St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J. (1542-1621), Doctor of the Church, wrote A Treatise on Blind Obedience (1588) in order to defend St. Ignatius of Loyola's teaching on the perfection of obedience which is called "blind obedience". Drawing on the Sacred Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church, and the great founders of religious orders, Bellarmine demonstrates that the perfection of religious obedience is blind obedience.