1760 –
EUROPE
• College and observatory built in Milan.
AMERICAS
• The missions of Taruma in Belen, Bolivia are founded.
• Also Eleventh Jesuit Bolivian reducción in Chiquitania, Santo Corazón, founded.
• By this time about 330 Jesuits had come to New France.
1761 –
EUROPE
• The Parlement of Paris condemns the Society following a court case against Fr. La Valette.
The Parlement angry with King Louis XV for interfering in their fight against the
Society, orders the burning of the works of 23 Jesuits including Bellarmine and Toledo
(for being destructive of Christian morality).
Further the Parlement of Paris decrees that the Society should not receive anymore
novices and close her schools in France.
The accusation against the Society – because of the Society’s “evil effects on the
education of the youth”.
• Gabriel Malagrida Jesuit accused of heresy before the Inquisition is burned at the stake (cf. 1758).
1762 –
EUROPE
• The duc de Choiseul advises General Ricci that the only hope of the Society in France for was for him to “renounce his authority. . .” and appoint a French vicar-general who would rule the French Province according to the laws of France.
Ricci rejects this and is supported completely by Clement XIII.
The magistrates send a thick volume to the King Louis XV entitled “Extracts from the
Dangerous and Pernicious Assertions of Every Kind Maintained at All Times by the
So-Called Jesuits”
• Jesuit schools are closed in France.
Later, the Parlement announces the expulsion of the Jesuits from France and the Society’s
buildings and estates are declared confiscated.
Jesuits in France are accused of being “obnoxious to civic order, violator of the natural
law, destroyer of religion and morality, perpetrator of corruption. . .”
• Fr. Peter de Cloriviere leaves France and goes to the English College in Liege (Belgium) to study theology.
• Due to the Society’s suppression in France, the English College in St. Omer, then inside France, is transferred to Bruges.
• Catherine II becomes empress. She was to convert from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy.
• Joseph Pignatelli is ordained.
• Luigi Fortis, future General, enters the Venice Province.
1763 –
EUROPE
• Christopher de Beaumont Archbishop of Paris through his pastoral letter read in all churches expresses his bitter regret at the suppression of the Society in France.
• Fr. Peter de Cloriviere is ordained in the English College in Liege (Belgium).
• Austrian Province has 1950 members. They were active in 58 high schools and 23 colleges, 5 of them with university rank and 64 churches. In addition, they had missionaries sent to China, India and Paraguay.
• General Ricci issues his letter to the whole Society – “On Fervent Perseverance in Prayer”.
AMERICAS
• Jesuits are expelled from New Orleans and Louisiana at the bidding of the French government.
• San Gabriel College in Quito (Ecuador) is founded.
1764 –
EUROPE
• Louis XV and the royal court tried to save the Society by separating them from Rome. Some SJs signed various declarations of Gallican positions only to be reprimanded by Ricci and Clement XIII.
Ricci says “ it would be better that the Society perish than survive by sinful means. . . and
just as the Society had come to life as an instrument of service to the Holy See, it should
close its life in the same way”.
Also Christophe de Beaumont, Archbishop of Paris, writes a pastoral letter defending the
Jesuits against the attacks of Parlement. It was ordered burned by the public executioner.
• March – French Parliament forces Jesuits into exile.
• November – King Louis XV officially dissolves the Jesuit order in France.
General Ricci tells the superiors to release scholastics and brothers from the vows for
those who wish. Out of 4,000 members only five priests, two scholastics, and eight
brothers took the required oath; the others were driven into exile.
• Observatory built by civil government is entrusted to the Jesuits in Schwetzingen, Germany.
1765 –
AMERICAS
• The Jesuit Church (the Iglesia de La Compañía de Jesus, or simply La Compañía) on the Calle Garcia Moreno in Quito, Ecuador, is finished after being more than a century and a half under construction and just a few years before the Suppression expelling the Jesuits out of South America.
1766 –
EUROPE
• Riots in Madrid due to rises in food prices against the government of Spain + hat and cloak issue (decree of government against the long cloak and popular sombrero in favor of the French wig and three-cornered hat).
The government makes it appear that the Jesuits are behind this riot.
• Marchese Bernardo Tanucci (Naples Spanish official who knew Carlos III) exhorts the
Spaniards to “follow the examples of Portugal and France”.
Tanucci writes a note to the Extraordinary Council of Castilla (court that made a secret
investigation against the Jesuits), telling the court that because of the Jesuits, supremacy of
the pope was exalted and Spaniards have been changed to slaves.
• Fr. Peter de Cloriviere is sent to London.
ASIA
• Joseph Castiglione (SJ Italian missionary painter in China) dies. He is given a tribute with a state funeral in Beijing.
AMERICAS
• Fr. José Sánchez opens route between Chiquitos missions and Guaraní missions.
1767 –
EUROPE
• January – The Extraordinary Council of Castilla decides to eradicate the Society from Spain and all its colonies and its property confiscated.
• February – Carlos III issues a secret decree ordering Jesuits to leave Spain and her colonies.
• March 11 – At Madrid, Frs Thomas de Lorrain and Bernard Recio, leaving for the Provincial Congregation in Rome, received a sealed parcel said to come from the nuncio. They were requested to take it to someone in Rome. It contained a letter forged by de Choiseul and de Aranda, the prime ministers of France and Spain, and purporting to come from Fr General Ricci alleging Carlos III to be illegitimate. Both priests were arrested on their journey and brought back as prisoners to Madrid. The forged document was shown to the king. His previous affection for the Society was converted into bitterest hatred.
