Next Thursday, the Society of Jesus celebrates 200 years since its restoration by Pope Pius VII, 41 years after its suppression. Fr Robert Soler SJ discusses the slow and complex process that gradually led to the society’s renewed recognition by the Catholic Church.

The Jesuit Order was suppressed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773. The formal papal decree of suppression, Dominus ac Redemptor, was preceded by expulsions of the order from various Catholic countries and their colonies. Prior to these expulsions, there were over 20,000 members in the Society of Jesus and had, across the world, been running 669 colleges, 340 apostolic residences, 1,542 churches, 61 noviceship houses and 273 missions, while 171 diocesan seminaries were entrusted to its care.

The 41 years when the Jesuit Order was formally suppressed may be divided into two periods. During the first period (1773-1789), the Bourbon monarchs were still an influential phal­anx against the Society of Jesus. There followed one of the most tumultuous periods of upheaval in Europe (1789-1815), that included the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, and ended with the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15.

A de facto coalition formed by the Enlightenment (that exalted Reason), Jansenism (with its negative theological outlook) and the absolutist Bourbon monarchies (who worked unscrupulously) had brought about the suppression of the Jesuit Order. The Bourbons believed they could subsequently render the entire Catholic Church and the papacy itself subservient. However, this is not quite how things played out.

The decree of suppression directed bishops to notify Jesuit communities in their territory of the Pope’s decision to disband the order. The promulgation and implementation of the decree, however, required the go-ahead of the civil authorities.

The earlier expulsions from Portugal, France, Spain, Naples, Parma and Malta, anticipating the suppression, had, in practice, made promulgation of the papal decree in these countries superfluous. In other areas, Dominus ac Redemptor was promulgated, but its implementation varied greatly from place to place.

Local authorities prized the cultural input of Jesuit schools, whose elimination would clearly create a great void. Besides, particularly in Catholic areas, serious concern surfaced at the ever-growing influence of the secularising Enlightenment, which derided organised religion.

A typical solution was for former Jesuits, at the civil authorities’ request, to continue running their schools while living in community as diocesan priests, under the bishops’ jurisdiction. This happened in three cities in Switzerland, seven in Germany and Liège in Belgium.

Austrian Empress Maria Theresa also employed ex-Jesuits in their former colleges. While former Jesuits thus remained active in Catholic education, their ranks were destined to become depleted; they were, in fact, no longer permitted to recruit new members.

In 1774-76, 16 former Irish Jesuits formed a voluntary association, Societas Resurrectura, affirming their profound hope that the society will rise up again.

Similarly, in the US, after the promulgation of the papal brief, the ex-Jesuits, led by John Carroll, grouped together to keep the mission going until, they were convinced, the society would be restored. Carroll, consecrated the first Bishop of Baltimore in 1789, set up a college at Georgetown, and placed it in the hands of his former confrères. With a syllabus of humanities, philosophy and some theology, Carroll envisaged an intelligent, well-formed Catholic laity emerging, hopefully also some priestly vocations. Georgetown was the first of very many Catholic colleges and universities that exist in the US to this day.

Very surprising and significant developments, however, came from totally unexpected quarters: Prussia and Russia. While the Bourbon Catholic kings had consciously worked to wreck the Jesuit Order. As Jesuit historian Manuel Revuelta González writes: “Two non-Catholic monarchs, Frederick of Prussia and Catherine of Russia, became its saviours. They did not do this for religious reasons or to defend Catholicism, but out of political convenience, strengthened… by cultural advantages… Frederick and Catherine believed in absolute monarchy more than the Catholic monarchs. If the latter felt able to veto papal decisions, even more so could a Protestant king and an Orthodox tsarina.”

King Frederick II of Prussia, a Protestant, had waged the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) against Catholic Austria. Before 1768, with his avant-garde Enlightenment ideas, he had advocated the Jesuit Order’s suppression. Later, precisely as a child of the Enlightenment that prized good education, he recognised that Jesuit schools contributed greatly to the level of culture in his country, which by 1772 included territory acquired through the first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

When the papal decree of suppression of the Jesuits reached his territories, Frederick promptly forbade Bishop Moritz von Strachwitz from promulgating it. He informed Jesuit provincial Franz Gleixner about this, directing the Jesuits to continue their work in the colleges in Silesia and Ermeland.

The Jesuits in Frederick’s realm were evidently in a quandary. The Pope’s wishes were clear: the society was suppressed. On the other hand, under Church law itself, promulgation was necessary for the decree of suppression to come into effect.

The effective annulment of a papal decision by a secular, non-Catholic ruler did nothing to assuage the qualms of conscience of many Jesuits who felt they had to obey the Pope, even though the required promulgation of the decree had not taken place. So Gleixner asked the bishop of Ermeland to petition the Pope for the society to continue its educational mission in Prussia. Frederick II too asked the Pope for a solution to be found.

