Expulsion of the Jesuits

The most important expulsion of the Jesuits was that which occurred in the mid-18th century in the European Catholic monarchies identified as enlightened despotisms and which culminated in the suppression of the Society of Jesus by Pope Clement. XIV in 1773. Before and after those dates, the Jesuits were also expelled from other states, in some even more than once - as in the case of Spain (1767, 1835 and 1932) -.

Causes

The inspiration for these measures is found in a political doctrine called regalism, which defends the right of the national State to intervene, receive and organize the income of its national churches. The expulsion of an order obedient to the pope such as the Jesuit was economically desirable because it reinforced the power of the monarch and, furthermore, because after the expulsion of a religious order came the corresponding confiscation of its assets, which the State could administer as it saw fit.

The expulsion and suppression of the Society of Jesus in the 18th century

In the middle of the 18th century the Jesuits were expelled from the most important Catholic monarchies:

• From the Kingdom of Portugal (whose king held the title of "Phoenician King") in 1759, accused by the Marquis of Pombal of instigating an attack on the king's life.
• From the Kingdom of France (the "major daughter of the Church", whose king was "the Christian King") in 1762, under the rule of the Duke of Choiseul, and in the context of the controversy between Jesuits and Jansenists, the legal situation of the Company was revised after a financial scandal, and it was considered that its existence, in addition to the doctrines they defended (the incompatibleism, casuismo, tiranicidio).
• From the Kingdom of Spain (the "Catholic Monarchy") in 1767, accused by Campomanes of instigating the riot of Esquilache (see Expulsion of the Jesuits of Spain of 1767).

Simultaneously with Spain, the Jesuits were expelled from the kingdom of Naples, Sicily and, in 1768, from the duchy of Parma (both linked to the House of Bourbon, but with other sovereigns).

Pope Clement relocated to the Papal States themselves, through the brief Dominus ac Redemptor, of July 21, 1773.

The expulsions affected the presence of the Society of Jesus in the colonial empires of each of those powers (Portuguese Empire, French Empire and Spanish Empire), where it had previously been immersed in serious conflicts (Jesuit reductions, expulsion of the Jesuits of Brazil in 1754—five years before in the metropolis—), which were among the causes of the anti-Jesuit movement in Europe.

Exile

The expulsions and subsequent dissolution of the Society of Jesus resulted in the exile of a large number of Jesuits in officially non-Catholic countries that tolerated the presence of Catholic subjects, such as the kingdom of Prussia or the Russian Empire (which in In 1772 they had carried out the division of Poland, with a majority Catholic population). Both monarchs (Catherine the Great of Russia and Frederick II of Prussia) ignored the papal decree, which allowed the continuity of the Jesuit colleges, and in fact the reorganization of the most select of the Company's intellectuals.

Restoration

In the context of the Restoration, Pope Pius VII issued the bull Solicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum (August 7, 1814), which restored the Society of Jesus. It was immediately reintroduced into Spain by Ferdinand VII on May 15, 1815.

Expulsions prior to the 18th century

In other historical contexts there had been the expulsion of the Jesuits from the following places:

• In 1594, of France, by King Henry IV.
• In 1605, of England, by King James I.
• In 1606, of the Republic of Venice, for the confrontation of its authorities with the Pope.
• In 1615, Japan, by the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (see History of Catholicism in Japan).
• In 1639, Malta.

Subsequent expulsions

Expulsions of the 19th century

In this century there will be numerous and repeated expulsions of this religious order in different countries and under different political situations:

• Expulsion in 1815 of Moscow and St.Petersburg by Tsar Alexander I of Russia.

• in 1818 the Jesuits were expelled from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands;

• in 1820 Spain (during the constitutional triennium) and Russia;
• in 1828 France;
• in 1834 of Portugal, in the context of liberal wars;
• in 1835 of Spain, in the context of the Carlist War and the De-mortization;
• in 1847 Switzerland, in the context of the Sonderbund War;
• in 1848 Austria, in the context of the revolution of 1848;
• in 1850 Colombia;
• in 1852 of Ecuador;
• in 1868, Spain, with the revolutionary Sexenio;
• in 1872 of the newly constituted German Empire, in the context of the Kulturkampf;
• in 1873 of the Kingdom of Italy, following the culmination of the Italian unification with the occupation of Rome;
• in 1874 of the Austro-Hungarian Empire;
• in 1880 France, with the advent of the Third Republic;
• In 1884, by an executive decree dated Friday, 18 July, all the fathers of the Society of Jesus (Jeshua), the nuns of Zion (the Sun) and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, were expelled from Costa Rica. The decree was given at the Presidential Palace, signed by the then General of Division and President of the Republic, Prospero Fernandez and by his Secretary of State Bernardo Soto, both recognized Frenchmen initiated at the Scottish Rite. They were accused of more involvement in political affairs, the education of children and young people, as well as the attempt to secularize cemeteries and other lands. The same decree reads: "they are evident the tendencies... to overcome the state in its highest functions."
• in 1889 Brazil.

Expulsions of the 20th century

In 1901 they were expelled from France and in 1910 from Portugal (in the context of the October 5 revolution).

In Spain the Society of Jesus became illegal as a consequence of the entry into force of the Constitution of the Second Spanish Republic of 1931 (article 26, fourth paragraph, relating to the "fourth vow" of obedience to the pope). On January 23, 1932, its dissolution was consequently ordered (decree drafted by the president of the government Manuel Azaña and by the minister of justice Fernando de los Ríos), giving its components a period of ten days to "abandon religious life in common and subject to legislation.