[f. as prec. + -ISM: cf. F. jésuitisme.]
1. The system, doctrine, principles or practice of the Jesuits.
1609. Bp. W. Barlow, Answ. Nameless Cath., 254. It is one point of Iesuitisme.
1817. Lady Morgan, France, V. (1818), II. 49. In their contests on Jansenism and Jesuitism.
1862. Max Müller, Chips (1880), I. ix. 185. Even Christianity has been depraved into Jesuitism and Mormonism.
2. Principles or practice of such a character as those ascribed to the Jesuits; Jesuitry.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1864), 54. After this they tried experiments: First by poyson, and this was the Iesuites Iesuitisme.
1838. Fraser’s Mag., XVIII. 751. A piece of Protestant jesuitism, quite worthy of Loyola.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea (1876), I. xii. 193. The mere inverted Jesuitism, of a man resolved to do good in order that evil might come.
3. A Jesuitical quibble or equivocation. rare.
1749. Bp. Lavington, Enthus. Method. & Papists (1754), I. II. xxxiii. Be open and sincere, consistent and uniform. Affect not Jesuitisms.
1781. S. A. Peters, Hist. Conn., 289. I hope Mr. Neal did not mean to quibble, as the New-Englanders generally do, by a jesuitism, viz. that religion is peaceable and admits not of quarrels.
