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Dominus ac Redemptor (Lord and Redeemer) is the papal brief promulgated on 21 July 1773 by which Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Society of Jesus. The Society was restored in 1814 by Pius VII.Context
For a few years Clement XIV tried to placate the opposition to the Jesuits by treating them harshly. He refused to meet the Superior General, Lorenzo Ricci, ordered them not to receive novices, etc. According to Thomas M. McCoog SJ, "the Society was losing its international patrons: Austria, Prussia and Russia annexed sections of Poland at the first (of three) partitions in the summer of 1772; Victor Amadeus III, married to a sister of the king of Spain, ascended the throne of Sardinia in February of 1773. More significant was the loss of Austrian protection: in order to secure a marriage between her daughter Marie Antoinette to the French Dauphin Louis in 1770, Empress Maria Theresa promised not to impede Bourbon efforts at suppression although she herself had nothing against the Jesuits".Cardinal François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis, whose work for the dissolution won him the appointment of French Ambassador to the Holy See, worked with Clement in securing the delays for which the pope had asked. Samples of a papal statement circulated among Bourbon courts for over a year. The final draft was downgraded from a bull to a less important papal brief. However, the pressure exercised by the Bourbons of Spain, Naples, and France, and the passive attitude and tacit consent of Austria brought the negotiations to an abrupt termination.The pressure kept building up to the point that Catholic countries were threatening to break away from the Church. The papal bull was issued mainly at the instigation of Joseph Moniño, the Spanish ambassador. Clement XIV ultimately yielded "in the name of peace of the Church and to avoid of secession in Europe" and suppressed the Society of Jesus by the brief Dominus ac Redemptor on 21 July 1773.Content
The document is forty-five paragraphs long.
In the introductory paragraph Clement XIV gives the tone: Our Lord has come on earth as "Prince of peace". This mission of peace, transmitted to the apostles is a duty of the successors of Saint Peter, a responsibility the pope fulfils by encouraging institutions fostering peace and removing, if need be, others that impede peace. Not just if guilty, even on the broader ground of harmony and tranquillity in the Church, it may be justified to suppress a religious order. He mentions as precedence, Pius V's suppression of the Humiliati in 1571, Urban VIII's elimination of the Regular Order of Sts. Ambrose and Barnabas at the Grove, and Innocent X's suppression of the Order of St. Basil of Armenia.What follows is a long section in which Clement XIV reviews the reasons which, in his judgment, are calling for the extinction of the Society of Jesus.
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