Spain opened sealed orders in every Jesuit town on one night in 1767, seized the order's property, and the Pope's cannon turned the exiles' ships away

A small council approved the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain on 29 January 1767, and Charles III ratified it on 20 February. Sealed instructions went to judges in every town with a Jesuit house, more than 120, with orders not to open them before the night of 1 April. Houses were closed on the night of 31 March in Madrid and at dawn on 2 April elsewhere. The Jesuits were gathered, their names checked and the decree read aloud. All their property passed to the state, to be spent on poor parishes, seminaries and houses of mercy. Priests received a pension of 100 pesos a year and lay brothers 90; novices and students received nothing. Ships were hired abroad because Spain had too few. On 15 April Pope Clement XIII refused to take the exiles into the Papal States, fearing food shortages. At Civitavecchia the ships were turned away by cannon. The first convoy reached Corsica on 13 and 14 July 1767 and found guns aimed at it. The Jesuits landed between August and September and lived overcrowded and without resources. On 15 March 1768 Genoa ceded Corsica to France, and they were expelled again. They settled in Bologna, Ferrara, Forlì and Rimini, where about 5,000 lived under police watch. Spain paid their pensions through its ambassador in Rome.