jesuits

SUMMARY OF THE SUPPRESSION AND RESTORATION OF OUR SOCIETY
The Mounting Antagonism: Why target the Society?
Infidel Philosophy: It was called the “Age of Reason/Enlightenment” which used ridicule, criticism, caricature against revealed religion. A general feeling in Europe: “Shake off the yoke of Rome!” Aim: the eradication of the Catholic Church.
Step I: Down with the Society! Church and Society were seen as blocks to Reason…
Voltaire: “Once we have destroyed the Jesuits we shall have easy work with the Pope.”
“We shall have a good hand against the detestable thing.”
The Jesuits were called “the bodyguard of the Pope”, “the terror of the whole Protestant world”. Thus their enemies honoured them.
Viviani: “Our war is not against the Church, nor against Christianity, but against God.”
Preachers softened the message of Christianity. In this craze to be “modern”, even monks demolished treasures of medieval art – “the treason of the clerks”.
2, History shows the Society to have been a very vibrant Order.
Msgr. Ronald Knox listed St. Ignatius as one of the 6 greatest men ever. And R. Fulop Miller writes: “Since the dawn of history few men have exerted such a profound influence
upon the thought and action of mankind as Ignatius of Loyola did.” Jesuits spread all over the world as missionaries, preachers, teachers, theologians, retreat directors, apostles of social justice, martyrs of charity etc. etc.. An artist: One world was not enough for them! Missionary zeal was such that vgr. in Portugal out of a total of 1750 in the Province, 900 were in the missions. Pope Gregory in 1581: “There is today no single instrument raised up by God vs. heretics greater than your holy Order.”
Pope Paul VI in 1974: “Wherever in the Church, even in the most difficult and extreme fields, in the crossroads of ideologies, in the frontline of social conflict, there has been and there is confrontation between the deepest desires of man and the perennial message of the Gospel, there also there have been, and there are JESUITS!”
Great influence of Jesuit Educational Institutions: The first School of the Society was started in Messina in 1548. Within 50 years there were 250 Schools and Colleges spread all over the world – and these totally gratis. Jesuits were called “The School Masters of Europe.”
The Society was an ever increasing Order: Whilst vocations dropped drastically in other Orders in the 18th. Cen. (vgr. 50 Cistercian monasteries were closed down), the Society increased by 2500 in 40 years (1710 to 1750) to reach 22,500.
The Malabar Rites:The pioneer of inculturation was Fr. Roberto de Nobili, in India from 1605 to 1656. Seeing that Christians were associated with the despised farangis, he adopted the dress, manners, customs and austerities of the sanyasis, becoming a pandit of Tamil, Telegu, Sanskrit and the Vedas. Soon Brahmins flocked to him. Then de Nobili sought dispensation from the use of saliva and breathing at Baptism, as something highly repugnant to Indians, and acceptance of customs of the caste system, such as the use of sandal paste, the cord, the shendi, sandals and ablutions for Brahmins. His explanation: an ancient civilization could not be changed overnight. De Nobili and the Jesuits were condemned, even by some Jesuits and subsequent Superiors. But his Provincial Laerzio defended him stoutly. So also was he supported by Gen. Claude Acquaviva, the Archbishops of Cranganore and Goa, the King as well as the Chief Inquisitor of Portugal, the President of the Papal Commission, and, above all, Popes Paul V and Gregory XV, who issued the Apostolic Constitution Romanae Sedis Antistes on 31st. January 1623, approving the Rites. De Nobili baptized more than 4000 Brahmins. In 1626 De Nobili baptized a priest among the lower caste. Eventually he established the Pandaraswamis, who would cater exclusively to the low caste. The first was Jesuit Baltasar da Costa, who bored the lobes of his ears in July 1640 and became a Pandaraswamy. He was later followed, among others, by St. John de Britto, in India from 1674 to 1693 as a Pandaraswamy. De Nobili suffered persecution from Catholic fundamentalists as well as Hindu fanatics, who burnt his ashram. In spite of age and blindness he dictated a complete and revised edition of all his writings, amounting to 20 volumes! The final statement that he dictated was : “It is my wish that all I have written in Tamil, Telegu and Sanskrit should be in conformity with the mind of our holy Mother, the Roman Catholic Church… San Thome, 6th. January 1656.” Ten days later he was dead at the age of 79.
Storms continued. The Pope sent 33 years old Legate, de Tournon. During the 8
months he stayed in Pondicherry in 1704, he never went round the missions, but got
information from critics who visited him, vgr. the Capuchin missionaries, of whom only
one is supposed to have known Tamil. Two days before sailing for China, without
giving the Jesuits a hearing, he condemned the rites. Clement XI confirmed the
decisions of his legate. The rites were again condemned by Innocent XIII in 1734 and
1739 and by Benedict XIV in 1744, this last, however, allowing the omission of saliva
and breathing at Baptism. The condemnation was a grievous blow to the Madurai
Mission. Christians, who numbered 300,000 at the time, rapidly declined to an
insignificant minority, as thousands deserted this religion associated with the despised
foreigners, and which was destroying all that they had held sacred from time immemorial.
The Chinese Rites: The great Matteo Ricci, fulfilled Francis Xavier’s dream when he entered China in 1583. He and those Jesuits who followed were highly respected for their proficiency in Language, Art, Science, Astronomy, Mathematics, Music, Medicine, the reform of the Calendar etc. and even for making weapons of war. Matteo Ricci was the first foreigner to be granted permanent residence, and the first non-royal to be buried in the Imperial City when he died in 1610. In 1692 Emperor Kang Hsi gave permission to preach and convert to Christianity all over China. But storms began gathering…
The trouble was chiefly due to (i) the Jesuits’ use of ‘Tien’ and ‘Shangti’ for God, as best conveyors of our idea of God; (ii) the Jesuits allowing their Christians to participate in the ceremonies of veneration of Confucius and of their ancestors, despite the Emperor’s declaration that these were only civic in character, the offering of candles, incense, food and money were only a question of respect, courtesy, “a demonstration of filial piety, which contained no petition for help. Nor do we believe that the souls of the dead reside in the tablets, they are but symbols that serve to remember them”;
(iii) other rites and customs of dress, etc..
