THE FIRST CONGREGATION
Expulsion from Russia--Petrucci, Vicar--Attempt to wreck the
Society--Saved by Consalvi and Rozaven.
The superiors-general who presided over the Society in Russia were
Stanislaus Czerniewicz (1782-85), Gabriel Lenkiewicz (1785-98), Francis
Kareu, (1799-1802), Gabriel Gruber, (1802-05), and Thaddeus Brzozowski,
(1805-20). The first two were only vicars, as was Father Kareu when
first elected, but by the Brief "Catholicæ Fidei" he was raised to the
rank of General on March 7, 1801. His two successors bore the same
title. Father Brzozowski lived six years after the Restoration. But
those years must have been a time of great suffering for him. Over the
rapidly expanding Society, whose activities were already extending to
the ends of the earth, he had been chosen to preside but he was
virtually a prisoner in Russia. It soon became evident that such an
arrangement was intolerable and not only was there an exasperating
surveillance of every member of the Order by the government, but even
when Brzozowski himself asked permission to go to Rome to thank the Holy
Father in person for the favor he had conferred on the Society by the
Bull of Re-establishment, he was flatly refused. Hence it was resolved
that when he died, a General had to be elected who would reside in Rome,
no matter what might be the consequences in Russia.
The difficulty, however, solved itself. Though officially the head of
the Orthodox Church, Alexander cared little for its doctrines, its
practises or its traditions, and he set about establishing a union of
all the sects on the basis of what he considered to be the fundamental
truths of religion. He is even credited with the ambition of aiming at a
universal spiritual dominion which would eclipse Napoleon's dream of
world-wide empire built upon material power. Whether this was the
outcome of his meditations,--for after his fashion, he was a religious
man,--or was suggested to him by the Baroness Julia de Krudner, who was
creating a sensation at that time, as a revivalist, cannot be
ascertained. There is no doubt, however, that he fell under her sway.
Mme. de Krudner had given up pleasures and wealth to bring back the
world to what she called the principles of the primitive Church. She
travelled through Germany and Switzerland with about forty of her
admirers, who kept incessantly crying out: "We call only the elect to
follow us." She established soup-kitchens wherever she went, and her
converts knelt before her, as this slim diet which they regarded as a
gift from heaven was doled out to them. Naturally this attraction worked
first on the poor, but the baroness soon reached the upper grades of
society. Her opportunity presented itself at Vienna, where the allied
sovereigns were in session to determine the political complexion of the
world, after they had disposed of Napoleon. They did her the honor of
attending some of her meetings, and Alexander who showed himself greatly
interested, became the special object of her attention. She styled him:
"The White Angel of God," while Napoleon was set down as "The Dark Angel
of Hell."
Such a serious writer as Cantù is of the opinion that it was the
baroness who drew up the scheme of the Holy Alliance, in which the four
monarchs agreed to love one another as brothers; to govern their
respective states as different branches of the great family of nations,
and to have Jesus Christ, the Omnipotent Word, as their Sovereign Lord.
But immediately after making this pious pact they began to distribute
among themselves the spoils of war. Prussia took Saxony; Russia, Poland;
Austria, Northern Italy; and England, Malta, Heligoland and the Cape.
Thus was virtue rewarded.
At the suggestion of Galitzin, his minister of worship, Alexander had
begun a devout course of Bible reading as a means of lifting himself out
of the gloom into which he seemed to be plunged after the war. It had
apparently some beneficial effect on him, and he became an enthusiastic
advocate of the practise for all classes of people. The English Bible
Society was to help the propaganda and the Catholic Archbishop of
Mohilew and his clergy strongly supported the imperial project.
Necessarily the Jesuits had to antagonize this wholesale diffusion of
corrupt versions of the sacred text, and they endeavored to point out
the folly of leaving its interpretation to ignorant people. The
consequence was that they provoked the anger not only of the Bible
Society and of the emperor, but also both of the Russian and partly of
the Catholic clergy. The troublesome Siestrzencewicz, Archbishop of
Mohilew, not only strongly favored the project but suggested to Galitzin
that the attitude of the Jesuits furnished an excellent opportunity to
get rid of them. There was another reason also why the blow was sure to
fall. A Catholic Polish woman named Narychkine it is said had been
dissociated from the czar by a refusal of absolution at Easter time. The
confessor was the Jesuit, Father Perkowski, and, of course, as all his
associates would have acted in the same way, the whole Society came
under the ban.
