The Brief Catholicae Fidei issued in 18o1 by Pius VII. posi tively approved of the corporate existence of the Russian Society, and Francis Kareu was created General. Meanwhile, former mem bers of the Society were being received, either in person or by name. Catherine, and her two successors, Paul I. and Alexan der I., proved friendly protectors and patrons of the Order. By a Papal Brief, the Society was extended from Russia to Naples in 1804, but was dispersed two years later.
Several former ex-Jesuits in Belgium, in united in a com munity called the "Fathers of the Sacred Heart." In 1797, a similar body, retaining the rule and the spirit of the Society, was aggregated under the name of the "Fathers of the Faith." With the sanction of the Pope the two communities merged; but dissatisfaction with the Superior, Father Paccanari, who opposed a union with the Russian Society, caused many to leave the community and to seek entrance in Russia. In 1803, 11 ex Jesuits in Maryland were received corporately by Gabriel Gruber, then General. During these years, Pius VI. and Pius VII. were prudently working toward a restoration of the Society. As soon as Pius VII. returned to Rome from his captivity in France, he issued a Bull Sollicitudo Omnium Ecclesiarum, dated August 7, 1814, whereby the Society of Jesus was restored throughout the world. Seventeen months after the Bull re-established the So ciety throughout the world, the Jesuits were banished from St. Petersburg; and in 182o Alexander I. decreed that they must all leave Russia, charging them with causing too many conversions from the Orthodox Church. Though they were still refused ad mission into Portugal, they were welcomed by the countries which had brought about the Suppression, Italy, France and Spain.
After its restoration, the Society had a gradual growth from a few hundred in 1814 until at the beginning of 1935 (the last figures available) it numbered (10,799 priests, 8,717 Scholastics, and 5,216 lay brothers), distributed through 44 provinces. This represented a growth of nearly 8,000 in 20 years. In its new life, it has devoted itself to practically the same work that had characterized it from the start; foreign missions, col leges, research in science and letters, preaching and writing, with some new features made necessary by the times.
It must be said, however, that it met with greater obstacles than ever before. During the nineteenth century, the revolu tionary movements that swept all continental and South Ameri can countries and were invariably directed against religion as well as against the State, usually picked the Jesuits as their first targets. Thus they were expelled from France in 183o, again in 1845, in 188o, and in 1901, but as a result of hundreds of them serving in the World War, returned in 1919; from Spain in 182o, 1835, 1854, during the first Republic in 1868, and more recently under the second Republic in 1931; from Switzerland under the Sonderbund in 1847 ; from Austria and Poland in 1848 ; from Italy at various times before the unification in 1870; from Germany in 1872 by Bismarck during the Kulturkampf, not to return until after the World War; and from Portugal in 1834 and 191o. The frequent revolutions in South America and Mexico unfailingly saw them dispersed under violent threats ; but in the countries which did not suffer these revolutionary upheavals, as Belgium, England, Canada, Ireland, and the United States, they were left in peace. In most of the nations which attacked them, however, they did not actually leave the country, except for those younger men who were still pursuing their studies ; the rest adopted the garb of secular priests and carried on their priestly work as best they might. In most cases, it must be said that their expulsion or dispersion was logical, since because of the very prominence of their work itself, they were usually looked upon by the revolutionaries as spokesmen for the Church, against which the movement really was directed. The action against them usually took the form of new laws or the resurrection of old laws, but sometimes also of vio lence, as when, for instance, in Madrid in 1822 twenty-two Jesuits were murdered by the mobs, and again in Madrid in 1931, when their principal houses were burned with destruction of libraries and manuscripts. Confiscation of property invariably followed, as in France in 188o when they lost 26 colleges and again in 1901 when they lost 32.