The member must obey his superior "like a corpse which can be turned this way or that, or a rod that follows every impulse, or a ball of wax that might be moulded in any form." The ideal was an old one; the famous _perinde ac cadaver_ itself dates back to Francis of Assisi, but nowhere had the ideal been so completely realized as by the companions of Ignatius.

In fact, in this as in other respects, the {405} Jesuits were but a natural culmination of the evolution of monasticism.

More and more had the orders tended to become highly disciplined, unified bodies, apt to be used for the service of the church and of the pope.
[Sidenote: Growth] The growth of the society was extraordinarily rapid.

By 1544 they had nine establishments, two each in Italy, Spain and Portugal and one each in France, Germany and the Netherlands.

When Loyola [Sidenote: July 31, 1556] died Jesuits could be found in Japan and Brazil, in Abyssinia and on the Congo; in Europe they were in almost every country and included doctors at the largest universities and papal nuncios to Poland and Ireland.