Expulsion ofthe Jesuits from Spanish America

 Expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish América

Translated from the Spanish by Roberto Hope Sánchez Mejorada

Over 5,000 religious of the Company of Jesus were banished from the Spanish dominions; of them, more than 2,500 were living in Spanish America; some 300 of them remained in the New World because of their old age or severe illness.

They were arrested, packed in warship holds and transported in painful conditions to the Papal States. They were allowed to carry only their personal effects and one book. The death penalty hung over their heads if they dared to return to the Spanish dominions. The ships sailed with no fixed destination for many days, not being admitted at first in the Papal States.

During the time of the counter reformation promoted by the Church in those turbulent years of the sixteenth century, the Company of Jesus had constituted itself as a spiritual strike force of Catholicism against the Protestant Reform. But the profile and reputation of its members, as it tends to occur today, was that of a privileged nucleus of learned men painstakingly consecrated to study and research to attain their goals.

The banishment of the Jesuits occurred as a result of the Bourbon reforms. The Jesuits, always loyal to the Pope, opposed the centralizing project of the Bourbons, becoming a threat to their interests. Besides, having a solid economy, and being of a great value to society, they were seen jealously by the king, who considered this as having a state within his own state

During the night of March 31 of that year of 1767 in Madrid, and at the dawn of April 2 in the rest of the peninsula, all Jesuit houses were surrounded by soldiers, shut down, and their members incommunicated. The measure had been prepared secretly and carried out by surprise and in a sudden manner, Between July 2, 1767 and August 22, 1768, they were also banished from the viceroyalties in the Indies.

The Jesuit Expulsion Process

The contents of the Pragmática does not explain the motives that led Charles III to decree the expulsion. The text is deliberately imprecise. The monarch justified the measure affirming that he was adopting it because "... persons of the highest character have expressed to me: stimulated by very grave causes relative to the obligation in which I am constituted of keeping in subordination, tranquility, and justice my peoples, and other urgent, just and necessary causes which I reserve to my royal animus, using the supreme economic authority that the Almighty has deposited in my hands for the protection of my vassals and the respect of my crown..."

It is worth noting the slighted role that the Consejo de Indias, through which all matters, whether of peace or of war, were normally governed in America, was made to perform in all this matter. The view of such wise tribunal was disregarded with respect to the inconveniences and damages that a measure of such great transcendence could produce; as that of suddenly uprooting from the territory of the New World over 2,500 religious men who, on account of their vocation, had been devoted to the ministry of the missions and to education, and whose efforts in their missionary tasks were well recognized,

Deportation of the Jesuits from New Spain

The king did not count with the permission of Pope Clement XIII (1758-1769), either. He did inform the Pontiff of the decision taken, right after having executed it. He took care not to tell him, that he was exiling them to the Papal States. Neither did the Jesuits know that. Clement XIII answered diplomatically although he tried to have the decision revoked. He opposed their being relocated to the Vatican territory because there was no room for them in such a small state, although at the end he had to accept. He refused to dissolve the Company as the crowns of France, Spain, and Portugal proposed and pressured him to do.

The Jesuits of the Province of Mexico were 678; of them 464 were of Spanish descent and 153 were from the Peninsula. The first ship of deported priests left the Port of Veracruz on July 26 with 55 Jesuits on board. In the Port of Veracruz 35 Jesuits died, from August 1767 to April 1768. The last ones to depart were the 32 missionaries from Sonora, Sinaloa and Pima territories that had survived the fateful trip that took them to Veracruz, where 20 Jesuits lost their life. They finally embarked toward Spain in April 1769.

2,746 Jesuits had to leave the Peninsula and the Baleares and Canary Islands and 2,630 from the Empire in America. The Pope was finally forced to admit them in the Papal States after their expulsion from the Island of Corsica while it was occupied by France.

Consequences of the expulsion of the Jesuits

The matter did not end here, since the new Pontiff, Clement XIV would strike the definitive blow as he issued a Papal brief of dissolution of the order. Some Spanish Jesuits, especially the most learned, upon the Company of Jesus ceasing to exist, moved to Rome, and in the Eternal City found employment with bishops or worked as tutors of children of members of the nobility. Their contribution to Italian culture was very important and the Italians benefited from their extremely high knowledge. Others found refuge in the Kingdom of Prussia and in the Russian Empire, where they were invited by their respective monarchs upon their refusal to comply with the papal brief of dissolution issued by Clement XIV.

The Father General of the Jesuits, Lorenzo Ricci, and his assistants from Poland, Italy and Germany, were put in jail in the prison of Sant Angelo in Rome in 1773 and treated as criminals- The ex Jesuits, then, were dispersed throughout Europe, working at universities or as tutors of children of prominent families, or serving in parishes, incorporated in the secular clergy.

The causes of the expulsion were manifold and some can be considered more relevant, though all contributed and influenced on such a grave decision.