• March 31 – at SJ Colegio Imperial de la Compania in Madrid, Jesuits are told to leave immediately. About 200 SJs leave Madrid that day.
• Apr 16 – Pope Clement XIII writes to Carlos III imploring him to cancel the decree of expulsion of the Society from Spain, issued on April 2nd. The Pope’s letter nobly defends the innocence of the Society.
However, the appeal was turned down. 2,700 Jesuits from all over Spain are asked to leave.
In less than a year, about 2,300 more Jesuits from Philippines, Mexico and South America
leave for the Papal States. There were about 680 Jesuits in Mexico alone.
In Mexico, Jesuits will be expelled in 1821, 1856, 1873 and 1914.
• Joseph Pignatelli (Spanish Jesuit) was included here and at 30 tried to hold together a suppressed Society. At 57, he saw the Society allowed again to accept novices but did not live to see its Restoration in 1814.
• In Naples, King Fernando IV (son of Carlos III) gives in to the pressures from Marchese
Bernardo Tanucci and decides also to suppress the Society in Naples.
Tanucci also deprives Jesuits of the pastoral care of prisoners, a ministry that they had
nobly engaged in for 158 years in Naples.
• July – D’Aubeterre writes to De Choiseul – “It is impossible to obtain the Suppression from the pope (Clement XIII); it must be wrested from him by occupying papal territory. (They do so the following year).
ASIA
• Jesuits also expelled from China.
AMERICAS
• Reducciones at this time had 57 settlements with 113, 715 Indians.
• Twelfth and final Jesuit Bolivian reducción in Chiquitania, Nuestra Señora de Buen Consejo (near present-day Puerto Suárez), founded; abandoned as a result of expulsion decree. Spanish Carlos III expels Jesuits from Chiquitania. Chiquitos missions secularised, put under control of Diocese of Santa Cruz de la Sierra..
• Oct. – Jesuits who had been kept prisoners in their college in Santiago, Chile, for almost 2 months now are led forth into exile. 360 Jesuits of the Chile Province are shipped to Europe as exiles.
• About 122 Jesuits supervising, about 100 mission stations, with 122,000 Indians (in North America)
Jesuits expelled in Paraguay had 57 settlements and 113, 700 natives
1768 –
EUROPE
• Jesuits in Parma (Parma following the policies of Spain) are exiled as well.
With forces mounting against the Society (5 kingdoms outlawing the Society – i.e.
Portugal, Spain, France, Parma, Naples) Clement XIII publishes the bull (Apostolicum)
indicating his support for the Society. (Note: about 22,000+ Jesuits at this time and over
half would be in these 5 kingdoms and their colonies)
• Despite the military attacks (ex. Naples taking the papal towns of Benevento and Pontecorvo and France taking Avignon and Venaissin), Clement XIII is adamant in his position in not suppressing the Society. At one point, he says “We would rather have both our hands cut off than suppress the Society”.
• People of Madrid ask for a recall of the Jesuits who had been banished from Spain 19 months earlier. Irritated by this, the king Carlos III drives the Archbishop of Toledo and his Vicar General into exile as instigators of the movement.
• Despite many trials, the English province is still strong with about 300 Jesuits in 1768 (26 in Maryland and 136 in England).
• Jesuits are expelled from Malta. Grand Master Pinto, the Grand Master of Malta appropriates all the revenue accruing from its property and establishes a “Pubblica Università di Studi Generali”.
ASIA
• Arrival of decree of Carlos III expelling Jesuits in the Philippines, compelling them to leave the islands. Jesuits will return in 1859. Recoletos take over territories assigned to them.
• Jesuits expelled from the Philippines – 158 Jesuits – all Spaniards, except 20 from Germany and Austria, 7 Italians and 3 Filipinos.
The Jesuits at this time had 8 colleges (San Ignacio, San Jose, San Ildefonso – Manila; San Pedro Makati; Loreto – Cavite; San Ildefonso – Cebu; San Jose – Oton, Iloilo; Concepcion – Zamboanga; San Juan de Letran Agana (Guam)).
The Jesuits did pastoral works in Luzon, Samar, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Marinduque, Panay, Negros, Mindanao and Marianas Islands.
1769 –
EUROPE
• Clement XIII dies of a heart attack.
• Clement XIV (a Franciscan and initially friendly with the Society) becomes pope.
He would be the one who would suppress the Society.
Bourbons insisted before the election that new pope’s attitude towards the Society was
norm for his acceptability as pope.
• Clement XIV tried to defer a decision as regards the Society but after sometime he saw that the only way to re-establish good relations with the European countries was to suppress the Jesuits.
Thus in the end, he decided in favor of the enemies of the Society.
Late this year Clement XIV (foolishly) had given a written letter promising Carlos III
that indeed he would suppress the Society.
• General Ricci issues (another) letter to the whole Society on prayer – “On Greater Fervor in Prayer”. (His previous letter on prayer to the whole Society was in 1763).
• Nov. 8 – Carlos III (Spain) orders all of the Society’s goods to be sold and sent a preemptory demand to Clement XIV (newly elected pope at that time) to have the Society suppressed.
• At Cadiz, 241 Jesuits from Chile were put on board a Swedish vessel to be deported to Italy as exiles.
