Early Jesuits openly recruited converts from Islam and Judaism

Evidence

In the initial two decades of its history, the Society of Jesus was quite open to converts from Islam (as well as from Judaism). There was nothing of the Old Christian exclusiveness that came to characterize Jesuit practice by the end of the century, and although we cannot say that Jesuits with Morisco blood were ever numerous, there was nothing exceptional or unusual in the early history of the order about such members as Ignacio de las Casas and Juan Albotodo. The society, through its colleges, deliberately set about fostering vocations among Moriscos. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1106

Categorization

• XREF: Contradicts modern popular image of the Jesuits as a monolithic Old Christian order — connects to the reader’s interest in religious institutions’ internal contradictions and identity politics.
• SEED: An article angle: how the Catholic Church briefly embraced Morisco clergy as evangelists before racial exclusivity won out — the lost alternative history of Iberian Islam.