Propaganda listened to critics who had never bothered to make a deep study of the language, culture, social customs, rites, rituals etc., and condemned the Jesuits…. The same de Tournon ordered the Jesuits in January 1707 to condemn the Chinese Rites. Immediately the Emperor ordered him out of the country. Jesuits blamed. The Society’s enemies said “the arm of the Church” might well be amputated for the good of the whole… They must be eradicated. It was an emotional rather than a faith problem. Jesuits were portrayed as traitors who put Confucius before Christ, allowed pagan worship, and amassed large fortunes… It was most distressing for men who had sacrificed all for the Faith. Of 600 since Ricci’s entry, 500 Jesuits had lost their lives for the faith in China…
In 1719 another Papal Legate came to China. After investigations he declared to the Jesuits that he not only had nothing negative about them, but showered the highest praises for and concessions to the Jesuits. Once in Rome, however, he discovered, along with other Bishops, that it was unpopular to side with the Jesuits… (influence of the anti-Jesuit Paris Foreign Mission Society, the Jansenists, etc..). So, he too condemned the Society! And so, on 13th. Sept. 1723, Propaganda blamed Jesuits for disobedience. The Pope imposed a punishment: no more novices to be admitted in China, and no more missionaries to the Far East… The following year the Pope died, and the next Pope removed the ban on Novices. On 5th. July 1742, however, Pope Benedict XIV in his “Ex quo singulari” rejected the Chinese Rites… Immediately, most missionaries were expelled, and most of the Chinese abandoned Christianity… In 1650, (a period of less than 70 years since Ricci’s entry) there were 150,000 Catholics; in 1742: 300,000 in a population of 140.000.00. It was only in 1939 that Pope Pius XII cancelled the condemnation of the Chinese and Malabar Rites, and accepted that these were social rather than religious…. But, by then irreparable damage had already been done….
The Paraguay Reductions were large settlements of up to 10,000 residents, started in 1610, chiefly for the defence of the poor natives against the “Paulistas”, and their all-round progress and the preservation of the faith, spread over territory now in Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. The pioneer was St. Roch Gonzalez, who later had two more canonized companions, SS. John del Castillo and Alphonsus Rodriguez. All three died martyrs in November 1628. The Jesuits taught the natives self-defence agriculture, masonry, carpentry, the fine arts, music, the 3 Rs. Etc.. Ultimately there were 57 Reductions. Voltaire called these “a triumph of humanity”, and G. K. Chesterton “The Lost Paradise”. In 1637 Spain gave permission for arms. Enemies came up with accusations of “a Jesuit kingdom” with a powerful army. The War of the 7 Reductions started in 1757 when 30,000 natives were ordered to leave their homes in Portuguese territories of Paraguay and Brazil to Spanish territory of Argentina, from East of the River Uruguay to West. It was a totally unjust and impractical order, with a compensation of 4000 pesos being given for each village worth millions. Naturally they revolted. Carvalho published his work: “A Brief Account of the Republic founded by the Jesuits and their War against the Two Crowns”… But, when the Jesuits were expelled in 1759, the Portuguese did not find the “gold mines” of the Jesuits…. Wrote Voltaire: “When the Paraguay Missions left the hands of the Jesuits, the natives had arrived at what is perhaps the highest degree of civilization to which it is possible to lead a young people.”
Rationalism, Gallicanism, Jansenism, Bourbon pride and Church politics
all these conspired to destroy the Society of Jesus.
PORTUGAL (20th. April 1759)
The chief architect of the suppression of the Society in Portugal was Sebastiao Jose de Carvalho e Mello, later made the Marques de Pombal. He was jealous of Jesuit influence and intent on the destruction of the Church, wanting a Church subordinate to the State. “I shall show the Bourbons how to negotiate with Rome.” His brother was governor in S. America. Furious that the Jesuits wrote to the Queen Mother a bad report about his brother, he bided his time.
On November 1, 1755 an earthquake razed three quarters of Lisbon, killing 20,000 people. With 200 of the Society helping out tirelessly, the Jesuits emerged heroes. Fr. Gabriele Malagrida thundered from the pulpit that Portugal was being punished by God for its sins especially in the colonies. He was removed from the capital. On September 19, 1757 no Jesuit was permitted in the court, and Portugal demanded of Pope Benedict XIV the end of Jesuit disobedience, and greed for gold, land and power! (Contrary to earlier Governor’s report). A few days later, on October 2, 1757, Gen. Luigi Centurione died. Portugal insisted on action by the Pope who was also dying.
On April 1, 1758, Cardinal Francisco Saldanha, cousin of Carvalho, was appointed Papal Visitor. On May 3, the Pope died. On May 21, Fr. Lorenzo Ricci became General. Benedict XIV had ordered Saldanha to make a proper and charitable visitation, to keep findings secret to be given only to the Pope, and to be gentle with the Jesuits because of the Society’s great contribution to the Church. Yet, on May 31, Saldanha began the visitation by briefly meeting the Community of the Professed House in Lisbon, and left immediately. 5 days later he “disclosed” that every Jesuit house under Portuguese rule (in Europe, America, Asia and Africa) was a scandalous money-making house!! The Papal Nuncio congratulated Saldanha on an excellent document save “for one slight omission” – no evidence! And, without evidence this was calumny. But even after 10 months Saldanha had no evidence to give… The Archbishop of Bahia was deposed by Carvalho because he refused to be a signatory to Saldanha’s document. The Patriarch of Lisbon was forced by Carvalho to withdraw the faculties of Jesuits. He resigned and died 3 days later. On 5th. July, 1758,
Clement XIII was elected Pope.
