A Vanished Arcadia | Page 7

in 1644 formulates his celebrated charges against the Jesuits -- The Governor, after long negotiations and much display of force, ultimately succeeds in driving out the Bishop -- For three years Cardenas is in desperate straits -- In 1648 Don Gregorio is suddenly dismissed, Cardenas elects himself Governor, and for a short time becomes supreme in Asuncion -- The Jesuits are forced to leave the town and to flee to Corrientes -- A new Governor is appointed in Asuncion -- He defeats Cardenas on the field of battle -- The latter is deprived of his power, and dies soon after as Bishop of La Paz

Chapter VI
Description of the mission territory and towns founded by the Jesuits -- Their endeavours to attract the Indians -- Religious feasts and processions -- Agricultural and commercial organizations

Chapter VII
Causes of the Jesuits' unpopularity -- Description of the lives and habits of the priests -- Testimony in favour of the missions -- Their opposition to slavery -- Their system of administration

Chapter VIII
Don Jose de Antequera -- Appoints himself Governor of Asuncion -- Unsettled state of affairs in the town -- He is commanded to relinquish his illegal power -- He refuses, and resorts to arms -- After some success he is defeated and condemned to be executed -- He is shot on his way to the scaffold -- Renewed hatred against the Jesuits -- Their labours among the Indians of the Chaco

Chapter IX
The Spanish and Portuguese attempt to force new laws on the Indians -- The Indians revolt against them -- The hopeless struggle goes on for eight years -- Ruin of the missions

Chapter X
Position of the Jesuits in 1761 -- Decree for their expulsion sent from Spain -- Bucareli sent to suppress the colleges and drive out the Jesuits -- They submit without resistance -- After two hundred years they are expelled from Paraguay -- The country under the new rule -- The system of government practically unchanged

Chapter XI
Conclusion

A Vanished Arcadia Being Some Account of the Jesuits in Paraguay 1607 to 1767

Chapter I
Early history -- State of the country -- Indian races -- Characteristics of the different tribes -- Dobrizhoffer's book -- Various expeditions -- Sebastian Cabot -- Don Pedro de Mendoza -- Alvar Nunez -- His expedition and its results -- Other leaders and preachers -- Founding of the first mission of the Society of Jesus

With the exception of the French Revolution, perhaps no event caused so much general controversy at the end of the eighteenth century as the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain and Portugal and their colonial possessions. As no definite charges were ever brought, at least in Spain, against the members of the Company of Jesus (King Charles III. having kept the reasons `ocultas y reservadas' and the proofs `privilegiados'), curiosity is to some extent not satisfied as to the real reason of their expulsion from the Spanish possessions in America.
It is almost impossible to understand nowadays the feelings which possessed the average man in regard to the Jesuits from the middle of the last century till a relatively short time ago. All the really great work done by the Society of Jesus seemed to have been forgotten, and every vulgar fable which it was possible to invent to their prejudice found ready acceptance upon every side. Nothing was too absurd to be believed. From the calumnies of the Jansenists to the follies of Eugene Sue the mass of accusation, invective, and innuendo kept on increasing in intensity. Indiscriminate abuse and unreasoning hatred, mixed with fear, seem to have possessed all minds. Even Pascal confesses (in a postscript to the ninth Provincial Letter) that `after having written my letter I read the works of Fathers Barry and Binet.' If such a man as Pascal could be so grossly unfair as to write a criticism on works which he had not read, what can be expected from the non-judicial and uncritical public which takes all upon trust?
From Japan to the interior of Bolivia there is scarcely a country in which the Jesuits have not laboured assiduously, and in which they have not shed their blood freely without hope of reward, yet it would require much time and a lengthy catalogue to enumerate the list of satirical and calumnious works which have appeared against them in almost every language in Europe. Of these, perhaps the most celebrated is the well-known `Monarquia de los Solipsos',* by Padre Melchior Inshoffer, an ex-Jesuit, who describes the company in the worst possible terms. It is interesting chiefly on account of the portraits of well-known people of the time (1615 to 1648), as Pope Clement VIII., Francisco Suarez, Claudio Aquaviva, and others, veiled under easily distinguishable pseudonyms. The object of the writer, as the title indicates, is to show that the Jesuits endeavoured to turn all to