Book excerpt: "On September 27, 1540, an international band of ten young priests led by Ignatius of Loyola received from Pope Paul III...official approval for their new religious order, the Society of Jesus. The new order grew at an amazing pace....By the year of its centenary, 1640, the Society could boast remarkable achievements....Not surprisingly, therefore, in 1640, Jesuit provinces around the world entered enthusiastically into celebration of the centenary....This, then, was the occasion for publication at Antwerp by the Jesuits of the Flemish province of the Imago primi saeculi Societatis Iesu."--Page 11.