On September 3, 1758 an attempt was made on the King’s life. Carvalho conducted “investigations” for 3 months. On December 13 the Duke of Aveiro, the Marquises of Tavora and their families were arrested as authors of the attempt. One month later they were cruelly tortured and brutally executed. On the same 13th December Jesuits were accused as co-conspirators… Troops surrounded all Jesuit houses “to protect the Jesuits from the fury of the people”. In effect they were under house arrest. On 11th. January 1759 Fr. Malagrida and 9 other prominent Jesuits were arrested. The next day they were sentenced. 8 days later the King ordered all Jesuit property confiscated. 3 months later, on 20th. April 1759 all Jesuits were exiled as rebels and traitors, and stripped of their rights of citizenship. Sheltering them, if they returned in disguise, was punishable by death. In a pastoral letter Saldanha warned the people to have nothing to do with the Jesuits. His visitation had failed because they refused to reform… But the Inquisition denounced the charges as false and baseless. 250 Bishops all over the world paid glowing tributes to the Society. Many Cardinals entreated the Pope, but he was helpless. Those without final vows, as well as Novices, were told they could remain in Portugal if they left the Society… Relatives were brought in as emotional pressure. They were threatened with abandonment in the jungles of Africa. But Coimbra was indicative of the general response. Out of 300 in the Province, of whom 145 were Scholastics, only 3 left the Society… And out of a total of 1750 only about 250… They were marched to exile on hungry stomachs, crammed in the hold of ships in inhuman conditions and sent off to the Papal States. Commented the Pope: “They have also proved how much more efficacious is divine grace than any human power.” Despite the sudden midnight operation, the whole city turned up to bid them good-bye.
The Italian Jesuits were exemplary in their fraternal care of them. They cut down their own food and sold valuables of their houses to lodge and feed them. It was then that Fr. General Ricci asked dispensation from the Pope to accept Mass stipends. Many other Orders also helped.
In 1760 Portugal snapped ties with Rome. A big volume appeared: Portugal had been so prosperous; with the coming of the Jesuits began the great decline… About 850 Jesuit missionaries in Africa, India, Macao and S. America were deported. This had a crippling effect not only on innumerable works run by Jesuits, but on the Church itself. Of 142 who sailed from India, after handing over the body of Francis Xavier to Dominicans, 23 died en route. Back in Lisbon they were not allowed to be seen by relatives, but either deported or thrown into dungeons. Ultimately over 200 Jesuits were stuffed in the dark and damp dungeons of San Julian. The French and Austrian Governments got release of their nationals. The rest were tortured. 79 died in prison; many went mad; only 60 survived. Old Fr. Malagrida was thrown into a dungeon, cruelly tortured, unfairly tried by a tribunal presided over by Carvalho’s brother, and finally, on 21st. September 1761, brutally hanged and burnt to ashes, which were thrown into the sea. Clement XIII hailed him as a martyr. 100 years later Portugal erected a monument in his honour.
Twenty-two years later, on 3rd. April 1781, the Portuguese Supreme Court passed a revised sentence. “We declare that all those, either living or dead, who had been imprisoned or executed in virtue of the sentence of January 12, 1759, were absolutely innocent.” Pombal lost power and became the most hated man in Portugal. He was found guilty and condemned – but died of leprosy in May 1782. His corpse lay unburied for 32 years, till the Society he had crushed was restored. One of the first things the Jesuits did on their return to Portugal was to say a Requiem for their quondam enemy and to bury his mortal remains….
F R A N C E
Fr. Antoine Lavalette, Superior of the Mission of Martinique, despite Provincial’s and General’s orders, ventured into illicit business – and ran into colossal debts. At first the French Jesuits generously tried to empty their own coffers to pay Lavalette’s debts, but in 1757 the New Provincial, seeing that the burden of over 1,500,000 livres was an unbearable burden, argued that according to our Constitutions each house’s assets and liabilities were its own, and so suspended payments to the creditors. One of them filed a suit with the courts of Marseilles and Paris, which ruled in January 1760 that the Jesuits in Paris had to pay all debts. Then the Jesuits appealed to Parliament, which asked for a copy of the Constitutions. On 8th. May 1761 Parliament ruled that the Jesuits had to pay 1,502,000 livres plus 50,000 livres for interests and damages. Then it shelved the Lavalette case and mounted an attack on the Society.
Parliament condemned the Constitutions as responsible for wrong moral and political doctrine, and because they taught blind obedience to a man in Rome. A copy was burned , along with the works of 24 Jesuits, including St. Robert Bellarmine! They condemned the Papal Bulls and declarations re. the Society. No novices were to be admitted. No Jesuit Schools to run by 1st. April, 1762. Again several Bishops spoke strongly for the Society, that they found the Constitutions unobjectionable and Jesuit doctrine orthodox.
In 1762 the King and friends tried to get the Jesuits to sign a declaration that was a hotchpotch of religious and political beliefs, including refusal of obedience to the General in anything vs. French laws, the Superiority of the Council over the Pope etc.. The new Provincial made some changes and signed… For this he received a scathing reprimand from General and Pope. Then some politicians asked for a separate, independent Vicar-General for France. Ricci refused. The Pope supported the General: “Sint ut sunt aut non sint!”
Parliament published a thick volume of 758 falsified quotations entitled: “Extracts from the Dangerous and Pernicious Assertions of Every Kind Maintained at All Times by the So-called Jesuits”… Historian Dollinger was at a loss at which to wonder more – the dishonesty of the authors or their audacity. The Society was accused of being against the Church and State, of sedition, treachery, heresy, idolatry, superstition, of teaching suicide, homicide, regicide, sacrilege, robbery, impurity, usury, magic, cruelty, hatred, vengeance… However, to the defence of the Jesuits sprang one of their own, Voltaire himself. “What did I see in the 7 years I lived in the Jesuits’ College? The most laborious and frugal manner of life, every hour of which was spent in the care of us boys and in the exercise of their austere profession. For that I call to witness thousands of men who were brought up as I was. Hence it is that I can never help being astounded as their being accused of teaching lax morality… I make bold to say that there is nothing more contradictory, nothing more iniquitous, nothing more shameful in human nature than to accuse of lax morality the men who lead the most austere kind of life in Europe, and who go to face death at the ends of Asia and America.”
On 1st. April 1762 the Parliament of Paris closed all Jesuit schools in their jurisdiction, banned Jesuits and suppressed the Society. All Jesuit property was confiscated. Jesuits were deprived of all civic rights and disbanded, with no right to study, to work, to stay in common or even to write to each other – unless they took the oath of not obeying General, and admitting that the Society was evil… Of 1200 Jesuits in Paris, 150 took the oath. In the next 2 years 4 Parliaments banished the Jesuits, 5 suppressed the Society but allowed the Jesuits to remain, and 3 did nothing against them.

