[56] The account in Letter VII. of the anxiety manifested by
Charles III. on the occasion of sending to Rome a manuscript in
the hand of a Spanish simpleton, whom the superstition of that
country wished to invest with the honours of Saintship, was
compiled from local tradition, and the recollections preserved
from a former perusal of the present Appendix. Its noble author,
whose love of the literature of Spain, and great acquaintance
with that country, would be enough to designate him, were he
not best known by a peculiar benevolence of heart, which no man
ever expressed so faithfully in the affability of his manners;
has subsequently favoured the writer of the preceding Letters
with his permission to publish this sketch. The attentive reader
will observe some slight variations between my story of Brother
Sebastian and that given in this Appendix. But as they all
relate to circumstances connected with the city of Seville, I am
unwilling to omit or to alter what I have heard from my townsmen
and the contemporaries of Sebastian himself.
AN ACCOUNT
OF THE
SUPPRESSION OF THE JESUITS IN SPAIN.
Extracted from a Letter of Lord ----.
The suppression of the Jesuits in Spain always appeared to me a very
extraordinary occurrence; and the more I heard of the character of
Charles III. by whose edict they were expelled, the more singular
the event appeared. Don Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, who had
been acquainted with all, and intimate with many, of those who
accomplished this object, related several curious circumstances
attending it; gave me a very interesting and diverting account
of the characters concerned, and sent me, in 1809, two or three
letters, which are still in my possession, containing some of the
secret history of this very remarkable transaction. I send you the
substance of his conversation, with some additional anecdotes related
to me by other Spaniards. They may throw light on the accidents and
combinations which led to the suppression of that formidable body of
men.
Charles III. came to the throne of Spain with dispositions very
unfavourable to the Jesuits. Not only the disputes with the Court of
Rome, to which the government of Naples was at all times exposed, but
the personal affronts which he conceived himself to have received
from Father Rávago, the Jesuit, Confessor to his brother Ferdinand,
estranged him from that formidable company. The jealousy entertained
by Barbara, Queen of Spain, of any influence which the Court of
Naples might obtain in the councils of her husband, and the opposite
system of politics adopted by the two Courts, had convinced the
Jesuits of the impossibility of being well with both. Not foreseeing
the premature death of Ferdinand, and the sterility of his wife,
they had very naturally exerted all their arts to ingratiate
themselves with the powerful crown of Spain, rather than with the
less important Court of Naples. They were accordingly satisfied with
placing Padre Rávago about Ferdinand, and, either from policy or
neglect, allowed Charles to select his Confessor from another order
of regular clergy. Queen Barbara was a patroness of the Jesuits;
and, very possibly, her favourite, the eunuch Farinelli, exerted his
influence in their favour. The Marquis of Ensenada, long the minister
of Ferdinand, was their avowed protector, ally, and partizan; and
the Queen’s ascendancy over her husband’s mind was too firmly
established to be shaken even by the removal of that minister. But
upon the failure of that Princess, and the subsequent death of the
King himself, the Jesuits experienced a sudden and fatal reverse
of fortune. The policy of the Court of Madrid was altered. Charles
felt deep resentment against England for the transactions in the Bay
of Naples. The influence of the Court of Versailles was gradually
restored. It may be easily supposed that the active enemies of the
Jesuits in France and Italy began to turn their eyes to the Court of
Madrid with more hopes of co-operation in that quarter than they had
hitherto ever ventured to entertain. There is, however, no reason to
imagine that till the nomination of Roda, to the place of Minister
of Grace and Justice, any actual design was formed by persons in
trust or power, of having recourse to such violent expedients as were
afterwards resorted to for the expulsion of the Jesuits.
