formula of the Institute

After the story of one person, in the autobiography

And the life of the group; with one incident of that life: the deliberation

We have the first sketch of the SJ, prima SJ summa

1539, November, approval verbally by the pope

Formal approval

1540: Bull Regimini militantis ecclesiae (“On the Supremacy of the Church Militant”)

1540 – 1556: Ignatius writing the constitutions

Formal approval

1550: Bull Exposcit Debitum (“The Duty requires”)

Significance of the Formula

The formula is the rule of the Society; it corresponds to what the legislation of the old religious orders called the Rule. The Society endorsed this view in GC V (1593-1594), XXVII (1923) and XXXI (1965-66).

Ignatius: ‘this Rule of Ours’. A kind of Sketch of ‘our profession’, the principal features of the Institute. The formula are explained in the Constitutions.

• The Constitutions and Comp. Norms,

IJS, 1996, p.3-14.

•W.Barry, p. 9 – 14, 2005, third ed.

•A. de Jaer, p.7-8, 10, 2001

•Aldama, A commentary on the formula

of the Institute, 1990