Finally on 30th. November (or 1st. December?) 1764 the King issued a common edict of suppression for the whole of France. The Society was suppressed, but the Jesuits could stay without taking the oath. Said Louis XV: “If for the peace of my kingdom I unwillingly dismissed them, I wish, at least, that it not be believed that I concurred in all that the Parliaments did and said against them.”
2900 Jesuits faced destitution -- without roof, work or food. Some went to the foreign missions, some taken by other religious communities, some by private homes, including by Voltaire! Ricci empowered Provincials to release from Vows, but most remained steadfast. In 1761, out of 51 Bishops, 44 sent the King a petition with high praises of the Society. 6 abstained. Only 1 was against the Jesuits – and he had been condemned by the Pope for heretical views… -- and even he admitted the good morals of the Society. Again in 1762: “The enemies of the Society are your enemies and the Church’s.” Pope Clement XIII tried more than 50 times. In his Bull “Apostolicum” of 9th. January 1765: “I tremble. So do all who have a true love for religion.” The Pope’s Bull was burned.
Said the Jesuits: “The Bishops’ praises will, at least, make a fine epitaph for us!”
S P A I N
26th. March, 1766: tumultuous riots in Madrid because of rise in food prices and the Government’s attempts to regulate dress! Jesuits rushed to calm the people and succeeded – and were blamed as fomentors! Bernardo Tanucci, whose protégé King Charles III had been, grasped this moment. A special “court” was appointed. The Nuncio warned Rome of impending doom.
Midnight of 31st. March 1767: troops awakened the Jesuits of Madrid and its surroundings and read the royal decree of exile – immediately, and with only breviaries and clothes on their body… Any Jesuit remaining behind would be punished with death. 2 days later the scene was re-enacted in all the more than 120 Jesuit houses in Spain. 2746 Jesuits, sick and old included, were sent marching to the nearest port. 2630 more were packed off from the missions of South America, Mexico and Philipines… a total of about 5376, leaving behind over 500,000 Christians. 188 Colleges and 31 Seminaries were closed. All Jesuit property was confiscated. All Papal pronouncements had to be submitted to the Royal Council. One Bishop protested – and was imprisoned. The Archbishop of Toledo and his Vicar were exiled. Pope Clement XIII wrote to several, and to the King himself: “Of all the blows of fortune which have befallen Us… none has pained our fatherly heart more than Your Majesty’s decision to banish the Jesuits from your realm…” One year later, when the King presented himself before the people, one shout: “Send us back the Jesuits!”.
Jesuits were crammed in 13 vessels like animals, in the heat, the filth, the fleas, the rats, and shipped to the Papal States. But Clement XIII, grieved and upset at Spain’s wanton disregard of international law, refused to admit the exiles. So, this unwanted cargo was sent on to Corsica. However, because of war between the Corsicans, Genoese and French, the ships had to wait 5 months before the exiles could land. St. Jose Pignatelli, of a noble family, with his brother as Ambassador of Spain in Paris, was exempted from exile, but he refused. Later, in Italy, orders came from Madrid that he should be given lodging and treatment befitting his rank. He rejected offers as insults. To his brother in Paris: “I will never leave the Society; rather am I ready to lay down my life a hundred times!” He became the spiritual, intellectual and financial pillar of the exiled Society for 38 years. In an unusual gesture, the Provincial of Aragon invested Pignatelli with his authority. Joseph Pignatelli found place for his brothers in houses, barns, stables, old chapels. There was little food. They couldn’t even say Mass daily. In early 1768 the first batch from the colonies, some 1800 more, arrived. Many had died during the long voyage. Some broke down. Some defected, went to Rome, got release from their Vows and returned to Spain. In four years and a half 719 (14.3%) left. But this only heightened the heroic fortitude of those who persevered. In March 1768 France got Corsica – and deported the Jesuits to Italy. And so “the boat people”, the men without a country, stood hungry and shivering on Italian soil in torn clothes, with no money and no place to go. Then the Pope relented and lifted the ban. Remarkable Jose Pignatelli settled most of the brethren and organized a regular T.T. of prayer, study, teaching, work, apostolate. “Apostle of the ruins of the Society.”
N A P L E S: King Ferdinand I, son of Charles III, succumbed to the pressure of Tanucci and expelled the Jesuits on 20th. November 1767. Once again there was the midnight swoop; by dawn the Jesuits were at sea. 388/631 (61%) remained loyal; 243 left. Tanucci confiscated Jesuit property, sold furniture, melted down sacred vessels and silver statues of St. Ignatius etc.., and destroyed the symbol of the Society.
S I C I L Y: Jesuits expelled on 7th. February 1768. Only 352/786 chose exile; 434 left the Society, and within 5 years 72 more. Finally only 36% persevered…
P A R M A: 170 Jesuits were exiled on the same 7th. February, 1768. Duke Fedinand, nephew of Charles III, was still a child, so Minister du Tillot ruled.
MALTA WAS A VASSAL OF Sicily, and so, forced by Tanucci, drove out the 20 Jesuits on 22nd. April, 1768.

