forward." (Montero y Vidal, Hist. de Filipinas, ii, pp. 142-146.) [134] See detailed account of the so-called "family compact" and the secret agreement which accompanied it, in Danvila, op. cit., ii, pp. 101-167. At the end he says: "The celebrated 'family compact' was never an affaire de coeur, but an alliance offensive and defensive in order to check the progress of the British arms in Europa and America, and to dispute with England the maritime supremacy of which she had possessed herself.... The 'family compact,' and the secret agreement which completed it, were from the beginning an alliance offensive and defensive of España and France against Great Britain." [135] Montero y Vidal makes numerous citations (Hist. de Filipinas, ii, pp. 142, 143, 147-159) from letters written to Pope Innocent X in 1647 and 1649 by the noted bishop of La Puebla, Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, showing how great wealth and power the Jesuits had attained in Nueva España, their hatred toward him and their conspiracies and even open attacks against him for doing his official duty, and their lawless, scandalous, immoral, and irreligious acts, as he has seen them. [136] In November, 1779, letters were received by the Spanish government from their ambassador at Rome, asking that, in view of the poverty and suffering endured by the ex-Jesuits there, their pensions might be increased. Inquiries were made as to their numbers, with the following results; "On April 1, 1767, there existed in España 1,660 priests, 102 scholastics, and 965 coadjutors, making a total of 2,727. From the seven provinces of the Indias there arrived at the port of Santa María 1,396 priests, 327 scholastics, and 544 coadjutors, making a total of 2,267. The pensions of both classes amounted to 7,264,650 reals. On April 1, 1779, there existed in Italia 1,274 priests and scholastics, and 664 coadjutors belonging to the four provinces of España [i.e., those of the Jesuit order in that country, being designated as Toledo, Castilla, Andalucía, and Aragón], and, confined in them, sixteen priests and five coadjutors, the life-pensions of all these amounting to 2,852,600 reals; and from the seven provinces of Indias there were 1,197 priests and 279 coadjutors, the yearly sum of whose pensions was 2,255,750 reals, including those assigned to the Jesuits confined in España. Thus the difference between 1767 and 1779 was that of 2,151,300 reals, on account of the flight to foreign lands or the [ecclesiastical] suspension of 242 priests, 4 scholastics, and 145 coadjutors, and the death of 1,038 priests and 516 coadjutors. The twelve colleges and the procuradoría of the provinces of Méjico and of Filipinas, and of the college of Navarra, yielded 3,665,133 reals, 15 maravedís, leaving a surplus of 1,111,408 reals. The expenses for pensions, maintenance in España, clothing, and others which had arisen with the ex-Jesuits from the Indias, up to the end of June, 1779, reached the sum of 45,321,439