The Project Gutenberg EBook of Loyola and the Educational System of the
Jesuits, by Thomas Hughes
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits
Author: Thomas Hughes
Editor: Nicholas Murray Butler
Release Date: June 18, 2014 [EBook #46018]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOYOLA, EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF JESUITS ***
Produced by David Garcia, Charlie Howard, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)
Transcriber's note: Superscripts are indicated by the caret character,
as in "XVII^e" and "1^o". Italic text is indicated by _underscores_;
boldface text is indicated by =equals signs=.
LOYOLA.
The Great Educators
EDITED BY NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER
LOYOLA
AND
THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF
THE JESUITS
BY
THE REVEREND THOMAS HUGHES
OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1892
COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.
PREFACE.
In the following work on the Educational System of the Jesuits, I
have endeavored to present a critical statement of the principles and
method adopted in the Society of Jesus. The effort to explain the
sources, process of development, and present influence of the system
within and without the Order, has made of the first part a biographical
and historical sketch, having for its chief subject the person of
the Founder; while the details and the pedagogical significance of
the various elements in the method appear, in the second part, as a
critical analysis of the _Ratio Studiorum_.
The educational literature which treats of this system is very
extensive. Various estimates and conclusions have been arrived at,
on the merits of documents frequently referred to, for an exposition
of the meaning and philosophy of the system. Hence, with the view of
facilitating a clear and comprehensive judgment on the subject, I have
thought it not inadvisable to quote accurately from such documents,
omitting none which bore upon the matter, if only they were within
reach. It so happens that, at present, a large number of the sources,
regulations, and commentaries, heretofore rare and altogether out of
reach, have been rendered easy of access, being embodied in the great
work, _Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica_, which is already beyond its
tenth volume. Three of the volumes so far issued are upon the Jesuit
System; they have been compiled by the late Rev. G. M. Pachtler, S. J.
If the three or four volumes, which still remain to be issued by the
Rev. Bernard Duhr, S. J., had been available, they too could have been
laid under contribution for examples and illustrations. But perhaps the
theme will appear sufficiently illustrated as it is.
Besides the original documents, I have used no less authentic an
exponent than that which the maxim of law approves: _Consuetudo, optima
legis interpres_, "Custom, which is the best interpreter of law."
While all that is oldest and most authentic has thus been made use of
in explaining the _Ratio Studiorum_, the actual condition of pedagogics
to-day is new, and so is the state of the question involved. Hence, to
satisfy the requirements of the present, reference has been made not
exclusively either to the customs or the learned documents of a former
age.
In a word, the object aimed at has been to indicate the chief traits
which are characteristic of the system, and which may be suggestive in
the development of pedagogical science. Whether such an object has been
attained, so as to meet many questions which may possibly arise, and
to satisfy the desire which actually exists, it will be for others to
decide.
THOMAS HUGHES, S. J.
ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE v
PART I.
EDUCATIONAL HISTORY OF THE ORDER.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION 3
CHAPTER II.
KNIGHT, PILGRIM, AND SCHOLAR 19
CHAPTER III.
THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. ROME 30
CHAPTER IV.
COLLEGES AS PROPOSED IN THE JESUIT CONSTITUTION 52
CHAPTER V.
COLLEGES FOUNDED AND ENDOWED 68
CHAPTER VI.
THE INTELLECTUAL SCOPE AND METHOD PROPOSED 82
CHAPTER VII.
THE MORAL SCOPE PROPOSED 98
CHAPTER VIII.
IGNATIUS ADMINISTERING THE COLLEGIATE SYSTEM. HIS DEATH 109
CHAPTER IX.
SUBSEQUENT ADMINISTRATIONS 124
PART II.
ANALYSIS OF THE SYSTEM OF STUDIES.
CHAPTER X.
AQUAVIVA. THE RATIO STUDIORUM 141
CHAPTER XI.
_Formation of the Master._ HIS COURSES OF LITERATURE AND
PHILOSOPHY 156
CHAPTER XII.
YOUTHFUL MASTERS 175
CHAPTER XIII.
THE COURSES OF DIVINITY AND ALLIED SCIENCES. PRIVATE STUDY.
REPETITION 191
CHAPTER XIV.
DISPUTATION. DICTATION 208
CHAPTER XV.
_Formation of the Scholar._ SYMMETRY OF THE COURSES. THE
PRELECTION. BOOKS 225
CHAPTER XVI.
THE CLASSICAL LITERATURES. SCHOOL MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL 248
CHAPTER XVII.
EXAMINATIONS AND GRADUATION. SCHEDULE OF GRADES AND COURSES 259
CHAPTER XVIII.
CONCLUSION 285
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 297
PART I.
EDUCATIONAL HISTORY OF THE ORDER
LOYOLA AND THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF THE JESUITS
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
A learned and elegant work, which narrates the rise and progress of
Christian Schools, from the sixtieth year of the Christian era onwards,
ends its long journey at the date of the Reformation, and takes leave
of its varied subject, and of its lines of Christian Scholars, in these
words: "We leave them at the moment when the episcopacy was recovering
its ancient jurisdiction over the ecclesiastical seminaries, and when
a vast majority of the secular schools of Catholic Christendom were
passing into the hands of a great Religious Order, raised up, as it
would seem, with the special design of consolidating anew a system of
Christian education."[1]
Two centuries and a half later, when the Society of Jesus had run a
long course, from the date of the Reformation which had seen it rise,
up to the eve of the Revolution which beheld it extinct, a General of
the Order, Ignatius Visconti, addressing the Provincial Superiors over
the world, takes note of a new stage in the process of educational
development: "The taste for letters now," he says, "is more keen and
exquisite, and the number of literary schools has increased so much,
that ours may no longer appear so necessary. For I may mention the fact
that, besides our schools of polite letters, there were, for a long
while, either none or very few. So that parents were forced to send
their children to us, even if otherwise they did not want it."[2]
This refers in a quiet way to what Leopold von Ranke states with more
emphasis. Speaking of Grammar classes, the German historian says: "Here
also the Jesuits succeeded to admiration. It was found that young
people gained more with them in six months, than with other teachers
in two years. Even Protestants removed their children from distant
gymnasia to confide them to the care of the Jesuits."[3] Ranke narrates
in the same place how it was "toward the universities above all that
the efforts of the Jesuits were directed." And he describes what the
results were in Germany.
D'Alembert writes of their progress in France: "Hardly had the Company
of Jesus begun to show itself in France, than it met with difficulties
without number, in the endeavor to establish itself. The universities
especially made the greatest efforts to keep the new-comers out. It
is difficult to decide whether this opposition is a praise or a
condemnation of the Jesuits who stood it. They announced gratuitous
teaching; they counted among their number celebrated and learned men,
superior perhaps to those whom the universities could boast of," etc.[4]
Speaking of the Protestants in the Netherlands, a chronicle, which
reviews the first century of the Order's existence, records that "the
Jesuit schools were expressly interdicted, under severe penalties,
to all members of the Protestant communities. Even in a twelve-year
truce which the Order partially enjoyed, a monthly fine of one hundred
florins was still imposed upon all delinquents, or on their parents,
who persisted in patronizing the Jesuit schools. To escape the fine,
parents sent their children under an assumed name.[5]
In every country, the same drama of struggle and contest evolved itself
through two and a half centuries, till a momentous scene was witnessed.
It was a scene of such a kind as seldom has occurred in history; and
never certainly was any similar event thrown into such relief by the
sequel. The event which I refer to was a universal and instantaneous
suppression of the Order; with consequences following thereupon which
were exceptional, both in the world that witnessed it, and in the
subject-body that suffered it.
The sequel in the world at large was that, a few years later, at the
close of the eighteenth century, there broke out the great Revolution
under the leadership of men, of whom scarcely one had been more than
seven years of age at the date of the Jesuits' expulsion.[6] They
represented in France the first generation which had not been educated
by the Society. The remote causes which overwhelmed the Order were
the same that ushered in the Revolution. But, among the immediate
causes, assigned by historians to account for the precise form which
the great convulsion assumed, and for the date at which it occurred,
is placed the dissolution of this Order. According to the Count de
Maistre, who speaks of the political sentiment of his own times, all
observers agreed that the revolution of Europe, still called the
French Revolution, was impossible without the preliminary destruction
of the Jesuits. And, in keeping with this, it was equally a subject
of observation, as being a palpable historical fact, that during two
centuries the Jesuits had formed in their College at Paris, the élite
of the French nobility; and that, only a few years after the expulsion
of the Jesuit Masters, the same college turned out the Robespierres,
Camille Desmoulins, Tallien, Noël, Fréron, Chénier, and other such
demagogues. This College of Clermont, or Louis-le-Grand, from which the
Jesuits were expelled in 1762, had been immediately occupied by the
University of Paris. The Revolution broke out twenty-seven years later.
Another sequel, not heard of before in history, affected the Society
itself. Europe, having gone through the violent commotions which
changed the old order of things into the new, reached the beginning
of this nineteenth century, and found the Society alive again. This
was in defiance of a political maxim, which we may admit with Baron
von Hübner, that in politics, in the affairs of states, in the life of
all great social institutions, when once death supervenes, there is no
resurrection.
And now, at the end of the nineteenth century, the same forces of
repulsion and attraction, of devoted love on the part of friends,
of intense hatred on the part of enemies, have been seen operating
as always before. It has become a commonplace in the philosophy of
history,--this hatred which has been sworn against the Order of Jesus,
and the multitude of enemies whom it has made. One explanation suggests
itself to the Viscount de Bonald,--the presence in it, he thinks, of
something good; of that good which, as it alone is the object of the
most ardent love, can alone become the object of the intensest hate;
and therefore has always made persecutors and martyrs.
The purpose of this book is to give an historical sketch, with a
proportionate analysis, of the educational development effected through
the Society of Jesus. Others have taken different fields of Jesuit
history to survey, either general and comprehending all the paths of
external and internal activity, or particular and comprising only parts
of the history. Some of these particular views, especially in later
years, are in the line of studies, and are most valuable contributions
to the history of pedagogic development. None of them, however,
happens to coincide with the scope, purpose, and form which have been
designated for this; as the Series to which it belongs, the Editor in
charge, and the country for which it is intended, sufficiently indicate.
The subject then is the educational system of the Jesuits, that system
which technically is called the _Ratio Studiorum_. It requires no
literary nor historical ingenuity to centre all that has to be said
about it in the personality and character of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
I shall draw upon Jesuit sources of information, except when it
will be necessary to state results, or give estimates, which imply
commendation. Then I shall quote freely from sources outside of the
Order. Otherwise, for the purpose of explaining and analyzing domestic
matters, these extraneous references would be imperfect indeed.
The situation, which met the military view of the cavalier, lately
the knightly captain of Loyola, was a new one, on an old field of
battle. The demand, which it seemed to make upon tactical resources,
was as intense as the political and religious crisis which created the
situation. From the year 1522 till 1540, while Ignatius was prospecting
the scene in Europe, and preparing to take an active part in it, he
had time and the opportunities for observing, what precisely, at
that epoch, were the accumulated results of all the Christian ages
gone before; and why the results just then were only what they were.
The issue appeared fatally determined by social conditions around,
which more than neutralized the Christianity visible. Education, in
particular, was laboring under the action of causes, which had begun
to operate several centuries earlier, and which were then evidently
working themselves out to one final effort. That was the undermining of
Christian education.
In this respect, it was the same question which had confronted the
Augustines, the Basils, and Jeromes, of one thousand years before. But
it was a different state of the question. Augustine, the brilliant
youth of Hippo Regius in Africa, will serve as an instance of what
the issue then had been. He had made himself master of the very best
results, which the public schools of the time were able to accomplish
in the most gifted of minds. But he had lost his virtue. He lived to
complain with bitterness, that it was accounted a grievous error to
pronounce _homo_ "a man," without the "h," but it was no error at all
to hate a man, signified by the word, _homo_. The consequence with him
was that, when he became a Bishop of the Church, he met the need of
providing a Christian education, by instituting in his own house a kind
of school, for the moral and spiritual education of his clergy.
Thus arose the cathedral or canonical school. So too, the cloistral
schools came to flourish in the abbeys and the monasteries. And,
even if these two kinds of educational centres had not also been, as
they really were, in the Middle Ages, the preordained means for the
salvation of learning in Europe, they would still have had reason
enough for their existence, in the paramount necessity of continuing,
for the tender age of youth, the ministry of a virtuous education.
Events took a new turn with the rise and progress of the university
system. At first, the universities were mostly annexed to cathedral
churches. As they developed, the cloistral influence waned. And again,
as they developed still more, they presented phenomena which originated
the subsequent system of the Jesuits.
From the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, as many as sixty-six of
these universities were in existence; sixteen of them are credited
to Germany; about as many to France; and the rest to Italy, Spain,
and other nations. It is not within my province to describe their
formation, or the order of their foundation. They received their
charters from the Popes, who used their power thus, and showed it
under a form, which no age will be apt to depreciate; least of all,
our own. Addressing these habitations of "General Studies" with the
appellative, _Universitas Vestra_, the Sovereign Pontiffs sent them
on their course, and encouraged them in every line of Theology, Law,
or Medicine; whether all these lines were followed in each centre, or
respectively some here, some there. Orleans, Bourges, Bologna, Modena
professed Law, either as their specialty, or as their distinguishing
faculty; Montpellier, Salerno, Medicine; Padua, the Liberal Arts;
Toledo, Mathematics; Salamanca, and, above all, Paris, general culture,
Philosophy, and Theology.
These universities became such well-springs of learning, that for
Theology the Bishops' seminaries practically ceased to exist; and, to
acquire the general culture of the times, the children of the faithful
no longer turned to the monastic schools. Nay, in quite a contrary
sense, the clergy and the monks themselves, in pursuit of the best
learning that the age could give, left their cloisters for a while, and
betook themselves to the universities. They followed up that step by
settling down there. Paris beheld the great old orders of Augustinians,
Benedictines, Carthusians, the Carmelites, the Bernardines, all
establishing monasteries or colleges; no otherwise than the newest
order of Trinitarians, which was chiefly made up of university men. Two
institutes arose, those of the Dominicans and Franciscans; who with
men at their head, like St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure, placed
themselves right in the heart of these intellectual centres; and they
became bulwarks of sound learning, as opposed to the inanities of a
false scholasticism. They kept the leaven of religion and virtue in
the midst of what was not quite a perverse generation, but was most
certainly, from whatever side we view it, a very dubious multitude,
belonging, it is true, to a Christian generation. Consider the 10,000
at Bologna, which was the centre for Law studies; the 30,000 at Oxford;
or the 40,000, all at one time studying, or reckoned to be studying, in
Paris, the acknowledged centre for Theology.
An indiscriminate mass of humanity like this, pressed, thronged, and
crowded together, stimulated with all the ardor, and alive with all the
passions of youth, could not fail to be little better than a nursery
for indiscriminate license. Whatever might be the vigilance of the
Church, or however strenuous the exercise of legitimate authority,
nothing in the usual course of human society could prevent its
becoming a prolific soil for the propagation of every species of error.
And, as during three hundred years the intellectual and educational
powers of Europe followed this course, the law of evolution asserted
itself in many directions.
On the one side, those tens of thousands of Christian youths, who
were aiming at all the posts of influence in Church and State, and
who, entering their native university, or journeying to foreign ones,
began life there at as early an age as twelve or fourteen years, to
remain in this environment some nine or twelve years more, became, as
was natural, the living, swarming members of a state of society so
dissolute, that successive occupants of the Papal See depicted the
condition of things as one of moral contagion. In the manner of thought
and mind which prevailed, no form of theoretic error was wanting.
In philosophy, there was scepticism; in theology, heresy; while, in
politics, Cæsarism and absolutism became rife. Then, at the end of
the fifteenth century, the Renaissance came; and one of the first
things, which it expressly and formally did, was to renew in life,
art, and politics, the same old paganism, upon the ruins of which, so
many centuries before, Christianity had begun its upward and laborious
ascent. Newly fashioning then much of what was old, Christianity had
augmented all this with so much which was new, that in a thousand
years it had made a Renaissance possible. And now the form of this
Renaissance threatened its own ascendancy in morals and in life.
On the other hand, the old spirit of conservatism in religion, and of
preservation in the matter of morals, maintained itself for a time,
through those bodies of religious men and clergymen, who had left
the cloister or the seminary, to take up their abode in the secular
seats of learning. It was this spirit which originated the latest and
best development of the universities, that of the "college" system,
established in their midst. Salamanca had twenty colleges; Louvain,
forty; Paris, fifty. Still, in the final issue, there was now scarcely
any reserve force of cloistral or episcopal learning behind the
universities, and outside of them. And the religious and the clergy
themselves, who at best were not a little out of their element from the
moment they migrated into the secular environment, conformed insensibly
to the conditions in which they found themselves, and so far ceased to
be the power they had been.
Witness, in the time of Ignatius, the Paris University, as described
by contemporary records. "It was fallen from its ancient splendor. The
bonds of discipline had been gradually relaxed; studies were abandoned;
and with masters, as with scholars, all love of letters, and respect
for the rule, had given place to sombre passions, to political hate, to
religious fanaticism and dissolute habits."[7]
Here then we have two elements in the educational condition of Europe,
which explain the rise of the Jesuit system. One was the positive,
concrete fact, embodied in that great developed system of university
learning. The other was a negative element, the decline therein of the
essential moral life. These two factors are not mere antecedents in
the order of time, as being only prior to the method of Loyola. One of
them, the university system, supplied the very material out of which
his method and matter were taken; yes, and the men themselves, the
Jesuits who applied the principles of reform to education. The other
factor, which I have called negative, that decline of the essential
moral life, was the adequate occasion, which prompted Ignatius to
approach the question of education at all. For we may say with
confidence that, if the universities of the sixteenth century were
still doing the work which originally they had been chartered to do,
the founder of the Society of Jesus would not only have omitted to
draw out his system as a substitute for them, and as an improvement
upon them, but he would have done, what he always did with anything
good in existence; he would have used what he found, and have turned
his attention to other things more urgent. He did use these university
centres for his own young men, until he had better educational
institutions, and a better method of his own in progress.
Hence the educational problem, when it falls under the notice of
Ignatius, presents itself as the identical one of old, that of moral
regeneration. But it is a different state of the same question. In
circumstances rendered acutely critical by the agitations of the epoch,
social, moral, and religious, it was a favorite contemplation of
his to look with compassion on men living like the blind, dying, and
sinking into eternal depths; on men talking, blaspheming, reviling one
another; on their assaulting, wounding, slaying one another; and all
together going to eternal perdition.[8] It was from this moral point of
view that he descended into the arena of education.
But before he can teach men, or mould teachers of men, or even conceive
the first idea of legislating for the intellectual world, he must
himself first learn. There are two fundamental lessons which he does
learn, and they go to form him. One is that, among all pursuits, the
study of virtue is supreme; the other, that, supreme as virtue is,
yet, without secular learning, the highest virtue goes unarmed, and
at best is profitable to oneself alone. He learns these two lessons,
not only in theory, but in practice. To accomplish the purpose of the
latter, he takes his seat upon the scholars' bench, and begins to learn
with little children. Though he may not meet with brilliant success in
the art of learning, still in the art of understanding what learning
is, and in the lessons of experience, he becomes a finished scholar.
He remains even then too much of a chevalier to give up a cherished
idea of his about a spiritual crusade in the East. And it is only when
thwarted in this project that, like a true knight, he simply turns
to another side of the field. He stays in the West. He is still the
Captain of a Company. But he becomes also a legislator among doctors;
and, amid his other works, he effects an educational reform.
In his whole campaign, we may discern two characteristics in the
spirit of his movements. One is that of defence, the other that of
advance. His method of defence showed itself in the reassertion of old
principles, in the conservatism of morals,--a plan of campaign, which
determines the whole frame of mind, and the social construction of the
Company. It rests on the principle of upholding what is, and not moving
the ancient landmarks. On the other hand, his advance is towards the
solution of the highest questions which can interest mankind. These
formed part of the very object and direction of the Order's march. And
so it came to pass, that his Company drew to itself that class of minds
which are most powerfully arrested by the prospect of solving such
questions, especially when times are agitated. His times were agitated,
if any ever were, more so than our own, when the same questions still
must dominate. His were times of wars with Turks in the East, and
with Christians at home; of battles lost and won, with their effects
reaching into every household; of royal and imperial administrations
confused and overthrown; of new opinions without number; of the Church
losing ground along the whole line of the frontier, and withal new
worlds looming over an horizon, where from the beginning of time the
unknown had brooded in absolute darkness. At such a moment, "Defence
and Advance," or as the Papal authority expressed it in the solemn
instrument which chartered his Institute, _Defensio ac propagatio
fidei_, were stirring watchwords to men of parts, who felt restive
under the inactivity and inefficiency of older methods, on older lines.
I will not pause to say, that the personal poverty and exact obedience,
required in the new service, presented no obstacles to the minds
and characters which were otherwise attracted to his standard. The
antecedents of all antiquity seem to show that such conditions, to
such minds, are rather an inducement than a check. And if one takes
notice that to this was added, in the Order of Jesus, an absolute
equality, whereby every formed member binds himself to accept no
dignity within or without, or, at least, to affect no dignity at
home or abroad, which will prejudice his full franchise as a member,
then, perhaps, the attractiveness of such a life, the conservatism
and intense concentration of the Order, as well as the alacrity and
endurance manifested in the service, will not appear inexplicable to
the minds of this age, in which, under a very different form, the same
equality is called liberty, is made to construct republics, to bring
down monarchies, and develop some of the most potent agencies for
unfolding the energies of men. Yet the liberty of this latter equality
reflects but faintly, and as from a broken surface, the freedom of him,
who having liberated himself from the shackles of the world, and from
all solicitude as to his movements, office, and place, finds in turn,
as the German historian expresses it, "his own personal development
imposed upon him";[9] and, in the firm companionship of one aim,
formation, and life, enjoys the manifold support and ready sympathy of
individualities as developed as his own.
I shall narrate, in the first part, the facts of Ignatius' career,
so far as to indicate the stages of that magisterial art, by which he
himself was formed, and which then he reformed in the Jesuit _Ratio
Studiorum_. In the second part, I shall sketch briefly the history of
the _Ratio_ itself, and analyze the System as a theory and practice of
education.
CHAPTER II.
KNIGHT, PILGRIM, AND SCHOLAR.
The story of the cavalier wounded on the ramparts of Pampeluna has
often been told. Loyola was not at the moment governor of the city,
nor in any responsible charge. But official responsibility was not
necessary for him to see the path of duty and follow it. As one bound
to the service of his sovereign by the title of honor and nobility,
he retired to the citadel, when the town surrendered; and then, when
the ramparts began to give way under the cannonading, he stood in the
breach. A ball shattering the rock laid him low, maimed in both his
limbs. At once the defence collapsed. Cared for chivalrously by those
whose arms had struck him down in battle, he was transported with every
delicate attention to his castle of Loyola. It was found that one of
his limbs had been ill set. He had it broken again, to be set aright.
Meanwhile, instinct with all the ambition of a knight, belonging to
a chivalrous nation in an age of chivalry, he was not insensible to
the charms of society and affection. And, out of a sensitive care for
his personal appearance, he must needs have a protruding bone, which
still threatened to mar his figure, sawed off while he looked on. In
the loneliness and tedium of a sick-room, he whiled away the hours by
dreaming of his ambitions and his aspirations, and he sought to feed
them with suitable nourishment. He wanted a romance to read. There was
none to be had. So, instead of the novel which was not forthcoming, he
took what they gave him, the Life of Christ, and the Lives of some who
had served Christ faithfully. The soldier of the field and of blood
felt the objects of his ambition change; he became a soldier of the
spirit and eternal life. And, after the experiences of his bed of pain,
and the protracted communings with another world, he arose another man;
he went forth a knight as ever, but not on an expedition terminating as
before. An evening and night spent in the sanctuary of Montserrat, as
once before he had passed a vigil of arms, when dubbed a chevalier by
the King of Navarre; a morning begun with the Holy Sacrifice attended
and Holy Communion received, opened to him a new era; and he went
forth, bound now by a new oath of fealty to the service of the King of
Heaven.
At the side of the altar in this sanctuary of Montserrat, the Abbot of
the monastery, eighty-one years later, committed to a marble tablet the
record of this event, for the perpetual memory of the future: "Blessed
Ignatius of Loyola here, with many prayers and tears, devoted himself
to God and the Virgin. Here, as with spiritual arms, he fortified
himself in sack-cloth, and spent the vigil of the night. Hence he went
forth to found the Society of Jesus, in the year MDXXII."
He first looked about him to find a retreat, and immerse himself in
the contemplation of time and eternity. It was a Saturday. John
Sacrista Pascual tells us that his mother, a devout lady of Manresa,
was in the church that morning; and, accompanied by two young men and
three women, she was at her devotions in the chapel of the Apostles.
A young stranger came up and accosted them. His clothing was of very
common serge; for Ignatius had given away his knightly robes to a poor
man. The youth looked like a pilgrim. He was not tall; he was fair
in complexion and ruddy in cheek. His bare head was somewhat bald.
Altogether he was of a fine and grave presence, and most reserved in
look. He scarcely raised his eyes from the ground. Coming up, he asked
if there were a hospital anywhere which might serve him for shelter.
Regarding his noble and fair features, the lady, as became a Christian
woman, offered her services; if he would follow her company, she would
provide for him, in the best way possible. Courteously and thankfully
he accepted her offer, and followed the party as they left the
sanctuary. They proceeded slowly; for they noticed that he was lame.
However much they urged him, they could not induce him to ride upon the
ass. Three leagues away from Montserrat, they arrived at the little
town of Manresa; and he took up his residence in the common hospital
for the poor and pilgrims. Whatever alms or food was henceforth sent
him first went to others, whom, in these matters, up to the end of his
life, he always considered to be more in need than himself.
He now entered on his probation of Christian virtue. In the mind of
the Catholic Church, the degree of virtue which he practised is that
accounted heroic. As it is not for me to dwell on it here, I will pass
it over with one remark. That which is accounted ordinary Christian
virtue, resting as it does on faith and hope, on principles not barely
natural but supernatural, is not very intelligible to the world at
large. Still less the heroic degree of the same. Both however claim
to be estimated by their own proper motives and principles. When they
enter into the very subject, which the biographer means to treat, it
appertains to his art not to ignore the objective motives and reasons
of things, as they operated in his subject. In the shortest monograph,
like the present, we cannot separate from the work, which he did,
the man who did it. And the man is made by his motives. It were bad
literary art to describe feats, which are confessedly great, and not to
find motives which are proportionate.
Ignatius, after a year more or less spent at Manresa, took his
pilgrim's staff and journeyed on foot to Italy, and thence to the Holy
Land. It was in the spirit of the old Crusaders, whose chivalry had
a charm for him up to the day many years later, when, with his first
associates of the Company, he endeavored once more to cross over from
Italy to Palestine. Had he succeeded on this later occasion, he would
most probably never have known the others who attached themselves to
him; nor might history have busied itself with him or with them.
At the date of his return from the Holy Land, we find that he has
advanced already to the second lesson in the development of his future.
It is, that mature in years as he is, and full of desires for doing
good to his neighbors, yet neither does mere piety place in his hands
the instruments for such work; nor, if study alone can give the means
of apostolic zeal, can he consider himself exempt from the law, that
he must labor to acquire what are only the results of labor. He was
thirty-one years of age, when he betook himself, after his night's
vigil, to the cave of Manresa. He is two years older now. So, at the
age of thirty-three, he sits down on the school-bench at Barcelona, and
begins his Latin declensions.
Begrudging his studies the time which they demand exclusively, he
mistakes the situation, and allows himself the exercises of an
apostolic life. At his age, even supposing his earlier pursuits to have
been more in harmony with his present life of letters, he is not an apt
pupil. However, he labors conscientiously. After two years spent at
Grammar, he is judged by his teacher, who takes a lenient view of the
case, to be competent for approaching his higher studies.
He himself was dubious. His friends recommended him to ascend. He
still hesitated. But, receiving the same favorable opinion from a
theologian whom he consulted, Ignatius acquiesced, in accordance with
his unvarying rule, to follow competent direction. How unfortunate this
step was for the happy progress of his studies, but how advantageous
for his experience as a future legislator, I shall proceed to show.
Leaving Barcelona for Alcalà, he meant to enjoy the best advantages
which a great university could afford. He lived on alms as ever; and
others lived on the alms which he received. It was the year 1626. He
entered upon the study of Logic, using the Summa of Di Soto; also the
Physics of Aristotle; and he pursued besides the Master of Sentences.
He had stayed only a year and a half in this rich variety of pursuits,
scholastic as well as apostolic, when the novelties apparent in his
manner of life ended by making him a suspected character to the
ecclesiastical authorities. To a few, among the population of the
city, his fruitful zeal made him distinctly odious. The result was
a juridical process against him, which issued in a complimentary
verdict, the Vicar of the diocese pronouncing him and his companions
quite blameless. But restrictions were imposed regarding his future
ministrations, since Ignatius was not yet in holy orders. During a
term of four years he was not to preach. After that time, his progress
in studies would enable him to honor that important ministry, without
giving offence. This was a deathblow to the aspirations of the student.
He made up his mind to go elsewhere, to the famous university of
Salamanca; and he turned his back on Alcalà.
The time was soon to come for a pleasant revenge; and apparently he
knew of it long before it came. Just six years after the foundation of
his Order, when he sent Francis Villanova to open a house at Alcalà,
not only did he find men of the university embracing his Institute,
but, two years after that, the whilom persecuted pilgrim received, in
a single twelvemonth, thirty-four Doctors into the Society, all from
that one seat of learning. The mere passing by of Francis Borgia, Duke
of Gandia, who had become an humble follower of Ignatius, made the
choicest spirits flock to his standard; and, all over Spain, colleges
sprang up as if from the soil.
In Salamanca, where likewise he and his were to figure in the future,
the personal history of Ignatius is briefly told. In ten or twelve
days after his arrival, he was thrown into chains. He spent twenty-two
days in prison. When released, with the same commendation for himself
and his doctrine as he had received at Alcalà, but with a similar
restriction on his action, he thought it was not worth his while to
repeat the same experiences at the same cost. So, in spite of all the
eloquence of dissuasion brought to bear on him by friends, he took a
new departure, which seemed plausible to him, and therefore feasible.
He would try his fortunes in another land, and continue his studies in
the greatest philosophical and theological centre of the world, the
University of Paris.
To any one who judged of things by an ordinary standard, the project
was not feasible. War was raging between Spain and France; the roads
were infested with hostile soldiery; many murders and robberies,
committed on the persons of travellers, were recently reported. But
these and other considerations of the kind had no weight with Loyola,
to stay him in a course once deliberately adopted. Accepting some alms
from friends at Barcelona, to obtain on the way the necessaries of
life, he accomplished on foot the whole journey from Barcelona to the
French capital; where he arrived at the beginning of February, A.D.
1528.
He has now had experience of prisons and chains, on the charge of
teaching error, or of being a dangerous enthusiast. One of the calmest
and coolest of men, who never acted, but he first calculated, and who
never allowed himself to approach a conclusion, without first freeing
himself from all bias and impulse, he had suffered repeated arrest
for setting people beside themselves, for moving them to give up all
they had in behalf of piety, or charity, and inducing them to go and
live on alms themselves; nay, perhaps throw in their lives, talents
and acquirements, to serve others gratis. The founder of the Jesuits,
himself the first of an Order which has the reputation of being the
staunchest upholder, as well of authority in every rank of society,
as of the truths taught by the Catholic Church, was put in chains,
or arraigned by the ecclesiastical authorities almost wherever he
appeared, though always acquitted as blameless.
In a letter written at a subsequent period of his life to King John
III of Portugal, Ignatius sums up his experiences, as including two
imprisonments, at Alcalà and Salamanca; three judicial investigations,
at Alcalà, Salamanca, and Paris; later on, another process at Paris;
then one at Venice; finally another at Rome;--eight investigations
about this one man in Spain, France, and Italy.[10] Wherever he came,
in after life, it passed as a proverb among the Fathers, that his
appearance was the sure harbinger of a storm, soon to break out against
them somewhere, in the social or religious world. He braved all this
fury in his own manner, weighing as deliberately every word he spoke,
and measuring every step he took, as when he had stood in the breach
of the ramparts at Pampeluna. But his personal experience made him
commit to the sacred keeping of the "Spiritual Exercises" an important
principle of liberal and humane prudence. It is couched in the first
words of his little book, to guide teacher and learner alike. He says:--
"In the first place, it is to be supposed that every pious Christian
man should be more ready to interpret any obscure proposition of
another in a good rather than a bad sense. If, however, he cannot
defend the proposition in any way, let him inquire of the speaker
himself; and, if then the speaker is found to be mistaken in sentiment
or understanding, let him correct the same kindly. If this is not
enough, let him employ all available means to render him sound in
principle and secure from error."
How far the personal experiences of its founder attached by a law of
heritage to his Order, I can hardly undertake to describe. But, just
for the sake of completing the family picture, I will mention the heads
of a doleful list, which an historian of the Society catalogues. He
enumerates, as objects of attack and misrepresentation, the founder
himself, the name of the Society of Jesus, the dress, rules, manners,
books, doctrine, schools, sermons; the poverty, obedience, gratuitous
service of the Jesuits; that they affected a kind of literary empire,
under the spur of an intolerable ambition; that they were lightly
tinctured, and had just sipped of many things, of which they had
nothing solid to offer; yes, that they wanted to have it believed there
was no sanctuary of the Muses, no shrine of sacred or human wisdom in
existence, outside of their own colleges; that, from these offices of
theirs, all arts and sciences came forth, done up in the best style.
"In fine, whatever they do or don't do, granted that there are many
false charges which their enemies concoct against them,--things too
extreme to be believed,--granted that they are acquitted of many vices
laid to their account, never certainly will they escape the suspicion,
at least, which these charges excite."[11] We believe it. There is a
good homely English proverb which expresses the very same idea--about
the happy adhesiveness of a clayey compound when cleverly thrown.
This retrospect of history was taken, exactly one hundred years after
the foundation of the Order. The story had begun some thirteen years
before it was founded. When Ignatius became a responsible leader with
associates, he had recourse more than once to the process of justice,
to clear his reputation in full form. But, beyond the cases which
rendered such defence prudent and necessary, his practical policy was
expressed in a practical maxim, which after him his successor, James
Laynez, had often in his mouth: _Deus faxit ne unquam male loquantur et
vera dicant!_ "God grant they never talk ill of me and be saying the
truth!" Indeed, as there is no use in trying to change men, for they
will never be born anew, Ignatius looked rather in another direction
for the solution of difficulties; expecting that troubles, which defied
other treatment, might still not survive their authors. Speaking of
a powerful adversary, who was raising a great storm at Toledo and
Alcalà, and whom it took the royal council and then a brief from the
Pope to quell, Ignatius said of him to Ribadeneira: "He is old, the
Society is young; naturally the Society will live longer than he will."
The same dignitary, suppressed though he was, rose again in violent
opposition. Whereupon Jouvancy makes the apt remark: "So difficult is
it for even the most eminent men, and so rare a thing, when once they
have conceived a notion, to get it out of their heads again!"[12] No,
men are not born anew.
It is time now to contemplate Ignatius of Loyola at Paris, where some
of the most precious elements in his educational experience are to be
acquired.
CHAPTER III.
THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. ROME.
Voluntary poverty, the austerest manner of life, the ungrateful labor
of studies, and the perpetual self-discipline of a mind like his, ever
bent on lofty thoughts and endeavoring to dominate the very first
movements of his soul, all these conditions, added to the climate and
the nature of the situation in which Ignatius found himself at Paris,
brought such a strain to bear on his broken-down constitution, that, to
keep up his course at all, he had to interrupt it awhile, and give some
relief to his overtaxed body, or, as he held it to be, his "beast of
burden."
And what about the studies themselves? If they had been a brilliant
success thus far, they could scarcely have outlived such conditions of
existence. As it was, they were as good as if they had never begun; or
somewhat worse. He had gone about them the wrong way. Whatever solidity
of learning he had kept objectively in view, something else, equally
important with solidity, had been unwittingly omitted. That was a
good method. Logic, Philosophy, and Theology, all taken up together,
and with such compendious haste, now went together in his mind like
a machine out of joint; and his speed was _nil_! The Latin language
itself, the indispensable vehicle of all learning, was just so far
possessed by him as to show him that, to be of any real use, it had
better be commenced all over again.
Here his character asserted itself. And in no particular of his life
is he more like himself, more thorough, more of a brave cavalier,
"governing himself, in great things and small, by reasons most
high," than when, having little facility for such pursuits, and less
inclination, he makes up his mind, after a short breathing spell, to
sit down again at the age of thirty-seven years, and resume his Latin
declensions! In the college of Montague, he spends about two years
acquiring this tongue. Meanwhile, he tries various plans to find
wherewithal to live.
I need not dwell on the nature of this great centre into which Ignatius
had penetrated, an unknown stranger, just one of its tens of thousands
of scholars. It had more than two scores of colleges. To this, the
queen of universities, though she was going to be no kind alma mater
to him and his Order, still the recollections of Loyola in his future
legislation would always turn back with reverence. His first Professors
for the Roman College, the typical institution of the Society, would be
taken from those of his men who were Doctors of this university. And,
whatever might be the moral condition and the religious lassitude of
the university men, as compared with this penniless stranger, in 1529,
occasions were to come in after times, when they showed themselves not
unworthy of the enemy whom they fought to the death. When the plague
of 1580 made a desert about them, the university men and the Jesuits,
otherwise never seen together, save in the lists and face to face, now
were everywhere, and fell fast, side by side on the field of Christian
charity.
For the understanding of the Jesuit system, in its origin and its form,
attention must always be paid, in the first place, to the kinship
subsisting between it and the Paris University. There are, besides,
many other degrees of relationship, which do not go unacknowledged,
in the formation of the _Ratio Studiorum_. The system of the English
universities may be recognized in the line of ancestry. Whatever was
best anywhere enters the pedigree; as Lord Bacon takes note, when
delivering himself like a good philosopher, but also like a good
Protestant, he eulogizes and stigmatizes in the same breath: "The
ancient wisdom of the best times," he says, "did always make a just
complaint, that states were too busy with their laws, and too negligent
in point of education; which excellent part of the ancient discipline
hath been in some sort revived, of late times, by the colleges of the
Jesuits; of whom, although in regard of their superstition I may say,
'_quo meliores, eo deteriores_'; yet in regard of this, and some other
points concerning human learning and moral matters, I may say, as
Agesilaus said to his enemy Pharnabaus, '_Talis quum sis, utinam noster
esses_.'"[13]
In the University of Paris, then, as his real alma mater, Ignatius
commenced his course of Philosophy in the year 1529. He finished
it by standing successfully the severe examination, called _examen
lapideum_, "the rocky test," considered the most searching of all in
the Paris Academy. He thus became a Master of Arts, after Easter, A.D.
1534; having become Licentiate in the previous year. Particulars about
his four examiners in the "rocky test," his graduation, the degrees
of his companions, with the dates, as found in the Paris records, are
given by the Bollandists.[14]
He now entered on his theological studies. It was evident that the
obstructions, which had thwarted so many of his efforts heretofore,
were disappearing one by one. And more than that; the means were
being placed in his hands for the great work before him. These means
were a company of men. He was in the midst of a devoted little band,
each one of whom he had won individually. They were Peter Lefèvre and
Francis Xavier; James Lainez and Alphonsus Salmeron, both of them mere
youths; there were Claude Le Jay, John Coduri, Nicholas Bobadilla,
Simon Rodriguez; and lastly, the only one who at this time was a Priest
among their number, Pasquier Brouet. Among these, never at their head
though considered a father by all, never leading the way, though on
that account showing himself the more effectively a leader, Ignatius
was all in all to each one of them. He had previously acquired some
valuable experience in selecting and forming companions. But such as
had gathered round him in Spain were no longer with him. Each one of
his present party was a picked man.
When six of them were sufficiently advanced, he and they held a
solemnity, which was the real birthday of the Society of Jesus. On
the fifteenth day of August, 1534, they took a vow, in the church of
the Blessed Virgin, at Montmartre in Paris. They bound themselves to
renounce all their goods by a given date, and betake themselves to
the Holy Land; failing in that, they would throw themselves at the
feet of the Sovereign Pontiff, and offer him their absolute service.
Meanwhile they pursued their studies; and, as each of the two following
years brought round the fifteenth day of August, it found them in the
same place, and with the same solemnity, and with an enlarged number,
renewing this vow. The legal birthday of the Order came only with the
Papal charter on September 27, 1540.
I shall pass over the movements of Loyola, when bidden to go and
recuperate in his native climate. He returned to Spain, in 1535,
leaving his companions to study till 1537; and he settled the affairs
of his young Spanish associates at their homes. All, when the time
came, disposed of their goods in a summary way. They gave to the poor,
reserving nothing, except what would pay their way to Venice, and
thence to the East. Their principle was, _Dispersit, dedit pauperibus_,
"He hath distributed, he hath given to the poor." Besides this, Xavier,
at the date appointed, gave up the last stage of his theological
studies, and resigned the glory of receiving the Doctor's cap in Paris;
the brilliant young Professor sacrificed the one thing which had
appealed most powerfully to his ambition and imagination. Laynez was
recuperating from a severe illness, and could do scarcely more than
move. Nevertheless they are all in Venice, when the early spring of
1537 arrives.
Ignatius himself, meeting them there, has accomplished the work which
faced him thirteen years before, and which he had taken in hand with
his Latin grammar. He is now forty-six years of age.
There are three lines of activity, in which the ability and energy of
Ignatius Loyola stand out before the world. One is the capacity he
showed as a governor or leader of men; another is a similar competency
to direct souls in the spiritual life; the third is that, which we are
considering at present, his legislative genius in the intellectual
order. Admitting the innate talent which must have been the basis and
foundation of his gift for governing, we may affirm of all the rest,
that the best part of his sagacity and tact had been acquired by
personal experience. He learnt how to act by suffering. He perfected
his natural gift of guiding and commanding by first submitting to all
the contingencies of human life.
We may develop the meaning of this in the present matter, pedagogy;
and the meaning of it will help to unfold the subject. In quest of
the necessaries of life, he spent intervals of his studious career
in travelling from Paris to a great distance. He found himself
returning each year to Belgium, always on foot: he visited Rouen, and
even reached London, to address the Spanish merchants there. It does
not seem to have been parsimony on their side that kept him in such
straitened circumstances. It was his principles which were not all in
keeping with his conditions of life. He was endeavoring to combine
the life of a student with absolute poverty; and he aggravated the
inconveniences of such a state of dependence by placing no limits to
the exercise of his charity. It was his deliberate choice; for he fed
his mind continuously upon the life and example of the King, to whom
he had sworn his service, Christ poor and in labor from his youth. He
spoke afterwards from the wisdom of experience, when he said, that in
absolute penury the pursuit of science cannot easily subsist, and the
culture of the mind is impeded by the duties of providing for the body.
Hence he legislated that, though poverty was to be the basis of his
Institute, still the members, as long as they were engaged in studies,
should be set free from all care of seeking the means of subsistence.
