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General Ricci and the Suppression of the Jesuit Order in France 1760–4

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

D. G. Thompson
D. G. Thompson
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada E3B 5A3
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Extract

The issue in the series of crises leading to the suppression of the Jesuit order in France in 1764 was the absolute obedience owed under the Jesuit Institute by every French Jesuit to the superior general of the Society of Jesus resident in Rome. On the eve of the suppression, the French law courts and the Crown reasoned that Jesuit subjects of the king of France ought not to owe such obedience to a foreign superior living on foreign soil. In the eyes of the secular authorities, the French Jesuits' connection with their superior general constituted a threat to the security of the French state. Initially, most French Jesuit leaders accepted this point of view and tried to come to an accommodation with the state which would have loosened their ties to the general.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , July 1986 , pp. 426 - 441
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

1 The term refers to the published Institute of the Society of Jesus, containing Ignatius Loyola's Formula and his Constitutions, papal legislation pertaining to the Society and important decisions made by the General Congregations of the Society. The term also refers to the organisation, daily life and work of the Jesuit order. In this second sense, in which Ricci so often employed the term, it was the Company of Jesus as Ignatius Loyola had instituted it. Cf. George E. Ganss (ed. and trans.), Saint Ignatius Loyola, the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, Saint Louis 1970, 43-9 and passim.

2 For Ricci's biography see Aloys de Backer and Charles Sommervogel (eds.), Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus, Paris 1880, vi. 1785-92; Elesban de Guilhermy, Menologue de la Compagnie de Jisus: Assistance d'ltalie, Paris 1894, ii. 540 discusses his spirituality.

3 Pastor, Cf. Ludwig von, The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages, trans. Peeler, E. F., London 1961, xxxvi. 371–504Google Scholar and Kiev, Dale van, The Jansenists and the Expulsion of the Jesuits from France, 1757-1765, New Haven 1975Google Scholar, the most useful of the frequently cited sources. See also H. Carre, Le Rigne de Louis XV {1715-1774) in Histoire de France depuis les originesjusqu'a la Revolution, ed. E. Lavisse, Paris 1908, viii (ii). 319-32; tineau-Joly, J. Cre, Histoire religieuse, politique et litteraire de la Compagnie de Jesus 3rd edn, Paris 1858Google Scholar, v, and J. Egret, ‘e proces desjesuites devant les parlements de France (1761-70)’, Revue Historique cciv (1950), 1-27. Pastor's assistants studied the archival sources on which this article is based and reproduced several at length, but with the purpose of elucidating the place of the pope in the history of the suppression. The anti-Jesuit legislation and other events in the basic history of the suppression referred to in this article are cogently explained in Pastor, ibid.

4 ARSI, Ricci, Istoria, 36,64; Epp NN 20a, 144-5, 147-9. 149~50, Ricci to Henri Grirfet, 6 October 1761, to Etienne de la Croix, 11 November 1761, to Bernard Routh, 2 December 1761.

5 ARSI, Ricci, Istoria, 13, 18-21, 37-8, 84-5, 118, 121, 152; Epp NN 20a, 124-5, 147-9, 149-50, 154-5, Ricci to Auguste Noirot, 21 March 1761, to de la Croix, 11 November 1761, to Routh, 2 December 1761 and 10 February 1762; Gall. 43, 161V-2, 162, 162V, 164-v, 167V, Ricci to Matthieu-Jean-Joseph Allanic, 9 April 1760 and to Jean-Baptiste Salvat, 16 April 1760, 23 April 1760, 6 May 1760 and 4 July 1760; and Aquit. 21 no. 47, Ricci to Charles Nectoux, 5 August 1761.

6 Rochemonteix, Cf. Camille de, Le Père Antoine Lavalette à la Martinique d'après beaucoup de documents inédits, Paris 1907, 64–6Google Scholar, 91-107 and passim. This remains the standard study of Lavalette despite its apologetic and simplistic tone and although it makes no use of ARSI, Ricci, Istoria or of Ricci's letters to French Jesuits in Gall. 43 or Epp NN 20a.

7 See my ‘The fate of the French Jesuits’ creditors under the ancien régime’, English Historical Review xci (1976), 255-77 a t PP- 257 and 263; cf. 255-61 for details of the French Jesuit administrators' treatment of Lavalette's creditors.

8 Cf. ARSI, Gall. 43, 162, Ricci to Salvat, 16 April 1760.

9 ARSI, Ricci, Istoria, 17.

10 Ibid. 87.

11 Ibid. 10-17; ARSI, Gall. 43, 163-4, Ricci to Manic, 6 May 1760 and Epp NN 20a, 140, Ricci to de la Croix, 19 August 1761.

12 ARSI, Ricci, Istoria, 16-17. Montigny, Cf. Antoine de, Mémoire pour les fésuites de France condamnés solidairement par une sentence desjuge el consuls de Paris du 30 Janvier 1760, [Paris] 1761, 41Google Scholar. A handwritten copy of this document is available at the Archives of the Province of Paris at Chantilly.

