Jesuit Milestones

First printing of the brief of suppression, 1773

The culmination of a year of remarkable acquisitions of Jesuit materials came in June, when we were able, in the space of a few weeks, to acquire first printings of three notable rarities. These were the first formal codification of the rules of the Society of Jesus, the Regulae (Rome, 1580) and the pair of papal briefs issued in 1773 which formally suppressed the Society and provided for the enforcement of that suppression: The Dominus, ac Redemptor of July 21, and the Gravissimis ex causis of August 13. In fact, Clement XIV did little more than give his blessing to the actions of the European sovereigns who had expelled the Society from their lands over the previous two decades.