The suppression of the Society of Jesus by the Pope was one of the most important events in early modern Europe. In his last book, Dale K. Van Kley provides an interesting comparative research on eighteenth-century expulsions of the Jesuits (1759-1768, prelude to their suppression in 1773 decreed by Pope Clement XIV), linking them to the spread of the Reform Catholicism, in which the Jansenist element was crucial. Moreover the author tries to imagine what would have happened in Church History if Jesuits had been reformed and not suppressed, as some French jansenists and members of Parlements ecommended.
Keywords: Catholic Church, Reform Catholicism, Society of Jesus, Jansenism, expulsions, suppression of the Jesuits.