Early modern variations on the theme of complicity : How Jesuits came to be linked with regicide

In the long history of anti-Jesuitism, the accusation that the Society of Jesus endorsed assassination and used it as a means to pursue its goals hardened into one of the recurring topoi that were repeatedly invoked to malign the order. However, the Society was clearly not born with this stigma. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how in the late sixteen and early seventeenth centuries an interplay of political events and doctrinal statements arose whose cumulative effect was to brand the Society with a reputation for approving the principle and abetting the practice of killing kings.