Macau, Macau

Symposium

Main Themes

  • The Historical Context
  • Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire
  • Central and Western Europe
  • China
  • The Americas

Date:

  • A. 11-15 June, 2014
  • B. 28-30 October, 2014

Location:

  • A. Boston College
  • B. The Macau Ricci Institute

Languages:

  • English

Introduction

The year 2014 marks the 200th anniversary of the restoration of the Society of Jesus, one of the most significant events in nineteenth-century cultural and religious history but also one of the least well-studied. Our jointly organised symposium, aims to shed new light on neglected aspects of this vital subject and to take part in the worldwide commemoration of this event.

The 1773 suppression of the Jesuits, and the various national expulsions and banishments that followed it, sought to destroy the Society as a corporate entity. This did not spell the end of the Jesuit enterprise, however. Persecuted by the Catholic monarchies of Portugal, Spain, and France, the Jesuits survived in various guises and locales across the globe. We focus on three of these and the links between them.

The eastern part of the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania, known as Belarus or White Russia, was occupied by Catherine the Great just before the papal suppression of the Order. She refused to accept the papal brief of suppression in her territories. Local Jesuits not only continued to influence the region’s religious history but also expanded their influence beyond the safe haven of the Russian empire. One of the most striking examples was their enterprise in China. From their intellectual centre in Połotsk — dubbed the Athens of Belarus — they attempted to re-approach China through their easternmost station in Irkutsk in Siberia and their community in St Petersburg. Exiled Jesuits from Portuguese Macao also found refuge in continental China, where the Society sustained its pivotal role in the historic encounter between East and West, initiated by the Italian Matteo Ricci (利瑪竇 1552-1610 ) back in the sixteenth century and continued two hundred years later by various Jesuit notables, including the Polish cartographer and botanist Michał Piotr Boym (卜彌格 1612-1659 ) and the mathematician and astronomer Jan Mikołaj Smogulecki ( 穆尼閣 1610-1656 ).

Just as significant was the role of ex-Jesuits in the religious landscape of the fledgling United States, and the links between Jesuit survival in Eastern Europe and North America were crucial. Five former Jesuits in the United States renewed their vows in 1805 (a decade before the order’s official restoration) after receiving permission from Russia, and even when the Jesuit presence in Russian territory became increasingly controversial during the first decades of the nineteenth century, this dynamism continued. The Polish Superior General Tadeusz Brzozowski (1805-1820) sent a group of his confrères to Boston. There and in other parts of the United States the Society throve throughout the early nineteenth century. They were crucial, for instance, in saving Bishop John Carroll's struggling Georgetown College and in establishing new institutions and missions across the United States.

The history of the Society’s survival after 1773 and its restoration two centuries ago deserve closer attention and the anniversary year of 2014 provides an ideal opportunity. We plan to look at three hotspots, arguably the three most important engine-rooms of Jesuit activity during this turbulent period: east-central Europe/Russia, China, and the United States. What happened in and between these far-flung places defined the future of the Jesuit order and also had momentous consequences for the broader religious and cultural history of three continents. Adopting a global perspective and recruiting some of the finest scholars working in this muddled but fascinating field will go a long way toward plugging a lamentable historiographical hole.

Co-organising Institutions

  • MACAU RICCI INSTITUTE
  • INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED JESUIT STUDIES
 

28-30 October, 2014

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Time Subject Chairperson/Speaker
9:00 Registration - Conference Papers  
9:30 Welcome Address Artur Wardega, SJ
9:45 Part 1: Introduction Chairperson: Beda Liu, SJ
  Political Context of the Jesuit Restoration Robert A. Maryks
  Jesuit Historiography 1773-1814: An Overview Robert Danieluk, SJ
  General Discussion  
10:50 Coffee Break  
11:20 Part 2: Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire Chairperson: Keith Morrison
  The Society of Jesus in the Russian Empire (1772-1820) and the Restoration of the Order (1814) Marek Inglot, SJ
  The Połock Academy (1812–1820) as an Example of the Durability of the Society of Jesus (To be presented by Prof. Robert A. Maryks) Irena Kadulska
  Sebastian Sierakowski, SJ and the Language of Architecture: A Jesuit Life during the Era of Suppression and Restoration Carolyn C. Guile
  General Discussion  
12:50 Group Photo & Noon Break  
14:45 Part 3: Central and Western Europe (I) Chairperson: Luís Sequeira, SJ
  The Jesuits and their Artistic Diaspora in Germany Jeffrey Chipps Smith
  The Protestant Christoph Gottlieb von Murr on the Suppression Claudia von Collani
  General Discussion  
15:50 Coffee Break  
16:20 Part 4: Central and Western Europe (II) Chairperson: Stephen Tong, SJ
  Enduring the Deluge: Hungarian Jesuit Astronomers from Suppression to Restoration Paul Shore
  The English Jesuits from Suppression to Restoration: Maintaining a Corporate Identity, 1773‒1803 Maurice Whitehead
  General Discussion  
17:25 End of the Day  

