Jesus, Society of: Suppression and Restoration

The Jesuits eventually became the object of criticism from vested ecclesiastical interests in every Catholic state. The Gallican party in France (see Gallicanism), being antipapal, was naturally anti-Jesuit. The polemics of Blaise Pascal and the Jansenists (see under Jansen, Cornelis) against Jesuit casuistry and alleged laxity in confessional practice were damaging. Through their loyalty to papal policies, the Jesuits were drawn into the struggle between the papacy and the Bourbon monarchies.

Before the middle of the 18th cent. a combination of publicists (including Voltaire) and the absolute monarchs of Catholic Europe undertook to destroy them. In 1759 the Jesuits were expelled from Portugal and its colonies, France suppressed them in 1764, and in 1767 the Spanish dominions were closed to them. Pope Clement XIII denounced these acts, but, in 1773, Clement XIV, under the coercion of the Bourbon monarchs and of some of his own cardinals, dissolved the order, and the Society of Jesus ceased to exist in the Catholic world.

Frederick the Great and Catherine the Great refused to publish the brief suppressing them, and the Jesuits continued to exist in Prussia and Russia, especially as educators. As the 18th cent. drew to a close Catholic Europe, especially Italy, began to ask for restoration of the Jesuits, and, in 1814, Pius VII reestablished them as a world order.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Suppression and Restoration
• Missions in Asia and the Americas
• The Order's Beginnings
• The Modern Order
• Bibliography

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