Zalenski, in his "Russie Blanche," finds another reason for this loss of
Alexander's favor. He was not only not a Romanoff but had not a drop of
Russian blood in his veins, except through his father Paul, the alleged
bastard son of Catherine before she became empress. He was aware that
the Jesuits knew of this family stain, though not a word was ever
uttered about it. It made him uncomfortable, nevertheless, and he was
quite willing to rid himself of their presence.
As he had officially proclaimed that all religions were alike, many who
had professed allegiance to the Greek Church under political pressure
became materialists or atheists, and some distinguished women became
Catholics. No attention was paid to the atheists, but these conversions
to the Faith were blamed on the Jesuits, particularly on three French
fathers, among whom was Rozaven. Count de Maistre, who was in St.
Petersburg at the time, declares emphatically that they had nothing to
do with it. The feeling against them, however, was very intense and only
lacked an occasion to show itself. It came when a nephew of Galitzin,
announced that he was going to become a Catholic. This was too much for
the minister of worship to put up with and although the lad, who was a
pupil of one of the Jesuit colleges, had let it be known that the
Fathers had absolutely nothing to do with his project and that his
resolution was only the result of his own investigations, he was not
believed, and a ukase, dated December 25, 1815, was issued, proclaiming
their expulsion from the country. This was seventeen months after the
Re-establishment.
The decree called attention to the fact that "when the Jesuits were
expelled from all the other nations of Europe, Russia had charitably
admitted them and confided to their care the instruction of youth. In
return, they had destroyed the peace of the Orthodox Church and had
turned from it some of the pupils of their colleges. Such an act, said
the document, explains why they were held in such abhorrence elsewhere.
The ukase bubbles over with piety, deploring the "apostacies" that had
taken place, and then goes on to state that: first, the Catholic Church
in Russia is hereby re-established on the plan which had been adopted
since the time of Catherine II until the year 1800; secondly, the
Jesuits are to withdraw immediately from St. Petersburg; thirdly, they
are forbidden to enter either of the capitals.
It is noteworthy that the decree of banishment is not stocked with
calumnies like those issued by the Catholic courts of Europe. It was
based purely on religious ground. Nor was the expulsion characterized by
any exhibition of brutality as in Spain, Portugal and France; for
although the police descended on the houses, in the dead of night, and
drove out the occupants, an almost maternal care was taken against their
suffering in the slightest degree on their way to the places of their
exile. Of course, all their papers and books were seized but perhaps the
Fathers were glad of it; for although, since Catherine's time, they had
been brought into closest contact with the hideous skeletons of her
court and those of her successors, no mention was made of any family
scandal in the voluminous correspondence that had been so suddenly
seized by the government. As regards the charge of proselytism, there is
a letter from Father Brzozowski to Father de Clorivière, dated February
20, 1816, which stated that not only did none of the Fathers ever
attempt to influence their pupils, but that during the thirteen years of
the existence of the College of St. Petersburg, no Russian Orthodox
student had been admitted to the Church. It goes on to say that for a
long time the storm had been foreseen and that everyone was prepared for
it.
Before the final blow came, Father Brzozowski petitioned the emperor at
least to permit the Fathers to continue their labors in the dangerous
mission of the Riga district, in the Caucasus, and on the banks of the
Volga, in all of which places, their success in civilizing and
christianizing the population had been officially recognized by the
emperor. But the request was not granted, and in 1820, just as Father
Brzozowski was dying, the Jesuits were ordered out of the empire, and
all their possessions were confiscated. The loss was a grievous one in
many respects, but it had its compensations. For, in the first place, it
effectually settled the question of the General's residence. Secondly,
as the Jesuits living in Russia were almost of every nationality in
Europe and as many of them were conspicuous for their great ability in
many branches of learning, a valuable re-inforcement was thus available
for the hastily formed colleges in various parts of the world. Thirdly,
the traditions of the Society had remained unbroken in Russia, and the
example and guidance of the venerable men who were there to the number
of 358 would transmit to the various provinces the true spirit of the
Society. In any case Alexander's successor would have expelled them, for
he was a violent persecutor of the Church, and, moreover, Freemasonry
and infidelity had been making sad havoc with what was left of the
religion of the nation.
