Jesuit clause

[3] As early as 1624, Norway had prohibited Catholic priests from staying in the country, under threat of the death penalty.

[4][5] Restrictions on Catholic worship were gradually reduced from 1845, but the ban on Jesuits was not lifted until Norway ratified the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights in 1956.

Within Catholic circles as well, such as Jansenism and philosopher Blaise Pascal, attacks have been made on the Jesuits.

[7] During the 1956 parliamentary debate on the repeal of the clause, the order was accused of being behind the Spanish Civil War[8] and of inspiring Communists and Marxists by the then-president of the Odelsting, C. J. Hambro: It must be remembered that neither Nazism in Germany, Fascism in Italy, Rexism in Belgium led by Degrelle, the Catholics' favorite disciple, Petain's movement in France, Franco's movement in Spain would have been possible without the support and active collaboration of the Jesuits.

[7] As the Jesuit schools and universities grew in reputation, it also became common for wealthy Norwegian official families to send their children there for the best education:[7] in Rome, but also later in Belgium, Poland and elsewhere.

There were also some Catholics in Norway who more or less hid their faith, among them Laurits Clausen Scabo [no] who was bishop of Stavanger and Christoffer Hjort who was headmaster at Oslo Cathedral School.

In practice, students from Norway ended up no longer attending Jesuit schools, and much of the contact with Catholic countries disappeared.

Alle Religions - Secter tilstedes fri Religionsøvelse, dog ere Jøder fremdeles udelukkede fra Adgang til Riget.

All religious sects are allowed free exercise of religion, though Jews are still excluded from admission to the kingdom.

The tendency of the proposal was to allow non-Lutheran Christian denominations, but forbid their public practice.

Priest Peter Ulrik Magnus Hount tried in vain to argue that the provision to test the Jews was "Disgustingly intolerant.

"[12] Provost Hans Christian Ulrik Midelfart also spoke against the proposal which he called a manifestation of unchristian intolerance.

It turned out as Christie wanted, and 94 of 110 representatives at the Constituent Assembly in Eidsvoll voted for the proposal, but it then had a provision that there should in principle be free exercise of religion, a point that fell out in the editorial committee, consisting of Christian Adolph Diriks, Lauritz Weidemann and Georg Sverdrup[11] while Nicolai Wergeland stood for full religious freedom in this case.

But the battle was not over religious tolerance, even in paragraph 15, which stipulated that the regent should "always" profess the Evangelical Lutheran religion.

The Independence Party [no; sv] (Selvstendighetspartiet) was thus given the opportunity to make a strict confession to the Lutheran religion in an attempt to exclude the Swedish heir to the throne as future Norwegian king.

The arguments for repeal were primarily based on principles of religious and spiritual freedom, and that the provisions were not worthy of a modern democracy.

[7] The weight of these different arguments was, however, somewhat different on the three occasions, the fear of the alleged harmful effect of the Jesuits on the country being greatest in the discussion of 1925.

At the request of Norwegian Catholics, a final amendment to the Constitution was delivered in 1892 to repeal the Jesuit clause, and they called on Viggo Ullmann of the Liberal Party to promote it.

[13] Ullmann's proposal struck down the ban on Jesuits and monastic orders, but the Jesuit ban was added when the proposal was supported by Ullmann's party colleagues Thomas Georg Münster and Hans Jacob Horst.

Another proposal was promoted by Hans Andersen from the Conservative Party, where the Jesuit and monastic order ban was removed and full religious practice was allowed "within the boundaries of law and virtuousness".

[15] The matter came up again in Parliament in connection with Norway's ratification of the European Convention on Human Rights of 4 November 1950.

The government therefore promoted through proposition number 202, 1952, a proposal for a constitutional amendment, which was referred to the Parliament on 10 January 1953.

[6][8][16] From the podium he also made an attack on professor of church history Einar Molland [no], who in November 1955 had been asked by the head of the Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs, Erling Wikborg, to make a statement on the Jesuit Order, Hambro questioning Molland's authority in the matter.

[7] Hambro believed that the Jesuits had been a contributor to the rise of fascism and Nazism in the interwar period, and also an inspiration for communists and Marxists.

[20] Opposition was strong in some Christian circles, with theologian Olav Valen-Sendstad as a key spokesman, who among other things wrote the publication Åpent brev til Norges storting 1954 : vil stortinget gi jesuitt-fascicmen sin moralske anerkjennelse?

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