subversive infiltrators spreading throughout Christendom, intent upon undermining or overthrowing legitimate local powers and destroying true (that is, Protestant) Christianity in favor of the reinstatement of the [[TheAntichrist Papal Anti-Christ.]]

This trope doesn't just appear in Protestant works, though. The Jesuits also got a bad reputation in Catholic countries too, and were outright expelled from the Portuguese and Spanish Empires during the reigns of Joseph I and [[UsefulNotes/CharlesIIIOfSpain Charles III]], albeit for different reasons. In the 17th century, the Jesuits--who swear an oath of loyalty and obedience to the Pope in addition to the standard religious vows--became identified with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultramontanism ultramontanism,]] a doctrine that asserted the absolute supremacy of the Pope in all matters. Although this is largely standard Catholic doctrine today, there were many movements in Catholicism that opposed that kind of supremacy. Perhaps more significantly, ultramontanism challenged many Catholic rulers' rights to meddle in Church affairs, particularly the then-standard practice of letting Catholic monarchs choose the Church hierarchy with only a nominal papal veto. The Jesuits also gained a reputation for being power-seeking and economically successful, angering both temporal rulers and the higher-ups of the Church in Rome. The fancy logic and scholarship the Jesuits cultivated to beat Protestants in arguments could also be used to challenge Church orthodoxy--and it often was (and still is).

The Jesuit activities in missionary work, which led to the not entirely incorrect accusation of running their own private empire, also triggered some good old-fashioned colonialism. While the Jesuit missions were far from perfect and rather paternalistic, they treated the Native Americans as basically people and fought against their enslavement, which came to cause turmoil whenever either law or custom disagreed. This eventually caused a true military conflict, the Guaraní War, where native militias trained and chieftained by Spanish Jesuits revolted openly in order to stop large tracts of land of the Spanish Empire to be handed to its Portuguese counterpart, as while native slavery was illegal in Spain, it was legal and very profitable in Portugal (with natives happily partaking on it), which would allow slavehunters to prey on the inhabitants of the lands unopposed. Although the rebellion was crushed, the event essentially confirmed all the fears in Europe about the Company of Jesus being a dangerous intra-state able to challenge sovereign powers, factoring heavily in their suppression and making them distinctly unpopular even in Catholic countries until they end of 19th century.

Subtrope of SinisterMinister.

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!!Examples:

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[[folder:Comic Books]]
* According to the ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'', the Jesuits are the [[Creator/CharlieSheen High Priest Vatican Assassin Warlocks]] of the Catholic Church who are actively working for Satan and are responsible for all the evil in the modern world.
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[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Averted in ''Film/TheMission'': Father Gabriel is a benevolent Jesuit missionary, and the evil role goes to Captain Mendoza (pre-HeelFaceTurn).
* ''Film/TheManInTheIronMask'': King Louis XIV is nearly assassinated by a man that he immediately identifies as a Jesuit. In reality, the most evil man in the film is Louis himself. And this is ArtisticLicenseHistory, the French crown had no problem with Jesuits during Louis' reign.
* A few of the Jesuits in ''Film/BlackRobe'', a film set in colonial New France, are pretty unscrupulous -- notably, one lies to the Huron and tells them that baptism will cure their smallpox -- and the film is certainly critical of the Jesuits' mission, though the film's protagonist is a genuinely good Jesuit who honestly believes he is helping people. His [[NativeGuide Algonquin guides]], however, are pretty wary of him, since he wears the eponymous [[BlackCloak black robe]], sleeps separately from everyone else, and refuses to have sex with the women.
* ''Film/{{Silence}}'' averts this stereotype, with the Jesuits being portrayed as noble missionaries who endure horrifying torture for their faith at the hands of the Japanese authorities.
* ''Film/{{Elizabeth}}'': The Jesuits in the film are portrayed as brutal assassins sent to murder Elizabeth.
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[[folder:Literature]]
* In Jeff Long's ''Literature/TheDescent'', the leader of the Hadals, and the inspiration for Satan, posed as a Jesuit, though this was later retconned, changing him to be a mere disciple of Satan (who occasionally is more evil than Satan himself), since he has real human vileness in him, while Satan is just an example of alien BlueAndOrangeMorality.
* The Victorian historical novel ''Henry Esmond'' has Father Holt, who gets involved in the Jacobite Rebellion, and at one point is shown in Germany commanding Catholic military forces under the name "Holtz". More "evil" because he's Catholic than because of [[OffstageVillainy anything the character actually does]], he's more like a PsychoSupporter to the hero than an actual villain.