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Time Subject Chairperson/Speaker
9:30 Registration - Conference Papers  
10:00 Part 5: Central and Western Europe (III) Chairperson: Luciano Morra, SJ
  "A Religious Body Currently Paralyzing the Restoration of the True Jesuits": The Trial of Niccolò Paccanari and the Restoration of the Society of Jesus Eva Fontana Castelli
  Between Suppression and Restoration in Italy: Luigi Mozzi de' Capitani (1746 -1813) Emanuele Colombo
  General Discussion  
11:05 Coffee Break  
11:35 Part 6: China (I) Chairperson: Thierry Meynard, SJ
  Suppression and Restoration of the Society of Jesus in China (written by Fernando MATEOS, SJ) Artur Wardega, SJ
  Jesuit Survival and Restoration in China (written by Ronnie Po-chia HSIA) Albert Wong
  The Last Remaining Jesuits in China after the Suppression in Europe Jingjing Liu
  General Discussion  
13:05 Noon Break  
14:30 Part 7: China (II) Chairperson: Yves Camus, SJ
  Restoration or Re-creation? The Return of the Society of Jesus to China Paul Rule
  The Phoenix Rises from its Ashes: The Restoration of the Jesuit Shanghai Mission Paul Mariani, SJ
  The Gothic Revival and the Architecture of the New Society of Jesus in Macao and China César Guillen-Nunez
  General Discussion  
16:00 Coffee Break  
16:30 Part 8: The Americas (I) Chairperson: Peter Stilwell
  General Suppression, Russian Survival, American Success: The "Russian" Society of Jesus and Jesuits in the United States Daniel Schlafly
  John Carroll, the Society of Jesus, and the Catholic Church in the Early American Republic Catherine O’Donnell
  General Discussion  
17:35 End of the Day  

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Time Subject Chairperson/Speaker
9:30 Registration - Conference Papers  
10:00 Part 9: The Americas (II) Chairperson: Louis Gendron, SJ
  The Jesuit Tradition and the Rise of South American Nationalism II: Where Were the Peruvian Jesuits? Andrés Prieto
  The Return of the Jesuits, a History of the Society of Jesus in Colombia during the Nineteenth Century Jorge Salcedo, SJ
  General Discussion  
11:05 Coffee Break  
11:35 Concluding Roundtable Chairperson: Paul Rule
    Robert Danieluk, SJ
    Paul Marini, SJ
    Robert Maryks
    Jeffrey Smith
  General Discussion  
12:35 End of the Symposium  
20:00 Piano Recital at Dom Pedro V Theatre Prof. Zygmund Krauze (Polish Composer and Pianist)
  (Free ticket will be provided to Active Participants)  
  Programme  
  F. Chopin: Mazurka in A minor, Op. 67 No.4 (with improvisations)  
  I. J. Paderewski: Nocturne (with improvisations)  
  K. Szymanowski: Prelude and Fugue (with improvisations)  
  W. Lutoslawski: 3 Folk Melodies (with improvisations)  
  Z. Krauze: 6 Folk Melodies / Refrain / Chanson du mal aimé / Stone Music / Nightmare Tango  
21:00 End of Recital  

Claudia von Collani (University of Würzburg)

The Protestant Christoph Gottlieb von Murr on the suppression of the Society of Jesus

The Protestant Christoph Gottlieb von Murr (1733–1811) from Nürnberg was a historian and polymath. After his studies of jurisprudence and after learning several European and Oriental languages he travelled through Europe, but returned later to his hometown, the independent city of Nürnberg, where he became a Waag- and Zoll-Amtmann (weighmaster and customs magistrate). Among others he was editor of the Journal zur Kunstgeschichte und zur allgemeinen Literatur (1775–89) and of Neues Journal zur Litteratur und Kunstgeschichte (1798–99). These and other activities give evidence of his great interest and sympathy for the Society of Jesus and especially their mission in China, which gave him the suspicious reputation to be an adherent of crypto-Catholicism and Jesuitism. His twenty eight Briefe eines Protestanten über die Aufhebung des Jesuitenordens appeared in 1773–74 trying to defend the merits of the Societas Jesu against a (fictious) author. In Murr’s defence the Jesuits’ missions take quite a special place

