Controlling Chocolate and Tobacco Usage in the Society

After the war ended and the plague abated, correspondence between Rome and Spanish Jesuit provinces resumed more familiar routines, including attempts on the part of generals to restrain Jesuits’ participation in two highly popular fads: the consumption of chocolate and tobacco. A 1660 letter from Oliva to Provincial Domingo Langa (in office 1662–65) specified that members could only use tobacco, with the permission of the provincial, if they had a medical need for it. The process for licensing the consumption of chocolate was more stringent: use of cacao products required the explicit permission of the general.538 In evaluating requests,