He had endeavored to combine a life of apostolic ministrations, though
not yet a Priest, with that requisite absorption of mind, which alone
can warrant scholastic success. And he saw what it had come to. The
very esteem and love, which he entertained for the exercises of the
higher spiritual life, interrupted with intrusive thoughts that
application to study, which was the duty in hand. In order that no such
intrusion of even the most sacred pursuits should obstruct the onward
progress of the members in learning, he defined by rule the measure of
such occupations, as long as study was the main duty.
Diseases weakened him. Therefore he took the greatest pains to protect
the health of the members. While he lived, he did this with a personal
and paternal solicitude. In his Institute, he provided the same for the
future.
On commencing his studies, he embraced many branches at the same
time; and he had suffered all the consequences of disorder. Grasping
at too many things, he lost all; and he had then to retrieve all with
loss of time. To obviate any recurrence of such costly experiences, he
provided that the courses followed in the Society should have nothing
disordered in them, nothing mutilated or curtailed; everything was to
be in method and system; until, system and method having been carried
out in every line, and the special good of each department having been
secured sufficiently for the general plan, specialized perfection
should be consulted, after all that; and this was to be the appointed
life of individuals, while a rounded and complete education remained
the culture of all.
Once in later years he let fall these words, relative to his early
experience: "He would very much question whether another but himself,
having to struggle with so many difficulties and obstacles in the
course of his studies, would have given so long a time to the
acquisition of the sciences."[15] Thus then was he oppressed with
poverty, without the satisfaction of acting under orders; suffering so
many diseases, and yet looking neither to honor, dignity, nor other
human reward, such as is wont to draw men on, and animate them under
fatigue; finding no pleasure nor satisfaction in the life of studies,
an inducement which is so great an alleviation to mortals in the work
before them. And, in all these respects, he was quite unlike the very
men whom he singled out, and enlisted in the new service of devotion;
unlike Francis Xavier, who had seen with perfect indifference all
his brothers take to their ancestral profession of arms, or to a
courtier's life, while he himself, with the whole force of an ambitious
soul, ran on successfully and brilliantly in his chosen career, as a
Professor; unlike Laynez and Salmeron, whose extraordinary gifts had
made them Doctors of Philosophy and Divinity, while still, in age,
little more than mere youths; very unlike by nature to the gentle
make of Lefèvre, who began life as a shepherd boy, and ever retained
a pastoral sweetness of character. Unlike all of them, Loyola, a
soldier born and bred, and still true to his profession, discarded
every consideration of taste, comfort, and convenience, in view of one
objective point to be reached: through thirteen years he struggled
towards it; and, when that time of probation was over, he was a marked
man. According to the law, that like attracts like, and like begets
like, he was surrounded by a company of marked men, few if you count
their number, many if you consider the type. His name was widely known,
and favorably so. When he had been paying five times over the price of
his daily bread, by travelling to Belgium, to Rouen, and London, and
collecting there some Spanish florins, the event seemed to show that
he had been but opening the door, here and there and everywhere, for
his colleges and universities in the future; albeit, if they came,
adversaries came too, in proportion. But clouds and storms purify the
air. When they come again, they will still leave the air the clearer
for their coming. If the laws of human conduct are consistent in one
way, they are consistent in another. The disturbance comes, but it does
its work and goes.
M. Cretineau-Joly, the popular French historian in our own times,
speaking of events at a later juncture in the life of Loyola, makes
the following observation: "Loyola," he says, "could apply to himself
admirably well that proverb which says, 'When a Spaniard is driving a
nail into the wall, and his hammer breaks, the Spaniard will drive the
nail in with his head!'" Loyola would have his idea go through at any
cost.
We shall now follow him to Italy and Rome.
In the year 1537, Rome was not quite the luxurious capital which had
fallen under the sword of the Constable of Bourbon. The eternal city,
whose Papal Sovereigns have left it on record from time immemorial,
that in no part of the world were they less recognized as lords than
in their own city, had undergone a purification, which differed, not
substantially, but only in its consequences, from what was called
for, over half the countries of Europe. The riches, the luxury, the
idleness, which elsewhere resulted in a complete change of religious
history for many of the northern nations, had here brought about a
catastrophe which sobered minds. And no longer an exclusive absorption
in elaborate sloth prevented a large portion of the influential element
here from doing honor to the Queen of European civilization, by doing
good to the world.
All roads still led to Rome. Thence too all roads diverged. It was
still true, that whatever commanded this centre could reach out, if
only by the force of prestige, to the uttermost limits of the civilized
domain. Whatever this venerable source of authority chartered to go
on its way, in strength and benediction, had reason to behold, in the
privilege so bestowed, the auspicious opening of a useful career,
intellectual or moral. It is so to-day, though not in a temporal sense.
The charter, or confirmation, or bull, which conveys the recognition
of the Church's Head to a project, a cause, or an institute, bestows
thereupon a moral power which naturally transcends every franchise
in the gift of the most powerful governments. Compared with it, they
are local. And, standing no comparison with it, under a moral aspect,
they do not pretend to such a power as touches the inner conscience of
nations.
When therefore Ignatius turned to the great Rome, he was like the
skilful commander whom he describes in a certain place; he was
possessing himself of the vantage-ground, taking the citadel. It would
be more correct to say, as all history avers, that he meant to defend
that citadel, the See of Rome. He had waited nearly a year at Venice,
to carry out his project of voyaging to Jerusalem. War made that
impossible. Now, in accordance with the express proviso in their vow,
he and his companions repaired to Rome, and offered their services to
the spiritual head of Christendom.
To win approbation for a new religious institute was no easy matter;
then less than ever. The recent occurrences in the North had been due
to this, among other moral causes, that the later history of certain
religious orders, which centuries before had begun one way, latterly
had taken a novel and fatal turn. Still, in spite of criticism and
hostility, chiefly in the high places, Ignatius received at length the
approving word of the Pope; and his Institute was chartered with a bull
of confirmation. Henceforth, the evolution of events belongs to general
history. What concerns us, in this chartering of the plan and Institute
of Ignatius Loyola, is the new character it gave to education, and the
epoch it made in the intellectual history of the world. To explain
this matter, we may follow briefly the deliberations which the Fathers
held, and in the course of which, among other conclusions, they came to
decide upon reëstablishing education.
It was the fourth of May, 1539, a year and a half before their services
were finally accepted by the Pope. Such of the ten members as were then
in Rome occupied themselves, after the labors of the day, in nightly
deliberations, which were protracted during three months. They decreed,
among other things, that they should teach boys and uncultured persons
the necessary points of Christian doctrine, at least once a year, and
for a definite time. This decree obviously is not about that secondary
and superior education of youth, which is our subject; neither does it
concern primary education, of which there is nowhere question in the
Institute of the Jesuits. But, as the Constitution subsequently drawn
up says, "this work of charity, in the Divine service, is more likely
to be consigned to oblivion, and to pass into disuse, than other duties
more specious in their character, as preaching," etc.[16]
Teaching Christian doctrine pertains to the duty of those who have
the ordinary care of souls. No duty of this kind, as belonging to
the ordinary sphere of the Church's clergy, would Ignatius assume
as characteristic of his own Institute, except this one. He was,
indeed, more than ready to throw in his contribution of personal zeal
and charity, for the furtherance of all kinds of benevolence and
beneficence. Personally, at the cost of untiring activity, he sowed,
as Genelli well observes, the first seeds of those ameliorations in
social life, and of those humane institutions, which are so marked a
feature of later ages.[17] He was an original benefactor of humanity
at the turning-point of modern history, which has since become an era
of social organized beneficence. Urban VIII solemnly testifies, that
Ignatius organized homes for orphans, for catechumens, for unprovided
women; that the poor and the sick, that children and the ignorant and
prisoners, were all objects of his personal solicitude.[18] These works
of zeal and charity became, in subsequent years, the specific reasons
of existence for various other communities, which rose in order and in
number. But he did not adopt them as specific in his Institute; nor
did he assume as characteristic anything within the province of the
ordinary parochial clergy, except the teaching of Christian doctrine
to boys and uncultured persons. The rest he attended to, while not
provided for; ready to drop them, when provision should be made for
them.
But he did assume five works, which were outside of the ordinary
lines; and, among them, is the subject of our study, the Education of
Youth.[19] As the selection of all these specialties for his Institute
reveal the commander's eye resting on a field, where many issues were
being fought out, so, in particular, his selection of education as a
specialty betrayed the same masterly thought, in the institutions he
projected, in the scope he proposed, and, above all, in the formation
of his teachers.
There had been, among the Fathers deliberating, a difference of
opinion, with respect to Christian doctrine. Bobadilla had dissented
from making that work the subject of a special vow; and the others
deferred to him. But there was unanimity with regard to every other
topic of deliberation, including this one, "the education of youth,
having colleges in universities."[20]
As defined by Jesuit authors, the education of youth means the
gratuitous teaching of Letters and Science, from almost the first
beginnings of Grammar up to the culminating science of Sacred Theology,
and that for boys and students of every kind, in schools open to
all.[21] Evidently these university men, who were engaged in drawing
up the Institute, considered that, if the greatest Professor's talents
are well spent in the exposition of the gravest doctrines in Theology,
Philosophy, and Science, neither he, nor any one else, is too great
to be a schoolmaster, a tutor, and a father, to the boy passing from
childhood on to the state of manhood,--that boyhood which, as Clement
of Alexandria says, furnishes the very milk of age, and from which the
constitution of the man receives its temper and complexion.
It is requisite here to observe, that there was no such thing in
existence, as State Education. Two reasons may briefly be mentioned for
this, one of them intrinsic to the question, the other an historical
fact. The intrinsic and essential reason was the sacred character of
education, as being an original function, belonging to the primary
relations of parents and child. States, or organized commonwealths,
come only in the third or fourth degree of human society. It was much
later, in that short interval between the extinction of the Society
of Jesus and the outburst of the French Revolution, that new theories
came to be proclaimed, as La Chalotais did openly proclaim them, of
a bald and blank deism in social life, and therefore of secularizing
education. Between deism and secularization the connection was
reasonable. For, if the rights of God went by the board, there was no
reason why the rights of parents and children should remain. All alike,
the persons and "souls of men,"[22] fell back into the condition in
which Christianity had found them; they became chattels of the state,
mannikins of a bureau in peace, "food for powder" in war.
The other reason was an historical fact. For all the purposes of
charity, mercy, and philanthropy, there were powers in existence,
as part of the normal religious life of general Christian society.
They were the same powers that had made Christendom, and had carried
it on so far as the Christian world, the same to which we owe the
civilization of to-day. More than that. As there is not a single work
of charity or mercy, say St. Thomas Aquinas, which may not be made the
object of an institution, religious men or women devoting their lives
as a service to God, in a special service towards their neighbors;
so, in point of fact, there were very few such objects which had not
originated some service of religious self-consecration in their behalf.
Now, as operating on education in particular, the powers in the world
were, as they had been, almost entirely clerical or religious. In
the universities, there were clergymen and Religious. All the great
institutions had the religious cast about them. The old ones have it
still. Traces of it hang about Oxford and Cambridge. The Church founded
them and supervised them. Kings protected them. And the highest outcome
of their schools was Divinity in its widest sense; that is to say, the
triple knowledge of God, and of man as signed with the light of God's
countenance, and of nature as bearing the impress of God's footstep. As
it was in the universities, so, outside too, all pedagogic influence
had rested with religious men.
But no one of all these religious powers was bound by its constitution
to this labor of education, which Loyola now, formally and expressly,
assumed as part of his work. It is at this stage of history, that
education enters into the fundamental plan of a Religious Order. This
is a fact, and an epoch, of prime importance in Pedagogics.
For, inasmuch as education entered thus into the plan of a Religious
Order, it became the vocation of a moral body, which, while
incorporated like other bodies, did not confine itself, like single
universities, to limited circumstances of place; it was a body
diffusive. And so with regard to conditions of time; though all
corporations give an assurance of perpetuity, a diffusive body like
this does more; it multiplies the assurance, in proportion to its own
diffusiveness.
And again, inasmuch as the body which undertook the work of education
was a religious one, bound to poverty, it guaranteed that the
members would endow the work, at their own cost, with that which is
the first, the essential, and most expensive endowment, among all
others,--the labors, the attainments, and the lives of competent men,
all gratuitously given. This endowment, which is so substantial, is
besides so far-reaching, that no other temporal foundation would be
needed, were it not that the necessaries of life, and the apparatus for
their work, are still necessary to living men, even though they live in
personal poverty.
Thus then it was that Ignatius took in charge the secondary and
superior education of the Christian world, as far as his services
should be called for: he threw into the work the endowment of a
Religious Order. This, as the sequel proved, meant the whole revival of
learning. Lord Bacon bears witness to it in a few words, when he says,
that the Jesuits "partly in themselves, and partly by the emulation and
provocation of their example, have much quickened and strengthened the
state of learning."[23] Father Daniel gives some of the details in a
summary way. He says: "The exclusively University régime of the late
centuries replaced, for a notable portion of students, by a scholastic
discipline much more complete; Scholastic Philosophy and Theology
renovated, through the care applied to prevent young men from throwing
themselves too early into the disputes of the schools; in fine,
Literature and Grammar resuming the place they had lost in the twelfth
century, and, over and above that, enjoying the new resources created
for their use by the Renaissance; all this I call a capital fact in the
history of the human mind, and even in the history of the Church."[24]
After the time of Ignatius, other religious congregations, fortified
with their own special means for respective departments of activity,
entered upon the same general field of work. They were the Oratorians,
the Barnabites, the Fathers of the Pious Schools, the Brothers of the
Christian Schools, and others whose names may occur in the course of
this essay. And, for the education of women, inferior and superior
alike, congregations of devoted religious women came into being, and
opened their convents to supply the best and highest culture.
For fear that, in the execution of this plan, and in their other
enterprises of devotion and zeal, any secondary intentions or results,
with regard to power and office, might mar the purity of the work
and defeat the main object, the same men, whose future under the
generalship of such a leader was about to open as one of transcendent
influence in the civilized world, bound themselves by vow never to
accept any dignity or office in the Church. Naturally they should keep
aloof from affairs of state. In fact, it would be incompatible with
their own purposes of literary and scientific competence, to leave
themselves at the mercy of other men's views, and be drafted into posts
outside of the Institute, and be placed in an impossible situation for
working out the specific end intended. It would be suicidal too. Just
when a man was capable of continuing his kind, he would be lost to the
body, and be rendered incapable thereby of propagating his own type
of eminence. Besides, without touching upon the inner reasons of the
spiritual life, which made this resignation of all honors desirable,
it is a fact standing out in clear relief, as history sketches the
marvellous fecundity of an Order requiring such a high level of
attainments, that many of the choicest souls have felt specially
attracted to a kind of life, which at one and the same time satisfied
their ideas of Christian perfection, and cut them off from all the
paths of worldly glory.
And now, to mention in the last place another point, which is equally
important for understanding the educational history of the Order, and
to the general mind is equally obscure with some of those mentioned
already, there was introduced the principle of religious obedience. It
was sanctioned by a unanimous vote.[25] The Fathers had concluded the
first deliberation, whether they should form a society at all; and
they had decided in the affirmative sense.[26] Then the question took
this phase. If they were to found a closely-knitted society, they could
do so only by assuming a strict bond. That was none other than a strict
obedience.
On this head, as on all others that came in order, they began the
deliberation by reasoning, one day, in an adverse sense, all having
prepared their minds to emphasize every objection which they could find
against it. The day following, they argued in a positive sense. The
motives in favor of strict obedience won their unanimous assent. They
were such as these:--
If this congregation undertook the charge of affairs, and the members
were not under orders, no one could be held responsible for an exact
administration of the charge. If the body were not bound together
by obedience, it could not long persevere; yet this was their first
intention, to remain associated in a permanent body. Whence they
concluded that scattered as they would be, and already had been, in
assiduous and diverse labors, they must be united by a strict principle
of subordination, if they were to remain such a body. Another argued
thus: Obedience begets heroism of virtue; since the truly obedient
man is most prompt to execute whatever duty is assigned him by one,
whom, as by a religious act, he regards as being in the place of God,
and signifying to him God's will: wherefore obedience and heroism go
together.
This reasoning seems to be enforced by the history of all great
nations, in the crises of their military and other public affairs. But,
as is clear, the principles of religious obedience are of a different
order; they are on a higher plane; and they reach much farther in time
and eternity, than those of obedience elsewhere.
Here then we discern, sufficiently for present purposes, the meaning
and historical location of this Institute. The members have cut
themselves off from the possession of all private property, by the
voluntary engagement to poverty, and thereby they have prepared the
endowment, on which education will chiefly rest,--that is to say, the
endowment consisting of the men to teach, and their services tendered
gratis. Position and dignity are alike rendered inaccessible by an
express vow of the members professed. Obedience keeps the organization
mobile as a company of trained soldiers. And, if any observant mind,
well acquainted with the course of human affairs, detects in these
principles some reasons for success, normal, habitual, and regular,
in the face of unnumbered obstacles, and of unremitting hostility,
his view will be singularly corroborated when he rises to a plane
higher, and regards the same principles as "religious," carrying with
them the sanction of divine worship; which I should be loath to call
"enthusiasm," much less "fanaticism." These sentiments are never very
prudent, nor enlightened, nor cool; they are either very natural or
are short-lived. A mild fever of fanaticism can scarcely produce
high results; and a high fever of the same can scarcely last three
hundred and fifty years, with perpetuity still threatening. But I
would call this phenomenon, in its origin, religious devotion; in its
consequences, a supernatural efficiency; and, taking it all in all,
that which is called a grace of vocation.
On the 27th day of September, 1540, the Society of Jesus received
from the See of Rome its bull of confirmation, by which it became a
chartered body of the Church. While these pages were being penned, the
27th day of September came by, 1890. It was the anniversary of that
foundation, three hundred and fifty years ago.
CHAPTER IV.
COLLEGES AS PROPOSED IN THE JESUIT CONSTITUTION.
The written rule about the system of education is found in a double
stage of development. The first is that in which Loyola left it: it
gives us the outline. The second is that in which Aquaviva completed
it: this presents us with the finished picture. Likewise in the
historical course of administration out in the world, the development
is twofold. It runs its first course from Loyola to Aquaviva, while
experience was still tentative. Its second course was subsequent to
Aquaviva, when experience, having gathered in its results, had only
to apply the approved form. This was subject thenceforth to none
but incidental changes, as times and places change. And, for these
contingencies, the application remained expressly and always pliable.
Hence, whatever was embodied in the _Ratio Studiorum_, as completed,
had been the result of the most varied experience before legislating,
an experience in the life of the Order extending over fifty-nine years.
Whatever this universal experience had not yielded as a positive
result, or as applicable to all places, was not embodied. Teachers
are different; national customs vary; vernacular tongues are not the
same. With regard to these mutable elements, the maxim of the Order
in studies, in teaching, in conducting colleges, was the same as that
which it proposed to itself in the various other functions of practical
life. An exponent of the Institute states the maxim thus: "One should
have a most exact knowledge of the country, nation, city, manner of
government, manners of the people, states of life, inclinations,
etc.; and this from histories, from intercourse, etc."[27] General
indications alone are given with regard to these variable factors. The
same is done with respect to new sciences, which from the time of the
Renaissance were felt to be approaching and developing. Subsequent
legislation arises to meet them as they come.
While the Fathers were carrying on the same deliberations to which I
referred in the preceding chapter, a resolution was taken to leave the
drafting of a Constitution in the hands of those who should remain in
Italy. Circumscribing the task still more, they decided to appoint
a committee of two, who should address themselves to this work, and
report to the rest. The general assembly when convened would issue the
final decree. Whatever that should be, such of those present as might
then be absent hereby endorsed it beforehand.
Their small number of ten was already reduced to six members present,
the other four being scattered in divers countries. They designated as
a commission Fathers Ignatius and John Coduri. Soon afterwards Coduri
died, and the rest were distributed through the countries of Europe,
Africa, and the far East. During the following years, Laynez, who
was for some time Provincial of Italy, remained more regularly than
the rest within the reach of Ignatius. For this reason, therefore,
besides several others, we may understand why Ignatius paid such a
high tribute to this eminent man, when he said, as Ribadeneira tells
us, that "to no one of the first Fathers did the Society owe more
than to Laynez." Whereupon the historian Sacchini observes: "This, I
believe, he said of Laynez, not only on account of the other eminent
merits of so great a man, and, in particular, for devising or arranging
the system of Colleges; but most especially because the foundations,
on which this Order largely rests, were new, and therefore likely to
excite astonishment; and Laynez, having at command the resources of a
vast erudition, was the person to confirm and commend them to public
opinion. And that this praise was deserved by Laynez will appear less
dubious to any one who considers that other period also, during which
he was himself General; if one reckons how many points, as yet unshaped
and inceptive, in the management of the Society, were reduced to form
and perfected by Laynez; how widely it was propagated and defended by
him."[28]
But to return to Ignatius. After ten years of government, he gathered
together in Rome such of the first Fathers as could be had, besides
representatives from all the Provinces. Forty-seven members were
present. He submitted to them, in general assembly, the Constitution
as now drawn up, and as acted upon in practical life, during those ten
years. The Jesuits present did not exhaust the number of those whose
express opinions were desired. That not a single one of the principal
Fathers might be omitted in the deliberation, he sent copies of the
proposed code of laws to such as were absent. With the suggestions and
approbations received from all these representative men he was not yet
content. Two more years had elapsed when, having embodied the practical
results of an ever-widening experience, he undertook to promulgate
the Constitution, by virtue of the authority vested in him for that
purpose. But he only promulgated the rule; he did not yet exercise his
authority to the full, and impose it as binding. He desired that daily
use might bring out still farther, how it felt under the test of being
tried, amid so many races and nations. Thus 1553 came and went; and he
waited, until the whole matter should be revised and approved once more
by the entire Society in conclave. His death intervened in 1556.
Two years later, representatives from the twelve provinces of the
Order met together, and elected James Laynez as successor to Father
Ignatius. Examining once more this Constitution in all its parts,
receiving the whole of it just as it stood with absolute unanimity,
and with a degree of veneration, they exercised the supreme authority
of the Order, and confirmed this as the written Constitution of the
Society of Jesus. By this act nothing was wanting to it, even from the
side of Papal authority. Yet, that every plenitude of solemnity might
be added to it, they presented it to the Sovereign Pontiff, Paul IV,
who committed the code to four Cardinals for accurate revision. The
commission returned it, without having altered a word, From that time,
whatever general legislation has been added, has entered into the
_corpus juris_, or "Institute" at large, as supplementing or explaining
the "Constitution," which remains the fundamental instrument of the
Institute.
In the Constitution there are ten parts. The fourth is on studies.
In length, this fourth part alone fills up some twenty-eight out of
one hundred and eleven quarto pages in all, as it stands printed in
the latest Roman edition. The legislation about studies is thus seen
to be one-fourth of the whole. It has seventeen chapters. In one of
them, on the Method and Order to be observed in treating the Sciences,
the founder observes that a number of points "will be treated of
separately, in some document approved by the General Superior." This
is the express warrant, contained in the Constitution, for the future
_Ratio Studiorum_, or System of Studies in the Society of Jesus. In
the meantime, he legislates in a more general way. And he begins with
a subject pre-eminently dear to him, the duty of gratitude. Since
corporations are notoriously forgetful, and therefore ungrateful, he
lays down in the first place the permanent duty of the Order towards
benefactors: then he continues with other topics. They stand thus:--
The Founders of Colleges; and Benefactors. The Temporalities of
Colleges. The Students or Scholastics, belonging to the Society.
The Care to be taken of them, during the time of their Studies. The
Learning they are to acquire. The Assistance to be rendered them
in various ways, to ensure their success in studies. The Schools
attached to the Colleges of the Society, i.e. for external Students
not belonging to the Order. The Advancement of Scholastics, belonging
to the Order, in the Various Arts which can make them useful to their
Neighbor. The Withdrawal of them from Studies. The Government of
Colleges. On Admitting the Control of Universities into the Society.
The Sciences to be taught in Universities of the Society. The Method
and Order to be observed in treating the foregoing Sciences. The Books
to be selected as Standards. Courses and Degrees. What concerns Good
Morals. The Officials and Assistants in Universities.
Reserving the pedagogic explanation for the next part of this essay, I
shall here sketch some of the more general ideas running through the
whole legislation of Ignatius of Loyola; and, first, in the present
chapter, I shall begin with his idea of Colleges.
Choosing personal poverty as the basis on which to rest this vast
enterprise of education, he did not therefore mean to carry on
expensive works of zeal, without the means of meeting the expense.
Obviously, it is one thing not to have means, as a personal property,
and therefore not to consume them on self; it is quite another, to have
them and to use them for the good of others. The most self-denying men
can use funds for the benefit of others; and can do so the better, the
more they deny themselves. It was in this sense that, later on in the
century, Cardinal Allen recognized the labors and needs of the English
Jesuit, Robert Parsons, who was the superior and companion of Edmund
Campian, the former a leading star of Oxford, the latter, also an
Oxford man, and, as Lord Burghley called him, "a diamond" of England.
Since Queen Elizabeth was not benign enough to lend the Jesuits a
little building-room on English soil, but preferred to lend them a
halter at Tyburn, Parsons was engaged in founding English houses of
higher studies in France and Spain, at Valladolid, Seville, Lisbon, Eu,
and St. Omer. Cardinal Allen sent a contribution to the constructive
Jesuit, writing, as he did so: "Apostolic men should not only despise
money; they should also have it." And just in this sense was Ignatius
himself a philosopher of no utopian school. So we may examine, with
profit, the material and temporal conditions required in his Institute,
for the establishment of public schools and universities. I shall
endeavor to put these principles together and in order.[29]
First, there should be a location provided with buildings and revenues,
not merely sufficient for the present, but having reference to needful
development.
Secondly, these material conditions include a reference to the
maintenance of the faculty. The means must be provided to meet the
daily necessities of the actual Professors, with adequate assistance of
lay brothers belonging to the Order; also to support several substitute
Professors; besides, to carry on the formation of men, who will take
the places of the present Professors, and so maintain the faculty as
perpetual; moreover, to "provide for some more Scholastic Students of
the Order, seeing that there are so many occupied in the service and
promotion of the common weal." These conditions also include "a church
for conducting spiritual ministrations in the service of others."[30]
Carrying out this idea, Laynez, in 1564, promulgated a rule or "Form
regarding the acceptance of Colleges." He laid down the conditions,
on which alone the Society would take in charge either a Latin
School, requiring a foundation for twenty Jesuits; or a Lyceum, with
fifty persons; or a University, with seventy.[31] Twenty-four years
later, Father Aquaviva drew up a more complete and a final "Form,"
distributing colleges into the three classes, the lowest, the medium,
and the highest. The lowest must have provision made for professing
in the departments of Grammar, Humanities, Rhetoric, Languages, and a
course of Moral Theology;--fifty Jesuits to be supported. The medium
class of colleges consists of those whose founders desire, in addition
to all the foregoing departments, a triennial course of Philosophy,
which begins each year anew; eighty persons to be supported. The
highest class is that of the Studium Generale, or University, in which,
besides the above, there are professed Scholastic Theology, Sacred
Scripture, Hebrew; one hundred and twenty persons to be provided for.
However, the countries of the Indies, as well as the northern countries
of Europe, were not, for the present, brought under this ordinance.[32]
Thirdly, the locality is to be such that, in the ordinary course of
events, there should be no prospective likelihood of a deficiency in
the concourse of students, and those of the right kind. As, on the
side of the Jesuit Province, its educational forces are kept at least
equal to the posts which it has undertaken to fill, so, on the side of
the population, the prospect should correspond to this undertaking,
and give assurance of filling the courses. Hence it was only in larger
cities or towns that Ignatius contemplated the foundation of colleges;
as the distich has it, contrasting the different fields of activity
chosen by different orders in the Church:--
Bernardus valles, montes Benedictus amabat,
Oppida Franciscus, magnas Ignatius urbes.
That is to say, "The monks of Clairvaux loved their valleys; the
Benedictines their mountain-tops; the Franciscans the rural towns;
Ignatius the great cities."
This was the more obviously his idea, as we find him reluctantly
granting permission for ministerial excursions through a country, if
thereby the Fathers' influence in a great city be likely to suffer.
He writes to Father Kessel, the Rector at Cologne, where as yet the
Society had no college of its own, that "under the circumstances he
approves of Kessel's making a short excursion through the province,
provided he and his companions are not long absent from the city, and
do not sacrifice the main thing to what is accessory; but he does not
give them permission to fix their abode out of the town, because places
of less importance afford fewer occasions of gathering the desired
fruit: and, besides, they must not leave so famous a university; their
exertions will be more useful for the good of religion, in forming
scholars to become priests and officers of the State, than all the
pains they may bestow on the small towns and villages."[33] Again,
when in 1547 he had accepted the donation of a church, buildings, and
gardens at Tivoli from Louis Mendosa, he found the place not suited
to the convenience of scholars; it was too near Rome, and yet too
far; subsequently, the institution had to be transferred within the
city."[34]
Fourthly, in addition to these material and local conditions for the
normal conduct of colleges, it is supposed that the external relations
of political society are so far favorable, as at least to tolerate
freedom of action on the part of this educational Institute. Such
toleration was, as a general rule, not only the least that could be
asked for, but the most that was enjoyed.
These are the chief conditions, material and temporal, which Ignatius
requires. They give him a footing to commence his work, and allow the
animating principles of his Institute to come into play. The animating
principles, to which I refer, may be reduced to three brief heads:
First, an intellectual and moral scope, clearly defined, as I shall
explain in the following chapters. Secondly, the distinct intention
to promote rather the interests of public and universal order and
enlightenment, than a mere local good of any city, country, province.
Thirdly, a tendency in the intellectual institution itself to become
rather a great one than a small one, with more degrees of instruction,
more and more eminent Professors, a greater number of the right kind of
scholars.[35]
As to the forces available for all this, and the proportion of colleges
to be manned in perpetuity, the mind of Ignatius was most express,
and became more fixed from day to day. "Cut your cloak according to
your cloth," he said to Oliver Manare, when the latter, on going to
establish a college at Loretto, asked how he should distribute his
men. Ignatius preferred to refuse Princes and Bishops their requests,
excusing himself on the score of limited resources, than compromise the
reputation of the Society, by an ill-advised assent.[36] And he said,
as Polanco his secretary tells us, that "if anything ought to make him
wish to live a longer time, it was that he might be severe in admitting
men into the Order."[37] He did not want to have many members in the
Society; still less, too many engagements.
Having stated thus briefly the material conditions required by
Ignatius, and the animating principles or motives which determined
him, we are in a position to discern more distinctly the central
object of his attention, that for which the material conditions were
provided, that by which the ultimate objects were to be attained. It
was the teaching body, the faculty, the "College," properly so called.
The "College" was the body of educators who were sent to a place.
For them the material conditions did but supply a local habitation,
subsistence, books, apparatus. The very first decree quoted by
Pachtler, from the first general assembly, uses the term "College" in
this sense: "No college is to be _sent_ to any place," etc.[38]
It is only by derivation from this meaning that the term is applied to
the buildings and appointments. It is the body of men that makes the
institution. It is this also which makes the institution perpetual;
and therefore must itself be so; and must have the material conditions
provided for continuing itself, by means of a constant stream of
younger men under formation, who will perpetuate the same work.
Now it would be an ideal conception of practical life to be looking for
virtuous and erudite men, _viri boni simul et eruditi_, as Ignatius
calls them, ever pouring into the Order, straight from the chairs of
universities, from benefices, and posts of leisured ease; and, armed
already with the full equipment of intellectual and moral endowments,
presenting themselves and their services thenceforth, under the title
of absolute poverty, to cities, provinces, and countries, which never
had anything to do with their formation. "These men," says Ignatius,
"are found to be few in number, and of these few the majority would
prefer to rest, after so many labors already undergone. We apprehend
that it will be difficult for this Society to grow, on the mere
strength of those who are already both good and accomplished, _boni
simul ac literati_; and this for two reasons, the great labors which
this manner of life imposes, and the great self-abnegation needed.
Therefore, ... another way has seemed good to adopt, that of admitting
young men, who, by their good lives and their talents afford us
ground to hope that they will grow up into virtuous and learned men,
_in probos simul ac doctos viros_; of admitting also colleges, on
those conditions which are expressed in the Apostolic briefs, whether
these colleges be within universities, or independent: and, if within
universities, whether these institutions themselves are committed to
the care of the Society, or not.... Wherefore, we shall first speak of
the colleges; then of the universities," etc.[39]
There were never wanting men of the former kind, already accomplished
and of tried virtue, who offered themselves for this service of a
lifetime. A noteworthy testimony to their numbers may be found in a
dispute with Philip II of Spain, who objected to any moneys leaving the
Jesuit Provinces of his realm, for the service and maintenance of the
great central college in Rome; and this, notwithstanding the fact that
Spanish members were being maintained and formed there. The general
assembly, gathered in Rome, 1565, discussed the difficulty; and one
of the circumstances mentioned was this: "The Provinces of Spain did
not need the assistance of the Roman College as much as others; since
many entered the Society, already mature in age and accomplished in
learning, so that they could be employed at once in public positions;
nor had they to be taught, but they were able to teach others.... It
was finally recommended that, to lessen the burden of expense on the
Roman College, and in order that fewer scholastics need be called to
Rome, each Province, as soon as convenient, should organize a general
university; especially as there was already a sufficiency of students
(members of the Order) and, besides, of Professors."[40] This was only
twenty-six years after the foundation of the Society.
But, even with all the advantages accruing from these large contingents
of learned men already formed, the idea of Ignatius, to train young men
within the Order, was more practical for the formation of faculties;
and it carried the general efficiency much further. Powerful and
effective as the most pronounced personalities may be, when each
striking character goes forward into the open field of battle and leads
the way, they are not more powerful than when also qualified to move in
the steady and regular march of the trained forces. Father Montmorency,
referring to the strength which comes of uniformity, sociability, and
harmony, said, _Homo unus, homo nullus_, "A man alone is as good as no
man at all."
Ignatius then, having perpetuity and development in view, and therefore
the steady and trained development of talented and virtuous young
men, would not accept foundations, except on the basis of endowment,
just described. He had not learned in vain the lessons of Barcelona,
Alcalà, Salamanca, and Paris. How wisely he acted is shown by the
troubles, which later legislation reveals, upon this very point of
inadequately endowed colleges. The questions of ill-endowed colleges,
small colleges, too many colleges for the forces of a Province, are
all excellently discussed and settled in the general assembly, which,
in 1565, elected Francis Borgia to succeed Laynez. And "on the same
day," says Sacchini, "the Fathers set the example of observing the
decree which they had just made, with the same degree of severity
with which they had made it; for, the letters of several Bishops and
municipalities being read, in which foundations for five colleges were
offered, they decided that no one of them should be admitted; and,
besides, they gave the new General full authority to dissolve certain
colleges already existing."[41] In a similar vein, this was the theme
of an elegant apology delivered before King Stephen by Father Campano,
Provincial of Poland, who requested the King to desist from urging on
the Society the multiplication of its institutions.[42]
A tuition-fee paid by the scholar to the Professor, or to the
institution, was nowhere contemplated. At Dijon, where Bossuet was
afterwards a pupil, the magistrates when offering a college, in 1603,
desired to supplement an inadequate endowment, by requiring a fee
from the students. In the name of the Order, Father Coton, the King's
confessor, remonstrated; and Henri IV himself wrote to the Parliament
of Bourgogne, desiring another arrangement to be made; which was
accordingly done.[43] The foundation was always to be received as a
gratuitous donation, for which the Order owed permanent gratitude.
In turn, thenceforward, it gave gratuitously, and allowed of no
recompense. "No obligations or conditions are to be admitted that would
impair the integrity of our principle, which is: To give gratuitously,
what we have received gratis."[44]
Thus then the faculty, a competent and a permanent one, is installed.
It is not one conspicuous for leisured ease. Professors and Scholastics
alike are working for a purpose. They are a "college," in the sense
of the Society of Jesus. Yet, if there is not leisured ease, but a
life of work and self-denial, the system has been found to result in
all the consequences which may be looked for in literary "ease with
dignity"; and perhaps in more, since no one does more, than he who,
in his own line, has as much as he can well do, and do well. System
and method, the great means for making time manifold, become so
absolutely necessary; and the singleness of intention in a religious
life intensifies results. Then, after the general formation has been
bestowed, in the consecutive higher studies of seven or nine years
within the Order, the plan of Ignatius leaves open to individual
talents the whole field of specialties, in Science and Literature.
Hence, to speak of our own day, Secchi or Perry devotes himself to
astronomy, Garucci to archæology, Strassmeyer to Oriental inscriptions,
the De Backers and Sommervogel to bibliography, others to philology,
mathematics, and the natural sciences; while five hundred and more
writers follow the lines of their own inclinations, either for some
directly useful purpose, or because their pursuit is in itself liberal.
CHAPTER V.
COLLEGES FOUNDED AND ENDOWED.
What was the response of the Christian world, when it had become alive
to the nature of this new power in its midst, and to the proposal
which the new power made? What did the answer come to, in the way of
providing temporalities, necessary and sufficient? Strange enough!
Loyola's own short official lifetime of fifteen years does not appear
to have been too short, for the purpose of awakening the world with his
idea; which, like a two-edged sword of his own make, not only aroused
the keenest opposition at every thrust, and at his every onward step,
but opened numberless resources in the apostolic, the charitable, and
educational reserves of human nature.
This man, who had inserted in the authentic formula and charter of his
Institute that watchword of his movements, "Defence and Advance"; who
had taken the whole world for the field of his operations, in defending
and advancing; this cavalier of a new military type, who had only to
show himself upon the field to gather around him the flower of youth as
well as mature age, from college and university, from doctor's chair
and prince's throne, left behind him, as the work of fifteen years from
the foundation of the Order, about one hundred colleges and houses,
distributed into twelve Provinces. The territorial divisions were
named, after their chief centres, the Provinces of Portugal, Castile,
Andalusia, Aragon, Italy, Naples, Sicily, Upper Germany, Lower Germany,
France, Brazil, and the East Indies. Individuals under his orders had
overrun Ireland, penetrated into Scotland, into Congo, Abyssinia, and
Ethiopia. The East Indies, first traversed by Francis Xavier either
on foot, or in unseaworthy vessels, signified the whole stretch of
countries from Goa and Ceylon on the West, to Malacca, Japan, and the
coast of China on the East. Some of this activity might be credited to
apostolic zeal alone, were it not that, wherever the leaders advanced
into the heart of a new country, it was always with the purpose, and
generally with the result, that the country was to be occupied with
educational institutions. De Backer notes this in another connection,
when, in the preface to his great work of bibliography, "The Library
of Writers of the Company of Jesus," he says: "Wherever a Jesuit set
his foot, wherever there was founded a house, a college, a mission,
there too arose apostles of another class, who labored, who taught, who
wrote."[45]
What this means, with regard to its strategic value, there is no need
of our being told. The Duke of Parma, writing, in 1580, from the seat
of war in the Netherlands to Philip II of Spain, said: "Your Majesty
desired that I should build a citadel in Maestricht; I thought that a
college of the Jesuits would be a fortress more likely to protect the
inhabitants against the enemies of the Altar and the Throne. I have
built it."[46]
Sixty years later, after the long generalship of Aquaviva, who during
34 years governed the Order with the ability of another Ignatius, the
number of colleges was 372. Well might his immediate successor, Mutius
Vitelleschi, writing to the whole Society about the Education of Youth,
speak of the "beautiful and precious mass of gold, which we have in our
hands to form and finish."[47]
One hundred and fifty years after the death of Ignatius, the collegiate
and university houses of education numbered 769. Two hundred years
after the same date, when the Order was on the verge of universal
suppression, under the action of University men, Parliamentarians,
Jansenists, Philosophers, and of that new movement which was preparing
the Revolution, the Jesuit educational institutions stood at the
figure, 728. The colleges covered almost the whole world, distributed
into 39 Provinces, besides 172 Missions in the less organized regions
of the globe.[48]
If we look at these 700 institutions of secondary and superior
education, under the aspect of their constitution, that is to say,
of their scope, their system, the supreme legislative and executive
power which characterized them, we find that they were not so much a
plurality of institutions, as a single one. Take the 92 colleges of
France alone.[49] In one sense, these may be considered as less united
than the 50 colleges of the Paris University, for the Paris University
was in one quarter of a city, which offers a material unity; these,
on the contrary, were spread over the whole of France, presenting the
characteristics of "national" education; just as the 700 were over
the whole world, a cosmopolitan system. But, regarded in their formal
and essential bond, they were vastly more of a unit, as an identical
educational power, than any faculty existing. No faculty, whether
at Paris or Salamanca, Rome or Oxford, ever possessed that control
over its 50, 20, or even 8 colleges, which each Provincial Superior
exercised over his 10, 20, or 30, and the General over more than 700,
with 22,126 members in the Order. In the one General lay the power
of an active headship; from him the facultative power of conferring
degrees emanated; and he had one system of studies and discipline in
his charge to administer, with a latitude of discretion according to
times, places, and circumstances.
As to the numbers of students, and the general estimate to be formed
of them, I will record such data as fall under the eye, while passing
rapidly over the literature of the subject.
In Rome, the 20 colleges attending the classes of the Roman College
numbered, in 1584, 2108 students. Father Argento, in his apology to
the States at Klausenburg, in 1607, mentions that the schools in
Transylvania were frequented by the flower of the nobility; and, in
his "History of the Affairs in Poland," dedicated to Sigismund III, he
attests that from 8000 to 10,000 youths, chiefly of the nobility and
gentry, frequented the gymnasia of the Order in Poland. At Rouen, in
France, there were regularly 2000. At La Flèche there were 1700 during
a century; 300 being boarders, the other 1400 finding accommodation
in the village, but always remaining under the supervision of the
faculty. Throughout the seventeenth century, the numbers at the
College of Louis-le-Grand, in Paris, varied between 2000, 1827, and
3000; including, in the latter number, 550 boarders. In 1627, only a
few years after the restoration of the Society by Henri IV, the one
Province of Paris had, in its 14 colleges, 13,195 students; which
would give an average of nearly 1000 to a college. Cologne almost
began with 800 students,--its roll in 1558. Dilingen in 1607 had 760;
in its _convictus_, 110 of the boarders were Religious, besides other
Ecclesiastics; the next year, out of 250 _convictores_ or boarders,
118 were Religious of various Orders, the secular Priesthood being
represented among the students generally. At Utrecht, during the first
century of the Order's existence, there were 1000 scholars; at Antwerp
and Brussels each, 600; in most of the Belgian colleges, 300. As to
Spain and Italy, which first saw the Society rise in their midst, and
expand with immense vigor all over them, I consider it superfluous to
dwell particularly upon them.
In many of the capitals and important centres throughout Europe, there
were separate colleges for nobles. Elsewhere the nobility were mixed
with the rest; thus 400 nobles and more were attending the Jesuit
schools in Paris. It was studiously aimed at by the Order to eliminate,
in matters of education, all distinguishing marks or privileges. Thus
Father Buys endeavors, in 1610, to reduce the practice at Dilingen to
the custom of the other colleges in the upper German Province.[50]
Most of the Papal Seminaries founded by Gregory XIII, at Vienna,
Dilingen, Fulda, Prague, Gratz, Olmütz, Wilna, as well as in Japan and
other countries, were put under the direction of the Society; as Pius
IV did with his Roman Seminary; and St. Charles Borromeo with that of
Milan.