Emanuele Colombo (DePaul University)

Between Suppression and Restoration in Italy: Luigi Mozzi de’ Capitani (1746- 1813)

In my paper I will show some aspects of the story of the pre-suppression, suppression, and restoration of the Society of Jesus in Italy through the life of Luigi Mozzi de’ Capitani, his intellectual activity, and his pastoral commitment. Luigi Mozzi de’ Capitani was born in Bergamo in 1746 and joined the Society in Milan, where he became a teacher in the prominent “Collegio dei Nobili.” After the suppression of the Society he returned to Bergamo where he studied privately with the fervent anti-Jansenist Giovanni Francesco Rovetta. In the following years, he was strongly engaged in anti-Jansenist polemics. In Bergamo, Mozzi was secretly ordained a priest, and in 1792, he became an archpriest. During the phase of uncertainty about the Society’s possible restoration, Mozzi distanced himself from Nicolò Paccanari. In fact, Paccanari’s project of founding a parallel society, the Society of the Faith of Jesus, was in Mozzi’s view nothing but an obstacle to the restoration of the order. Mozzi was one of the strongest opponents to Paccanari during the trial of the Holy Office (1801-1808). At the same time, Mozzi contributed to Giuseppe Pignatelli’s efforts for a silent restoration of the Society – in 1799 the foundation of a new house of the novices in Colorno was approved by Pius VI, with whom Mozzi had a friendly relationship. In 1803 Mozzi made a solemn profession and joined the Jesuit province of White Russia and, when the Company was restored in the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily (1804), he went to Naples, where he dedicated himself to the urban missions entrusted by Pignatelli. Mozzi also was in touch with the future cardinal Angelo Mai, in Rome and Milan. Using rich and still-understudied documents – both published and unpublished – I will show the active role of Luigi Mozzi in the restoration of the Society in Italy and I will reconstruct his extraordinary network of relationships with prominent political and religious figures of the time.

Robert Danieluk, S.J. (ARSI, Rome)

Jesuit Historiography 1773-1814: An Overview

From the outset, members of the Society of Jesus took great care to study the Order’s history. Recent decades have witnessed a revival of interest in the same area among many non-Jesuit historians. The majority of them have focused on the first two centuries of the Order’s history, while only a few have decided to study the last two centuries. The traditional division between the so-called “old” and so- called “new” Society makes the years 1773-1814 a crucial time of transition. The present study is an attempt to explore the historiography of this period with a focus on the Order’s policy concerning the writing of its own history. The most important decisions of the Society’s highest authorities will be discussed as well as the main achievements of Jesuit and non-Jesuit historians in this area. The paper will also provide a survey of the sources held in the Roman Jesuit Archives and will introduce some new perspectives for future research.

Eva Fontana Castelli (Independent scholar, Rome)

"A Religious Body Currently Paralyzing the Restoration of the True Jesuits": The Trial of Niccolò Paccanari and the Restoration of the Society of Jesus.

Among the attempts to preserve and revive the Ignatian “spirit” in the aftermath of the suppression, a significant role was played by the Society of the Faith of Jesus. This institute, which had a very short and troubled life, was a 'reform' of the ancient Society of Jesus and presented several peculiar features. The Society of the Faith of Jesus was founded in 1797 by Niccolò Paccanari who would be later condemned by the Holy Office in 1808. During the trial and after his condemnation, many members af the Society of the Faith of Jesus, also called Fathers of the faith or Paccanarists, entered the Society of Jesus. Of the existing large procedural documentation it was decided to examine the testimonies and the 'texts' presented by figures in different ways related to the Society of Jesus: an ex-Jesuit like Father Luigi Mozzi, a 'future' Jesuit like Giuseppe Sineo Della Torre, but also some personalities of the Roman Curia variously involved in the affair. This perspective sheds new light on, one hand, the position of the Society of Jesus with regard to the paccanarists' institute and, on the other, on the problems related to its Restoration. In addition, at a deeper level, this analysis allows us re-define the identity of the restored Ignatian Order.