Don Manuel de Roda, an Aragonese by birth, and an eminent lawyer at
Madrid, had imbibed very early both the theological and political
tenets of the Jansenists. He had been distinguished at the bar by
his resolute and virulent opposition to the members of the _Colegios
Mayores_. That institution, founded for the education and assistance
of poor students, had been perverted from its original intentions:
for though no one could be admitted but upon competition and a
plurality of voices, it consisted _de facto_ entirely of persons of
family. Its members, by the aid of exclusive privileges in the career
of the law, by mutual assistance, and a corporation spirit, not
unlike that of the Jesuits themselves, had obtained a large portion
of ecclesiastical and legal patronage, and enjoyed almost a monopoly
of the highest judicial offices in Castile. The members of these
colleges were enabled to succeed to the offices of _Fiscal, Oydor_,
and other magistracies, without the previous ceremony of passing
advocates, which was a gradation none but those who were _Colegiales_
could dispense with. These privileges gave them great influence,
and the expense which attended their elections, (especially that of
the Rectors of each College, an annual office of great consideration
among them,) served as an effectual bar to the pretensions of any
who had not birth and wealth to recommend them. It is just, however,
to observe, that if they were infected with the narrow spirit of
corporations, they retained to the last the high sense of honour
which is always the boast, and sometimes the characteristic, of
privileged orders of men. It has ever been acknowledged by their
enemies, that since the abolition of their exclusive privileges,
which Roda lived to accomplish, and, yet more, since their further
discouragement by the Prince of Peace, the judicial offices have not
been filled by persons of equal character for integrity, learning,
and honour. But those who studied the laws without the advantages of
an education at the _Colegios Mayores_, were naturally and justly
indignant at the privileges which they enjoyed. The boldness of
Don Manuel de Roda’s opposition to an order of men so invidiously
distinguished, ingratiated him with the lawyers, who, in Spain as
elsewhere, constitute a large, active, and formidable body of men.
But the same high spirit having involved him in a dispute with a man
of rank and influence, his friend and protector the Duke of Alva
thought it prudent for him to withdraw from Court; and with a view
of enabling him to do so with credit to himself, entrusted him with
a public commission to Rome, where he was received as the agent of
the King of Spain. He here, no doubt, acquired that knowledge which
was so useful to him afterwards in the prosecution of his important
design. By what fatality he became minister, I know not. Charles
III. must have departed from his general rule of appointing every
Minister at the recommendation of his predecessor, for Roda succeeded
a Marquis of Campo Villar, who had been educated at the _Colegios
Mayores_, and was attached to the Jesuits. Possibly the interest of
the Duke of Alva was the cause of his promotion. He was appointed
Minister of Grace and Justice, I believe, as early as 1763, though
Jovellanos implies that he was not Minister till 1765 or even 1766.
From the period of his nomination, however, one may safely date the
design of suppressing the Jesuits in Spain. It was systematically,
though slowly and secretly pursued, by a portion of the Spanish
Cabinet. Indeed the views, not only of the ministry, but of the
understanding of Roda, were so exclusively directed to such objects,
that Azara sarcastically observed, that he wore spectacles, through
one glass of which he could perceive nothing but a _Colegial_, and
through the other nothing but a _Jesuit_. If, however, his views were
contracted, he had the advantage often attributed to a short sight--a
clear and more accurate perception of every thing that came within
the limited scope of his organs. He had the discernment to discover
those, who, with dispositions congenial to his own had talents to
assist him. He had cunning enough to devise the means of converting
to his purpose the weaknesses of such as without predisposition to
co-operate with him, were from station or accident necessary to his
design. Though a strict Jansenist himself, he selected his associates
and partizans indiscriminately from Jansenists and philosophers or
freethinkers. Among the first, the most remarkable was Tavira, bishop
of Salamanca; among the latter Campomanes and the Count de Aranda.