Fundamental matter: The Company of Jesus was founded in 1540 as a response against the Protestant Reformation, distinguishing itself for its defense of Catholicism and for its fourth vote of obedience to the Pope. As time went by, it constituted itself as the intellectual vanguard of the Catholic crowns. The arrival of the Illustration at the beginning of the eighteenth century brought regalism with it, which basically consists in having the inherent rights of the monarch's sovereignty above the rights proper to the Holy See, clashing the power of the State against the Catholic world and particularly the Jesuits.

Advisors and members of the government of Charles III of Spain with anti Jesuit thinking who were the main promoters of the expulsion and had a leading role, were Manuel de Roda, Secretary of Grace and Justice; Pedro Pablo Abarca, Count of Aranda and President of the Council of Castille; Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes, Prosecutor of the Council of Castille; José Moñino, Count of Floridablanca; Fernando Silva, twelfth Duke of Alba; Jerónimo Grimaldi, Secretary of State; Juan Gregorio Muniain; Minister of War, Miguel de Múzquiz, Minister of the Treasury; Bernardo Tanucci, Minister of the Kingdom of Naples and counselor of Charles III; Joaquín Deleta (Father Osma), Franciscan confessor of Charles III.

Guaraní War.

The Jesuits were accused of organizing the Indians' resistance against the Treaty of Madrid of 1750, which contemplated the transfer of a territory containing seven missions. In Lisbon, a direct relationship existed between what happened in Río de la Plata and the blow given to the Company of Jesus in that country.

Amassed power and intellectual prestige of the Company of Jesus

To the Jesuits, properties were a means to achieve spiritual and educational objectives and not an end in itself. To laymen, the Jesuits had become too powerful and worldly; to the rest of clergymen, too arrogant and successful.

Rivalry with other orders and clerics

Prelates adhered in block to the anti-Jesuit campaign, not so much for professing a sincere antipathy but to gain royal favor and not be branded as disloyal. Preponderance of the Jesuits in higher studies had antagonized Franciscans and Dominicans, direct competitors with which they shared identical Papal privileges. In contrast with what happened in France, where most prelates were in favor of the Jesuits, in Spain the only voices of bishops who stood in their defense were those of the Archbishop of Toledo, Luis Fernández de Córdova, the Bishop of Cuenca, Isidro Carvajal and Lancaster, and the Bishop of Teruel, Rodríguez Chico. As a consequence, the three of them suffered a process for contempt of the Monarch and were expelled from the Royal Sites or had to experience something similar to house arrest.

Precedent in France and Portugal from where they had been expelled in 1759 and 1765 respectively.

The mutiny of Esquilache [of March 23, 1766 in Madrid TN] was just a pretext. The trigger that set in march the idea of expulsion in the Catholic crowns, has to be found in America, and especially in an extensive zone (thal of the Paraná River) known as Guayrá, situated around the current borders of Paraguay, Argentina and Brasil, There, the better known settlements were those of the Guaraníes. The Company of Jesus installed itself in this area around 1550-1551, being Father Manuel de Lobrega the one who began the evangelization. In 1565, the first reductions with an official character appeared. They were called that way because they would gather in a single place the members of small and dispersed hamlets. In 1609 the first mission at the north of Iguazú was founded, and by 1615 already eight reductions or towns of Indians and missionaries existed with their own area of influence. In 1611 the royal order of protection of the reductions was published. The model followed, according to indications of Jesuit Father Diego Torres, was the one used in the Peruvian Jesuit mission in Julí (Perú), founded in 1576, until its abandonment in 1767.

In 1767 there were thirty missions or reductions which contained an approximate population of 200,000 Indians. The Jesuits had founded over 50 reductions but only 30 had a certain future, the distribution of which was 7 missions in the current territory of Brasil, 8 towns in Paraguay, and 15 in Argentina. Over 130 members of the Company of Jesus lost their life in the jungle while devoting themselves to the evangelization of the Indians. Each mission was made up of 2,000 to 4,000 Indians, governed jointly by two or three Jesuits and the respective Indian caciques of the towns.

Each reduction had its own church and town council with total autonomy to govern itself as long as a representative of the king was there. Access by Spaniards, mestizos, or negroes was prohibited, and in spite of the fact that it was guaranteed that Indians would never fall into the hands of “encomenderos”.despite these royal orders, however, they were not free from Portuguese incursions. From 1628 to 1631, the number of Indians captured by bandeirantes of the city of Sao Paulo, entrepreneurs who made razzias to capture slaves, exceeded 60,000.

