Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/462

442 Nearly all writers, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, even those who justify the act of expulsion, condemn the arbitrary and cruel manner of its execution. The Jesuits were arrested and violently handled, as if they had been guilty of heinous crimes, and without trial were driven from their homes and country, exposed to want, and compelled to live in Italy under pain of forfeiting the pittance allowed them for their support out of the millions that had been ruthlessly taken from them.

Returning again to Mexico, we shall see what occurred there. 'On the 18th of July 1767 the viceroy and audiencia issued an edict for the sequestration of the temporalities of the Jesuits, again warning the people to be obedient and submissive to the king's orders. The expulsion of the society from Mexico was felt in various ways. It was a heavy blow to the