César Guillen-Nuñez (Macau Ricci Institute)

Rising from the Ashes: The New Society of Jesus in Macao and China

The Society of Jesus rose phoenix-like in the Middle Kingdom after the return of the first Jesuits sent to re-establish the China mission in 1841. This paper considers a number of significant art-historical developments connected with the restoration of the Society. It is divided into two parts. The first discusses the phenomenon of the Gothic-revival in Europe and its importance for the religious architecture of the age. The second part examines two selected buildings, namely, the Cathedral of the Immaculate, Beijing, and the Cathedral of Saint Ignatius, in Xujiahui, Shanghai, and how the Gothic-revival influenced their plans and styles. These churches emerged during the first decade of the 20th century in a greatly altered historical landscape in China after the Opium Wars and the treaty ports. This part also includes a brief discussion of the vicissitudes that awaited the Jesuits after their return to Portuguese Macao in 1862. Notorious at the time was the state of two of the Jesuits’ most famous foundations in the Far East, the Church of Madre de Deus, popularly known as St. Paul’s, and the Seminary and Church of St. Joseph, both in a ruinous condition after decades of neglect.

Ronnie Hsia, Po-chia (Pennsylvania State University)

Twilight of the Jesuit China Mission, 1750-1800

In 1692, Emperor Kangxi praised his Jesuit servants in Beijing as loyal subjects, who would stand by him even if their own national rulers would go to war against the Qing Empire; he, in turned, promised protection for his western missionaries. Three-quarters of a century later, when the Catholic monarchs in Europe suppressed the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit missionaries in Beijing were the only ones in the Portuguese Assistancy, who were not shipped back to Europe under guard, to languish, in some cases, for long years in Portuguese and Spanish prisons. This paper aims to address a lacuna in the scholarship on the Jesuit China Mission. With the exceptions of a handful of monographs, the history of the Jesuit Mission in China between 1748 (the beginning of the first large-scale anti-Catholic persecution) and 1800 (when the last ex-Jesuit missionaries died out in Beijing) is neglected, even though archival material exists in abundance. Based on the correspondence of the Vice-province of China (under Portuguese Assistancy) and the French Mission in China (under the French Assistancy) at the Roman Archive of the Society of Jesus, I will attempt to describe the activities of the Jesuit missionaries in China during the last decades of the Old Society and of the fate of the ex-Jesuits who remained in Beijing after the dissolution of the Society.

Marek Inglot, S.J. (Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome)

The Society of Jesus in the Russian Empire (1772-1820) and the Restoration of the Order (1814)

With the incorporation of White Russia into the Russian empire, following the first partition of Poland in 1772, a small part of the Society of Jesus came to exist within the Orthodox empire of Catherine II: in total, 201 Jesuits in 18 residences. When pope Clement canonically suppressed the Jesuit order in 1773, the czarina forbade the promulgation of the papal decree in her realm. As a result, the Society of Jesus remained legitimately in existence within the Russian Empire, with its rules, Constitutions and Institute intact, and was able to pursue its traditional activity as before 1773. The legitimacy of this survival derived principally from the non-promulgation of the brief of suppression, but not only from this eventuality: it found support from a series of positive papal acts which first tolerated, then approved and finally approved officially and solemnly this survival. At first the Jesuits wanted to maintain the status quo, simply maintaining the works that they had directed before 1773. A development in the life of the Society within the Russian empire occurred with the first General Congregation of Polock in 1782. It decided for the legitimacy of the order’s existence and established the identity of the Society. Accordingly, it decided to pursue the maintenance of religious life and the traditional structure of the order and it took steps towards consolidation. With the election of a vicar-general and the nomination of a provincial, the order of Ignatius presented itself in it customary form. Organised as “Company of Jesus in White Russia” and with its central government formed by the vicar-general and assistants, within the framework of one province and with the provincial as its head, it attempted, with some success, to develop its presence and activities within White Russia and other dominions of the czar and indeed to develop beyond this realm. In 1801 pope Pius VII officially approved the legitimacy of the existence of the Society within the Russian empire (brief, Catholicae fidei). This province, which is exceptional and particular in the entire history of the Society of Jesus, effectively assured the continuity of the old order with that restored throughout the whole world in 1814. In 1820, only six years after the general restoration, czar Alexander signed the decree expelling the Jesuits from his empire.