Not knowing what the absolute average really was in these 700
institutions, we may still form some idea of what the sum total of
students must have been at its lowest figure. For this purpose, we can
take an average which seems about the lowest possible. I have not met
with any distinct mention of a college having less than 300 scholars.
There are indeed frequent complaints in the general assemblies,
regarding what are denounced as "small" colleges. However, it seems
clear from numerous indications, as, for instance, from the Encyclical
letter of the General Paul Oliva,[51] that these colleges were called
small, not primarily on account of an insufficient number of students,
but because of insufficient foundations, which did not support the
Professors actually employed. A document for the Rectors notes
that "thus far almost all the colleges, even such as have received
endowments, suffer want regularly, and have frequently to borrow
money."[52]
Hence we may be allowed to take, as a tentative average, 300 students
to a college. At once, we rise to a sum total of more than 200,000
students in these collegiate and university grades, all being formed
at a given date under one system of studies and of government,
intellectual and moral.
If statistics, in that nicely tabulated form which delights modern
bureaus, have failed us as we run over the whole world to decipher
the indications, there is yet another view which we may catch of the
same subject, and one that is equally valuable. It is the multitude
of nations into which this educational growth ramified. At Goa, in
Hindustan, the seminary, which was inferior to none in Europe, had for
its students, Brahmins, Persians, Arabians, Ethiopians, Armenians,
Chaldeans, Malabari, Cananorii, Guzarates, Dacanii, and others from the
countries beyond the Ganges. Japan had its colleges at Funai, Arima,
Anzuchzana, and Nangasaki. China had a college at Macao; and later
on many more, reaching into the interior, where the Fathers became
the highest mandarins in the service of the Emperor, and built his
observatory. Towards the close of the eighteenth century a large number
of colleges were flourishing in Central and South America. All of these
disappeared, when the Order was suppressed. The youth, who could
afford to obtain the education needed, went over to Europe, whence they
returned, a generation quite different from what had been known of
before. They returned with the principles of the Revolution. And the
whole history of Central and South America has changed, from that date
onwards, into a series of revolutions, which are the standing marvel of
political scientists to our day.
To consult a graphic representation of how this educational Order
looked on the map of the world, one may glance into the ninth volume
of the _Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica_. There Father Pachtler, as in
his other volumes of the series, sketches only the German "Assistency"
of the Society of Jesus. The five Assistencies of the Order served
the purposes of government, by grouping many Provinces together
into larger divisions. In 1725, the German Assistency comprised
nine out of thirty-two Provinces. The nine in question are those of
Flandro-Belgium, French Belgium, the Lower Rhine, the Upper Rhine,
Upper Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Poland, Lithuania. The map at the end
of Father Pachtler's volume represents all this country, with the towns
marked differently, according as they contained either universities of
the Order, or colleges, or _convictus_, that is, boarding-colleges, or
seminaries, or residences. The chronological order of their rise is
presented in a table at the beginning of the same volume, with a note
to indicate more in particular the grade or amplitude of each, as being
a _Studium Generale_, otherwise called University or Academy, a College
or a Gymnasium, as well as the annexes of each, in the shape of one or
more _convictus_, one or more Episcopal or Papal Seminaries, a college
of nobles, a _convictus_ for poor scholars. By means of this map, a
graphic presentation is afforded of one Assistency, from which, by a
proper extension, the whole world may be portrayed to the imagination.
In 1750, within the limits of this map, there were 217 colleges, 55
seminaries, 73 residences, 24 novitiates, 160 missions, 6 professed
houses.[53]
The universities here spoken of, otherwise called _Studia Generalia_,
or Academies, are quite typical, a special Jesuit development of the
mediæval style. An exact and official form, drawn up for the University
of Gratz, may be found in the same _Monumenta_.[54] As Father Pachtler
remarks, it shows at a glance the inner working of a Jesuit university,
and the general system prevailing over the whole Society. He entitles
the document: "_Ordnung einer ausschlieschlich von Jesuiten geleiteten
Universität_," or "_Einer selbständige Universität, 1658_." The Latin
title is: "_Forma et Ratio Gubernandi Academias et Studia Generalia S.
J._" It was the compilation of Father John Argento.
Upon this basis of the amount of work done, as well as its intrinsic
character, shown by the results, I was going to draw some inferences
with regard to the amount of the temporal endowments, which must have
been required to support such a vast organization, and must have been
vested in the Order by the Christian world. One might compare the
work done with what Oxford accomplishes; and, seeing that the latter
university supplies the facilities for higher education, and that far
from gratuitously, to only a couple of thousands among the nobility
and gentry, then, since it spends upon this an annual revenue of
$2,500,000, how much would be required to conduct the education of a
quarter of a million of students? Our arithmetic would feel oppressed
by the calculation.
But the calculation is not necessary. It is quite evident that
religious poverty gave the key to the situation,--poverty,
self-abnegation, the resignation of all temporal considerations in
life, by men who had no families to provide for, no station to acquire;
who had themselves given up every station, from that of the clerical
benefice, or the liberal and martial careers, to ducal coronets,
princedoms, and even royalty; men therefore, who were bestowing with
themselves, and in themselves, the essential endowment of education
upon the world, and who needed only to have that supplemented with
the few temporal necessities still remaining. And the conclusion to
be drawn seems to be this. The Christian world, whether ruler or
people, republic or municipality, was making a safe and lucrative
investment, whether at home or abroad, in the midst of civilization
or of barbarism, when it consigned the absolute use of sufficient
temporalities to a world-wide faculty, inspired by the sentiment of
religious devotion.
For what is the object of any religious society whatsoever? It is to
complete in each of its members the duties of the man, the citizen
and the Christian, with other duties called "religious," which,
correlative with the former, are nevertheless distinct from them. They
are duties which presuppose the moral virtues, the civil and Christian
virtues, and tend to complete them with the highest qualities to which
perfect Christianity aspires, those of self-devotion and religious
self-consecration.
Hence the experiences, making a drama and a tragedy, when the Society
abruptly disappeared. Supposing even that enough of competent men, with
all personal requirements, could have been found to fill the void, what
of their salaries and support? Take an instance. The revenues, which
at Bourges had been enough for the support of thirty Jesuits, were
found, after the Suppression of the Order, not to afford an adequate
compensation for ten secular Professors.[55] Frederic II of Prussia,
sending an agent to negotiate with Pius VI about retaining the Order in
his States, expresses himself thus in a letter to Voltaire: "The surest
means (to perpetuate a series of Professors) is to preserve a seminary
of men destined to teach. In studying the sciences, they fit themselves
for the office of instructing. It would be no easy task to fill
instantaneously a vacancy left by a skilful professor. If the education
of ordinary citizens be necessary, the training up of instructors must
be no less so." And then, coming to the point before us, the King
continues: "Besides, there are reasons of economy for preferring such
a body of men to mere secular individuals. The professor taken from
the latter class will cost more, because he has a greater number of
wants. It is needless to remark that the property of the Jesuits would
not be sufficient to remunerate their successors; and that revenues,
which pass over to the administration of the government, always suffer
diminution."[56] Speaking of Ganganelli, Pope Clement XIII, who was
under pressure from various quarters to make him suppress the Order,
Frederic writes to Voltaire in 1770: "For my own part, I have no
reason to complain of him; he leaves me my dear Jesuits, whom they are
persecuting everywhere. I will save the precious seed, to give some of
it, one day, to those who should wish to cultivate a plant so rare."[57]
The testimony of documents is uniform upon the poverty of these men,
whom Protestant historians like Grotius, Robertson, and others marvel
at, for the authority they possessed in the world, for the purity of
their lives, their success in teaching, and their art of commanding
with wisdom as they themselves obeyed with fidelity. Their life was
one of straitened circumstances and self-abnegation. We may see it
illustrated in Dilingen.[58] Or again, at the great royal college,
founded by Henri IV at La Flèche, where three hundred boarders were
supposed to be paying their own expenses, as _pensionnaires_, we
find Louis XIII issuing a royal decree that his magistrates are to
prosecute "les rétardataires et les récalcitrants par toutes les voyes
raisonnables," persons who did not pay the expenses of their own
children, but left that interesting occupation to the college. With
all that, says Rochemonteix, nothing came of it, neither of the royal
injunctions, nor of judicial suits; things went on the same way, "the
parents paying badly, and the treasurers lamenting."[59]
I will close this chapter with one case, because it serves to emphasize
a particular sequel of the Suppression; that is, the revival of a
tuition-fee. A recent author, writing in 1890, tells the history of
the College of Saint-Yves at Vannes, in Brittany. He sums up its
revenues at 6000 livres. Placed in the hands of the Order, this
college, in 1636, that is, seven years after the Society had assumed
charge, directed 400 students; later on, 900; and then 1200. In 1762,
the faculty consisted of thirteen members, besides the four Fathers
engaged in the adjoining house of retreats. All rendered various
services, as is usual in a college of Jesuit instructors. To these
we must add the requisite complement of the faculty, at least half
as many more lay assistants, belonging to the Order, and to the same
local community. Here then are twenty-two at the least, subsisting
on 6000 livres a year; and meanwhile providing their house, their
library, their physical cabinet, which was fully fitted up with all
necessary instruments, and their observatory.[60] "The moment after
the Suppression," he goes on to say, "it was quite another affair! Ten
secular professors cost 11,000 livres for their salaries alone!" The
author gives the list of their salaries. "To reëstablish equilibrium,
one of the first acts of the parliament was to exact from each scholar
a tuition-fee of twelve livres; and yet they complained, they could not
make ends meet."
Observe, a tuition-fee! On the day after the Suppression, they begin
to undo the very work, which, two hundred and thirty years before, the
Order had begun to do at its birth, spreading education gratuitously,
without drawing on pupils, or drawing on the public treasury.
Well might the General Vincent Caraffa say, in the time of the Thirty
Years' War, "We abound rather in men than in revenues." And he says
so, in the same breath and in the same sentence, in which he is asking
Priests to offer themselves for life to the work of teaching the lower
branches, a work which he calls laborious, in times which he specifies
as disastrous, and in circumstances which he describes as having no
provision made for the means of living.[61]
This brief sketch will go to show how the Christian world did, indeed,
meet the proposal of the Order, and found seven hundred colleges.
But it also shows how the Order endowed the world, and had even to
make good, with its personal heroism, the defects in many of the
foundations.
CHAPTER VI.
THE INTELLECTUAL SCOPE AND METHOD PROPOSED.
As the second part of this book is intended to be a pedagogic analysis
of the mental culture imparted, I need not sketch here, save in a
general way, the intellectual scope proposed by Ignatius of Loyola, and
the method which he originated. Both scope and method vary somewhat,
according as the students contemplated are respectively external to the
Order, or members of it. The latter are to be qualified for becoming
future Professors, even though, in point of fact, only a certain
proportion of them become so.
Studious youth in general, including Ecclesiastics and Religious of
the various Orders, are considered by Ignatius as distributed amid two
kinds of educational institutions. One of these he calls the Public
School; the other, a University. The first is that which extends, in
its courses, from the rudiments of literature up to the lower level
of university education. He says: "Where it can conveniently be done,
let Public Schools be opened, at least in the departments of Humane
Letters."[62] In a note, he explains that Moral Theology may be treated
in a gymnasium of this kind. Father Aquaviva, in 1588, puts this
kind of school down as the lowest of three ranks of colleges; and
sums up the courses as being those of Grammar, Humanities, Rhetoric,
Languages, and Moral Theology.[63] He also explains why the lowest
Jesuit curriculum must fill these requirements, "in order that the
Society be not defrauded of the end it has in view, which is, to carry
the students on at least as far as mediocrity in learning, so that they
may go forth into their respective vocations, Ecclesiastics to their
ministry, lay students to their own work in life, qualified in some
degree with a sufficiency of literary culture."[64] This curriculum
served also the purpose of those, who, while members of the Order,
were for some reason dispensed from the full course of studies.[65] If
any grades are wanting in a college, it must be the lower ones which
are omitted, the higher being retained.[66] Ignatius goes on to limit
the courses in a gymnasium of this kind: "Let not higher sciences be
treated here; but, to pursue them, the students who have made due
progress in literature are to be sent from these colleges to the
universities.[67]
Passing on to universities of the Order, he defines for their scope,
first, in behalf of those who are to be Ecclesiastics, Scholastic
Theology, Holy Scripture, and Positive Theology; secondly, for all
students, Humane Letters, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and other such
languages as Chaldaic, Arabic, and Indian, subject to the demands of
necessity or utility; moreover, Logic, Physics, Metaphysics, Moral
Philosophy, and Mathematics. All these departments are to be provided
for by Professors of the Order. If the departments of Civil Law and
Medicine are added, they will be conducted by Professors not of the
Society.[68]
As to the Scholastic members of the Society, their mental culture in
the Order begins, of course, where their collegiate curriculum had
closed, that is, at the end of their classical course. Their studies
henceforth are defined by two objects; one, that of professing, as
formed Jesuits in the future, what they are studying now; the other,
that of being differentiated, according to talent and circumstance,
into preachers, writers, directors of consciences, or managers of
affairs.
In view of this two-fold object, all the examinations, arranged for
members of the Order in the advanced courses, are regulated by one
standard, that the Jesuit Scholastics must be found competent, at each
stage, to teach the course in which they are being tested. Accordingly,
they review their previous literary acquirements, in all the lines
which the Society regularly professes; then, during three years, they
apply exclusively to Philosophy and Natural Sciences; and, four years
more, to Divinity and allied Sciences.[69]
This protracted course, therefore, as given more in detail by the
subsequent _Ratio_, consists of Poetry, Rhetoric, and Literature;
Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry; Logic, Ontology, Cosmology,
Psychology, and Natural Theology; Ethics, Natural, Social and Public
Right, Moral Theology, Canon Law, Ecclesiastical History, Scholastic
Theology, Hebrew, Sacred Scripture. The courses are to be pursued
either in the same classes which external students attend, or, in their
own university classes, when a general house of studies is formed as a
"Scholasticate." In both cases, they have Seminary exercises of their
own, beyond what is required in the most condensed university courses.
Those whom health and excellence have approved at every step are
ordinarily to be withdrawn from studies, "when the course of Arts has
been finished, and when four years have been spent on Theology."[70]
Specialties are to be cultivated.[71] Subsequent legislation places
these specialties in the interval between the Arts and Theology; and,
again, after the latter.
This, in brief, is the practical idea of the Professorial Seminaries,
philological, philosophical, scientific, and theological, through
which the stream of future Professors is continually passing. Each
one is subject, at every stage, to examination tests which include
the most distinct reference to professorial capacity. The technical
standard in the examinations is that of "surpassing mediocrity," which
term is accurately defined, as we shall see later, when analyzing the
_Ratio_.[72]
While the depleted ranks of the professorial body are thus regularly
supplied, it is clear that more services remain available in the
Order at large, than the single purpose of education would at any time
require. But this only serves the wider scope which the Society has in
view, much wider than education taken alone. And Ignatius makes mention
of this expressly when he says, that the Scholastic students "may never
come to profess the learning which they have acquired"; still "they are
to consider that labor of studies as a work of great merit in the sight
of God."[73]
So much for the widest and highest intellectual objects aimed at in
these studies. Looking down now to its lowest limit, we perceive that
education, as imparted by the Society to the external world, is to
begin not below "the rudiments of grammar, in which boys must already
be versed; they must know how to read and write; nor is any allowance
to be made in favor of any one, whatever be his condition of life;
but those who press these petitions upon us are to be answered, that
we are not permitted" to teach the elements. This is the ordinance
of Aquaviva, in 1592, and he simply refers to the Constitution.[74]
He also notes, in the same document, that the new _Ratio Studiorum_
elevates every grade, as it stood at that date, one year higher than
it had been before. The document is from the German archives. Pachtler
observes that most of the Latin schools, particularly in Protestant
Germany, took children up from the alphabet.[75] The effect of the
Jesuit system was that of a constant upward trend to what was higher,
more systematic, and complete.
This brings us to the question of method. Here a number of elements
occur, some of them essential, many of them subordinate. These latter,
at least, were the products of ingenuity and industry on the part of
the teaching body, and were productive of industry and life on the
part of scholars. To illustrate the whole matter, I will refer to
authors who were addressing the world, soon after the Society had taken
its stand as an educational power, and when its institutions were
conspicuous to the eyes of all.
First comes classification, which was an essential feature of the
Jesuit system. Ribadeneira, the intimate friend of Ignatius, when
writing the life of Loyola, in the year 1584, and describing the work
of the Order, now forty-fours years old, observes: "Elsewhere one
Professor has many grades of scholars before him; he addresses himself
at one and the same time to scholars who are at the bottom, midway, and
at the top; and he can scarcely meet the demands of each. But, in the
Society, we distinguish one rank of scholars from another, dividing
them into their own classes and orders; and separate Professors are
placed over each."[76]
The division of classes, a thing so natural to us, was in those times
a novelty. There were practically only two degrees of teaching; one
superior, embracing Theology, Law, and Medicine; the other preparatory.
The preparatory instruction had already been tending towards the
later system of grading; the term "class" was an expression of the
Renaissance. Father Rochemonteix, speaking of the Paris University,
notes that the first authentic act, in which the term is used, dates
from 1539.[77] From 1535, the division of studies, by means of classes,
was already being accomplished. Still there was no definite number
of grades. The study of literary models was defective. Grammar was
beclouded with the subtleties of dialectics, to the great prejudice
of written composition, as well as of the reading and imitation of
models.[78]
Now it will be observed that Ignatius was studying in the University of
Paris from 1528 to 1535; and his companions remained till 1536. By the
time he published the Constitution as a rule of guidance, he had become
surrounded by men, who were not merely graduates of universities, but
had been Doctors, Professors, and Rectors in Portugal, Spain, France,
Italy, Belgium, Germany. One consequence was that Ignatius, from the
very beginning, formulated a complete system of graded classes. He
relegated dialectics to its proper field, Philosophy and Theology. And,
bringing into prominence the reading of authors, and the practice of
style in imitation of the best models, he defined a method. This, after
being elaborated during forty years, was then found to be not only new,
but complete, and good for centuries to come. It arranged courses in a
series, having reference to one another; it coördinated definite stages
of the courses with definite matter to be seen; and, in the lower
branches it distributed the students, with their respective portions
of the matter, into five grades, classifying precepts, authors, and
exercises, as proportioned to each successive grade. Nothing more
familiar to ourselves now; nothing newer to the world then! This was
the _Ratio Studiorum_.
The grades of the gymnasium may include several divisions, according
to the number of students; but the grading itself remains fixed, and
leaves no element, either of actual culture, or of future developments,
unprovided for, or without a location. Nor do these grades mean five
years. They mean a work to be done in each grade, before the next
is taken up. On this, the mind of Ignatius was most explicit. As an
almost universal rule, they never mean less than five years. And, for
one of them, the grade of Rhetoric, in which all literary perfection
is to be acquired, the system contemplates two and even three years.
In this point, too, we may note a characteristic view of Ignatius.
It is that the longer term, whenever provided, whenever prescribed,
urged, and insisted upon, is always for the talented student, the one
who is to become eminent. To use his own words, when laying down the
rules in this matter for the Rector of a University, his full idea
will be carried out, when "those who are of the proper age, and have
the aptitude of genius, endeavor to succeed in every branch and to be
_conspicuous therein_."[79]
To enumerate now some of the subordinate elements in the Jesuit method,
I will quote from the same author, Ribadeneira. He says, speaking of
young scholars: "Many means are devised, and exercises employed, to
stimulate the minds of the young--assiduous disputation, various trials
of genius, prizes offered for excellence in talent and industry. These
prerogatives and testimonies of virtue vehemently arouse the minds of
students, awake them even when sleeping, and, when they are aroused and
are running on with a good will, impel them and spur them on faster.
For, as penalty and disgrace bridle the will and check it from pursuing
evil, so honor and praise quicken the sense wonderfully, to attain the
dignity and glory of virtue." He quotes Cicero and Quintilian to the
same effect.[80]
This was not to develop a false self-love in young hearts; which
would have been little to the purpose with religious teachers. "Let
them root out from themselves, in every possible way, self-love and
the craving for vain glory," says the oldest code of school rules
in the Society, probably from the pen of Father Peter Canisius
himself.[81] What is appealed to, is the spirit of emulation, and
that by a world of industries; which, disguising the aridity of
the work to be gone through, spurs young students on to excellence
in whatever they undertake, and rewards the development of natural
energies with the natural luxury of confessedly doing well. In the
dry course of virtue and learning, satisfaction of this kind is not
excited in the young, without a sign, a token, a badge, a prize. Then
they feel happy in having done well, however little they enjoyed the
labor before. Honorable distinctions well managed, sometimes a share
in the unimportant direction of the class, brilliancy of success in
single combat on the field of knowledge, of memory, or of intellectual
self-reliance, the ordered discrimination of habitual merit, all
these means and many others keep the little army in a condition of
mental activity, and sometimes of suspense; "and if not all are
victorious, all at least have traversed the strengthening probation of
struggle."[82]
In all the courses of Belles-lettres, Rhetoric, Philosophy, and
Theology, the institutions called "Academies" gather into select
bodies the most talented and exemplary of the students. The young
_littérateurs_, or philosophers, having their own officials, special
reunions, and archives, hold their public sessions in presence of the
other students, the Masters, and illustrious personages invited for the
occasion. In their poems, speeches, dialogues, they discuss, declaim,
and rise to great thoughts, and to the conception of great deeds.
Civil discords are not the subject of their debates, but the glories
of their native country, its success in arms, all that is congenial
to the young mind and fosters the sentiment of love of country. Among
the students of Rhetoric, forensic debates and judicial trials are
organized; "and when the advocates of both sides have pleaded their
cause in one or two sessions of the court, then," says a document I
am quoting from, dated 1580, "the judge, who has been elected for the
purpose, will pronounce his judgment in an oration of his own; this
will be the brilliant performance; and, to hear it, friends will be
invited, and the Doctors of the University and all the students will be
in attendance."[83] In the programme for the distribution of rewards,
there is described an interesting element, _puer lepidus_, "a bright
young lad," and what he is to do and how he is to bring out the name of
the victor, "whereupon the music will strike up a sweet symphony."[84]
At another time, a set of published theses are defended against all
comers by some philosopher or theologian. And, while games and manly
exercises outside develop physical strength, gentility of demeanor and
elegance of deportment have the stage at their service inside, for the
exhibition of refined manners.
In all this, princes and nobles, future men of letters and of action,
are mingling in daily life, in contest and emulation, with sons of
the simplest burghers. Descartes[85] notes these points sagaciously,
when he recommends to a friend the College of La Flèche: "Young people
are there," he says, "from all parts of France; there is a mingling
of characters; their mutual intercourse effects almost the same good
results as if they were actually travelling; and, in fine, the equality
which the Jesuits establish among all, by treating just in the same
way those who are most illustrious and those who are not so, is an
extremely good invention."[86]
As the new sciences came into vogue, they received at once the freedom
of this city of intellect; and here they received it first. It has
been said, indeed, that the Society of Jesus, "obstinately bound to
its formalism, refused to admit anything modern, real, and actual,
and that the national languages and literatures, as well as the new
developing sciences, fared ill at its hands." This statement, as far
as it concerns France, is examined by Father Charles Daniel, who to
other valuable works of his own has added the neat little essay called,
_Les Jésuites Instituteurs de la Jeunesse Française, au XVII^e et au
XVIII^e siècle_.[87] As to Germany, we shall see indications enough
on all these subjects in the _Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica_. For all
countries there is a sufficiency of information, in the mere text of
the _Ratio Studiorum_, in Jouvancy's classic commentary thereupon, _De
Ratione Discendi et Docendi_, and other authentic documents, besides
the actual practice visible in the colleges. But the whole question
about the vernacular tongues, as if they were kept out of the colleges
by Latin and Greek, is so far an anachronism for the dates and epochs,
regarding which some moderns have agitated the question, that I shall
tell a little anecdote, which will not be so much of a digression, but
that it will place us back just where we are at present.
In 1605, Lord Bacon published his two books on the Advancement of
Learning. The work is considered the first part of his "Novum Organum."
He undertakes to "make a small Globe," as he says, "of the Intellectual
World, as truly and faithfully as he can discover.[88] His subject
is identical, as far as it goes, with the much more extensive and
exhaustive work of Father Anthony Possevino, a famous Jesuit, who had
published, twelve years before, the results of twenty years' travel and
observation, while fulfilling, in many countries, the important duties
of Apostolic Legate, Preacher, Professor. I have two editions of his
great tomes before me. The first is that of Rome, 1593; the other that
of Venice, 1603; this latter is called "the most recent edition."[89]
The only indication which I discern of Bacon's not having profited by
Possevino is this, that he says: "No man hath propounded to himself
the general state of learning to be described and represented from age
to age."[90] Now, as this is saying too much, for it just indicates
what Possevino's labors had been showing to the world during twelve
years, I must conclude that there is no assurance whatever, but that
Bacon profited by Possevino: he seems merely to have gone over the same
ground in English, and done justice to the subject, in his own peculiar
way. Accordingly, he did it what justice he could, in English. Three
years later he writes to Dr. Playfer, Margaret Professor of Divinity
in the University of Cambridge, requesting that the Doctor would be
pleased to translate the work into Latin; and his lordship promises
eternal gratitude. What reasons does the noble author urge for this
request? Two reasons, of which the first is very noteworthy for our
purpose:--"the privateness of the language, wherein it is written,
excluding so many readers!" And the second is almost as worthy of
note:--"the obscurity of the argument, in many parts of it, excluding
many others!"[91] Here we have our domestic classic author, in the year
1608, endeavoring to get out of his narrow cell, the "privateness of
the English language," into the broad world of the literary public,
where the Jesuit with his tomes was enjoying to the full his literary
franchise. This does not look as if the colleges, at that time, kept
the languages down, but rather that they had in their gift the full
freedom of the literary world, and sent students forth to walk abroad
at their ease there, where Bacon humbly sued for admission!
I was going to quote from Possevino, describing in a graphic way the
daily intellectual life of the great Roman College, with its two
thousand and more students, besides the great body of Professors. But
my limits forbid me to do more than refer to it.[92]
There are two views which may be taken of a coin, and its stamp. One is
taken direct, looking at it in itself; the other is indirect, observing
the impression it leaves in the mould. It leaves a defined vacancy
there. What kind of vacancy was left in the intellectual culture of
Europe, when this intellectual system was suddenly swept away? Before
the Suppression of the Society, some of the institutions, which had
thriven at all, had been inspired by a healthful rivalry. They found,
when the Society was gone, that part of their life decayed. And, while
they themselves began to languish, the place of the Jesuits they could
not fill. Of some others, who lived a life barely discernible, we are
given to understand, that their vitality consisted in the effort to
keep the Jesuits out. I will take an instance from Bayonne.
A work has just been published on the municipal college of Bayonne, by
the Censor of Studies, in the Lyceum of Agen.[93] In seventy pages,
which concern transactions with the Jesuits,[94] the author, in no
friendly tone, narrates the entire history from the documents of the
Jansenist party. I will imitate this example of his so far as to
narrate the following entirely in his own words.
Beginning his last chapter, entitled "Reform and Conclusion," he says
in a tone somewhat subdued, but not more so than his subject:[95] "This
then was the College of Bayonne, which, for a few years more, prolonged
an existence ever more and more precarious; and it was finally closed
in 1792, in spite of several generous efforts at restoring it.
"But already," he continues, "for thirty years, a great literary
event had been accomplished in secondary education. A decree of the
Parliament of Paris, dated the 16th of August, 1762, had pronounced
the expulsion of the 'ci-devant soi-disants Jésuites'; which decree
was this time definitively executed. Now the Jesuits, in their five
Provinces of France, possessed then nearly a hundred colleges. Judge
of the immense void which was suddenly created in the secondary
instruction of the Province, ill prepared for so abrupt a departure!
There was a general confusion, and a concert, as it were, of complaints
and recriminations. Where get the new masters?... The disciplinary and
financial administration of the colleges, left vacant by the Jesuits,
was confided to the bureaus, that is to say, assemblies composed of
the Archbishop or Bishop, the Lieutenant General, the King's Proctor,
and the senior Alderman.... Every one soon felt the inconveniences
of this system. The municipal officers of the cities, the bureaus
themselves hastened to petition the King, that their colleges might be
confided to religious communities. Thus it was that the greater part
of the old Jesuit colleges fell into the hands of the Benedictines and
Bernardines, of the Carmelites and Minims, of Jacobins and Cordeliers,
of Capuchins and Recollects, of Doctrinaires and Barnabites, and above
all, of the Oratorians. But all these Religious, except the Oratorians,
fell far short of the Jesuits. The greater part had not even any idea
of teaching, etc." Then the author devotes a heavy page to the novel
systems which were introduced. He closes the paragraph sadly: "All this
agitation," he says, "was unfortunately sterile; and, as I have just
said, secondary instruction, on the eve of the French Revolution, had
not taken a step forward during fifty years."
CHAPTER VII.
THE MORAL SCOPE PROPOSED.
Sweet is the holiness of youth, says Chaucer. Nor less grateful to the
eye are those gentle manners of youth, which another bard portrays as
impersonated in his "celestial lights," who say:--
We all
Are ready at thy pleasure, well disposed
To do thee gentle service.[96]
Christian morals and Christian manners make the perfect gentleman.
Plato had put it down that "he who hath a good soul is good"; and he
insisted that no youth, who has had a personal acquaintance with evil,
can have a good soul. He did not mean that a youth must be ignorant
of what temptation is. There is no hot-house raising in this world
which will keep off that blast. Every child, while keeping on the
royal road of innocence, has enough in himself, and in the choicest
of surroundings, to know the realities of life and its warfare. But
Plato refers to a personal experience of the by-ways, which are not
virtue, and which it is not necessary to travel by, in order to know
enough about them. The educational means, the industry, the vigilance,
which have for a result the preservation of youth in the freshness of
innocence, signify a medium of respiration which is kept pure, and a
moral nutriment which is good and is kept constantly supplied, until
tender virtue has risen steadily into a well-knit rectitude, and is
able thenceforth to brave manfully the incidental storms of life.
For this moral strengthening of character, no less than for the
invigorating of mental energies, the system of Ignatius Loyola
prescribes an education which is public,--public, as being that of many
students together, public as opposed to private tutorism, public, in
fine, as requiring a sufficiency of the open, fearless exercise both
of practical morality and of religion. Since the time of Ignatius,
Dupanloup has observed on this subject:--
"I have heard a man of great sense utter this remarkable word. 'If
a usurping and able government wanted to get rid of great races in
the country, and root them out, it need only come down to this, that
it require of them, out of respect for themselves, to bring up their
children at home, alone, far from their equals, shut up in the narrow
horizon of a private education and a private tutor.'"[97]
The youthful material, on which the Jesuit system had to work, may be
described from two points of view. There were home conditions; and
there were conditions too of the educational system, which was commonly
prevalent in those centuries.
As to the circumstances of polite society at the boys' homes, Charles
Lenormant, speaking of those times, tells us that "it was the privilege
of a gentleman to have from his infancy the responsibility of his own
actions. The fathers of families were the first to launch their sons
into the midst of the perils of the world, even before the age of
discernment had begun."[98] Even when boys' homes effect no positive
harm, still, only too often, they answer this description, that they
undo the best of what the school training is endeavoring to effect, by
the discipline of subordination and the practice of obedience.
It was this state of things which made the German Jesuits, in spite
of themselves, petition for the requisite authorization to open
boarding colleges in the north, as had already been done in Portugal
and elsewhere. Reluctantly the authorization was given by the general
assembly.[99] These _convictus_, or _pensionnats_, were known to
make great inroads on the time of the Fathers, on their study, their
religious retirement, and especially on that immunity of theirs
from financial transactions, which they enjoyed as Religious. The
Constitution of Ignatius offers no more than a bare foothold for the
introduction of these colleges.[100] Yet they have proved to be the
most prolific nurseries of the eminent men, whom the Society has sent
forth into all the walks of life.
Not at home alone were effeminacy and dissoluteness to be feared.
There were conditions of life in the university system of the sixteenth
century, which seemed considerably worse than those already described
in the first chapter of this book. Possevino, who had spent ten years
in the midst of the religious turmoils of France, and ten more in Papal
legations to Germany, Poland, Hungary, Transylvania, Russia, Muscovy,
Sweden, and Gothia, and, after that, four more years in visiting the
universities throughout Europe, notices that there were five ways,
whereby a general corruption of society had come about. First, he
mentions the dissemination of bad books. Secondly, "the omission of
lectures; or, when lectures were held, such disturbances during them,
with noise and yells, that there scarce remained an appearance of
human, let alone of Christian, society. Thirdly, factions. Fourthly,
sensuality, to which cause must be referred that atrocious kind of
iniquity, whereby the very walls of the schools were defiled with
writing and the vilest pictures;[101] so that the tender age, which
had come innocent, must go away more polluted with crime, than imbued
with learning, becoming hateful to God himself. Fifthly, an aversion
for Divine worship, inasmuch as disputations and graduating festivities
and lectures have constantly been transferred to those days and those
hours, when by Divine precept public worship is due."[102]
The means organized by Ignatius into a method of moral education I
will sketch in the words of his contemporaries. Ribadeneira, his
biographer, says: "Those means are employed by our Masters, whereby
virtue is conceived in the hearts of the pupils, is preserved and
augmented. They are morning prayer, for obtaining grace from God not
to fall into sin; night prayer and a diligent reflection on all the
thoughts, words, and actions of the day, to do away by contrition of
heart with all the faults committed; the attentive and devout hearing
of Mass every day; frequent and humble confession of sins to a Priest;
and if they are old enough, and great devotion recommends it, and their
confessor approves of it, the reverent and pious reception of the Body
of our Lord Jesus Christ; teaching and explaining the rudiments of
the Christian faith, whereby the boys are animated to live well and
happily. Besides, great pains are taken to know and root out the vices
of boyhood, especially such as are somehow inborn and native to that
age."[103]
Here, by the way, the reader may advert to the fact that the
confessional, of which mention is made, never comes in as part of
the external means of moral development; nor is a superior ever the
confessor of those under his charge, except when desired to be so
by the free choice of the subordinate himself. A general law of the
Catholic Church ordains it thus.
Loyola's biographer goes on to the various means, whereby, in such
a multitude of young persons, the bad element, which unfortunately
will never die, is either suppressed and kept at its lowest stage of
a struggling vitality, or else, if it happens to shoot up, is weeded
out. The garden will be none the poorer for that.
Nil dabit inde minus!
There are, moreover, the division of students into categories and
ranks, with their own officers from among the boys themselves; the
degrees of honor and preëminence assigned to good conduct and virtue;
especially the pious societies or Sodalities, into which none are
admitted save the most studious and virtuous among the youths; and that
with a discrimination in favor of superior merit, even among such as
answer the general description. The Sodalities of the Society of Jesus,
as the subject of a study upon the management of youth, and indeed upon
the cultivation of all ranks in Christian society, from Peer and Field
Marshal and Viceroy, down to the little boy beginning his career at
school, would deserve a special discourse for themselves.
I will continue now from Possevino, describing the Roman College, which
was an object of daily observation to the capital of the Christian
world.[104] "Here," he says, "you have two thousand youths, among whom
reigns a deep silence; there is no commotion. In the classes there is
no reading of profane author or poet, who might inoculate the mind with
defilement." I may remark that Ignatius had, from the very first, begun
the method of expurgating authors, a task which was then carried on
with diligence by the literary men of the Society. Our author resumes:
"A hundred daily occasions of sin and idleness are precluded; a
continuous series is going on of lectures, repetitions, disputations,
conferences." Then he portrays, as visible there in every-day life,
many of the features which Ribadeneira has mentioned.
While idleness was under a ban, vacation was not debarred. Its
principles, however, were defined on new lines. There was a sufficiency
of rest to be provided; but then no new intermissions were to be
granted. The "sufficiency" would appear spare luxury to our looser
times.[105] "One week of doing nothing," say the Fathers of Upper
Germany to the General Aquaviva, "is more hurtful to students, than
four weeks in which some literary exercise is kept up"; and "parents
take very much amiss this state of idleness, if the boys remain on our
hands."[106]
In all this, there was no question of making religious men of the
students. It was a question only of Religious making men of them.
Father George Bader, Provincial of Upper Germany in 1585, left it in
his instructions for the management of the convictus, at Dilingen,
that "the Prefects were not to despair or despond, if they did not see
at once, or in all, the improvement desired; nor were they to require
the perfection of Religious from them, nor introduce among them such
practices of life, as elsewhere the students could not keep up in their
calling; but the directors should be content with having a manner of
life followed, which was ordinary, virtuous, and pious."[107]
According to this idea, the religious teacher being a man, a
citizen, and an ecclesiastic, his educational industry has produced
its effect, when it has made accomplished men, worthy citizens,
competent Ecclesiastics, or Religious; "when in the school," says
Ribadeneira, "as in an arena, the students, foreshadowing the future,
practise already, in their own way, those same virtues and duties,
which in maturer years they will exhibit, in the management of the
republic."[108] The rich material of the youthful mind and soul
receives the manifold influence which the teacher's mind and heart
possess; and receives it after the manner of the recipient, according
to his future vocation.
What the Jesuit professors, in fact, were like, those who in after
years showed themselves but little friendly to the Order did not
omit to testify. "During the seven years," says Voltaire, "that I
lived in the house of the Jesuits, what did I see among them? The
most laborious, frugal, and regular life, all their hours divided
between the care they spent on us and the exercises of their austere
profession. I attest the same as thousands of others brought up by
them, like myself; not one will be found to contradict me. Hence I
never cease wondering how any one can accuse them of teaching corrupt
morality.... Let any one place side by side the 'Provincial Letters'
and the Sermons of Father Bourdaloue; he will learn in the former
the art of raillery, the art of presenting things, indifferent in
themselves, under aspects which make them appear criminal, the art of
insulting with eloquence; he will learn from Father Bourdaloue, that of
being severe to oneself, and indulgent toward others."[109]
History is uniform in bearing witness that the general effects of their
teaching corresponded to the example of these Professors, in spite
of the fact, as Cretineau-Joly puts it, that even from the hands of
religious men the impious can still come forth, as, in the school of
the wise, dunces and dolts may still be found.[110] Man is still and
always free. However, if it follows thence, that not only a positive,
but a negative result may always be expected; such a double result may
be set off by two consoling reflections, which I will mention, in order
to complete the picture of this education in practice.
The first is, that since, from the school of virtue and religiousness,
vice can still issue forth, and, as the General Vitelleschi says, a
good education, though almost omnipotent, may, like the morning dew,
evaporate and be lost in the first heat of manhood's passions,[111]
what would be the results of the system, if it had less piety to
enlighten, or less of an organized practice of virtue to confirm, the
minds and hearts of the young?
Another reflection is this: that human nature, however erratic by
defect of will, still remains beautiful, thanks to the original
gift of God. Whence it comes, that impiety is found beautifully
inconsistent; and, in its lucid intervals, it makes the due
acknowledgment, as he did, who once said:--
O thou, that with surpassing glory crowned,
Look'st from thy sole dominion ...
To thee I call....
To tell thee how I hate thy beams,
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell.[112]
The Society of Jesus has many a time been elegantly blessed and cursed
by the same eloquent lips and pens.
The secret of this magisterial ascendency, as Ignatius of Loyola
projected it, was to be found in the Masters' intellectual attainments,
which naturally impressed youthful minds; and also in a paternal
affection which, of course, won youthful hearts. Does anything more
seem necessary for the full idea of authority? The committee appointed
by the canton of Fribourg, for restoring the Fathers to their old
college in 1818, mention as one reason for having done so, that "the
will cannot be chained; it will not submit to restraint. You can
win it, but not subjugate it." And they speak of that "most lively
attachment" ever abiding in the hearts of students towards members of
the Order, which they have known as the cradle of their youth.[113] The
same Father Bader, whom I have quoted before, defines where authority
lies, when he says: "Let not the Prefects consider their authority
to consist in this, that the students are on hand in obedience to
their nod, their every word, or their very look; but in this, that the
boys love them, approach with confidence, and make their difficulties
known." Speaking of penalties, he goes on: "The pupils should be led to
understand that such reprehensions are necessary and are prompted by
affection; and let it be the most grievous rebuke or penalty for them
to know that they have offended their Prefect."[114]
Thus, in the education of the sixteenth century, there came into play
a gradual reaction against the harshness and brusquer manners of
earlier times. Speaking of conversation with the students, the General
Vitelleschi, in 1639, gives characteristic directions: "It will be very
useful if from time to time the Professors treat with their auditors,
and converse with them, not about vain rumors and other affairs that
are not to the purpose, but about those which appertain most to their
well-being and education; going down to particulars that seem most to
meet their wants; and showing them, in a familiar way, how they ought
to conduct themselves in studies and piety. Let the Professors be
persuaded that a single talk in private, animated with true zeal and
prudence on their part, will penetrate the heart more and work more
powerfully, than many lectures and sermons given in common."[115]
Here then I have touched on the secrets of success, those principles
which commanded esteem, and shed about the Order an unmistakable halo
of educational prestige.
CHAPTER VIII.
IGNATIUS ADMINISTERING THE COLLEGIATE SYSTEM. HIS DEATH.
The first two colleges were established in the same year, 1542,--one
of them in the royal university at Coimbra in Portugal, the other at
Goa in Hindustan. Though they were organized at an early date, only
two years after the foundation of the Order, when as yet no system had
been formally adopted, nevertheless these two first colleges, a good
many thousands of miles apart, were found to have been established in
precisely the same way. Francis Xavier, having been assigned to the
apostolic ministry in the East, began a university there, in which
all the sciences and branches were professed, just as in the European
colleges. This became the base of operations for Japan, China, Persia,
Ethiopia, and the other nations of the East. Forty years later, there
were as many as one hundred and twenty Jesuits in the college.
In 1542, Ignatius had a select body of fifteen or sixteen young men
studying in Paris; others he had placed in Padua or elsewhere. He
availed himself of the actual universities until such time as he should
have his own. War breaking out between the Emperor Charles V and the
French King Francis, all Spaniards and Belgians were ordered out of
France. Such as were Italians remaining in Paris, the other young
Jesuits crossed the frontier to Louvain, under the charge of Father
Jerome Domenech. There the Latin oratory of the youth, Francis Strada,
whom Lefèvre, on his way through Belgium, supplied with matter for his
orations,[116] helped to build up the Order rapidly with two kinds of
men, talented youths, who were captivated by the things they saw and
heard, and men already eminent, who were equally attracted by the scope
of the new Institute. In the young Strada preaching and the eminent
Lefèvre going out of his way to subsidize him with matter, we catch a
family glimpse of that intensified force which can be developed in a
closely bound organization.
Conspicuously wanting in gifts of presence and of learning, Francis
Villanova, sent by Ignatius to the university seat of Alcalà, won
such an ascendency there by his other qualities as a Priest, that a
commodious and flourishing college was soon founded. Father Jerome
Domenech endowed one in his native city of Valentia, 1543. Lefèvre and
Araoz, following awhile by royal request in the suite of the Princess
Mary, daughter of the Portuguese King, and queen of the Spanish King,
founded a college at Valladolid. In Gandia, his own duchy, Francis
Borgia erected and richly equipped a university, which was the first
placed in the hands of the Society.
