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The Persecution of French Jesuits by the Parlement of Paris 1761–71

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

D. G. Thompson
D. G. Thompson*
Affiliation:
University of New Brunswick, Canada
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Extract

In the 1760s the parlement of Paris undertook to destroy the Society of Jesus in the central one-third of France which it controlled, and to use its influence to gain the destruction of the order elsewhere. Its immediate victims were the 1,200 Jesuits resident in 42 colleges and other institutions in its own territory in 1761, but it also claimed authority over any of the other 2,200 French Jesuits who had been born in its territory or might enter it. By this time four French Jesuits in five were priests or future priests whose primary functions were preaching and teaching; the remaining one in five was a temporal coadjutor, often an administrator of property. This ratio prevailed in the groups with whom the parlement dealt. The parlement viewed all Jesuits as enemies and regarded as a Jesuit any man who had ever made vows in that order. Then, as now, members of the Society of Jesus not only made the usual three religious vows but also owed complete obedience to their superior-general in Rome and were bound by the special vow of obedience to the sovereign pontiff taken by the professed of the order. The unique nature of the Jesuit institute was widely understood in France in the 1760s and was a reason for the respect shown to Jesuits by the privileged classes from which many Jesuits came and which they served so well.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 21: Persecution and Toleration , 1984 , pp. 289 - 301
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1984

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References

1 Grants from the University of New Brunswick and the Canada Council made the research for this article possible. See Dale Van Kley The jansenists and the expulsion of the Jesuits from France, 1757–1765 (New Haven 1975) on factions within the parlement of Paris and the political-religious motivation of the policy-makers.

2 [Paris] A[rchives] N[ationales] Xlb8953 Omer Joly de Fleury, advocate general, report in minutes [of the parlement of Paris] 8 May 1767; [Alexandre] Vivier [Status Assistentiae Galliae Societatis Iesu 1762–68] (Paris 1899) p xiii; and A[rchivum] R[omanum] S[ocietatis] I[esu] Gallo-Belge 23 fols 1–73; Fl-Bel 42 fols 262–71v; also Rhin Sup 23 and Germ Sup 40.

3 When the noun ‘Jesuit’ is used in this article, that ratio, confirmed by Vivier, obtains, unless otherwise indicated.

4 See Les Etablissements des jésuites depuis quatre siècles ed Pierre Delattre 5 vols (Enghien 1949–57) descriptions of the dispersal in 1762–4; also Ludwig von Pastor History of the popes from the close of the middle ages trans E. F. Peeler 40 vols (London 1950–3) 36 pp 415–19.

5 For the execution of anti-Jesuit legislation the procureur du roi of the bailliage or sénéchaussée was responsible to the procurator general of the parlement of Paris, Guillaume Joly de Fleury, brother of the advocate general, who employed rigorous standards in judging the admissibility of evidence. See BN Coll[ection] Joly de Fleury 1617–29 and especially 1624 fols 134, 171.

6 AN Xlb8940 arrêts [of the parlement of Paris] of 6 Aug 1761, 7 Sept 1761.

7 See ARSI Hist Soc 273 fol 73 and Vivier, especially pp 136–8, 164–6; also AN Xlb8942 and Xlb8944 états [of Jesuits resident in the parlement’s territory in Apr 1762].

8 AN Xlb8940-2, especially arrêt of 23 Apr 1762. See also D. G. Thompson (unpub PhD thesis, University of British Columbia 1972).

9 See for example ARSI Franc 49 fols 359, 430 and Hist Soc 273 fols 68–71, 75.

10 AN Xlb8942 arrêt of 6 Aug 1762.

11 Jesuits over 33 were in a state of civil death and unable to inherit or bequeath property. See also AN AD XVII, 23 act conseil d’état du roi of 18 Aug 1773 on pensions.

12 BN F 23627 (127) Actes royaux, lettres patentes du roi of 2 Feb 1763.

13 AN Xlb8942 Arrêts of 13 Aug 1762, 7 Sept 1762.

14 Ibid arrêt of 6 Aug 1762.

15 This is the total of the numbers cited in AN Xlb8942 and Xlb8944 états.

16 AN Xlb9842 état, which lists Jesuits resident in the parlement’s territory who had applied for a pension by 22 Feb 1763, cites 471 Jesuits who applied for pensions, including 14 who were refused them. See also BN Colljoly de Fleury 1621 fol 106 and AN XIb8946 arrêt of 9 Mar 1764, preamble.

