Dr. John Rao describes the assault on the Jesuits by the regalists, Jansenists and Enlightenment supporters in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Jesuits were the most clear representative of Tridentine, Baroque Catholicism. Their enemies in the intellectual, spiritual, educational, missionary, and political world were legion. Dr. John Rao shows that a Grand Coalition of regalists, Jansenists, and Enlightenment supporters united in conspiracy to bring them down. The battle was a nasty and dishonorable one, beginning in Iberia, moving to France, and finally involving the Papacy itself. Taken from Regalism, Revolution, the Reign of Terror and the Assault on Catholicism (1648-1799) – 1998 VonHildebrand Institute