Carvalho’s energy at this time established his reputation with the king, and he felt able to commence his campaigns against the nobility and the Jesuits. In order that he might have his time free for matters of such importance he was made Prime Minister in 1756, with power over all departments of administration, and his friend, Luis da Cunha, was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in his place. Of his long series of administrative reforms, and his efforts to improve the condition of the country, which were spread over his government of twenty-seven years, it will be better to speak as a whole; but a special description must here be given of his campaign against the Jesuits, which brought about the suppression of that famous order. It is not necessary to speculate on the various motives, which induced Carvalho to attack the Jesuits, but the principal cause lay in the fact that they were wealthy and powerful, and therefore a dangerous force in an absolutist monarchy. It must be remembered that the Jesuits of the eighteenth century formed a very different class of men to their predecessors. They were no longer intrepid missionary pioneers, but a corporation of wealthy traders, who made use of their spiritual position to further the cause of their commerce. They had done a great work in America by opening up the interior of Brazil and converting the natives, and their administration of Paraguay, one of the most interesting achievements in the whole history of Christianity, was without doubt a blessing to the people. But by the middle of the eighteenth century they had gone too far. It was one thing to convert the natives of Brazil, and another to absorb much of the wealth of that country, in doing which they prejudiced not only the Crown, but the Portuguese people, whom they kept from settling in the territory under their rule. Whether it was a sufficient reason for Carvalho to attack the order because it was wealthy and powerful, and had departed from its primitive simplicity, is a question for every one to decide for themselves, but that this was the reason, and that the various excuses alleged by the admirers of the great minister are without foundation, is an undoubted fact. On September 19, 1757, the first important blow was struck, when the king’s Jesuit confessor was dismissed, and all Jesuits were forbidden to come to Court. Carvalho, in the name of the King of Portugal, also formally denounced the order at Rome, and Benedict XIV., the then Pope, appointed the Cardinal de Saldanha, a friend of the minister, Visitor and Reformer of the Society of Jesus. The cardinal did not take long in making up his mind, and May 15, 1758, he forbade the Jesuits to engage in trade.