In this situation, members of the Company of Jesus organized these reductions with clearly defensive gear, with a square plant surrounded by palisades and moats, with armed militia of trained Indians, and cavalry groups for the defense of the square, with its church at the center, from which all streets began. The Guaraní army created inside the reductions, in time transformed itselt into the most important force at the service of the Spanish Crown in the entire region of Río de la Plata and Paraguay. The Jesuits were the ones responsible for organizing an Indian army in Spanish style, with its various companies, turning the Indians into soldiers at the service of the King of Spain. The Spanish Crown, by 1642, had exceptionally authorized these Indian towns to use firearms in their defense.

In 1649 the Guaraní militia acquired a new status thanks to the negotiations attained by Father Antonio Ruiz Montoya with Viceroy Castelfuerte. From then on, they were converted into an army at the service of the Crown, and the Guaranies had to ensure the defense of a vast territory that included the governorships of Paraguay and of Río de la Plata. Distributed among the various reductions, they turned into the most important military force at the service of the Crown in defense of the cities of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Corrientes and Asunción.

The missionary organization not only limited itself to doctrinal tasks but organized the political and economic life founded on the solid preparation of the Jesuits that went there, since they had great practical knowledge in architecture, medicine, engineering, craftwork, etc.

The Jesuits respected the family organization of the Indians. Their struggle was centered mainly against poligamy. They would respect the caciques and would give them access to the town council of the reduction, which was the institution of government with its mayors, judges, etc. This council would be elected by vote among those recommended by its outgoing members. One of the members of the town council was a Jesuit. There was also a chief magistrate named by the Consejo de Indias.

The land of God, as it was called. was formed by the best lands for agriculture or for cattle raising and it was worked in turns by all Indians. The benefits of this land of God were devoted to the construction and maintenance of the temple, the hospital and the school. The benefits of the communal property were also destined to pay the Royal Treasury, and the remainder served to promote the town´s own economy. The Jesuits proposed a stable working schedule of six working hours a day.

Up to four harvests of corn were reaped a year; they also raised cotton and sugar cane; likewise they cultivated the “hierba mate”, which at the beginning of the eighteenth century got to become the prime export product to the rest of the regions in the viceroyalty. They also developed cattle raising, allowing the development of handicraft industry (especially leather and its exportation). All these favorable factors promoted trade of the “reducciones” with other regions through the great waterways of the region.

Inside the reductions money did not exist, barter being practiced. It was used in exterior trade to buy articles that were not produced in the mission. That would serve them to procure subsistence goods, to preserve the Indians from exploitation by Spaniards or Portuguese and to be able to instruct them in the Catholic doctrine.

With their great development, the Guaraní reductions became strong competitors of nearby cities such as Asunción and Buenos Aires. In these cities is where the unease and the myth of the great wealth treasured in the missions began

The strategic situation of the Jesuit missions in Rio de la Plata at the border between the Portuguese and the Spanish dominions was one of the causes of the conflict that was to take place years later. Earlier, Phillip V had supported them because they were an effective barrier against Portuguese advancement to the South, but the constant conflicts between Spain and Portugal came to a point when it became necessary to define the borders between those two nations in that region.

The Treaty of Madrid between the two nations was signed in 1750 in spíte of the knowledge that the missions would be an obstacle. Among other provisions, the Treaty established that Portugal would return the city of Colonia del Sacramento in exchange for a territory located at the east of the Uruguay river, where seven reductions (San Francisco de Borja, San Nicolás, San Luis, San Lorenzo, San Miguel and Santo Ángel) with over 30,000 Indians altogether, existed along the course of the Ibicuy River,.

The Treaty was ignominious, since Spain ceded territories it owned (the missions to the East of the Uruguay River) in exchange for another territory (the city of Colonia del Sacramento) which also was under Spanish jurisdiction.

The Jesuits manifested their disagreement, although they ended up yielding, and tried to convince the Indian population to comply with the law, but the populations in the affected missions, specifically those of Guaraní language, that were left in the hands of Portugal, refused to become subjects of that crown, and declared in the Santa Tecla parliament that they wished to remain within the Spanish territory.

The problem was that, while under the Spanish crown the Indians were free vassals of the king, under the Portuguese crown they could be enslaved. In face of this, Spain offered the Guaranies to move to the Spanish zone, but they flatly refused to abandon their lands and did not do so. This was interpreted as a refusal to comply with the treaty and for that reason a dishonor to the Spanish Crown. The Company of Jesus was made responsible for the refusal of the Guaranies. Despite the intense negotiations the Guaranitic War broke out. The armed Indians with the undemonstrated consent and participation of some local Jesuits (according to letters dated in 1759 and 1760 written by the Governor of the Province of Río de la Plata, Lieutenant General Pedro Cevallos), who, according to the accusation of disobeying their Father General, who had ordered them to obey the royal provisions. This is the topic of the well-known film, The Mission, of 1986.

The Spaniards considered themselves obligated to comply with the stipulations of the treaty with the neighboring country, and the Portuguese troops on the one side and the Spanish troops on the other defeated the Indians. The war did not end until 1756. From then on, the missions would never recover, even though for a time the territory did not pass to the rule of Portugal and the city of Sacramento did not pass to Spain because of disagreements on the boundaries and changes in alliances, That would take place in subsequent treaties. A useless war.

