At Rome, all of the Society's houses, including the Gesu' and the Curia, were seized by the Government. Fr. General, Peter Jan Beckx, (1795-1887) left the house at an early hour to be spared the trial of appearing before the Commission of Suppression.
Fr Beckx was fifty-eight years old, a Belgian, who had previously been Rector of the Jesuit college at Louvain. As Provincial of Austria, Beckx attended the General Congregation in 1853, called to elect a successor to Fr. Jan Roothaan who had died in March. In July, Beckx was elected the Superior General of the Society of Jesus. Four Assistants were also elected. The Congregation also expressed concern at the renewed attacks made against the Jesuits, and advised prudence and tact in defending the Society against its detractors. Those were difficult years for the Jesuits. They were expelled from Spain in 1854 and 1858, from Naples-Sicily in 1859, from Germany in 1872 from France and French colonies in1880 and Rome during which time Beckx shifted his headquarters in Fiesole, near Florence, where the 'Curia Generalizia' remained till 1895.
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