Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/129455
Title: The Jesuits of Naples. A letter upon the recent expulsion of the Jesuits from Naples
Authors: Ward, William Perceval
Keywords: Jesuits -- Naples (Italy)
Extradition -- Naples (Italy)
Monasticism and religious orders
Church and state -- Italy
Jesuits -- Expulsion
Jesuits -- Persecution
Constitutional law
Issue Date: 1848
Citation: Ward, W.P. (1848). The Jesuits of Naples. A letter upon the recent expulsion of the Jesuits from Naples. Melitensia Miscellanea Collection (Melit-Misc. vol. 76.16). University of Malta Library, Melitensia Special Collections.
Abstract: The illegal and unconstitutional expulsion of the Jesuits from Naples has roused such general and loudly expressed indignation among all classes of persons in this city. The flagrant manner in which both the laws and the Constitution of the country have been violated has been so well and ably pointed out by all the public journals that it would seem almost an impertinence for a foreigner to give any public opinion upon that subject. It is known to all, and lamented by all, even, I should hope, by the guilty perpetrators of the act, that the laws of your country have been insulted and broken under the very eye, and almost with the connivance, of the executive Government; and that your newly acquired Constitution has been violated in two of its most sacred articles. One of these articles declares the Roman Catholic religion the only religion of the State, which religion has been insulted in the persons of a lawfully constituted Body of its Priests. The other declares that the homes, persons, and property of Neapolitans are inviolable, except by a regular and public process of law. All this I need not urge; but there is a subject connected with this sad affair upon which I am tempted to step out of my proper place and thus publicly declare my opinions.
I have looked in vain for some more appropriate and worthy champion than myself to come forward and give the lie to the vile calumnies circulated about these reverend Fathers, so unworthily expelled from their country. But they shall not go, please God, without one voice of kindness following them, without one word of respect for their many and great virtues being spoken in that city, whose highest and most enduring interests they have so laboured to advance.
This voice of kindness, this word of respect, I venture to address to yourself. As a distinguished member of the Neapolitan Bar, you have, I know, mourned over the gross infraction upon the laws of your country; as an intelligent and zealous advocate of constitutional liberty, you have, I know, mourned not less over the grievous manner in which that liberty has been trampled underfoot. A firm and conscientious opposer of the Jesuits at a time when they were in power, you have yet shown so much moderation in your opinion of them, and so much sympathy with them in their unjust expulsion, that I feel assured what I am about to say in their defense will receive a fair and impartial consideration with yourself and with all who are like-minded with yourself.Not that I agree with you entirely in one respect, though perhaps for different reasons. I agree entirely with you in thinking that the order of the Jesuits had far better leave Europe. I suppose we should both agree in saying that the existence of the Order, in Italy at least, is no longer consistent with public peace; we might differ as to where the fault lies; but we should again agree in thinking that as men of peace, they had far better voluntarily leave these countries. You would add that if they do not leave voluntarily, the various Legislatures should pass such laws as should at least break them up as communities; and I do not say that under the present state of things, I disagree with you in this... [Excerpt]
URI: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/129455
Appears in Collections:Miscellania : volume 076 - A&SCMisc



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