17 To arrive at the quantity 844 and, unless otherwise indicated, at all quantities cited hereafter in this article, I have compiled statistics based on the information in AN Xlb8942 and Xlb8944 états, BN Coll joly de Fleury 1631 (the parlement’s efforts to make sense of all the local officials’ reports) and, above all, Coll Joly de Fleury 1617—29, local officials reports to the procurator general of the parlement. Comparisons have been made with arrêts dealing with oath-takers and Jesuits seeking to be declared legally infirm in AN Xlb8946-7 arrêts of Feb 1764 to Jun 1764. Totals have not always coincided exactly but have not diverged by more than ten percent. In cases of disagreement I have cited the more conservative figure.

18 See Jean Egret ‘Le Procès des jésuites devant les parlements de France (1761–1770)’, Revue historique 204 (1950) pp 1–27.

19 François Ducrest ‘Séjour à Fribourg de trente-six jésuites français exilés, 1762–68’, Annales fribourgeois 1 (1913) pp 254–69. Also ARSI Franc 49 fol 492 and BN Coll Joly de Fleury 1622 fol 356.

20 Vivier pp 41–116, 175–99.

21 See AN Xlb8953 Omer Joly de Fleury report in minutes 8 May 1767.

22 Compare BN Coll Joly de Fleury 1625 fol 4; 1626 fol 92; 1627 fols 5, 12, 221.

23 BN Coll Joly de Fleury 1617–29 passim.

24 AN Xlb8946 arrêts of 22 Feb 1764, 9 Mar 1764.

25 As by AN AD XVII, 23 act of Conseil d’;êtat du roi of 27 Jul 1764.

26 Ibid 23 arrêt of 13 May 1768.

27 See for example BN Coll Joly de Fleury 1629 fols 165–7V.

28 See for example ibid 1625 fol 292.

29 AN Xlb8946 arrêts of Mar 1764 and. Apr 1764 and BN Coll Joly de Fleury 1631 fols 176v-80v.

30 AN Xlb8946 arrêts of Mar 1764 and Apr 1764 and BN Coll Joly de Fleury 1631 fob 43–6, 173–5. See also AN Xlb8946 arrêt of 9 Mar 1764, preamble. The 139 jurors included 93 priests and scholastics and 42 temporal coadjutors, a higher than usual proportion of the latter.

31 Ibid arrêts of Mar 1764 and Apr 1764 and BN Coll Joly de Fleury 1623 fols 209, 279.

32 Ibid 1622 fol 115; 1627 fol 221.

33 Ibid 1631 fols 193–5.

34 Ibid 1622 fol 356.

35 AN Xlb8946 arrêt of 13 Apr 1764.

36 See ARSI Hist Soc 273 fols 75, 82 and BN Coll Joly de Fleury 1620 fols 9–10.

37 See BN Coll Joly de Fleury 1622 fol 176.

38 Ibid 1628 fols 118–27.

39 Ibid 1626 fols 211–18.

40 AN AD XVII, 23 êdit du roi of Nov 1764.

41 AN Xlb8948 arrêt of 1 Dec 1764.

42 BN Coll Joly de Fleury 1624 fol 206; 1625 fols 92–3.

43 Ibid 1631 fols 193–5.

44 See ibid 1617 fol 385; 1618 fols 159–61.

45 See ibid 1618 fol 351; 1620 fols 311–2.

46 Ibid 1620, 336–41.

47 AN Xlb8949-51 arrêts of May 1765 to Mar 1766 and BN Coll Joly de Fleury 1628 fol 6.

48 Ibid 1629 fols 187–90.

49 AN Xlb8949 arrêt of 8 Mar 1765.

50 AN Xlb8953 Omer Joly de Fleury report in minutes 8 May 1767.

51 Ibid arrêt of 9 May 1767.

52 AN AD XVII, 23 arrêt of 4 Aug 1767.

53 BN Coll Joly de Fleury 1622 fols 73–84; 1631 fols 109–17.

54 Ibid 1620 fol 324.

55 Ibid 1628 fols 63–74; also 1624 fols 22, 91–6, 354; 1625 fols 149, 156; 1626 23v-32.

56 Ibid 1617 fols 84–5, 94; 1619 fol 441; 1622 fols 300–2.

57 Ibid 1621 fols 81–9.

58 Ibid 1622 fols 341.

59 Ibid fol 7.

60 Vivier pp xxi-xxiii.

61 BN Coll Joly de Fleury 1631 fols 27–61 and AN AD XVII, 23 arrêt of 6 May 1768.

62 Ibid arrêt of 6 May 1768.

63 Compare Yves Blayo, ‘La Mortalité en France de 1740 à 1829’, Population (special issue (Nov 1975) pp 123–42 at p 126.

64 BN Coll Joly de Fleury 1609–31, especially.