The first action of the Jesuits to modify the feeling of the King toward them was their opposition to the canonisation of Bishop Palafox. Charles keenly desired that the highest honours of the Church should be paid to this saintly Spanish bishop of the previous century, but, as we shall see later, Palafox had submitted to Pope Innocent X. a very grave indictment of the conduct of the Jesuits and, if he had been canonised, his letters "would have brought disgrace on the Society," as the Jesuit historian Cordara says. Cordara admits that the means they adopted to prevent canonisation were not approvable; they were, in fact, chiefly bribery and an unscrupulous vilification of the bishop. The process did not get beyond the stage of declaring the bishop "Venerable," and Charles was displeased with the Jesuits.
In 1766 a less clear, but much more serious, grievance arose. An attempt to shorten the long cloaks and broad-brimmed sombreros of the Spanish people, which favoured assassins, led in the spring of 1766 to a revolt at Madrid. Charles was a stern maintainer of royal authority, and the outbreak greatly angered him. His chief minister Aranda, a scholar and politician of the liberal school, who was in sympathy with Choiseul and Pombal and opposed to the Jesuits, now succeeded in persuading the King that the Jesuits had inspired the revolt. According to the official "historian" of the Society, the only ground for this was that the Jesuits had flung themselves bravely upon the angry mob and disarmed it; which aroused an improper suspicion of their power. The historian is careful not to relate that in the autumn of the year a lawyer named Navarro was arrested for bringing a false charge against certain monks (whom the Jesuits disliked) in connection with the riot, and that, when the case turned against him, he declared that the Jesuits had prompted him to do this in order to avert suspicion from their own conduct. Charles was convinced that they were the authors of the riot, and he was now prepared to listen to the charges of Pombal and Choiseul.
It was then submitted to the King that the Jesuits were conspiring to replace him on the throne by his brother Louis. One of our best authorities, Coxe, declares that a forged letter in this sense, purporting to come from General Ricci to the heads of the Spanish Jesuits, was used amongst the evidence. However that may be, the King was convinced, a searching inquiry was made into the condition and activity of the Society, and the King entrusted to the willing hands of Aranda the task of destroying it. Aranda realised that secrecy was essential to success, and he and a few confidential colleagues stealthily drew up the indictment of the Society. Such precautions had to be taken to outwit the Jesuit spies that the minister would take pen and ink in his pocket, in order that it should not be known that the King was signing a document. By the beginning of 1767 it was decided to banish the Jesuits from the Spanish dominions, and Aranda set to work to arrange the expulsion without giving the Jesuits an opportunity to provoke a rising in their favour. Sealed orders were sent to the local officials all over the empire, and it was strictly enjoined under pain of death that they were not to be opened until the evening of 2nd April. [28]
By the end of March the Jesuits must have been aware that some grave step against them was meditated, but the secret was well kept and the plan carried out to the letter. Some time after midnight on 2nd April the troops silently gathered round the six Jesuit colleges at Madrid and all the other houses and residences of the Society. The sentence was carried out simultaneously, with perfect order. The astounded Jesuits awoke to find a soldier and official in every cell, and they were ordered to dress and proceed to the refectory. There the royal decree of banishment was read to the assembled community, and they were promptly conducted by the troops, with such small personal possessions as their breviaries and their tobacco, to the appointed port. They were put in separate carriages, and carefully secluded from each other and the people until they were aboard ship. It seems that Aranda's precautions were excessive. The Jesuits complain rather of the harshness of the soldiers than attempt to discover any sympathy to which they might appeal. Sympathy and anger there were, of course, as well as delirious rejoicing, when the fall of the Society became known. But before the country had fully realised that the proud Society had been doomed to exile by a Spanish king, the 6000 Jesuits of Spain and its colonies were mournfully crossing the Mediterranean, in overcrowded vessels, toward the coast of the papal states. A pension was allotted to each out of their confiscated property, but they were informed that the pensions of all would cease if one of their number ventured to assail Spain and defend the Society; this was not an unjust measure in view of the fact that no Jesuit could publish without authority.
Another very painful experience awaited the fathers at the Italian shore. Charles sent word to the Pope that he had found it necessary to banish the Jesuits, and he was committing them to the Pope's "wise and holy direction." The letter is not as disrespectful as this may suggest, but Clement XIII. was so angry that he took an unpardonable step. It will be remembered that Pombal had previously unloaded his ships on the papal shores, and the suppression in France had driven large numbers to Italy. We may assume that the aim of Pombal, Choiseul, and Aranda was to dispose the Pope to receive their demand for the abolition of the Society. Clement was so angry that he refused to receive the wretched exiles. The case is not, as is sometimes said, that he forgot to send, or refrained from sending, orders to receive the Jesuits. When the first vessel, bearing 600 dejected priests, made for the port of Civitá Vecchia, it was warned off by the roar of papal cannon, and for some weeks the miserable men tossed on the waves of the Mediterranean in sight of the inhospitable papal states. In the end they were dispatched to Corsica, to enjoy their slender pensions. Some apostatised, and some crept back in disguise to their native land, and were hunted as traitors; but in six years their last hopes were extinguished by the papal abolition of the Society.
The verdict of the historian on this romantic fall of the Society of Jesus in the two countries which seemed especially adapted for its operations must always be coloured by his creed. Protestant historians have at times commented on the harsh execution of the sentence and the character of some of the evidence on which it was obtained, but none questions the justice of the expulsion. On the other hand, although the Catholic Church was, to say the least, equally divided on the matter at the time, no modern Catholic historian would admit the justice of the sentence. I do not propose to consider this in detail until we come to the abolition of the Society by the Pope. Indeed, we cannot quite appreciate the whole case of the Spaniards and Portuguese Catholics against the Jesuits until we have examined their conduct in the colonies. When we have covered the whole ground we shall be in a position to weigh the stern and lengthy indictment which Clement XIV.—who is wilfully misrepresented by Catholic writers—passes on the Society in pronouncing the solemn sentence of death. For the moment I need only say that, apart from their great irregularities in the colonies, the Jesuits were hated in Spain and Portugal on the ground that, in spite of their high professions, they sought and accumulated wealth, indulged in commerce, lent themselves to political intrigue, wronged other spiritual bodies, were lax in moral principles, and drained the resources of the decaying country without rendering it any proportionate service. This record of their deeds must suffice to enable the reader to say if the indictment and sentence were just.
FOOTNOTES:
[ [28] Coxe puts the expulsion on the morning of 1st April, and the signing of the decree on 2nd April. This seems to be an error.