Note 21 — THE EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS, 1768–1769

In 1769 there came to Manila on the frigate “Venus” various printed books which sharply attacked the Jesuits, and censured their conduct and teachings, while they extolled the expulsion decreed against that order by Carlos III. These books began to circulate, and pass from hand to hand, to the great satisfaction of the Jesuits’ enemies and the furious anger of their partisans; and a magistrate [i.e., Basaraz] who was a friend to the Jesuits proceeded, without authorization, charge, or commission from any one, to seize and prohibit the said books, and arrested the person who was distributing them. [The archbishop then wrote, besides the edict which follows this résumé, an indignant letter to Raón, both of which are cited at some length by our writer.] The fury of the Jesuits’ partisans against the archbishop was extraordinary; and they disseminated reports that he was a heretic, and that his edict ought to be suppressed, with a thousand other insults against his person and dignity. A friar theologian wrote a confidential letter in defense of the Jesuits, and contradicting the [aforesaid] printed books; the Jesuits had a multitude of copies of this letter circulated. The archbishop immediately printed a long answer (or refutation) to the said letter, and likewise circulated it in profusion through the country. [The next feature of this controversy was the circulation of a voluminous MS. document, defending the theologian’s letter and the teachings of the Jesuits.21