Colleges at Barcelona, Bologna, Saragossa, arose within the next two
or three years; also at Messina, Palermo, Venice, and Tivoli. It is
evident that Ignatius had a world of administration already on his
hands. As early as March 16, 1540, he had excused himself from granting
an application, because of "much pains he was taking in sending some
to the Indies, others to Ireland and to parts of Italy." Now, though
his forces were increasing, yet he was husbanding them; and even so,
while refusing many applications, he seemed to be everywhere. But this
need not be so much a matter of wonder, if we consider that it is the
right place, and the right move at the proper time, that commands other
places, movements, and times.
At the death of Lefèvre, in 1546, the onward movement of these select
men, coming in contact, either friendly or adverse, with every actual
power in Europe, was so impressive for its strategic completeness, and
so far-reaching in its results, that, as an historian remarks, "These
ten men, so ably chosen, had accomplished to their entire satisfaction,
in less than six years, what the most absolute monarch would not have
ventured to exact of the most blind devotedness."[117]
Hardly had Lefèvre departed this life, when his place was taken by the
last man whom he had dealt with, Francis Borgia, Duke of Gandia, the
friend and cousin of the Emperor Charles V. Still wearing his ducal
robes, until his temporal affairs could be settled, he came to Rome in
1550. He founds the Roman College, which is the centre and type of all
Jesuit colleges.
It was begun on February 18th, 1551, at the foot of the Capitol, with
fourteen members of the Order, and Father John Peltier, a Frenchman,
at their head. Doubling this number in the following September, the
College moved to a larger building. The Professors taught Rhetoric,
and three languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. In 1553, the entire
course of Philosophy and Theology was added. The number of Jesuit
students among the auditory amounted, in this year, to sixty, and,
in the following year, to one hundred. A few years later, Vittoria
Toffia, niece of Paul IV, and wife of Camillo Orsini, provided the
institution with a splendid property. Thenceforth, the number of Jesuit
students alone was as high as 220, brought together from sixteen or
more different nations, most of them familiar with many languages, all
speaking by rule the tongue of the country in which they were residing,
and all competent to speak and teach in the one universal and learned
language of the time, the Latin tongue.
Of students not belonging to the Order, nearly twenty colleges are
enumerated, at some periods, as following the courses of this central
Roman College. They included the colleges of the English, the Greeks,
the Scotch, the Maronites, the Irish, and the Neophytes; the Colleges
named Capranica, Fuccioli, Mattei, Pamfili, Salviati, Ghislieri; the
German College and the College Gymnasio; also the Roman Seminary. Of
the 2107 students counted, as following the courses at a given time,
300 were in theology. The most eminent professors filled the chairs,
in successive generations; theologians like Suarez and Vasquez,
commentators like Cornelius a Lapide and Maldonado, founders or leaders
in the schools of national history like Mariana and Pallavicini;
Clavius, reformer of the Gregorian calendar; Kircher, universal in all
exact sciences; and so of the rest; while the cycle of colleges over
the world remained provided with their requisite forces, and maintained
their own prestige.[118]
The emblem of this institution was Theology, enthroned, as it were, in
a temple of imposing proportions. At her right and left two Maids of
Honor stand; they are the Natural Sciences. One of them, representing
Mathematics, is placing the celestial sphere under the feet of the
august goddess seated; the other, representing Physics, is subjecting,
in like manner, the orb of the earth. The legend attached reads: _Leges
impone subactis_.
In forty or fifty years such an investment of talent, character, and
virtue, had been made, by management within the Order, and by that
power to which Ignatius always appealed, Divine Providence, that Rome
had seen pass through this house the most distinguished men of the
age, in every line of intellectual life, of moral eminence, and of all
that could elevate the thoughts of noble and generous minds. For the
young, in particular, three characters came, figures that were to fill
the niches and terminate the aisles of contemplation, as the ideal
choice of the bloom of youth--Stanislaus Kostka, a young Polish noble
of seventeen, Aloysius Gonzaga, an Italian prince of twenty-three, and
John Berchmans, a Flemish burgher of twenty-two. Being what they were,
and leaving this life at such an age, they have appropriated in the
Catholic Church the honors of the young.
With regard to Germany, it is with a classic touch, as of Cæsar's
style, that an historian introduces the subject thus: _Germania,
quo gravius laboravit, hoc studiosius adjuta est; Ignatio nulla
regio commendatior_.[119] Nor will the association be considered
far-fetched, if, substituting for Cæsar's pen and Cæsar's sword,
Loyola's legislation for letters and his strategic tactics, one catches
a suggestive idea, on the present topic, from that statue of the same
Roman General, which represents him as holding in one hand a sword, and
in the other a pen, with the words inscribed underneath, _Ex utroque
Cæsar_.
Of the services of those nine men, with whom he founded the Order, he
spent a large part upon Germany. Lefèvre was there, Le Jay, Bobadilla,
Salmeron, Laynez; not to mention the great Canisius (de Hondt), a young
man already in the field, who was to stay there for half a century.
It is of these men and their work that Ranke writes: "Of what country
were these, the first of their Order amongst us? They were natives of
Spain, Italy, the Netherlands. For a long time, even the name of their
Society was unknown, and they were styled the Spanish Priests. They
filled the chairs of the universities, and there met with disciples
willing to embrace their faith. Germany has no part in them; their
doctrine, their constitution, had been completed and reduced to form,
before they appeared in our midst. We may then regard the progress of
their Institute here, as a new participation of Latin Europe in German
Europe. They have defeated us upon our own soil, and wrested from us a
share of our fatherland."[120]
In concert with the Duke of Bavaria and the Emperor Ferdinand,
Ingolstadt and Vienna became the two first centres of operations.
Ingolstadt was indeed destined to become soon one of the most
representative universities of the Company, and the German centre of
what has been called the "Counter-Reformation."[121] But Ignatius would
not accept it, without the clearest enunciation of some fundamental
principles in the educational work of his Institute. I will mention
them.
First, the condition of all higher studies, and of lower studies
as well, was such, that, as Ignatius said, it was useless to begin
with the top, which without a good foundation will never stand. The
disappointment of individual hopes and of general expectation would be
the only result, with demoralization for the future. Let Literature,
he said, and Philosophy be gone through satisfactorily; then Theology
may be approached. Literature must come first of all. Hence Polanco,
the secretary of Ignatius, writes to the Duke of Bavaria, in 1551,
that the "Jesuits must begin by undertaking preparatory teaching, with
Professors capable of inspiring their young students, little by little,
with a taste for Theology."[122]
Secondly, we may recall to mind what was mentioned before,[123] that
Ignatius provides for Law and Medicine in his universities, but the
professors of these departments are to be taken from without the Order.
Now, quite as a counterpart to this, we find him declaring to the Duke
of Bavaria, that it is at variance with his plan to lend any Professors
or Lecturers of the Order for work outside of Jesuit institutions.
Therefore a college must be founded for them, or the Duke cannot have
them.
The reason for this reserve is not hard to discern. In an organization
like his, there are no men at large to lend. And, were the most
eminent men assigned for work outside of the Jesuit colleges and
universities, the younger generation of the Order would practically
be debarred from the influence of their type of eminence. And again,
if there were eminent men laboring in a country, without the stable
abode of a Jesuit college in the same place, there would be no
propagating the distinctive work of the Order itself, by means of
the men of that country. Yet, as he projected a native clergy for
Germany, so he intended native Jesuits for the Germans. Besides, it
does not seem possible to accept of a chair outside, except on the
basis of some pecuniary consideration for the individual Professor.
Now this is a situation which he does not accept. A Professed Father
is not to sacrifice his religious life and independence, bound to
a work outside of the Order's own houses, and that for a valuable
consideration. Ignatius accepts of no obligations to fill chairs, save
as accepting universities, which contain those chairs.[124] And, as
to pecuniary considerations, his principle is, _Gratis accepistis,
gratis date_; "Give freely what you have freely received." To this
cardinal principle the statutes of so many universities, if not of all,
in which a Jesuit College conducted any of the faculties, distinctly
refer, as the ground for exempting Religious of the Society from all
pecuniary charges, incidental to university affairs.[125] No ingenious
compromise was admitted which tended to relax this principle, regarding
a pecuniary consideration.[126] On the contrary, the most legitimate
and ample revenues offered were not accepted as a recommendation for a
university, if there were any conditions whatever not in keeping with
the Institute.[127]
The German College in Rome was founded by Ignatius, to form German
ecclesiastics for the Germans. At that time benefices and parochial
cures, in the German Emperor's dominions, were generally vacant for
want of Priests. It soon came to pass that Priests were found to be in
waiting, for want of benefices. It was not merely for the ordinary cure
of souls that this college received so much attention from Loyola. True
to himself, ever contemplating something eminent,--_rarum et eximium
facinus_, as he said once to the Scholastics of Coimbra, "that rare
and excellent achievement; which is worth more than six hundred common
ones,"--he was founding a seminary for preachers, professors, prelates.
If the students sent from Germany, to be admitted and supported on
this foundation, are not noblemen, "at all events," writes Ignatius in
1552, "let nobility of soul not be wanting to them."[128] This is the
institution which caused so much vexation to non-Catholic Germany. It
renovated the priesthood.
Thus, then, in a short official career of sixteen years, Ignatius
had the gratification of seeing a new and vast educational policy
crowned with success. In spite of the active opposition which powerful
interests in Rome led against him--and a vigorous siege from the side
of the schoolmasters was not to be despised, nor should it fail to be
recorded,--in spite of the desperate hostility of the Sorbonne, which
was but beginning its war upon the Society in France, with storms at
Toledo and Saragossa flanking his movements in Spain; in spite of the
open war with heresy in Protestant Germany, where acrimony, distilled
to its last degree of concentration, was to embitter history, till the
days of Ranke and Janssen should come, and begin to vindicate the truth
of history; thanks to the labors of Ignatius, the monopoly of education
was being broken down; the old universities were no longer either the
sole depositories of superior instruction, or the arbiters of the
intellectual life of Europe; and all the best learning, which the most
accomplished men could impart, was now being given gratuitously, and
in as many centres of educational activity as the Society was allowed
to create. And, whereas it is put down to the credit of Germany, that
sixteen of the old universities had arisen on its soil, now, in the
German Assistency of the Society, there arose more than sixteen Jesuit
universities, besides two hundred colleges. And, in virtue of Papal
charters, it was already an accomplished fact, that all the powers
of universities, with regard to the degrees of Bachelor, Master,
Licentiate, and Doctor, were vested in the head of the Order, who could
delegate the same to subordinate Superiors.[129]
No wonder all the faculties of Christendom considered the Order an
intruder and an aggressor. It might be considered so to-day. Free and
universal education was at the doors of all. We, men of the nineteenth
century, may flatter ourselves that it was the spirit of our age which
breathed upon the Order of Jesus, three centuries before the time.
Perhaps so. But we shall have to wait a few centuries more, even
beyond the nineteenth century, before we come to such education given
universally and given gratuitously. For it is one of the most palpable
characteristics of all educational and other philanthropy which we know
of, that it is an extremely expensive thing.
Let us now close our sketch of the great educator, Saint Ignatius
of Loyola. All the particulars of his death have been preserved for
us by those who were with him at the last. They were not his first
companions. Of these, the few who survived at the present date,
sixteen years after the foundation of the Society, were scattered in
various climes. The members with him were John Polanco, his polished
secretary, André Frusis, a Frenchman, one of the most gifted of
linguists and of _littérateurs_, Christopher Madrizi, a university
Doctor of Alcalà, and Jerome Nadal, whom in Paris, long before,
Ignatius had endeavored to enlist in the service of his Institute;
but Nadal had rejected all overtures, pointing to the Bible under his
arm, and saying he wanted no other institute save that. He was a man
of the first quality in judgment and the governing cast of mind. Later
on, when the exploits of Saint Francis Xavier in India and Japan had
become the talk and admiration of Europe, Nadal entered the Order, so
cautiously that one might say he did it reluctantly; yet he did it. His
subsequent career showed that he had made a mistake, when he missed a
place in the very first ranks.
Others were close by. Laynez lay in a sick-room; as was thought, on his
death-bed; Mendoza too, and Martin Olave. The latter, some thirty years
before, was a boy whom Ignatius met, when as a poor pilgrim he reached
Alcalà from Barcelona, to take up his university studies. The boy gave
him an alms, the first received by Ignatius in that city. Time had
passed since then. The boy had become a Master of Arts, and, in 1543, a
Doctor of the Paris University, remarkable in many ways for virtue and
learning. Now, a man of mature age and great authority, he had embraced
the Institute of Ignatius. He alone of the invalids died immediately
after his master in religion.
The latter, on July the 30th, told them he was about to die. But,
diseases having preyed upon him for years, the physicians did not
confirm what he said; and Father Ignatius made no more statements on
the subject. He spent the evening in his usual manner, transacted some
business with perfect serenity of mind, and then was left alone till
the morrow.
The morrow is just dawning, when they find him breathing his last. He
declines to accept any potion. Joining his hands together, with his
eyes fixed heavenward, and pronouncing the name of "Jesus," the founder
of the Society of Jesus passes away from this life, in the Professed
House at Rome.
It was the thirty-first day of July, 1556. He was sixty-five years of
age. Thirty-five years had passed, since the Knight of the King of
Navarre had, with such solemnity, changed his garb, hung up his sword
and poniard in the sanctuary of Montserrat, and vowed himself to be a
Knight in the Kingdom of Christ.
All the time since then he had spent in extreme poverty, in the
practice of austerity, in the laborious travels of a pilgrim, in the
more laborious pursuit of letters, under the stress of persecution,
prisons, and chains, and under the relentless fatigue of a universal
foresight, vigilance, and administration. He had proved himself a
leader and commander of men, as nature had made him to be, and as
history shows that he was.
In an especial manner, he is famous for his prudence. Approaching
every enterprise with the most varied and exhaustive deliberation,
spending forty days of meditation on determining a single point of
the Constitution, throwing upon his premises every kind of light
from consultation and advice, and having habitually in his room, for
reference, only two books, the New Testament, and the Imitation of
Christ, he thought out every plan to the last degree of definiteness
and consistency. Having once reached such a definite conclusion, he
was not easy to move thenceforth out of the direction taken. Quite
otherwise. With the utmost vigilance, he applied himself and he
applied all the means, whether they were persons available or measures
necessary, to the execution of his purpose. Even when, as often seemed
to be the case, he was starting from principles other than those of
ordinary human foresight, apparently from a pure trust in Divine
Providence, he did not exempt himself from applying, with the same
circumspection and diligence as ever, the means adequate to execute
what he had begun. Waiting fourteen hours, and fasting withal, in the
ante-chamber of a prince, lest the propitious occasion should slip,
writing out the same letter twice, thrice, and oftener, lest the right
thing should not be said in the right way, and sending out thirty
letters in one night, he exhibited, in the administration of great
things and small, what had marked all his previous deliberation, the
highest degree of consummate prudence and of practical perfection.
If, in all this, there are many eminent qualities to admire, there is a
resultant fact more marvellous still. He did his work so that it went
on without him. And hence, if, whenever he happened to be anywhere on
the field of action, account had to be taken of such a man, it will
not perhaps appear singular that his Order too, even when ostracized
and expatriated, is taken into account, if it is anywhere visible on
the social horizon. While I am writing this, three hundred and fifty
years after his time, the Bundesrath, on closing the Kulturkampf, and
admitting all the exiled Orders of the Catholic Church back into the
Empire of Germany, makes an exception of the Jesuits. It bans the Order
of Jesus, and gives no reason, beyond the palpable fact that the Order
is what it is. Evidently, Ignatius of Loyola did his work so as to make
it go on without him; and go on just as he made it.
CHAPTER IX.
SUBSEQUENT ADMINISTRATIONS.
According to a contemporary chronicle for the year 1556, the first
announcement of the death of Ignatius caused such a profound sentiment
of grief in all members of the Order, that a degree of stupor seemed
for the moment to possess them. But this was only temporary. It was
followed by a marked alacrity of spirit appearing everywhere. The
Society was beginning its course.[130]
In the first general assembly, Father James Laynez was elected to
succeed the founder, in the office of General Superior. The matters
which concerned the assembly in its legislation, and the new General in
his administration, were the proper temporal foundation of colleges,
the admission of _convictus_ or boarding-colleges, and other questions,
which may be noted in the _Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica_.[131] Laynez
governed the Order during nine years, till 1565.
Father Francis Borgia, who had resigned his dukedom, and by this
example led Charles V to seek repose in the monastery of St. Yuste,
was elected third General. His virtues and his presence, wherever he
appeared, exercised such a magic influence that, when he had merely
passed through Spain, colleges had sprung up as from the soil. Three
Provinces had been formed in that country alone, within thirteen
years from the foundation of the Society. But this multiplication of
colleges, often not sufficiently endowed for their future development,
was already seen to be one of the threatened weaknesses of the
Company. The special legislation passed at the time of his election
regarded the proper establishment, in every Province, of philological,
philosophical, and theological seminaries, for the formation of
Professors.[132] Instead of the proportionate number of Jesuit students
being supported on each collegiate foundation, this legislation, and
much more that followed later, ordained a system of concentration in
seminaries of humane letters, philosophy, science, and divinity, which
were conducted respectively by corps of eminent Professors selected for
the purpose, and were maintained either on some munificent foundation
specially made for this object, or by a due proportion of the other
collegiate foundations. At this date it was that colleges for the
formation of diocesan clergy, or "Bishops' Seminaries," as they are
commonly called, were coming into existence, in accordance with the
decrees of the Council of Trent. The manner of admitting them, as
annexed to colleges of the Society, and thereby availing themselves
of the Jesuit courses, was regulated by this assembly. In no case
were they to be provided with a corps of Professors distinct from the
faculty of the college.
In 1573 Father Everard Mercurian, a Belgian, was elected to succeed
Saint Francis Borgia. He was sixty-eight years old at the time of his
election, and lived eight years after. He drew out of the Constitution
various summaries of rules for the guidance of the chief officers in
the Society. Those which concern studies are given in a few pages of
the Monumenta.[133]
At his death, a young man thirty-seven years old, who had entered the
Order only about twelve years before, was elected to succeed him. This
was Claudius Aquaviva, son of Prince John Aquaviva, Duke of Atri. He
was a man who, for his superior executive abilities and his services
rendered to the Order in times most critical, has been regarded as
a second founder. As to what his administration saw effected in the
matter of education, the _Ratio Studiorum_ bears witness. He governed
the Society during thirty-four years.
Mutius Vitelleschi, one of the mildest and gentlest of men, but not on
that account ineffective in his government, succeeded Aquaviva, filling
a term of thirty-one years, from 1615 to 1646. Various pedagogic
interests occupied the attention of the general assembly, by which
he was elected; in particular, the promotion of Humane Letters, the
means of supplying Professors, and the searching character of the
examinations ordained, at every step in their studies, for the members
of the Society.
The farther the Society advanced in history, the less there was of new
legislation. The tension grew on the side of administration; and the
urgency shown by general assemblies evinces this. The philological
seminary was developed for the junior scholastics; and a classic form
drawn up for it by Jouvancy. As distinguished talents for preaching
and governing were treated with the special favor of being allowed to
compensate for some deficiencies, in the qualifications requisite for
the degree of Profession in the Order, so special legislation provided
for similar eminence in literature, in Oriental languages, in Greek and
Hebrew.
Mathematics had, from the first, been a department of activity native
to the energies of the Company. The schools of Geography and History
developed in the seventeenth and at the beginning of the eighteenth
centuries. The school of modern Physics then asserting itself, and
running so close upon the field of Metaphysics, was subjected to
regulations in the assemblies of 1730 and 1751.
After the restoration of the Order, social and educational
circumstances being so immensely altered, the whole ground had to be
surveyed again, with a view to adaptation; the curriculum had to be
expanded, and, where necessary, prolonged to meet the growing demands
of the exact sciences; and an indefinite number of specialties to
be provided for, by the selection and fostering of special talents.
These special lines are, in the terms of the latest general assembly,
"Ancient Languages, Philology, Ethnology, Archæology, History, Higher
Mathematics, and all the Natural Sciences." We are thus brought down,
in the history of general legislation, to the very recent date, 1883,
less than ten years ago.
Meanwhile the Generals, on whom rested the burden of supervising all
this, discharged the functions of administration. Father Vincent
Caraffa promoted and urged on the pursuit of Belles Lettres, and
defined positions in Mathematics. Father Francis Piccolomini, in a
general ordinance for all the higher studies, defined the stand to
be taken by Professors, as representing the Society itself in their
chairs; so, too, Father Goswin Nickel, with reference to certain new
issues. Both he and his successor, Paul Oliva, had to face the new
contingencies which arose from the charges of the Jansenists against
what they called the loose moral teachings of the Jesuits. Father
Oliva stimulated the pursuit of excellence in Humane Letters, in the
Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldaic languages. Positions of Descartes,
Leibnitz, as well as of certain others in Philosophy and Theology,
were animadverted upon by the Generals Tamburini and Retz. Father
Ignatius Visconti urged again the pursuit of perfection in literary
matters, and in the manner of conducting the schools of literature.
And the General Aloysius Centurione, shortly before the Suppression,
laid down the clearest principles with respect to the study of Moral
Theology, and the examinations therein. Since the restoration of the
Order, Fathers Roothaan, Beckx, and the actual General, Anthony M.
Anderledy, have devoted their own attention and directed that of the
Society to the ways of accepting, with undiminished energy, the altered
and unfavorable situation, in which the present century has placed the
Order, and hampers the revived Institute.
For this immense organization had been almost entirely destroyed by the
stroke of a pen--the signature of Clement XIV given in pencil. They
dispute whether he gave it at all; or, at least, whether he meant it.
Howsoever that be, the Order, which had been erected on the principle
of obedience, received the word and disappeared. The rock on which it
had set its foot became the altar of a sacrifice; and that a sacrifice
offered without a struggle or a remonstrance, to betray any change in
the spirit, with which Ignatius, two hundred and thirty-three years
before, had vowed obedience to the Vicar of Christ. An epigram had
been written, on the occasion of the first centenary, under a picture
of Archimedes and his lever; Archimedes is getting a foothold for his
lever to move the world; and beneath is the epigram:--
Fac pedem figat, et terram movebit.
Its footing was now taken away, and it vanished from the world.
While the Catholic Bourbon courts were thus successful in accomplishing
a manoeuvre, which at fitful intervals they had essayed heretofore,
the schismatical Empress, Catherine II of Russia, denounced it and
endeavored to counteract it. She wrote to the Pope in 1783, "that she
was resolved to maintain these Priests against any power, whatsoever it
was"; and she was good to her word; the Society remained unsuppressed
in White Russia. The Protestant King of Prussia, Frederick the Great,
without exhibiting all the temper of the irascible lady, manipulated
things as best he could to preserve the Society.
To sum up the Order's experiences, it may well be said that in public
life there is no resurrection; and the State which dies is dead
forever. From infancy on through maturity it goes its way decrepit to
the grave. Yet Balmez observes, "the Society of Jesus did not follow
the common course of others, either in its foundation, its development,
or its fall; that Order, of which it is truly and correctly said, that
it had neither infancy nor old age."[134] It rose again; and the flag
of the Knight of Loyola, though worn and torn, was none the less fair
for that:--
Jam se ipso formosius est.
For neither the violence of endurance, nor the vehemence of energy,
although begetting intensest fatigue, is to be confounded with decay.
It was not decay, a century ago, when expropriation and exile were the
confessed policy of the courts in Europe; when, as an American writer
states it, in Portugal "Pombal cut the Gordian knot.... He commenced by
the expulsion of the Jesuits and the expropriation of their property."
Nor is it decay in the Order, when a liberal confederation in
Switzerland, on obtaining the political ascendency in 1848, suppresses
the Jesuit University at Fribourg, and provides in this wise, as an
American writer records: "No religious society shall be allowed to
teach; and persons hereafter educated by the Jesuits, or by any of the
Orders affiliated to the Jesuits, shall be incapable of holding office
in Church or State."[135] Policy like this, whether in the countries
"expurgated," or in countries thereunto "affiliated," proves no decay
in the Order.
But where decay may come in has been clearly pointed out by one of
its Generals. Speaking of the Education of Youth and the Promotion of
Humane Letters, Mutius Vitelleschi wrote, in 1639, "If ever the Society
were to decline from that lofty position which it holds with so many
provinces and peoples, such an event could come about in no other way
than by failing to walk in the same steps, by which, with the Divine
Grace, it has acquired that high esteem."[136]
Those steps had been taken in various paths, of which only two have
concerned us here. For its men of action were largely identified with
the general history of Europe; and its men of the word, who toiled in
apostolic work, at home or abroad, have entwined their memories in the
history of souls, often ungrateful, yet always worthy of the toil. But
its men of the school did a work which we have sketched in a general
way, and which we shall analyze in the second part of this essay; while
its men of the pen deserve a passing word of notice here.
They concern us from a pedagogic point of view, in many ways. They
wrote text-books, many of which are the basis of manuals in almost
every line of education to-day, sometimes without the change of a
word, and generally without acknowledgment. Besides that, their
literary productions were, as a rule, the offspring of their labors
in the schools. It might not be safe to estimate their standing as
_littérateurs_, by the process which a Scotch Professor uses, who,
in the course of forty-seven elegant lectures on Rhetoric and Belles
Lettres, sees little occasion to recognize the existence of this Jesuit
school of literature, except when he goes out of his way to salute Père
Rapin in a somewhat questionable manner.[137] Many of those whom the
Scottish Professor himself does honor to, in his pages, were Jesuit
scholars,--Bossuet, Corneille, Molière, Tasso, Fontenelle, Didérot,
Voltaire, Bourdaloue, himself a Jesuit. It would be safer then to
determine the standing of these Professors, who were in control of a
great literary age, by looking at the golden age itself, that of Louis
XIV. The majority of the brilliant figures, whom Dr. Blair names as
illustrating the epoch,[138] were all Jesuit scholars. Naturally, then,
the fifty Professors of the Jesuit College at Paris were, as Cardinal
Maury affirmed, a permanent tribunal of literature for all men of
letters, a high court of judicature, a focus of public attention from
which radiated the public opinion of the capital; in short, as Piron
had emphatically said, "the Star-chamber of literary reputations."[139]
Devoted as they were to an austere profession, we may say of many among
them, that they were not themselves romancers of a lively fancy or
great poets; and so far agree with Voltaire, who made this very remark
about his old Professor, Père Porée. Yet also, without inconsistency
I believe, we may agree with the spirit of Père Porée's rejoiner, when
the remark was reported to him, that "he was not one of the great
poets." The Jesuit replied, "At least you may grant that I have been
able to make some of them."
And, should results be gauged on a wider basis than mere poetry, not
a few of the most prominent men in European history would seem to
have been the outcome of this system, men, too, who represented every
possible school and tendency, in their subsequent literary and public
life. A few names show this. There are those of Descartes, Buffon,
Justus Lipsius, Muratori, Calderon, Vico, the jurisconsult, founder
of the philosophical school of history. There are Richelieu, Tilly,
Malesherbes, Don John of Austria, Luxembourg, Esterhazy, Choiseul,
with those of Saint Francis de Sales, founder of a religious Order,
Lambertini, afterwards the most learned of Popes, under the name of
Benedict XIV, and the present Pontiff, Leo XIII, also most erudite.
These certainly represent many schools and tendencies, and they come,
with many others, from the same schools.[140]
As authors of every kind, and in departments even far remote from
the regular courses of the schools, Jesuit writers were, at the very
least, so far related to Jesuit teachers, that, as we see in the
bibliographical dictionary of the Society, all had been Professors,
with scarcely an exception; and almost all had professed Humanities,
Belles Lettres, Rhetoric.
When Father Nathaniel Southwell of Norfolk endeavored, in 1676,
to compile a dictionary of these authors, he recorded those whose
works had the qualification of a respectable bulk to recommend them.
He entered the names and works of 2240 authors who answered this
description. This was 136 years after the foundation of the Order. The
enterprise was repeatedly taken in hand afterwards. The possibility of
ever accomplishing it was much jeopardized by the Suppression. But at
length the two Fathers De Backer published a series of seven quarto
volumes, in the years 1853-1861; and this first step they followed up,
in the years 1869-1876, with a new edition, in three immense folios,
containing the names of 11,100 authors. This number does not include
the supplements, with the names of writers in the present century,
and of the anonymous and pseudonymous authors. Of this last category,
Father Sommervogel's researches, up to 1884, enabled him to publish a
catalogue, which fills a full octavo volume of 600 pages, with double
columns. The writers of this century, whom the De Backers catalogued
in their supplement, fill 647 columns, folio, very small print.
Altogether, the three folios contain 7086 columns, compressed with
every art of typographical condensation.
Suarez of course is to be seen there, and Cornelius à Lapide, Petau,
and the Bollandists. A single name, like that of Zaccaria, has 117
works recorded under it, whereof the 116th is in 13 volumes quarto, and
the 117th in 22 volumes octavo. The Catechism of Canisius fills nearly
11 columns with the notices of its principal editions, translations,
abridgments; the commentaries upon it, and critiques. Rossignol has 66
works to his name. The list of productions about Edmund Campian, for or
against him, chiefly in English, fills, in De Backers' folio, two and a
half columns of minutest print. Bellarmine, in Father Sommervogel's new
edition, fills 50 pages, double column.[141]
Under each work are recorded the editions, translations, sometimes
made into every language, including Arabic, Chinese, Indian; also the
critiques, and the works published in refutation--a controversial
enterprise which largely built up the Protestant theological literature
of the times, and, in Bellarmine's case alone, meant the theological
Protestant literature for 40 or 50 years afterwards. Oxford founded
an anti-Bellarmine chair. The editions of one of this great man's
works are catalogued by Sommervogel under the distinct heads of 54
languages.[142]
In the methodical or synoptic table, at the end of the De Backers'
work, not only are the subjects well-nigh innumerable, which have their
catalogues of authors' names attached to them, but such subjects too
are here as might not be expected. Thus "Military Art" has 32 authors'
names under it; "Agriculture" 11; "Navy" 12; "Music" 45; "Medicine" 28.
To conclude then our History of this Educational Order, we have one
synoptical view of it in these twelve or thirteen thousand authors,
all of one family. We have much more. This one work "attesting," as
De Backer says in his preface, "at one and the same time a prodigious
activity and often an indisputable merit," whereof three and a half
centuries have been the course in time, and the whole world the place
and theatre, is a general record of religion, letters, science, and
education, in every country, civilized or barbarous, where the Society
of Jesus labored and travelled. And where has it not done so? In many
parts of the world it was the first to occupy the field with literary
men, who then sent communications to their superiors, or to learned
societies, about the manners of different countries, the state of
religion there, of letters, science, and education, including reports
of their own observations in geography, meteorology, botany, astronomy,
mineralogy, etc. Original sources, from which later history in North,
South, and Central America is drawing materials, are seen described
here as they appeared; so too with regard to Japan, China, Thibet, the
Philippine Islands, Hindustan, Syria, as also to-day with respect to
the native tongues of the North American Indians. Here the record of
published literature, described and catalogued according to date, marks
the stages of mathematical and physical science, from the end of the
sixteenth century onwards, and of magnetic and electrical researches
all through last century; as well as the relationship between the books
of Jesuit authors and similar or kindred ones, by persons outside the
Society, in different countries and of divers religions.
In short, works composed in most of the tongues of the world exhibit
the chief periods in universal culture, and the developments elaborated
in the civilization of mankind.[143]
PART II.
ANALYSIS OF THE SYSTEM OF STUDIES
CHAPTER X.
AQUAVIVA. THE RATIO STUDIORUM.
So centralized an Order as the Society of Jesus, which formed its
Professors for every country, and sent them from one place to another,
undertook, in doing so, to exhibit a definite system of education, of
courses, of method. Besides such a unity of method, it professed also a
consistent uniformity of doctrine.
Before its time there was no one method which could be considered
universal; because there was no teaching body itself universal. The
Order, as it branched out into the world, found a variety of systems
in vogue; and the Jesuit Professors conformed, as best they could, to
the local traditions of populations very diverse, in universities which
were distinct and mutually independent. But, while they endeavored
to better such systems, in accordance with the plan of their own
Constitution, it was clear that they fell short of realizing the idea
of their founder. Hence variations and dispensations were part of the
usual order of the day.
Yet there is a best way of doing everything; and, not least, in
education. In such a best way, some elements are essential at all
times, while others are accidental, and vary with time, place, and
circumstance. The ideal system will preserve in its integrity all
that is essential, and then will adapt the general principles with the
closest adjustment to the particular environment.
Besides the unity of method desired, which I may define to be _the best
way best adjusted to circumstance_, there was need, as I have just
said, of a consistent uniformity of doctrine; lest, in the same chair
of philosophy, of divinity, or of science, or in chairs placed side
by side, one Professor should say Yea to a question, and another Nay
to the same question, with no more material a reason evident for the
difference, save that one taught here and the other there, one spoke
yesterday, the other speaks to-day. The educational effects, however,
are far from being immaterial; for, contradictory statements eliding
one another, it is quite possible that the students understand less the
next day than the day before. And, as to the Professors themselves,
nothing can imperil more the harmony and efficiency of an educational
organization, than disagreement of opinion in the function and act of
teaching. In philosophy, the occasions for dispute spring off at every
turn. Theology, as every one knows, is made to bristle with them. And,
among men who are themselves educated to the highest degree of mental
culture, interests and questions like these are far more absorbing than
money, place, or power elsewhere. If anywhere ideas rule, it is among
men of profound thought; as the intense intellectuality of the mediæval
universities had shown, with all the consequences of unlimited vagaries
in an unbridled scholasticism; or, again, as the whole history of the
intellectual Greek world had evidenced, whether in the early ages of
the Christian Church, or in the heathen generations before.
Whatever, then, a man may think privately, and be free to think, in
matters of mere opinion, the genius of education imposes limits on
the manner and matter of his actual teaching; and the speculations
of a thinker, a writer, or an investigator, are not to be confounded
with the best results of an educator, who, doing his work in the best
way, is to effect a definite and immediate object. That object is
nothing less than the equipping of fresh young spirits with principles
of thought and habits of life, to enter fully appointed on their
respective paths of duty. In this view, therefore, definiteness of
matter, no less than unity of method, were required from the first for
an effective system of education.
During forty years, the individual enterprise of experienced and
responsible men had been interpreting the values and measuring the
results of existing methods. The Society itself had mounted into such
a position, as practically to command the whole field of secular
education. Its own system must have been excellent already. Nor could
that system have been uniformly excellent, but for some uniformity
which characterized it. Still the unity was defective. The Provinces
were petitioning for an improvement. Evils obstructed the way to
something better. For these reasons, the matter was taken in hand by
one General after another. And the final outcome of their work was a
"Form," or "Method of Studies," _Formula_, or _Ratio Studiorum_.
On the nineteenth day of February, 1581, Father Claudius Aquaviva
was elected fifth General Superior of the Society. Taking up this
educational project where his predecessors had left it, and, like
them, availing himself of his almost boundless resources for obtaining
information, he began by putting the work through every possible stage
of consultation, to which the traditions of his office, and his own
executive ability prompted him; and, when all prudent means had been
exhausted in deliberating, he then used the executive power which
was vested in him; and he required that what had been so laboriously
designed, by the united efforts of many, should henceforth be reduced
to practice, with the good will of all.
It will be interesting to review briefly the process of elaboration.
In the general assembly which elected Aquaviva, a committee of twelve
Fathers from different countries was appointed to draw up a method of
studies. How far their work proceeded does not appear. Three years
later, in 1584, the General named a Commission of six, John Azor from
Spain, Gaspar Gonzalez from Portugal, Peter Buys from Austria, Anthony
Guisani from Upper Germany, Stephen Tucci of Rome, and James Tyre to
represent France. This last-named Jesuit, a Scotchman, was not unknown
in the lists of controversy to his countryman, John Knox. They were
all experienced in the administration of colleges, and versed in the
subjects of all the faculties. Entering on their labors, they worked
during six winter months in the Poenitentiaria of St. Peter's in Rome;
and, during the next three summer months, they resided in the Quirinal.
The eyes of the chief authorities in the Catholic world were turned
in expectancy towards them. Indeed, some of the chief interests of
Catholic Christendom seemed to depend upon them.
They spent three hours a day in consultation. The rest of their time
they devoted to consulting authors and conning over methods, in the
three fields of letters, philosophy, and divinity. The documents which
they studied are enumerated by themselves as being the minutes of
previous deliberations held at Rome, or in the more prominent colleges
of the Order; the letters, consultations and laws of the universities,
and other such documents, sent at different times up to that date
from Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Poland; the fourth part of the
Constitution, as the standard of guidance; the canons of the general
assemblies; the rules and statutes of the schools; moreover, the
customs and regulations of the Roman College.[144]
After nine months of consecutive labor, they presented the results to
the General, in August, 1585. Father Aquaviva submitted the document
for examination to the Professors of the Roman College. Then he took
the whole matter under his own personal consideration, with his four
General Assistants, who represented each a certain number of Provinces.
At this stage, the report was printed, not as a rule determined on, but
as the preliminary outline of a rule. The copies struck off were few,
just enough for the use of the Provinces. The General's letter, which
accompanied the report, defined the precise stage at which the process
was now understood to be.[145]
He says that, in a matter of such grave and universal consequence, it
was not his intention to prescribe anything, without first learning the
opinions of the chief Doctors of the Society. Accordingly, he had been
content with reading the results of the Commission's labors, decreeing
nothing, changing nothing, except so far as was necessary to put it
in shape for distribution. He now required the Provincial Superiors,
immediately upon receipt of the present letter, to select at least five
men, who were the best qualified in point of learning and judgment,
along with other members, who were eminent in literature, and whom
the Provincial might think fit to convoke. To these the report was to
be submitted, for each to examine privately, and with great care. On
certain days, several times in the week, they were to meet and hold
consultations; to put their conclusions in writing, as well with regard
to the practical method of studies, as with regard to the speculative
opinions which they favored; they were to note whatever they thought
should be added, or be made clearer, or otherwise regulated, for the
greater perfection of the work. If any of the Fathers, designated for
this Provincial committee, could not possibly attend the meetings,
still they were to send their opinions in writing to the Fathers
actually in session; so that full account might be taken of the public
opinion in that Province. The criterion they were to follow, in making
up their minds, was not so much their own private sentiment or their
own leaning this way or that, as the general good of the whole Society,
the practice of the universities and schools, and, in fine, the
judgment of Doctors most approved for their authority and solidity of
doctrine.
Aquaviva refers to the idea and intention of Ignatius with respect to
the present undertaking; and he adds: "I would have all steadfastly
keep this object in view, that they endeavor to find out reasons,
not how a final decree may be prevented, as if the enterprise were
hard, and could not possibly be carried out (for we have made up our
mind to carry it out, since it is necessary, and is recommended by
the Constitution); but how the difficulties, if any such there be,
may disappear, and the whole Order may combine in one and the same
arrangement; for otherwise the final result would only be the greater
detriment of the Society."
He calls their attention to an important point, in what is now styled
Pedagogics, or the Science of Education. It is, that, in the form now
sent out, the Fathers had taken pains to explain their reasons for
arriving at conclusions. That would not be done in the System to be
drawn up later, which would contain only the statement of directions
for all to follow. In these words, we have a most important distinction
laid down between the science which underlies the system of education,
and the practical method itself which rests upon the science. The
_Ratio Studiorum_, as subsequently promulgated, is a practical method.
The science is sketched, as need arises, in the preliminary _Ratio_ of
1586.
At the same time, Father Aquaviva despatched another letter, about
which he says, in a postscript to the foregoing, that the six points
provisionally laid down in it are to be subjected to the same
examination as the preliminary _Ratio_ itself.
In this supplementary epistle, he premises that it will require much
time and consideration to issue the final code of rules; and therefore,
as a direction for the time being, he issues the following:--
First, Professors shall adhere to St. Thomas Aquinas as their standard
in theology.
Secondly, they shall take care, in their manner of teaching, always to
consolidate faith and piety.
Thirdly, he lays down a principle of still wider application, and one
which seems vital in the whole theory and practice of teaching: "Let
no one defend any opinion which is judged by the generality of learned
men to go against the received tenets of philosophers and theologians,
or the common consent of theological schools." This touches a vital
element in education. If we suppose that the teacher's art lies, not in
giving forth the lucubrations of his own private thoughts and theories,
but in imparting solid results, approved and ascertained, to those who
come for such results, and wish to receive them in the most approved
way, then the Professor in his chair ought not to mistake himself for
the author in his study, nor should he practise on living men, whose
life is all before them, what he might, with more propriety, first
practise on the leisured world, and test elsewhere, either in the
printed page, or in conference with his equals. The Professor, as such,
is not the original investigator. In mathematics, he is notoriously
not so. In that branch, the best teacher is the man who walks along a
definite line, turns neither to the right nor left, and finishes in
a definite time; or else his scholars will never finish. To a certain
degree, the same holds in all courses. If a man is theorizing, when
he ought to be instructing, he goes off the line of perfect system,
however much pains he takes with his matter; just as much as if, taking
no pains whatever, he neglected his matter altogether, went behind it,
or around it, gave histories of his branch, methods of teaching it, and
descanted on pedagogics, to young people who were never sent to him for
that purpose. They are sent to learn definite matter, and to be formed
therein on a good plan, by the man who understands it. Then, as Loyola
said in another connection, "when they have experienced in themselves
the effects thereof," they will be qualified for all the rest, for
understanding the plan itself on which they have been formed, and
enjoying all the practical results of it; and, if their line of life
invites, for understanding other plans too. This is practical wisdom in
education; neither dilettantism nor speculation.
Fourthly, Aquaviva lays down a principle regarding the public
advocacy of opinions. He is not referring to authorities denouncing,
or Professors repudiating, them; but merely to certain conditions
for putting them forward: "If opinions, no matter whose they be, are
found in a certain province or city to give offence to many Catholics,
whether members of the Society or not, that is, persons not unqualified
to judge, let no one teach them or defend them there, albeit the same
doctrines may be taught elsewhere without offence." The word "defence,"
in a context like this, means publishing and sustaining theses against
all comers in public disputations; wherein the Professor represents
the school, and the school is put to the account of the Order. The
principle seems discreet. If a corporate body does not want to be
compromised, it is not for the member to compromise it. If he wants to
use the perfect freedom of his opinions, and deliver himself of his own
pronouncements, he ought first to assure himself that his circumstances
are such as to set him free from representing others. This is an
elementary principle of social and urbane existence.
The fifth point concerns the march of improvement in the advancement
of opinions. It describes the method of discreet development: "In
questions which have already been treated by others, let no one follow
new opinions, or, in matters which in any way pertain to religion, or
are of some consequence, let no one introduce new questions, without
consulting the Prefect of Studies, or the Superior. If, then, it still
remains dubious, whether the new opinion, or the new question, is
permissible, it will be proper for the said authority, in order that
things may proceed more smoothly, to learn the judgment of others
in the Society upon the subject; and then he will determine what
appears best for the greater glory of God." In the sixth and last
point, Aquaviva calls attention to a former decree, upon the manner of
treating the Aristotelian philosophy.[146]
So much for this letter of Aquaviva. On the sense and purport thereof
he invited the communication of views from the Order at large, as
well as on the document which he encloses, the preliminary _Ratio
Studiorum_. To this we may now turn our attention.
