Iñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola (1491–1556) was the founder and first general of the Society of Jesus (1541–56), the Jesuits. As a Basque nobleman, Ignatius underwent a courtly-knightly education (1506–16), then served from 1518 as an officer of the viceroy of Navarre. On May 20, 1521, his leg was shattered during the French siege of Pamplona, and while recovering at Castle Loyola, he read religious writings (esp. the Vita Christi by Ludolf of Saxony, also biographies of saints) and experienced the initial religious turn of mind that would lead him to his future calling. …