Suppression and uprooting

In 1762 because of the Society's suppression in France, the English college in St Omer, then inside France, was transferred to Bruges.  Despite the storm clouds the English Province was strong: in 1768 there were approximately 300 Jesuits, 26 of whom worked in Maryland and 136 in England.

The Society's situation in England after Pope Clement XIV's brief of 1773, Dominus ac Redemptor - suppressing the Society of Jesus - was anomalous.  The Society did not exist officially in England so it could not be suppressed by the secular government.  Ironically relations between secular clergy and Jesuits were extremely friendly at the time.  Ex-Jesuits were able to remain united under a type of superior associated with the college then in Bruges (eventually moving to Liège and finally in 1794 to Stonyhurst) and to retain ownership of the province's not inconsiderable assets.