Before we speak of the co-operation of these powerful men, it is
necessary to explain the difficulties which occurred in securing the
sanction and assistance of the King himself. Charles III., though
no friend to the Jesuits, was still less a friend, either by habit
or principle, to innovation. He was not less averse by constitution
to all danger. Moreover, he was religious and conscientious in
the extreme. The acquiescence and sanction of his Confessor was
indispensably necessary to the adoption of any measure affecting
the interests of the Church. Neither would the bare consent of the
Confessor (in itself no easy matter to obtain) be sufficient. He
must be zealous in the cause, and cautious as well as active in the
promotion of it. Great secrecy must be observed; for the scheme might
be defeated as effectually by indifference or indiscretion as by
direct resistance or intrigue. There was little in the character of
the Confessor to encourage a man less enterprising or less cunning
than Roda.
Fr. Joaquin de Elita, or Father Osma, (so called from the place
of his birth) was a friar of little education and less ability,
attached by habit to the order to which he belonged, and in other
respects exempt from those passions of affection or ambition, as
well as from that ardour of temper or force of opinion, which
either excite men to great undertakings or render them subservient
to those of others. Roda, however, from personal observation, and
from an intimate knowledge of those passions which a monastic life
generally engenders, discovered the means of engaging even Father
Osma in his views. None who have not witnessed it can conceive the
effect of institutions, of which vows of perpetual celibacy form
a necessary part. Their convent, their order, the place of their
nativity, the village or church to which they belong, often engage
in the minds of religious men the affections which in the course
of nature would have been bestowed on their kindred, their wives,
or their children. Padre Elita was born in the city of which the
venerable and illustrious Palafox had been bishop. The sanctity of
that eminent prelate’s life, the fervour of his devotion, the active
benevolence and Christian fortitude of his character, had insured
him the reputation of a saint, and might, it was thought, by many
Catholics, entitle him to canonization.[57] Roda, however, well knew
that the Jesuits bore great enmity to his memory on account of his
disputes with them in South America; he foresaw that every exertion
of that powerful body would be made to resist the introduction of his
name into the Rubric. He therefore suggested very adroitly to Father
Osma the glory which would redound to his native town if this object
could be accomplished. He painted in glowing colours the gratitude
he would inspire in Spain, and the admiration he would excite in the
Catholic world if through his means a Spaniard of so illustrious a
name and of such acknowledged virtue could be actually sainted at
Rome. He had the satisfaction of finding that Father Osma espoused
the cause with a fervour hardly to be expected from his character.
He not only advised but instigated and urged the King to support
the pretensions of the bishop of Osma with all his influence and
authority. But here an apparent difficulty arose, which Roda turned
to advantage, and converted to the instrument of involving the Court
of Madrid in an additional dispute with the Roman Pontiff. Charles
III. was not unwilling to support the pretensions of his Confessor’s
favourite Saint; but he had a job of his own in that branch to drive
with the Court of Rome, and he accordingly solicited in his turn the
co-operation of Father Osma, to obtain the canonization of Brother
Sebastian.
[57] There is a Life of Palafox, published at Paris, in 1767.
