Half-Truths

The history of the Irish College in Rome between 1771 and 1826 offers an
insider’s view of more than just the College itself; it sheds important
light on the effects of the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 and the
suppression of the Church more generally during the French period
(1796-1814). Using the Irish College as a prism, this work reveals how
troubling, how long, and how deep-rooted the effects of these fateful
events were on the Church. For a half-century, the College felt the
theological, financial, and administrative anomalies which followed
<i>Dominus ac Redemptor</i>, the papal bull of suppression. The men at
the centre of the Jesuit plot were also those who took up roles at
institutions like the Irish College, following the order’s demise. What
is less understood is that the efforts to topple these men and their
agendas produced another wave of deleterious effects during the
pontificates of Pius VI (r. 1775-1799) and Pius VII (r. 1800-1821).
Thus, the lies, or half-truths, which were necessary to effect the
Jesuit suppression, were adopted by subsequent administrations,
initially to further this agenda under Clement XIV (r. 1769-1774) and
later to overturn it, producing a weak Church and ineffective member
institutions, such as the Irish College.