Loyola's acts

by Marjorie O'Rourke Boyle

In this revisionist study of the Acta of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus and a major figure of the Counterreformation, Marjorie O'Rourke Boyle argues that the text - revered by the Jesuits as his autobiography and considered a literal, documentary account - is, rather, epideictic rhetoric, an exemplary mirror of vainglory. Written in the tradition of renaissance studies on individualism, Loyola's Acts offers a powerful heuristic for interpreting a wide range of texts within the Christian tradition from the patristic to the baroque ages. Boyle's secular treatment of a canonized saint offers revealing insight into how a prestigious sixteenth-century figure like Loyola understood himself. Thus, Loyola's text becomes a fascinating window through which Boyle interprets and illuminates renaissance culture, rhetoric, and spirituality.