disloyalty took place in Rossio Square in Lisbon on September 20, 1761, when Gabriele Malagrida, an aged and by then mentally confused Jesuit accused of plotting against the kingâs life, was brutally strangled and burned at the stake.
Pombalâs action against the Jesuits must be explained on several levels. It fed his pride and ambition by showing he was able to bring down such an established institution. It enriched the crown through the seizure of the Jesuitsâ properties and institutions. For Pombal, a creature of the Enlightenment, the elimination of the Jesuits fit a larger plan to eradicate from the land the superstition that was Catholicism and to humiliate the papacy by showing it was powerless to protect the Jesuits. His success had an impact far beyond Portugal and the Portuguese dominions. It demonstrated to Europe both the vulnerability of the supposedly powerful Society of Jesus and the papacyâs impotence to protect it.
The first step in the destruction of the Jesuit pest had been taken. The next step was taken by France, the key nation on the continent, where the Gallican sentiments of both clergy and laity sat ill with a religious order whose headquarters were in Rome. Pervasive though Gallican sentiments were, they were only one of the forces that, though often at odds with one another, made common cause against the Jesuits. The
philosophes,
for instance, despised the Jansenists but found themselves in the same camp with them when it came to the Jesuits.
The magistrates of the Paris Parlement, moreover, looked for occasions to put restraints on the absolute authority claimed by the Bourbon monarchs. Like his predecessors beginning with Henry IV, the reigning Louis XV favored and protected the Jesuits. To force him to act against them would be a triumph for the magistrates, many of whom were Jansenists. The hour was ripe. The kingâs prestige and authority had been severely damaged by defeats during the Seven Years War, just when he badly needed his Parlements to approve new taxes.
Two events provided the anti-Jesuit forces with the catalyst they needed to go into action. In January 1757, Louis XV was stabbed in the courtyard of Versailles by a man who had been a pupil of the Jesuits. Although the man claimed he was inspired to his deed from what he had heard from a Jansenist magistrate, public opinion was manipulated to incriminate the Jesuits. After all, the propaganda ran, the Jesuits had been proved responsible for the attempt on Joseph I of Portugal. When news of Malagridaâs execution in Lisbon in 1761 reached Paris, it was greeted as vindication of the accusations against the Jesuits.
The second was a notorious case that had dragged on in the law courts for six years until finally decided against the Jesuits by the Paris Parlement in 1761. The Jesuit Antoine Lavalette (or Valette), superior of the French mission in Martinique, began taking dangerous chances in order to relieve the heavy debt of the mission. His ability to meet payments to his debtors depended on selling the produce of the mission in Europe. Unfortunately, in 1756 English corsairs swooped down on the thirteen ships he had hired for a shipment, so that only one of his cargoes reached Cádiz. Creditors demanded payment and sued the Society of Jesus in France. Not only did the Jesuits lose the case, but âthe Lavaletteaffairâ was paraded as proof positive of the Jesuitsâ loose morals and lust for gold.
Three months after the decision against Lavalette, the Paris Parlement took action. It ordered that the Jesuitsâ schools be closed and that the works of twenty-three Jesuit authors, including Bellarmino and Suárez, be burned. The king intervened, and in the ensuing months the royal council devised several plans to save the Society, which were repugnant to both the Jesuits and the Parlement and, hence, unavailing.
On August 6, 1762, the Paris Parlement declared that the Society of Jesus,
Pombalâs action against the Jesuits must be explained on several levels. It fed his pride and ambition by showing he was able to bring down such an established institution. It enriched the crown through the seizure of the Jesuitsâ properties and institutions. For Pombal, a creature of the Enlightenment, the elimination of the Jesuits fit a larger plan to eradicate from the land the superstition that was Catholicism and to humiliate the papacy by showing it was powerless to protect the Jesuits. His success had an impact far beyond Portugal and the Portuguese dominions. It demonstrated to Europe both the vulnerability of the supposedly powerful Society of Jesus and the papacyâs impotence to protect it.
The first step in the destruction of the Jesuit pest had been taken. The next step was taken by France, the key nation on the continent, where the Gallican sentiments of both clergy and laity sat ill with a religious order whose headquarters were in Rome. Pervasive though Gallican sentiments were, they were only one of the forces that, though often at odds with one another, made common cause against the Jesuits. The
philosophes,
for instance, despised the Jansenists but found themselves in the same camp with them when it came to the Jesuits.
The magistrates of the Paris Parlement, moreover, looked for occasions to put restraints on the absolute authority claimed by the Bourbon monarchs. Like his predecessors beginning with Henry IV, the reigning Louis XV favored and protected the Jesuits. To force him to act against them would be a triumph for the magistrates, many of whom were Jansenists. The hour was ripe. The kingâs prestige and authority had been severely damaged by defeats during the Seven Years War, just when he badly needed his Parlements to approve new taxes.
Two events provided the anti-Jesuit forces with the catalyst they needed to go into action. In January 1757, Louis XV was stabbed in the courtyard of Versailles by a man who had been a pupil of the Jesuits. Although the man claimed he was inspired to his deed from what he had heard from a Jansenist magistrate, public opinion was manipulated to incriminate the Jesuits. After all, the propaganda ran, the Jesuits had been proved responsible for the attempt on Joseph I of Portugal. When news of Malagridaâs execution in Lisbon in 1761 reached Paris, it was greeted as vindication of the accusations against the Jesuits.
The second was a notorious case that had dragged on in the law courts for six years until finally decided against the Jesuits by the Paris Parlement in 1761. The Jesuit Antoine Lavalette (or Valette), superior of the French mission in Martinique, began taking dangerous chances in order to relieve the heavy debt of the mission. His ability to meet payments to his debtors depended on selling the produce of the mission in Europe. Unfortunately, in 1756 English corsairs swooped down on the thirteen ships he had hired for a shipment, so that only one of his cargoes reached Cádiz. Creditors demanded payment and sued the Society of Jesus in France. Not only did the Jesuits lose the case, but âthe Lavaletteaffairâ was paraded as proof positive of the Jesuitsâ loose morals and lust for gold.
Three months after the decision against Lavalette, the Paris Parlement took action. It ordered that the Jesuitsâ schools be closed and that the works of twenty-three Jesuit authors, including Bellarmino and Suárez, be burned. The king intervened, and in the ensuing months the royal council devised several plans to save the Society, which were repugnant to both the Jesuits and the Parlement and, hence, unavailing.
On August 6, 1762, the Paris Parlement declared that the Society of Jesus,
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