Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus, but it was his successors who cemented the order's place in history.

In The Second Jesuits, Thomas Flowers, S.J., argues that the Society of Jesus's survival and global identity depended on its second generation, a group of twenty men he labels the "Second Jesuits." Following the death of Ignatius in 1556, the order entered a period of profound vulnerability because its constitutions had not yet been approved and formally promulgated. At this critical juncture, they faced immense pressure from Pope Paul IV and other ecclesial authorities to take on a traditional vision of religious life. Had they succumbed, the Jesuits would have lost the flexible, mobile character that defined their mission.

Flowers reveals how leaders like Peter Canisius, Jerónimo Doménech, and Jerónimo Nadal fiercely resisted ecclesiastical pressures to preserve the Society's core principle of universal availability. With the goal of developing a deeper understanding of the Society, The Second Jesuits reimagines early Jesuit history not just as a transition of power, but as a story of how a "charismatic fellowship" was forged into a resilient, global institution. Flowers shows that the Jesuits survived not by following the rules of the past but by having the courage to remain distinct in order to serve a changing world.