Jē'sū-it, n.

n. [Fr. Jésuites, Sp. Jesuita, It. Gesuita.] 1. (Rom. Cath. Church.) One of a religious order founded by Ignatius Loyola, and approved in 1540, under the title of The Society of Jesus. The order consists of Scholars, who take vows simply of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and can leave the Society or be dismissed from it, and professed Priests, who also make the same three vows, but can not be dismissed from the Society, nor discharged from their obligations. The latter class is again divided into Spiritual Coadjutors, who have the care of souls, and Jesuits of the Four Vows, who add to the three obligations already mentioned a fourth vow of undertaking any missions to which they may be ordered by the proper authority, and from among whom missionaries are selected. The Society is governed by a General, elected for life by the General Congregation (or members of the order), which also nominates five assistants, who have power to convoke a General Congregation to depose the General if he transgresses the rules of the Society. The Society was first established in the United States in 1807, and the members of it are chiefly engaged in teaching or as missionaries. The Jesuits have displayed in their enterprises a high degree of zeal, learning, policy, and skill, but by their opponents have been generally reputed to use art and intrigue in promoting or accomplishing their purposes, whence the words Jesuit, Jesuitical, and the like, have acquired an odious and offensive sense. 2. A crafty person; an intriguer. Jesuits'-bark, Peruvian bark, or the bark of certain species of Cinchona;—so called because its medicinal properties were first made known in Europe by Jesuit missionaries to South America.—Jesuits'-nut, the fruit of a European aquatic plant of the genus Trapa (T. natans), containing an edible, farinaceous kernel resembling that of the chestnut.