* Creator/NealStephenson's ''Literature/TheBaroqueCycle'' has the definitely evil Edouard de Gex who eventually disguises himself as a Jansenist (a sect which were enemies of Jesuits) and calls himself [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast de Ath]]. Subverting the trope, there is Father Gabriel Goto, a katana-wielding samurai Jesuit from Manila (long story).
* Cunegonde's brother would count in ''Literature/{{Candide}}'' (which was a definite influence on ''Henry Esmond'' above) -- while a lot of the characters change identities in the book, he becomes a Jesuit but is also at some points a military leader (not surprisingly, as he was written as a Take That against Frederick the Great).
* Ian Pears' novel ''Literature/AnInstanceOfTheFingerpost'' has one of the unreliable narrators slides between this and AntiVillain.
* ''The Wandering Jew'' has evil Jesuits trying to gain control of the wealth of the title character's last descendants. In a particularly nasty TakeThat, a Thugee assassin decides that his Kali-worship is completely compatible with their brand of Catholicism.
* In ''Literature/TwentyYearsAfter'' and ''Literature/TheVicomteDeBragelonne'', the sequels to ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'', Aramis becomes a Jesuit priest (and later vicar-general of the order) and turns into a ManipulativeBastard, often working against his former comrades-in-arms.
* Creator/{{Stendhal}}'s novel ''Literature/TheRedAndTheBlack'' has the main character (a ByronicHero) joining unsympathetically-presented Jesuits in his quest for self-advancement and the novel discusses the Jesuit-Jansenist rivalry (which apparently persisted at least into the mid-1800s, when the novel was written/set). The Jesuits aren't presented as that smart though, as the author's TakeThat is to present them as close-minded ultra-reactionaries. However, the main character fits the trope, as he is able to fit in just as well among a military-minded aristocratic culture (the red) as among the Jesuits (the black).
* The Swedish-Finnish series of historical novels, ''The Surgeon's Stories'', by Zachary Topelius, has (in the first part ''The King's Ring'' which is set during the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar) the character of Father Hieronymus, who is a very stereotypical instance of the trope. He carries a dagger concealed in his crucifix and tries to murder king Gustavus Adolphus, recruiting the young noblewoman Lady Regina (whom he serves as confessor for) to aid him.
* In Flann O'Brien's (author of ''Literature/TheThirdPoliceman'') later novel ''The Hard Life'', the protagonist's guardian Mr. Collopy is friends with a Jesuit priest, [[MeaningfulName Father Kurt Fahrt]]. When Fahrt refuses to countenance Collopy's plan to blow up Dublin City Hall (in a planning dispute over ladies' public toilets), Collopy reminds Fahrt of the Jesuits' own role in the [[UsefulNotes/GuyFawkes Gunpowder Plot of 1605]]. He also seems to think the Jesuits were responsible for the Franco-Prussian War.
* Averted in the ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' series. While one book had a bigoted Jesuit character, he was no more bigoted than any 17th-century person. In fact, a number of the allies of the protagonist uptimers -- Americans sent back in time by AlienSpaceBats (long story) -- are worse. Also, the {{historical domain character}}s of Father Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld and Father-General Mutio Vitelleschi are their allies, who are described as good but flawed (as are many characters, protagonist or antagonist). After the Spanish Cardinal Borga [[spoiler:usurps Pope Urban VIII, tries to murder him, and murders several of his allies]], the Jesuits begin to suffer a schism -- one [[spoiler:remains loyal to Urban VIII]] and thus remain friendly to the uptimers, while the other -- mostly composed of Spanish Inquisitors and witch-hunters -- become outright hostile.
* Averted in Creator/RobertAntonWilson's ''Historical Illuminatus Chronicles'', which feature Father Ratti, a good Jesuit whose open-mindedness contrasts the [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalistic]] Dominicans. On the other hand the books also mention, though never show (due to the author having DiedDuringProduction), Adam Weishaupt, the former Jesuit who went on to found the Bavarian Illuminati.
* Despite portraying some of the worst excesses of the Roman Catholic Church in [[Literature/NoliMeTangere his]] [[Literature/ElFilibusterismo novels]], Jose Rizal averts this trope, since some of his more sympathetic clergymen characters are Jesuits -- in RealLife, Rizal was very fond of his Jesuit mentors.
