Jesuits

Founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in the 16th century, the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, played a significant role in the colonization of the Portuguese, Spanish, and French empires. Intended as a bulwark against the Protestant

Reformation, Jesuits were used primarily to establish institutions of learning to serve the children of Europe’s ruling class and to provide confessors and advisers to the elite. Owing special obedience to the Pope and exempted from the strictures of the Council of Trent, the Jesuits were a special task force meant to reestablish Catholicism during the Counter-Reformation in Europe. As a result, fewer than one in 10 Jesuits served outside the continent in mission work.

Those who left Europe, however, followed the explorations and contacts made by their governments, joining Spanish parties in Mexico and Portuguese settlements in Macao and Goa and following their mission to attach themselves to the European and Native rulers of these areas. Jesuits quickly founded schools to serve the European community and educate Natives. Men like St. Francis Xavier and Matteo Ricci worked to learn and translate Chinese and Japanese, producing dictionaries for European use. The French dispatched Jesuits to their possessions in New France, beginning with the 1611 mission to Acadia. Quebec had a Jesuit College by 1635, while other Jesuit fathers labored among the Huron, Ottawa, Miami, and Illinois, working to learn their languages as well as to maintain good relations for France. In Canada the Jesuits became known as the “Black Robes” and won the respect of some Natives because of their willingness and ability to withstand ritual torture. In British North America Jesuits entered Maryland in 1634 at the behest of its proprietor, Cecil Calvert, serving the Catholic population as circuit riders; their routes extended into western Pennsylvania.

Jesuits were expelled from Canada in 1763 by the British, but their influence lingered among French Canadians and helped poison the relationship between the older British colonies and their new possession. Fear of Jesuit influence was part of the negative reaction of the colonists to the Quebec Act, which seemed to promise Catholic privileges. Additionally, the Jesuits played a role in the destruction of the Huron, interfering in their animosity with the Iroquois, who in 1649 defeated the Huron. Despite these failures, the Jesuits took part in the establishment of French culture and dominion in Canada and the Mississippi River Valley and served as advisers and supporters of the Spanish and Portuguese imperial elite in the Americas.

—Margaret Sankey