the credit of the Society, and he was sued by the creditors. Losing
his cause, he appealed to the parlement of Paris, and it, to
decide the issue raised by Ricci, required the constitutions of the
Jesuits to be produced in evidence, and affirmed the judgment of
the courts below. But the publicity given to a document scarcely
known till then raised the utmost indignation against the Society.
A royal commission, appointed by the duc de Choiseul to examine
the constitutions, convoked a private assembly of fifty-one archbishops
and bishops under the presidency of Cardinal de Luynes,
all of whom except six voted that the unlimited authority of the
general was incompatible with the laws of France, and that the
appointment of a resident vicar, subject to those laws, was the
only solution of the question fair on all sides. Ricci replied with
the historical answer, Sint ut sunt, aut non sint; and after some
further delay, during which much interest was exerted in their
favour, the Jesuits were suppressed by an edict in November
1764, but suffered to remain on the footing of secular priests,
a grace withdrawn in 1767, when they were expelled from the
kingdom. In the very same year, Charles III. of Spain, a
monarch known for personal devoutness, convinced, on evidence
not now forthcoming, that the Jesuits were plotting against his
authority, prepared, through his minister D’Aranda, a decree
suppressing the Society in every part of his dominions. Sealed
despatches were sent to every Spanish colony, to be opened on
the same day, the 2nd of April 1767, when the measure was to
take effect in Spain itself, and the expulsion was relentlessly
carried out, nearly six thousand priests being deported from
Spain alone, and sent to the Italian coast, whence, however, they
were repelled by the orders of the pope and Ricci himself, finding
a refuge at Corte in Corsica, after some months’ suffering in overcrowded
vessels at sea. The general’s object may probably have
been to accentuate the harshness with which the fathers had been
treated, and so to increase public sympathy, but the actual result
of his policy was blame for the cruelty with which he enhanced
their misfortunes, for the poverty of Corsica made even a bare
subsistence scarcely procurable for them there. The Bourbon
courts of Naples and Parma followed the example of France and
Spain; Clement XIII. retorted with a bull launched at the
weakest adversary, and declaring the rank and title of the duke
of Parma forfeit. The Bourbon sovereigns threatened to make
war on the pope in return (France, indeed, seizing on the county
of Avignon), and a joint note demanding a retractation, and the
abolition of the Jesuits, was presented by the French ambassador
at Rome on the 10th of December 1768 in the name of France,
Spain and the two Sicilies. The pope, a man of eighty-two, died
of apoplexy, brought on by the shock, early in 1769. Cardinal
Lorenzo Ganganelli, a conventual Franciscan, was chosen to
succeed him, and took the name of Clement XIV. He endeavoured
to avert the decision forced upon him, but, as Portugal
joined the Bourbon league, and Maria Theresa with her son the
emperor Joseph II. ceased to protect the Jesuits, there remained
only the petty kingdom of Sardinia in their favour, though the fall
of Choiseul in France raised the hopes of the Society for a time.
The pope began with some preliminary measures, permitting
first the renewal of lawsuits against the Society, which had been
suspended by papal authority, and which, indeed, had in no case
been ever successful at Rome. He then closed the Collegio
Romano, on the plea of its insolvency, seized the houses at
Frascati and Tivoli, and broke up the establishments in Bologna
and the Legations. Finally on the 21st of July 1773 the famous
breve Dominus ac Redemptor appeared, suppressing the Society of
Jesus. This remarkable document opens by citing a long series
of precedents for the suppression of religious orders by the Holy
See, amongst which occurs the ill-omened instance of the
Templars. It then briefly sketches the objects and history of
the Jesuits themselves. It speaks of their defiance of their own
constitution, expressly revived by Paul V., forbidding them to
meddle in politics; of the great ruin to souls caused by their
quarrels with local ordinaries and the other religious orders, their
condescension to heathen usages in the East, and the disturbances,
resulting in persecutions of the Church, which they had stirred
up even in Catholic countries, so that several popes had been
obliged to punish them. Seeing then that the Catholic sovereigns
had been forced to expel them, that many bishops and other
eminent persons demanded their extinction, and that the Society
had ceased to fulfil the intention of its institute, the pope declares
it necessary for the peace of the Church that it should be suppressed,
extinguished, abolished and abrogated for ever, with
all its houses, colleges, schools and hospitals; transfers all the
authority of its general or officers to the local ordinaries; forbids
the reception of any more novices, directing that such as were
actually in probation should be dismissed, and declaring that
profession in the Society should not serve as a title to holy orders.
Priests of the Society are given the option of either joining other
orders or remaining as secular clergy, under obedience to the
ordinaries, who are empowered to grant or withhold from them
licences to hear confessions. Such of the fathers as are engaged
in the work of education are permitted to continue, on condition
of abstaining from lax and questionable doctrines apt to cause
strife and trouble. The question of missions is reserved, and the
relaxations granted to the Society in such matters as fasting,
reciting the hours and reading heretical books, are withdrawn;
while the breve ends with clauses carefully drawn to bar any
legal exceptions that might be taken against its full validity and
obligation. It has been necessary to cite these heads of the breve
because the apologists of the Society allege that no motive
influenced the pope save the desire of peace at any price, and that
he did not believe in the culpability of the fathers. The categorical
charges made in the document rebut this plea. The pope
followed up this breve by appointing a congregation of cardinals
to take possession of the temporalities of the Society, and armed
it with summary powers against all who should attempt to
retain or conceal any of the property. He also threw Lorenzo
Ricci, the general, into prison, first in the English college and
then in the castle of St Angelo, where he died in 1775, under the
pontificate of Pius VI., who, though not unfavourable to the
Society, and owing his own advancement to it, dared not release
him, probably because his continued imprisonment was made a
condition by the powers who enjoyed a right of veto in papal
elections. In September 1774 Clement XIV. died after much
suffering, and the question has been hotly debated ever since
whether poison was the cause of his death. But the latest researches
have shown that there is no evidence to support the
theory of poison. Salicetti, the pope’s physician, denied that
the body showed signs of poisoning, and Tanucci, Neapolitan
ambassador at Rome, who had a large share in procuring
the breve of suppression, entirely acquits the Jesuits, while
F. Theiner, no friend to the Society, does the like.
At the date of this suppression, the Society had 41 provinces and 22,589 members, of whom 11,295 were priests. Far from submitting to the papal breve, the ex-Jesuits, after some ineffectual attempts at direct resistance, withdrew into the territories of the free-thinking sovereigns of Russia and Prussia, Frederick II. and Catherine II., who became their active friends and protectors; and the fathers alleged as a principle, in so far as their theology is concerned, that no papal bull is binding in a state whose sovereign has not approved and authorized its publication and execution. Russia formed the headquarters of the Society, and two forged breves were speedily circulated, being dated June 9 and June 29, 1774, approving their establishment in Russia, and implying the repeal of the breve of suppression. But these are contradicted by the tenor of five genuine breves issued in September 1774 to the archbishop of Gnesen, and making certain assurances to the ex-Jesuits, on condition of their complete obedience to the injunctions already laid on them. The Jesuits also pleaded a verbal approbation by Pius VI., technically known as an Oraculum vivae vocis, but this is invalid for purposes of law unless reduced to writing and duly authenticated.
They elected three Poles successively as generals, taking, however, only the title of vicars, till on the 7th of March 1801 Pius VII. granted them liberty to reconstitute themselves in north Russia, and permitted Kareu, then vicar, to exercise full authority as general. On the 30th of July 1804 a similar breve restored the Jesuits in the Two Sicilies, at the express desire of Ferdinand IV.,