The six Fathers, who drew it up, state, in their introduction, that
there are two mainstays and supports of the Society of Jesus, "an
ardent pursuit of piety and an eminent degree of learning," _ardens
pietatis studium et præstans rerum scientia_. If piety is not illumined
with the light of learning, it can be, no doubt, of great use to the
person who possesses it, but of scarcely any use in the service of the
Church and of one's neighbor, in the administration of the Word and of
the Sacraments, in the education of youth, in controversies with those
who are hostile to the faith, in giving counsel, answering doubts, and
in all other offices and functions, which are proper to men of the
Order. All these call for an endowment of learning not common, but
excelling in its degree.
To acquire such learning, it is of supreme consequence that we set
before ourselves what path we enter on, what arts we employ, and what
means we use; because, unless a ready and tried method be adopted,
_ratio facilis ac solers_, much labor is spent in gathering but
little fruit; whereas, if the labor of studies be guided by some sage
rule, great results are compendiously obtained, at the cost of little
research.
Then the Commission goes on to say: "We have undertaken to teach,
not only members of the Order, but youth from the world outside. The
number of this latter class is vast; it includes brilliant talent, and
represents the nobility. We cannot imagine that we do justice to our
functions, or come up to the expectations formed of us, if we do not
feed this multitude of youths, in the same way as nurses do, with
food dressed in the best way, for fear they grow up in our schools,
without growing much in learning. An additional spur is felt in the
circumstance, that whatever concerns us is public and, day after day,
is before the eyes of all, even of those who are not well disposed
towards us." The Fathers consider it unnecessary to enlarge upon that
harmony of views, so much commended in the Constitution, as to matters
of public policy or teaching; they say, "sufficient regard could not,
up to this, be paid to such harmony; for, when no common order or
form was as yet prescribed, every one thought that he could hold what
sentiments he liked, and teach them to others in the manner he himself
preferred; so that sometimes the members of the Order disagreed as much
among themselves, as with others outside."[147]
After describing, in vivid terms, the manner in which they had
conducted their deliberations, and arrived at conclusions, and how,
when any keen dispute had arisen among them,[148] they had divided and
distinguished the disputed matter, and had examined it during two and
even three days, till they came to settle at last on what all of them
accepted, the critics come to the Practice and Order of Studies;[149]
and upon this they enlarge, in successive chapters, under the following
heads:--
The Sacred Scriptures. The Length of the Course in Divinity. The Means
of finishing that Course in Four Years. The Method of Lecturing. The
Questions which are either not to be treated by the Theological
Professors, or are to be treated only at a Certain Part of the Course.
Repetitions. Disputations. The Choice, Censorship, and Correcting of
Opinions. The Private Studies of Students. Vacations. The Degrees of
Bachelor, Master, Doctor. Controversial Theology. Moral Theology.
Hebrew. The Study of Philosophy, which includes Physics. Mathematics.
Literature, that is, Grammar, History, Poetry, Rhetoric. Seminaries
for Literature and the Higher Faculties. The Professors of Literature.
The Grammar to be used. Greek. Different Exercises in the Classics.
Incitements to Study. The Method of Promotion. Books. Vacations in the
Lower Classes. Order and Piety. The Respective Objects and Exercises of
the Classes of Grammar and Humanity. The Class of Humanity. The Class
of Rhetoric. General Distribution of Time during the Year.
These are the matters handled in the publication of 1586. In the course
of treatment, this document contains, by way of a running commentary,
the complete theory of Education, or Science of Pedagogics, as
understood by these critics. It will not be possible, within the brief
limits of this work, to give more than a bare sketch of the pedagogical
elements contained in the one hundred and fifty pages of the _Monumenta
Germaniæ Pædagogica_.[150]
A second, partial edition of this preliminary _Ratio_ was sent out by
Father Aquaviva, in 1591, to which an entertaining bibliographical
history is attached.[151] In 1593, the fifth general assembly of
the Order met, Claudius Aquaviva presiding. By this time, during the
interval of seven years which had elapsed since the first edition,
the book had been subjected to examination in all the Provinces;
observations and criticisms had been returned; it had been re-committed
to the Fathers at Rome, and revised by the General with his Assistants;
and had again been sent out for trial. The Provincials and Deputies,
meeting in 1593, brought with them the reports of how the system
worked. Its slightest defects were noted.[152] Most asked for an
abridged form.
Amid the very grave questions then pending, the assembly took some
action on the _Ratio_. It was re-committed once more to the competent
authorities for revision. And it assumed its last and definite form,
in what was probably its ninth edition. This last issue, in the year
1599, after fifteen years spent on the elaboration of it, is the RATIO
STUDIORUM.
One hundred and twenty-seven years later, the great old University of
Paris seems to have become a disciple of its educational rival, the
Society of Jesus. Querard observes that the Rector, Rollin, "without
saying anything about it, translated the _Ratio_ for his _Traité des
Études_."[153] Indeed, as M. Bréal, historian of that University,
observes, referring to the suppression of the Order: "Once delivered
from the Jesuits, the University installed itself in their houses, and
continued their manner of teaching."[154]
In all general works on education, there is question of this System.
Its form is that of a practical method, without reasons being assigned,
or arguments urged. It is a legislative document, which superseded all
previous forms. The General's letter, which accompanied it, ordered the
suppression of them all, promulgating this one to the exclusion of the
rest.
The sentiment, to which the last words of this letter gives expression
as a fond hope, was fully responded to by the course of events, in the
one hundred and seventy-four years which were to elapse before the
general suppression of the Order: "It is believed," he said, "that it
will bring forth abundant fruit, for the benefit of our scholars,"
_Quae nostris auditoribus uberes fructus allatura creditur_. Aquaviva's
letter is dated the eighth day of January, 1599.[155]
CHAPTER XI.
FORMATION OF THE MASTER. HIS COURSES OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY.
It seems an apt distribution of our subject, to consider, first, the
formation of the Master, and secondly, the formation of the Scholar.
The Master's development will conduct us chiefly through the higher
studies; the Scholar's, rather through the lower. Thus the two persons,
about whom the science of education revolves, will be directly under
inspection; while the elements which go to form them will, at the same
time, pass under review.
Without theorizing on pedagogy, the Jesuit system itself, merely as
observed and realized, results in the formation of Professors. There
are several reasons, apparent on the surface, why it should do so.
The studies, which the members of the Order pursue, are the same
courses as the Order professes for the world at large. But, for the
Jesuit members of the divers courses, a most elaborate system of
examinations at every stage, with a specially searching manner of
testing the students, is made to regard one objective point, which
is the capacity of the Jesuit to teach what he has learnt, and this,
as evinced, while under examination. The manner, in which this point
is judicially determined, consists in referring the examiners to a
standard, called "mediocrity." After a personal and oral disputation
with the young Jesuit, lasting either half an hour, or one hour, or two
consecutive hours, according to the stage at which he happens to be,
a preponderating vote of the four or five examining Professors must
aver that he has "surpassed mediocrity." The learning, prudence, and
sincerity of the examiners are appealed to without further sanction,
except at the very last stage in the young man's progress, when success
under the ordeal will entitle him to Profession in the Society. Then
each examiner's prudence is stimulated, and his sincerity bound down,
by an oath. Only at one initial stage, that of the first examination in
the course of his three years' Philosophy, is a certain margin allowed
the beginner, in favor of bare mediocrity.
"Mediocrity" is defined to be that degree of intelligence, and
comprehension of the matters studied, which can give an account of
them to one asking an explanation. "To surpass mediocrity" designates
the student's ability to defend his entire ground with such erudition
and facility as show him qualified, in point of actual attainments, to
profess the philosophy or theology studied. The final degree in the
Order, which is that of Profession, requires this competency for all
Philosophy and Theology together. Here then we see, that the capacity
to teach is made the criterion of having learned sufficiently well.
Passing through all the grades with this mark of excellence, the man
who, after a general formation of seventeen years, and the requisite
development of other qualifications, is then appointed to profess in a
chair of the higher faculties, has been very much to the manner born
of "surpassing mediocrity," and of doing so with the characteristics
of a Professor.[156] How the same principles, if not in the same form,
affect the conduct of the literary curriculum, we shall now see in the
rest of this chapter.
The literary curriculum has been already finished by the Jesuit,
before entering the Order. But, after his admission, special means are
taken to have him revise those studies, extend them, and grasp them
from the standpoint of the teacher. It happens in Jesuit history, and
the nature of secondary education will always have it so, that the
largest amount of teaching has been done in the arena of these literary
courses. And it was no small part of the general revival of studies,
effected by Ignatius of Loyola, that justice was done to literature,
as well by students who were to enter on philosophical or scientific
courses,[157] as by those who contemplated embarking on life in the
world. We noticed, on a former occasion, the reasoning of Aquaviva with
respect to this policy.[158] The literary courses in question are those
of Grammar, Humanities, and Rhetoric, which fill from five to seven
years. The Fathers of 1586 urge the importance of these studies for the
English and German students in Rome, as if special difficulties were
experienced with them.[159]
If we inquire what were the results of the stringent regulations
adopted to enforce this policy, and what degree of proficiency was
attained in the Jesuit courses of Belles-Lettres and eloquence, we have
only to consult the concordant testimony of history upon the "handsome
style" and literary finish of the scholars. An interesting answer, from
a domestic point of view, is casually afforded us by a remark, which
the Fathers of Upper Germany make, when in 1602 they send to Aquaviva
some animadversions of theirs upon the _Ratio_. They say that students
in the class of Rhetoric might deliver their own orations, "since there
are generally found in that class, particularly among those of the
second year, young men who often surpass even their own Professors in
genius, and in the variety and fluency of their language."[160]
The bearing of all this is obvious, in determining the grade of those
students who ask for admission into the Order. It is after a full
gymnasium course of this kind, that the life of the Jesuit is to begin.
And these are the studies which he will have to possess after the
manner of a teacher. He will review them as soon as his two years of
novitiate are over.
Those years of novitiate are blank, under the aspect of secular
pursuits. But, in other respects, being a time for reflection and for
internal application to the affairs of his mind and heart, they are
worth a long season in the process of developing character, by habits
of assiduous labor, of acquiring a taste for retirement and virtue, and
practising the spirit of docility to counsel. Indeed, on issuing from
this period of intense application to the knowledge of self, the young
religious student is already started on his career of knowing men, and
dealing successfully with human characters. Henceforth, ecclesiastical
knowledge and other acquirements will be proper to his state, as a
Religious; but, for the special vocation of the Society of Jesus, he
returns to secular studies.
In view of his approaching "regency," or Professorship in the
curriculum of letters, the critics of 1586 give this advice: "It
would be most profitable for the schools, if those who are about
to be Preceptors were privately taken in hand by some one of great
experience; and, for two months or more, were practised by him in
the method of reading, teaching, correcting, writing, and managing a
class. If teachers have not learnt these things beforehand, they are
forced to learn them afterwards at the expense of their scholars; and
then they will acquire proficiency only when they have already lost
in reputation; and perchance they will never unlearn a bad habit.
Sometimes, such a habit is neither very serious nor incorrigible, if
taken at the beginning; but, if the habit is not corrected then, it
comes to pass that a man, who otherwise would have been most useful,
becomes well-nigh useless. There is no describing how much amiss
Preceptors take it, if they are corrected, when they have already
adopted a fixed method of teaching; and what continual disagreement
ensues on that score with the Prefects of Studies. To obviate this
evil, in the case of our Professors, let the Prefect in the chief
College, whence our Professors of Humanities and Grammar are usually
taken, remind the Rector and Provincial, about three months before the
next scholastic year begins, that, if the Province needs new Professors
for the following term, they should select some one eminently versed
in the art of managing classes, whether he be, at the time, actually
a Professor, or a student of Theology or Philosophy; and to him the
future Masters are to go daily for an hour, to be prepared by him for
their new ministry, giving prelections in turn, writing, dictating,
correcting, and discharging the other duties of a good teacher."[161]
This advice was in keeping with an ordinance of the second general
assembly, held in 1565, nine years after the death of Ignatius. It
had been resolved, that at least one perfect Seminary of the Society
should be established in each Province for the formation of Professors
and others, who would be competent workmen in the vineyard of Christ,
in the department of Humane Letters, Philosophy, and Theology, so as
to suffice for the needs of the whole Province. This was to be done as
soon as convenient in each Province.
Henceforward, it became a matter of general observance that all should
have spent "at least two years in the school of eloquence," besides
repeating grammar, if that were necessary.[162] "And if any are so
gifted as to promise great success in these pursuits, it will be worth
while seeing whether they should not spend three years in them, to lay
a more solid foundation."[163] To such a solid foundation in Humane
Letters corresponds a special privilege in the crowning of a member's
formation, inasmuch as the Society admits to Profession one who is
altogether eminent in literature, even though in Theology he may not
have surpassed mediocrity; a privilege which was extended to great
proficiency in the Indian and Oriental languages, as also to a marked
excellence in Greek and Hebrew.[164]
Examining more in detail this literary formation, we may take up
the programme for the seminary of the junior members, as drafted by
Jouvancy. He drew it up in pursuance of a decree to that effect, passed
a hundred years later, by the general assembly of 1696. This decree
required that, "besides the rules, whereby the Masters of Literature
are directed in the manner of teaching, they should be provided with
an Instruction and Method of learning properly, and so be guided in
their private studies even while they are actually teaching."[165] The
method in question is outlined in the first part of Jouvancy's little
book, entitled _Ratio Discendi et Docendi_, "The art of Learning and of
Teaching." A cursory glance at this part shows that, while addressing
Masters on the subject of their own private studies, his directions
bear chiefly upon their efficiency as teachers.
Jouvancy divides his subject into three chapters: first, the knowledge
and use of languages; secondly, the possession of sciences; thirdly,
some aids to study.
As to languages, they are three in number: Greek, Latin, and the native
tongue. Laying down some principles on style in general, he says: "If a
correct understanding, according to Horace, be the first principle and
source of writing well, it follows that style, which is nothing else
than a certain manner of writing, has two parts; first, the intelligent
thought or sentiment, properly conceived; secondly, the expression of
the same; so that, as man himself is made up of soul and body, all
style likewise consists of the underlying thought and the manner of
its expression." Thought must be true, perspicuous, and adapted to
the subject. To think truly or justly of things, there is required
mental power and insight, which distinguishes what is really the gist
of a subject-matter from what is only a deceptive appearance, or is
superficial. Assistance is to be had for all this from the reading of
good books, from accurate reflection and protracted thought, which
does not merely skim over the subject, or touch it in a desultory way;
again, from the analysis of parts, causes, adjuncts; finally, from the
prudent judgment of others, or what is called criticism. As to the ways
of acquiring proper diction, Jouvancy says: "I would have you avail
yourself of books which treat of this matter, not so as to imagine all
is done by thumbing them; you will gain much more by the plentiful
reading of the best writers"; and again, "'abundance of diction,'
_copia verborum_, will be easily acquired by reading much." It is by
reading, writing, and imitating the best authors that a good style is
formed; and only the best authors are to be read, "lest the odor of a
foreign and vicious style cling to the mind, as to new vases."
Coming to treat of one's native tongue, Jouvancy lays down these
points: "The study of the vernacular consists chiefly in three things.
First, since the Latin authors are explained to the boys, and are
rendered into the mother-tongue, the version so made should be as
elegant as possible. Wherefore, let the master elaborate his version
for himself, or, if he draws on any writer in the vernacular, let him
compare first the Latin text with the version before him; thus he
will find it easy to perceive what is peculiar to either tongue, and
what is the respective force and beauty of each. The same method is
to be observed in explaining and translating histories in the lower
classes. Secondly, all the drafts of compositions, which are dictated
in the vernacular, must be in accord with the most exact rules of the
mother-tongue, free from every defect of style. [Thirdly,] it will
be of use to bring up and discuss, from time to time, whatever has
been noticed in the course of one's reading, and whatever others have
observed regarding the vicious and excellent qualities of speech. The
younger Master should be on his guard against indulging too much in the
reading of vernacular authors, especially the poets, to the loss of
time, and perhaps to the prejudice of virtue."
The interest here manifested in the vicious and excellent qualities of
the mother-tongue was a contribution of the schools to the development
of modern languages. Nor was the severity, which is here prescribed,
with reference to the use of poetry, a barrier to the formation of
some good poets among the Jesuits themselves. Friedrich von Spee is
considered a distinguished lyric poet of the seventeenth century.
Denis, as the translator of Ossian into German, helped to inaugurate
the later period of German literature. In Italian prose, Bartoli,
Segneri, Pallavicini, have ranked as classics; Tiraboschi, as the
historian of literature; Bresciani, in our days, as the popular
novelist. As writers of French prose, Bourdaloue and Bouhours appertain
to the choicest circle of Louis XIV's golden age; Du Cygne, Brumoy,
Tournemine, besides others already mentioned in these pages, took their
place as literary critics. And, in their several national literatures,
Cahours, Martin, Garucci, have attained their literary eminence as
art-critics.
Reverting to solidity of thought as the basis of style, Jouvancy
eliminates the false ornaments of a subtle and abrupt style, by
reducing the conceptions to a dialectical analysis: "What does the
thing mean?" And he gives examples.
In the second chapter of the same part, the _Ars Discendi_, he comes
to the acquisition of those sciences, which are proper to a Master
of Literature. He says: "The erudition of a religious master is
not confined to mere command of languages, whereof we have spoken
heretofore; it must rise higher to the understanding of some sciences,
which it is usual to impart to youth. Such are Rhetoric, Poetry,
History, Chronology, Geography, and Philology or Polymathy, which last
is not so much a single science as a series of erudite attainments,
whereof an accomplished person should at least have tasted." History he
divides into Sacred, Universal, and Particular. "As to the histories
of particular nations, writers of the respective nationalities record
them;" "and if you do not add Chronology to History, you take out one
of History's eyes." For Geography, he designates the books and maps
which were then to be had. And, for all the branches, he indicates
standard authors.
Now, in this little rhetorical sketch of Jouvancy's, we may take
note of two features, one pedagogical, the other historical. The
distinctively pedagogical cast is put upon these private studies, in
as much as they are magisterial, being pursued with express reference
to the Master's chair. The historical feature, to be noted here, is
common to the Jesuit educational literature in general; which, in its
many departments, marked several epochs and, as a whole, made an era in
education.
Thus, at the time of the _Ratio Studiorum_, there were indeed several
guides of the very first rank, in the path of a literary formation.
They were three in number, Cicero, Quintilian, and Aristotle. From
these the Professor of Rhetoric had to derive his matter and make
clear his method. The _Ratio_ names them as his text-books for the
Precepts.[166] From these sources the literary activity and experience
of many generations of Professors, in several hundred colleges of the
Order, tended to mark out the best line to follow, for the attainment
of literary perfection. The literary course, in which they themselves
were proximately formed for the duties of teaching, served but to
organize the matter, and to digest it. The numberless pedagogical
text-books, issued before Jouvancy, and after him, exhibit the progress
of the movement during the several centuries. And, at present, the
system may be seen in its most developed form, if one consults the
newest guides, like Father Kleutgen's _Ars Dicendi_, or Father
Broeckaert's _Le Guide du Jeune Littérateur_. But, long before our day,
the most ordinary systems of literary instruction have embodied the
method; and the commonest text-books have it.
A similar epoch was made, as early as 1572, by the Grammar of Father
Emmanuel Alvarez, _De Institutione Grammatica Libri Tres_, a work
adopted by the _Ratio_, then republished in editions so numerous as
to baffle all calculation, translated either entire, or in part, into
thirteen languages; while one portion, well-known in our times as a
"Latin Prosody," is credited to divers authors or publishers.[167]
The latest editions of this Grammar, issued in different languages,
are of the last twenty-five years. This era of development in grammar
superseded the subtleties and metaphysical abstractions of mediæval
methods.[168]
In history, not to mention the voluminous James Sirmond, whose
researches among original sources were made before the sixteenth
century had closed, Father Denis Petau (Petavius), early in the
following century, composed his great work on Chronology, laying down
the exact basis in this respect for Universal History, both sacred and
profane.[169] Geneva and Holland alike reproduced the work. Labbe's
publications on ancient and modern History and Chronology, the greater
part of his eighty works being upon these subjects, with several
abridgments and geographical adjuncts; Father Buffier's "Practical
History," which was published for the schools in 1701, and then rapidly
went through divers editions, to be supplemented in 1715 by his
"Universal Geography," his treatise on the Globe and his Maps, all of
which went through some scores of French, Italian and Dutch editions;
these and other works of the kind indicate the line of pedagogical
development going on at the same time in the various colleges. Hence,
the "New Elements of History and Geography for the use of the Scholars
of the Collège Louis-le-Grand," which was an abridgment of Buffier's
book, could say, with some propriety, on its first page: "How great has
been the carelessness of an age, otherwise so judicious and cultivated
as ours, in not having as yet made the science of History and Geography
an essential part of the education of youth? The public and posterity
will perhaps be grateful to the College of Louis-le-Grand, for having
shown in this regard an example, which ought to do honor to our
time."[170] Thus the same resources were at the service of Jesuit
education as, in the general literary world, helped to form the Jesuit
historians: Mariana, historian of Spain; Damian Strada, of the War in
the Netherlands; Balbin, of Bohemia; Naruszewicz, of Poland; Katona,
of the Kings of Hungary; Damberger, of the Middle Ages; Francis Wagner,
of Leopold I; G. Daniel, historiographer royal of France.
Geography is not to be separated from History. Up to the end of the
sixteenth century, Ptolemy's Geography, corrected, modified, altered,
according to the reports of navigators, had been the scientific
standard, but uncertain, vacillating, and self-contradictory. From the
earlier part of the seventeenth century, the astronomical observations,
sent from the far East by the Jesuit missionaries, emphasized the need
of a general reform, already sufficiently evident. Father Riccioli,
assisted by Father Grimaldi, who is known in science as one of the
precursors of Newton, undertook, in his _Geographia Reformata_, the
reform of Geography by means of Astronomy.[171] For this purpose, he
created first his own metrology, identifying, and reducing to a common
denomination, all the measures received in reports from different parts
of the earth. The first eclipse of the moon which he makes mention
of, among his astronomical reports, had been observed on the night
of November 8, 1612, by Father Scheiner at Ingolstadt and by Father
Charles Spinola at Nangasaki in Japan. At the time that Riccioli
was writing, the Jesuit missionaries had multiplied in China. Adam
Schall died in 1666, holding the post of President of the Mathematical
Tribunal at Pekin; he was followed by Ferdinand Verbiest; and then a
long line of imperial astronomers of the Celestial Empire, Koegler,
Hallerstein, Seixas, Francesco, De Rocha, Espinha, continued to send
their reports, either to the colleges of their respective Provinces, or
to other mathematical centres, or to the learned societies in Europe,
whereof not a few Jesuits were members. Meanwhile, scientific returns
from Hindustan, Siam, Thibet, on one side of the globe, and from San
Domingo on the other side, poured into the Collège Louis-le-Grand,
and made of this educational centre an indispensable auxiliary to the
Bureau of Longitudes. All this, reacting on education, was received
with satisfaction by the general world, and drew the pedagogic bodies
steadily, though with some difficulty, on the line of progress. The
University of Paris was quite tardy in following up the steps of the
Jesuits.[172]
As to Mathematics in education, it is evident that a similar process
of development must have been the history of this branch, with the
limitation however, that mathematical science has not been so nearly
created anew within these last centuries, as some other departments.
Father Christopher Clavius, "the Euclid of his time," was engaged by
Gregory XIII in reforming the Calendar, the same which we use to-day;
he died in 1612. His death intervening, while his complete works were
being republished, Father Ziegler superintended the new edition, till
it was finished in five tomes. Francis Coster, at Cologne, Hurtado
Perez, at Ingolstadt, Henry Garnet, an Englishman, and Grienberger,
successor of Clavius, both at Rome, belonged, with other mathematicans
of the Order, to the sixteenth century. The writers of the preliminary
_Ratio_, 1586, require that, in a brief course of Mathematics,
"Euclid's Elements" "be seasoned always with some application to
Geography or the Sphere"; then, in the following year, the rest of
Father Clavius' "Epitome of Practical Arithmetic"[173] is to be
finished;[174] and special courses are provided for members of the
Order, who give promise of eminence.[175]
Indeed, whether as Professors of officers for the army and navy, or as
constructing and directing observatories, the members pursued every
branch of Mathematics, pure and applied. Father L'Hoste's "Treatise
on Naval Evolutions" was used in the French navy, as "the Book of the
Jesuit."[176] Of this book the Count de Maistre writes quaintly in
1820: "An English Admiral assured me less than ten years ago, that
he had received his first instructions in the 'Book of the Jesuit.'
If events are taken for results, there is not a better book in the
world!"[177] Eximeno, at the school of Segovia, instructed young nobles
in Mathematics and the science of Artillery. And so, in general,
courses were provided, according as the needs of respective localities
required. The Republic of Venice struck a gold medal in honor of
Vincent Riccolati, the Jesuit engineer, just as the King of Denmark
honors De Vico, the astronomer, with a gold medal struck in his honor,
and having the words inscribed, "Comet Seen, Jan. 24, 1846."[178]
Kircher, Boscovich, Pianciani, Secchi, Perry, honored with the
fellowship of so many learned and scientific Academies, and exercising
a distinct influence to-day, either by the far-reaching effects of
their researches, or by their actual contact with science, may be
looked upon as belonging to our most recent times.[179]
It is remarked that to the Order was due the multiplication of
observatories, in the middle of last century. Father Huberti
superintended the building of an observatory at Würzburg; Father
Maximilian Hell, the court astronomer, built one at Vienna. At Manheim,
a third was erected by Mayer and Metzger; at Tyrnau, one by Keri; at
Prague, another by Steppling; one at the Jesuit College of Gratz;
similarly at Wilna, Milan, Florence, Parma, Venice, Brescia, Rome,
Lisbon, Marseilles, Bonfa. In short, Montucla remarks: "In Germany
and the neighboring countries, there were few Jesuit colleges without
an observatory. They were to be found at Ingolstadt, Gratz, Breslau,
Olmütz, Prague, Posen, etc. Most of them seem to have shared the fate
of the Society; though there are a few which survive the general
destruction."[180]
These few indications go to illustrate the pedagogical epochs made
by the system of the Order. And the young member, who is being
formed to contribute his own share towards carrying on the education
of the world, passes all these branches under review. One of them,
Mathematics, is conducted outside of the philological seminary,
which we have so far been considering; it is left for his course of
Philosophy, which he will pursue during three years, before actually
embarking on the life of the class-room, or his "regency." We may now
suppose that the time has arrived for his entering the class-room, as a
Master of Grammar and Elementary Literature.
When he does so, he has possessed himself, in that philosophical
triennium, of positive intellectual attainments, neither meagre
nor common. He has surveyed the whole field of natural thought and
investigation, in the various branches, mental, physical, and ethical.
To enumerate them, there is Logic, including dialectics, and the
criteria, objective and subjective, of truth; Ontology, or general
metaphysics; Special Metaphysics, in its three divisions:--Cosmology,
which immediately underlies physics, chemistry, and biology;
Psychology, which underlies all the anthropological sciences about
the human compound, its principles, and the formation of its ideas;
Natural Theology. All this is theoretic or speculative philosophy.
There is besides the science of moral life, which comprises Ethics,
Natural Right, and Social Right. Concurrent with Philosophy, there
has been a double course of Physics and Chemistry, during one year,
with a course of higher Mathematics, varying from one year to three;
as well as a half-year's course of Geology, Astronomy, and some other
subsidiary matters. This is the general formation. The principle which
guides individual cases was laid down by Ignatius in these terms: "In
the superior faculties, on account of the great inequality of talents
and age and other considerations, the Rector of the University will
consider how much in each line individuals shall learn, and how long
they shall stay in the courses; although it is better for those who
are of the proper age, and who have the requisite facility in point of
talent, that they should endeavor to advance and become conspicuous
in all."[181] During all this course of higher natural sciences, some
attention has still been paid to accessories; literature has not been
entirely neglected; oratory has been practised, and poems presented on
stated occasions. And then the new Master is introduced into his course
of "regency."
CHAPTER XII.
YOUTHFUL MASTERS.
When Ignatius of Loyola was governing the Society, the multiplicity
of affairs which he had to administer, and the absorption of mind
which they demanded, did not prevent him from devoting to every minute
element the attention which it specially invited. Hence he required
the young Scholastics, who were reviewing their literary studies at
Valencia, to send him their orations and a poem. So, too, with the
Masters of the lower classes at Messina, in Sicily. This college had
opened with the higher courses of letters; but the very next year such
numerous throngs of younger boys came asking for admission, that the
system, begun with Rhetoric and Humanities, was carried down to meet
their needs; and the entire course was distributed into five grades.
Ignatius required the teachers of these lower grades, no less than
those of the higher, to write each week, and send him an account of the
affairs of his class.[182]
It is indeed an eventful moment, when a man becomes a teacher of
others. They may be boys. But, whether they are boys merely blossoming
into life, or youths on the verge of manhood, the teacher of them has
to be a teacher of men; and perhaps more so with the boy than with the
man, inasmuch as his control of the younger student has to be so much
the more complete. It is not merely such a control as will address the
intellects of men mature, whose characters are already far advanced
in the way of formation, or are perhaps fixed for life; but it must
be such as will form a whole human nature, which is still pliable and
docile.
As an almost universal rule, the Jesuit Scholastic, after his course
of Philosophy, takes his place in a college to teach Grammar or
Literature. If it be asked, why should this be an almost universal
rule, several reasons are at hand. In the first place, the candidate
for admission into the Order has been accepted with special reference
to this work. If this reference was expressly overlooked, the candidate
so admitted is in an exceptional category. In the second place, the
whole tenor of what has to be said in the present chapter will show the
pedagogical policy in the arrangement. But, in the third place, not to
pass over too summarily one special fitness, I will say a few words
upon it at once.
The manner of teaching the young is oral and tutorial. All through the
Jesuit System the manner followed is oral: in the examinations of the
lower classes, where writing is admitted, it is only as a specimen of
style and composition that writing enters the examination exercises.
With the younger students, the manner of teaching is oral in its
most specific sense. It is not that generic quality which will suit
as well the lecturer or the public speaker. But it is the tutorial
manner, which includes a fund of sympathy, of that tact which supposes
sympathy, of such a superiority, both moral and intellectual, as
knows how to stoop, and elevate the boy by stooping, and does it all
naturally, instinctively, gracefully. In the ordinary course of human
affairs, this magnetic power of the teacher is more intense, according
as in years he is nearer to the subject on whom his ascendancy plays,
and by whom it is spontaneously admitted. I mean that inestimable and
precious subject, the mind and heart of the impressionable boy, who is
about to develop into manhood, first young, and then mature.
The youthful subject is rich, though not in positive acquisitions
already made its own; for, in this respect, it may rather be considered
_parum fructuosa_, as Sacchini says; that is, bearing little fruit as
yet, either of judgment or positive acquirements. But it is rich in
its promise, as it struggles upward into the sunshine of varied and
beautiful truth. This is the fact which imposes upon liberal education
the duty of omitting nothing that is either beautiful or polished,
in imagination, thought, or style. It justifies Belles Lettres and
the most finished course of Literature, as being the chosen garden of
flowers and fruit, to entertain withal, richly and exquisitely, the
youthful promise of mind, sentiment, and heart.
Or, inverting the figure, if we liken the mind itself in youth to
the choice and prolific soil of a garden, we may note that, to till
such soil, there is need of a gardener who has a delicate hand and a
light touch. He must not be a lecturer who stands off, nor a speaker
who declaims, nor a text-book monger who reads, and hears recitations
of what a book says; nor is he to dole out methods and analyses to
an inquisitive sense and emotional fancy, which, in the youthful
soul, are the temporary vesture of an unfolding intellect; even, as
in nature around, things tangible and palpable are bursting, to the
boy's inquisitive eyes, with the great intellectual truths which they
contain. Analyses, text-books, lectures are not the powers with the
young mind. But, often enough, we see where the real power lies; when
young men, scarcely as yet approaching the prime of life, exercise
over impressionable and brilliant youths, not much beneath themselves
in age, such a personal influence as bids fair to rank them among the
greater forces of human nature--forces which are great in leading,
because they know so well how to follow. That other form of ascendancy,
more purely intellectual, and originating in wide learning and maturity
of scholarship, belongs to the University Professor of a later stage of
life. Hence it appears that youthfulness in the Master is an advantage
for the tutorial teaching of the young.
The critics who drew up the preliminary _Ratio_ in 1586 were of opinion
that the Masters in the literary courses should be assigned to their
work, not after their course of Philosophy, but before.[183] They
would except from this arrangement only the Professor of Rhetoric;
perhaps, also, in the chief colleges, the Professor of Humanity or
Poetry; besides, of course, those "whose age or deportment shows that
they are too young to become Masters as yet, or too far advanced in
years to be kept back from their Philosophy." In support of this view,
they urge several reasons, which do not much concern us here; as, for
instance, that, if young men have once tasted of the subtleties of
the philosophers, they can hardly bring themselves to take pleasure
any more in the insipid subject-matter of Grammar; they will pore
over philosophical lore; they will branch off, during class, into
philosophical digressions, which may serve for show, but not for
utility. The critics also express a fear that these philosophers
will bring into the school-room a style of language infected with
philosophical terms; and they quote the eminent Jesuit, Annibal Codret,
to the effect that, if Philosophy has been tasted beforehand, nothing
brilliant in literary style can subsequently be guaranteed. But, these
arguments notwithstanding, the Society, when it came to sanction a
final arrangement, in the legislative document of 1599, seems to have
entertained a higher idea of the younger members, and of their ability
and resolution to shake off any deleterious effects of scholastic
Latin, when they advanced to the chair of purest Latinity. Hence the
legislation ordains that Philosophy is to be studied before undertaking
to teach Letters.[184]
There are several reasons, however, which, as urged by these critics,
are quite relevant to our present topic. They urge that Grammar studies
require a certain fervor, or alacrity, which is rather to be found
in persons who are younger, and so far are nearer to the thoughts
and sentiments of boyhood. The fuller results of education, in this
respect, are not to be had from them when older. If authority or
experience is felt to be wanting, it can readily be supplemented by the
Prefect of Studies, who is constantly in attendance on the classes of
Grammar; and his direction finds a sufficient response in the teacher's
aptitude and docility. Indeed, docility to counsel is so indispensable
a requisite, on the part of young teachers, that the General Mutius
Vitelleschi observes: "If they were to show themselves impatient
of correction, and were to refuse the necessary aids for becoming
efficient, they should on all accounts be removed from teaching,
even if they had filled only half a year; since it is more just and
expedient that one suffer shame, than that many be injured."[185]
Unless singular talents, or the bare force of circumstance, recommend
another course of action, it is not desirable that new teachers should
at once become Masters of the higher class of Grammar or of Humanity,
though otherwise not unfit for these grades. On all accounts, say the
critics, the rule should be that they start with the lowest classes,
and then, year after year, advance to the next higher grade, with the
best part of their scholars. A certain crudeness and inexperience
which, at the beginning, are unavoidable in their management, will
cause, as long as it lasts, not so much evil with the younger as with
the older students. Inexperience wears away with practice. Then again,
if the Masters go up each year, and the scholars go with them, the
same students are very much with the same teachers. The young people
have not to pass so often from one kind of management to another.
Frequent change entails a waste of time, until each party comes to know
the other, and understand his own as well as the other's part.[186]
In 1583, Father Oliver Manare, visiting the German Provinces by the
General's authority, had noticed this point, in his ordinance for the
management of _convictus_, or boarding colleges; that "frequent changes
were burdensome to the students themselves, because they were forced to
accommodate themselves often to new teachers or prefects."[187]
In the same sense, these critics, whom we are following, consider it
undesirable that a Master should resign his post in less than three
years. Frequent and manifold changes provoke complaints on the part
of the outside world. Besides, the Master's own efforts at acquiring
perfection in the magisterial art will be cut short. When there is no
prospective permanency in a position, the mind is not so seriously
applied to the work in hand.[188]
In all this, a most important question regarding boys is being faced
by these critics; and a definite practical solution is adopted. The
question is, which of the two alternatives to adopt, whether to submit
boys to one person's dominant influence, or to pass them on through
the hands of divers experienced and permanent Professors, stationed
respectively in the different grades. This latter alternative, if it is
understood to mean that one Professor remains perpetually in one grade,
and another in another, scarcely seems to merit consideration with
them, except as regards the two highest literary classes,--of Poetry
and Rhetoric,--where the requirements of erudition are so considerable
as to need a lengthened term of years for filling the chairs worthily.
But, if the alternative regarding permanent Professors means that
the same teachers remain constantly within the limits of the same
curriculum, then the question seems to be the one which the critics of
the preliminary _Ratio_ argue about in both senses, for and against;
and they finally arrive at a solution, or rather a compromise.[189]
The severest thing they say against the plan is in this wise, when
speaking directly of the two highest grades: "Perpetuity of that
kind may give occasion to mere idleness and indifference; for after
acquiring, in the first years, some esteem and name for their learning
(in Poetry or Rhetoric), Masters prefer to enjoy the fruit and name
of the labor already undergone, however moderate that was, rather
than wear themselves out with new labors. Hence they make no new
acquisitions in the learning and accomplishments proper to their
branch; they get rooted in very much the same spot, and teach what they
have taught before over and over again, though with some variations.
What is worse, as if they were quite worn out with their prolonged
exertions, they say that they cannot any longer stand all the labor of
exercising their students; whence everything freezes, and they ask for
an assistant, who, if he is unlearned, does more harm than good; if
learned, then why are two doing the work of one?"
The solution which they arrive at is a compromise, which recognizes
peculiar advantages in both arrangements. It is embodied in several
rules of the _Ratio Studiorum_.[190] As many perpetual Professors
as possible, for Grammar and Rhetoric, are to be provided; and some
candidates for admission to the Order, who seem qualified for this
field of work, though apparently not likely to succeed in the higher
studies of the Society, may be admitted on this condition, that they
devote themselves in perpetuity to this work of zeal. Thus such
exigencies are provided for as postulate a perpetuity of professorship
within the same limited curriculum.
On the other hand, the normal process is that which arranges a constant
succession of teachers in the college, but not a constant change with
the same boys. The same boys go hand in hand with the one Master,
with whom they have most to do. And no one is to take charge of them,
however transiently, says the General Vitelleschi, "whether on account
of fewness of numbers, or merely to supply for another in his absence,
of whom it is not certain that he is qualified for the post."[191] The
very frequent mention, in all these discussions, of something like
domestic tragedies resulting from the change of masters, seems to
show two things; first, it justifies the practice of keeping the same
Professor over the same boys for a certain term of years, if not until
the class itself dissolves into higher courses; secondly, it shows what
a usual condition it was for masters to have won the most absolute
attachment to themselves, in the exercise of their magisterial duties,
both on the side of parents and on the part of the scholars. Thus,
speaking of the Professors mounting with their classes, the critics
say: "They will have observed what their disciples need; they will take
them up to the next class. And hence, that changing of Masters, which
has caused so many tragic scenes, will not be felt so much."[192]
Add to these elements of permanency and identity, another which
is most fundamental of all, the identity of their formation as
Masters; so that the young Jesuits, as the General Visconti sums up
the matter in 1752, "must have the most accomplished Professors of
Rhetoric, immediately after their novitiate, men who not only are
altogether eminent in this faculty, but who know how to teach, and
make everything smooth for them; men of eminent talent and the widest
experience in the art; who are not merely to form good scholars, but
to train good Masters"; and that "two years entire must be given to
Rhetoric, according to the custom of the Society, which term is not
to be abridged, unless necessity is urgent."[193] Add, moreover, the
uniformity of plan, "so that the form of our schools may be everywhere
as much as possible the same, and, when Masters are changed, itself
need undergo no change."[194] It follows that, though the flow of
new blood is constantly entering the pedagogic body, and a constant
renewal is taking place, neither the permanency nor the identity of
the teaching body and its system is found to depend upon the same
individuals remaining at the same posts. Naturally, such conditions
are not to be looked for, except in the special circumstances of a
religious community, with perfect organization in the body, with the
conscientiousness of a self-denying formation actuating the members,
with the landmarks of traditions, and a statutory method to show the
way; and, finally, with executive officials adequate to control.
As to this last-named condition of executive superintendence over
persons and things in the system, several rules for the Prefect of
Studies of these literary courses will explain themselves. The _Ratio_
of 1599 says: "Let him have the rules of the Masters and scholars, and
see that they are observed, as if they were his own. Let him help the
Masters themselves and direct them, and be especially cautious that the
esteem and authority due to them be not in the least impaired. Let him
be very solicitous that the new Preceptors follow with accuracy the
manner of teaching, and other customs of their predecessors, provided
that these were not foreign to our method; so that persons outside may
not have reason to find fault with the frequent change of Masters. Once
a fortnight, at least, let him listen to each one teaching."[195]
This moral identity being secured, in the ways, means, and views of the
teaching body, the individual and personal elements, which each Master
brings to bear upon the work before him, are no more interfered with,
or hampered by community of method, than are all the varieties of race,
nation, politics, and environment, slighted or interfered with by a
single system of collegiate institution being placed in their midst.
It was in view of being everywhere, that the system was cast in its
precise and adjustable form, so that, in spite of being everywhere, it
should be found equally manageable and effective. And similarly, in
spite of the system itself being one, the play of individual talents
can be various, as are the movable factors in any great organization.
We may close this chapter by observing several far-reaching
consequences of the foregoing principles. In the first place, those
who, after personal experience in the classes, come to take charge
of colleges in the capacity of Rectors, are found, say the critics
of 1586, to take full and accurate account of studies and Professors
alike; for they themselves "have borne the burden of the schools, and
know how to sympathize with others from their own experience"; a fact
which is the more conducive to the end in view, as "colleges have been
instituted for the study of letters. Besides, not unfrequently there
arise in the classes, especially of the smaller colleges, difficulties
which can scarcely be overcome, except by a Rector who has personal
experience to guide him; otherwise, whether he chances to solve the
difficulty aright, or solves it awry, he will not do much good either
way, since they do not give him the credit of knowing how."[196]
The "smaller colleges" spoken of here, as more liable to encounter
internal difficulties, are contrasted elsewhere by these critics with
"the greater and principal ones, in which there are many counsellors
or referees at hand, to whom the Masters can have recourse for
assistance; and the schools themselves have sufficient authority."
But, in what they call the minor colleges, "the authority of the
schools depends for the most part on the reputation and authority of
the individual Masters," who happen at a given time to be filling the
posts.[197]
In the spirit of this personal and experienced concurrence with all the
affairs of the college, the Rector is required so to moderate the other
concerns of his office, as to be prompt in fostering and advancing
all literary exercises. He is to go often to the classes, those of
the lower faculties as well as of the higher.[198] Every month, or
at least every other month, he is to hold general consultations with
all the Masters below the course of Logic, the several Prefects being
present; and, after the reading of some selection from the _Ratio_,
concerning the Masters or the piety and good conduct of the students,
he is to inquire what difficulties occur, or what omissions are noticed
in the observance of rules.[199] Books are never to be wanting, in the
sufficiency desired by the members generally, whether they are engaged
in teaching, or are pursuing their studies.[200] To this regulation,
which concerns the chief authority in a Province, the revised _Ratio_
of 1832 adds: "The same is to be said of literary periodicals for
the use of the Professors; of museums, physical apparatus, and other
equipments, which are needed by a college according to its degree."