Irena Kadulska (Gdańsk University)

The Połock Academy (1812–1820) as an Example of the Durability of the Society of Jesus

The “Połock phenomenon” ensues from its achievements and durability. After the suppression of the order (1773), this was the only Jesuit institution of higher education. In the same year, the city was incorporated into Russia. After the opening of the novitiate (1780), Połock became the Order's European centre. Distinguished Jesuits came from the whole continent, bringing with them valuable books and scientific collections. They continued their pastoral work, giving Catholics support and a sense of community. The multi-national community modernised the school to a level that bore comparison with similar institutions in the rest of Europe. The Academy had three faculties – Theology, Languages and Liberal Arts. The school's work was supported by libraries (4), a printing house, a bookshop, a theatre (3 stages), a science museum, an art gallery and a scientific and literary periodical. Many poets also worked there. There were also medical and care centres as well as a thriving economic and industrial infrastructure. The school was also the patron of the college in Petersburg, the mission to Saratów and an expedition to Canton. In the year of its liquidation, the Academy had 700 students. The order of the Tsar forced 358 Jesuits to leave Russia with immediate effect and to disperse throughout Europe, America (Washington) and the Middle East. They formed the basis of the reborn Society of Jesus.

Liu, Jingjing (Macau Ricci Institute)

The Last Remaining Jesuits in China after the Suppression in Europe

After the Marquis of Pombal suppressed the Society of Jesus in Portugal, the twenty-four Jesuits in Macau were arrested on July 5th, 1762 and sent to jail in Lisbon. After the expulsion the Jesuits did not return to Macau until March 25th, 1862. When Christianity was proscribed in the Qing empire by the Yongzheng emperor, some Jesuits were allowed to remain at the Court because of their expert knowledge. Jesuits remained in the Chinese capital in the subsequent reigns until 1813, and this situation was not affected by the Pope’s suppression of the Society in 1773. The Jesuits returned to China on June 11th 1842, twenty-eight years after the Pope had revoked the suppression. This paper will focus on the last Jesuit to remain at the Qing court, Fr Louis de Poirot. He was born in Lorraine, France, in 1735 and brought up in Italy. He entered a Jesuit novitiate in Rome in 1756 and arrived in Beijing in 1770 by way of Guangdong. As a priest in the Beitang, he preached the gospel and baptized Chinese people. He was a gifted linguist with an excellent command of Latin, Chinese and Manchu, and he taught the latter two languages to newly arrived Western missionaries. He also translated most of the Bible into Chinese and Manchu. In addition he served as interpreter for the Chinese in their dealings with Western countries (especially Russia). He was also active as a painter at the Court. After the suppression in 1773, the Society of Jesus nevertheless survived among the Roman Catholic population in the Polish-Lithuanian parts of Russia, and Fr de Poirot paid attention to this situation. In 1802 he thought there was an opportunity to restore the Society. With the agreement of the other four remaining Jesuits in China, he sent an application to Pope Pius VII and Father General Gruber asking to join the Society of Jesus in Russia. This application initiated a plan to continue the mission in China which was proposed by Frs Korsak and Grassi, but it failed. Eventually Poirot was successful. In 1806 Gruber’s successor, Father General Brzozowski sent letters to de Poirot to ask whether he had received Gruber’s permission to rejoin the Society and to enquire about the situation of the other fathers in China and the Chinese church. Poirot died in Beijing on Dec. 13th, 1813, the last remaining Jesuit in China at that time. First, this paper will attempt to investigate the life and work of Fr de Poirot in more detail, clarifying obscure parts. Second, this paper will look for his letters and investigate his efforts to achieve a restoration.

Paul Mariani, S.J. (Santa Clara University)

