How did the Society of Jesus develop and maintain a distinctive position on key questions of political thought such as ruler authority, the character and scope of positive law, the limits of obedience and the right to resist? Harro Hopfl presents a full-length study of the secular world—analyzed in its proper historical context—from a Jesuit perspective. Despite the significance of the Society of Jesus in Counter-Reformation Europe and beyond, important issues relating to the society's collective history remain misunderstood.