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French Jesuit Wealth on the Eve of the Eighteenth-century Suppression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

D. G. Thompson
D. G. Thompson*
Affiliation:
University of New Brunswick, Canada
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Extract

The bankruptcy in 1756 of the major French creditors of Antoine Lavalette, superior of the Jesuit missions of Martinique, resulted in the ‘Lavalette affair’ of 1756–62. During that period, Lavalette borrowed feverishly in an attempt to save his commercial enterprises in the Caribbean, his religious superiors sought to deal with his betrayal of his religious vocation and his mounting debts, and the Jesuits’ enemies gained court orders for the seizure of Jesuit property and the dispersal of the Jesuits. The Society of Jesus was then suppressed in most French territory by royal edict in 1764.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 24: The Church and Wealth , 1987 , pp. 307 - 319
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1987

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References

1 The research for this article was made possible by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and from the University of New Brunswick. My thanks also to Jana Andersen and Nancy Burnham of the University of New Brunswick for their tireless efforts in rendering the Jesuits’ accounts ‘machine readable’ and in processing sometimes almost intractable data. See D. G. Thompson, ‘The fate of the French Jesuits’ creditors under the ancien régime’, EHR 91 (no. 359, Apr. 1976), pp. 255–77 on Lavalette’s bankruptcy and its implications. All amounts cited in this article are capital sums not including interest.

2 ARSI Franc 49, fols 435–6, Jean-Pierre Garin to Lorenzo Ricci 12 January 1762, ARSI Hist Soc 273, Lorenzo Ricci, Istoria dell’accaduto in Francia ai PP della Compagnia di Gesù nel 1761 e 1762 serine di proprio pugno dal RP Lorenzo Ricci Generale efedelemente copiate dall’originale medesimo (1762–4), pp. 2, 10–16, 22–5; Archivum Provinciae Parisiensis Societatis Jesu (Chantilly) Antoine de Montigny, Mémoire pour les Jésuites de France condamnés solidairement par une sentence des juge et consuls de Paris du 30 janvier 1760 à payer la somme de 30, 000 livres… (1760) (a copy of the original), pp. 36–8. See also Thompson at pp. 257–61 on Lavalette’s debts and the Jesuits’ efforts to repay them.

3 Vivier, Compate Alexandre, Status Assistentiae Galline Societatis Jesu 1762–1768 (Paris, 1899), pp. ix–x.Google Scholar

4 Vivier, pp. 1–37, 121–71, 203–21.

5 Paris Archives Nationales [hereafter AN], U 983 Ordre Général et Définitif de tous les Créanciers des ci-devant soi-disant Jésuites… (Paris, 1772) (396 pp.), esp. pp. 30–170.

6 Compare BN, Barthélemy-Gabriel Rolland d’Erceville, Compte rendu …dece qui a été fait par MM les Commissaires nommés par les arrêts du 6 août et 7 septembre 1762 ([Paris], 1763) (Ld 39 939), esp. pp. 35–43, 63–78, 113–35, 299–305, 359–90.

7 Loyola, Ignatius, The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, ed. and tr.Ganss, G. E. (St. Louis, 1970)Google Scholar, esp. rubrics 5, 320–32; also p. 180, n. 7.

8 AN M 245–9 plans and accompanying descriptions of Jesuit colleges in the territory of the parlement of Paris in 1762.

9 Examples in Rolland d’Erceville, pp. 64–78, 80–99, 125–31, 299–305, 337–44, 376–90; also AN F41935 accounts of the Econome Général du Clergé of the administration of Jesuit benefices 1762–3.

10 ARSI Franc 251, 2511, 26, 26a, 27, 27a, 28, 28a, 28b, 28c, 28d, 29 annual catalogues of the Province of France 1700–61 (except 1726, 1747–8, 1750). This is one of the most startling discoveries which my computerized year-by-year study of the eighteenth-century career patterns of the Jesuits of the Province of France has so far revealed.

11 Compare the indications of how many Jesuits a given college could reasonably support and the numbers of Jesuits assigned to the same college in subsequent years in ARSI Franc 17, fols 148–59v, 295–306, 455–68(1700, 1705, 1711); Franc 18, fols 170v-91v, 320–39v, 410–25v (1714, 1717, 1720); Franc 19, fols 146–54v, 301–8v, 456–62v (1723, 1726, 1730); Franc 20, fols 122–3v, 261–4, 402–6, 536–8v (1734, 1737, 1740, 1743); Franc 21, fols 124–8v, 269–72v, 543–7v, 406–9 (1746, 1749, 1754, 1757) part III of the triennial catalogues of the Province of France for the eighteenth century.

12 Ibid. Unless otherwise indicated, all subsequent information on college wealth is also derived from ibid. Compare Rolland d’Erceville, pp. 64–78, 89–99, 125–31, 299–305, 337–44, 376–90; see also AN M 245–9 reports of municipal officiais on the state of most of the 42 colleges of the jurisdiction of the parlement of Paris 1762–3.

13 AN U 983 Ordre Général et Définitif, esp. pp. 1–28.

14 See the appendix, which describes the wealth of each of the 19 colleges in 1705–14, 1749–57 and 1757.

15 ARSI Hist Soc 273, Ricci, Istoria, pp. 19–24; also ARSI Angl 35, fols 361–3, Alexander Crookshanks to Lorenzo Ricci, 24 Mat. and 19 May 1762.

16 AN U 983 Ordre Général et Définitif, esp. pp. 1–28. Compare AN Xlb8943, 8944, 8946 comptes rendus on Amiens, Orléans and Eu (1763–4), which reveal significantly reduced passive debts for the period immediately preceding the dispersal.

17 ARSI Aquit 1411, fols 534–46 (1758), Lugd 27, fols 100–24 (1749). Tolet 1611, fols 419–40 (1758), Camp 17 part III (1758), triennial catalogues, part III, the financial accounts for the other four provinces of the Assistancy of France for the dates indicated. There being no part III for Lyons after 1749, the totals for that province in 1749 have been adjusted in accordance with the variations in amounts for the Province of France, which it resembled most closely, between 1749 and 1757.

18 Ibid, and ARSI Franc 21, fols 406–9 (1757).

19 Examples AN X1b8943 arrêts of parlement of Paris of 5 Sept. and 12 Nov. 1763 regarding the new administrations of the colleges of Poitiers, Moulins, Sens, Auxerre, and Blois. Compare AN Xlb8953 arrêt of parlement of Paris of 27 Mar. 1767 regarding Amiens.

20 AN F41935 esp. correspondence between Jarente de la Bruyère and Marchal de Saincy and the Contrôle Général (1765–72).

21 Example AN X1b9675 adjudications of 17 and 31 Aug. and 7 Sept. 1763; also Rouhette, de la Rivière, Théaulon, and Graffin, Mémoire à l’Assemblée nationale pour les Syndics généraux des Créanciers des Jésuites (Paris, 1790) (BN Ld39591), esp. pp. 1–21.

22 ARSI Hist Soc 273, Ricci, Istoria, p. 2.

23 Consider especially the energy of the abbé Chauvelin; see AN X1b8940 minutes of 17 and 21 Apr. 1761; also ARSI Hist Soc 273, Ricci, Istoria, p. 85.