The chief causes which led to the Suppression of the Society in 1773 were the following: (I) The power of the Society within the Church and at the Catholic Courts aroused enmity. Royal confessors were usually Jesuits, and some of them were charged with exercising undue influence in political affairs; (2) The So ciety was the strongest bulwark of Ultramontane teaching in Catholic Europe; (3) Friction with the Sorbonne and other uni versities was frequent; (4) The controversies with Dominicans and Franciscans, concerning the doctrine of Grace, the "Chinese Rites," etc., left a legacy of ill-feeling; (5) The lax teaching, on certain points, of a few Jesuit moralists was falsely attributed to the entire Order; (6) Pascal and the Jansenists distrusted and hated the Society; (7) Above all, after 175o deistic "philosophy" largely dominated the educated and ruling classes in Catholic Europe. Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists united with Jansenists and the statesmen of "enlightened despotism" to crush the Jesuits.
In 1759 Pombal banished the Society from Portugal and Bra zil. In France, Jansenists and philosophers became active against the Jesuits. De Choiseul, the Chief Minister of State, and La Pompadour, were hostile to the Society. In 1762 the Parlement of Paris made the case of Father La Valette, whose mission activities had become involved in quasi-commercial transactions, an occasion for condemning the Institute and "blind obedience" of the Society as "immoral." Despite the protests of a majority of the episcopate, in 1764, Louis XV. reluctantly yielded his consent to the expulsion of the Society from France. In 1767 Charles III. of Spain violently expelled all Jesuits from his vast Empire. The King was dominated by anti-clerical Minis ters; but the real reason for his violent act has remained "buried in his royal heart." In the same year Tanucci expelled the Society from Naples. The Bourbon Courts and Portugal now sought to coerce the Holy See into entirely suppressing the hated Order.
In the Papal Conclave of 1769, twenty-three Cardinals were "vetoed" as "Zelanti" or pro-Jesuit. On May 19, 1769, Cardinal Ganganelli was chosen Pope unanimously, and took the name of Clement XIV. He had expressed the view that the Suppres sion might become necessary: "Sometimes we must cut down a mast to save the ship." Still, he ratified the privileges of the So ciety in a most laudatory Brief after his accession. Monino, the Spanish Ambassador, threatened schism unless the Pope yielded. In Germany and Austria, on the contrary, bishops, princes and cities presented memorials in behalf of the Order. Clement XIV. attempted to avert the evil day by diplomatic concessions but finally yielded. On July 21, 1773, appeared the Brief of Suppres sion, Dominus ac Redemptor Noster. This Brief (not a Bull) is narrative rather than judicial in tone. Clement XIV. cited cer tain past difficulties of the Society and enumerated present com plaints against it, notably charges of political and mercantile activities and the hostility of the Bourbon Courts and of Portu gal. The Pope thus concluded the Brief : "For the sake of peace,
and because the Society can no longer attain the aims for which it was founded, and on secret grounds which we enclose in our heart, we suppress the said Society." The "secret grounds" have never been disclosed, but it is prob able that Clement XIV. meant the threats to which he had been subjected. The Brief became effective only when promulgated by the Bishops. It condemns neither the teaching, nor the morals, nor the discipline of the Jesuits. As Spittler notes, "It is useless either as a justification or a condemnation" of the Society. It was not preceded by any judicial investigation, and Clement XIV. based it upon motives of policy.
Some verdicts of historians upon the Suppression merit notice. Ranke (Romische Papste III., 205) writes: "The Jesuits were destroyed chiefly because they defended the strongest conception of the supremacy of the Roman See." St. Alphonsus Ligouri de clared that the Suppression was due to "a plot of Jansenists and infidels." The present Pope Pius XI. calls the Suppression "a painful page of history." It seems clear that the elements which pushed forward the Suppression were the Jansenists, the anti Christian philosophers, and the advocates of unlimited secular absolutism; that Clement XIV. acted under coercion ; and that, when free, Bishops, and the laity in general, bore witness to the learning and priestly zeal of the Society.
The chief effects of the Suppression were the following: (I) A severe blow was dealt to Catholic higher education in Europe. The spread of deistic philosophy and of revolutionary doctrine was freed from a powerful obstacle. Charles III. had unwittingly removed one great support of the Spanish Crown when he crushed the Society in his Empire. (2) The damage to the foreign missions was extreme. The Reductions of Paraguay fell into ruin; and in India, China and throughout Latin America, the Suppression of the Society caused a gap which could not be filled. (3) Sorel deemed the Suppression a "death blow to Papal prestige." Two sovereigns refused to permit the publication of the Brief of Suppression, Frederick II. of Prussia and Catherine II. of Russia. As long as Frederick lived, he encouraged the con tinuance of the Jesuit colleges in Prussia, but his successor, in 1786, seized the institutions and revenues and sent the Fathers into exile. Catherine declared she wished the Society to continue as a teaching body in White Russia, that portion which Russia received in the spoliation of Poland. In 1776, there were 145 members scattered through 12 establishments. In 178o, a novitiate was opened for the perpetuation of the Order. In that same year, Catherine asked Pius VI. for sanction in her protection of the Society. While the Pope would not agree, he did not disagree; the survival, then, was considered not illegitimate.