Anti-Jesuitism in a Global Perspective

Until recently anti-Jesuitism was considered to be exclusively related to controversies having to do with the existence of the Society of Jesus and was therefore studied as the key to understanding disputes between the antagonists and apologists of that religious order. In recent years, however, it has become a historiographical argument to all intents and purposes. Several studies have highlighted its semantic versatility and the consequent need to study it from different perspectives: historical diachronic, literary, rhetorical, iconographic. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze anti-Jesuitism in a global perspective studying its transnational dimension, looking not only at Europe but also at colonial contexts—Latin America and Asian.