In 1776, after three years of negotiations during which the Jesuit colleges in Prussia continued to function, a compromise was found. The King would allow Dominus ac Redemptor to be promulgated, and the Society of Jesus would thus be suppressed in Prussia. The Pope would allow the former Jesuits to go on running the colleges, not as religious but as individuals under the jurisdiction of the bishops.

A typical solution was for former Jesuits to continue running their schools while living in community as diocesan priests

Far more enduring consequences accompanied the outright and persistent refusal by Empress Catherine the Great of Russia to allow promulgation of the papal decree suppressing the Jesuits.

Catherine (1729-1796), a Prussian princess, married Peter, heir to the Russian throne. Peter III became tsar in 1762, but was soon forced to abdicate. He was later murdered. Catherine succeeded him. An astute and enlightened ruler, Catherine sought, among other things, to improve her country’s educational system.

Like Frederick II in Prussia, Catherine forbade the promulgation of the papal brief in her vast empire. This included White Russia (nowadays Belarus), where the Jesuits ran churches as well as three colleges in Połock, Vitebsk, and Orsza. Appreciating the colleges, Catherine once told a Portuguese envoy that White Russia was the most fortunate province in her empire because its youth was taught by the Jesuits.

As in Prussia, the Jesuits faced an awkward dilemma. They felt that their duty was to obey the papal decree and disband, but without the required promulgation the decree was, according to Church law, without effect, so they were still Jesuit religious bound by vows. They were being pushed by the civil authorities to go on running their schools.

The Jesuit vice-provincial in White Russia was Lithuanian Stanislaw Czerniewicz. He asked the empress to approve the Jesuits’ surrender of the name ‘Society of Jesus’ and to request the Pope to let them go on living in community and running their schools. The empress, chiding Czerniewicz for being over-scrupulous, flatly refused to write to the Pope.

Three important developments took place under Pope Pius VI (Giovanni Braschi, 1775-1799). Firstly, in late 1775, Czerniewicz turned to the Pope, explaining the quandary his confrères were in, and asking Pius VI for at least some indication that he was not displeased with the Jesuits in Russia. Probably out of fear of the Bourbons, in January 1776, Pius VI gave, orally, only his tacit approval, by replying enigmatically: “May the result of your prayers, as I foresee and you desire, be a happy one.”

Secondly, the Empress had asked the Pope to name a ‘Bishop of White Russia’ with special authority over Catholic religious orders in her realm. Pius VI chose Bishop Siestrzencewicz, with wide powers for three years. Rome believed this would lead to the effective implementation of the suppression of the Jesuit Order.

In 1779, to Rome’s consternation, Siestrzencewicz authorised the opening of a Jesuit noviceship in Połock. Novices started being accepted and some former Jesuits from other countries applied to re-join the still-existing society. In 1782, the Jesuits in White Russia held a congregation (a formal assembly authorised to elect a superior), electing Czerniewicz as vicar-general.

The third important development was in 1783. The Bourbon Catholic monarchies had been trying to bully Catherine the Great into having the papal decree promulgated. She did not bend. When she threatened to force Catholics in her realm to become Orthodox Christians, the Bourbons relented.

She then sent Bishop-elect Jan Benislawski as ambassador on a mission to Rome, to obtain from Pius VI confirmation of the society’s existence in White Russia and approval of what the Jesuits there had done at her command. The Pope granted her wish verbally with a triple “I approve” (‘approbo, approbo, approbo’). Catherine’s actions thus again benefited the Jesuits.

Ten years earlier, Clement XIV had suppressed the Jesuit Order. As Jesuit historian William Bangert writes: “Catherine received the reward of her decade of intransigence, as Rome and St Petersburg had reached at long last accord on the irksome issue of the Society of Jesus.”

Pope Pius VI thereby challenged the absolutist Bourbon monarchies: officially the Society of Jesus remained suppressed, but Pius VI was happy to let it have a lifeline. The Bourbons were absolutely furious.

Czerniewicz died in 1785. Like him, his immediate successors were Lithuanians – Gabriel Lenkiewicz and Franciszek Kareu. When Kareu died in 1802, the greatly talented Austrian linguist, physicist and architect Gabriel Gruber succeeded him. The last man to lead the society in White Russia was Tadeusz Brzozowski from Poland, elected in 1805.

The Bourbon anti-Jesuit front gradually disintegrated and the society started making a comeback in western Europe. The French monarchy was abolished by the legislative assembly in 1792, Louis XVI being subsequently guillotined. In 1793, Ferdinando, the formerly anti-Jesuit Bourbon Duke of Parma, changed his mind and asked for a few Jesuits from Russia. He requested Pius VI to sanction the move: the Pope, still fearing the reactions of Bourbon Spain and Naples, responded vaguely, saying that the good of souls took precedence over all else.