The Phoenix Rises from its Ashes: The Restoration of the Jesuit Shanghai Mission

Could the Society of Jesus be considered restored if its missions were not? For, from the beginning, the Society of Jesus was committed to the propagation of the faith. Jesuits fanned out across the world, and one of their most prized missions was in China. Therefore, after the 1814 Restoration, it was imperative that the Jesuits rapidly increase their membership (which they did) and renew the Spiritual Exercises and the Ratio Studiorum (which they did). It was also imperative that they renew the missions as well. Had they not done so, they could not be considered the restored Society of Jesus. For it was by no means certain that the restored mission would once again flourish. History is replete with examples of failed restorations. This paper is a case-study of the restoration of the Society of Jesus in China. Further, I will focus specifically on the restoration in the Shanghai region. I pick this region because of it profound link with the pre-Suppression Society. The Shanghai mission had been established in 1608 by Matteo Ricci’s famed convert Paul Xu Guangqi. In the following years the community had built strong institutions and developed deep-rooted indigenous structures such as the Catholic clans, the virgins, and the local community leaders. By relying on these institutions and structures, the community was able to survive both persecution and the Suppression of the Jesuits. Therefore, it is interesting to note that when the Society was restored, it was the Shanghai Catholic community which invited them back. In fact, within thirty years of the 1843 return of the Jesuits to Shanghai, the mission was again flourishing. What accounts for this success? For the rapid re-establishment of the Jesuit Shanghai mission cannot be explained by local initiative alone. It also cannot be explained by the fact that the Opium War had ushered in a period of openness and religious liberty. It is my contention that there are two further reasons to explain this success. First, there was a strong policy initiative on the part of Fr. General Roothaan. For, Roothaan “in a decisive and momentous letter of 1833, took up the thread of missionary zeal and wove it into the fabric of the new Society.” Second, there was the “dogged determination” of the Jesuits themselves. And yet, how did Jesuit initiative and determination come to terms with the indigenous structures that the Shanghai Catholic community had developed over hundreds of years. By some accounts Shanghai Catholics benefited from the convergence of strong indigenous structures and foreign money and personnel. By other accounts, there were serious struggles between the Jesuits and these same local communities. Indeed, some Shanghai Catholics now even felt crowded out of their own church. This paper will explore these issues. Further, it is quite possible that the strengths and weaknesses of modern-day Shanghai Catholicism rests on the legacy not only of the pre-Suppression Society, but, more importantly, on the legacy of the post-Suppression Society. For the Jesuit presence was nearly extinguished in China in the forty years after the Suppression. After 1814, the mission had to be rebuilt from the ground up. It was resurrected like a phoenix from its ashes.

Robert A. Maryks (Boston College)

Political Context of the Jesuit Restoration

The universal restoration of the Jesuits coincided with the resurgence of Europe’s pre-revolutionary political order. This process was initiated in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars by the Congress of Vienna (1814-15) under the leadership of the foreign minister of the Austrian Empire, Klemens von Metternich, who had been born in the year of Jesuit suppression, 1773. Europe and the Americas had experienced events that had changed the political, economic, and social order of the world forever: the American Revolution of 1776, the French Revolution of 1789, the revolutions in Latin America in the early 1800s, and the first stirrings of the Industrial Revolution.

Fernando Mateos, S.J. (Chinese Province of the Society of Jesus)

Suppression and Restoration of the Society of Jesus in China

Fr. Mateos' thirty-eight pages well documented paper is based on Jesuit correspondence and original documents and depicts three main climax periods of the Jesuit exile in China; suppression of the Society, tribulation of its former members and then their final incorporation into the New Society. The paper gives overview of the Jesuits geographical dispersion and activities in various locations in China; it also stresses the crucial role of superiors and their decisions, their sorrows and afflictions especially manifested by Fathers; François Bourgeois, Superior of the French Jesuits and by Jean Amiot, an astronomer and writer. In 1778, Fr. Louis de Poirot, one from five ex-Jesuits who survived in Peking wrote several letters to the Congregation of Propaganda, requesting the re-establishment of the Society of Jesus in China. In the end, the 78-year-old de Poirot remained in Peking alone, and peacefully passed away on December 13, 1813, eight months before the solemn publication of Pius VII’s Bull, “Sollicitudo Omnium Ecclesiarum”, restoring the Society of Jesus in the whole world. Here comes account of the revival of the Jesuit presence in China, its circumstances, challenges and opportunities opened to the Chinese mission in the New Society.

Catherine O’Donnell (Arizona State University)

John Carroll, the Society of Jesus, and the Catholic Church in the Early American Republic

The suppression of the Jesuit order coincided with the American war for independence; for John Carroll, the pain of the first found some solace in the possibility offered by the second. From 1773 through his death in 1815, Carroll used the intellectual and spiritual frameworks provided by his Jesuit formation, as well as the correspondence networks in which he as a former Jesuit participated, to craft a Catholicism that might flourish both in the distinctive setting of the new United States, and more broadly in the age of Revolutions, Enlightenment, and nation-building. Well aware that the United States shared in a British legacy of anti-popery and fear of conspiratorial Jesuits, Carroll nonetheless believed that two American characteristics that might have seemed challenging to the Church – its separation of church and state and its lack of a folk Catholic culture -- were propitious for the creation of a purified, modern, but doctrinally orthodox Catholicism. Carroll’s nuanced approach to relations with state and federal governments, to education, and to interaction with the predominantly Protestant polity and society, all reflected his Jesuit background and ongoing friendships with Jesuits. Yet as the years passed, Carroll’s developing views of the relationship between church and state distanced him from some of his closest brethren; he also constantly, and sometimes controversially, rethought the relative importance of Jesuit restoration to the needs of the New World and global Church as he understood them. This essay explores the interaction of Carroll’s Jesuit training and ethos, his eagerness to see the order restored, and his efforts to create a sustainable American Church.

