This study of the work of the Society of Jesus in the British Isles during the 16th century begins with the brief papal missions to Ireland (1541) and Scotland (1562), and then goes on to cover the foundation of a permanent mission to England (1580) and the failure of the Spanish Armada in 1588. The activities of the Jesuits are set within a wider European context, and within the framework of the Society's "Constitutions", which show how flexibly they adapted their "way of proceeding" to the religious and political circumstances of the British Isles, and to the demands of the counter-Reformation.