The General Visconti observes somewhat emphatically, that "in buying
books the Rectors will never consider the money of their colleges ill
spent."[201]
Jouvancy applies the same principle to publishing the literary
productions of the Masters. He first sketches the series of literary
productions expected from them,--the annual addresses of inauguration
to be given by each Professor in his own class, the public and solemn
one to be delivered, on the same inaugural occasion, by the Professor
of Rhetoric, the poem to be composed and read by the Master of Poetry;
then, during the year, a certain number of addresses to be delivered;
and, at the end, a tragedy composed by the Professor of Rhetoric, a
minor drama by the Professor of Poetry, both to be acted on the stage.
Jouvancy goes on to recommend that no public occasion be allowed to
go by, without receiving the tribute of some such literary work.
Then he adds: "Nor is that expense to be considered useless which is
incurred for printing and publishing good poems. In all these matter,
splendors should be added to literary exercises, and to the exhibition
thereof, in such wise that everything meanwhile tends to solidity of
erudition."[202]
A second consequence of the literary cast, marking the whole Order,
is the vantage-ground on which it placed the Jesuits, with regard to
all the learning and the learned men of Europe. The fluent and elegant
command of the Latin language gave at once a mastery over the vehicle
of intercourse, in which all learning was conveyed. Our critics of
1586 sum up the bearings of this particular advantage under several
heads: The members of the Order deal with so many nations; scholastic
disputations, whether in Philosophy or Theology, are always conducted
in Latin; the members write so many books; they can do justice to
the ancient Fathers of the Church; they have to deal constantly with
learned men.[203]
A last consequence, which I shall present, is suggested by an
observation of the same writers, in the same place. It throws no little
light upon the history of the Society, and it shows the practical
adjustment of the educational system to the times. They say then,
it is by the studies of Belles-Lettres, more than by the higher
faculties, that the Society has, in a short time, been propagated
through all the principal parts of Christendom. Nor can it be preserved
better or more solidly, than by the same means through which it was
first introduced. Unless they endeavor to maintain this honorable
distinction, with which God has been pleased to grace the Society,
there is reason to fear that they themselves may yet lapse into the
barbarism, which they are far from admiring in others. "As to the
other faculties, which are brilliant enough of themselves, there is
no trouble in cultivating them. But, natural inclinations feeling a
repugnance for less conspicuous pursuits, people have, as it were, to
drag themselves to these lower faculties. They should take lesson,
therefore, by good husbandmen, who bestow more care on transplanted
and exotic growths than on native shoots."[204] And they proceed to
quote the rule, formulated in the words of Ignatius, by the General
Everard Mercurian, who required the institution and preservation of
the literary seminary.[205] So that we end here this discussion on the
lower faculties, at the point where we began.
In all well-assorted plans each element has a reference to every other.
Men must match the work, and the work be suited to the men. Were the
men not formed, the best system would settle into an inert state; and,
the more consistency and vitality of its own it offered to contribute,
the more inept and inert would it look, a memorial of what it might do,
dead to what it can. In itself, and in its effects, it might appear to
be out of date, as not being understood. Only the practical working of
a thing, by the man who understands it, shows it off for what it is
worth. This is a rule quite universal, wherever practical insight is
needed for the working of a mechanism. It must be worked intelligently
to be understood. Once it is understood, the practical intelligence
grows.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE COURSES OF DIVINITY AND ALLIED SCIENCES. PRIVATE STUDY. REPETITION.
1. Having finished his course of teaching literature, the Jesuit
returns to his higher studies. Divinity and its allied sciences stand
out in prominence for their intrinsic dignity; but they have, besides,
a studied preëminence assigned them in the system before us. The almost
universal rule, of intermitting the higher studies with a course of
literary teaching, undergoes a special exception in the case of those
"theologians, whose number is few, and use so manifold";[206] of whom
Aquaviva says that, "according as the higher courses are developed,
the fewer proportionately, out of many students, become qualified
to profess those exalted sciences."[207] The same policy holds with
respect to those who have an eminent talent for oratory. Laynez,
himself a great preacher, and a competent judge in the matter, relieved
Father Francis Strada of the office of Provincial, to set him free for
the ministry of the pulpit; and he wrote, as he did so: "If only he had
a sufficiency of those whom he could put in the office of Provincial,
he would relieve all preachers of that office, that they might devote
themselves entirely to spreading the seed of the Divine Word."[208]
Of these and others, "who give eminent promise of being equal to the
graver occupations, or for whom an immediate need exists in that
direction,"[209] an immediate application is to be made to the study of
Theology.[210]
All who graduate in these higher courses do so, as "qualified to
profess"; just as they had graduated in Philosophy and its cognate
branches.[211] But, though a master in the matter of his philosophical
triennium, no student is called upon to profess any of those branches,
until he has graduated also in Theology. Here we may advert to
several lines of strict parallelism in the system, both with regard
to admitting any students, whether Jesuits or not, to the respective
courses of study, and with regard to admitting Jesuits themselves to
profess in the chairs.
As a condition for admitting any students at all into the higher
courses, the Society introduced a much-needed reform, in requiring that
literary qualifications of a sufficiently high grade should precede
matriculation. Thus the University of Ingolstadt ordains that no one
shall be admitted to Academic, that is, University lectures, except
after one year of Rhetoric; and it adds very strict regulations about
the election of courses, repetitions, disputations, etc., in the three
years' curriculum of Philosophy.[212]
In like manner, to be admitted as a student of Divinity and its
correlative sciences, it is necessary to have graduated in the course
of Arts, that is to say, Philosophy and its branches. Thus the
University of Würzburg ordains that no one shall be admitted as an
auditor of Scholastic Theology, unless he be _Magisterio insignis_,
"a Master of Arts"; it excepts only the members of religious Orders
in attendance, and also _Principis Alumnos_, "the Prince's scholars."
Others, who have not so graduated, it will admit to Moral Theology
and its supplementary branches. It will not even examine, for the
Mastership in Arts, any one, whether a Religious or not, who has
studied Philosophy in a private institution or a monastery.[213] To
apply for Academic Degrees, "they must prove that they have followed
all the courses in some approved public University."[214]
The curriculum, now before the student, is a quadriennium, or four-year
course. It is prolonged into a fifth and sixth year, for reviewing the
whole ground of one's studies; for preparing a public defence against
all comers; and, in the case of Jesuit students, for an immediate
preparation to fill the Professor's chair, the pulpit, or to discharge
other functions. Hence the University of Cologne specifies, in general,
a sexennium, or six-year course for Theology.[215]
Not unlike to this is the parallelism which we may notice, in
appointing the members of the Society to Professors' chairs. Though
qualified to teach literature after his own complete course of
letters in the seminary, yet, as we have seen, no one is to be put
over the classes of Grammar or Humanity who has not first studied his
Philosophy. And so again, at this stage, though apparently competent to
teach Philosophy, and approved as being qualified to profess it, yet no
one is to be put in a chair of that course who has not also studied his
Theology.[216]
The reasons for this are assigned by the critics of 1586. The
philosopher, they say, who has not yet become a theologian, will
not be so safe in his conclusions, in his proofs, in his manner of
expression. He will be of an age less mature. His learning will be
less superabundant. He will scarcely be able to answer the arguments
of unbelievers. Nor will he treat Philosophy in a way to render it
useful to Theology. In fine, the proprieties of things cannot be well
observed, if he who has just filled a chair of Philosophy has to sit
down as a mere student in Theology.[217]
The branches of this theological course are Scholastic Theology,
Moral Theology, Sacred Scripture, Hebrew and Oriental Languages,
Ecclesiastical History, and Canon Law. The general category of students
is naturally more limited than in the philosophical curriculum. There
the auditors were young men, who would betake themselves, at its
close, to Medicine, or other walks of life. They may have taken to Law;
though Possevino, himself eminent in jurisprudence, would seem to imply
that Canon Law must have been pursued first.[218] The students now are
chiefly Ecclesiastics, with various careers before them; or they are
Religious of different Orders; or, finally, the members of the Society
itself. The principal object of our consideration is the formation of
these latter, as qualified to profess. The pedagogical elements before
us may be ranged under three heads: Private Study; Repetition, which
includes Disputation; Lecturing, which is supplemented by Dictation.
2. As to the method of private study, all the auditors of the course
are directed to look over, prior to the lecture,[219] the text
in Aristotle, St. Thomas, etc., which the Professor is about to
explain.[220] Then, while the lecture is being delivered, they take
down notes; the copying of mere dictation is not favored. After the
lecture, they are to read over the notes which they have taken down.
Let them endeavor to understand their annotations. Understanding what
they have written, they are to make objections to themselves against
the thesis established, and endeavor to solve their own objections.
If they cannot find a solution, let them note the difficulties, and
take occasion to ask the Professor, or reserve them for disputation.
Such is the method of private study prescribed for the members of
the Order,[221] and laid down in more general terms for the other
students.[222] To develop habits of such study, and to afford the
requisite leisure, a certain custom, then prevailing in Portugal, of
keeping the Professors of Philosophy and their students during two
hours and a half consecutively in the lecture room is discountenanced
by the critics of 1586: "That the philosophers should remain two
whole hours and a half in class, as is now done, is burdensome to the
Professor and troublesome to the students; for these latter should get
accustomed to private study, lest, like parrots, they seem to be always
talking by rote."[223]
This curtailing of class hours was characteristic of the Society's
system. In 1567 the General Father Francis Borgia wrote, through his
secretary Polanco, correcting, in this respect, a school-regulation
which had been followed in the lower classes of the German Province.
The secretary writes: "It is found by experience, in the schools of the
Company, that to teach three consecutive hours in the forenoon, and
three more in the afternoon, is injurious to the health of our Masters,
and does no good to the health of the scholars; for which reason it is
now ordained that in our schools the morning classes shall not last
longer than two and a half hours, and the same in the afternoon."[224]
Nothing intensifies more the results of studies than concentration, nor
dissipates them more than division of attention, while a given pursuit
is in progress. This principle applies to the number of courses taken
up at one time, the conduct of private studies in any single course,
and the degree to which the appointed teachers and the standard authors
have full justice done them. On this head, the critics of 1586 give
recommendations, derived from the Constitution, for the direction
of all the students in general, and for the members of the Order in
particular. The recommendations are embodied briefly in the _Ratio
Studiorum_.[225] With Aristotle in Philosophy, or with St. Thomas in
Theology, one commentary is to be designated, and that a specially
chosen author, suited to the individual's capacity. In the second year
of Theology, one of the Fathers of the Church can be added, "to be
read at odds and ends of time, or after the fatigue of a long stretch
of study. Another can be substituted, if after a while they ask for
another. But care should be taken that they do not spend too much time
on this reading, as if they were getting up a sermon."[226]
All this, no doubt, tends to make the student "a man of one book," who,
as the adage says, is much to be feared. However, when he goes through
every course, and is everywhere a man of concentrated attention, while,
for the purpose of public disputation and the attempted refutation of
his own and the Professor's conclusions, the side avenues of various
authors and systems are studiously and necessarily kept open, it is
probable that, after being "a man of one book," in many courses
successively, he will also be well-rounded by the time his formation
is complete. With students in general, this can be accomplished by
the age of twenty-five; with the Jesuits themselves, about the age of
thirty-three.
3. I come now to the subject of Repetition, of which two chief forms
offer themselves. One is just what the word of itself indicates; it
belongs to all the faculties, but chiefly to the lower courses. I
shall call it by the generic name of Repetition. The other has place
principally in the higher; it is Disputation; of which a preparatory
exercise, called _Concertatio_, prevails also from the lowest class of
Grammar upwards.
Repetition then rehearses in full class, under various forms or
modifications of that exercise, what the Professor has explained in
class. Just before the close of the hour spent on his lecture, the
Professor of Philosophy or Theology signifies that he is ready for
questions on the matter treated; he asks sometimes an account of the
lecture, and he sees that it is repeated. The revised _Ratio_ of
1832 puts it, in more general terms, thus: "He is often to require
an account of the lectures, and to see that they are repeated"; and
then it desires that, after the lecture, either in the class-room, or
somewhere near, he remain accessible to the students for at least a
quarter of an hour, to answer their questions.[227] This is all from
the Constitution of Ignatius.
The Repetition, which he is to see to personally, is that which takes
place in small circles of about ten students each. "At the close of the
lectures let them, in parties of about ten apiece, repeat for half an
hour what they have just heard; one of the students, and, if possible,
a member of the Society, presiding over each party, _decuria_."[228]
Neither the preliminary, nor the final, _Ratio_ demands that the
Professor himself preside over any of these parties. But "those who
do preside will become more learned, and will be practising to become
Masters themselves."[229]
It must be admitted that the tenor of many remarks in the earlier
document of 1586, shows the presence of Jesuits among the auditors
to have acted on the course as a leaven and a relief; although the
concurrent testimony of historians, about the Jesuit schools, indicates
little or nothing there of that license of manners, such as Possevino
described for us in a former chapter.[230] In a special manner, those
Jesuit students, already young priests, who, having gone through their
four-year course, were now reviewing in a biennium, of a fifth and
sixth year, all their long studies of the higher sciences, stood ready
at hand for many functions in the arena of direction and presidency,
either over the repetitions or the disputations, or in the chair; to
which as many of them as were needed would be officially assigned, when
their private studies left them at last free.[231]
To say a word upon this class of Jesuit students, they show us the
Professor's formation at its last stage. They are reviewing all
Theology, Philosophy, Sacred Scripture, Canon Law, Polemical or
Controversial Theology, and ecclesiastical erudition generally. The
last of their rules for self-guidance says: "In particular, they are
to devote themselves most of all to that pursuit, to which they feel
chiefly drawn, without, however, omitting any of the rest."[232]
Meanwhile, they present, in various ways, specimens of their talent
and erudition; they throw into the form of a digest, "from their
own genius," all Theology, under certain heads and principles; they
can choose some "splendid subject,"[233] and deliver ten public
lectures thereupon to the auditors who choose to attend, which, we may
observe, was precisely the status of all Professors in the mediæval
universities. In their acts of public defence, five of which are
prescribed during the two years, they are free to follow or to leave
the opinions of their late Professors.[234]
These students then are assistant and extraordinary Professors. They
have begun the work, which some of them will continue when called upon
to become Professors in ordinary. They are already in training for
that independent work, which the revised _Ratio_ of 1832 shows some
anxiety about preserving; for it says to all who occupy any chair in
these faculties, that, in case they adopt a standard author to follow
in their lectures, which is a custom rather prevalent in more recent
times, they must nevertheless deliver each year some special question
elaborated independently by themselves.[235] This independence of
style, perfect command of the matter, with express leave for the
incipient Professor, in the course of his final biennium, to relinquish
the opinions of his late Professors, are made the subject of many a
remark by the critics of 1586. Withal, it is clear enough that for a
younger man to leave an approved opinion safely, it is very necessary
for him to know well what he is about; and doubly necessary when he
comes forward in a public defence; for his own late Professors are
among the Doctors present, and are there to assail him in all his
tenets.
These, then, or others presiding over the circles, "one person repeats,
the others listening; they propose difficulties mutually, and, if they
cannot solve their own objections, they consult the Professor."[236]
The one who repeats is to do so, not from his notes, but from memory.
Thus "the memory is exercised; practice is afforded those who are to
be Masters, so that they accustom themselves to develop their thoughts
before others; it makes them all keep alive and attentive during the
lecture, to take down the necessary notes, as they might not do, if
they were free from such repetition."[237] There are several other
possible forms of conducting this exercise.
When once the first crude repetition is over, the series of
disputations begins, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. Without counting
in the "Grand Acts" of public defence against all objectors, at stated
times and by specially designated persons, we may enumerate as many as
seven ordinary rehearsals of the same matter.
First, before going to the lecture hall, the student looks over the
text. This is done easily enough in St. Thomas or Aristotle, if one
of these is the standard. As Ignatius expected would be done, many
standard works have been published by writers of the Society.[238]
Their recommendation is, as he intimated, that they are "more adapted
to our times"; and they have incorporated recent researches in
progressive branches. In the sense of this adaptation to times and
circumstances, the theologians in Cologne, making their announcement
for the year 1578, say that they follow St. Thomas as a general
rule, but not so "as to treat all that he treats, nor only what he
treats.... Every age," they say, "has its own debated ground in matters
of doctrine, and this brings it to pass that Theology is not only
constantly enlarged with a variety of new disputations, but assumes, as
it were, a new cast."[239] And the critics of the preliminary _Ratio_,
treating of the Scripture course, lecture at some length all whom it
may concern,--theologians, professors, preachers,--precisely on this
ground, the need of amplifying and adapting the course of Scripture
to the conditions of the times.[240] Accordingly, works always new
and adapted to latest needs, have poured forth from the writers of the
Order. And such as furnish the conditions of a text, which may readily
be followed, also supply the conditions for conning over, before going
to the lecture hall, what the Professor means to treat. If no such
standard is being followed, still, as I find noted in a documentary
report of 1886, "the Professors should always, as far as possible,
throw out directions enough for the students to look up the subject
before coming to the lecture."
In this connection many familiar names of authors occur. For Scholastic
Theology and Philosophy, there is, in the first place, the prince
of modern theologians, Francis Suarez, with his library of tomes;
there are the three Cardinals Toletus, Bellarmine, De Lugo; Valentia,
Vasquez, Lessius, Franzelin; and, in the modern school of Scholastic
Philosophy, the elegant Liberatore, Kleutgen, Tongiorgi, Pesch, along
with the writers of Louvain, Stonyhurst, Innsbruck, and elsewhere; in
Positive Theology and Controversy, Canisius, Becanus, Petau, Sardagna;
in Exegesis, Maldonado, Salmeron, À Lapide, Menochius, Patrizi,
Cornely, with the school of Maria Laach; in Moral Theology, an endless
number, Sanchez, Laymann, Busembaum, with his two hundred editions,
Gury, Ballerini.[241]
Secondly, the student hears the Professor's lecture. Thirdly, one of
the forms of regular repetition is gone through. Fourthly, the daily
disputation takes place, at least among the Jesuit Scholastics: "At
home, every day except on Saturdays, free and feast days, one hour is
to be appointed," during which, after a preliminary summarizing of the
matter for defence, the disputation follows; and, if time remains over,
difficulties may be proposed. "In order to have some time remain over,
the president must have the syllogistic form of discussion rigidly
observed; and, if nothing new is being urged, he will cut off the
debate."[242]
Fifthly, there is the weekly disputation: "On Saturday, or some other
day, as the custom of the University has it, let them hold disputations
in the schools during two hours, or longer still, whenever there is a
large concourse of persons who come to hear."[243] Sixthly, the more
solemn disputation follows, every month, or nearly so: "Each month,
or, if the students are few, every other month, let disputations be
held on a certain day, both morning and afternoon. The number of
defendants will correspond to the number of Professors whose theses
they defend."[244] Seventhly, towards the close of the scholastic year,
though no time is to be set aside for the purpose, so as to prejudice
the continuous course of the Professor's lectures, yet "all the matter
of the year is to have been gone through, by way of repetition, when
the time of vacation arrives."[245] The whole of this matter forms
the subject of the year's examination for the Jesuit members of the
course.[246] To all these argumentative repetitions may be added
the discursive form, in the shape of lectures given by the students
themselves, or dissertations read on stated occasions.[247]
It is evident that the members of the Society are the chief subjects of
this completeness of formation; and that for two reasons. In the first
place, no other students, even if _convictores_, that is, boarders
in the Jesuit colleges, can be brought under such a thoroughness of
system. Secondly, other students are not in the same way subject to
the regular gradation of examinations from year to year. When they are
competent, they may apply for admission to the requisite public tests,
or Acts of Defence; and, in the philosophical courses, they become
Bachelors, Licentiates, and Masters of Arts; in Theology, Bachelors
in the first and then in the second grade, Licentiates, Doctors.
"No degree is to be conferred on any one who has not stood all the
tests, which, according to the custom of Universities, must precede
the conferring of these degrees." The character of each degree, its
conditions, tests, formalities, are treated of fully in the "Form and
Method of conducting Academies and _Studia Generalia S. J._," 1658.[248]
Here, then, the spirit of the Constitution is fully observed, with
regard to repetition and also disputation. The Fathers remark that
Ignatius "recommends nothing with more urgency than disputation, and
constancy in its exercise; so much stress does he lay upon it, as not
to let the students of Letters and Grammar go without it."[249] In the
lower classes it takes the form of _concertatio_ and mutual challenges,
in the matter of Grammar and literary doctrine. Here it is in its full
form; and we may pass on to consider it in the next chapter, not as a
manner of repetition, but on its own merits.
I will make the transition, by quoting an important passage or two from
the preliminary _Ratio_. They bear not only on disputation, but on that
very essential point, where it is that the vital power for actuating
the whole system lies; and what is the intrinsic value of any system,
as a mere code of legislation.
The critics say that, to counteract the apparent decline of
disputation, and to restore this exercise to its ancient form and
splendor, everything depends on the vigilance and diligence of those
in authority. "Without this, nothing will be effected, even though,
for the proper administration of this department of studies, many laws
and precepts are put down in writing."[250] Elsewhere, acknowledging
in another connection that there is indeed a multitude of points
defined for observance, the same writers go on to make these pertinent
reflections: "The perfection of doctrine, like the perfection of
moral life, stands in need of many aids; whence it is that there is
no people under the direction of more laws than the Christian people,
nor any Religious Order more under the obligation of Constitution
and Decrees than our own." They undertake to prove the advantage of
this, both from the side of those in authority, and of those under
authority. "Aristotle and St. Thomas," they say, "are both of opinion
that as few points as possible should be left to the private opinions
of a judge, and as many as possible should be determined by the clear
definition of law. They prove it; for it is easier to find the few
wise men, whose wisdom is equal to the task of determining fixed rules
of guidance, than to find the multitude, which otherwise is required
to pass judgment in all contingencies of time and place; there is the
sanction of greater maturity in laws which have stood the test of time
and experience, than in the off-hand decision of the present hour;
there is less of a corrupting influence on law-givers, when they are
defining things in general and for the future. Wherefore, whatever
can be despatched by general law is so to be despatched; what cannot
be provided for by such law is to be left to the judge, as the living
rule. Under this head come the particular decisions to be passed in
given junctures, whereof the general law cannot take cognizance."
So far Aristotle and St. Thomas; and the Fathers of 1586 agree with
them.[251]
CHAPTER XIV.
DISPUTATION. DICTATION.
1. Many wise things had been said by the experienced masters of old on
the subject of disputation. Thus Robert of Sorbon, the founder of the
College of the Sorbonne, had put it down in one of his six essential
rules for the scholar, that "nothing is perfectly known unless
masticated by the tooth of disputation."[252]
Our Jesuit critics mention incidentally, in one place, that "their
age is eminently versed in disputation."[253] They are cautioning the
Professor of Scripture against using disputation at all, lest he come
thereby to relinquish his own eloquent style of commentary. For every
chair has its own character; and that which the _Ratio Studiorum_ of
1599 attributes to the chair of Scripture includes, among a number of
qualifications, this one, which is mentioned in the last place, that,
"as far as possible, the Professors be well versed in eloquence."[254]
On the other hand, in the proper arena of disputation, they caution
Professors against its abuse. Taking note, in one place, of the discord
which can arise among learned men, they illustrate their point with
some instances, taken precisely from a disputatious tendency, from that
exaggerated scholasticism which had run into dialectic excesses. They
say: "For the disturbance of harmony, it makes very little difference
whether discord arises in great things or in little. It is not only
the importance of a question, it is also the spirit of emulation, that
fosters contention; so that sometimes a war of words and the bitterest
altercation is kept up on a single term and phrase. Forsooth, what is
more trivial than to ask whether God is in imaginary space? Yet what
tragic scenes does not this very question give rise to!"[255]
Excesses of this kind being guarded against, the Fathers lay down the
thesis that, when employed in its proper place, no exercise is more
useful than disputation. You will see not a few wholly taken up with
reading, writing, arranging, and paging what they have written; but
they eschew most carefully all disputation, neglecting it, looking
upon it as an idle occupation, having all their Theology locked up,
not so much in their memory and intelligence, as in their paper books.
Men of authority, they go on to say, have always been persuaded that
Philosophy and Theology are learnt, not so much by hearing, as by
discussing. For, in this exercise, you have a most certain test how
much a man understands of what he is writing about or teaching; also
how much solidity there is in one's own private cogitations, since it
happens not unfrequently that what appears brilliant in one's private
room is seen to drag in the mud, when it comes to disputation.[256]
Then, too, while we are hard pressed by our adversary, we are forced
to strain every nerve of our wits, and, when others are bearing down
heavily upon us, we knock out of our brains many things which would
never have come into our heads, while we stayed in the quiet of leisure
and rested in the shade. We hear things which others have found out,
and which either throw light on doubtful points, or indicate the path
to some other point. Or, if what is said does not commend itself to
our judgment, we see through the opponent's artifice; we meet him with
more facility, and establish our own thesis with more stability. The
auditors, meanwhile, can take note of the good points one Professor
makes, the strong points of another, and, after the example of their
Doctors, they quicken their wits for the fray, observing where
the arguments limp, which are the distinctions that tell, how the
whole doctrine of a Professor hangs together. In short, it is well
established by the authority of the gravest men, and by the test of
experience, that one disputation does more good than many lectures;
not to mention the other consideration, that there is nothing more
calculated to render our schools illustrious, than making our students
competent to win great approbation and applause, in public sessions
and disputations.[257]
These critics express their mind upon the need which exists, of
reviving considerably the fervor and dignity of this exercise, and so
restoring it to its former educational influence. But we can observe
for ourselves, how congenial an element the whole exercise must be in
a system like this, which is preëminently oral--oral examinations,
oral and self-reliant defence and attack, free and open lecturing,
with the influence of eye, voice, and person, to bring everything
home, even though all the while there is no question of oratory, but
of mere teaching. In the earlier stages, too, of the scholar's life,
however much has been made of the acquirement of style, "forging the
word with Grammar," as Robert of Sorbon had said, "and polishing it
with Rhetoric," to make it glow on the written page, yet from the very
first, also, no less account has been taken of the ability to express
one's thought, with perfect presence of mind, without depending upon
note or book. In the higher faculties, this holds good more than ever.
Now the time has come for matter of the most approved kind. And the
independent, self-possessed delivery of one's thoughts, with the power
to force them home unto conviction, or to maintain them against all
odds, appears not only as the scope proposed in the system, but also as
the historical result, effected in the public career of the Order.
Father Laynez, at the Conference of Poissy, contended thus with Peter
Martyr and others; Possevino at Lyons with Viret, using, not so much
the severe syllogistic form, as copious and learned discussion.
Maldonado was double-handed, either syllogistic or discursive. In the
Conference at Sedan, in 1572, he argued first in dialectic form; then,
on the demand of his opponents for a different kind of weapon, he
took with the same facility to discursive exposition. Edmund Campian,
in England, on being removed from the rack more dead than alive, was
immediately brought face to face with Newell and Day, able champions
as well of the Queen's spiritual supremacy, as of the doctrine of
Justification by Faith alone. He proceeded to argue: "If faith alone
justifies, it justifies without charity; but without charity it does
not justify; therefore faith alone does not justify." Now for the
answer, clear and incisive as the propositions. Deny or distinguish
major or minor proposition, if you want to deny the conclusion; for,
those premises standing, the inference remains intact, since the
syllogism is perfect in form. And so argumentations proceed.
To revive disputation in its best style, the critics devote several
pages to a most valuable analysis of the conditions and method of the
exercise.[258] Their suggestions are embodied in the final _Ratio_.
The Rectors are to show their lively and active interest in the
disputations, by attending on public and private occasions alike, and
by the various arts which such interest will inspire. As argument
"freezes except in a crowd," the critics require that the attendance
of all be insisted on, when the days and hours of disputation arrive.
This susceptibility of human nature, which the Fathers touch upon,
when they speak of disputation freezing except in a concourse, is not
without an exact counterpart, when, in another connection, they are
speaking of the humanists, or Professors of the literary classes. There
they adopt the view that the literary seminary of the Province should
be in the same great college, along with the faculties of Philosophy
and Theology; for, say they, among other reasons, "the humanists would
languish in obscurity, if they had not the philosophers and theologians
to be witnesses, spectators, and applauding auditors of their literary
achievements." And again they plead sympathetically, "the philosophers
and theologians, when composing the prefatory essays for their
disputations, call for the taste of the humanists, by whose verses and
orations, moreover, they are refreshed from time to time."[259]
Continuing their remarks, the Fathers define the limits of the weekly
disputations to be two hours, not more, assigning four regular
objectors for that time. The Professors, belonging to different
faculties, should invite one another reciprocally to the private
disputations in their classes, at least for an hour or so, that the
intellectual contest may wax warm by the meeting of these Doctors.
Other Doctors, too, not of the faculty, can be invited for the same
purpose. But, continues the _Ratio_ of 1599, in undertaking to push
the arguments which are being urged, "they should not take the thread
out of the hands of an objector, who is still ably and strenuously
following it up."[260] Meanwhile, the students who receive the
commission to act as objectors, on occasions of some publicity, must be
the more qualified members of the course; the others have the practice
of their private arena, until they can take part with dignity in a
public tournament.
If argument freezes except in a crowd, so, too, it palls, if it never
comes to a conclusion; and no useful point of doctrine is carried
away by the listeners. Truth is lost in clouds, and there is no gain
to good humor. Acrimony or melancholy may well be the only outcome
of an unfinished or revolving argumentation. It will not revolve,
if the disputants keep to strict syllogistic form. But when both or
all parties become heated, and wit becomes lively, the syllogism may
suffer, and then, when will they finish? To obviate this inconvenience,
two persons are charged with the responsibility of the performance, one
the Professor himself, who is presiding over his own disputation, the
other, the General Prefect of Studies, who controls the whole series of
disputations, as they follow one another in turn.
Of the Professor it is said, that he is to consider the day of
disputation as no less laborious and useful than that of his own
lecture; and that all the fruit and life of the exercise depends
upon him. The earlier _Ratio_ lays even more stress upon the private
disputations, "which are wont to grow more frigid than the public
ones." He is to assist the two disputants, "so as to be himself
apparently the person contesting in each; let him signify his approval,
if anything specially good is urged, excite the attention of all when
any first-class difficulty is proposed, throw out a hint now and then
to support the respondent or direct the opponent; call them back to
strict syllogistic form, if they wander from it; not always be silent,
nor yet be always talking, so as to let the students bring out what
they know. What is brought forward, he can amend or improve; let him
bid the objector proceed, so long as his argument carries weight with
it; carry on the objector's difficulty for him farther; nor connive at
it, if he slips off to another track. He is not to allow an argument
which has been well answered to be kept up, nor an answer that is not
solid to be long sustained; but, when the dispute has been sufficiently
exhaustive, let him briefly define the matter, and explain it."[261]
The General Prefect of Studies is required to keep the series of
disputations in due form; arguing himself but sparingly, and thereby
discharging the duty of general direction with more dignity. He is
not to suffer any difficulty which comes under debate, to be agitated
this way and that, "so that it remains as much of a difficulty after
as before"; but when such an agitated question has been sufficiently
mooted, he will see that an accurate explanation of it is given by the
Professor who is presiding.[262]
With the last public act, or general defence of Philosophy and
Theology, the formation of the future Professor closes. This public
defence occupies four or five hours, in two sessions. If the defendant
is not a member of the Order, special care is taken to honor it with
all solemnity, and with the attendance of all the faculties, of guests
invited, Doctors from without, and princes or the nobility.[263]
This act will be followed by the solemnity of conferring the final
degree upon the Licentiate. When the student is a Jesuit, much more
is made of thoroughness in a searching examination then, as at all
times previously. He has now passed through a long series of yearly
examinations, which were almost always disputations, and that, not with
equals, but with four or five Professors.[264] So that, on viewing him
at the close of his formation, we are enabled to conceive, with more
distinctness, the meaning of that standard, "surpassing mediocrity,"
which, in a former chapter, I endeavored to define.[265]
2. On turning our attention now to the Professor's chair, and examining
his manner of lecturing, of explaining, of teaching, whether in the
field of Letters, Science, Philosophy, or Theology, we have, on the one
side, to suppose him complete in his formation, and, on the other, to
regard the scholar as undergoing formation. Here, then, we begin the
second part of this analysis. The style of teaching and of management,
which is distinctively the Jesuit type, is presented in the _Ratio
Studiorum_ under its practical and ideal aspect. There is also a manner
of instruction which is not considered an ideal method, however much it
may sometimes recommend itself as practically expedient. I will touch
upon this latter, the negative side of the question, first, to be free,
in the next chapter, for approaching the matter on its positive and
constructive side.
In putting dictation down as not being the ideal form of teaching in
the Society, I do not speak of the proper use of dictation. The _Ratio_
itself leaves room for it. It is the abuse of dictation that merits and
receives a protracted examination of its value, at the hands of the
critics. The discussion is of the highest importance. In analyzing a
style of instruction, with which they are not in harmony, they bring
out the essential elements of all true teaching. And, if we approve at
all of their principles, the implied disapproval for the rejected form
becomes only aggravated, on contemplating an exaggerated development
of the same; that is to say, when, instead of dictating what has the
merit of being one's own laborious production, the teacher is seen to
become the servile dependant on a text-book printed by somebody else;
and neither does the teacher show any of the qualifications necessary
to have composed the book, nor does the scholar expend the industry
which would have been necessary to copy it. But it is left to speak as
best it may, is read by the teacher, instead of his teaching, is read
by the scholar as the talk of some third person, and is found, in the
last issue, to have spoken just articulately enough for the pupil to
have learnt a memory lesson, and perhaps to have gathered information
which may or may not adhere to his mental structure. But, as to
anything like mental training, or what is properly education, the final
result of a long series of years seems to show that, if there has been
any of it, possibly the man who wrote the book had it; and with him it
has remained. So must it always be under such conditions. For when the
living Master has contributed so little in the way of live education,
the scholar must, of necessity, go away with somewhat less.
These critics say trenchantly: "Let no dictation be given, unless the
explanation of very much all that is dictated has gone before, or
accompanies, or follows the dictation; where the custom does not exist,
let no dictation be introduced; where it does, an effort should be
made to do away with it, as far as possible." Then they support their
position by many quotations from the Constitution of Ignatius.[266]
They go on to state that this habit of dictating was a thing unheard
of till within the last forty years; "yet the auditors were not less
learned then than now." In fact, but a slight acquaintance with the
old university system of Europe will show how jealously the empire
of the spoken word was maintained--the spoken word, as distinct, not
only from reading what the Doctor had himself composed, but also from
consulting even notes, while actually lecturing. He might have the text
of Aristotle, or Peter the Lombard, before him; he might himself have
written and published works; the student might, with permission, take
down notes in shorthand, from which in part, but chiefly from memory,
he would commit the whole lecture to writing,[267] on his return from
school. It was not mere want of facilities that determined the system
so. But the objective point was, not to have learning in one's papers
and bound up; still less to have it in books, bought for the learning
that is in them, and left afterwards with the learning still remaining
there. The object was to make learning one's personal possession, and
to profess the live mastery of it, with voice, eye, and person showing
how live it was.
These Doctors continue: "The common impression in men's minds is, that
dictating is not lecturing; also that it is one thing to write after
the manner of polishing off a treatise, a different thing to have at
hand merely some brief heads and references. And, should the matter
which is dictated be from some author, the labor of taking it down is
superfluous."
The living voice actuates the mind more; it expresses, it impresses;
it arouses, suspends the attention; it explains. All these effects are
nowhere in a dead-and-alive dictation. Nor do they give satisfaction,
who append the explanation afterwards; for then both times seem to
be lost, that taken up with dictation and that with the explanation.
First, while the dictation was going on, the auditors were intent upon
writing rather than understanding; particularly as, before the end of
a sentence is come to, the beginning of it has already slipped from
the mind; and the writing has to go on, without allowing any of that
time to breathe, which is frequent enough if the Professor lectures
and explains. Secondly, when the time for explanation comes after the
dictation, the students are tired; they think they have all their
learning now, down in their papers; so they go off, or they yawn, or
they read over their copy, to see if anything is wanting.
After dictating, the Professor thinks that he has now done his part.
What follows, that is, the work of explaining, he gulps down, as best
he can,--a laborious work, requiring memory, promptitude, facility of
development, fluency of speech; whence he will gradually vanish away
into a nonentity, as we see actually taking place in some universities.
More time is lost. For, while he goes over his dictation to explain it,
he has to take up again things which were clear enough, in order to
follow out the whole thread of his matter. If he had lectured, he would
have said those things once for all. Then, since it must be something
polished and finished in style that a man dictates, the poor scribes
have to take down much that is not necessary.
As if they had wearied themselves with this general assault on
dictation, the Fathers go on to relieve their feelings by exclaiming:
"What an amount of tedium meanwhile to those who are not writing,
especially to Prelates and other illustrious persons present! Must they
be told not to come while the dictation is going on, and to appear only
afterwards when the matter is being explained? If so, they will be in
attendance barely half an hour, and what they will hear will be meagre
enough; and the person they listen to will be one accustomed to languid
dictation, one who relies on his papers, and is but little practised in
the oral development of his thoughts. Besides, the students themselves
ought to get accustomed to make things their own when they hear them,
and to exercise their own judgment in selecting what to write. Thus
they will understand things better, and be kept more on the alert."
Not to disguise inconveniences, from whatever side they come, these
critics take note of the difficulties which are thought to exist; that,
unless the matter is dictated, the students cannot do justice to it,
that the lecturer is too quick, or, out of the many things he says,
they do not know how to select the necessary elements for annotation;
and, while phrase is piled upon phrase, they are at a loss, their notes
are disordered, inept, and sometimes simply wrong.
To this the critics promptly make answer: Those who are to lecture
in future are either such as are now beginning their career of
Professorship, or such as are long accustomed to dictation. For those
who are now beginning, previous exercise is to be recommended in the
most approved form of lecture, or _prælectio_. And they sketch the
form. As to the others who are long habituated to dictating, the
critics ask such Professors to give this form of lecturing the benefit
of a trial. If they despair of being able to adopt it, let them go
their own way, until another generation of Professors is ready to take
their places. Dictation can also be permitted, where our Professors
have often tried to give it up, but with the consequence that the
students took fright, and abandoned the classes. "Yet," continue the
Fathers, "they would not be apt to abandon the courses, nor complain
so much, if all the Professors would devote themselves to brilliant
lecturing,[268] and would put away dictation. For, if one dictates and
nurses the lazy folks, and another does not, who doubts but that sloth
will still be dearer to the slothful than the labors and thorns of
study? Yea, by dictation they are made daily more and more lazy, so as
to be always asking for more and more time; whereas, without dictation,
they become daily more prompt, and need less time for everything."[269]
The final _Ratio_ of 1599 embodies these suggestions, without being
absolute in excluding all dictation, for which it suggests the form
most useful and in accord with the spirit of true lecturing. It
deprecates the dictation of what may be found in authors within reach
of the students. "Let the Professor refer his hearers to those authors
who have been copious and accurate in their treatment of any matter."
As to what the critics of 1586 recommend, that, if dictation be given,
the lecture should extend to five quarters of an hour, the _Ratio_ says
nothing about it.[270]
Possevino, in his _Bibliotheca Selecta_, has a chapter on this
question, "Whether mental culture suffers by the dictation of
lectures?" He answers in the affirmative, and he speaks on the subject
with his usual erudition. He refers to the Pythagorean "acoustic"
disciples, who were never copyists, and not even talkers, until, by a
prolonged silence for years, they had thought enough to be able to talk
well, to put questions, and make comments. He quotes the cynicism of
Diogenes, about writing at the expense of true exercise. He notes the
plan of Xeniades the Corinthian, who gave a written compendium to the
young people, but one so short that they had to have the best part of
their learning in their heads. The Socratic method was eminently one of
living speech. And, as to Aristotle's "peripatetic" school, which was
conducted while _walking about_ the Lyceum, that was certainly neither
in practice nor in principle favorable to writing. Coming to speak
expressly of dictation and citing a pleasant old rhyme:--
Quod si charta cadat, secum sapientia vadat,[271]
Possevino goes on to plead for the chests of the students, and says
that the ink is the price of their blood, and the end of their studies
becomes the end of their lives. Hence one singular result of it all
is, that scholars even employ amanuenses to go to school instead of
themselves, and bring back in writing what was said. But all that
money, says Possevino, could have been reserved for the buying of
books, to supplement real study.
Then he enforces what he has said with a piece of university history,
wherein perhaps no one of his time was better versed. The University
of Paris, two and a half centuries before, had legislated against
dictating, and against the Doctors who used it, and who were dubbed
_Nominatores ad pennam_. One century before, the Cardinal Legate had
again formulated a law on the subject. And finally the Jesuits, "of
whom a great number are chiefly engaged in this profession, taught
by experience the evils of that system, have long understood the
necessity, not merely of moderating it, but simply doing away with it.
Wherefore the Fathers in the universities of Portugal have already
published a part of Natural Philosophy, whereby writing is dispensed
with, room is left for quickening genius, and much material stored up
to bring into the arena of discussion."[272]
CHAPTER XV.
FORMATION OF THE SCHOLAR. SYMMETRY OF THE COURSES. THE PRELECTION.
BOOKS.
What is developed to perfection can make other things like unto itself;
it is prolific. So the Aristotelian principle has it: _Perfectum est,
quod generat simile sibi._ This is the outcome and test of perfection.
Having followed the Master, therefore, till he was complete in his
own formation, we have now turned to look in another direction, and
see him reacting upon those whom he is to form. Though much has been
said already implicitly or otherwise, on the method and principles of
this reactive process, yet something remains, especially with regard
to the lower faculties, the literary courses. In this chapter, we may
consider the attitude which the Professors take, singly and as a body,
towards the students and towards their own courses; and then their
chief manner of imparting knowledge, or what is called in the _Ratio_
the _prælectio_. In the next chapter we can survey the principal class
exercises, and the method of school management, throughout the lower
grades. And, in the chapter after that, I shall sketch the system of
grades from the lowest to the highest.
1. One of the first most general rules lays it down that the authority,
in whose hands is the appointment of Professors, "should foresee far
ahead what Professors he can have for every faculty, noting especially
those who seem to be more adapted for the work, who are learned,
diligent, and assiduous, and who are zealous for the advancement of
their students, as well in their lectures (or lessons) as in other
literary exercises."[273] "They are to procure the advancement of each
of their scholars in particular," says Ignatius.[274] The Professor "is
not to show himself more familiar with one student than with another;
he is to disregard no one, to foster the studies of the poor equally
with the rich."[275]
These are the regular and "ordinary Professors, who take account of
their students in particular."[276] There can also be in a university
one or more of another kind, "who, with more solemnity than the
ordinary lecturers, treat Philosophy, Mathematical Sciences, or any
other branch, after the manner of public Professors."[277]
In the lower, or literary courses the Masters must "be good and
skilled," who "seriously, and with all the attention of their mind,
work for the advancement of their scholars, as well in what concerns
learning, as in the matter of morals. They will have to take care that
besides the Christian doctrine, which is so integral a part of our
Institute, they also give frequent exhortations, suited to the capacity
of the boys, and not devised for empty ostentation; let them endeavor
to instil solid affections of piety and love for the things of God, and
a hatred for sin."[278]
What is meant by "good and skilled Masters" in these courses, we have
already seen from Jouvancy's sketch of the accomplishments proper
to a teacher of Literature.[279] If anything remained to be said on
this topic, it would only be to note and reject false standards, by
which the position or efficiency of Professors might possibly, but
incorrectly, be measured. Thus, some five years ago, that is to say,
three hundred years later than the drawing up of the _Ratio_, I find
two such false standards distinctly repudiated; one is the idea of
gathering in just enough of doctrine beforehand to be able, when
occasion calls for it, to develop the attainments of a Professor;
another is that which would look only to the environment around, and
would measure the intellectual formation of men, and the supply of
learning, by the estimate commonly formed of the article, and the
actual demand for it.
