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- Title
The Jesuit Province of France on the Eve of its Destruction in 1762.
- Authors
Thompson, D. Gillian
- Abstract
What was the condition of the Province of France, pre-eminent province of the French Assistancy, on the eve of the state seizure of its institutions and dispersal of its members in 1762? Through a quantitative analysis of the life of the Province during the 50 years before its destruction, based primarily on annual and triennial catalogues, it is shown that the number of men who made up the Province was significantly smaller, its colleges materially somewhat better off, and its professed members fewer but younger at the end of the period than at the beginning. As the end approached, professed and other members were working harder, still carrying out most of their educational and pastoral responsibilities in France, and significant numbers of young men from well-established recruiting areas were still seeking to become members. The smaller Province of 1761 was essentially healthier than the larger one of 25 or 50 years before, and might have survived indefinitely had it not been overwhelmed by superior external forces. The ways in which the decline in numbers came about are explained. Circumstantial evidence that the reduced size of the province was a consequence of changes in dismissal patterns and even in dismissals policy is also reviewed. The result is a portrait of a functioning province intimately woven into the fabric of French life before its dramatic eradication eleven years before the universal suppression of the Society in 1773.
- Subjects
EIGHTEENTH century; JESUIT history; PROVINCES; JESUITS -- Education; FRENCH politics &; government, 1715-1774; JANSENISTS
- Publication
Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 2018, Vol 87, Issue 173, p3
- ISSN
0037-8887
- Publication type
Article