1542–1552
Spanish
The Letters
Francis Xavier · 1506–1552
Letters from India, the Moluccas, and Japan on baptisms, language difficulties, the failures of Portuguese colonists, and his plan to enter China.
Jesuit · Letters
1501–1600
The Sixteenth Century
8 works
dictated 1553–1555
Spanish
The Autobiography
Acta
Ignatius of Loyola · 1491–1556
Dictated reluctantly in the third person: the cannonball at Pamplona, the convalescent reading, the year at Manresa, the pilgrimage, and repeated arrests by the Inquisition.
Jesuit · Autobiography
1555–1558, in three sizes
Latin
The Catechisms
Peter Canisius · 1521–1597
Three catechisms for different ages, organised around wisdom and justice, and carefully phrased to answer Protestant teaching without naming it.
Jesuit · Catechism
c. 1547–1558
Spanish
The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus
Ignatius of Loyola · 1491–1556
A religious order without choir office, without a habit, and without enclosure, governed centrally and free to be sent anywhere in the world at short notice.
Jesuit · Rule
1588
Latin
The Concord of Free Will with Grace
Concordia
Luis de Molina · 1535–1600
A proposal that God knows what every free creature would do in any circumstance, and providentially arranges circumstances accordingly.
Jesuit · Theology
1590
Spanish
Natural and Moral History of the Indies
José de Acosta · 1540–1600
Geography, altitude sickness, silver mining, and Andean religion, with an early argument that the Americas were peopled by migration from Asia across a northern land bridge.
Jesuit · Natural history
1586–1593
Latin
Disputations on the Controversies of the Christian Faith
Robert Bellarmine · 1542–1621
A systematic survey of every disputed doctrine, stating Protestant positions accurately and at length before answering them.
Jesuit · Polemic
1597
Latin
Metaphysical Disputations
Disputationes Metaphysicae
Francisco Suárez · 1548–1617
The first metaphysics in the West organised by topic rather than as a commentary on Aristotle, covering being, essence, causation, and individuation.
Jesuit · Philosophy
1601–1700
The Seventeenth Century
4 works
1603
Chinese
The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven
Tianzhu Shiyi
Matteo Ricci · 1552–1610
A dialogue between a Western scholar and a Chinese one, arguing for God from classical Confucian texts and against Buddhist and Neo-Confucian positions.
Jesuit · Dialogue
1613
Latin
The Report on Indian Customs
Roberto de Nobili · 1577–1656
A defence of allowing Indian converts to keep the sacred thread, the tuft of hair, and caste observance, arguing these are social rather than religious signs.
Jesuit · Apologia
written to 1610; published 1615
Italian
On the Christian Expedition to China
Matteo Ricci · 1552–1610
An account of thirty years in China — learning the language, becoming a scholar in Chinese terms, the mathematics that opened doors, and the slow gathering of converts.
Jesuit · Memoir
begun 1643; still in progress
Latin
Acts of the Saints
Acta Sanctorum
Jean Bolland and the Bollandists
A critical edition of the lives of the saints arranged by feast day, with the sources weighed and the legendary material identified as such.
Jesuit · Hagiography