T H E G E N E R A L S U P P R E S S I O N
In January 1768 the Duke of Parma issued ordinances against the Church. Pope Clement pronounced these null and void. So the Bourbon Princes took up arms against the Pope, capturing the Papal towns of Benevento, Pontecorvo, Avignon and Venaissin. Jesuits were expelled from these and their property confiscated… They said they would return the towns only if the Pope suppressed the Society. The 76 year old Pontiff declared: “No! I prefer to have both my hands cut off rather than sign a decree of suppression.” On Feb. 2, 1769 he died of a heart attack.
The Conclave opened 13 days later, and the Bourbons made it clear that only one who would suppress the Society was Pope acceptable to them. In the conclave the oath of secrecy was blatantly violated. Though he did not bind himself, the Franciscan Lorenzo Ganganelli remarked that the abolition of the Jesuits might be worthwhile, that if Canon Law was preserved he would consider suppression. On May 18, 1769 he was elected as Clement XIV.
Suddenly he realized that the Society had friends all over the world, and the gravity of suppressing a Society that so many of his predecessors had praised so much. The felicitations he got were “like flowers on the head of the victim that was going to be immolated”. He suffered anguish, hesitating for 4 years. “This suppression will kill me…”Yet, in various ways he harassed the Society. He removed 2 Seminaries (the Roman College and the Irish) from the care of the Jesuits. So also Frascati. He withdrew the faculties of non-Italian Jesuits to hear Confessions, and, in over 4 years, refused to grant Gen. Lorenzo Ricci an audience. In July 1772 Monino came as Ambassador of Spain. He bribed 2 people close to the Pope. The Pope’s Secretary, the Franciscan Innocenzo Buontempi, got 10,000 scudi (apart from being blackmailed…). Francisco Zelada got 8000 scudi plus 2 canonries in Spain and, on Spain’s insistence was made a Cardinal, becoming “His most useful Eminence”…Monino battered the Pope, who finally gave in.
On 8th. June 1773 Clement XIV signed the Brief of Suppression: “Dominus ac Redemptor”. It went into effect at 9.oo p.m. of 16th. August 1773. The Cardinal Secretary of the Commisssion, with soldiers and police, went to the Jesuit Curia and announced that the Society of Jesus was no more. Immediately, and without protest, Gen. Fr. Lorenzo Ricci submitted. All night the troops looked in vain for Jesuit wealth…What was unusual was that the Pope said the decree had to be read to each Community to go into effect. The Brief says: Our Lord and Redeemer has come as Prince of Peace, which the Pope has to preserve. If any Institute impedes peace, he has to eradicate it… Then the Pope enumerated a long list of charges-- without passing judgement on their validity. The Brief suppressed the Society without condemning it… Yet, it recalled only unpleasant episodes, and ignored the long line of Jesuit martyrs and confessors (143 Canonized Saints and Blesseds till then), thus deliberately creating an impression that the Society was nothing but a fountainhead of evil… The Pope also forgot the praises of so many earlier Popes.
Clement XIV had suppressed the Society for the sake of peace. But he himself had no peace. He was tormented. Says his successor Pius VI: “I am haunted by the fear of going mad and ending like Clement XIV>” Adds Pius VII: “As soon as he had signed, he threw the pen to one side and the paper to the other. He had lost his mind.” Seen pacing in agony: “Mercy! Compulsus feci! They forced me to do it.” He died in September 1774 23,000 men in 39 Provinces were affected, 11,300 of them priests. Novices, Scholastics and Brothers were dismissed. Priests could become either Seculars or other Religious. Soon vultures were at the carcass. Governments took the properties, though the Pope wanted them for the Church… Priceless Jesuit libraries and paintings disappeared. One great good emerged from the suppression: a schism was avoided in the Church. Even in death the Jesuits continued true to their vocation of service to the Church! And 55 of them were made Bishops!
70 years old Gen. Lorenzo Ricci and Assistants were imprisoned in Castel San Angelo, thanks to Monino. Ricci was allowed no writing, no Mass, no light or air in summer (they had boarded up his window), and no fire in winter. A mean official cut his food allowance in half. He was kept under constant armed guard. Constantly interrogated. Andretti, chief interrogator, told Ricci: “Rest content with knowing that you are not in prison for any crime; you may conclude so from the fact that I have not interrogated you about any.” No evidence stood against him. Yet interrogators would not pass the verdict of innocence. The new Pope, Pius VI was elected on 15th. February, 1775. Ricci movingly appealed for justice. The Pope was keen, but the Princes protested their honour was at stake. Nevertheless, Pius VI released some Assistants in July and August, but before he could do the same for Ricci, the General died on 24th. November 1775. A few days before death, Ricci received Holy Communion. As the priest held the Sacred Host, they dying General made a solemn statement: “Fully aware that I will soon appear for eternal judgement before the throne of the God of Truth, I solemnly declare that the Society has given no reason for its suppression, and I none for my imprisonment…” At his funeral the officiating Prelate prayed not for him but to him…
S U R V I V A L
1. IN P R U S S I A
Frederick II (the Great) forbade the Brief in his dominion. The problem for the 220 Jesuits was: without proclamation there was no dissolution; therefore the obligation of Jesuit vows remained. But what about the Jesuit sense of obedience at the mere wish of the Superior (here the Pope)? Jesuits and Frederick asked the Pope. On 3rd. January 1776 Pope and Frederick came to an agreement: the Jesuits could continue functioning not as members of the Society but as individuals under the Bishop. So the Society was then dissolved and Frederick called them “Priests of the Royal Schools Institute”. This lasted till 1800.
2. IN W H I T E R U S S I A
