A Catholic order that organized many schools in Ireland. The Jesuits were characterized as skilled equivocators, using craftiness to answer unanswerable religious questions and also protecting the order during the time it was suppressed by the Pope. Stephen has been taught by Jesuits; Mulligan fears his subtle intellect, which often allows him to provide answers through roundabout logic (see his discussion of Hamlet, mentioned later in this episode and explored more fully in the episode Scylla and Charybdis).
