PAPAL ACTION AGAINST THE JESUITS

The story of the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 belongs to the history of the church, indeed to the history of the human race. A brief summary of events in Europe may serve as background to the consequences of the suppression for the churches in Asia.

The Society of Jesus has never been popular – the unpopularity is perhaps an unwilling tribute to its merits. The religious orders have in general disliked a body which has seemed to be rather less than an order and rather more than a society. Bishops have tended to look with less than favour on men who have often claimed for themselves special privileges, and who have been inclined to adopt an attitude of considerable independence in relation to the local ordinaries. The extreme centralisation of the Jesuits and the efficiency of the administration of the Society have led to suspicions of ambition to attain to power outside the Society's proper fields of competence. The intense loyalty of the members to the general, always resident in Rome, and to the pope, who from 1523 to 1978 was always an Italian, have led sovereigns to wonder whether Jesuits can be loyal citizens of any country, to whatever nationality they may happen to belong. At times Jesuits have been accused of interference in political activities and even of involvement in plots against the lives of rulers.