Who were the Jesuits?

The Jesuits
(officially, the Society of Jesus)
were formed as sort of an elite order of Catholics who would
dedicate their
lives to promoting and preserving the Catholic faith.  They were particularly

interested in combatting the Protestant Reformation that was going on around the time
that they
were founded.

The Society of Jesus was founded
in 1540.  It was created by a
man named Ignatius Loyola who had been
a...