Informed and saddened by the cruel war, Fernando VI left compliance with the treaty in suspense, and his successor, Carlos III, annulled it definitively in February 1761. Colonia del Sacramento remained under the power of Portugal and Spain recovered the territories it had ceded in the Treaty. Years later, the war with Portugal in 1801 made the Portuguese take possession of the seven towns, which never again returned under Spanish rule.

The Jesuits were investigated for inciting the Guaranies to war. Eleven of them were accused of conspiring and committing treason against the king and were deported to Spain, Even though Carlos III exculpated them of the accusation of instigation, their image became quite deteriorated because the investigation reported having proved that they had backed the rebellion and that some of them had led the uprising.

In Portugal, as a consequence, the Marquis of Pombal, Sebastián José de Carvalho e Mello, radical encyclopedist and declared enemy of the Jesuits, arguing a spurious pretext, first by means of a royal decree, was able to confiscate all properties of the Jesuits from Portuguese dominions in Europe, Asia and America, and to incarcerate its members and decree their expulsion one year later, They left in ships sailing with Rome destination. Spanish Jesuits sent money to Rome to assist their Portuguese members.

The repercussion reached France when, in April 1762 the Parliament in Paris issued a series of decrees ordering the closing of all Jesuit schools located within French territorial jurisdiction and seizing all properties of the Order. A few months later, in August of the same year, the same Parliament in Paris took a series of measures that in practice destroyed the Company of Jesus in France. It was considered "perverse, destroyer of all religious principles and even of honesty, injurious to Christian morals, seditious, hostile to the rights of the nation and to the power of the king". The Parliament declared itself against lax morality and tyrannicide. Finally, in February 1764 the Parliament of Paris decreed the exile of the Jesuits from its jurisdiction, and soon thereafter others like Rouen, Pau and Toulouse followed suit. In that way, the Company of Jesus was expelled from France in one more step to reinforce a monarchy based on the Divine right of kings

In the Indies, the Jesuit's competence in the matter of education was subsidiary where the State could not reach. It would have been more practical and of course more intelligent to establish a contact at the highest level to resolve the differences. There is no knowledge that such a possibility was ever considered or that one of the ministers ever intended to do so. Certainly, at that time it was not common to seek agreements, but the disastrous consequences that such a decision would have in America were never thought about, or there was great arrogance. It can be deduced therefrom that the matter came from far away and was too entrenched. The mutiny of Esquilache had only been an excuse.

The expulsion operation was highly effective, deserving of a better cause. Instructions on how to carry it out  were sent in separate, sealed envelopes. These were to be opened the day prior to their execution. Everything was to take place under maximum secrecy and preventing the Jesuits from communicating among themselves: The schools were to be surrounded by troops, the royal functionaries would bring together the community to read to them the royal decree and communicate to them that the expulsion would take place immediately. They would be transported to ships ready for that purpose in the closest port, accompanied by royal troops. They could pick up their personal belongings, but the documents, books of account, jewelry, libraries, were inventoried and confiscated, The procurators would have to stay for two months afterwards to give account of the management of the confiscated property. Not having yet made their perpetual vows, novices were given the opportunity to join the secular clergy. The Jesuits that were sick could stay and be treated by physicians but were held to be sent to exile later. In many places the measure was executed at night while communities were sleeping, Residents were taken to the refectory, where the royal decree was read to them; they were allowed to pick up their personal belongings and the trip to the ports was started right away.

When you read the account of what happened in each place, you get overwhelmed and desolated, sadness invades your heart. Chronicles say that some soldiers were ashamed. Treated as dangerous enemies,  those men who thought they had been doing what is right, with great sacrifice in most of them, who noted the affection and gratitude of the persons to which they were devoted, suffered from one day to the next  an incomprehensible and unjust situation which they suffered with exemplary fortitude and respect. They thought they had been serving God and the Catholic Monarchy and knew not what wrong they had done.

The social impact of the measure was tremendous. Sons of the most socially eminent families who, in addition, were in charge of the schools where children of the elites studied, were being deported. A human capital of the highest level was being done without; a Jesuit's formation took fourteen years and it was not until they were 32 or 33 years old that they attained the priesthood, in the best of cases. During those years, they would acquire solid knowledge of law, philosophy, theology, languages, mathematics engineering, pedagogy, magisterium and the arts, among which music stood out. In some cities such as Guadalajara (Mexico) or Cuzco (Peru), the population rebelled and faced the royal troops unsuccessfully and in almost all places demonstrations of sadness and incomprehension were overwhelming.

