The Jesuit Suppression in Global Context Causes, Events, and Consequences

In 1773, Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Society of Jesus, a dramatic, puzzling act that had a profound impact. This volume traces the causes of the attack on the Jesuits, the national expulsions that preceded universal suppression, and the consequences of these extraordinary developments. The Suppression occurred at a unique historical juncture, at the high-water mark of the Enlightenment and on the cusp of global imperial crises and the Age of Revolution. After more than two centuries, answers to how and why it took place remain unclear. A diverse selection of essays - covering France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, China, Eastern Europe, and the Americas - reflects the complex international elements of the Jesuit Suppression. The contributors shed new light on its significance by drawing on the latest research. Essential reading on a crucial yet previously neglected topic, this collection will interest scholars of eighteenth-century religious, intellectual, cultural, and political history.

Introduction Jonathan Wright and Jeffrey D. Burson; Part I. Causes: 1. Plots and rumors of plots: the role of conspiracy in the international campaign against the Society of Jesus, 1758–68 Dale K. Van Kley; 2. Between power and Enlightenment: the cultural and intellectual context for the Jesuit Suppression in France Jeffrey D. Burson; 3. Friends as liabilities: Christophe de Beaumont's defense of the Jesuits Tom Worcester; Part II. Events: 4. On the road to suppression: the Jesuits and their expulsion from the reductions of Paraguay Maurice Whitehead; 5. The end of the Jesuit mission in China R. Po-chia Hsia; 6. The expulsion and suppression in Portugal and Spain: an overview Emanuele Colombo and Niccolò Guasti; 7. The Suppression of the Jesuits in the Savoyard state Christopher Storrs; 8. 'Lost in the title': John Thorpe's eyewitness account of the Suppression Thomas McCoog; 9. French Jesuits, c.1756–1814 D. Gillian Thompson; Part III. Consequences: 10. General suppression, Russian survival, American success: the 'Russian' Society of Jesus and the Jesuits in the United States Daniel L. Schlafly, Jr; 11. Adam Beckers (1744–1806), (ex-)Jesuit in Amsterdam, and the Society of Jesus from Suppression to Restoration Paul Begheyn; 12. Ex-Jesuits in the east Habsburg lands, Silesia and Poland Paul Shore; 13. The exile of the Spanish Jesuits in Italy (1767–1815) Niccolò Guasti; 14. The legacies of Suppression; Jesuit culture and science: what was lost? What was gained? Louis Caruana.

Jeffrey D. Burson is Associate Professor of French History and the Enlightenment at Georgia Southern University. He is the author of The Rise and Fall of Theological Enlightenment: Jean-Martin de Prades and Ideological Polarization in Eighteenth-Century France and coeditor, with Ulrich L. Lehner, of Enlightenment and Catholicism in Europe: A Transnational History.
Jonathan Wright is Honorary Fellow in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University. He has also been a Thouron Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and a Fellow of the Leibniz Institute of European History. His publications include God's Soldiers: Adventure, Politics, Intrigue, and Power – A History of the Jesuits; Heretics: The Creation of Christianity from the Gnostics to the Modern Church; and Layered Landscapes: Early Modern Religious Space across Faiths and Cultures (with Eric Nelson, forthcoming).