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Dok. 21

Rome 3 September 1773. John Thorpe to Jenison, Archives of the British Province of the Society of Jesus, John Thorpe, Miscellaneous Letters, 1754-1792, fols. 172v-73r

All who were lately Jesuits are disposed in private houses; several are gone to their families & there forbid to quit Rome. Those who were in the English College are among the latter. Everything continues in great confusion, perpetual fear & anxiety of what is yet to fall upon the wreck of the Society for in all appearances it must be bruised more & reduced to some greater distress than even what it has yet suffered. But what it is to be, we know not & dare not guess. Rev. Ricci, the late General, remains strictly confined to a part of the English College without any communication whatever of friends or relations. Providence supports him with health & spirits. He is attended by only one person who was his Laybrother companion. The apartment in which they are, is closely mured up, & the windows toward the street are blinded. All entrance to him is kept by a guard of soldiers & sentinels perpetually on duty both night & day. Two more chambers are preparing in the same College for prisoners not yet named. A Prelate & Notaries have been divers times to examine the General, & also the Assistants of Italy, Germany & Poland who are sequestered in the Roman College, to which place they were removed from the Professed House. Various are the conjectures on the subject of these interrogatories. The most credible says that they are made on the government of the Society, & principally on its supposed immense hidden treasures for the strictest inquiry is made after whatever regards money, of which little has hitherto been found, all houses, except the Noviciate being much in debt. The Church Plate a& like valuable effects is daily transporting to the Treasury. The late professor of Canon Law in the German College & a Laybrother belonged to the same house, are confined in Castel St. Angelo. The burning of some papers is said to be the cause of this imprisonment. The first is old & very infirm & has been growing childish for many months past. The Congregation of the Five Cardinals sits twice a week for the dispatch of business which daily multiplies upon their hands. The Prelates who are the deputed executioners, make reports of what happened & is done in their respective departments & receive further instructions. Everything is conducted with great secrecy & equal severity. Matters are yet in too great confusion & the general consternation not yet sufficiently abated, to permit me to write as usual to you. Besides I keep close in my room, see very few persons & know very little of what passes. I neither have nor shall send any copy of the Breve. I have not even the courage to read it, wait impatiently to know how it will be received in Flanders & England, & what effects it will produce there where the very publishing of it would be high treason. I most heartily compassionate every one who are anyways to feel what we do, earnestly beg Almighty God to support us under so heavy a trial & be our comfort in whatever affliction is yet to overwhelm us.

 

Dok. 22

Ca. 1775, Leonard Brooke [former Jesuit novice] to unknown, Maryland Province Archives located at Georgetown University’s Special Collections Division, Washington, D.C., box 2 folder 7.

Providence seems to have raised the Heretical Powers to ye pitch of grandeur they now posses in order to assist distressed innocence; it is in these we find our Chief & almost only Support. The Empress of Russia’s conduct towards us is very similar to that of Pruss[ia] – The Vice Prov[incial] of that part of Poland now Subject to ye Court of Petersbourg [Stanislaus Czerniewicz (1728-1785)] scrupulously wrote to ye Czarina beg[g]ing license to conform to ye tenor of ye Brief [of suppression], alledging for a reason that ye Pope being ye head of ye Church it was ye duty of good Catholicks to conform themselves to his will. The Czarina had before expressly forbidden any notice to be taken of the Brief, but upon receiving this new request & ye motives alledged  in it She answered that ye duty of Roman Catholicks was well known; & that if ye Pope should issue out any orders in matters of faith, it was not her intent to prohibit either his assent or behavior in consequence of it: but in regard of anything else she neither could nor would permit innovations, & therefore charged him & all ye Jesuits to continue as they were & had been.

Dok. 23

31 August 1776, John Thorpe to Henry, Lord Arundell,, Archives of the British Province of the Society of Jesus, Transcripts of Letters from Thorpe to Arundell, chronological order.

The ministers of the Czarina show the greatest attention to whatever regards the welfare of the Jesuits in her dominions. The King of Prussia, to rectify the small alteration that he had permitted to be introduced among the Jesuits in Silesia only, for in all the other parts of his territories they remain as they were, he has declared that he will have the Jesuits to be an Order for the education of youth, & in all things to proceed according to the Institute of the Society. The candidates who petition to be admitted amongst under oath oblige themselves to this form of government, & according to it must dedicate themselves to the education of youth. Something like this might have been established at Liège, but now neither the temper of the times nor of them who rule will here countenance any proposal of a Congregation by which the Academy & also the Mission might also be brought upon a more satisfactory & lasting plan unless Providence has something better in store for us. A system is said to be projected at the Court of Vienna for putting the Jesuits in all the colleges that have not been alienated, for leaving the administration & management of the revenues to them, with the obligation of teaching, preaching etc. as before. The system proceeds on the principle of economy only because all the revenues of the Jesuits fall far short of defraying the present expenses of hired Masters who supply for them without satisfying the people. The article adds that this system, if it be approved, would continue longe vixerint aut revixerint. However it seems to be concerned only to amuse their friends for the present conduct of the Court does not furnish any proof of such a thing being seriously thought of.