Brzozowski when dying, had named as Vicar, Father Petrucci, the master
of novices at Genoa, a most unfortunate choice; for Petrucci was not
only old and ill, but was woefully lacking in worldly wisdom, and proved
to be a pliant tool in the hands of designing men. His appointment went
to show the impossibility of directing the Society in pent-up Russia,
where the General could not be sufficiently informed of the character of
the various members of the Order. The congregation was summoned for
September 14, 1820, but although there were already in Rome on August 2
seventeen out of the twenty-one delegates, Cardinal della Genga wrote to
Petrucci to say that the Pope wanted the congregation to be delayed,
because he desired time for the arrival of the Polish Fathers who
represented a notable part of the Society.
As no one ever questioned the fact that the Polish province, which alone
had remained intact in the general wreck, was a notable part of the
Congregation and of the Society, and as, moreover, the Polish delegates
would have no difficulty in reaching Rome before September 14, everyone
suspected that something sinister was being attempted. That Petrucci and
Cardinal della Genga were in league with each other in this matter was
clear from the fact that Petrucci, without consulting any one of his
colleagues, immediately dispatched letters to all the provinces
announcing the prorogation of the congregation, protesting meantime that
the office of vicar was too great for one of his age and infirmities. It
was also remarked that with the cardinal was a small group of
malcontents composed of Rizzi, Pancaldi, who was only in deacon's
orders, Pietroboni and a certain number of Roman ecclesiastics, some of
them prelates who, like della Genga, did not of course belong to the
Society.
These conspirators kept the minds of the waiting delegates in a feverish
state of excitement by giving out that there was a great fear, not only
in the public at large, but even in the papal court, that a Paccanarist
might be elected. Indeed there were already three of them among the
electors: Sineo, Rozaven and Grivel, and hence it was desirable to
delay the congregation until it would be sure that no others would
arrive. Over and above this, some of those recently admitted to the
Society maintained that only those who belonged to the old Society or
had been a long time in Russia should be accepted as delegates. Doubts
were raised also as to whether those who had taken their vows before the
formal recognition of the Society in Russia in 1801, or the recognition
in Sicily in 1804, were to be considered as Jesuits or as secular
priests.
In brief, Rizzi and his associates had so filled the minds of outsiders
with doubts, that some prelates and even a cardinal advised that the
questions should be submitted to the Pope for settlement. Finally, on
the day originally fixed for the congregation, namely, September 14,
Cardinal della Genga sent three letters to the Fathers at Rome. In the
first he said that the Pope was convinced that the meeting of the
delegates should be postponed, and that he had given to the Vicar,
Petrucci, all the faculties of a regularly elected General. The second
letter was directed to the assistants, who were informed that it was the
wish of His Holiness that all the irregularities which della Genga
declared existed in the congregation should be remedied, and to that
end, he had appointed a committee composed of himself, Cardinal Galiffi
and the Archbishop of Nanzianzum, together with Petrucci and Rizzi to
consider them. This committee, moreover, was to preside at the election.
The third letter ordered that new assistants should be added to those
already in office, making seven in all, a thing absolutely unheard of in
the Society until then.
Rizzi and Petrucci were in high spirits when this became known, but not
so the other delegates, and they determined to appeal directly to the
Pope. Then a doubt arose as to which cardinal was to present the
appeal. Mattei and Litta, the staunch friends of the Society were dead
and Pacca leaned slightly to Rizzi's views. There remained Consalvi. To
him Father Rozaven wrote the appeal, but, two of the assistants and
Petrucci refused to sign it. Consalvi received the petitioners with the
greatest benignity, promised to present the document to the Pope, and
bade the Fathers not to be discouraged. He explained the situation to
the Holy Father, who immediately approved of the request, and issued the
following order: "Having heard the plea, We command that the general
congregation be convened immediately, and that, as soon as possible, the
General be elected, all things to the contrary notwithstanding."
"Everyone," wrote Rozaven, "was delighted, except of course, Petrucci,
the provincial of the Italian Province, Pietroboni, and those who had
been misled by Rizzi."
The congregation met on October 9. Twenty-four professed Fathers were
present and they elected Father Aloysius Fortis as General. Petrucci
protested the legality of the election, but when the usual delegation
presented itself to the Pope, they were received most cordially and he
referred them to Consalvi for the decree of "sanation," if any were
needed. "He is altogether devoted to you," said the Pope, "and watches
with the greatest concern over your interests." Now that the
congregation was regularly constituted, the Fathers proceeded as quickly
as possible to the punishment of the conspirators. Both Petrucci and
Pietroboni were deposed from their respective offices as Vicar and
provincial, and other disturbers were expelled from the Society;--the
Pope highly approving of the action. It was Cardinal Consalvi who had
averted the wreck.
