The Expulsion of the Jesuits from France
J.L. Carr documents the abolition of the powerful Society of Jesus, by royal decree and after long controversy, in France in 1764.
Just two hundred years ago, there occurred an event the significance of which has not been fully assessed. In August 1761 the Parlement of Paris declared the doctrine of the Jesuit Order “meurtrière et abominable,” ordered its books to be burned and its colleges closed throughout France.
The following year it obliged the Fathers to renounce the name, habit, vows and regimen of their organization. The final blow came in 1764, when a royal edict dissolved the Society of Jesus in France. This act of suppression was the outcome of a prolonged struggle that takes us back almost to the time of the Order’s foundation.
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