The old Jesuit Bishop of Nanking  writes that the mission in China decays daily. It has lost a great support by the death of the celebrated German Astronomer (Father Hallerstein) in the Court of Pekin. He was struck with an apoplexy on receiving the news of the destructive Brief. I am obliged to thank your Lordship for mentioning the death of Father Champion that we may here pray for him according to the good old custom. Our people in England & at Liège are very backward in giving us any such intelligence.

Dok. 24

Aprile 1780. D. Henrique de Meneses[3], Negócios dos Ex-Jesuítas Portuguezes

In: António TRIGUEIROS, “I gesuiti portoghesi espulsi in Italia: vita e cultura nei quattro convitti italiani” in Ugo BALDINI e Gian Paolo Brizzi (a cura di), La presenza in Italia dei gesuiti iberici espulsi, Bologna, CLUEB, 2010, p.  63s.

Á chegada dos Padres Portugueses da Companhia aos portos do Domínio Pontifício, foram logo pelo seo P. Geral destribuídos em várias Cazas de Roma, e da Província, e sustentados todos pellas rendas dos Collegios da Companhia; alguns foram empregados em lugares que lhes davam com que passar. Quando succedeo a expulção dos Domínios de Hespanha e das Sicílias, achando-se o Geral mais apertado por falta das remessas, que tirava daquellas Províncias, pedio ao Santo Padre Clemente XIII os Palácios da Câmara, em Pesaro e Urbania que não tinhão uso algum, para recolher nelles alguns dos Padres Portugueses; e sendolhe concedidos, mandou viver nos dittos Palácios mais de 200 Individuos, dando a cada hum por dia hum Paolo (que faz 85 reis); e vendo que não podião subsistir com tão pouco, recorreo ao Santo Padre, o qual do Cofre da Componenda, que he dinheiro para esmollas, mandou dar 20 escudos (que fazem 17$000 rs) por anno a cada hum para o vestiário. Esta mesma esmolla foi continuada por algum tempo pelo S. P. Clemente XIV que depois a mandou tirar.

 

Dok. 25

20 February 1782, John Carroll[4] to Charles Plowden

In: Thomas O’Brien Hanley, ed., The John Carroll Papers, 3 vols. (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1976) 1: 64.

I observe in your last letter, that some events had happened, and other were likely to follow, that afforded hope to the sanguine of a reestablishment of the Society. I rejoice indeed at these events, and particularly, that it has pleased God to vindicate & make known so publickly the innocence of the poor suffers in Portugal. In my retirement here, I have scarce any other amusement than reading over and over the few books I have and can borrow from my friends: and amongst others, I have been refreshing my memory by revisiting Muratori’s account of the missions of Paraguay. What a dreadful havock did irreligion make, when it tore up, root and branch, that noble establishment, the triumph of zeal, of humanity, and Christianity?”

Dok. 26

24 October 1782, Memoirs of the Jesuits in White Russia. Letter from Polosko,  Archives of the British Province of the Society of Jesus, MS A.II.4, p. 30

Next year, twenty of our Fathers will be admitted to their solemn profession. This year we have not admitted many novices, but the few we have taken are equivalent to many. I have seen & heard things in this Noviceship highly worthy of the primitive ardent spirit of the Society. Our American novice owns that he has not received a hundred fold for one, but a million for the nothing he left.

Our immediate subordination to the Holy See, which is now so clearly established and confirmed by the Empress, had been in vain attacked by many & various intrigues. Our Superiors, with the Divine Protection, have preserved it unhurt & entire. Every duty of respect & due submission has been paid to the Archbishop Metropolitan. The Vicar General before he assembled the Congregation, went to wait on him at Mohilow & to beg his blessing. Nobody, I hope, will wonder that the Society of Jesus which God had really preserved in this Country even by the dispositions of Clement the 14^th and maintained in all its due subordination to the Holy See, should now secure a more perfect subsistence according to its Institute by the Election of a Vicar General. Let those who doubt beg God to call them to wear this his sweet yoke, & they will here discover a thousand clear arguments which can not be expressed in writing. One thing I will remark, that the more we succeed & prosper, the more zeal for religious discipline, Prayer & Confidence in God seems to encrease.

We lately buried Father Martin Kuczewski, a man of eminent Piety, formerly Revisor of Books at Rome. A little before his death, when the Vicar General Elect waited upon him, he rose & fell on his knees, & Oh! how often he blessed and thanked God that he had left Rome after the abolition to die in the Society here. We have greater abundance of subjects than colleges to place them in. Many more from other abolished Provinces solicit to join us than we shall admit. We have had this year a most severe Winter & Spring & positively no summer. Yet I never spent a more happy year, by reason of the events related.

 

Dok. 27

5 May 1786, John Thorpe to Henry, Lord Arundell, Archives of the British Province of the Society of Jesus, Transcripts of Letters from Thorpe to Arundell, chronological order.

