Ignatius of Loyola, along with the circumstances surrounding the origins of the Society of Jesus, was seen as a defender of a kind of “heterodoxy.” Accused of being one of the “alumbrados,” i.e., a sect repudiated by the InquisitionInquisition, more than once, Loyola was persecuted by the Holy OfficeHoly Office, and saw the Spiritual Exercises subjected to inquisitorial criticism.