July 21, 1550

Society of Jesus

Julius III confirms the revised Jesuit Institute

The famous sixty-man ceiling was not lifted by the bull commemorated on this date. It had already disappeared years earlier.

21 July 1550: Exposcit debitum

Pope Julius III issued Exposcit debitum on 21 July 1550, giving another papal confirmation to the Society of Jesus and approving its revised Formula of the Institute.

After ten years of practical experience and successive papal privileges, Ignatius and his companions had sought a clearer, updated formulation of the Society's purpose, membership and government from the new pope.

This was a second confirmation. Paul III had approved the Society with Regimini militantis Ecclesiae on 27 September 1540; Julius III did not found it.

What the revised Formula said

The revised formula described the Society's principal purpose as the defence and propagation of the faith and the advancement of Christian life and doctrine — through preaching, lectures, the Spiritual Exercises, education, confession and other ministries.

It also named reconciliation and service in prisons and hospitals among the Society's ministries, to be performed without accepting payment.

And it reaffirmed the professed Jesuits' special obedience to papal missions, including readiness to be sent to distant regions or among non-Catholics.

The cap was already gone

Paul III's 1540 formula had limited the Society to sixty persons. Exposcit debitum did not newly remove that restriction.

Paul III had already authorized admissions without numerical limit in Iniunctum nobis — printed as 14 March 1543 in some histories, and as "(1543) 1544" in the Society's own modern Constitutions, because of the historical Incarnation-year dating convention.

Either way, the sixty-member restriction was gone years before July 1550.

Sources

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What the sources leave uncertain

The date and identity of Exposcit debitum are secure.
Iniunctum nobis is printed as 14 March 1543 in some histories and as “(1543) 1544” in the Society’s official modern Constitutions because of the historical Incarnation-year dating convention. Either way, the sixty-member restriction was gone years before July 1550.