Sabina Pavone (University of Macerata)

The Jesuits in India between the Old and the New Society of Jesus

The aim of this paper is to follow the story of the Jesuit mission in India after the suppression of 1773 until the Restoration of 1814 and into the first decades of the nineteenth century. We have many studies about the Indian mission between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries, but after the sentence of the Roman Inquisition against the Malabar Rites there is a sort of damnatio memoriæ that damaged the Jesuits until the suppression. The story of the new mission established in the nineteenth century is also well known but we know very little about how the mission was rebuilt after the crisis of the end of the eighteenth century. The paper intends to deepen our understanding of the activities of the missionaries of the Society of Jesus who returned to India and the influence of the Old Society’s heritage on the New. The paper will be based primarily on the very rich sources of the General Archive of the Society of Jesus in Rome.

Andrés Prieto (University of Colorado at Boulder)

Jesuit Tradition and the Rise of South-American Nationalism, 1782-1810

When in 1767 the Society of Jesus was banned from all Spanish-controlled territories, more than 2,000 Jesuits were shipped from South America to Italy, carrying little more than their most essential belongings. Forbidden to maintain any contact with their families and friends, they played, nonetheless, an important, albeit indirect, role in the nascent independence movements in the Spanish colonies. Partly as a rebuttal of the thesis of the inferiority of America advanced by Cornelius de Paw and the Abbot Raynal, and partly to promote the knowledge of their far-away patrias, the exiled Jesuits published several works on the natural, civil, and moral history of the territories in which they had lived and worked. These works would not only shape what Antonello Gerbi so aptly termed the dispute of the New World; they articulated ideas and attitudes that would be appropriated by the ideologues of the newly constituted independent South American republics of the nineteenth century. In this paper, I will discuss the works of Juan de Velasco (Historia del reino de Quito, 1789) and Juan Ignacio de Molina (Saggio sulla storia naturalle del Chili, 1782 and 1810). I will show how these works, drawing heavily in the intellectual tradition of natural history forged by the South American Jesuits during the preceding two centuries, described the geography, geology, botany and zoology of the territories from which they had been exiled through a number of common tropes and figures that articulated and expressed a Creole ideology of love of the patria and nationalistic sentiments that became prevalent in the nation-building discourses of the early nineteenth century.

Paul Rule (La Trobe University, Melbourne)

Restoration or Recreation? The Return of the Society of Jesus to China

Perhaps nowhere was the break between the old Society of Jesus and the restored Society more complete than in China. The survivors in China, French and Portuguese, were unable to continue to live as Jesuits and died out before 1814. Conditions for a return to China were not favorable until the 1840s with the treaties after the First Opium War. And the restored China Mission, chastened by the aftermath of the Chinese Rites Controversy, and its role in the suppression, was built on very different foundations: regional division of spheres of action along national lines, educational institutions rather than direct evangelization, a distant relationship to the imperial government and a strengthening of clerical and episcopal authority over the lay initiatives of the years of persecution. The focus of the mission shifted from the political capitals of Beijing and Nanjing to the new littoral commercial and modernizing centers of Shanghai and Tianjin. A distinctly Europeanizing agenda prevailed until and well into the 20th. century which owed more to circumstances than missionary agendas or theories.

Jorge Enrique Salcedo (Javeriana University)

“The Return of the Jesuits, a History of the Society of Jesus in Colombia during the Nineteenth Century”

This paper examines the activity of the Jesuits in Colombia during the nineteenth century; it demonstrates how their return to the country in 1844 became a highly controversial political issue until 1884, when the national government authorized their permanent residence. The Jesuits were established in the country from 1844 to 1850, and then from 1858 to 1861. These two short sojourns generated significant debate between the Conservative and Liberal parties. The first return of the Jesuits coincided with the formation of these two parties and the debate over the separation of Church and State. It was after the Guerra de los Supremos, with the defeat of the Liberal Party and victory for the Conservative Party, that the latter passed a law on mission schools that allowed the return of the Society after its exile during colonial times. The Liberals considered the law of April 1842 to be a tactic used by the Conservatives to empower their political project, and when the Jesuits arrived in the country, the Liberal Party started a campaign against them in Congress and through the press. As the invitation for their return to New Granada had been issued by the Conservative government, Liberals considered them to be allies of the Conservatives and deserving of their political antipathy.