I can not leave the subject without also informing your Lordship of the edifying feast lately solemnized here at the Roman College to celebrate the beginning of the third Century from the original establishment of the Primary Sodality there by Pope Gregory XIII, to which all other Sodalities throughout the world have been aggregated. The solemnity was observed on the 25^th of last March with great devotion & like magnificence. A poetical compliment was presented on this occasion to Cardinal Boncampagni who, by a happy combination, is a member of that Sodality & a direct descendant of that Pope Gregory’s family. The Sodalities are almost the only things among the many places & institutions of the Society that is here well kept up: they continue to do much good among the youth & others who duly frequent them, which good certainly neither not known or not esteemed by them who have destroyed so many such Sodalities in Europe & elsewhere.

The happy remnant of the Society continues prosperously to subsist in Russia. Several Jesuits abandon milder climates, & are going thither to be under its obedience. Many will follow as soon as other Colleges & Missions shall be opened. A friend of mine, who last year went thither, expresses every consolation that can be desired by us in this life, and in giving an account of the Society’s preservation there, says it has been effected by what he emphatically calls a heap of miracles.

Dok. 28

22 August 1787, John Thorpe to Henry, Lord Arundell, , Archives of the British Province of the Society of Jesus, Transcripts of Letters from Thorpe to Arundell, chronological order.

Mr. Plowden has copies of divers letters from S. America wherein your Lordship may read many articles with pleasure. Letters from Russia do not afford any more interesting articles than the providential existence of the Society in that country, the exemplary regularity of all its houses, a choice yearly increase in subjects, great industry in schools, churches, in country missions, great satisfaction & advantages of the people with the public & continual  protection of the sovereign.

Dok. 29

1795. John Carroll to the ex-Jesuit missioners in Maryland.

in Thomas O’Brien Hanley, ed., The John Carroll Papers, 3 vols. (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1976, 2: 132-134.

I have devoted much time to the consideration of the subject recommended to me by some of our Brethren, whom I greatly respect, and latterly by the Trustees, who were assembled at the Marsh [Whitemarsh, Md.] in November, 1795.  This subject is an application to His Holiness for a reestablishment of the Society in the United States.  To render this application successful, or rather, to give it a probability of success, I thought it necessary, in the first place, to obtain information respecting the present temper and disposition of those persons, who have a principal influence with the Pope; and, as far as possible, of the Pope himself.  To this effect, letters have been sent to procure this information: it appeared to me not only useful, but hazardous to send on a memorial to Rome, without taking any previous steps to sound the sentiments of those, on whom the grant or rejection of the thing prayed for, would depend.

In the next place, tho’ I heartily concur in whishing & praying for the reestablishment so much desired, tho I think, that no measure, which could be taken by the Head of the Church, especially if he was supported with the concurrence of one or two of the great powers of Europe, would contribute so powerfully to rescue religion from its present oppressions and to render it flourishing again; yet I am far from an intimate conviction, that any considerable advantage would be derived from the reappearance of the Society, as with a mutilated and defective Constitution, instead of that one, compleat in all its parts, by which the Jesuits were formerly governed.  Indeed, I should have fears, that such a restitution might be of prejudice, by preventing a full and entire one, in some later period.  We all know, that there were parts of the Constitution, against which jealousies prevailed in most countries, as if the Constitution were calculated, either to withdraw the members of the body  from an attachment and allegiance to their respective Kings or States, & subject them to a foreign power; or to render them blind instruments of the machinations of their General; or, to make them subservient to the interests of their Order, in defiance of every duty of morality, & of civil and ecclesiastical subordination.  Now, if for the sake of obtaining any kind of reestablishment, we would submit to a breach of the integrity of the Constitution, a precedent would be obtained for never restoring the body in its original form.

The two great hinges, on which the government of the Society turned, were, unity of legislation, and unity of the executive power. The sole legislature, which could frame laws, was the general Congregation of deputies from the different provinces, who likewise chose the General of the Order; and in this General solely the Executive power of the Society was vested.  His residence was to be the near the Person of the Pope, for various important reasons; & for this amongst others, that he might be out of the dependence of any secular prince or state; and thereby his administration might give less outrage to other countries, where Jesuits existed, & who in compliance with an essential point of the constitution, were to be under the immediate authority of Superiors appointed and removable by the General. Should the mol members of the Society be permitted to associate again, and even to admit others into their body, without preserving the unity of legislation, and the unity of the executive, this would not be a reestablishment of the Society, tho’ it might be so called, but the creation of a new body different from that which was unfortunately suppressed.

These are some of the reasons, for which I am anxious to learn the sentiments of the Pope and his Council on this matter, before a memorial or petition be hazarded.  If we have nothing to expect more favourable, than to be allowed to renew our religious vows, and to choose a Vicar General to govern us, in the same manner, as in Alba Russia; or to reunited ourselves under obedience to him; there are serious difficulties in the way of both these plans, which we would do well to consider attentively.

[3]D. Henrique de Menezes (1727-1787), Ambasciatore del Portogallo a Roma.

[4]John Carroll nacque nel 1735, in Maryland, negli Stati Uniti, e ivi morì nel 1815.  Entrò nella Compagnia di Gesù, in Francia, nel 1753.  Nominato vescovo di Baltimora, fu il primo vescovo cattolico negli Stati Uniti.