The regional administrative unit of the order was the Province, headed by a provincial father. There were six in the Indies:

New Spain (México, Central América and Cuba)

New Granada (Colombia and Venezuela)

Quito (Ecuador)

Perú (Peru and part of Bolivia)

Chile

Paracuaria (Region on the Río de la Plata and parts of Bolivia).

The Province of New Spain was the one that had the greatest number of Jesuits; in second place was Paracuaria, which reflected its importance as a missionary frontier

In New Spain more than five hundred members of the Society were banished; of them some one hundred and twenty were teachers and professors, which meant the loss of the largest and most prestigious group of educators. All of them left from the port of Veracruz within a year. After transitory stays in Cuba, in the Port of Santa María, in the Bay of Cadiz and in the Island of Corsica, they established themselves in the Papal States. In 1767, the Province of New Spain had 678 Jesuits (68.4% born in America, 22.6% born in the Iberian Peninsula and  9% were described as foreigners).

The Society had primary schools in Mérida, Oaxaca, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Puebla, Tepotzotlán. Guanajuato, Veracruz, Chiapas, Durango, Campeche, Zacatecas, Parral, Celaya, Chihuahua and three schools for Indians, in Mexico City, Pátzcuaro and Puebla.

Also in 1767 it was the main supporter of the middle grade educational system in the cities of México, Puebla, Guadalajara, Mérida, Querétaro, Oaxaca, Durango, Zacatecas, Pátzcuaro, Valladolid, Tepotzotlán, Chiapas, Celaya, Guanajuato, Veracruz, San Luis Potosí, San Luis de la Paz, Parral, León, Chihuahua and Campeche.

In addition, they had colleges in the cities of México, Puebla Guadalajara and Mérida, that taught university level courses in philosophy and theology, recognized and validated by the University of Mexico.

The expulsion decree caused surprise at first and protests later, and even resistance among the population. Foreseeing the unrest that such a measure would produce, the order was distributed to the Spanish authorities secretly. Thus, in the cities of Pátzcuaro, Guanajuato, San Luis de la Paz, and San Luis Potosí, the inhabitants, many of them Indians, tried to obstruct the march of the Jesuits, actions that were harshly repressed by visitador José de Gálvez

The intent of re-using the properties seized from the Jesuits in the general educational system was not effective since only a few of the closed schools were reopened, and only a part of the funds were applied to the diocesan seminaries. To a great extent, a decapitalization of education occurred in New Spain, reducing the possibilities of recovering the previous level in the educational system.

In Central America, the fourteen members that comprised the two Jesuit communities in Guatemala were taken to Golfo Dulce in 1767 and embarked in the frigate Thetis to Havana, and from there to the port of Santa María (Cadiz). The nine of the school of Panamá left on August 28 on the road to Cruces and Chagres toward Portobelo, where they embarked to Cartagena, and from there to the Port of Santa María.

In New Granada [Colombia and Venezuela] the expulsion order was executed on August 1, 1767, and the number of deported is estimated at more than 228 Jesuits, of which 27 were in the Province of Venezuela.

On July 7, 1767, Viceroy Pedro Messía de la Cerda, received the documentation, producing a deep pain in his spirit. He determined the 1st of August to be the date to carry it out in Santa Fe de Bogotá, Pamplona, Tunja, Honda, Popayán, Pasto, Buga, Mérida and Maracaibo. In Cartagena de Indias, and Mompox the date had been advanced to July 15. August 21 was the date for Santiago de las Atalayas and the missions of Casanare and Meta. Most of the Jesuits were taken to Cartagena to be embarked to Havana. The 39 Jesuits proceeding from Caracas, Pamplona, Mérida, Maracaibo and the Missions, were taken to the port of La Guaira and embarked in the frigate La Caraqueña on March 7, 1768, to arrive in Cádiz on April 30. The eight missionaries from Orinoco were taken on this river to Guayana and from there to the Península.

The schools of the Company in the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada gave education to more than six thousand pupils. Thus, in Bogotá 250 poor children were educated in schools free of charge. According to Groot, by 1774 in Panama, Popayán. and Quito, teaching had been entirely ruined since the expulsion of the Jesuits, who had been founders of the only schools that existed there. The deterioration in Quito was especially noteworthy, with universities, colleges and schools being closed, the culture decaying, many artistic treasures of the churches being lost; the work of the missions was paralyzed, and agriculture and cattle raising deteriorated.

