The British Jesuits’ mission in nineteenth-century Malta

Abstract

The presence and work of British Jesuits in Malta constitutes a second phase of a far longer relationship between the Society of Jesus and the Maltese islands. Although this relationship can be traced back to Saint Ignatius himself, this second phase of the Jesuit mission in Hospitaller Malta forms part of the history of the restoration of the Society. Although the Jesuit mission in Malta had not been free of disputes and conflicts with the local ecclesiastical authorities, primarily regarding financial reasons and the founding of a local seminary, as well as with certain sections of the knights themselves, that brought about the temporary exile by Grand Master Lascaris in 1639, the Jesuit presence and apostolate were generally greatly appreciated. Things, however, came to a head early in 1768, when the elderly Portuguese Grand Master Manoel Pinto, hard-pressed into a corner by the demands of the anticlerical Neapolitan Secretary of State Bernardo Tanucci, signed on 23 April 1768 to expel the Society. Bowing down to higher economic and political demands, the grand master was towing the party line taken against the Jesuits by higher powers he depended upon. By then the Jesuits had been labelled enemies of the state by Portugal; the Bourbon kings of France, Spain, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies; Parma; and Piacenza who had expelled the Jesuits and confiscated their property some years earlier. So ended the Jesuit presence in Hospitaller Malta, a mission that had materialized by papal decree of Clement VIII (1592–1605), who through a Papal Brief dated 28 March 1592, addressed separately to Bishop Gargallo and Grand Master Hugues Loubenx de Verdalle (1581–95), established the Jesuit College.