2. If we regard not individual Professors, but the whole moral body
or faculty of them, there are two characteristics which it may be
difficult to find, or at least to ensure, outside of an organization
such as the Society of Jesus. One is the very strict unity of
educational matter presented to the studious world. The other is the
degree of coördination and subordination of courses professed. A word
upon each.
The unity of matter in question, as designed for the purposes of
education, is prescribed on the strength of a double maxim; first, that
the sifting of many opinions, by the varied and multiplied activity of
many minds, leaves a residue of matter, quite solid enough to support
a compact and reliable system of teaching; secondly, that, in point
of fact, such matter, which I have called "a residue," is nothing
else than the basis of truth, divine and eternal; since, in clearing
away the ground, all the criteria of each order, the natural and
supernatural, have been faithfully and assiduously regarded.
Hereupon, intellectual concord is felt to be the result in the entire
teaching body. Of this concord the critics say, that it is the
condition and cause of a wider and profounder learning in the faculties
at large. Each Professor is engaged, "not in tilling some patch of
his own, but in contributing his industry to the general field of
all." Where is the gain, they ask, "if what one establishes, another
upsets, not as if he had always excogitated something better, but for
fear he should be thought to profit by the fruits of another's genius?
Sometimes it really makes no difference whether one or other tenet
is held; but, if we are bent on receiving no support from another,
then, for all our labor, we get no other fruit but dissension."[280] I
presume there is not a university anywhere but will bear witness, by
its internal history, to the justice of this remark.
Nor do these Fathers apprehend that reputation for real science will
suffer by such concord, since "reputation for science does not
come from opinions contradicting one another, but from their having
agreed." They express no lofty esteem for the notoriety which may be
had, by fighting no less with friends than with foes, and reserving
admiration for only what is at a respectable distance, and "turning
up one's nose at what is near."[281] This pungent remark seems to be
a new and pedagogical application of the old proverb, _Nihil vicinia
molestius_, "Nothing more annoying than one's neighbors!" They hold
that, upon a basis of concord, there is always room and liberty for
the exercise of talent; first, in those questions which are manifestly
indifferent; secondly, in thinking out new distinctions and reasons,
whereby truths already certain may be made more secure still; thirdly,
in attacking the same, either when publicly disputing, or also when
actually teaching, if what they acutely urge against a position, they
more acutely refute; fourthly, in proposing new opinions and questions,
but after they have sought the approval of the responsible authorities,
lest the labor be spent amiss. The most learned men have always been
persuaded that there is more subtlety shown, more applause merited
and comfort enjoyed, in pursuing the lines of approved and received
thought, than in a general license and novelty of opinion.[282] But
these critics throw out an idea of theirs, which quite possibly will
not meet with universal acceptance. They say, "It is not every one who
can build up a Theology for himself." The remark they add is graceful,
that a modest genius does not court every kind of liberty, but that
which is not divorced from virtue.
These principles explain for us the unity of educational matter, as
presented to the studious world. The same marshalling and husbanding
of force, which effectuates this result, operates another, akin to
the former. It is the most definite coördination and subordination of
courses, with a mutual understanding between Professors and faculties.
Where grades exist, either in their perfect form, as in the five stages
of the classical or literary course, or in a shape approximating to
that, as in the three stages of the philosophical triennium, such
subordination is easily secured. But, also, elsewhere the conditions of
perfectly definite outlines are laid down for courses, which have any
points of mutual contact.
This may be illustrated by some rules of the _Ratio_. The two
Professors of Dogmatic Theology are to consider themselves dispensed
from commenting on questions proper to Sacred Scripture, from treating
philosophical matters, from evolving cases of Moral Theology.
The Professor of Moral Theology is to despatch with the briefest
definitions the matter which belongs to dogma. The Professor of Holy
Scripture is desired not to go at length into points of controverted
Theology. The Professor of Ecclesiastical History need not treat canons
or dogma. The Professor of Canon Law will not touch Theology or Public
Right, any more than his time permits, and the necessary understanding
of Canon Law requires. The same reserve is practised between Theology
in general, and Philosophy. Thus a Professor of Moral Theology
despatches perhaps in ten minutes the definition of Natural Law, upon
which he knows two days are spent by the Professor of Moral Philosophy.
Half a century later, this question of coördination received a still
fuller treatment at the hands of the General Francis Piccolomini.
After requiring that philosophers and theologians alike finish
conscientiously all the matter assigned for each year, he will not
allow that "the example of authors who have mixed up subjects, or have
followed out their questions into mere minutiæ, can be cited as of any
weight with our Professors. For, whatever is to be thought of them,
this method is not opportune for practical teaching in the schools."
The General scouts the idea of "exploring the treasure-house of
possibilities," to find out new questions; for there is reason to fear
that "while folks search about for truths not ascertained, they will
catch at chimeras and shadows."[283] Hence, as the _Ratio_ prescribes,
"opinions which are useless, obsolete, absurd, manifestly false, are
not to receive treatment." The Professors are to run rapidly through
questions which are easy. In Holy Scripture, difficult passages are
not to be dwelt on indefinitely, nor too much time to be given to
chronological computations, or topological surveys of the Holy Land.
In facing the objection, that all this entails a great expenditure of
thought and matter, when Professors must despatch in such short courses
what might well be treated in longer terms, the preliminary _Ratio_
draws a sharp line of demarcation between other universities and those
conducted by Jesuits. "Whatever is the custom in other universities,
our method is very different from theirs, so that no less progress
can be made in our schools during four years, than in others during
five; because our Professors are for the most part more laborious; we
have more numerous exercises; our Society, as standing in need of many
workmen, requires that perfection of science which is necessary for its
men, not that otiose method of others, who, having no motive of this
kind to make them expeditious, divide up into many lectures what could
well be treated in fewer; their vacations too are for the most part
longer and more frequent."[284]
_Ex ungue leonem_, "You can tell a lion by his paw." Let it appear that
the brevity which you study is necessitated by your limits of time;
let discernment be conspicuous in your selection of matter, whether
to treat summarily or to treat copiously; let the alternate courses
supplement one another, so that what had to be skimmed over in one
quadriennium is dilated upon more at large in your next; then, say the
Fathers, the authority which the Professors enjoy with ecclesiastical
dignitaries will not suffer the detriment anticipated by some, when
we give condensed and accurate treatment in a shorter time of what is
usually spread out through a longer.[285] The paw shows the lion.
3. We may proceed now to the typical form of Jesuit instruction.
It is called _prælectio_. This word is largely the equivalent of
"lecturing," in the higher faculties; of "explanation," in the lower.
In either case, however, it is something specific. For this reason, and
because I shall have to use the word often, I may be allowed to put it
in an English dress, and speak of "prelection."
Its form, as a lecture in the higher faculties, is conceived thus: The
whole proposition, which is advanced, is to be delivered consecutively,
without interposing any stoppages. Then it should be repeated in the
same words; and this will be taken by the students as a sign that it
is to be written down; and the delivery of it should be marked by such
inflections, and proceed at such a pace, especially in its obscure and
finer points, that the students may readily distinguish between what
is to be written and what is not. Now, while the proposition is thus
being taken down, the lecturer ought not to advance new ideas, but
should dally with the same, either explaining it in more phrases or
clearer ones, or adducing an example or similitude, or amplifying the
topic, or drawing out the same logical sequence in another order, so
as to make it stand out more distinctly, or throwing out a reason or
two, which, however, it is not necessary for them to note. Indeed, if
the Professor brings his own papers into the school, he might have in
them some select phrases, brief but not obscure, in which he sums up in
few words the gist of the propositions. Longer development they will
receive only in the explanation, which is then to be given.[286] In
that, the Professor will endeavor to prove his thesis, not so much by
the number of arguments, as by their weight. He should not be excessive
in adducing authorities. And it belongs to his dignity, as a Master,
scarcely ever to quote an author whom he has not himself read.[287]
In the grade of Rhetoric, which is the highest of the literary or
classical course, the prelection is double; one is upon the art of
eloquence, wherein precepts are explained; the other is upon an author,
and has for its object the development of style. Taking up an author
such as Cicero, the Professor will, in the first place, make clear
the sense of the passage. Secondly, the artistic structure is to be
analyzed and demonstrated: the _Ratio_ here details the elements of
this analysis. Thirdly, other passages which are similar in thought or
expression are to be adduced; other orators and poets, whether in the
classics or in the vernacular, are to be cited as employing the same
principles of art, in persuading or narrating. Fourthly, if the matter
allows of it, the thoughts expressed by the author are to be confirmed
by what wise men have said on the same subject. Fifthly, whatever else
will conduce to ornamenting the passage is here in place, from history,
mythology, erudition of every kind. Finally, the words are to be
weighed singly; their propriety of use, their beauty, variety, rhythm
to be commented upon. The whole of this treatment, however, does not
come within the limits of each and every lesson.[288] The "erudition"
for this grade is defined to comprise "the history and manners of
nations, the authority of various writers, and all learning, but
sparingly, to suit the capacity of the scholars."[289]
The prelection on the precepts or rules, "the power of which," says
the _Ratio_, "is very great for the purposes of oratory," comprises
six points. Cicero is the rhetorician who supplies the precepts;
but Quintilian and Aristotle may also be used. First, the meaning
of the rule is to be explained. Secondly, upon the same rule, the
rhetoricians are to be collated. Thirdly, some reason for the rule is
to be expounded. Fourthly, some striking passages from prose writers,
and also from poets, are to be adduced in exemplification of the rule.
Fifthly, if anything in the way of varied erudition makes to the
purpose, it is to be added. Lastly, an indication should be given how
this principle of art can be turned to use by ourselves; the style
in which this is done must be marked by the most absolute choice and
finish of diction possible.[290]
In the grade of Humanity, which is immediately below Rhetoric, the
prelection is to be lightly adorned from time to time with the
ornaments of erudition, as far as the passage requires. The Master
should rather expatiate to the fullest extent upon the genius of the
Latin tongue, on the force and etymology of words as shown by approved
authors, on the use and variety of phrases, with a view to imitation.
Here, as in other rules of this kind, we may notice the degree of
progress made in the native tongues during two centuries and a half.
While the _Ratio_ of 1599 adds these words: "Nor let him think it
out of his way to bring forward something from the vernacular, if it
presents anything specially idiomatic for rendering the idea, or offers
some remarkable construction;" the revised _Ratio_ of 1832 substitutes
these words: "Let him expatiate on a comparison between the genius of
both tongues, with a view to imitation." When he is explaining a prose
author, he should investigate the precepts of art, as exemplified
therein. Lastly, if he thinks fit, he can give a version, but a most
elegant one, of the whole passage into the mother tongue.[291] Greek
has its own form of prelection.
As to the "prose writer" just mentioned, the manner of treating an
historical writer in Humanity, which is otherwise called the class of
Poetry, will serve by the way to illustrate the difference between
what is recognized as the staple of studies in a class, and what comes
in as subsidiary--a most essential distinction, characterizing this
system of literary teaching. The critics of 1586 advert to it clearly.
After showing the importance of including the study of historians
in the course of Poetry, they say: "This will not be too onerous to
the Preceptor; for the style of history is plainer and more lucid,
so as not to need great study; and it would be enough to explain the
course of events, as they are narrated by the author, so that he
need not consult other authors who have written on the same matter.
The prelection of the historian ought to be easy; after rendering a
sentence of the author, the words may be lightly commented upon, and
only such as have some obscurity hanging about them." The historians of
whom there is question here, are Cæsar, Sallust, Q. Curtius, Justin,
Tacitus, Livy.[292]
"In both classes of Rhetoric and Humanities, not everything
indiscriminately is to be dictated and taken down, but only certain
interpretations of difficult passages, which are not readily obvious
to every one, or which the Master has elaborated as the outcome of
his personal study; besides, some rather striking remarks on various
passages of the author under examination, such annotations as the
commentators give, who edit books of various readings. This will
befit the Master's dignity, and will be useful for the young men to
know."[293]
The grades of Grammar have respectively their own forms of prelection,
given in detail by the final _Ratio_. It will be enough for us to
sketch the general form of the earlier critics.[294]
According as it is a grammar or an author that is being explained, a
very different method of prelection is to be followed. In the grammar,
we acquire a fund of precepts; in an author, a store of words and
phrases. Wherefore, in the books of grammar, the boys must understand
perfectly the things explained; they need not attend scrupulously to
the words there, with a view to forming style. But, in the letters of
Cicero, and other texts of the kind, it is not so much the substance of
the sentences, as the words and phrases that are of chief consequence;
the significance and force of his thoughts are to be reserved for the
higher classes, when the students are no longer mere boys.
In the classes of Grammar then, let the Master follow this method of
explaining Cicero, or any other author. First, he will sketch, in the
briefest way, the meaning of the author, and the connection between
what has gone before and what is now to be explained. Then he will
give a version of the period literally, preserving to the utmost
the collocation of words, as they stand in the author; and also the
figures employed. As to the collocation or arrangement of the words,
this is of such consequence that sometimes, if a single word is put
out of its place, the whole thought seems to lose its force and fall
flat. Herein, too, is perceived that rhythmic flow of the style,
which of itself, even if other ornaments are wanting, pleases the ear
wonderfully and gratifies the mind. Thirdly, the whole period is to be
resolved analytically into its structural elements, so that the boys
understand distinctly what every word governs; and their attention
should be directed to some useful points of good Latinity. As to this
structural analysis, I may be allowed the passing remark, which is
familiar to every judge of a classical education, that the disciplinary
value of literary studies reaches here its highest degree of mental
exercise; and that the two classical tongues, Latin and Greek, are
altogether eminent as supplying materials for this exercise, in their
own native structure; which, in the Latin, is an architectural build,
characteristic of the reasoning Roman mind; and, in the Greek, is a
subtle delicacy of conception and tracery, reflecting the art, the
grace and versatility of Athens and the Ionian Isles.
After this, each word is to be examined, as to what it signifies, and
to what uses it may be applied; the boy is to understand, as far as may
be, the original and proper idea and force of every word, not merely
its general significance, as in a shadowy outline; he should know, too,
the phrases in his native tongue, which correspond with precision and
propriety to the Latin. The metaphors and the figurative use of words,
especially as found in Cicero, are to be explained to the boys in an
extremely plain manner,[295] and by examples drawn from the plainest
objects. Unless this use of words is understood, the true and genuine
knowledge of the tongue is seriously obstructed. Then, picking out
the more elegant turns of style, the Master will dictate them to the
scholars, and afterwards require the use and imitation of these phrases
in their themes. Lastly, he will go back and translate the words of the
author over again, as he did at the beginning; and, if need be, do so a
third and a fourth time.
As to writing, during all this, let him forbid them absolutely to take
down a single letter, except when told. What he does dictate to them,
he is to finish within the time of the prelection, and not prolong
this time for the sake of the writing. It happens now and then that,
with much labor, waste of time, and to no good purpose whatever, the
boys take down, and preserve with diligence, a set of notes which
have not been thought out very judiciously nor been arranged very
carefully,--notes simply trivial, common, badly patched together,
sometimes worse than worthless; and these notes they commit to paper,
in wretched handwriting, full of mistakes and errors. Therefore, let
the dictation be only of a few points, and those extremely select.
The Masters are to be on their guard, lest private tutors at the boys'
homes explain new lessons to them. These tutors have merely to repeat
with the boys what has been heard in class. Otherwise, the fruit of the
good explanation which is received at school is lost at home.
Repetition is now in order. Two principles govern this exercise.
First, "what has often been repeated sinks deeper into the mind."[296]
Secondly, "the industry of youths flags under nothing so much as
satiety."[297] As soon, therefore, as the prelection is over, the
Professor is to require at once an account of all that he has said,
and he is to see that the whole line of his explanation is followed in
the repetition. As if this seemed to imply that only the best scholars
were to be called upon, the critics go on to note that not all of what
has been explained should be repeated by one only, but that as many as
possible should be practised every day. The Master should not follow
the order in which the boys are seated, but take them here and there.
However, the first to be called on are those more advanced; then,
the duller, or perhaps lazier ones, and these should rather be asked
oftener, to be kept up to the mark.[298]
The final _Ratio_ notes that the daily lesson should not exceed four
lines in the lowest class of Grammar; seven in Middle Grammar. There
is, as I have already observed, a prelection proper to grammatical
rules; also to Greek, whether it be in the grammar or in an author.
Proportion in width and depth of matter is adjusted to each grade.
A careful dictation in the vernacular is to be given, which, when
rendered into Latin or Greek, will exemplify the precepts explained,
or the use of the phrases already dictated. And one part of the school
exercises, from the lowest class up to Rhetoric, is a _concertatio_
between rivals, which is a lively discussion either upon matters
explained in the prelections, or upon one another's compositions. In
this field of debate, as is natural, the activity of the students
grows, both in the extent of the field to be covered, and in the
depth of erudition required, according as the grades are mounted.
And it is carried out of the class-room into select societies,
called "academies," the members whereof, whether grammarians or
_littérateurs_, conduct their debates, give their own prelections or
repeat a choice one of their Professor's, award a place in the archives
to some specially meritorious production; and they conduct all these
exercises in exact keeping with their actual prelections and studies.
Nor do they yield an inch in gravity or dignity to the great academy
of theologians and philosophers.[299]
As to the native tongue, one of the earliest systems of studies in
the Society, prior to the general _Ratio_ by about forty years, lays
down for the middle class of Grammar, that "on Mondays and Wednesdays
the boys will receive the themes in Bohemian and German for their
epistolary exercises."[300] This document is probably from the pen
of Peter Canisius, soon after the colleges were founded at Prague,
Ingolstadt and Cologne. In a directive memorial of 1602, drawn up for
Mayence by Father Ferdinand Alber, a postscript is added to the effect,
"Let exercise in the German tongue be furthered."[301] Jouvancy lays
down the practice in this manner: "After the correction and dictation
of the written exercises, the Latin author is rendered into the mother
tongue, or a _concertatio_ is held. These two exercises can be held
on alternate days, if there is not enough of time every day for both.
In rendering the author into the vernacular, you will observe three
things: first, the idiom of the vernacular, and its agreement in
construction with the Latin, or else its disagreement, so that the
scholars learn each tongue by the other; secondly, the proper turns
and elegance of the Latin style; finally, the thoughts of the author,
as having a moral bearing, and as calculated to form and mould the
judgment of the boys; also the ways of men, the punishments of the
wicked, the maxims of sages. Some part of an historical author should
be given sometimes for their written exercise, to translate into the
mother tongue; or it may be added, as an appendix, to a shorter theme.
Let the boys hold a discussion among themselves upon the merits of
the translation; they can write in that narrative style, to win the
best places in class; as also, at the close of the year, for the
premiums. However, the whole time of class is not to be taken up by
such translations, as happens sometimes with negligent Masters, who
shirk the labor of the prelection, and of the correction of themes.
While the boys dispute among themselves on the precepts of grammar,
poetry, or eloquence, one stands against many, or several against
several. The subject, time, and manner of the _concertatio_ is to be
defined beforehand; umpires and judges are to be appointed, prizes for
the victors, penalties for the vanquished. The others, who are merely
listening during the contest, will show in writing what fruit they have
derived from it, or will be asked questions thereupon."[302]
In the following article,[303] the same writer gives several specimens
of a prelection in Cicero, Virgil, Phædrus, as adapted to the different
classes. They are only passages. The whole of this system goes by
passages, taken consecutively, until a whole piece has been mastered
by the students. For it is in the prior perfection of detail that
perfection in a larger compass is attained. And we may also note
that it is only in the original productions of perfect Masters in
style, that detail can ever be adequately studied. The understanding
and enjoyment of an entire masterpiece, taken as a whole, is by every
law of nature and of art an easy resultant of understanding the
parts. If any writers on pedagogy have thought that no student could
"understand and take pleasure" in an original classic, and therefore
have advocated the reading of translations as a means of receiving the
"literary impressions," I fear that we need only point to the style
of literary writing which seems to have resulted from doing things in
this second-hand fashion--if indeed it is even second-hand. For, after
all, style itself never appears in a translation; only the thoughts
are translated. Thoughts are the soul of style; its expression was
the body; each fitted the other in the classic original; and, in an
eminent mutual fitness, an eminent style was being studied. The best
translation of a classic piece has never done more than produce a bare
equivalent. Wherefore, if with the striking original no thorough work
has been done, it is more than probable that, in the results, nothing
original and striking will ever be done.
This system of prelection, which in addition to the perfection of its
_technique_, required erudition from every branch of learning,[304]
made of the Professor anything but a technical pedagogue. Voltaire
noticed it, speaking of his own Professor. "Nothing will efface
from my heart," he wrote to Père de la Tour, Rector of the Collège
Louis-le-Grand, "the memory of Father Porée, who is equally dear to
all that studied under him. Never did man make study and virtue more
amiable. The hours of his lessons were delicious hours to us. And I
should have wished that it was the custom at Paris, as it used to be at
Athens, that one, at any age, could listen to such lectures. I should
often go to hear them. I have had the good fortune to be formed by more
than one Jesuit of the character of Père Porée, and I know that he has
successors worthy of him."[305]
The productions of such Professors replenished the literature of
the classics, as we may see in the great editions, or _bibliothecæ
classicæ_, published during the present century. Father De la Cerda
of Toledo, in his three folio volumes on Virgil, in 1617, gave to
literature an encyclopædia of political and moral observations,
including geography, history, and the natural sciences.[306] His
technical work was not inferior; for his "Grammatical Institutions"
became in 1613, by an exclusive privilege, the standard of all the
public schools in Spain. Father Nicholas Abram, whose "Epitome
of Greek Precepts in Latin Verse" went through fifty editions in
twenty-two years, published in 1632, while Professor at the College
of Pont-à-Mousson, two volumes octavo on Virgil, which were then
republished constantly at Rouen, Paris, Toulouse, Poitiers, Lyons,
etc.[307] Undertaking the same labor, in behalf of Cicero, he issued
two volumes folio, "by which John George Grævius profited in his
edition of Cicero, Amsterdam, 1699; as well as the editor of Cambridge,
whose work appeared in 1699, 1710, and 1717."[308] Father De la Rue's
(Carolus Ruæus) Delphin Virgil is a familiar work in France, Holland,
England; so, too, De Merouville's Delphin edition of Cicero, which was
often reproduced at Cambridge, London, Dublin, etc. The same we see
with regard to Sanadon on Horace, Brumoy's great work on the Greek
Drama, René Rapin's various critical and poetical works; and so of
the rest. Of Père Rapin's thirty-five works, there are few which were
not translated into various European languages; and Oxford, London,
Cambridge, have been among the most active centres of republication, or
translation into English.[309]
4. This chapter, which has extended beyond the usual limits, cannot
close better than with a word on books, a matter intimately connected
with its subject. The Fathers of 1586 set down some principles
with regard to the proper supply and use of books, as well as the
expurgation of the classical standard works;[310] and accordingly the
_Ratio_ of 1599 ordains that "the students are neither to be without
useful books, nor to abound in useless ones."[311] A multitude is
considered useless, because "it oppresses the mind, and interferes
with the convenient preparation of the lesson. Of books by more recent
authors few are to be allowed, and those very carefully selected."
Yet, "a variety of authors gives a richer vein to the boys, and makes
imitation easier."[312] Here the Fathers proceed to give directions
for the composition of an entirely new kind of work, which would be
of great use in the colleges. It is exactly the species so well known
in our days under the various titles of "Precepts of Rhetoric," "Art
of Composition," etc. As the development of pedagogical literature,
which we took note of in a former chapter,[313] had already made some
progress, the critics say: "Some one most versed in all these matters
should be deputed to gather whatever is best in this line, and to
compile in one treatise, written in an elegant style, all that he has
selected, about the art of writing epigrams, elegies, odes, eclogues,
_sylvæ_ (that is, materials, "objects"), comedies, tragedies, epopoeiæ,
a brief method of chronology; explaining also what is the historical
(or narrative) style, the poetic, the epistolary, the different
kinds of speaking, and other such matters, all to be illustrated by
examples."[314] Elsewhere they call for a similar work of a higher
order, on the Art of Oratory. The sources which they designate for
such a compilation are "the numerous publications of our Professors of
Rhetoric, as well on the art itself, as on classical orations."[315]
These _compendia_, or text-books, were a new idea in education.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE CLASSICAL LITERATURES. SCHOOL MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL.
The subject of Literary Exercises and School Management is treated in
such a manner by the critics of 1586, that justice could be done to
it, only by transcribing, word for word, the several chapters of the
preliminary _Ratio_. As that is impossible, within the limits of space
remaining, I shall endeavor to trace the outline.
1. There is one fundamental point, however, which should be touched
on, to meet a latent query in the mind. It refers to the kind of
education projected throughout. It is evidently not a special training
which is contemplated; not the training of specialists, or technical
students. All through the system, the field of pedagogical activity
is that of a general culture; and, therefore, properly an education.
The result aimed at is a general one, that of developing in the
young mind all fundamental qualities; of adjusting it, by the early
development of all natural fitnesses, to any special work of thought
and labor in the mature life of the future. It would lay a solid
substructure, in the whole mind and character, for any superstructure
of science, professional and special; also for the entire building
up of moral life, civil and religious. That such a general culture
should go before the special seems to be obvious. To supplant it by the
special, or even to abridge the process, is not only to sacrifice the
general culture; it has a more serious effect than that. By a false
economy, it cramps, curtails, and reduces to the smallest proportions
whatever possibilities existed of general and special qualifications
in the youthful mind. Without a broad, radical formation below,
the amplitude of organic growth above must necessarily fall short;
the roots underneath not having shot out, the development above is
wanting in vigor, to ramify according to its environment, and use its
opportunities. In a boy's mind, there is needed a suppleness of general
powers, as only the young mind can be made supple, while at the same
time it is preëminently apt to be general. It is what Seneca calls
_curiosum ingenium_, "an inquisitive genius," open to everything, and
prying to open everything. Memory is then at its flourishing stage,
ready to be cultivated throughout the extent of a potential vastness,
which will never again be experienced in life. If cultivated richly in
its season, it will be capable afterwards of every kind of ready yield,
according to its acquired tenacity, and according to the richness of
the seed deposited in it. The imagination, too, is at the stage of
impressionable and vital expansion, and is keenly sensitive to the
lights and shades of objective life. These are either brought under
its observation, or, better still, are pictured for it in beautiful
literature; since the fine fancy of great minds paints nature, as
nature herself is not found dressed at every one's door. The opening
judgment also is receptive of the thoughts and wisdom, which other
minds have thought out and handed down, encasing it, as they did so, in
a style worthy of their own vigor, and presenting it as the heritage
of the past to the present, of the wise old age of the world to its
youth, which may be wiser still. And thus in each individual youth, the
judgment being tenderly nursed, and learning ripening with age, what
was before in the memory passes gradually into the whole character and
competency of the man.
In the system which we are considering, the instrument employed for
working these effects is a literature in the hands of a competent
teacher; it is a great literature, and a double one. The great
literatures of Rome and Greece have always been considered adequate
instruments of universal culture. Under a literary aspect, the
eloquence and poetry of Greece had been the mistress of Roman
excellence. Under a philological aspect, the Latin tongue has been the
principal basis of our modern languages, as formed in the history of
Christendom. In both of them, the varied elements of richest thought
are brought into contact with the undeveloped, but developing nature of
the youth; glimpses of human life, individual, social, and political,
favor his inquiring eyes, and lead him to feel the finest springs of
human sentiment. Better still, he feels these springs as touched by the
greatest masters of expression; and he conceives thought as rendered
in a style worthy of the greatest thinkers; and that, in languages,
one of them the most delicately organized, the other perhaps the most
systematically elaborated, of all tongues living or extinct. And,
besides, these two literatures come down to us, bearing in their own
right what no other tongues can convey. Not as translations, which, in
their best form, exhibit only a respectable degree of mendicancy, and
represent other men's living thoughts in a decent misfit, these two
literatures come down to us bearing in their own right all the historic
memories of antiquity, as well sacred as profane; all the masterpieces
of eloquence and poetry, belonging to no less than two out of the very
few great epochs, those of Pericles and Augustus; all human philosophy,
from Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, down to St. Thomas Aquinas, and,
further down, to Leibnitz and Newton, both of them men of classical
letters; in fine, all the traditions, the Faith, and Divinity of
Christendom.
To these considerations we may add one more characteristic of the
classical literatures, as instruments in the class-room, and we shall
have seen enough on our present topic, to understand the theory which
underlies the _Ratio Studiorum_. These tongues are dead. They are not
the language of common life. They are not picked up by instinct, and
without reflection. Everything has to be learned by system, rule,
and formula. The relations of grammar and logic must be attended to
with deliberation. Thought and judgment are constantly exercised in
assigning the exact equivalents of the mother tongue for every phrase
of the original. The coincidence of construction is too little, the
community of idiomatic thought too remote, for the boy's mind to catch
at the idea, by force of that preëstablished harmony which exists
among most modern tongues. Only the law of thought and logic guides
him, with the assistance of a teacher to lead the way, and reassure his
struggling conception.
And when, in the last instance, the boy comes to write and to speak the
language so learned, and quickens it, though dead, with the very life
of actual speech which makes modern languages live, we have the supreme
test and proof of successful toil, that which consists in the power
to reproduce. We have also the very specific advantage, in this case,
that the toil has been of the most valuable kind; it has been personal
labor, spent in the freshness of life on complete self-culture. For
that great law of all success in life, personal labor, has been honored
in the most remunerative way, by cultivating memory, exercising
judgment, and acquiring in the same thoughtful, reflective manner two
languages together, Latin and the mother tongue, Greek and the mother
tongue, each systematically helping the others by analogy and contrast.
And, withal, what is more congenial to the young than letters,
language, talk?
As to the working of this Jesuit system, it is very much of a
commonplace, in pedagogic history, that "a handsome style" was aimed
at, and a handsome style was the outcome. The Scottish Professor,
whom I quoted on a former occasion, states very exactly the value of
this result. Speaking of the Structure of Sentences, he says: "Logic
and Rhetoric have here, as in many cases, a strict connection; and he
that is learning to arrange his sentences with order, is learning to
think with accuracy and order; an observation which alone would justify
all the care and attention we have bestowed on this subject."[316]
And, in another connection, he quotes, with the approval which it
merits, the Roman rhetorician's saying: _Curam verborum, rerum volo
esse sollicitudinem_, "I would have a sufficient care be given to
the diction, but the thoughts must be the object of scrupulous
attention."[317] This latter principle, of diction first and matter
afterwards, as translated into a process of educational development,
assigns, in the _Ratio_, five grades, or seven years, more or less,
to be spent on the acquirement of style, chiefly as to its body, or,
if you like, its form; then two great courses of Science, natural and
revealed, or Philosophy and Theology, for the acquirement of the same
style, chiefly as to its soul, or, if you wish so to call it, the
substratum of matter. From both together issues the thoroughly cultured
man; as the well-known phrase has it: _Le style c'est l'homme_, "A
style is the man himself." And, if we have just had occasion to take
notice that two of the great literary epochs of the world's history,
those of Pericles and Augustus, are made present to us by the classical
literatures, it is a subject of historical verification that a third
great literary epoch, the age of Louis XIV, was created under the
influence of this system.
The manner in which the critics of 1586 discuss the question of Greek
shows the practical eye they kept on the requirements of actual life,
and the conditions of concrete surroundings.[318] Their conclusions are
embodied in a rule of the Director or Prefect of Studies: "He should
not grant an immunity, particularly for any length of time, from either
versification or Greek, except for a grave reason."[319]
Upon this theme there is a facetious touch in the report of the Upper
German Province, which was sent to Father Aquaviva some three years
after the final _Ratio_ was published. The deputies say: "Some ask for
an exemption from Greek and versification, in behalf of the older monks
and nobles. But as the rule itself insinuates that an exception can be
made, for a sufficiently grave cause, there is no need of a change. If
we are facile in the matter, whether with monks or nobles, we shall end
by eliminating Greek altogether. But, if one is seen to be altogether
inept and incapable, the impossibility of the thing exempts him; for,
if God himself does not enjoin impossibilities, why, neither should
we impose Greek on such disciples." Father Aquaviva replies, "That is
correct."[320]
2. Under the head of Exercises, the preliminary _Ratio_ treats
elaborately and minutely the literary direction of a class. The
subjects are orthography, and all that pertains to it; the prelection,
as explained before; the repetitions, daily themes, and the method of
daily correction; the recitation of lessons by heart; parsing; and
the speaking of Latin. Jouvancy gives the order of the daily class
exercises. And he makes this reflection: Few things are to be taught
in each class, but accurately, so that they remain in the minds of the
boys; the teacher is to remember that these young intellects are like
vases with a narrow orifice, which waste the liquid, if it is poured in
copiously, but take it all, if it comes in by drops.[321]
There are, besides, a number of aids to School Management. These are
the division of the class into parties of ten apiece, or _decuriæ_; the
exposition, once or twice a month, of some passage by a student, in
the presence of invited friends; contests between rivals or parties;
the delivery of an original piece or else an oratorical contest,
every week; the exhibition or delivery of original poems; the annual
distribution of premiums; the use of the stage, when "the boys can
produce some specimen of their studies, their delivery and powers of
memory." The composition of the tragedy and minor drama devolves, as we
saw before, upon the Professors of Rhetoric and Poetry.
A general condition in the management of a class is absolute silence
and attention. Besides, it belongs to the college programme to insure
application, not only in school to class exercises, but out of school
to private study, especially when holidays intervene. The usual weekly
relaxations scarcely rise to the rank of "holidays." For the amount
of time to be assigned in private study to composition and other
work is part of the daily order, whether the students be _alumni_,
day-scholars, or _convictores_, boarders. All must have enough to
occupy them, "that the boys be deterred from roaming about to their
hurt." The same applies to the ordinary intervals between school hours,
"particularly," say the Fathers, "on the days in summer, when there
is much time in the early afternoon, before classes are resumed; and
we hear the court-yard resounding with cries and noisy pastimes, hour
after hour."[322]
Boys were the same genus then as now. It took all the efficacy of a
benign firmness to control that element which tries the experience
of every age. The German Fathers draw a graphic picture of these
sixteenth century boys. They are commenting on the rule which requires
the Prefect of Studies at the end of school to be on the ground and
supervise. They write thus to Father Aquaviva: "Many object to this;
but it seems reasonable. For, if somebody is not on hand, some one
whom the scholars revere, then like a herd,[323] all in a heap, they
will fill the whole place with their yells and uproar, their tussling,
laughter, and jostling. Now, it is necessary to require the observance
of decorum on the part of our scholars; since, if we leave room
anywhere for unmannerliness, it will get at once into the school-rooms
and ruin everything."[324] In this sense, a certain small number of
rules in the _Ratio_, only fifteen in number, and very short, are
directly presented to the students for their observance. "None of
our students shall come to college with arms, poniards, knives, or
anything else that is prohibited, according to the circumstances of
time or place." Swords and daggers were part of a gentleman's personal
equipment in those times. "They must abstain entirely from swearing,
injurious language or actions, detraction, lies, forbidden games,
from places, too, that are dangerous, or are forbidden by the Prefect
of Schools; in fine, from everything which is adverse to purity of
morals." Other rules follow, equally radical for those times, and
reconstructive of education for the future.[325]
For, in these days of ours, we are not accustomed to see students
walk in and out of a lecture room as they choose. And many other
inconveniences of the sixteenth century are not usual with us. But the
reason is, that we come three hundred years later than those times, and
are enjoying the fruits of other people's labors.
An ascendency of personal tact and address, conspicuous in the Jesuit
teachers, is usually commented upon and referred to some cause or
other, in themselves or in the general organization of the Society.
Omitting that, I prefer to designate one secret of control, which is
full of significance, though not so likely to arrest attention. It
is an insensible method of organization, making its way among the
youths themselves, and subserving the purpose of general collegiate
control. There were, in all, four classes of auditors, mingled
together, and intermingling their influences. That of the strongest
of course preponderated. There were Jesuits themselves in the higher
courses. There were boarders, _convictores_, who remained for ten,
or rather eleven months of the year, entirely under the control and
direction of the Fathers. Among these were whole houses of Religious
or Ecclesiastics. Besides, there were _alumni_, day scholars, that
great body of students originally contemplated in the Constitution
of Ignatius. These, however, owing to their divided life, partly at
school, partly at home, were not found to represent, as a rule, the
fullest effects of the education. Finally, there were _externi_,
external students, such as not being entered on the books, still
attended lectures; and to this category we must refer such general
gatherings as those several thousand hearers, who were in attendance
for hours, before the time, at Father Maldonado's lectures in Paris,
and made him go out into the open air to satisfy all. Now, besides the
bond of affection which attached scholars to the Professors, there was
another bond, that of their character as Sodalists. This character
denoted membership in the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a
religious association which is most highly commended in the _Ratio
Studiorum_, and which gathered into itself all that was excellent
in the body of students. The literary and scientific "academies"
were recruited only from the Sodality. Thus, by a double process,
an aristocracy of virtue and talent was created among the students
themselves, tending not only to the maintenance of order, but to the
active development of all those qualities which an educational system
most desires.
CHAPTER XVII.
EXAMINATIONS AND GRADUATION. SCHEDULE OF GRADES AND COURSES.
1. All examinations, as projected by the _Ratio Studiorum_, are
conducted by word of mouth. Writing enters the examinations, only when
the written word itself is the subject of investigation. Thus, in the
grades of the literary course, the composition of the student, from
its elementary qualities of spelling, punctuation, grammar, up to
the most varied forms and species of style, comes under examination
for advancing to the next grade. But even then, after each of the
three examiners has inspected carefully the written composition, and
consulted the Master's reports of the individual's progress during the
year, they call in the writer, submit his paper to him, and subject him
to an oral investigation upon it. After that, they proceed to the other
branches, all by word of mouth.
In the higher courses, where style is no longer a matter of study,
writing never appears in examinations. Written dissertations, special
lectures, literary pieces of all kinds, composed for certain occasions,
are merely a part thenceforth of the exercises incident to those
courses.
To speak here only of Grammar and the Humanities, each new-comer, on
presentation of the credentials required, is examined by the Director
or Prefect of Studies, who "places him in the class, and with the
Professor, adapted to the boy's qualifications; in such a manner,
however, that the young person be rather worthy of the class above,
than unworthy of the class in which he is placed."[326] It is the
remark of the earlier critics, that "severity must be practised in
examinations, since it is more injurious for boys to ascend a grade,
when not fit, than, if really fit, to be kept where they are; and, in
addition to that, if they are advanced when not qualified, they create
no slight disturbance in the upper class."[327]
Into the lowest grade, neither youths advanced in age, nor boys of very
tender years, are to be admitted. The plea that parents merely want
the children to be in good hands is not a sufficient reason for taking
them; the only exception is for young boys who are really far advanced
for their years.
These conditions of age, and sufficient preparation for entering the
classical course, illustrate very distinctly several features of the
policy which the Society pursued. Father Joseph Calasanzio, a priest
of great zeal, petitioned the Rector of the Roman College, which was
flourishing with more than two thousand students, to open some schools
for the unprovided children of Rome. There is a Latin word coined
from the first four letters of the alphabet, for designating this
elementary class of scholars, who are not yet qualified for literature.
The word is _abecedarii_. The term is employed both in the Constitution
of Loyola and in the _Ratio_. The Rector declined. Father Joseph
applied to the General Claudius Aquaviva. He too declined; he referred
to the Constitution of the Society, which had been distinctly and in
all its parts approved by the Popes. Unable to have his idea carried
out by the Jesuits, Father Joseph opened his first "Pious School" in
Rome, which was soon frequented by 1200 little boys, _abecedarii_.
After the founder's death in 1648, his work spread into the vast system
of _Scuole Pie_. In our times, the revised _Ratio_ of 1832 recognizes
the element of Preparatory Departments. It merely requires that they be
entirely under the same jurisdiction as the College proper.[328]
Another feature of the policy which these conditions illustrate and
which they also further, is that of their tending to discriminate
between the right kind of scholars and others, whose circumstances will
debar them from ever reaching the ultimate end of higher culture. Where
circumstances are not propitious, neither is the culture altogether
desirable. For what is more injurious to society at large than to have
young people hurt in two ways, positively and negatively; positively,
by placing them in a false environment of culture, which cannot be
theirs in future life; negatively, by taking up with such culture
all the time and labor which might usefully be spent in receiving a
plainer education, and reach its term in any commonest walk of life?
Besides, the liberal education itself suffers prejudice; for it is
misinterpreted; since it comes to be estimated then by results and by
circumstances which do not appertain to it. Every system should be set
on its own basis, and be built up subject to its own conditions. The
absoluteness of Loyola's Constitution throughout, and of the _Ratio
Studiorum_ in particular, throws this policy into relief at every turn.
After the boy's admission into a class, he advances thenceforward,
either with the whole class, at the general and solemn promotion every
year, or, if he excels, as the reports and the Master will determine,
he is not to be detained in that grade, but may ascend, at any time of
the year, after a fitting examination. A number of conditions, hard to
realize, make this special promotion barely possible from the grade of
First Grammar to Humanity, or from Humanity to Rhetoric.[329] On the
other hand, "if any one is found to be utterly incapable of entering
the next grade, no account is to be taken of any petitions."
2. In the philosophical and theological courses, both of which
terminate in the conferring of degrees, the system of examinations
for all students, who are not members of the Society, refers only to
those degrees, at the time when application is made for them. For the
philosophical degree, the first preliminary is an hour's disputation
with three examiners, on the matter of the whole course, and that
in presence of the other students. The result being satisfactory,
permission will then be granted to prepare for a public defence of
all Philosophy. This is the method for the solemn form of graduation,
which, in the old style, confers upon the successful student, after
three years of Natural Sciences, or Philosophy, the title of Master of
Arts.
At this point start the three professional lines of Medicine,
Jurisprudence, Theology. The last-named faculty ends in much the
same manner as that of Philosophy, but with a much greater amplitude
of public acts or defence, and then finally with a defence of all
Philosophy and Theology together. This entitles the defendant to the
degree of Doctor of Divinity, which is conferred in the most solemn
manner.
There is a pedagogical history connected with the present subject,
which it may be well to sketch in two stages, first, that of the
sixteenth century, and secondly, that of the nineteenth.
