Peculiarly echoing the ongoing “querelle des femmes”, the clerical polemic which developed around the catholic Institute founded in 1611 by Mary Ward (1585-1645) pondered whether these unusual missionary nuns could in fact be considered as Soldiers of God. Whereas their friends hailed them as saints and mystics of angelic virtue, their many enemies questioned the probity of these women, whom they viewed, by their very nature, as corrupted. Their novel vocation seemed evil rather than divinely inspired, and their deviance was believed to be illustrated in their Society of Jesus for women, which usurped clerical authority. In 1631, these arguments convinced Urban VIII, who eradicated the Institute, declaring it harmful to the Church.