Suppression of the Jesuits

The Suppression of the Jesuits in Portugal, France, the Two Sicilies, Parma and the Spanish Empire by 1767 was a product of a series of political moves rather than a theological controversy. The expulsion of the Society of Jesus from the Roman Catholic nations of Europe and their colonial empires marked the first triumph of the secularist notions of the Enlightenment, which were to culminate in the French Revolution. Following a decree signed by Pope Clement XIV in July 1773, the Society of Jesus was suppressed in all Catholic countries. In the Orthodox nations, particularly in Russia, where the Tsar and the metropolitan did not recognize papal authority, the order was ignored. The scholarly Jesuit Society of Bollandists moved from Antwerp to Brussels, where they continued their work in the monastery of the Coudenberg; in 1788, the Bollandist Society itself was suppressed by the Austrian government of the Low Countries.

Related Topics:
Portugal - France - Two Sicilies - Parma - Spanish Empire - 1767 - Society of Jesus - Roman Catholic - Enlightenment - French Revolution - Pope Clement XIV - 1773 - Orthodox - Russia - Tsar - Society of Bollandists - Antwerp - Brussels - Coudenberg - 1788 - Austria - Low Countries

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With the reaction against the democratic excesses of the Revolution, especially after 1815, the Catholic church began to play a more welcome role in official European life once more, and nation by nation the Jesuits made their way back.

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