In the Viceroyalty of Perú the expulsion documents arrived at the viceroyal palace on August 30, 1767 at ten in the morning, conducted by an official coming from Buenos Aires. The sealed package was examined personally by Viceroy Manuel de Amat and Junyent. Once he uncovered its contents, Amat set 8 of September for the execution of the Royal Order. Under great secrecy he summoned the people who were to participate in the operation, in a way that nothing of what was to take place transcended in Lima. "Very serious" penalties for anyone who revealed it were pointed out. As troops of the militia were to intervene, the viceroy had a special dinner served at the palace  in celebration of the  feast of Our Lady of Montserrat and there he entertained the troops until the dawn of September 9. At about two in the morning, Amat distributed the commissions to occupy the four buildings the Jesuits had in Lima. They were the Colegio Máximo de San Pablo, the Noviciado de San Antonio Abad, the Casa Profesa de los Desamparados and the Colegio del Cercado. The total number of troops were more than seven hundred men. Such a fierce apparatus had never been seen in Lima before. On that same date he also took care to carry out the execution of the decree in the rest of the Jesuit houses of the Audiencia of Lima, Callao, Cuzco, Arequipa, Trujillo, Ica, Huamanga, Pisco and Moquehua.

The President of the Audiencia of Charcas, Victorino Martínez de Tineo. was put in charge of executing the decree in the houses of Chuquisaca, Potosí, La Paz, Juli, Oruro, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz de la Sierra and the mission of Mojos (in the Jesuit province of Perú) and in the one of Tarija and in the missions of Chiquitos (of the Province of Paraguay).

Between October 1767 and July 1769, the expelled left toward the Port of Santa María (Spain), some by way of Cape Horn and others through the Isthmus of Panama.

In October 1767, the first group of expelled, 181 Jesuits, including priests, assistants and students, embarked on board the ship El Peruano. The first stage lasted 32 days to Valparaíso, where 24 Jesuits from Chile were embarked.

The second group departed from the port of Callao on December 15, 1767 on the sloop De Otaeguil but this time the ship took the route to Panama, where they crossed the Isthmus to Cartagena de Indias. From there they went on to Havana and continued the arduous trip to end up in Cádiz on November 23, 1768. 92 days had lasted the voyage of this stretch of the Atlantic.

To the two previous expeditions two more were added, one with 120 Jesuits that left the port of the Callao on the vessel Santa Bárbara on March 26, 1768. The other one left on April 24 on board the Prusiano, which set sail to follow the dangerous and exhausting route of Cape Horn, with eight hundred Jesuits of the Province of Perú. The majority of the exiled ended up in the Papal States, The Spanish and Creoles were sent to Ferrara which was the place assigned to the Province of Peru, and the rest to their respective provinces.

Invoking the promises of the Spanish government of allowing those priests who renounced to the Company of Jesus to return to their countries of origin, 91 priests, 43 scholars and 28 brothers of the Province of Peru, most of them creoles, left the Company of Jesus. At the time of the suppression of the Company in 1773, the Jesuits of the Province of Peru were still 99 priests and 39 brothers.

Catalogue of centers and Jesuits of the province of Peru in 1767 (Vargas Ugarte).

— Colegio de Arequipa: seventeen priests and four brothers

— Colegio de Bellavista: six priests and four brothers,

— Colegio de Cochabamba: six priests and two brothers.

— Colegio Máximo de la Transfiguración del Cuzco: seventeen priests and twenty two student brothers

— Noviciado del Cuzco: Rector priest, procurator priest, school novice and coadjutor novice

— Real Seminario de Nobles de San Bernardo del Cuzco: the Rector father

— Colegio de Caciques de San Francisco de Borja de Cuzco: three priests, among them the Rector and the procurator

— Real Universidad de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca and Colegio de San Juan Bautista: ten priests, the Rector, professors, readers and nine student brothers

— Colegio de Huamanga: ten priests, the Rector among them, and two brothers

— Colegio de Huancavelica:six fathers, the Rector and one brother

— Colegio de Ica: thirteen fathers, the Rector and eleven brothers

— Residencia de Juli: six fathers and the superior

— Colegio de la Paz: eleven fathers, the Rector and six brothers

— Colegio Máximo de San Pablo de Lima: thirty nine fathers, the Rector, fortyfive student brothers and thirtyfour coadjutor brothers .

— Casa de Probación de San Antonio Abad de Lima:six fathers, the Rector, seven students, thirteen novices, five coadjutors and nine coadjutor novices

— Casa Profesa de Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados: ten fathers and nine brothers

— Colegio de Santiago del Cercado and Casa de Tercera Probación: fourteen fathers, the rector and seven brothers

— Colegio Real de San Martín, Universitario: five fathers, the Rector among them, and two brothers

— Colegio de Moquegua:six fathers , the Rector and two brothers

— Colegio de Oruro: six fathers, the Rector and three brothers

— Colegio de Pisco: four fathers, the Rector and eight brothers

— Colegio de Potosí: seven fathers, the Rector and three brothers

— Residencia de Santa Cruz de la Sierra: nine fathers, the superior, four missionaries in Mojos and two brothers

— Colegio de Trujillo: eight fathers, the Rector and five brothers

Three were the major Colleges that the Company ran in the Viceroyalty of Peru and corresponded to the three university cities in which the Company had teaching responsibilities: the Colegio Mayor de San Martín in Lima, the Colegio de San Bernardo in Cuzco, and the Colegio de San Juan Bautista in Chuquisaca.

