An Account of the Destruction of the Jesuits in France

by Jean Le Rond d' Alembert

It is certain that the greater part of the Jesuits, those who in that society (as elsewhere) interfere with nothing, and who are much more numerous among them than is imagined, ought not, had it been possible, to have been punished for the faults of their superiors: thousands of these innocents were confounded unwillingly with a score of criminals: nay, further, these innocents were unhappily the only persons punished, and the only ones to be pitied; for the leaders had obtained, by their interest, pensions which they could enjoy at their ease, while the multitude sacrificed remained without bread as well as without support. All that could be alledged in favour of the general decree of expulsion pronounced against these fathers, was the famous passage of Tacitus, relative to that law of the Romans, which condemned to death all the slaves in a house for the crime of a single one: habet aliquid ex iniquo omne magnum exemplum; “every great example has somewhat unjust in it.” Thus, in the destruction of the Templars, a great number of innocents fell victims to the pride and insolent riches of their chiefs: and thus the disorders, of which the Templars were accused, were not the only cause of their destruction; their principal crime was that of having rendered themselves odious and formidable. Posterity will think the same of the judgement issued against the Jesuits, and of the exile to which they have been condemned: they will deem it perhaps severe, at least in appearance, but perhaps also will judge it indispensible: this time alone can decide.

For the rest, independently of the natural compassion which the aged Jesuits, or those sick, and without resource, seemed to claim, and who after all are men, one would think a distinction might have been made, in the oath which was required, between the professed Jesuits and those who were not so, between those who had already renounced the institution and those who adhered to it still, without being absolutely tied to it. Allow the oath to have been required from the professed Jesuits, whom they wanted to get rid of, such a precaution might have been thought necessary: but was it necessary to require anything more of the Jesuits who were not professed, than a simple promise that they would not bind themselves to the institution, or any thing else of the ex-Jesuits, than a bare declaration that they had renounced it? The contrary conduct which was observed, might have preserved to the society subjects who were disposed to quit it, and who were deprived of every other resource: this rigour also might restore to the order, members which it had already lost.

In proposing these reflexions, I am very far from disapproving of the conduct of the magistrates; who for just reasons, without doubt, thought it their duty to act otherwise: it is proper however to remark, that several parliaments have thought it their duty, on their parts, to observe a contrary conduct; after having dissolved the institution, they have left the dispersed Jesuits all the rights of subjects: but is it not to be feared, said they, that by preserving them thus in more than one half of the kingdom, they have left to these men, who are thought so turbulent, a means of forming intrigues, so much the more dangerous as they are concealed? Once more, time alone can inform us which of the judges have taken the best method in this affair; whether the one have not been too rigorous, and whether the others, in wanting to be less so, have not buried the fire under the ashes.

Some parliaments besides had pronounced no sentence against the institution; and the Jesuits subsisted still entire in one part of France. There was room to apprehend, that at the first signal of rallying, the dispersed party, suddenly joining the party united, might form a new society, even before any should be in a condition to oppose it. The wisdom, and the honour also, of government, seemed to require, that the law, with regard to the Jesuits, whatever it was, should be uniform throughout the kingdom. These views seem to have dictated the edict, by which the king has just abolished the society throughout all France; but permitting, in other respects, its members to live quietly in their country, under the eye and under the protection of the laws. May these pacifick intentions of our august monarch be crowned with the success which they merit!

It was without doubt the better to fulfill these respectable intentions, that the parliament of Paris, on registering this new edict, ordained the Jesuits to reside each in his own diocese, and to present themselves every six months before the magistrates of the place in which they shall dwell. We know not whether the Jesuits, who are already withdrawn into foreign countries, will think proper to submit to this constraint. The same arrêt forbids them to come within ten leagues of Paris, which banishes them at least six leagues from Versailles, but prohibits them not from dwelling at Fontainbleau and Compiegne, where the court resides at least three months in the year. It was thought, perhaps, that during so short a space of time, their intrigues at court would not be to be dreaded.

