PLANTICH, NIKOLA King of
Paraguay-Priest
The
Archives of Zagreb, Consilium Regnum Croaticum 1776, offers authentic
autobiographical statements by Nikola Plantic (Nikolaus Blantisch), a Jesuit of
note from Tucuman, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo, originally from Croatia, who
was expelled from America in the anti-Jesuit developments in 1767, and maybe
also by other Croat missionaries, banished on the same occasion. The Jesuit
autobiographies, giving brief data about the persons to whom they refer and
including details about their work and experience, were submitted to the local
Croatian authorities in writing upon the enactment of the local decree of
suppression (1773), when every Jesuit was required to file a curriculum vitae.
The personal data provided in Plantic's autobiography are of special interest,
in view of the fact that in the campaign from Portugal (Pombal) and other
anti-Jesuit centers in the time of these banishments, he (Plantic) was accused
of having usurped the royal powers in the reductions of Paraguay and indeed of
having assumed the title of King of
Paraguay and organized uprisings and war by Indians against the Spanish
regular army in an attempt to overthrow the legitimate Spanish and Portuguese
governments. Plantic, says that he set out for Paraguay, a province in South
America, to convert the native population to the church of Christ. Plantic's
autobiography was. recently published in the local journals. His case gave rise
to a considerable local literature providing a great deal of information on the
history of the Jesuits in the reductions of Paraguay and generally in the
estuary of La Plata in the period of the Spanish decree of banishment (1767).
Gavrilovich.