THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
of Paris decreed a suppression of Jesuit establishments in France and on May 8 declared the entire order responsible for the debts of the principal promoter of the collapsed enterprise. Other parliaments followed that of Paris. King, pope, and many bishops protested in vain. Eighty of their colleges were closed in April, 1762. Their constitution was denounced as godless, sacrilegious, and treasonable, and the vows taken by Jesuits were declared to be null and void. On Nov. 26, 1764, the king agreed to a decree of expulsion. In Spain 6,000 Jesuits were suddenly arrested at night and conveyed to papal territory (Sept. 2-3, 1768). Refused admission by the pope, they took refuge in Corsica. A similar seizure and transportation of 3,000 had occurred at Naples (Nov. 3-4, 1767). Parma dealt with them similarly (Feb. 7, 1768), and soon afterward they were expelled from Malta by the Knights of St. John. The Bourbon princes urged Clement XIII. to abolish the society. He refused, and when he died (Feb. 2, 1769) there was much intriguing among friends and enemies of the Jesuits in seeking to secure the election of a pope that would protect or abolish the society. Cardinal Ganganelli was elected and it is highly probable that he had bargained with the Bourbons for the destruction of the Jesuits. From the beginning of his pontificate powerful pressure was brought to bear upon him by Spain, France, and Portugal for the abolition of the order. He gave promises of early action, but long hesitated to strike the fatal blow. He began by subjecting the Jesuit colleges in and around Rome to investigation. These were promptly suppressed and their inmates banished. Maria Theresa of Austria, who had been greatly devoted to the Jesuits, now regretfully abandoned them and joined with the Bourbons in demanding the abolition of the society by the pope. This combined pressure of the chief Catholic powers was more than the pope could withstand (" Coactus feci," he is reported to have afterward said). On July 21, 1773, he signed the Brief Dominus ac Redemptor noster, which abolished the society, and on August 16 the general and his chief assistants were imprisoned and all their property in Rome and the States of the Church confiscated (Eng. transl. of this brief is most easily accessible in Nicolini, Hist, of the Jesuits, pp. 387-406, London, 1893). The brief recites at length the charges of immoral teaching and intolerable meddlesomeness in matters of church and state, of the abuse of the unlimited privileges that the society has enjoyed, and virtually admits that it has become totally depraved and a universal nuisance. To restore peace to Christendom its abolition is declared to be necessary. A papal coin was struck the same year in commemoration of the event, with Christ sitting in judgment and saying to the Jesuit fathers arraigned on his left, " Depart from me all of you, I never knew you."
At the time of its abolition the society had about 22,000 members. It would have been unreasonable to expect that so large a body of trained men, adepts at secret and evasive methods of work, and with centuries of successful effort behind them, would suddenly vanish in response to a papal brief
extorted by the Roman Catholic powers. Thousands of them, without change of principles, became members of societies of the Sacred 9. Illicit Heart of Jesus; others of the society of Continu- Fathers of the Faith, founded by Nicolo ance and Paccanari (q.v.); others became Re- Restoration, demptorists or Liguorists (see Liguori, Alfonso Maria de). Frederick II. of Prussia encouraged and protected them with a view, no doubt, to using their political knowledge and skill against the Bourbons, the Hapsburgers, and the pope. Catharine II. of Russia hoped by showing them favor to conciliate her new Polish subjects and to use them against Bourbons and Hapsburgers. In Naples and in France the papal decree was only imperfectly executed. Pius VI. gave full papal approval (1783) to the perpetuation of the society in Russia, while Pius VII. (1801) approved of their designating their vicar-general as general. The same pope approved of the restore tion of the society in Naples and Sicily (July, 1804) so that the head of the society now became " General for Russia and Naples." The Napoleonic disturbance of Europe having come to an end and Pius VII. having been released from his French captivity, the need of the society for leadership in an aggressive movement for the restoration of the Roman Catholic Church to its former power was profoundly felt by the Curia. On Aug. 7, 1814, Pius VII. issued the bull Solicitudo omnium ecclesiarum, by which he restored the society. Since that time it has suffered many reverses and much persecution. Most of the states of Europe have repeatedly expelled its members. Yet it has steadily grown in power and has for nearly a century dictated the policy of the papal administration. Jesuits are to-day the chief diplomats of the Roman Catholic Church and they are surpassed in astuteness and the ability to achieve results by those of no civil government. The promulgation of the dogma of the immaculate conception of Mary (1854), the Encyclical and Syllabus of 1864, the Vatican Council with its decree of papal infallibility (1869-70), the recent drastic measures against Biblical criticism and in opposition to freedom of research and freedom of teaching and publishing, are commonly attributed to Jesuit influence. The society had, in 1902, 15,231 members, 6,743 being priests and 4,542 students for the priesthood. There are about 1,800 in the United States, and they are numerous in Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Cuba, and the Philippines. [The Jesuits have from the beginning laid especial stress upon education and adopted a high standard. But they have had to run the gantlet of sharp criticism not only from Protestants but from Roman Catholics. Nor can it be explained away that the order was for a considerable period under the papal ban. Their secrecy, superior skill and learning, and especially the casuistry advocated in books written by members of the order, have concentrated much attention on them, not always to their approval. They can not claim exemption from the common failings of mankind, or any special divine leadership. They have had ambitious and unscrupulous members and have been under unworthy leadership. Their med-