In view of the great cardinal's attitude in this matter, it is
distressing to find Crétineau-Joly declaring that Consalvi acted as he
did because he was a diplomat, a man of the world rather than an
ecclesiastic. He cared little for the Jesuits (il aimait peu les
Jésuites) whom he regarded as adding a new political embarrassment to
the actual complications in Europe, but he knew how to be just, and
refused to be an accomplice in the plot (VI, 1). This is a calumny. We
have the Pope's own words about Consalvi's concern for the Society, and
in the "Memoirs" edited by Crétineau-Joly himself the exact opposite is
asserted. Thus on page 56, we read: "he made the greatest number of
people happy and in doing so was happier than they, because he was thus
making them venerate the Church, his Mother." On page 11, he says that
whenever Consalvi wrote about Napoleon "he placed himself in the
presence of God in order to be impartial in judging his persecutor." On
page 180: "He lived without any concern for wealth; he never asked or
received any gifts. He realized what St. Bernard and Pope Eugenius III
said of a Cardinal Cibo in their day: 'In passing through this world of
money, he never knew what money was. He was prodigal in his benevolence
and died virtually a poor man." These are not the traits of a "man of
the world and a politician."
As for "his not liking the Jesuits," we find in those "Memoirs," which
were finished in 1812, and consequently eight years before the meeting
of the congregation, the following words (II, 305): "When Pope Pius VII
returned to Rome in 1801, he received a letter from Paul I, the Emperor
of Russia, asking for the re-establishment of the Jesuits in his
dominions. The Pope was delighted to have the chance to gratify the Czar
and also to perform a praiseworthy (_louable_) action;--for it was
restoring to life an Institute which had deserved well of Christendom
and whose fall had hastened the ruin of the Church, of thrones, of
public order, of morality, of society. One can assert this without fear
of being taxed with exaggeration or falsehood by honest and reasonable
men and by those who are not imbued with a false philosophy or party
spirit."
He then narrates how cautious the Pope had to be before granting Paul's
request, "so as not," Consalvi says, "to arouse the antagonism of the
enemies of the Society: the philosophers and haters of religion and of
public order, who, as they had forced its condemnation from Clement XIV,
would now employ all the machinery of the courts which had asked for the
suppression to prevent its rehabilitation. The Pope succeeded, but a few
years afterwards, when the Emperor of Austria asked for the Jesuits, his
ministers brought about the failure of the project. They consented to
accept the Jesuits, but in such a fashion and under such a form that
they could no longer be Jesuits. The Pope would not consent to such
conditions, and as the imperial court would not accept them as they
were, the matter was dropped." In other words, Pope Pius VII and his
great cardinal believed with Clement XIII that no changes should be made
in their Institute. _Sint ut sunt aut non sint._ Let them be themselves
or not at all. To assert that in the heart of the great champion of the
Faith, Consalvi, there was little love for the Jesuits is to say what is
contrary to facts.
The new General, Father Aloysius Fortis, was born in 1748 and was
consequently seventy-two years of age when he was elected. In spite of
his age, however, he was in vigorous health and governed the Society for
nine years. He had been in the old Society for eleven years before the
Suppression. In 1794 he was associated in Parma with the saintly
Pignatelli, who twice foretold his election. He had been prefect of
studies in the scholasticate at Naples, and when the Society was
re-established he was named as Father Brzozowski's vicar in Rome. In
1819 Pius VII appointed him _Examinator Episcoporum_. Hence his election
was naturally gratifying to the Pope, and he gave evidence of it by the
joy that suffused his countenance when the formal announcement of the
result was made to him. The eagerness with which he affixed his
signature to the official document also testified to his satisfaction.
In the Professed House, the Fathers acclaimed the choice with
enthusiasm, as did the throngs of people who had immediately flocked to
the Gesù to hear the announcement. They have chosen a saint was the
universal cry. The Emperor of Austria, Francis I, Frederick, the Prince
of Hesse, and Duke Antony, who was soon to be King of Saxony, all
expressed their pleasure at the promotion of Father Fortis.
The letter written by Antony is worth quoting. "I have read with the
greatest joy, in the public press," he said, "of the election of a man
of whom it may well be said he is _Fortis_ by name and _fortis_ by
nature. I am aware that his humility would prompt him to differ with me,
but I hoped that such would be the choice, and now my desire has been
fulfilled. God who directed this election will give you that strength
which you think you lack to fulfill the duties of your office. Now more
than ever I commend myself to the fervent prayers of yourself and your
associates. I have a claim on them, for ever since my earliest youth, I
have been most devoted to the Society, to which I owe my religious
training."
