The Suppression of the Jesuits in Portugal, France, the Two Sicilies, Parma and the Spanish Empire by 1767 had been troubling to the Society's defender, Pope Clement XIII.

His successor Clement XIV has tried to placate their Bourbon enemies by treating the Jesuits harshly: he has refused to meet the Superior General, Lorenzo Ricci, ordered them not to receive novices, etc.

The pressure keeps building up to the point that Catholic countries are threatening to break away from the Church.

Clement XIV finally bows to pressure from the Bourbon courts and suppresses the Society of Jesus in the brief Dominus ac Redemptor of July 21, 1773.

However, in non-Catholic nations, particularly in Prussia and Russia, where papal authority is not recognized, the order is ignored.

It is a result of a series of political moves rather than a theological controversy.