The design of the unknown author is evidently to mortify and
prejudice the Jesuits by exalting the character of one of their
earliest and fiercest opponents. The author is, however, either
an ardent fanatic of the Jansenist party, and as superstitious
as those he wishes to expose; or he promotes the cause of the
Philosophers of France and Spain by affecting devotion, and
conciliating many true believers to the measure of suppressing
the Jesuits.--Palafox was the illegitimate child of Don Jayme
de Palafox y Mendoza, by a lady of rank, who, to conceal her
pregnancy, retired to the waters of Fitero in Navarre, and being
delivered on the 24th June, 1600, to avoid the scandal, took
the wicked resolution of drowning her child in the neighbouring
river. The woman employed to perpetrate this murder was detected
before she effected her purpose, the child saved, and brought up
by an old dependant of the house of Ariza till he was ten years
old, when his father returned from Rome, acknowledged, relieved,
and educated him at Alcalá and Salamanca. His mother became a
nun of the barefooted Carmelite order. Palafox was introduced at
Court, and to the Count Duke de Olivares in 1626, and was soon
after named to the council of India. An illness of his paternal
sister, the funeral of two remarkable men, and the piety of his
mother, made such impression upon him, that he gave himself up
to the most fervent devotion, and soon after took orders. He
became chaplain to the Queen of Hungary, Philip IVth’s sister,
and travelled through Italy, Germany, Flanders, and France. In
1639, he was consecrated Bishop of Angelopolis, or Puebla de los
Angeles, in America. His first quarrel with the Jesuits was on
the subject of tithes. Lands on which tithes were payable had
been alienated in favour of the Company, and they pretended, that
when once the property of their body, they were exempt from that
tax. The second ground was a pretended privilege of the Jesuits
to preach without the permission of the Diocesan, against which
Palafox contended. The Jesuits, having the Viceroy of New Spain
on their side, obliged Palafox to fly; on which occasion he
wrote his celebrated letters against his enemies. A brief of the
Pope in his favour did not prevent his being recalled in civil
terms, by the King. At the petition of the Jesuits, who dreaded
his return to America, the King named him to the bishopric of
Osma. Of the austerity and extravagance of his principles, the
following resolutions of the pious bishop are specimens: Not to
admit any woman to his presence, and never to speak to one but
with his eyes on the ground, and the door open. Never to pay
a woman a compliment, but when the not doing so would appear
singular or scandalous; and never to look a female in the face.
Whenever compelled to visit a woman, to wear a cross with sharp
points next the skin.
The story of this last-mentioned obscure personage is so curious, and
illustrates so forcibly the singular character of Charles, that it
will not be foreign to my purpose to relate it.
During Philip the Fifth’s residence in Seville, Hermano Sebastian, a
sort of lay-brother[58] of the Convent of San Francisco el Grande,
was accustomed to visit the principal houses of the place with an
image of the Infant Jesus, in quest of alms for his order. The
affected sanctity of his life, the demure humility of his manner,
and the little sentences of morality with which he was accustomed
to address the women and children whom he visited, acquired him the
reputation of a saint in a small circle of simple devotees. The
good man began to think himself inspired, to compose short works
of devotion, and even to venture occasionally on the character of
a prophet. Accident or design brought him to the palace: he was
introduced to the apartments of the princes, and Charles then a
child, took a prodigious fancy to Brother Sebastian of the _Niño
Jesus_, as he was generally called in the neighbourhood, from the
image he carried when soliciting alms for his convent. To ingratiate
himself with the royal infant, the old man made Charles a present
of some prayers written in his own hand, and told him, with an air
of sanctified mystery, that he would one day be King of Spain, in
reward, no doubt, of his early indications of piety and resignation.
The present delighted Charles, and, young as he was, the words and
sense of the prophecy sunk deep in his superstitious and retentive
mind. Though he was seldom known to mention the circumstance for
years, yet he never parted with the manuscript. It was his companion
by day and by night, at home and in the field. When he was up, it
was constantly in his pocket; and it was placed under his pillow
during his hours of rest. But when, by his accession to the crown of
Spain, its author’s prediction was fulfilled, the work acquired new
charms in his eyes, his confidence in Brother Sebastian’s sanctity
was confirmed, and his memory was cherished with additional fondness
by the grateful and credulous monarch. At the same time, therefore,
that the pretensions of the Bishop of Osma to canonization were urged
at Rome, the Spanish minister was instructed to speak a good word
for the humble friar Sebastian. The lively and sarcastic Azara was
entrusted with this negotiation; and, as I know that he was at some
pains to preserve the documents of this curious transaction, it is
not impossible that he may have left memoirs of his life, in which
the whole correspondence will, no doubt, be detailed with minuteness
and exquisite humour.
[58] He was not a _lay-brother_, but a _Donado_, a species of
religious drudges, who, without taking vows, wear the habit of
the order; and may leave it when they please. The _Donados_ are
never called _Fray_, but _Hermano_.--_See Doblado’s Letter_ IX.
The Court of Rome is ever fertile in expedients, especially when the
object is to start difficulties and suggest obstacles to any design.
The investigation of Palafox’s pretensions was studiously protracted;
and it was easy to perceive that the influence of the Jesuits in
the Sacred College was exerted to throw new impediments in the way
of their adversary’s canonization. Though the Court of Rome could
never seriously have thought of giving Brother Sebastian a place
in the Rubric, they amused Charles III. by very long discussions on
his merits, and went through, with scrupulous minuteness, all the
previous ceremonies for ascertaining the conduct of a saint.
It is a maxim, that the original of every writing of a person
claiming to be made a saint, must be examined at Rome by the Sacred
College, and that no copy, however attested, can be admitted as
sufficient testimony, if the original document is in existence. The
book, therefore, to which the Spanish Monarch was so attached, was
required at Rome. Here was an abundant source of negotiation and
delay. Charles could not bring himself to part with his treasure,
and the forms of canonization precluded the College from proceeding
without it. At length, the King, from his honest and disinterested
zeal for the friar, was prevailed upon. But Azara was instructed to
have the College summoned, and the Cardinals ready, on the day and
even the hour at which it was calculated that the most expeditious
courier could convey the precious book from Madrid to Rome. Relays
were provided on the road, and Charles III. himself deposited the
precious manuscript in the hands of his most trusty messenger, with
long and anxious injunctions to preserve it most religiously, and not
to lose a moment in sallying forth from Rome on his return, when the
interesting contents of the volume should have been perused.
The interim was to Charles III. a “phantasma, or a hideous dream.”
He never slept, and scarcely took any nourishment during the few
days he was separated from the beloved paper. His domestic economy,
and the regulation of his hours, which neither public business nor
private affliction in any other instance disturbed, was altered; and
the chase, which was not interrupted even by the illness and death
of his children, was suspended till Brother Sebastian’s original MS.
could again accompany him to the field. He stood at the window of his
palace counting the drops of rain on the glasses, and sighing deeply.
Business, pleasure, conversation, and meals, were suspended, till
the long-expected treasure returned, and restored the monarch to his
usual avocations.
When, however, his Confessor discovered that the Court of Rome was
trifling with their solicitations, that to Palafox there was an
insurmountable repugnance, and when the King began to suspect that
the sacrifice he had been compelled to make was all to no purpose,
and that the pains of separation had been inflicted upon him without
the slightest disposition to grant him the object for which alone he
had been inclined to endure it, both he and his Confessor grew angry.
The opposition to their wishes was, perhaps, truly, and certainly
industriously traced to the Jesuits.
In the mean while a riot occurred at Madrid. In 1766, the people
rose against the regulation of police which attempted to suppress
the cloaks and large hats, as affording too great opportunities for
the concealment of assassins. These and other obnoxious measures
were attributed to the Marquis of Squilace, who, in his quality
of favourite as well as foreigner, was an unpopular minister of
finance. Charles III. was compelled to abandon him; and the Count of
Aranda, disgraced under Ferdinand VI. and lately appointed to the
captain-generalship of Valencia, was named President of the council
of Castile, for the purpose of pacifying by his popularity, and
suppressing by his vigour, the remaining discontents of the people.
He entered into all Roda’s views. As an Aragonese, he was an enemy
of the _Colegios Mayores_, for they admitted few subjects of that
Crown to their highest distinctions: and as a freethinker, and man of
letters, he was anxious to suppress the Jesuits.
Reports, founded or unfounded, were circulated in the country, and
countenanced by these powerful men, that the Jesuits had instigated
the riots of Madrid. It was confidently asserted, that many had
been seen in the mob, though disguised; and Father Isidro Lopez, an
Asturian, who was considered as one of the leading characters in the
company, was expressly named as having been active in the streets.
Ensenada, the great protector of the Jesuits in the former reign, had
been named by the populace as the proper successor of Squilace, and
there were certainly either grounds for suspecting, or pretexts for
attributing the discontent of the metropolis to the machinations of
the Jesuits and their protector the ex-minister Ensenada. Enquiries
were instituted. Many witnesses were examined; but great secrecy
was preserved. It is, however, to be presumed, that, under colour
of investigating the causes of the late riot, Aranda and Roda
contrived to collect every information which could inflame the mind
of the King against those institutions which they were determined to
subvert. They had revived the controversy respecting the conduct of
the venerable Palafox, and drawn the attention both of Charles III.
and the public to the celebrated letter of that prelate, in which he
describes the machinations of the Jesuits in South America, and which
their party had but a few years since sentenced to be publicly burnt
in the great square of Madrid.
But, even with the assistance of Father Osma, the acquiescence
of the King, and the concert of many foreign enemies of the
Company, Roda and Aranda were in want of the additional aid which
talents, assiduity, learning, and character could supply, to carry
into execution a project vast in its conception, and extremely
complicated, as well as delicate in its details. They found it in the
famous Campomanes. Perhaps the grateful recollection of services,
and the natural good-nature of Jovellanos, led him to praise too
highly his early protector and precursor, in the studies which
he himself brought to greater perfection. But Campomanes was an
enlightened man, and a laborious as well as honest minister. He was
at that time Fiscal of the Council and Chancellor of Castile, and
considered by the profession of the law, as well as by the great
commercial and political bodies throughout Spain, as an infallible
oracle on all matters regarding the internal administration of the
kingdom. _The Coleccion de Providencias tomadas por el gobierno sobre
el estrañamiento y ocupacion de temporalidades de los Regulares de
la Compañia_ (Collection of measures taken by the Government for
the alienation and seizure of the temporalities of the Regulars of
the company of Jesuits) is said to be a monument of his diligence,
sagacity, and vigour.
A royal decree was issued on 27th February, 1767, and dated from
_el Pardo_, by which a Junta, composed of several members of the
Royal Council, was instituted, in consequence of the riot of Madrid
of the preceding year. To this Junta several bishops, selected
from those who were most attached to the doctrines of Saint Thomas
Aquinas, and, consequently, least favourable to the Jesuits, (for
they espouse the rival tenets,) were added for the purpose of giving
weight and authority to their decree. In this Junta the day and form
of the measure were resolved upon, and instructions drawn out for
the Magistrates who were to execute it both in Spain and in America,
together with directions for the nature of the preparations, the
carriages to be provided at the various places inland, and the
vessels to be ready in the ports. The precautions were well laid.
The secret was wonderfully kept; and on the night of the first of
April, at midnight precisely, every College of the Jesuits throughout
Spain was surrounded by troops, and every member of each collected
in their respective chapters, priests or lay-brothers, young or old,
acquainted with the decree, and forcibly conveyed out of the kingdom.
Their sufferings are well known; and the fortitude with which they
bore them must extort praise even from those who are most convinced
of the mischiefs which their long influence in the courts of Europe
produced. The expulsion and persecution of the French priests during
the Revolution was more bloody, but scarcely less inhuman, than
the hardships inflicted by the regular and legitimate monarchies
which had originally encouraged them, on the Jesuits. On the other
hand, the suppression of that society was favourable to the cause
of liberty, morals, and even learning;--for though their system of
education has been much extolled, it must be acknowledged that in
Spain, at least, the period at which the education of youth was
chiefly entrusted to Jesuits, is that in which Castilian literature
declined, and general ignorance prevailed. If the state of education
in a country is to be judged of by its fruits, the Jesuits in Spain
certainly retarded its progress. In relation to the rest of Europe,
the Spaniards were farther advanced in science and learning during
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, than during the seventeenth
and eighteenth; and since the suppression of the Company, in 1767,
and not till then, a taste for literature and a spirit of improvement
revived among them.