Half-Truths: The Irish College, Rome, and a Select History of the Catholic Church, 1771-1826

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

Dominus ac Redemptor, 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.