13 ARSI, Ricci, Istoria, 14-18, 78, 87; Epp NN 20a, 124-5, 140. Ricci to Noirot, 21 March 1761, Ricci to de la croix, 19 August 1761.

14 ARSI, Ricci, Istoria, 14, 142.

15 Ibid. 154.

16 Ibid. 14-21.

17 Ibid.19-24.

18 Ibid.21,24; ARSI, Gall. 43, 164-4V, i66-6v, Ricci to Salvat, 6 May 1760.

19 ARSI, Gall. 43, 167V, Ricci to Salvat, 4 July 1760; Epp NN 20a, 107, Ricci to Onuphr e Desmaretz, 4 November 1760. Cf. Rochemonteix, Lavalette, 177.

20 ARSI, Ricci, Istoria, 17-21, 24; Epp NN 20a, 129, Ricci to Nectoux, 21 May 1761.

21 ARSI, Gall. 43, 164-4V, i66-6v, 167V, Ricci to Salvat, 6 May 1760, 3 June 1760 and 4 July 1760; Epp NN 20a, 107, 119-20, 128-9, Ricci to Desmaretz, 4 November 1760, to de la Croix, 31 January 1761, to Salvat, 20 May 1761.

22 ARSI, Epp NN 20a, 132-3, Ricci to de la Croix, 3 June 1761.

23 ARSI, Ricci, Istoria, 22-3; Gall. 43, 169V, Ricci to Desmaretz, 9 June 1761; and Epp NN 20a, 132-3, 133, 133-4, 135, Ricci to de la Croix, 3 June 1761 and 17 June 1761, to Salvat, 17 June 1761.

24 ARSI, Ricci, Istoria, 24.

25 Ibid. 13; ARSI, Angl. 35, 361-2, 363-6, Alexander Crookshanks to Ricci, 24 March 1760 and 19 May 1760; Gall. 43, 164V-5, 167-7V, Ricci to Crookshanks, 6 May 1760 and 16 June 1760; and Epp NN 20a, 128, Ricci to Crookshanks, 13 May 1761.

26 ARSI, Ricci, , Istoria, 13-14, 127-8, 135, 144, 178–9Google Scholar.

27 ARSI, Epp NN 20a, 139-40, 146-7, Ricci to Griffet, 19 August 1761 and 4 November 1761.

28 ARSI, Aquit. 21, no. 41, Ricci to Griffet, 17 June 1761; and Gall. 43, 171-2, Ricci to Griffet, 29 July 1761.

29 ARSI, Ricci,Istoria, 22-3, 27; and Gall. 43, 171-2, Ricci to Griffet, 29 July 1761.

30 ARSI, Ricci, Istoria, 25-30; and Epp NN 20a, 144-5, 144-7, Ricci to Griffet, 6 October 1761 and 4 November 1761; Gall. 43, 175, Ricci to Routh, 11 November 1761.

31 ARSI, Ricci, Istoria, 72-3, 78, 82-3.

32 The edition in question was the one published in Prague in 1757. See above, n. 2.

33 Collombet, F.-Z., Histoire critique et générate de la suppression désjisuites au XVIIIe sikle, Paris 1846, i. 93Google Scholar ff. See also ARSI, Gall. 116, 1 I8-I8V, de la Croix to Ricci, 9 March 1762; and Ricci, Istoria, 95-6.

34 Cf. ARSI, Aquit. 2a, no. 88, Ricci to Nectoux, 7 July 1762.

35 ARSI, Ricci, , Istoria, 36, 84–5Google Scholar.

36 ARSI, Epp NN 20a, 143-4, 151, Ricci to Desmaretz, 30 September 1761, to Claude Frey, 3 December 1761.

37 ARSI, Epp NN 20a, 153-4, 154, Ricci t 0 de la Croix, 20 Januar y 1762, to Routh, 27 January 1762.

38 ARSI, Angl. 35, 361, Crookshanks to Ricci, 24 March 1760; and Epp NN 20a, 154. 161, Ricci to Routh, 27 January 1762, to Salvat, 23 June 1762; and Aquit. 22, no. 80, Ricci to Nectoux, 7 July 1762.

39 ARSI, Epp NN 20a, 147-9, Ricci to de la Croix, 11 November 1761; and Ricci, Istoria, 47-8.

40 ARSI, Ricci, Istoria, 85, 101, 149.

41 ARSI, Epp NN 20a, 147-9, 149-50; Ricci to de la Croix, 11 November 1761, to Routh 2 December 1761.

42 Lettres choisies des Généraux auxperes et frères de la Compagnie de Jesus [no ed.], Lyon 1878, II. 44-53, especially 44-5.

