HISTORY] - Lot 146

HISTORY] ANONYMOUS] LE PAIGE (Louis-Adrien), COUDRETTE (Christophe)] Histoire générale de la naissance et des progrès de la compagnie de Jésus..., no place, 1761-1764 5 volumes in-12 in full speckled calf, spines richly decorated with I: VIIJ, 499 pages, (6); II: (4), 516 pages, (4); III: (4), 447 pages, (3); IV: (4), 509 pages, (5); V: VIIJ, (4), 688 pages. ...and analyses of its constitutions and privileges, in which it is proved 1° that Jesuits are not received by right especially in France, and that when they would be, they are not tolerable, 2° that by the very nature of their institute, they are not admissible in a police state. First edition of this indictment of the Jesuits by two Jansenist abbots. In the second half of the 18th century, the Jesuits came under attack from Jansenists, Gallicists and parliamentarians, and later from the philosophers of the Encyclopédie. Published on the eve of the dissolution of the Society of Jesus, and therefore in a very tense context for the Jesuits, this publication was intended to provide a series of revelations on their history and operations, and to justify their annihilation. Complete with the fifth and last volume, published in 1764 as a 'Supplement to the preceding volumes'. Accident with lack of leather at the foot of volume V. Otherwise a pleasant set.