Empress Catherine the Great confiscated all copies and ordered that the Brief be treated as non-existent! She, too, wanted to uplift Russia through education. The 201 Jesuits had the same moral problem as their brethren in Prussia. Vice-Provincial Stanislaw Czerniewicz asked the Queen’s permission to obey the Pope. She refused. Then he asked the Papal Nuncio for advice. There was no answer. Later the Nuncio said that the Law does not oblige one to do the impossible. Rome was afraid of Catherine of the Orthodox Church taking away the religious freedom of 900,000 Catholics in her dominion… Then the Vice-Provincial asked the Queen to petition the Pope. She told him not to be over-scrupulous but to carry on and change nothing! Finally the Jesuits managed to send a message to the Pope himself asking for a sign that he was not displeased. His enigmatic reply was: “May the result of your prayers, as I foresee and you desire, be a happy one”! Said he was “looking to Russia with hope”!
Through devious ways Bishop Stanislaw Siestrzencewicz, got the Pope’s permission for a new Novitiate in 1780 with 8 Novices. The Bourbons were furious, but told by Catherine to mind their own business. They were afraid Catherine might side England vs. U.S.. Then in October 18, 1782 Fr. Czerniewicz was elected Vicar-General. The Bourbons were infuriated and pressurized Pius VI, who sent nullifying Briefs to them but not to Russia! He further asked them to keep Briefs secret because of the Queen! A month and a half later the Pope acceded to the Queen’s request, and gave verbal approval of confirmation of the Society and of each step taken. He even told Pignatelli: “They are true Jesuits. You can safely join in Russia. I will restore the Society as soon as possible or recommend it to my successor.” Catherine in a farewell to the Portuguese envoy: “White Russia is the most fortunate Province in my whole Empire, because the youth are trained by Jesuits”!
R E S T O R A T I O N O F T H E S O C I E T Y
In 1793 Duke Ferdinando of Parma did a roundabout turn. He asked Catherine for “a handful of the precious seed” stored in Russia! Pius VI approved and V.G. Gabriel Lenkiewicz sent 3 Jesuits to Parma in 1794. Jose Pignatelli immediately applied, but they hesitated. He finally renewed his Vows in 1797. The Bourbon united front had broken up…
In 1799 a new Novitiate was opened with the Pop’s approval. Jose Pignatelli was appointed Novice Master. In letter after letter Ferdinando pressed for restoration of the Society! He told the Pope that an earlier restoration would have prevented the current miserable state of Europe The Pope confided that he, too, disapproved of the suppression, but that he should convert his own cousin of Spain, Charles IV, who remained adamant. The Pope would have come out with a written recognition of the Society in Russia, but on 20-2-1798 French troops seized the 82 year old Pontiff and sent him to exile. Died on 29-08-1799.
The new Pope Pius VII, elected March 1800, was determined to restore the Society to any country that petitioned. On March 7, 1801 the Pope gave explicit ratification of the Society in Russia by his Brief “Catholicae Fidei”. Immediately a wave of petitions for affiliation came from Europe and U.S., and Jesuit missionaries went out from Russia. Many old Jesuits re-joined. Save 2, the Pope did not allow Bishops to rejoin. Soon Jesuit communities sprang up in Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, England (with a novitiate).. and Naples! On Aug.15, 1804, in the presence of the King who had expelled them 37 years earlier, the Jesuits took possession of their old Church. Soon Sicily wanted the Jesuits back! Fr. General Gruber made Jose Pignatelli Superior of the Italian Province. In 1809 Napoleon took Pius VII prisoner, but in 1814 Boanparte was defeated, and 74 years old Pius VII re-entered Rome on 24th. May. He announced that part of his effort towards religious rebuilding was to restore the Society throughout the world. He wanted to do it on 31st. July, but the Bull was not ready, so the Society was restored on the octave day.
On 7th. AUGUST, 1814, at the altar of St. Ignatius in the Gesu, Pius VII offered Mass at which the Bull of Restoration of the Society “Sollicitudo Omnium Ecclesiarum” was read. Before an immense crowd which included 18 Cardinals, many Bishops, Royalty and 150 members of the suppressed Society (the youngest of whom was 60 years), the Pope made the Bull public. He said he would be guilty of a big crime if he did not make use of “the skilled rowers for the storm-tossed bark of Peter”. He affirmed it was “the same Society” that had been suppressed, and not a new one. Ironically, Fr. General Brozozowski could not be present for the solemn ceremony. The Emperor wanted the backing of the Society for the translation of the Bible, which the Jesuits could not do without the sanction of Rome. So friendship turned to enmity, and the General was not allowed to go to Rome. It soon became evident that the residence of the next General would have to be outside Russia. 17 months after the Restoration all over the World, the Society was expelled from Russia… So the Pope handed the Bull to Provincial Panizzoni. Then the Pope greeted each aged Jesuit kneeling before him. From Portugal 55 years earlier, France 50, Spain 47, the World 41 …
Among those in Rome who did not attend were King Charles IV and the Queen of Spain – who had been expelled from their own country! A few days later they visited the Gesu. The Jesuits gave them a warm welcome – and the King wept. 9 months later the new King Ferdinand VII made a formal request to the Pope that Jesuits might return to Spain! 46 cities petitioned for Jesuits and 3 Novitiates were started in Loyola, Manresa and Seville! Within 2 years the Novitiate of San Andrea in Rome was so crowded that another had to be opened. Among the Novices was Charles Emmanuel, King of Sardinia, who had abdicated to enter the Society.… In Portugal they said a Requiem for Pombal, buried his remains, and admitted 4 of his great grand-sons into one of their Colleges….
Fell an Oak the root lives still…!!!