In the congregation, Father Fortis proposed a resolution or a decree, as
it is called, which is of supreme importance, and which was, it is
needless to say, unanimously adopted. It runs as follows: "Although
there is no doubt that both the Constitutions given by Our Holy Founder
and whatever in the course of time the Fathers have judged to add to
them have recovered their force at the very outset of the restored
Society, as it was the manifest wish of our Holy Father, Pius VII, that
the Society re-established by him should be governed by the same laws as
before the Suppression, nevertheless, to remove all anxiety on that
score, and to put an end to the obstinacy of certain disturbers of the
peace, this congregation not only confirms, but as far as necessary
decrees anew, in conformity with the power vested in the General and the
congregations by Paul III, and reaffirms that not only the Constitutions
with the declarations and the decrees of the general congregations, but
the Common Rules and those of the several offices, the Ratio Studiorum,
the ordinations, the formulas and whatsoever belongs to the legislation
of Our Society are intact, and it wishes all and each of the aforesaid
to have the same binding force on those who live in the Society that
they had before Clement XIV's Bull of Suppression."
Although Fortis was gentle and humble he admitted no relaxation,
especially in the matter of poverty, and those who were unwilling to put
up with the requirements, he allowed to leave the Order. "We want
fruits," he used to say, "not roots." Again, in spite of his new dignity
and of his great natural gifts he was always the same simple Father
Fortis. He was such an ardent lover of poverty that he kept his clothes
till they were threadbare and torn, and had to be stolen out of his room
to be replaced by others more befitting his station. In 1821 he united
into a vice-province the various members of the Society scattered
through Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and Germany and gave it a name
descriptive of its composition: "The Vice-Province of Switzerland and
the German Missions." In 1823 the Province of Galicia was established.
In it were many of the old Fathers of Russia, but the number was so
great that many had to be sent to Italy, France and elsewhere. Sicily,
especially, was benefited in this way. From the province thus
established three others sprung in a short time: Germany, Belgium and
Holland.
Father Fortis died on January 27, 1829. The grief for his loss was
general and none felt it more keenly than the King of Saxony, who wrote
another affectionate letter to express his sorrow. It is worthy of note
that, although the royal family of Saxony is still Catholic, no one who
has been trained in a Jesuit School is eligible there to any
ecclesiastical office. It is a curious condition in a kingdom which in
1821 was ruled by a sovereign who exulted in the fact that he was a
Jesuit alumnus.
Chief among the distinguished Jesuits in the congregation of 1820 was,
without doubt, the Frenchman, John Rozaven. He was born at Quimper in
Brittany, March 9, 1772. His uncle had belonged to the Society when it
was suppressed in France in 1760, and had then become a parish priest at
Plogonnec. While there, he was elected, in 1789, at the outbreak of the
Revolution to be a representative at the Etats Généraux. He accepted the
constitutional oath, but soon retracted. He had to atone for his treason
to the Church, however, by being made the victim of his bishop, who,
like him, had joined the schism but had not recanted. On account of this
ill-feeling, Rozaven left the country, taking with him the future
Jesuit, his nephew, who was living with him at that time. They both
disappeared on the night of June 20, 1792, and on the 24th arrived at
the Island of Jersey. From there they went to London and after a few
months made their way to the Duchy of Cleves.
Hearing that there was a French ecclesiastical seminary at Brussels,
young Rozaven entered it, was ordained sub-deacon, but was obliged to
leave after six months, because of the arrival of the French troops. He
and his uncle then took up their abode in Paderborn and lodged in an old
Jesuit establishment where they lived for four years, at which time the
young man was ordained priest and then left his uncle in order to join
the Fathers of the Sacred Heart under Father Varin. When informed of the
existence of the Jesuits in Russia, John applied for admission and was
received on March 28, 1804. He was subsequently made prefect of studies
and professor of philosophy in the College of Nobles at St. Petersburg.
In the course of his ministerial work, he brought to the Faith the
Princess Elizabeth Galitzin, well-known as one of the first of the
Ladies of the Sacred Heart. The famous Madame Swetchine was another of
his converts. He was the professor of the young Galitzin who had created
such an uproar in St. Petersburg by his supposed part in the conversion.
At the death of Father General Brzozowski, Rozaven was sent as a
delegate to the congregation and, as we have seen, it was his wisdom and
courage that saved the Society from shipwreck on that occasion. He was
elected assistant to the General, and, with the exception of one short
visit to France, remained for the rest of his life in Rome. He was too
valuable an aid for the General to be allowed even to be the official
visitor to France although everyone there was clamoring for him. It was
he who demolished the philosophical system of de Lamennais, and at the
same time restrained the hotheads of the French provinces from accepting
and teaching the new doctrine. His "Examen of Certain Philosophical
Doctrines" came out in 1831, and although his office of assistant gave
him plenty of occupation, he taught theology, was a member of several
pontifical congregations, and heard as many as 20,000 confessions a
year. This immense labor was made possible by his rising at half past
three in the morning, and by the clock-like punctuality and system with
which he addressed himself to the various tasks of the day. In the
cholera epidemic of 1837, despite his sixty-five years of age, he
plunged into the work like the rest of his brethren and heard 23,000
confessions during the continuance of the plague.
When the Revolution of '48 broke out, Rozaven remained at Rome more or
less secluded, but at last, when there was danger of his being taken to
prison, a friend of his, the Count Rampon, said: "You will come to my
château and I shall see that you are not molested." The protection was
accepted, and a few nights after, a banquet was given at the château, to
which the French ambassador and several conspicuous anti-Jesuit
personages had been invited. When the guests were seated it was remarked
that there was an empty place near the Count. "Are you waiting for
someone else?" they asked. "Yes," he said, "I have here a very
remarkable old gentleman whom I want to present to you. He is my friend
and more worthy of respect than anyone in the whole world." Then leaving
the room, he led Father Rozaven in by the hand and said to his guests in
a loud voice: "Gentlemen, I have to present my friend, Father Rozaven,
who has deigned to accept my hospitality. He is here under my protection
and I place him under yours. If, contrary to my expectation, hatred
pursues him into my house, the Count Rampon will defend his guest to the
last drop of his blood." Then making a step backward, he swung open a
door which revealed a formidable array of muskets, pistols and swords
which would be available if the contingency he referred to arose. It is
needless to say that Father Rozaven was treated with the most
distinguished consideration, not only at the banquet but subsequently.
From there he went to Naples but, later, joined Father Roothaan in
France. When Pius IX returned to Rome, the Father General and his
faithful assistant returned also. But Rozaven had reached the end of his
pilgrimage. In 1851 he fell seriously ill and breathed his last on April
2, at the age of seventy-nine. He had put in thirty years of incessant
work since the time he had fought so valiantly in the twentieth
congregation.
Besides Rozaven, there was present at the twentieth congregation the
distinguished English Jesuit, Charles Plowden. He was born at Plowden
Hall, Shropshire, in 1743, of a family which had not only steadfastly
adhered to the Faith in all the persecutions that had desolated England,
but had given several of its sons to the Society of Jesus and some of
its daughters as nuns in religious orders. He entered the Society in
1759, and was ordained in Rome three years before the Suppression. He
was in Belgium when the Brief was read and was kept in prison for
several months. After teaching at Liège, he returned to England where he
was appointed chaplain at Lulworth Castle, and as such preached there at
Bishop Carroll's consecration. He had much to do with the establishment
of Stonyhurst and was the first master of novices in England after the
re-establishment, subsequently he was rector of Stonyhurst and
provincial. It was he who, with Fathers Mattingly and Sewall, called
upon Benjamin Franklin in Paris to persuade him to crush the scheme of
making the Church of the United States dependent upon the
ecclesiastical authorities of France. He died at Jougne, in France, on
his way home from the congregation and was buried with military honors,
because his attendant had informed the authorities of the little town
that the dead man had been called to Rome for the election of a General.
They mistook the meaning of the word "General", and so buried the humble
Jesuit with all the pomp and ceremony that usually accompany the
obsequies of a distinguished soldier.
On August 20, 1823, Pius VII, the great friend of the Society, died and
it was with no little consternation that the Jesuits heard of the
election of Leo XII. He was the same Cardinal della Genga who had
endeavored to control the twentieth congregation and was supposed to
have revealed his attitude towards the Society years before, when he
advised Father Varin not to attempt to form a union between the Fathers
of the Faith and the Jesuits in White Russia. Father Rozaven,
especially, had reason for apprehension, for it was he who had thwarted
della Genga's plans at the election of Fortis; but the fear proved to be
groundless, and Rozaven hastened to assure his friends in France that in
the three years that had intervened since that eventful struggle, God
had operated a change in the mind of della Genga. As Sovereign Pontiff
he became one of the most ardent friends of the Society.