43 ARSI, Ricci, , Isloria, 48, 95Google Scholar.

44 Ibid. 55; and Pastor, Popes, xxxvi. 44 m.

45 ARSI, Epp NN 20a, 155, Ricci to Salvat, 20 February 1762.

46 ARSI, Epp NN 20a, 147-9, Ricci to de la Croix, 11 November 1761.

47 ARSI, Ricci, , Isloria, 63–5Google Scholar.

48 Cf. Ibid. 140.

49 But cf. ARSI, Epp NN 20a, 127-8, Ricci to Desmaretz, 6 May 1761; and Ricci, Istoria, 31-3.

50 ARSI, Ricci, , Istoria, 7, 21-2, 62Google Scholar.

51 ARSI, EppNN 20a, 147-9, 154-5, Ricci to de la Croix, II November 1761, to Routh, 10 February 1762.

52 ARSI, Ricci, Istoria, 62; and Epp NN 20a, 156, Ricci to Charles de Neuville, 24 February 1762.

53 ARSI, Ricci, Istoria, 62.

54 ARSI, Epp NN 20a, 154-5, 158, Ricci to Routh, 10 February 1762, to Frey, 19 May 1762.

55 See my forthcoming ‘The persecution of French Jesuits by the Parlement of Paris, 1761-71’, in Studies in Church History (hereinafter cited as SCH) xxi (1984), for a description of what the parlement did to the Jesuits living under its jurisdiction in these years.

56 The rhythm of dissolution and dispersal varied according to the wishes of the local sovereign courts, with Rouen, not bound by the one-year stay imposed on Paris by the Crown, enacting and enforcing harsh legislation earliest. By the end of 1763 all sovereign courts except those of Artois, Flanders and Alsace had enacted similar legislation against Jesuits in their territory. It remained legal to live in Jesuit institutions and to be a Jesuit in Lorraine and Avignon longer than anywhere else. See Pastor, Popes, xxxvi. 448-504 and van Kley, Jansenists and Expulsion, 163-207.

57 ARSI, Aquit. 22, nos. 69 and 74, Ricci to Nectoux, 31 March 1762 and 19 May 1762; and Ricci, , Istoria, 66-7, 79, 104Google Scholar.

58 ARSI, Ricci, , Istoria, 79–80Google Scholar; Epp NN 20a, 158, Ricci to Frey, 19 May 1762; and Aquit. 22, no. 80, Ricci to Nectoux, 17 July 1762.

59 ARSI, Aquit. 22, no. 74, Ricci to Nectoux, 19 May 1762; and Ricci, Istoria, 79, 104.

60 ARSI, Ricci, , Istoria, 74–5Google Scholar. Cf. Epp NN 20a, 144-5, Ricci to Griffet, 6 October 1761.

61 ARSI, Ricci, , Istoria, 79–81Google Scholar.

62 Ibid. 132. See also ARSI, Epp NN 20a, 184, Ricci to Christophe de la Loye, 5 December 1763.

63 ARSI, Ricci, , Istoria, 36–7Google Scholar, 68, 76, 91, 101-2, 134, 151, 180-7.

64 Ibid. 36, 159-63.

65 ARSI, Epp NN 20a, 192, Ricci to Joseph de Menoux, 5 January 1765.

66 ARSI, Ricci, , Istoria, 77, 99Google Scholar; and Epp NN 20a, 169-70, Ricci to Jean-Pierre Gamier. And cf. above, p. 433 for the concessions which, in preparation for the dispersal, Ricci had made.

67 ARSI, Ricci, , Istoria, 99Google Scholar.

68 Ibid. 87, 136.

69 Ibid. 65, 125, 173-4.

70 Ibid. 116, 120, 122-3. Yet de Baleine does not appear to have taken the second oath in a manner satisfactory to the parlement's officials. Cf. Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris), Coll. Joly de Fleury, 1623, fos. 279-300.

71 ARSI, Ricci, , Istoria, 117, 120Google Scholar.

72 Cf. ARSI, Aquit. 22, nos. 112, 113, 114, Ricci to Nectoux, 27 March 1766, 1 May 1766 and 29 May 1766.

73 ARSI, Ricci, , Istoria, 152, 182Google Scholar.

74 ARSI, Aquit. 22, no. 98, Ricci to Nectoux, 9 August 1764.

75 ARSI, Ricci, , Istoria, 65Google Scholar.

76 ARSI, Aquit 22, no. 97, Ricci to Nectoux between March and August 1764.

77 ARSI, Epp NN 20a, 232. Ricci to Jean-Baptiste de Brassaud, 28 February 1770.

78 Cited in Lettres des Generaux ii. 46 and Select Letters of our Very Reverend Fathers General to the Fathers and Brothers of the Society of Jesus [no ed.], Woodstock College (New York) 1900, 238, letters dated 30 November 1761 and 30 November 1763.

79 See my forthcoming ‘Persecution of French Jesuits’, and Archives Nationales (Paris), G8, lists of Jesuit pensioners of the 1780s with an indication of their activities in that period.

80 Pastor, Popes, XXXVIII. 37-35.