In Río de la Plata, governor Francisco de Paula Bucareli was the man chosen for such undertaking. With great armed apparatus, although by means of subordinates, he carried it out in Buenos Aires on July 3, 1767. in Montevideo on the 9th, in Córdoba on the 12th, the next day in Santa Fe, on the 26th in Corrientes, and also on July 3 in Asunción, to refer only to the communities belonging to the government of Buenos Aires.

Bucareli received the law on June 7, with the order to relay it to the Governor of Chile, to the President of the Audiencia de Charcas and to the Viceroy of Peru.

In the City of Buenos Aires, the expulsion affected the Colegio Grande de San Ignacio, with 36 Jesuits and the house of spiritual exercises with eight. In the rest of the province, two in Areco, four in Montevideo, twelve in Santa Fe, one hundred and thirty three in Córdoba, fifteen in Asunción, twelve in Tarija and twelve others in rural zones. 234 in total.

The embarking of the last Jesuits, 78 religious that had been in the missions distributed in thirty towns, were dispatched down the Paraguay River on August 22.

The Company of Jesus had independent schools and schools associated with colleges of higher learning in almost all Argentinian, Paraguayan and Uruguayan cities. Thus, they existed in Buenos Aires, Corrientes, Santa Fe, Tarija, Catamarca, Rioja, Asunción, Montevideo, San Luis, San Juan, Mendoza, Tucumán, Córdoba and Santiago del Estero. The first one to be founded in Argentinian territory was that of Santa Fe in 1610. The last of them all was that of Montevideo, opened in 1746.

The expulsion in Chile was carried out on August 26, 1767. At daybreak on that date, in each city and corner of the kingdom, soldiers surrounded the schools and houses of the order and the Jesuits became secluded inside, awaiting a forced trip soon, to one of different ports, to be then embarked to El Callao and from there to Imola (Italy). In Santiago, a troop of Dragoons of the Queen surrounded the schools and houses of the Order, the Jesuits remained inside the Church and their belongings, their clothes, and their libraries were confiscated, and they were obligated to remain there, confined in a prison ordered by the king.

A few days later, all of them were taken to the Port of Valparaíso and there, separated from their relatives, friends and acquaintances, awaited the ship to set sail.

Valparaíso became the main concentration center; from there 24 Jesuits were embarked directly to Spain on the ship El Peruano, reaching Cádiz on April 30, 1768.

Meanwhile, those from Mendoza, San Juan and San Luis were sent to Buenos Aires; the rest were taken from Valparaíso to the port of El Callao in Peru, where they arrived on different ships, some with considerable delay, in the months from March to July, 1768.

From El Callao, they were transported to the Port of Santa María [Cádiz], some following the route of Cape Horn and others by way of Panama. Father Xavier Baras, who had arrived in Chile with an expedition of twenty young Jesuits, had to return from Buenos Aires to Europe with his 20 students.

In total, 360 was the number of Jesuits expelled from Chile, of which, 11 were novices, 40 were students, 76 were coadjutor brothers and 233 were priests, plus the 20 that had been brought from Spain by Father Baras. Of them all, ten died in Chile before the deportation, thirteen more died during the trip, nine disappeared (probably escaped), three remained in Lima for reason of serious illness, and one, brother José Zeitler, of Bavarian origin, had to stay four years more because of the difficulty of finding a replacement in his position of pharmacist at the Colegio Máximo in Santiago; he would leave the country on October 22, 1771, arriving at Puerto de Santa María on June 17 of the following year,

In the Philippines, 154 was the number of expelled Jesuits: most of them were gathered in the Colegio Máximo de Manila. The royal orders left Spain to the Philippines on March 6, 1767; that is, about one month before it was made public. The documents were sent following two routes: that of the Cape of Good Hope and that through New Spain to the Philippines. It was the galleon Sinaloa, which had left from Acapulco, the one that arrived first, on May 17, 1768, delivering the documentation urgently to Governor Don José Raón.

Beginning then, the transport of the fathers was prepared. The first 64 Jesuits were embarked in the Galleon San Carlos Borromeo, which left the Port of Cavite on August 3, 1768. But during a formidable storm that developed on the first few days of September, the ship was close to wrecking, becoming so damaged that the captain decided to return to the Philippines. The Provincial Father Juan Silverio Prieto and Father Baltasar Vela died before the arrival to Cavite on October 22.

Not until the first of August of the following year, 1769, did the first embarkment of twenty one Jesuits towards Mexico in the  refurbished Galleon San Carlos, that arrived in Acapulco on Christmas day, They could not embark from Veracruz towards Cuba until April 1770, where they were united with a large number of Jesuit brothers were being gathered from different parts of the Indies. After great suffering they managed to reach Puerto de Santa María alive on July 31 of the same year.

