Jesuitism and anti-Jesuitism in 17-18th century Italy

In the second half of the XVIIth century, strong opposition spread in Italy against the Society of Jesus. The need was felt to restore the tradition of the primitive Church, especially the Patristics and the doctrine of St. Augustine, against the 'modernity' of the Jesuits. A new controversy arose between rigourism and probabilism in moral theology and spiritual direction. Furthermore, a further controversy between the Jesuits and the Jansenists was about the Pope's authority and right to condemn the Jansenist movement. From the beginning of the XVIIIth century anti-Jesuitism evolved according to the different areas of the country. In Tuscany, philosophical and scientific Galileian tradition together with critical-historical erudition were against the classical and Scholastic literary tradition of the Jesuitical 'ratio studiorum'. Jurisdictionalism, in defence of the prerogatives of the State and in favour of reforms, progressed in Piedmont, against the Jesuits, under the rule of Vittorio Amedeo II. The Republic of Venice witnessed the strenghtening of rigourism in moral theology and of anticurial trends in the re-emergence of Paolo Sarpi's political-religious legacy. Bourbon Naples was marked by an anti-Jesuitical policy due to a strong connection with the Spanish government. Compared to the violent European campaign against the Society of Jesus wich led to its dissolution in 1773, Italian anti-Jesuitism, at least on the enlightened culture side, showed different features. It was less radical than the French Enlightenment. Yet its radical tone increased among the members of late Italian Jansenism and the reforming trends of the Catholic Enlightenment.