From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
The
Suppression of the Jesuits in
Portugal,
France, the
Two Sicilies,
Parma and the
Spanish Empire by
1767 was a result of a series of political moves rather than a theological controversy. The expulsion of the
Society of Jesus from the
Roman Catholic nations of Europe and their colonial empires marked the first triumph of the secularist notions of the
Enlightenment, which were to culminate in the
French Revolution. Following a decree signed by
Pope Clement XIV in July
1773, the
Society of Jesus was suppressed in all Catholic countries. In the
Orthodox nations, particularly in
Russia, where the
Tsar and the metropolitan did not recognize papal authority, the order was ignored. The scholarly Jesuit
Society of Bollandists moved from
Antwerp to
Brussels, where they continued their work in the monastery of the
Coudenberg; in
1788, the Bollandist Society itself was suppressed by the
Austrian government of the
Low Countries.