Jesuits

THE GREATNESS OF ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

Mgr. Ronald Knox was once asked to name six of the greatest men who ever lived. He astounded his audience because he, an Anglican Prelate at the time, had listed the Roman Catholic St. Ignatius of Loyola as one of them! In Robert Rusk’s History of Education, Ignatius of Loyola is listed as one of the thirteen greatest educators of all time… And R. Fulop Miller writes: ”Since the dawn of history there are few men who have followed out an idea to its bitter end with such iron logic, few men who have realized it with such an extraordinary output of energy, and exerted such a profound influence upon the thought and action of mankind as Ignatius of Loyola did.”

The greatness of Ignatius lies not only in his having personally scaled the greatest heights of sanctity, not only in his having founded a Religious Order that was radically innovative, but largely in this: that Ignatius ignited a fire that started a missionary movement of love and service, and gave an educational impetus that was unparalleled in the history of the Church. In the last 8 years of his life Ignatius opened 35 Schools and Colleges, and had started foundations for 5 more (a total of 40) when death overtook him in 1556.
Within 25 years these had grown to 144. Twenty years later the number had shot up to more than 250 spread all over the world – and these totally gratis! Small wonder that the Jesuits were called “The School Masters of Europe”. Names like Francis Xavier, Peter Claver, Jean de Brebeuf, Edmund Campion stir up all that is best and beautiful in us, and bear eloquent testimony to the quality of the fire that Ignatius ignited. An artist has captured this fiery missionary spirit in a picture showing a band of Jesuit missionaries setting sail for South America. On one of the sails is the motto “Unus non sufficit eis orbis!” (One world was not enough for them!)

1. St. Francis Xavier: traveled over 100,000 kms. and personally baptized over 300,000 people becoming all things to all men – Xavier the apostle and preacher, Xavier the educationist, Xavier fighting for justice for his poor fisherfolk of Tamilnadu, Xavier seeking relief for his unfortunate Christians slaughtered by the Emperor Sada Shiva, even Xavier the match-maker (!) – till at last he breathed his last reaching for the unreachable star, China ….

2. Bl. Jose de Anchieta, Apostle of Brazil from 1553 to 1597.
Though crippled and plagued with illness, he was a man of indefatigable zeal, prodigious memory and melodious voice, and soon the jungles of the Amazon were ringing with hymns and the Catechism.

3. Fr. Thomas Stephens: In 1579 he became the first Englishman to come to India, and who stayed till his death 40 years later. Author of the first Konkani Grammar and Catechism, his Christa Purana of 10,967 stanzas is, even today, considered a gem of Marathi literature. By 1619 all 80,000 natives of the Salsette Islands were Christians…

4. Bl. Rudolph Aquaviva, companion of Matteo Ricci, was invited for a dialogue at the glorious Mughal Court of Akbar the Great from 1580 to 1583 He became a close friend of the Emperor, which sent hopes soaring high of a great Christian Empire…. He was martyred at Goa with 4 other Jesuits in 1583. When he heard the news of Acquaviva’s death, Akbar wept. Later Frs. Jeronimo Xavier (grand-nephew of Francis Xavier), Miguel Pinheiro and Bro. Benito de Goes were at Akbar’s court.

5. Matteo Ricci, cordial Italian, was the first missionary to fulfill St. Francis Xavier’s dream, when he entered China in 1583. Of brilliant mind and phenomenal memory, he was so revered for his mastery of Mathematics, Astronomy, Geography and the Chinese language, literature, culture and etiquette, that he became the first foreigner to be granted permanent residence. Though burial in the Imperial City was forbidden, when Ricci died in 1610 he was given this privilege as a man of exceptional greatness. The first telescope in China as built by Jesuits. Few know that 32 craters on the moon and other lunar formations bear the names of Jesuits, mostly of the 17th. Century, faithful witnesses of their more than eminent learning.

6. Roberto de Nobili, Italian nobleman, in India from 1605 until his death in 1656, was the first European to master Tamil, Telegu, Sanskrit and the Vedas. He became a strict Brahmin sanyasin, and the initiator of the controversial Malabar rites under the plea that an ancient civilization could not be changed overnight. He personally converted over 4000. Though stoutly defended by his Provincial, by General Claude Acquaviva, the Archbishops of Cranganore and Goa, the King of Portugal and the Chief Inquisitor, and even by 2 Popes, Paul V and Gregory XV, the rites were finally condemned by the Church in 1704, 1734 and 1744. The condemnation was a grievous blow to the Madurai Mission.
Christians, who numbered 300,000 at the time, rapidly declined to an insignificant minority, as thousands deserted this religion which was destroying all that they held sacred. It was only in 1939 that Pope Pius XII cancelled the condemnation of the Chinese and Malabar rites… But, by then irreparable damage had already been done….

7. St. John de Britto, who took the name of Arulanandaswamy, became a wandering Pandaraswamy from 1673 to 1693, until he received the crown of martyrdom.

8. Constanzo Giuseppe Beschi: in India from 1710 to 1746. His ascetical works in impeccable Tamil, grammars and dictionaries, and especially his classical Divine Comedy of 3615 stanzas entitled “Thembavani” (The Unfading Garland), have earned him the title “Father of Tamil prose”, and is compulsory study for the M.A. in Tamil.

9.
Bro Benito de Goes: An ex-soldier turned Jesuit disguised as an Armenian merchant, he traveled the land route from India to China from 1602 to 1605, and was the first to solve the puzzle that the mysterious Cathay was indeed China.

