St. John Berchmans: a native of Belgium, he was known never to
have committed an act or utter a word the least imperfect.
St. Robert Bellarmine: the great theologian and Doctor of the
Church whose apologetical works against Protestantism were
unchallenged in his day.
St. Francis Regis: the French missionary who tirelessly evangelised
the villages of southern France, hearing up to two thousand
confessions a month.
St. Peter Claver: another Spaniard who gave himself heart and soul
to the physical and spiritual service of many thousands of Negro
slaves, particular those cursed by leprosy. He called himself, “the
slave of the Slaves.”
All the above missionaries, martyrs and saints are but a sample of the great
men who belonged to the Society of Jesus. Where there exists such radical
good it is not surprising that an equally radical opposing hatred would
simultaneously arise. By the middle of the eighteenth century, powerful
secular forces were combining to destroy the Jesuits. Their real target was
the Church in general, but to destroy the Church it was felt necessary first
to destroy her vanguard.
The alliance against the Jesuits comprised the following: de Pombal in
Portugal, Choiseul, Madame de Pompadour and the French Parliament in
France; d’Aranda and Charles III in Spain; Joseph II in Austria, Tanucci in
Naples, Jansenists, and free-thinkers such as Voltaire. In carefully planned
stages, the Jesuits were expelled from the Portuguese, French and Spanish
Empires, then Naples and Parma. All the protests of Pope Clement XIII
were ignored. After Spain threatened to leave the Church altogether, Pope
Clement XIV signed the decree Dominus ac Redemptor Noster suppressing
the Jesuits (21st July 1773). The General Superior Lorenzo Ricci was then
imprisoned.
Ironically, the Order survived in Protestant Prussia and Orthodox Russia,
for the leaders of these two nations were not bound to obey the Papal
decree. Subsequent Popes Pius VI and Pius VII wanted to restore the Order.
By now, Europe was being torn by the French Revolution and the
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