Another ship, the Venus, left Cavite following the route of Cape of Good Hope on January 19, 1770. and the Santa Rosa, with 68 Jesuits, left on the 23rd of the same month, following the same route, Both ships arrived in Cádiz on the 10th of August. In January 1771, eight Jesuits that had remained in Manila recovering from sickness left on the ship Astrea and arrived at Puerto de Santa María on August 2. Only seven sick priests remained in Manila for reason of the impossibility of undertaking such hard and dangerous voyages.

In the island of Española, the order of expulsion of the eight Jesuits in the island was carried out in Santo Domingo on June 25, 1767.

In the Island of Cuba, the arrival in La Habana of the vessel that carried the documents from La Coruña took place in the early hours of the morning of May 14, 1767, and were delivered to José Antonio Armona y Murga, responsible for the General Postal Service Administration in La Habana and of the system of maritime mail for America. He was put in charge of delivering the documents to the Captain General of the island. Antonio María Bucareli y Ursúa on the same May 14; and in the following days, sixteen couriers were dispatched to the rest of the Spanish regions in the Indies with the exception of Santo Domingo. A month later, the 15th of May, was to witness the occupation of the Jesuit school in La Habana and the subsequent embarkment of the priests to Europe.

The 16 religious resident in the two schools situated in La Habana and Puerto Príncipe accepted obediently the Government's order. La Habana was the center of reception of most of the Jesuits expelled from the American Continent with destination Cádiz (Spain) between 1767 and 1770. In total, more than 1,000 religious passed through the town, among which some encountered death there and were buried in the Convalecencia de Belén, Others died victims of the inclemency of the ocean or the poor nutrition during the lengthy voyage to peninsular soil. which lasted between three and four months

In Puerto de Santa María almost all the missionaries from America were gathered but some 500 Jesuits of the 2,776 total expatriated according to official catalogues, had died during the voyage, which means 20 percent of all the Jesuit missionaries that were in the Indies.

Consequences in America

In the Spanish Empire the noise caused by the expulsion of 1767 was deafening. the apparently modest numbers of banished contrasted with the magnitude of the organization. The expulsion was a matter of power.

In the field of education more than one hundred schools were deprived of teachers. A pedagogic vacuum was created, difficult to solve in the short range, with grave consequences. A loss of the cultural level of the population was produced by the substitution of the system, and the area of research noticeably suffered it, both in the field of humanities and in that of the sciences. Spain was not in a position of allowing itself to get rid of such figures.

It also produced negative effects in the political, moral and economic sectors. In the political aspect, the king lost a good ally against the cause of future struggles for independence. In the moral order, the population took conscience of the unfairness of the measure with the consequent loss of prestige of the royal power. As regards economics, production and the development of trade suffered paralysis.

In the territorial plane, the Portuguese in Brazil were the great beneficiaries; they took advantage of the vacuum in the region of the missions to take away territory and advance to the West until they reached Quito. Up to that moment, every time they had attempted it through the Marañón, Paraná and Uruguay rivers, they were defeated by the Guaranies of the Jesuit missions.

In the mission regions the plunder of their properties took place, and the local landholders appropriated themselves of the cattle and sowing fields

Conclusions

Between 5,000 and 6,000 Jesuits were expelled from the territory of the Spanish Monarchy, of which 2700 left the Peninsula and Balearic and Canary Islands and over 2600 from America and the Philippines.

The expulsion was a demolishing physical and psychical experience. Their treatment as lese majesty criminals wounded their dignity deeply. The religious suffered a progressive emotional weakening. They had undergone oceanic journeys sprinkled with setbacks (storms. shipwrecks, pirate attacks, etc). Fear of the sea, which some of them faced for the first time in their life, was added to the anguish of seeing so many brethren die.

To Guido E, Mazzeo: "Rarely in the course of history has such a large group of distinguished learned men, critics and teachers been obligated to undertake an exodus of the magnitude of the one that took place in 1767 and subsequent years as a result of the royal decree".

The Jesuits having been banished, the doctrine of the "divine right of kings" was imposed in the universities, according to which the people could not take up arms against the king because being against the king was equal to being against God. The exact opposite of what the Jesuits advocated. Their great philosopher, Francisco Suárez, had said that, while sovereignty was of divine origin, it derived from God to the people and it was the people the ones who delegated this same power to the monarch

Finally, Pope Pius VII restored the Company of Jesus, but the damage had been done: The majority of the expelled had already died. The Jesuits returned in the nineteenth century to the places from which they had been expelled but they did not recover the expropriated properties. Spanish America, well into civil wars, was already on the way to disintegration.

Pope Paul VI in 1975 described the Jesuits as follows: "Wherever in the Church, even in the most difficult or frontline fields, confrontations have taken place or currently take place: in the crossroads of ideologies, and in social trenches, between the demands of men and the Christian message,,there have the Jesuits been and continue to be."