On banishing the Jesuits by its first arrêt, the parliament of Paris had assigned them pensions for their subsistence: this mitigation to their exile appeared to many people a contradiction. Wherefore, said they, facilitate a retreat into foreign countries to subjects reputed dangerous, apostles of regicide, enemies of the state, and who, by refusing to renounce the society, prefer their Italian general to their lawful sovereign? There is no cause, however, for blaming with severity this apparent contradiction; though we should disapprove, in logical rigour, of what it is not our province to decide upon, we ought still more to excuse it, on account of the law of nature which existed before there were Jansenists and Jesuits. Those who have hampered themselves in the institution of the society, did it altogether under the protection of the publick faith and the laws: if they have refused to renounce it, it may be thro’ a delicacy of conscience ever to be respected, even in men who are wrong. On sacrificing them to the necessity which was thought indispensible, of no longer permitting Jesuits in France, it would have been inhuman to deprive them of the necessaries of life, and to forbid them even the air which they breathe. As to the rest, these reflexions, whether well or ill founded, have no longer place, from the moment that the Jesuits are permitted, without requiring any thing of them, to remain in the kingdom: after having deprived the society of its effects, it is right to furnish its members with the means of subsisting, inasmuch as it is thought possible, without inconvenience, to restore them to the state to which they belong.

Let us not forget, before we conclude this narrative, a singular circumstance, extremely proper to shew, in its true point of view, the pretended concern for religion, with which several of its ministers seek to bedeck themselves. Some bishops, who reside in their dioceses, joined themselves, by their mandates, to the archbishop, defender of the Jesuits: other bishops (who reside not) were ready to join themselves also. The parliament made a shew of wanting to renew, and causing to be observed with rigour, the ancient laws respecting residence: these bishops then were silent, and their menacing zeal expired on their lips. Disconcerted and humbled at their impotence against the enemies of the Jesuits, they will seek perhaps to indemnify themselves, by falling upon the philosophers, whom they accuse, very unjustly, of having communicated to the parliament of Paris their pretended liberty of thinking: even already some of these prelates, we are assured, have taken this sad and feeble revenge; like that wretch, on whom, as he was passing, a tile fell from the top of a house, the roof of which was repairing; and who, to revenge himself, threw stones up to the first story, not having strength, as he said, to throw them higher.

Such has been in this kingdom the fate of the Jesuits: the circumstances of their destruction have been very strange in all respects; the storm began at a place where it was expected the least, in Portugal, the most addicted of all the countries of Europe to priests and monks, which appeared not formed for delivering itself so speedily from the Jesuits, and still less to set in that respect the example; their annihilation in France was prepared by the rigour which they assumed in spite of themselves; lastly, it was consummated by a dying and abject sect, which has finished, against all expectation, what an Arnauld, a Paschal, and a Nicole, would neither have been able to execute, nor attempt, nor even to hope. What more striking example of that inconceivable fatality which seems to preside over human affairs, and to bring them, when we expect it least, to the point of maturity or destruction? It would make a fine chapter, to add to history the great events which have happened through slender causes.

A well-known writer, speaking in 1759, three years before the destruction of the Jesuits, of the two parties which divided the church of France, said of the most powerful party, “that it would cease soon to exist[17]:” some wanted to make these words pass for a prophecy; but as probably the writer aspires not to the honour of being a prophet, he will confess that on writing this sort of prediction, he was very far from suspecting it was so true. It was plainly seen, that the party till then oppressed began to gain ground; but nobody could foresee to what a degree it was to oppress, in its turn, that by which it had been till then kept under: fine matter to the enemies of the society, to enforce the validity of their ordinary commonplace sayings, on the Providence of God in support of what they call the good cause!

It is not less singular, that the French nation, at a time when she suffered her weakness to appear abroad, by an unsuccessful war, should have performed this act of vigour at home: it is true, that on reflexion we shall find perhaps, in the same principle, the cause of so much weakness without, and of such great strength, or, if you please, of such great fermentation within: but this political discussion would carry us too far, and is no part of our subject.