“A short time after we had ordained the restoration of the order of Jesuits in Russia, we thought it our duty to grant the same favour to the kingdom of Sicily, on the warm request of our dear son in Jesus Christ, King Ferdinand, who begged that the Company of Jesus might be re-established in his kingdom and states as it was in Russia, from a conviction that, in these deplorable times, the Jesuits were instructors most capable of forming youth to Christian piety and the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom, and to instruct them in science and letters. The duty of our pastoral charge leading us to second the pious wishes of these illustrious monarchs, and having only in view the glory of God and the salvation of souls, we, by our brief, beginning Per alias, and dated the 30th July 1804, extended to the kingdom of the two Sicilies the same concessions we had made for the Russian empire.
“The Catholic world demands with unanimous voice the re-establishment of the Company of Jesus. We daily receive to this effect the most pressing petitions from our venerable brethren, the archbishops and bishops, and the most distinguished persons, especially since the abundant fruits which this Company has produced in the above countries have been generally known. The dispersion even of the stones of the sanctuary in these recent calamities (which it is better now to deplore than to repeat), the annihilation of the discipline of the regular orders (the glory and support of religion and the Catholic Church, to the restoration of which all our thoughts and cares are at present directed), require that we should accede to a wish so just and general.
“We should deem ourselves guilty of a great crime towards God, if, amidst these dangers of the Christian republic, we neglected the aids which the special providence of God has put at our disposal, and if, placed in the bark of Peter, tossed and assailed by continual storms, we refused to employ THE VIGOROUS AND EXPERIENCED POWERS who Volunteer their services, in order to break the waves of a sea which threaten every moment shipwreck and death. Decided by motives so numerous and powerful, we have resolved to do now what we could have wished to have done at the commencement of our pontificate. After having by fervent prayers implored the Divine assistance, after having taken the advice and counsel of a great number of our venerable brothers, the cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, we have decreed, with full knowledge, in virtue of the plenitude of apostolic power, and with perpetual validity, that all the concessions and powers granted by us solely to the Russian empire and the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, shall henceforth extend to all our ecclesiastical states, and also to all other states. We therefore concede and grant to our well-beloved son, Tadder Barzozowski, at this time General of the Company of Jesus, and to the other members of that Company lawfully delegated by him, all suitable and necessary powers in order that the said states may freely and lawfully receive all those who shall wish to be admitted into the regular order of the Company of Jesus, who, under the authority of the General, ad interim, shall be admitted and distributed, according to opportunity, in one or more houses, one or more colleges, and one or more provinces, where they shall conform their mode of life to the rules prescribed by St Ignatius of Loyola, approved and confirmed by the Constitutions of Paul III. We declare, besides, and grant power, that they may freely and lawfully apply to the education of youth in the principles of the Catholic faith, to form them to good morals, and to direct colleges and seminaries; we authorise them to hear confessions, to preach the Word of God, and to administer the sacraments in the places of their residence, with the consent and approbation of the ordinary. We take under our tutelage, under our immediate obedience, and that of the Holy See, all the colleges, houses, provinces, and members of this order, and all those who shall join it; always reserving to ourselves and the Roman Pontiffs, our successors, to prescribe and direct all that we may deem it our duty to prescribe and direct, to consolidate the said Company more and more, to render it stronger, and to purge it of abuses, should they ever creep in, which God avert. It now remains for us to exhort, with all our heart, and in the name of the Lord, all superiors, provincials, rectors, companies, and pupils of this re-established Society, to shew themselves at all times, and in all places, faithful imitators of their father; that they exactly observe the rule prescribed by their founder; that they obey with an always increasing zeal the useful advices and salutary counsels which he has left to his children.
“In fine, we recommend strongly in the Lord, the Company and all its members to our dear sons in Jesus Christ, the illustrious and noble princes and lords temporal, as well as to our venerable brothers the archbishops and bishops, and to all those who are placed in authority; we exhort, we conjure them, not only not to suffer that these religions be in any way molested, but to watch that they be treated with all due kindness and charity.
“We ordain, that the present letters be inviolably observed according to their form and tenor, in all time coming; that they enjoy their full and entire effect; that they shall never be submitted to the judgment or revision of any judge, with whatever power he may be clothed; declaring null and of no effect any encroachment on the present regulations, either knowingly or from ignorance; and this notwithstanding any apostolical constitutions and ordinances, especially the brief of Clement XIV. of happy memory, beginning with the words Dominus ac Redemptor Noster, issued under the seal of the fisherman, on the 22d day of July 1773, which we expressly abrogate as far as contrary to the present order.
“It is also our will that the same credit be paid to copies, whether in manuscript or printed, of our present brief, as to the original itself, provided they have the signature of some notary public, and the seal of some ecclesiastical dignitary; that no one be permitted to infringe, or by an audacious temerity to oppose, any part of this ordinance; and that, should any one take upon him to attempt it, let him know that he will thereby incur the indignation of Almighty God, and of the holy apostles Peter and Paul.
“Given at Rome, at Sancta Maria Major,
on the 7th of August, in the year of
our Lord 1814, and the 15th of our
Pontificate.
(Signed) “Cardinal Prodataire.
“Cardinal Braschi.”
The moment the bull of 1814 had given to the Society a new existence, nearly two hundred fathers, who had survived the calamities of 1773, re-assembled at the Gesù, and in the novitiate of St Andrea in Rome. Along with the old remains of the Company, many young Jesuits, who during the suppression had been received into the order in their houses in Silesia, Russia, and Palermo, re-entered the abode of their past glory and splendour, and opened their hearts to new and brilliant prospects. Neither were they deceived in their expectations. In those first moments of violent reaction in Italy, the priests and monks were considered as almost saints, and Pius VII. was actually worshipped as God. The overthrow of Napoleon’s empire was in Italy considered as due to the hand of God, who had punished him for laying his impious hand on the anointed of the Lord—the Vicar of Jesus Christ. Napoleon, who was considered in France as the restorer of religion, was in Italy regarded as the greatest heretic who had ever lived—worse than Luther, Calvin, Zuingle. As the ignorant and bigoted people of the peninsula, at such an epoch, made religion consist in monks, nuns, and processions, so the man who had abolished these was in their eyes the greatest enemy of God and religion; and those friars, though held in very little consideration as individuals, were, when re-instated in their convents, cheered and worshipped. Even those whose sentiments were anything but of a religious character, thinking that the clerical party would now re-acquire the supreme sway, and would exercise it in a more absolute and exclusive manner, feigned to be devoted to the reigning power, either to avoid persecution or to obtain favour as devout supporters of the Roman Catholic faith. Thank God, this is no longer the case.