La Compagnia di Gesù nell'Impero Russo (1772-1820) e la sua parte nella restaurazione generale della Compagnia (review)

782book reviews chapter between them, as opposed to two on Ireland alone, but even here Hempton has much to offer. It should be noted that Hempton assumes quite extensive prior knowledge in the reader and that accordingly students would need first to have obtained from other texts a clear understanding of chronology and major developments. With that caution, however, this superb book can be unreservedly recommended as essential reading for all who are seeking to deepen and refresh their understanding of the nature and political context of religion in modern Britain and Ireland. John Wolffe The Open University La Compagnia di Gesii nell'Impero Russo (1772-1820) e la sua parte nella restaurazione generate della Compagnia. By Marek Inglot, SJ. [Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana, Miscellanea Historiae Pontificiae, Vol. 63.] (Rome: Editrice Pontificia Università Gregoriana. 1997. Pp. xxv, 337. Lire 52.000; $36.00 paperback.) The fall of Communism has rekindled interest in the survival of the Society of Jesus in the Russian Empire after the 1773 papal suppression. Farther Inglot succeeds brilliantly in presenting "the contributions of the Jesuits ofWhite Russia to the work of restoring the Society ofJesus" (p. 28). He also gives a clear and comprehensive account of the "Russian" Society's governance, schools, and missions; its complicated relations with Roman authorities and the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Russia, its contacts with former Jesuits in Europe and America for the period 1772-1820, and its impact on the restored Society. Inglot sketches the roles of Catherine II, Paul I, and Alexander I in the Jesuit story, as well as some ofthe broader educational,religious, and cultural contexts of the Empire. Here the author is less authoritative, although his overall depiction is valid. Particularly valuable are the appendices containing sixty-two pages of primary documents in the original languages, many previously unpublished, plus extensive citations from them in the text and footnotes. One, a 1773 Jesuit petition to Catherine II to implement the papal order of suppression, convincingly refutes critics who accuse theJesuits ofdeliberate evasion and resistance. The numerous biographical notices onJesuits and others are quite useful. Inglot has mastered the vast resources of the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu and has made effective use of the Archivum Secretum Vaticanum,as well as ofJesuit archives in London, Cracow, and Madrid. He did not consult the Biblioth èque Slave or any Russian archives; many of their relevant holdings, however, are replicated in Rome. He cites almost all of the primary and secondary works on the "Russian"Jesuits, with the notable exception of Eduard Winter's biased book reviews783 but comprehensive studies and William James's dissertation on Paul I and the Jesuits. More serious is Inglot's failure to consult the Polnoe sobrante zakonov for the original Russian text of crucial tsarist decrees like Paul Ts 1800 ukaz granting the Jesuits the right to open schools in St. Petersburg and other privileges, or Alexander Ts orders of expulsion in 1815 and 1820, relying instead on translations and secondary works. His sources for the broader Russian context are thin; he relies heavily on Madariaga, Eidel'man, McGrew,and Serczyk, but where are Shumigorskii, Nikolai Mikhailovich, ShiTder, Schiemann, McConnell, or Hartley , to cite just a few? On religion and culture, he could have used Zacek, Pypin, and Sawatsky among others. Few flaws mar an otherwise outstanding work. Peter Ill's remains were not disinterred from the Smol'nyi Convent (p. 18), but from the Aleksandr Nevskii Lavra. To say that French was "the language commonly spoken by the nobility and the upper bourgeoisie" (p. 110) is greatly exaggerated. Inglot's claim that "Western European Christian culture came to Russia via the Jesuits" (p. 12 1) ignores a host of other influences then and earlier,whether Ukrainian clergymen like Feofan Prokopovich and Stefan Iavorskii under Peter the Great or Pietist, Quaker, and other Protestant currents in Alexander Ts time. Still, Inglot's work is a major contribution to Jesuit history. The primary source material and bibliography alone make it an indispensable reference, and in addition, the author presents a complex and important story clearly and convincingly . The multilingual text is remarkably free of errors and misprints. Daniel L. SchlaflyJr. Saint Louis University ...