ANTI-JESUITISM AT THE SOUTH OF THE WORLD. RELIGIOUS POLEMICS ABOUT THE COMPANY OF JESUS IN PUERTO MONTT, CHILE (1859-1919)

Abstract

The activities of the Jesuits, their social  influence and the adverse reactions that provoke  are frequently of interest for historians. Thus  many investigations take their actions in the  capital city, Santiago de Chile, as their matter.  Nonetheless, other Jesuit community existed in  Puerto Montt city during XIX Century, and is  less known. This investigation tries to describe  their characteristics, similarities and differences  with its pair of Santiago, pointing to expose and  interpret rejecting expressions (anti-Jesuitism)  that appear by their presence there in the  south, seen through press, the principal source  preserved.  Puerto Montt city, founded in 1853, thousand  km southward from the capital, received a  community of jesuits in 1859 who came from  Germany, with a last rector finish-ing in 1919.  Since their beginnings they starred important  missionary and educational ac-tivities, with  acknowledged esteem among their loyal  supporters. However, ideological rejection joined  them always from the hostile press.  The discoveries were abundant, intense, revealing  old dated European ideological influence. They  mark a special section in the global phenomenon  of Anti-Jesuitism.