Brill's new book series “Brill Research Perspectives in Jesuit Studies” is part of a trend in growing scholarship on the Society of Jesus. Its goal is to provide scholarly overviews and bibliographical orientation on critical topics regarding the history of the Society of Jesus. The books have a particular format—situated somewhere between a long essay and a short book—and the unique advantage of being released in print and with open access to their digital version. Of the titles published so far, The Years of Jesuit Suppression by Paul Shore is especially stimulating.

Paul Shore offers a detailed outline of the history of the Society of Jesus between the suppression (1773) and its restoration (1814), drawing from an impressive multilingual bibliography including titles in English, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Hungarian, Czech, Polish, Russian, Croatian, and Slovene.

The author examines the “prelude to dissolution” of the Society, describing the factors that contributed to the expulsion of Jesuits from different countries and led to Pope Clement XIV's suppression of the Society with the breve Dominus ac redemptor. As he identifies the Jesuits’ adversaries, Shore avoids oversimplifications. The Bourbons were only one of the many subjects who contributed to the expulsions, together with theological disagreements within the Catholic Church (especially on the ground of moral theology) and the hostility of other Catholic religious orders, including Franciscans, Dominicans, and Oratorians. Additional locally relevant reasons fueled hostility toward the Jesuits in different countries: in France, the bankruptcy of Antoine de La Valette; in Portugal, Gabriel Malagrida's alleged regicide plans; in Paraguay, the negative portraits of the Jesuit reducciones; in China, the development of the Rites controversy.

One of the great strengths of this book is that it offers a picture of the global reception and implementation of Dominus ac redemptor, from Europe to India, from Brazil to China. The papal order of suppression was interpreted differently in different contexts: immediately executed in certain countries, ignored or delayed in others. Shore's narrative of the Society's survival after its suppression is greatly enriched by short biographies of former Jesuits. Despite this being a time of uncertainties, many former Italian Jesuits, together with their Spanish and Portuguese companions exiled in Italy, worked as teachers, theologians, and scientists, and were often welcomed in local intellectual debates. In eastern Europe, Jesuits held prominent positions as scientists and astronomers, but their influence in education collapsed. The life of former Jesuits was easier in the Habsburg realm because the monarchy acknowledged their value as instructors and intellectuals. In his assessment of the survival of former Jesuits, Shore covers loci often overlooked by historiography, including Switzerland, Greece, the Ottoman Empire, Croatia, and Slovenia.

During the suppression, former Jesuits attempted to perpetuate Jesuit spirituality, for instance by establishing the Société du Cœur de Jésus by Pierre-Joseph Picot de Clorivière in France. More controversial was the plan of Niccolò Paccanari, a former soldier who founded the Society of the Faith of Jesus (1797)—an institution that imitated some aspects of the Society of Jesus. Pacccanari's emphasis on miracles and ecstatic visions made many former Jesuits hostile to his project, which ultimately ended in failure.

A long section of The Years of Jesuit Suppression is dedicated to the survival of former Jesuits in the Russian Empire and the Jesuit experience in White Russia, officially recognized by Pius VII in 1801. Shore describes the undertakings of local Jesuits and the role of Połock as “a hub of plans for the restoration of the Society” (44). Other attempts of partial restoration in connection with White Russia took place in England and various Italian cities under the leadership of José Pignatelli, the sole Jesuit of this period to be canonized.

In his last section, “Rebirth, but at a Distance,” Shore describes the post-restoration Society of Jesus (1814–present), highlighting the tension between the old and the new Society. The author underscores the discontinuity of the restored Society with its ancient tradition; while his overall picture is accurate, a few elements could be reassessed. First, the role of mission in the new Society should be reinforced. Pierre-Jean De Smet, described by Shore as a man “whose energy and initiative rivaled that of the most remarkable Jesuits of earlier times” (81), was not an exception. Many nineteenth-century Jesuit missionaries demonstrated extraordinary creativity, and missions were still considered a key element of Jesuit identity, as shown by recent studies on the litterae indipetae—the applications of young Jesuits desirous to leave for extra-European lands. Secondly, the belief that “the restored Society was less daring and innovative in its exploration of the spiritual” (85) should be balanced by acknowledging the role played by father general Jan Phillip Roothaan in the creation of a new edition of the Spiritual Exercises and the renewal of Jesuit spirituality. Finally, a study of the nineteenth-century processes of beatification and canonization of Jesuits of the old Society and the apparently “formulaic published hagiographies” (85) will help understand how nineteenth-century Jesuits constantly attempted to rediscover and reinterpret their past.

The Years of Jesuit Suppression is an excellent instrument for scholars and students of the Society of Jesus and can be complemented, as the author himself acknowledges, by the recent “flurry of scholarship accompanying the bicentennial of the Society's restoration” (77). One of the outcomes of this recent scholarship—a massive multilingual collection—has just been published and can be usefully read in conversation with Shore's book: La Compagnie de Jésus des Anciens Régimes au monde contemporain (XVIIIe – XXe siècles), ed. Pierre-Antoine Fabre, Patrick Goujon, SJ, and Martín M. Morales, SJ (Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu and École Française de Rome, 2020).