the Society suppressed. After his election Clement XIV took harsh and humiliating decisions against the Society in order to placate its enemies, but political pressure went on unrelentingly and the Pope finally suppressed the order (Dominus ac Redemptor of 21 July 1773), the main reason being that he wanted to 'restore peace in the Church'. Death Jesuit communities were disbanded, libraries confiscated, and properties looted. Under pressure from Spanish ambassador José Moñino, 1st Count of Floridablanca, Ricci was put behind bars at the Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome, where he suffered further humiliation and ill treatment (for example, he was not allowed to celebrate the mass). The charges leveled publicly against the Jesuits were never brought in a court of law: no process of justice was gone through. Before he died Ricci solemnly declared before witnesses: "I say and protest that the Society of Jesus did not give any ground warranting its suppression; nor is there any right reason why I should have been put in jail." He is buried in the crypt of the Gesù Church in Rome. About six weeks after Ricci's death, Pope Pius VI ordered the release of Ricci's five assistants. References attribution CORDARA, De suppressione Societatis commentarii, Padua, 1923-25. RAVIGNAN, Xavier de, Clément XIII et Clément XIV, Paris, 1856. ROSA, I., I Gesuiti, Roma, 1957. PASTOR, Ludwig von, Geschichte der Päpste,'' XVI,2 Herder Freiburg, 1961 1703 births 1775 deaths Superiors General of the Society of Jesus 18th-century Italian Jesuits Clergy from Florence