Three Jesuits from Russia soon reached Parma. They were joined by Spanish saint José Pignatelli, who had worked tirelessly in Italy for over 30 years, supporting his former confrères. In 1797, he renewed his vows as a Jesuit. In 1799, with papal approval, a noviceship was opened at Colorno in the duchy of Parma, with Pignatelli being placed in charge of the five novices.

Ferdinando told Pope Pius VI that if a Bourbon request was needed for the Jesuit Order to be restored worldwide, he was making one. The Pope still felt bound by Spanish intransigency. Taken prisoner by French troops in February 1798, Pius VI, upon receiving a request to give his formal approval to the Jesuit Order in Russia, directed in March 1799 that the Russian court, the Catholic hierarchy and the Jesuits should make the official request in question. Five months later, however, in August 1799, the Pope died a prisoner in exile at Valence in France.

His successor, Pope Pius VII (Barnaba Chiaramonti, 1800-1823), soon showed great determination in restoring the Society of Jesus. He told Jesuit Luigi Panizzoni that he shared Duke Ferdinand’s advocacy of the society’s restoration.

By now, Catherine the Great had died (1796) and Tsar Paul I wanted Jesuits in other parts of his realm, especially schools to further education. In St Petersburg, he gave the society St Catherine’s church and commissioned a school. The Tsar wrote to Pope Pius VII asking for the restoration of the society, the only way he saw to combat “the flood of impiety, illuminism and Jacobinism in my empire…”.

Despite opposition by Bourbon Spain, Pope Pius VII in 1801 published the Catholicae Fidei brief, formally approving the Society of Jesus in Russia. While the Napoleonic wars raged, ageing former Jesuits from across Europe asked to rejoin the society and young men drawn by St Ignatius’s apostolic spirituality asked to be join.

Pope Pius VII subsequently approved several requests for affiliation with the Jesuits in Russia, and pockets of Jesuits soon formed in various countries including Switzerland, England and the US. In Naples in August 1804, the Bourbon King Ferdinand, who had expelled the Jesuits 37 years earlier, deeply shaken now by the French Revolution, welcomed them back. Pignatelli became provincial for Italy. The Jesuits set up a novitiate in Orvieto and a school in Tivoli.

Napoleon had taken Pius VII to Fontainebleau in 1812. Once the emperor was defeated and his empire had collapsed, the Pope returned to Rome on May 24, 1814, determined to bring about Europe’s religious and moral reconstruction. He resolved, among other things, to restore the Society of Jesus throughout the world.

This Pope Pius VII did through the short 1814 papal decree Sollicitudo Omnium Ecclesiarum. In the first of 14 paragraphs, he stated that his pastoral office impelled him to use the means provided by God to care for the spiritual needs of believers throughout the world. He affirmed he would be guilty of a capital crime if he neglected to employ the aid Jesuits could provide to the storm-tossed bark of Peter.

On August 7, 1814, Pope Pius VII said Mass at the altar of St Ignatius in the Gesù church in central Rome. Then, in the chapel of the Sodality, in the presence of a large crowd, including some 150 ageing members of the suppressed Society of Jesus, the decree of Restoration of the Society was read out by Monsignor Cristaldi. The papal document was handed over to Fr Luigi Panizzoni, representing Fr General Tadeusz Brzozowski, who was still in White Russia.

Most property confiscated from the pre-suppression society was neither returned to the Jesuits nor reclaimed by them

The society now existed again, but in a changed world. The laborious rebuilding started worldwide. It was a herculean task to again set up residences, churches and apostolic works, like retreat houses and schools. Most of the property confiscated from the pre-suppression society was neither returned to the Jesuits nor reclaimed by them. The Collegium Melitense and Jesuits’ church in Valletta are a case in point.

The society’s remnant survived in White Russia with considerable help from Empress Catherine the Great. The ‘old’ pre-1773 Society of Jesus was linked to the ‘new’ post-1814 society through the ‘Russian experience’ of less than 200 of its men.

Historians argue whether such continuity is to be seen as a mere quirk of history, due in large measure to the fiery temperament of a Russian Empress, or whether it was providential, namely God’s own way of opening a window when the door is firmly shut.

This author takes the latter view. Firstly, because Bourbon hatred of the Jesuits and pressure on the popes, coupled with the persuasiveness of Enlightenment ideas, made the likelihood of the society’s surviving after the papal decree in 1773 absolutely minimal. Secondly, because Russia seems to have been meant in some divine plan to offer the Jesuits asylum merely for as long as necessary. In fact, in 1820, it expelled the Jesuit Order over a disagreement concerning translations of the Bible.

It was, arguably, only God’s special design embodied in protection and guidance from on high that, ever so slowly, paved the way for the Society of Jesus to rise from the ashes and come to life again on August 7, 1814.

To be concluded.