Daniel Schlafly (St. Louis University)

General Suppression, Russian Survival, American Success: The "Russian" Society of Jesus and Jesuits in the United States

Empress Catherine the Great refused to permit publication of Pope Clement XIV's 1773 brief of suppression Dominus ac Redemptor in her domains. This allowed the the Society of Jesus in her newly annexed Polish territories not only to survive, but also to expand to other parts of the Russian Empire, until Emperor Alexander I expelled it, first from St. Petersburg and Moscow in 1815, then from the Empire as a whole in 1820. Not only did many former Jesuits from other countries join the "Russian" society, but its existence also made it possible for former Jesuits elsewhere to re-establish formal Jesuit communities even before the general restoration of the Society in 1814. One group who did so were five former Jesuits in the United States, who renewed their vows in 1805 after receiving permission from Russia. In 1773, there had been only 22 Jesuits in what became the United States, and only ten of these were still alive in 1805. The eight Jesuits sent from Russia to the United States between 1806 and 1811 and others from the "Russian" Society who came after 1820 were crucial in saving Bishop John Carroll's struggling Georgetown College and in establishing new institutions and missions in the United States. Such men as Giovanni Grassi, Anthony Kohlmann, and Franciszek Dzierozynski laid the foundation for the later Jesuit role in America. Without the suppression and without Catherine the Great's patronage, the "Russian" Society would not have become such a center for international talent, and without this "Russian" Society American Jesuits would not have succeeded as they did, if at all.

Paul Shore (Brandon University)

Enduring the Deluge: Hungarian Jesuit Astronomers from Suppression to Restoration

At the time of the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773, Habsburg Jesuits working in Hungary could look back on many decades of important astronomical endeavours, starting with the neo-Kircherian cosmologies of Martinus Szentiványi and culminating in the path breaking achievements of Maximillianus Hell. The connection between Jesuits and astronomy continued during the Suppression and beyond into the Restoration, with former Jesuit Francis Xavier Bruna teaching the subject at Pest university until 1806 and Franz Paula von Treisnecker publishing astronomical works as late as 1817. Among the less known ex-Jesuit astronomers is Ferdinand Harmann, director of the Cluj observatory in the 1770s. The careers of these Jesuits and ex-Jesuits illustrate not only the Society’s steady movement away from its defensive position regarding Copernicus and Newton, but also the ways in which individual Jesuit scientists adapted to difficult conditions and, in a few instances, even managed to survive the years of the Suppression to lay the groundwork for the revival of Hungarian astronomy in the mid-19th century.

Jeffrey Chipps Smith (University of Texas at Austin)

The Jesuits and their Artistic Diaspora in Germany

The suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773 was followed by the secularization of most church properties in Germany during the opening decade of the nineteenth century. The revival of the Jesuits in 1814 did not mean the return of their churches and schools. Frequently, their property was seized, sold, or transferred to civic, state, or local church authorities. This paper will address the fate of the Society’s artistic patrimony in the German provinces. What happened to their rich libraries or to their artistic collections, which sometimes numbered thousands of prints, paintings, and other rarities? With the loss of control of their former churches, the paintings and sculptures of their carefully crafted devotional programs often disappeared. I shall focus on three or four case studies including the Jesuit communities in Cologne and Munich.

Maurice Whitehead (Swansea University)

The English Jesuits from Suppression to Restoration: maintaining a corporate identity, 1773‒1803

With former members in England, Wales and Maryland, as well as in outposts in continental Europe, the suppressed English Jesuits were to prove a unique body. Unlike their counterparts in every other country (the Russian empire excepted), they were to retain a semblance of corporate identity throughout the suppression period in two ways: by means of two general assemblies, held in London in 1776 and 1784, and by the continuation in another guise of their former collegium maximum in Liège. The English Jesuit college founded in exile at Saint-Omer in 1593, because of the penal laws against Catholics in England, moved to Bruges in the Austrian Netherlands in 1762 when the Paris Parlement dissolved the Society of Jesus in France. At the time of the suppression in 1773, the English ex-Jesuits were invited by the prince-bishop of Liège to consolidate all their educational activity in the principality of Liège, where they had operated a house of studies since 1614. There, from 1773 until 1794, they managed both to maintain their corporate identity and to further their educational activity in a newly created Académie anglaise. Forced to flee to England in 1794 as the French army advanced on Liège, they settled at Stonyhurst, in Lancashire. The newly transplanted establishment became the principal focus of the English province which was restored in 1803 by aggregation to the remnant Society of Jesus in White Russia. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, this paper throws new light on this significant period.