* Mentioned in British statesman Lord Chesterfield's ''Literature/LettersToHisSon''. "I do not know a crime in the world, which is not by the casuists among the Jesuits (especially the twenty-four collected, I think, by Escobar) allowed, in some, or many cases, not to be criminal." (letter 52) Although he regarded the Jesuits as the "[[WorthyOpponent most able and best governed society in the world.]]" (letter 85)
* ''[[Literature/AsianSaga Shogun]]'': Both in the novel and in the television miniseries adaptation the Jesuits are varying degrees of this as they attempt to convert 17th century Japan to Roman Catholicism. When John Blackthorne and other surviving crew members of the ''Erasmus'' arrive at Japan the Jesuits immediately see the protestant Blackthorne as a threat because the Englishman tells Lord Torunaga of world affairs from a different perspective than the Jesuits or Portuguese have been giving them. As part of this Blackthorne told Torunaga about the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Zaragoza Treaty of Zaragoza]], which divided up previously undiscovered lands between the Spanish and the Portugese with Japan in the Portugese zone. While it's not confirmed one way or the other it's implied the Jesuits tried to have Blackthorne assassinated by having an [[SamuraiInNinjaTown Amida Tong]] assassin infiltrate the castle and kill him as he slept. Later on, as Blackthorne's importance and influence grew the Jesuits begin trying to co-opt Blackthorne and even protected him from a Portuguese ship Captain determined to kill the Englishman.
** Even members of other Catholic monastic orders don't like the Jesuits all that much, with the Franciscan Friar Domingo telling Blackthorne that the Jesuits are there to increase their power and influence instead of bringing the message of Christ to the Japanese, and have banned all other religious orders from operating in Japan. Domingo tells Blackthorne that the Jesuits had defied specific orders from UsefulNotes/ThePope regarding behavior of missionaries.
* Creator/FyodorDostoevsky provides a Russian Orthodox view of this trope in ''Literature/TheIdiot''. When the endlessly kind, Christ-like Prince Myshkin discovers that a former mentor and dear friend has converted from Orthodoxy to Catholicism, and joined the Jesuit order to boot, Myshkin launches into an uncharacteristically harsh tirade, denouncing the Catholic Church as the secret enemy of Christianity and the true creator of Atheism. After establishing this baseline hatred of Catholics in general, Myshkin then insists that the Jesuits are the most extreme and worst of the lot. (This was [[AuthorFilibuster Dostoevsky's actual opinion]] to boot, and reflected [[WriteWhoYouKnow how he felt when one of his old friends became a Jesuit in real life]].)
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[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''[[Series/Shogun2024 Shogun]]'' depicts corrupt Jesuit priests scheming to colonize Japan for both Portugal and Catholic Church, and also growing rich by monopolizing trade with the remote island nation.
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[[folder:Music]]
* In Music/ModestMussorgsky's opera ''Boris Gudenov'', Polish princess Marina Mniszech is pressured by a Jesuit priest to marry [[UsefulNotes/TsarTsarAutocrats Russian Tsar]] [[PuppetKing False Demetrius I]] or else she will burn in hellfire.
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[[folder:Theater]]
* Shakespeare appears to take a veiled shot at Jesuits in ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', when after Duncan's murder there's a knock at the door answered by a porter, who plays up as though he's the keeper of the Gate to Hell "welcoming" condemned souls to hell. One of the condemned souls he mentions is an "equivocator" who committed treason and then found that he could not equivocate his way to Heaven. This is a reference to the real life Jesuit practice of "Mental Reservation", which is more commonly called equivocation, and the talk of treason is almost certainly a slam on one particular priest, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Garnet Henry Garnet]], who was convicted of and executed for treason around the same time Shakespeare was writing ''Macbeth'', and had also written a pamphlet in defense of equivocation. See the note for more details. [[note]]Garnet had knowledge of [[UsefulNotes/GuyFawkes the Gunpowder Plot]] before it happened, but since that information was revealed during a Confession, he did not go to the English authorities. Garnet had previously opposed any violent action towards the English crown despite their persecution of Catholics, so he tried to plead with the ringleader of the Gunpowder Plot to cancel the plans and wrote to Rome trying to get a papal order against violence in the hopes that would cause the plotters to stand down. Regardless, when the plot was found out by the authorities Garnet was given a show trial (which included his prosecutors blatantly lying about evidence and trying to connect Garnet to every act of rebellion against or insubordination to the crown over the course of decades), and then put to death.[[/note]]
-->'''Porter:''' Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell gate, he should have old turning the key. (Knock.) Knock, knock, knock! Who’s there, i’ th’ name of Beelzebub? Here’s a farmer that hanged himself on th’ expectation of plenty. Come in time! Have napkins enough about you; here you’ll sweat for ’t. (Knock.) Knock, knock! Who’s there, in th’ other devil’s name? Faith, here’s an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God’s sake yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come in, equivocator.
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[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'': The Jesuits were a [[AncientConspiracy secret Templar faction]] that supervised the introduction of Catholicism in the FarEast as a front to recruit more Templars among the converts.
* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' features the BigBad of the Shimousa story chapter, [[spoiler:an AlternateUniverse version of Amakusa Shirou, already [[JapaneseChristian Japan's most (in)famous Christian]],]] using "dark Jesuit sorcery" in order to create a curse. He applies this curse to Servants to corrupt them and [[ReforgedIntoAMinion turn them into his underlings]] with the goal of destroying all of Japan. [[spoiler:(Possibly subverted since it turns out that the magic he's using comes from a completely different source.)]]
* Downplayed in ''VideoGame/OnimushaDawnOfDreams'' with Luis Frois, a real-life Jesuit missionary that received HistoricalVillainUpgrade in the game by being turned into an MadScientist and a SinisterMinister. However, his ties with Jesuits aren't emphasized and it turns out [[spoiler:the reason he became evil after many admirable deeds throughout his is life is because he was possessed by a demon. The actual Luis was GoodAllAlong]].
* Averted in ''VideoGame/SidMeiersPirates'' where the Jesuit priests are actually pretty friendly and helpful, and can be turned to in order to earn a clemency from destroying flagships, and can initiate quests to pursue [[TheDragon Baron Raymondo]], holder of your captive family, for free.
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[[folder:Real Life]]
* The "Black Pope" is a derogatory term coined in Protestant European politics during the 16th century referring to the Superior General of the Society of Jesus. Often considered irredeemably evil by those who coined the term in the first place, the "Black Popes" were only as bad as their very human failings. A number were decent people overall, and were even, for their time, pretty much liberal-leaning.
* The Jesuits' philosophy of casuistry (case-based reasoning) came in for much criticism in its time, including by Catholics like the French philosopher Creator/BlaisePascal (a Jansenist). In particular, they were attacked for arguing that [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight deception (especially under oath) was not always wrong if it saved a life]]. This resulted from the cases of captured Jesuit missionaries who were forcibly sworn to tell the truth in court by Protestant authorities and then ordered to identify people who had harbored them-knowing that any person named would be put to death, as this was a capital crime. Thomas Sanchez, a famous Jesuit, therefore formulated the doctrine of mental reservation. In its strictest form, the person practicing this might answer "I know not" when asked a question, while internally they said "to tell you." Other philosophers did not accept that it was anything but simple lying. This doctrine was eventually condemned by the Pope after it had become scandalous, and tarred the Jesuits' reputation. [[{{Hypocrite}} Critics such as Pascal]] also [[ConfirmationBias ignored]] the restrictions Sanchez had placed on its use, attacking a [[TheWarOnStraw strawman]] version of it. The wider form of mental reservation, equivocating between words' meanings (for instance answering "I am not ''a'' priest" while thinking about some other priest), was still viewed as orthodox afterward. A similar form was saying misleading but technically true things, Catholic saints such as Athanasius of Alexandria having used it to save their lives: Athanasius' followers, according to legend, were asked by Roman soldiers pursuing him who did not know his appearance if they had seen him and they replied [[ExactWords "Yes, he is not very far off"]] when he was in their company at the time. Even now there is still debate in Catholic circles over whether this was lying, or if lies could be justified with cases like that. The stereotype of Jesuits using casuistry to be deceitful is also the origin of the word [[http://www.dictionary.com/browse/jesuitical “Jesuitical”,]] an archaic insult meaning “sneaky and untrustworthy”.
* Related to Rizal's novels above: the Jesuits' reputation zigzagged in the {{UsefulNotes/Philippines}} since the 19th century. The Jesuits were indeed affected by the expulsion due to their negative reputation throughout the Spanish Empire, but their return in the 19th century coincided with the emergence of nationalism, liberal values and civil rights. The products of their teaching (most notably alumni of the Ateneo de Manila) have by then emerged as intellectual and military leaders of the Philippine Revolution.
** Barring some generational gaps, Ateneo de Manila University since the 1960s has also been seen as a springboard for liberal (sometimes even left-leaning) politics--further supported by a) the University's espousal of Catholic social teaching (if not full-on liberation theology); and b) its proximity and institutional cooperation with the secular and activist University of the Philippines-Diliman. Ateneo de Manila (and by extension, the Philippine Jesuits) therefore have the curious reputation of being seen as liberal and more progressive compared to the rest of the Philippine Catholic hierarchy (especially in comparison to the Dominican-run University of Santo Tomas, and the conservative private schools run by Opus Dei).
* When Herbert Wehner (Social Democrat) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLFMvdgKgCk accused]] Franz Josef Strauß (Christian Conservative) of being "[[GodwinsLaw like Goebbels]]" when hearing the word "communist" he added [[InsultToRocks that Goebbels had at least been "jesuistically refined" about it]] no doubt trying to insult both at the same time, using this trope.
* Being a patriotic Protestant 17th-century Englishman, Creator/AndrewMarvell satirised the Jesuits -- so when he died suddenly, almost certainly of natural causes, contemporary gossip naturally suggested that ''they'' had got to him.
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