10. Bro. Ippolito Desiderii: In 1714 he became the first European to go the land route from Delhi to Lhasa. For 5 years he lived with Budhist monks in a Lama monastery, dialoguing with them, and became the foremost Tibetologist and friend of the King.

11. Fr. Johann Hanxleden: His poems on Our Lord’s life have become part of Malayalam literature On his second death centenary in 1932 the Kerala Government erected an impressive library to honour him.

12. Fr. Gaston Coeurdoux, French, was a scholar in philology and comparative linguistics.
In 1766 he was the first to draw up illustrative word lists to show the similarity of Latin, Greek and Sanskrit, grammatically and phonologically.

13. Cristoph Klau, German, was the author of the Gregorian Calendar.

14. Jiri David, Czech, wrote the first book in W. Europe for the study of Russian.

15. Alexander de Rhodes, missionary to Vietnam & the Far East from 1625 to 1660, linguist of 12 languages, was the first to publish a grammar of the complicated Vietnamese language and a Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin dictionary.

16.
SS. Roch Gonzalez, John del Castillo and Alphonsus Rodrigues were the founding fathers pf the “Reductions of Paraguay” from 1610, forming communities of up to even 10,000 natives to defend themselves from marauding white-skinned raiders, with a social system ushering in security and almost self-sufficiency. Voltaire called these Reductions “a triumph of humanity”, and G. K. Chesterton “The Lost Paradise”.

17. Fr. Alfonso de Sandoval & St. Peter Claver: In 1610 they fought vs. social injustice for the human rights of Negro slaves in Cartagena. Re. P. Claver, (who used to sign his letters “slave of the slaves forever”) Pope Leo XIII who canonized him said: “After the life of Our Lord the life of no other person has touched me as profoundly as that of Peter Claver.”

18. Constant Lievens, Belgian hurricane, worked himself to death in Chhottanagpur from 1885 to 1891, bringing justice to poor peasants oppressed by zamindars.

19. Jean Leunis, Belgian, founded the Sodaity of Our Lady in Rome in 1563.

20. St. Claude de la Coombiere: In 1688 Our Lord Himself designated him to spread devotion to His Sacred Heart & be the Sp. Dir. of St. Margaret Mary.

21. Theologians and Defenders of the Faith have not been lacking. Diego Lainez, the luminary of the Council of Trent, St. Robert Bellarmine, whom Pope Benedict XIV called “the hammer of heretics”, Priest-Scientist Teilhard de Chardin, Karl Rahner, arguably the greatest Theologian of the 20th.Cen. etc., etc… Declared Pope Gregory XIII in 1581: “There is today no single instrument raised up by God vs. heretics greater than your holy Order.”

22. Saints & Martyrs: over 350 canonized Saints, Blesseds & Venerables, most of them martyrs, vgr. SS Edmund Campion & Companions, 26 of them in England, St. Andrew Bobola in Poland, SS. Jean de Brebeuf & Comp. In N. America, St. Paul Miki & Comp. in Japan. In our own days we have our missionaries of South and Central America: Frs. Rutilio Grande, Luis Espinal, Joao de Dios, and, in our own India, A. T. Thomas. Said Paul VI in 1974: “Wherever in the Church, even in the most difficult and extreme fields, in the cross-roads of ideologies, in the frontline of social conflict, there has been, and there is, confrontation between the deepest desires of man and the perennial message of the Gospel, there also there have been, and there are, JESUITS!”

23. Fr. Pedro Arrupe: What Ignatius and companions were to the XVI Cen. world of disturbing cultural transformation and religious conflict, marked by the Council of Trent, Pedro Arrupe was to the XX Cen. world of chaos and confusion and upheaval that followed Vatican Council II. With penetrating insight he guided his men to distinguish between the essentials and accidentals of religious life, and to cling firmly to the former whilst being unperturbed by the abandoning of the latter.
His religious leadership was instrumental not only in renovating and guiding the Society of Jesus to discern and to reach out to new avenues, but had a profound influence on Religious life in the whole Church. He was elected President of the Union of Religious Superiors General in 1967 and held that position for 5 consecutive terms. As a result he attended Bishop’s meetings and synods and animated different religious communities. Said the Benedictine Superior General, now Bishop in the U.S.: ”If there is one living person I have always considered a candidate for canonization, that person is FR. PEDRO ARRUPE”

This short history, though incomplete with many great names not mentioned, will hopefully help us understand why Mgr. Ronald Knox considered St. Ignatius one of the 6 greatest men who ever lived, or why Robert Rusk lists him among the 13 greatest educators of all time, or why Fulop Miller says that few men have exerted such a profound influence upon the thought and action of mankind as Ignatius. For, the truth is that Ignatius has made history and influenced the world in innumerable fields – spiritual, evangelical, educational, social, environmental etc. etc..– as few others have. That is his greatness.
He did it all through the wisdom of his words, the inspiration of his life, and, most specially, through his “Spiritual Exercises”, of which there have been in 450 years 4500 editions in 20 languages!! Ignatius ignited that fire in the hearts of millions across 460 years and more by helping them, through these Exercises, personally meet the One Who has come to cast fire upon the earth.
He himself says that the Spiritual Exercises are “the best means I can think of whereby a man may make progress and bear fruit so that he may help the progress of others”. The word “magis”, (“mas”, “more”) occurs 100 times in the Spiritual Exercises. The words “the greater glory (praise, honour, service) of God come 273 times in the Constitutions, which are but a juridical form of the same Spiritual Exercises. They demonstrate that for Ignatius there was no place for complacency or contented mediocrity. Ignatius was an enemy of the good, because he was on a quest for the best. If that fire were to die in the hearts of us all, the Society would have no reason for its existence any more. This, it seems to me, is the greatness of IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA.