Editing Pope Clement XIII (section)

===The Jesuits===
Clement XIII's pontificate was repeatedly disturbed by disputes respecting the pressures to [[Suppression of the Jesuits|suppress the Jesuits]] coming from the progressive [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] circles of the ''[[philosophes]]'' in France.

Clement XIII placed the ''[[Encyclopédie]]'' of [[Jean le Rond d'Alembert|D'Alembert]] and [[Denis Diderot|Diderot]] on the ''[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum|Index]],'' but this index was not as effective as it had been in the previous century. More unexpected resistance came from the less progressive courts of [[History of Spain (1700-1808)|Spain]], [[Kingdom of Naples|Naples]] & [[Kingdom of Sicily|Sicily]], and [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]]. In 1758 the reforming minister of [[Joseph I of Portugal]] (1750–77), the [[Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquess of Pombal|Marquis of Pombal]], expelled the Jesuits from Portugal, and transported them all to [[Civitavecchia]], as a "gift for the Pope." In 1760, Pombal sent the [[papal nuncio]] home and recalled the Portuguese ambassador from the Vatican. The pamphlet titled the ''Brief Relation,''  which claimed the Jesuits had created their own sovereign [[Jesuit Reductions|independent kingdom]] in South America and tyrannised the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]], all in the interest of an insatiable ambition and avarice,<ref name="Catholic"/> did damage to the Jesuit cause as well.

On 8 November 1760, Clement XIII issued a [[papal bull]] ''Quantum ornamenti'', which approved the request of King [[Charles III of Spain]] to invoke the [[Immaculate Conception]] as the [[Patroness]] of Spain, along with its eastern and western territories, while continuing to recognize [[Saint James the Greater]] as co-patron.

In France, the [[Parlement of Paris]], with its strong upper [[bourgeois]] background and [[Jansenist]] sympathies, began its campaign to expel the Jesuits from [[Kingdom of France|France]] in the spring of 1761, and the published excerpts from Jesuit writings, the ''Extrait des assertions'', provided anti-Jesuit ammunition (though, arguably, many of the statements the ''Extrait'' contained were made to look worse than they were through judicious omission of context). Though a congregation of bishops assembled at Paris in December 1761 recommended no action, [[Louis XV of France]] (1715–74) promulgated a royal order permitting the Society to remain in France, with the proviso that certain essentially liberalising changes in their institution satisfy the Parlement with a French Jesuit vicar-general who would be independent of the general in Rome. When the Parlement by the ''arrêt'' of 2 August 1762 suppressed the Jesuits in France and imposed untenable conditions on any who remained in the country, Clement XIII protested against this invasion of the Church's rights and annulled the ''arrêts''.<ref name="Catholic"/> Louis XV's ministers could not permit such an abrogation of French law, and the King finally expelled the Jesuits in November 1764.

Clement XIII warmly espoused the Jesuit order in a papal bull ''[[Apostolicum pascendi]]'', 7 January 1765, which dismissed criticisms of the Jesuits as calumnies and praised the order's usefulness; it was largely ignored: by 1768 the Jesuits had been expelled from France, Naples & Sicily and [[Duchy of Parma and Piacenza|Parma]]. In Spain, they appeared to be safe, but Charles III (1759–88), aware of the drawn-out contentions in [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] France, decided on a more peremptory efficiency. During the night of 2–3 April 1767, all the Jesuit houses of Spain were suddenly surrounded, the inhabitants arrested, shipped to the ports in the clothes they were wearing and bundled onto ships for Civitavecchia. The King's letter to Clement XIII promised that his allowance of 100 ''piastres'' each year would be withdrawn for the whole order, should any one of them venture at any time to write anything in self-defence or in criticism of the motives for the expulsion,<ref name="Catholic"/> motives that he refused to discuss, then or in the future.

Much the same fate awaited them in the territories of the Bourbon [[Philip, Duke of Parma]], who was advised by the liberal minister [[Guillaume du Tillot]]. In 1768, Clement XIII issued a strong protest (''monitorium'') against the policy of the Parmese government. The question of the [[investiture]] of Parma (technically a Papal fief), aggravated the Pope's troubles. The Bourbon kings espoused their relative's quarrel, seized [[Avignon]], [[Benevento]] and [[Pontecorvo]], and united in a peremptory demand for the total suppression of the Jesuits (January 1769).<ref name="EB1911"/>

Driven to extremes, Clement XIII consented to call a [[papal consistory|consistory]] to consider the step, but on the very eve of the day set for its meeting he died, not without suspicion of poison, of which, however, there appears to be no conclusive evidence.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle= Clement/Clement XIII |display=Clement s.v. Clement XIII. |volume= 6 |page=487|last= Collier |first= Theodore Freylinghuysen  }}</ref>