Ignatius of Loyola had legislated in his Constitution to this effect:
"In the study of Arts, courses shall be arranged in which the Natural
Sciences shall be taught; and, for these, less than three years will
not suffice; besides which, another half-year shall be assigned the
students, for repeating the matters they have heard, for holding public
acts of defence, and for receiving the degree of Master. The whole
course, therefore, shall be three years and a half, up to the reception
of the degree."[330] Again, Ignatius had legislated for Divinity: "The
course of Theology shall be six years in length; all the matters that
have to be read will be treated in the first four; in the other two,
besides making a repetition, those who are to be promoted to the degree
of Doctor will make the usual acts of defence."[331]
Having this legislation before them, with the experience of forty
years to illustrate its working, the critics of 1586 are confronted,
at the same time, with a set of historical facts, which seem not to be
in harmony with the legislation. While Loyola's system was obviously
the organization of education, the facts, which they notice, show
a concomitant process going on, in an inverse sense, towards the
dissolution of system. This, no doubt, was owing to the disturbed
condition of the sixteenth century. Making an effort to bring the
_Ratio_ and the facts more into harmony, the critics reason in this
manner:--
"It is hard to expect everywhere that external students will be
content to hold their acts of public defence, only after their course
of Philosophy or Theology; and that, during the half-year, or the two
years specified beyond. For, in Italy, scarcely any are promoted to the
degrees by our faculties, except our own alumni, or _convictores_, who
cannot wait so long as that in expectancy, and who will readily slip
away to Medicine or Jurisprudence; nay, they are alienated from us, and
are offended at this severity, seeing that, in the other universities
of Italy, they can most easily obtain the degree if they want it.
In Germany, too, such intervals of protracted waiting are scarcely
tolerated; and they rather think they have done something, if they have
gone through a four-year course in Theology. And it would seem proper
to grant them a relaxation there; otherwise, the men are deterred from
seeking the Doctorate; so that Germany will have but few Catholic
Doctors in the future; whereas, it abounds in non-catholic Doctors,
whose promotion is to be had any day. In France, too, the philosophers
do not wait beyond the close of the triennium to be made Masters of
Arts; they could not put up with delay, for they are hurrying on to
Law. The same is the condition of things with the German philosophers,
for other reasons. Therefore the Reverend Father General might consider
whether he will dispense with the observance of the Constitution in the
Italian and Transalpine Provinces; the more so, as the Constitution
itself says that it is to be observed, as far as may be."[332]
In accordance with this, the _Ratio Studiorum_ is not absolute in its
general legislation, and leaves room for the special conditions of
different countries. A most distinct conception of the meaning and
process of conferring degrees may be had, by consulting the typical
constitution of an exclusively Jesuit university, as exhibited in
the _Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica_.[333] The third part of this
document treats exclusively of the "Variety of Academic Degrees and
the Conditions for Each." And it begins by saying: "As it is expedient
to confer Academic degrees on those who are found worthy of the same,
so the utmost caution is to be practised, lest, at any time, they be
conferred on such as would only bring the name of the Academy into
discredit, and the degrees themselves into contempt. Wherefore no
degree is ever to be conferred upon any one, who has not undergone all
the tests which the customs of universities require."
Passing on from the sixteenth century to our time, an important gap
has to be crossed in the educational history of the Order. It is
that of the Suppression, during about forty years at the end of the
last century and the beginning of the present. These blank pages
signify the total loss of property and position, with a severance in
many places of the educational traditions for almost sixty years,
and the entire destruction of them in many other parts. Besides,
like "goods derelict," the whole system of education which, by means
of the Society, had passed out of a limited number of mediæval
universities, and had been accommodated with a home gratuitously in
over seven hundred cities and towns of a dozen nationalities, was
found by the Order, at its resurrection, to be largely in the hands
of State authorities, or, at least, not independent of State control.
Restored, but having had to struggle into existence, under altered and
unfavorable circumstances, this pedagogical system may be viewed with
interest, as it stands towards the close of the nineteenth century. For
this purpose I may be allowed to glance at it, in several parts of the
world, under the precise aspect which I have just been regarding, that
of endeavoring to complete its work of education with Academic degrees.
In the United States, it has the same freedom of action as any other
system of higher education, with none of the special support which is
given to organizations endowed by the State.
In many parts of the continent of Europe, the property of the Order is
in an habitual or chronic state of confiscation, and the members, as
educators, are legally outlawed. Education can scarcely thrive when on
the wing.
In Austria, where the Society is fully recognized, its teachers are, by
a cross-move, practically debarred from State recognition. To pass on
their students for State degrees, it is required that they themselves
be certified State teachers. To become such teachers, they must have
followed in actual attendance, and during four years, the special
course of Grammar, History, etc., in which their certificate afterwards
will be recognized. Meanwhile, as Jesuits, they have gone through the
courses which I have sketched in the pages of this essay; and they are
certainly, by this time, not to be confounded with young persons, who
are merely prospecting some limited field of pedagogic activity, as the
scope of their lives. Hence, at this most energetic and ripe period
of their lives, they must waste four years, as if they were young
normal scholars, in following out some one or two lines of pedagogical
formation; and that, merely to have their word admitted when they pass
their students on for the State degrees.
In Great Britain and the dependencies of the British Empire there are
no such harassing restrictions. The conditions for matriculation,
and for the subsequent series of examinations, in such universities
as those of London, Calcutta, or Laval, are quite in keeping with
the American ideas of social liberality; however high and exacting
otherwise may be the standard requisite for success, either in the
pass-examinations or in the Honors. Nor, if special matriculation is
again required in certain English universities, before entering their
courses of Medicine, does that impose any special hardship. Hence, St.
Francis Xavier's, Calcutta, ranks among the highest of what are called
the "Christian schools" of India. To make matters clearer, I shall
take two instances, one from Great Britain itself, the other from the
Dominion of Canada.
Stonyhurst will illustrate the working of the State system, as coming
in contact with the _Ratio Studiorum_. The matriculation examinations
at the London University create no special difficulty, although the
higher classes of the literary curriculum may be regarded as under a
strain, in the double effort to satisfy the _Ratio_, and to matriculate
at that university. After matriculation, the process is considerably
smoother. To take the classical or mathematical Honors, in the B.
A. or M. A. examinations, is altogether in harmony with the usual
course of the Jesuit system. At once, after the B. A. Honors, a good
place on the Indian Civil Service list is within easy reach. And, in
general, changes made by the Civil Service Commissioners have all been
in the direction of adapting their competitive examinations to the
ordinary school curriculum. In preparation for the military academies
of Woolwich and Sandhurst, students follow the regular school course
at Stonyhurst, to within two years or so of the time for entrance;
and then they merely take up their special course, designed for the
military cadetship. The same is now possible with regard to the navy,
since the age for entering that service has been somewhat raised.
And, to mention one of the courses which are altogether proper to
the Jesuit system, that of Philosophy, the usual lectures of the two
years' philosophical curriculum have only to be supplemented with a
few special lectures, and the students are ready for the philosophical
papers of the B. A. examination, in the London University.
Montreal exhibits the relations of Jesuit and State systems in a
Catholic country. The University of Laval is at the same time chartered
by the State and by the Pope. The Jesuit Professors in the College at
Montreal conduct their own studies, examine their students, and merely
send them with certificates to receive degrees at the University.
From this history it appears, that, though the curriculum of Divinity
in the Jesuit system need have undergone no great change during three
centuries, beyond the usual self-accommodation of the courses to
new and pressing questions, its curriculum of Philosophy has been
materially affected, with reference to the general world of students.
This, as foreseen in the _Ratio Studiorum_ of 1586, and as referred
to again in the revised _Ratio_ of 1832, causes a double arrangement
to be made. First, wherever members of the Order are pursuing their
studies, the philosophical triennium is, as a matter of course, in full
operation, and is prolonged with individuals into a fourth year, for
reviewing the subjects and prosecuting them further; and this seminary
course, if connected with a public college, remains open as ever to the
outside world. Secondly, to meet the requirements of external students,
who do not desire the full triennium, the Provincial "will see that
a course of Philosophy be established according to the customs and
necessities of the country."[334] Hence a biennium, or two-year course,
is commonly established; and, according to the needs or desires of the
locality, it is conducted either in Latin or in the vernacular.
3. Now we may review succinctly the different courses as conducted by
the year, and as distributed through the week.
THE LITERARY CURRICULUM.
The grading is based upon the principles of a classical education.
Other branches enter a classical course, as completing the staple
studies. But, on their own merits, they receive a special distribution
of their own. The Prefect of the lower studies is instructed to
"distribute History, Geography, the elements of Mathematics, and
whatever else is usually treated in these classes, in such a manner
that each Master can satisfactorily and conveniently finish the matter
assigned to him." This is to be done "after consulting the Provincial
authority," which assures stability in the manner of organizing these
branches.[335] As to the mother tongue, the study of which is bound up
intimately with the classic literatures, a general direction is given
once for all to the Professors of these grades: "In learning the mother
tongue, very much the same method will be followed as in the study of
Latin." And, in the form of prelection to be used, they are to adopt
the method specified as peculiar to the historian and the poet, which
is more summary than the prelection of the central prose author: "Much
the same method will be followed in giving the prelection on classic
authors in the vernacular."[336]
LOWER GRAMMAR. The grade of this class is the perfect knowledge of the
rudiments, and an incipient knowledge of syntax. In Greek: reading,
writing, and a certain portion of the grammar. The authors used for
prelection will be some easy selections from Cicero, besides fables of
Phædrus and lives of Nepos.
MIDDLE GRAMMAR. The grade is the knowledge, though not entire, of all
grammar; another portion of the Greek grammar; and, for the prelection,
only the select epistles, narrations, descriptions, and the like from
Cicero, with the Commentaries of Cæsar, and some of the easiest poems
of Ovid. In Greek: the fables of Æsop, select and expurgated dialogues
of Lucian, the Table of Cebes.
UPPER GRAMMAR. The grade is the complete knowledge of grammar,
including all the exceptions and idioms in syntax, figures of rhetoric,
and the art of versification. In Greek: the eight parts of speech,
or all the rudiments. For the lessons: in prose, the most difficult
epistles of Cicero, the books De Amicitia, De Senectute, and others of
the kind, or even some of the easier orations; in poetry, some select
elegies and epistles of Ovid, also selections from Catullus, Tibullus,
Propertius, and the eclogues of Virgil, or some of Virgil's easier
books. In Greek: St. Chrysostom, Xenophon, and the like.
HUMANITY. The grade is to prepare, as it were, the ground for
eloquence, which is done in three ways, by a knowledge of the language,
some erudition, and a sketch of the precepts pertaining to Rhetoric.
For a command of the language, which consists chiefly in acquiring
propriety of expression and fluency, the one prose author employed in
daily prelections is Cicero; as historical writers, Cæsar, Sallust,
Livy, Curtius, and others of the kind; the poets used are, first of
all, Virgil; also select odes of Horace, with the elegies, epigrams,
and other productions of illustrious poets, expurgated; in like manner,
orators, historians, and poets, in the vernacular. The erudition
conveyed should be slight, and only to stimulate and recreate the mind,
not to impede progress in learning the tongue. The precepts will be
the general rules of expression and style, and the special rules on
the minor kinds of composition, epistles, narrations, descriptions,
both in verse and prose. In Greek: the art of versification, and some
notions of the dialects; also a clear understanding of authors, and
some composition in Greek. The Greek prose authors will be Saints
Chrysostom and Basil, epistles of Plato and Synesius, some selections
from Plutarch; the poets, Homer, Phocylides, Theognis, St. Gregory
Nazianzen, Synesius, and others like them.
RHETORIC. The grade of this class cannot easily be defined. For it
trains to perfect eloquence, which comprises two great faculties,
the oratorical and poetical, the former chiefly being the object of
culture; nor does it regard only the practical, but the beautiful
also. For the precepts, Cicero may be supplemented with Quintilian and
Aristotle. The style, which may be assisted by drawing on the most
approved historians and poets, is to be formed on Cicero; all of his
works are most fitted for this purpose, but only his speeches should
be made the subject of prelection, that the precepts of the art may be
seen in practice. As to the vernacular, the style should be formed on
the best authors. The erudition will be derived from the history and
manners of nations, from the authority of writers and all learning;
but moderately, as befits the capacity of the students. In Greek, the
fuller knowledge of authors and of dialects is to be acquired. The
Greek authors, whether orators, historians, or poets, are to be ancient
and classic: Demosthenes, Plato, Thucydides, Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, and
others of the kind, including Saints Nazianzen, Basil, and Chrysostom.
The compilers of the preliminary _Ratio_ throw out some very useful
hints, relative to the work and scope of this class. They say, for
instance, that the students of Rhetoric "are to be assisted with almost
a daily exposition of some poet, to derive thence the variety and
richness of poetic imitation and diction." Again, "nothing dialectic is
to be made the subject of prelection in this class, since rhetoricians
are to be kept as far away as possible from the style, invention, and
spirit of dialectics." "Two or three years" are spoken of as spent in
this grade.[337] At any rate, "all our day-scholars or boarders[338]
should spend one year in Rhetoric before they enter on Philosophy; this
should be brought home to their parents. The others, who attend our
courses from outside,[339] should be persuaded to do the same."[340]
If they still insist upon entering the philosophical curriculum at too
early an age, special means are suggested to discountenance such a
practice.
All these five grades are evidently so connected as not to overlap one
another. Neither are they to be multiplied, except in the sense of
allowing more than a single division, when scholars are very numerous.
If all the grades cannot be maintained in any place, "the higher
ones, as far as possible, are to be kept, the lower being dispensed
with."[341]
THE PHILOSOPHICAL CURRICULUM.
With the side branches sufficiently learned, with the boy's native
talents "stimulated" or "cultivated," as the _Ratio_ frequently
expresses itself,[342] and his memory enriched with the fullest
materials for style in two languages, Latin and the vernacular, while
Greek has subsidized his culture, the student enters on the study of
Philosophy, using scholastic Latin as the vehicle of expression.
This instrument for the expression of philosophical thought possesses
the qualities of subtlety, keenness, and precision, which the dialectic
practice of all universities had tended to develop in it, from the
twelfth century onwards. With the addition of Cicero's fulness and
richness, which the colleges cultivated with so much ardor, the
scholastic Latin of men like Molina, Ripalda, Liberatore, Franzelin,
and so many others, has flourished to a degree of literary excellence.
Mathematics runs parallel with the course of Philosophy, and upon
that branch of science there is a rather eloquent passage in the
_Ratio_ of 1586.[343] Physics was always included in the Aristotelian
philosophy. The career of Modern Physics was then in the future. But,
as in Mathematics pure and applied, the courses were always advanced to
the foremost rank, and in Arithmetic and Geometry we notice that, as
early as 1667, a single public course, under the direction of Jesuits
at Caen, numbered four hundred students,[344] so, in the middle of the
next century, the eighteenth, we find physical cabinets in regular
use, and experimental lectures given to the classes by the Professors
of Physics.[345] The basis of the study is thus laid down in the rules
of the revised _Ratio_: "The Professor is to expose theories, systems,
and hypotheses, so as to make it clear what degree of certitude or
probability belongs to each. Since this faculty makes new progress
every day, the Professor must consider it part of his duty to know the
more recent discoveries, so that in his prelections he may advance
with the science itself."[346] The general assemblies had legislated
on this subject, as I indicated before; assigning its proper place in
Philosophy to what they called "the more pleasant" or the "lighter"
form of Physics. Indeed, Philosophy itself in the course of three
centuries came to feel many new needs and submitted to new lines of
treatment.
=First Year.= LOGIC AND GENERAL METAPHYSICS. _One Professor: eight
hours a week._ Introductory sketch of Philosophy. Dialectics or
Minor Logic: ideas, judgment, reasoning. Logic Proper: The criteria
of truth; species of knowledge, and general rules of criticism and
hermeneutics. General Metaphysics or Ontology: The notions of being and
the categories. MATHEMATICS. _One Professor: six hours a week._ All
that prepares for the Physics of the following year, viz., algebra,
geometry, plane and spherical trigonometry, and conic sections. This
rapid course, in so short a time, supposes that the matter is not
entirely new, but has been studied already in the literary course.
=Second Year and part of the Third.= SPECIAL METAPHYSICS. _One
Professor: four hours a week._ First, Cosmology: The origin of the
world, the elements of bodies, the perfection of the world, its
nature and laws, supernatural effects and their criteria, as examined
by philosophical principles. Secondly, Psychology: The essence of
the human soul, and its faculties: sensation, imagination, memory,
the nature of intelligence and reason, appetite, will, freedom;
the essential difference between soul and body; the simplicity,
spirituality, and immortality of the soul; the union of soul and body,
the nature and origin of ideas; the vital principle of brutes. Thirdly,
Natural Theology: God, His existence and attributes, etc., as viewed
by the light of human reason. PHYSICS. _One Professor: nine hours a
week._ Mechanics, dynamics; the properties of bodies, hydrostatics,
hydraulics, aerostatics, pneumatics; the elements of astronomy; light,
caloric, electricity, magnetism, meteorology. What is not completed
in this year is continued in the next, with the elements of natural
history. Much of this course may have been seen in the literary
curriculum. "The matters are not to be treated so exclusively from a
rational standpoint, as to leave barely any time for experiments; nor
are experiments so to occupy the time, that it looks like a merely
experimental science." CHEMISTRY. _One Professor: three hours a week._
Inorganic and organic.
=Third Year.= METAPHYSICS. _One Professor: four hours a week._ What
remains of the course just described, under the second year. MORAL
PHILOSOPHY. _One Professor: four hours a week._ The end of man, the
morality of human actions, natural law, natural rights and duties;
the principles of public right. PHYSICS. _One Professor: two hours a
week._ Geology, astronomy, physiology. Part of the course above can
be reserved for this year. MATHEMATICS. _One Professor: three hours a
week._ Analytical geometry and differential calculus.
In these courses of Natural Science, if the matter is not altogether
new, as having been studied in the lower faculties, the philosophical
attitude of theoretic criticism is quite specific throughout this
curriculum.
THE THEOLOGICAL CURRICULUM.
As the Jesuit theologians of Cologne announced in their programme
of 1578 that, while they followed St. Thomas, yet "neither all the
matters, nor those alone which he treated," were to be handled by them;
so, in every age, the standard adopted has been adhered to, with the
same practical eye to the needs of the times. The reason is the same as
those theologians assigned; because, they said, "Every age has definite
fields of conflict, which render it necessary that Theology be enlarged
with a variety of newly disputed questions, and, in fact, that it
assume a new form."[347] In the arrangement of Scholastic Theology the
_Ratio_ suggests the following form:--
=Scholastic Theology.= FOUR YEARS. _Two Professors: each four hours
a week._ _One course._ Religion and the Church; God in Unity and
Trinity; His attributes, predestination: God as Creator; the Angels;
the creation of Man and his fall; the Incarnation; Three of the Seven
Sacraments. _The other course._ Human acts, virtues, and vices; the
theological virtues; the cardinal virtues; right and justice; religion;
grace; the Sacraments in general; the rest of the Seven Sacraments.
=Moral Theology.= TWO YEARS. _One Professor: five and a half hours a
week._ The scope of this course is to form Ministers of the Sacraments.
_One year._ Human acts, conscience, laws, sins, the Commandments,
excepting the seventh. _The other year._ The seventh Commandment, which
includes contracts; the Sacraments, censures, the states and duties of
life.
=Ecclesiastical History.= TWO YEARS. _One Professor: two hours a week._
The questions, necessary and opportune, in the history of each century.
=Canon Law.= TWO YEARS. _One Professor: two hours a week._ _One year._
Persons, judgments, penalties. _The other year._ Things.
=Sacred Scripture.= TWO YEARS. _One Professor: four hours a week._
General prolegomena. A book from the Old and New Testament alternately.
=Hebrew.= ONE YEAR. _One Professor: two hours a week._ Supplemented
with one hour a week on Syriac, Arabic, Chaldaic, during four years.
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION OF TIME.
The compilers of the preliminary _Ratio_ made an effort to draw up a
uniform system for the distribution of time in the various countries.
But the final _Ratio_ preferred to leave the matter thus: "Since the
variety of countries, times, and persons is apt to introduce variety
in the order to be observed, and in the distribution of hours for
study, repetitions, disputations, and other exercises, as also in
vacations, the proper authority will report to the General whatever he
thinks more expedient in his Province, for the better advancement of
studies, that a definite arrangement may be come to, which will meet
all exigencies; keeping, however, as near as possible to the common
order of our studies."[348] Accordingly, a rule of the General Prefect
of Studies prescribes that "he lay down not only an order of studies,
repetitions, disputations to be observed by members of the Society, by
our scholars, and by external students at large, under the direction of
their Professors; but also that he distribute all their time, to the
effect that they spend the hours of private study well."[349]
I shall give three sketches of actual arrangements for the conduct of
the literary or secondary curriculum; and one normal arrangement for
the two departments of superior education in Philosophy and Theology.
The three schedules for the secondary course are taken from the English
speaking world. That numbered (I), if presented in full, would read
very much like the usual arrangement of an American college. It is the
method more or less adopted by the Jesuit colleges which centre around
the St. Louis University in the Western States. The schedule numbered
(II) represents the system of Georgetown College, and of others in
the Eastern States; it looks like a close adaptation of the system as
presented in these pages. Number (III) is the method of Stonyhurst
College, England; and to it may be referred the Canadian system, and
that of Hindustan. The hours indicated in this schedule include the
set time for studies, besides the hours of class. The set study time,
in a boarding college, may be taken to average four and a half hours a
day; other hours may be added thereto, from free study time, or hours
of superfluous recreation. The Stonyhurst arrangement is interesting,
as being that of a faculty two hundred and ninety-nine years old,
without any intermission in its career. Its original home was St.
Omer's, France, where Father Parsons founded the college in 1592. At
the suppression of the Order in France, 1762, the college moved to
Bruges in Belgium; thence, in 1773, to Liége; whence, under the stress
of the French Revolution, it took refuge in England, and opened its
courses at Stonyhurst, Lancashire, in 1794.
The schedule for the philosophical triennium (Superior Instruction,
B) is taken from Woodstock College and St. Louis University; that of
the theological course (Superior Instruction, C) from Woodstock. In
these schedules, as well as in that not exhibited here for the seminary
course of Literature (Superior Instruction, A), no material difference
would be found to exist between one house of studies and another in the
Society.
DISTRIBUTION OF HOURS PER WEEK.
SECONDARY INSTRUCTION.--_Literary._
I. | II.
Grades I.-IV. V.-VI. VII. | I.-IV. V.-VI. VII.
Four Two One | Four Two One
Years. Years. Year. | Years. Years. Year.
Age of Student 13-16. 17-18. 19. | 13-16. 17-18. 19.
|
SUBJECTS. |
Classics 9. 9. .. | 13-1/2. 13-1/2. ..
Mathematics 4. 4. 4. | 5-1/2. 5-1/2. ..
English and } 12. 9. 6. | 8. 5. ..
Accessories} |
Natural Sciences .. 3. .. | .. 3. 10.
Philosophy .. .. 10. | .. .. 12.
III.
Grades I.-IV. V.-VII. Philosophical curriculum.
Four Three
Years. Years.
Age of Student 11-15. 16-18. ..
SUBJECTS.
Classics 18. 18. ..
Mathematics 8-1/2. 8-1/2. ..
English 6. 6. ..
French 5. .. ..
History and Geography 3. .. ..
Natural Sciences .. 3-6. ..
Philosophy .. .. Two Year Course, as
below (_b_).
SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION.--(A) _Literary._
SEMINARY COURSE.
Literature Two Years For Members of the Order.
SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION.--(B) _Philosophical._
TRIENNIAL COURSE.
Years I. II. III.
SUBJECTS OF COURSES.
Philosophy:
Logic, } 8 + 5
Ontology.} (Disputation).
Cosmology, } 4 + 3
Psychology.} (Disputation).
Psychology, } 4 + 3
Natural Theology.} (Disputation).
Moral Philosophy 4 + 3
(Disputation).
Mathematics:
Algebra, Geometry,}
Trigonometry. } 6.
Analytical Geometry,}
Calculus. } 3.
Mechanics 9 (Three Months).
Physics 9 (Seven Months).
Chemistry 3 (Ten Months).
Geology, Astronomy,}
Physiology. } 2.
Specialties Outside of this Triennium.
BIENNIAL COURSE.
(_a_) Two Year Curriculum, included in the Triennium.
(_b_) Similar Curriculum, conducted separately in English.
SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION.--(C) _Theological._
SEXENNIAL COURSE.
Years I. II. III. IV. V. VI.
SUBJECTS OF
COURSES. /---------^--------\
Scholastic } 8 + 5 8 + 5 8 + 5 8 + 5 Biennium of General
Theology. } (Disp.). (Disp.). (Disp.). (Disp.) Repetition,
Philosophical and
Moral Theology, 5-1/2 5-1/2 1/2 1/2 Theological;
and Special
Ecclesiastical } 2 2 .. .. Seminary Work.
History. }
Canon Law. .. .. 2 2
Sacred } .. .. 4 4
Scripture. }
Hebrew. 2 .. .. ..
Syriac, Arabic,}
Chald. } .. 1 1 1
Specialties. Outside of this Sexennium.
SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION.--(D) _Law._
Conducted by a Faculty not of the Order.
SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION.--(E) _Medicine._
Conducted by a Faculty not of the Order.
CHAPTER XVIII.
CONCLUSION.
It will not have escaped the attentive reader, that almost all the
history, pedagogic or otherwise, which has been sketched in this essay,
falls within the lines of what has been called the Counter-Reformation;
and some portion of it belongs to what is styled, in the present
century, the Counter-Revolution. For this reason, if the facts recorded
seem at all new, he will discern the reason. They have lain outside of
one of the beaten paths in history.
Beyond the facts of evolution, as they may have appeared in these
pages, I do not pretend to have found a place for this system
in any plan of pedagogic development. Nor do I lay claim to the
far-sightedness which may discern any posthumous development, as the
legacy of this system to the world of education. Politically, its
place has often been assigned to it summarily by main force. But,
pedagogically, too, the day may come, when gathered to the other
remains which moulder in the past, it can look down from a grade and
place of its own in evolution, and look out, like others, on a progeny
more favored than itself, the fair mother of fairer children; even as
the old university system of mediæval Europe, particularly that of the
great University of Paris, can look down from its silent and solemn
place in history, as the direct progenitor of the _Ratio Studiorum_.
"We, too, have been taught by others," said Possevino in 1592. Indeed,
as is evident, the last thing which the system ever seems to dream of,
which never, in fact, crosses the path of its intellectual vision, is
that it is playing the rôle, perchance, of a pedagogic adventurer,
or courting notice by some new and striking departure. No doubt, in
its integrity, it is singularly the system of the Jesuits, and, in a
multitude of practical elements, it embodies the elaborate experience
of one practical organization of men. But, none the less, if we look
down for its foundations, we pass through the Renaissance of Letters,
and find the traditions of scholastic Europe; and further down still,
in the stratification of history, we come to the principles of
education as defined by Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates.
As to its ulterior evolution, I may designate two forms which the
system has been invited to assume. Rather, I may point to an epoch
in its history, at which general and universal education divided off
into two lines; and, by one or other way, almost all the secondary and
superior education, which prevails amongst us, reaches our present
time. The principles adopted on one side, however extravagant they may
have been at their first adoption and in all the glow and fervor of a
new departure, will certainly recommend themselves to some. The other
was practically, if it has not as yet been formally, adopted by the
Order as a continuation of its old method, and as a revision in the
nineteenth century of what itself had laid down in the fifteenth. I
will quote, to explain one of the movements, a writer, M. Drevon, whom
I cited once before,[350] chiefly because he is quite recent, and also
because he is entirely out of sympathy with the system of the Jesuits.
For the other, I will quote one of the latest Generals of the Society
of Jesus, Father John Roothaan.
When the Jesuit colleges, more than ninety in number, were abruptly
closed in France, then, says the first writer, "the departure of
the Jesuits was the occasion of a noisy demonstration against the
instruction which had been imparted in the colleges. A multitude of
books[351] were at once seen pouring into the market, presenting plans
for a new system of education, which should be more in keeping with
the progress of Science and Philosophy. Men of the gravest authority,
like the President Roland, did not disdain to occupy themselves with
these matters, and to enter into details: 'The moment was come,'
cried one of them, 'to set up furnaces, to add bellows thereto, and
initiate scholars into the doctrine of gases.'[352] The reaction was
so much the more violent, as spirits had been the longer suppressed.
It went even beyond the just measure, as happens almost always in such
circumstances; so that, says a contemporary writer,[353] children,
properly instructed, ought to have become, at the age of fifteen,
agriculturists sufficiently well qualified, intelligent naturalists,
prudent economists, shrewd business men, enlightened politicians,
profound metaphysicians, prodigious geometricians, without prejudice
to writing and drawing, to universal geography, and ancient as well as
modern history; without prejudice to the French language, English also
and German and a little Latin; and again without prejudice to music and
heraldry, to dancing and fencing, to horsemanship, and, above all, to
swimming. But people had not long to wait before deploring such excess.
All this agitation proved unfortunately sterile; and as I have just
said, on the eve of the French Revolution, secondary education had not
taken a step forward during fifty years....
"It came to a new birth in 1808, and found itself very much where
it had been, before this long sleep. Napoleon declared that the new
method of the University was very like that of the ancient University
of Paris; only that the courses 'left something to desire with regard
to drawing, modern languages, geography, history, and especially
mathematical and physical sciences.' This was progress, no doubt, and
it is well to grant it. But Napoleon is mistaken, when he pretends that
the new University is a child of the ancient one. It is preëminently
a child of the Jesuits. For, as we have remarked, the Jesuits, at the
beginning, took great care to make no innovations. They accepted, as
they found them, the old methods, introduced little by little their
own mode of procedure, an alteration most calculated to assure their
influence and their success. The grand old University which went down
to the second rank, so to say, in public education, submitted to the
influence of its detested and triumphant rivals, and, in spite of
itself, it allowed itself to be permeated by their methods. Hence, in
1808, at the moment when Napoleon dreams that he is reëstablishing the
University, the ideal of public instruction was a mixture of the old
university traditions and the empiric methods of the Jesuits."[354]
It does not come within the scope of this writer to indicate how, from
this historical point of divergence, the modern practical method of
instruction came to be fully organized. Each system went its own way. I
pass on to the other line, or rather back to the Jesuit _Ratio_; and I
will merely point out what process of adjustment it then underwent.
In 1832, Father Roothaan, General of the Society, addressed an
encyclical letter to the Order. To give an abstract of it, he says:
"In the very first assembly after the restoration of the Society, a
petition had been received from the Provinces, and daily experience
since then has shown it to be more and more necessary, that the System
of Studies should be accommodated to the exigencies of the times.
After a consultation, involving much labor and accurate study, a form
of revised _Ratio_ has been drawn up, which is now offered for use
and practice, in order that after being amended again if necessary,
or else enlarged, it may receive the sanction of a universal law. The
undertaking was approached with the greatest reverence for a System
which had been approved by two centuries of successful operation, and
which had been extolled, not unfrequently, by the very enemies of the
Order.
"Of the novelties which had been introduced into the method of
educating youth, during the last fifty years or more, was it forsooth
possible that all could be approved and adopted in our schools? New
methods and new forms invented day after day, a new arrangement
of matter and of time, often self-contradictory and mutually
repugnant--how could all this be taken as a rule for our studies?
"In the higher schools or in the treatment of the graver studies, it
is a subject of lamentation with prudent men that there is no solidity
but much show,--an ill-arranged mass of superfluous knowledge, very
little exact reasoning--; that the sciences, if you except Physics
and Mathematics, have not made any true progress, but are in general
confusion, so that where the final results of truth are to be found
scarcely appears. The study of Logic and severe Dialectics is almost in
contempt, whence errors come to be deeply rooted in the minds of men
who are not otherwise illiterate; and these errors, by some fatality or
other, are made much of, as if they were ascertained truths, and they
are lauded to the skies, because nothing is treated with strictness
and accuracy, no account is made of definitions and distinctness of
reasoning. Thus, tasting lightly of philosophical matters, young men go
forth utterly defenceless against sophistry, since they cannot even see
the difference between a sophism and an argument.
"In the lower schools, the object kept in view is to have boys learn as
many things as possible, and learn them in the shortest time, and with
the least exertion possible. Excellent! But that variety of so many
things and so many courses, all lightly sipped of by youth, enables
them to conceive a high opinion of how much they know, and sometimes
swells the crowd of the half-instructed, the most pernicious of all
classes to the Sciences and the State alike. As to knowing anything
truly and solidly, there is none of it. Something of everything:
nothing in the end.[355] Running through the courses of letters in no
time, tender in age, with minds as yet untrained, they take up the
gravest studies of Philosophy and the Higher Sciences; and, possessing
themselves therein of scarcely any real fruit, they are only captivated
by the enjoyment of greater liberty; they run headlong into vice, and
are soon to become teachers themselves of a type, which, to put it as
gently as possible, I will call immature.
"As to the methods, ever easier and easier, which are being
excogitated, whatever convenience may be found in them, there is this
grave inconvenience; first, that what is acquired without labor adheres
but lightly to the mind, and what is summarily gathered in is summarily
forgotten; secondly, and this, though not adverted to by many, is
a much more serious injury, almost the principal fruit of a boy's
training is sacrificed, which is, accustoming himself from an early age
to serious application of mind, and to that deliberate exertion which
is required for hard work.
"In some points, however, which do not concern the substance of
education, the necessities of our times require us to modify the
practice of our predecessors. And to consult the requirements of such
necessities, far from being alien to our principles, is altogether in
keeping with the Institute.
"In the superior courses, how many questions are there which formerly
never entered into controversy, which now are vehemently assaulted,
and must be established by solid arguments, lest the very foundations
of truth be sapped! Therefore the questions which are alive call for
special discussion, solution, refutation.
"In Physics and Mathematics we must not prove false to the traditions
of the Society, by neglecting these courses which have now mounted
to a rank of the highest honor. If many have abused these sciences
to the detriment of religion, we should be so much the farther from
relinquishing them on that account. Rather, on that account, should
the members of the Order apply themselves with the more ardor to these
pursuits and snatch the weapons from the hands of the foe, and with the
same arms, which they abuse to attack the truth, come forward in its
defence. For truth is always consistent with itself, and in all the
sciences it stands erect, ever one and the same; nor is it possible
that what is true in Physics and Mathematics should contradict truth of
a higher order.
"Finally, in the method of conducting the lower studies, some accessory
branches should have time provided for them, especially the vernacular
tongues and literatures. But the study of Latin and Greek letters must
always remain intact and be the chief object of attention. As they
have always been the principal sources, exhibiting the most perfect
models of literary beauty in precept and style, so are they still. And,
if they were kept more before the eyes and mind, we should not see
issuing from the press, day after day, so many productions of talented
men, with a diction and style no less novel and singular, than are the
thoughts and opinions to which they give expression. The commonalty
regard them with admiring awe and stupor; but men of knowledge and
correct taste look with commiseration and grief on these unmistakable
signs of an eloquence, no less depraved than the morals of the times.
"The adaptation of the _Ratio Studiorum_, therefore, means that we
consult the necessities of the age so far as not in the least to
sacrifice the solid and correct education of youth."[356]
This is the substance of a document not unworthy of the letters and
ordinances in behalf of education, issued by a long line of experienced
and learned judges in the art of training youth. The modifications made
in the old _Ratio_ have been few; and I have taken note of them in the
preceding analysis.
So then the edifice of the past stands, with the latest modifications
introduced into its façade by the spirit of the present. As the
monumental structures which stud the soil of Europe, and are set amid
royal parks or rich fields of waving grain, have been tributes of
devotion from princes of the church or princes of the land, and are
not only the memorials of kings or peoples, but are especially the
architectural record of centuries; so a system recognized in history
as great, elevated in the order of highest human achievement, that of
educating humanity, and resting on the basis of oldest traditions and
the wisdom of the remotest past, has not been the work of an ordinary
individual, nor of a day. Masters in their art, and centuries in their
duration, have combined to build it up, a monument of the practice
and theory of generations. With devoted zeal and prudence, secular
communities, and even pagans in times far gone by, had brought the
stones, and contributed tithes to the erection of the fabric. But it is
only too well known that Ecclesiastics and Religious men have been the
architects of the monument as it stands. And they did not build better
than they knew; for their structure is precisely one of knowledge,
chiefly of divine knowledge, raised into a consistent theory, and
honored by the most practical use. So the very first sentence in the
_Ratio Studiorum_, speaking of the "abundant practical fruit to be
gathered from this manifold labor of the schools," mentions that fruit
as being "the knowledge and love of the Creator."
I may be permitted then to close this work by quoting their own poetry,
which is inscribed on a statue of Christ. The statue overlooks a park
in front of it, and the fields hard by, and the rich garden of studious
youth, within the college walls alongside. Thus one inscription
reads:--
TIBI · HAEC · ARVA · RIDENT · ATQUE · AGGERE
COMPLANATO · HAE · FLORIBUS · NITENT · AREOLAE · ET
PUBES · UNDIQUE · ACCITA · VIRTUTIBUS
SCIENTIIS · QUE · ADOLESCIT.[357]
And again the granite reads:--
QUAS · CIRCUM · CERNIS · CHRISTO
URNAE · FLORIBUS · HALANT · NE · CARPE
INCESTO · POLLICE · QUISQUE · FUAS.[358]
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX,
INDICATING SOME OF THE SOURCES AND OTHER WORKS, MORE EASY OF ACCESS.
PACHTLER, G. M., S. J.: Ratio atque Institutio Studiorum, 1586; Ratio
Studiorum, 1599, 1832; and other pedagogical documents:--Comprised
in MONUMENTA GERMANIÆ PÆDAGOGICA, vols. ii, v, ix (to be followed
by others); Berlin, A. Hofmann & Co., 1887.
JOUVANCY, JOS., S. J.: Ratio Discendi et Docendi pro Magistris
Scholarum Inferiorum, 1 vol. 12mo; Avignon, Fr. Seguin, 1825.
SACCHINI, FRANC., S. J.: Parænesis ad Magistros Scholarum Inferiorum
Soc. Jes.; Protrepticon ad Magistros Scholarum Inferiorum Soc.
Jes.---- JUDDE, CLAUDE, S. J.: Instruction pour les Jeunes
Professeurs qui enseignent les Humanités:--Comprised in MANUEL DES
JEUNES PROFESSEURS, 1 vol. 18mo; Paris, Poussielgue-Rusand, 1842.
* * * * *
CRÉTINEAU-JOLY, MONSIEUR M. J.: Histoire Religieuse, Politique et
Littéraire de la Compagnie de Jésus, 6 vols. 12mo; 3d edit.; Paris,
V. Poussielgue-Rusand, 1851.
MAYNARD, MONSIEUR L'ABBÉ: The Studies and Teaching of the Society of
Jesus, 1 vol. 8vo; Baltimore, John Murphy & Co., 1855.
THE JESUITS: Their Foundation and History, by B. N., 2 vols. 8vo;
Benziger Bros., New York, 1879.
GENELLI, CHRISTOPHER, S. J.: Life of St. Ignatius of Loyola, 1 vol.
8vo; Benziger Bros., New York.
DE ROCHEMONTEIX, CAMILLE, S. J.: Un Collège de Jésuites aux XVII^e.
et XVIII^e. siècles, Le Collège Henri IV. de la Flèche, 4 vols. in
8vo; Le Mans, Leguicheux, 1889.
DANIEL, CHARLES, S. J.: Les Jésuites Instituteurs de la Jeunesse
Française, au XVII^e. et au XVIII^e. siècle, 1 vol. 12mo; Paris,
Victor Palmé, 1880.
* * * * *
DE BACKER, AUGUSTIN, S. J.: Bibliothèque des Écrivains de la
Compagnie de Jésus, ou Notices Bibliographiques 1^o de Tous
les Ouvrages Publiés par les Membres &c., 2^o des Apologies,
des Controverses Religieuses, des Critiques Littéraires et
Scientifiques Suscitées à leur sujet; 3 large folios (see above,
page 134); Liége, chez l'Auteur, A. De Backer; Paris, chez
l'Auteur, C. Sommervogel, 1869. Only 200 copies were struck off;
it is embodied and amplified in the following, now in process of
publication:--
SOMMERVOGEL, CARLOS, S. J.: Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de
Jésus:--Première partie, Bibliographie; seconde partie, Histoire.
Bibliographie, tom. i, Abad-Boujart, in 4to, à double colonne,
1928 col.; Bruxelles, Oscar Schepens, 16, rue Treurenberg; Paris,
Alphonse Picard, 82, rue Bonaparte, 1890.
WETZER UND WELTE'S KIRCHENLEXICON: 2d edit., by Cardinal
Hergenroether and Dr. F. Kaulen; vol. vi, "Jesuiten," col.
1374-1424; Freiburg, Benjamin Herder, 1889.
Typography by J. S. Cushing & Co., Boston, U.S.A.
Presswork by Berwick & Smith, Boston, U.S.A.
INDEX.
Abram, Father Nicholas, 245
Academies of the Jesuits, 76
Alber, Father Ferdinand, 242
Allen, Cardinal, 57
Alvarez, Grammar of, 167
Anderledy, Father Anthony, 128
Aquaviva, Father Claudius, 52, 59, 70, 82;
the fifth General of the Order, 126;
creates a commission to draw up a method of studies, 144;
provisional rules of, 148
Aquinas, St. Thomas, 11, 45;
the standard in theology, 148
Argento, Father John, 71, 76
Aristotle, use of, 166
Astronomical observations of the Jesuits, 172
Augustine, 9
Azor, John, 144
Bacon, Lord, 46, 93;
his debt to Possevino, 94
Bader, Father George, 104, 107
Bayonne, the College of, 96
Beckx, Father, 128
Bellarmine, literary productiveness of, 135
Belles-lettres, 82;
the Jesuits preëminent in the study of, 189
Berchmans, John, 113
Blair's "Rhetoric," 132, 252
Boarding colleges, 100
Bobadilla, Nicholas, 33, 43
Bonald, Viscount de, 7
Bonaventure, St., 11
Borgia, Francis, 24;
succeeds Laynez, 66, 110;
founds the Roman college, 111;
the third General of the Order, 124
Borromeo, St. Charles, 73
Bossuet, 66
Bourdaloue, 106, 165
Broeckaert, Father, 167
Brouet, Pasquier, 33
Buffer, Father, "Practical History" of, 168
Buys, Father, 73, 144
Calasanzio, Father Joseph, his "Pious School," 260
Calcutta, Jesuit school at, 268
Campano, Father, 66
Campian, Edmund, 57, 212
Canisius, Father Peter, 90;
the Catechism of, 134, 242
Caraffa, General Vincent, 81, 128
Catharine II., 129
Centurione, Father Aloysius, 128
Cerda, De la, Father, 245
Chalotais, La, 44
Christian schools, 3
Cicero used as a text-book, 166
Class hours, 196
Classical literature in the scheme of Jesuit education, 250
Clavius, Father Christopher, 170
Clement of Alexandria, 43
Clement XIV. dissolves the Order, 129
Coduri, John, 33, 53
Coimbra, university at, 109
Colleges, Jesuit, number of, 70 _et seq._;
rise of, in Spain, 110
Confessional, the, in educational institutions, 102
Coton, Father, 66
Cretineau-Joly, M., 39
D'Alembert, 4
Daniel, Father Charles, 46, 93
Daniel, G., 169
De Backers, 67, 69;
his dictionary of Jesuit authors, 134
Descartes, 92
Dictation, how practised in the Jesuit seminaries, 217 _et seq._;
objections to, by Possevino, 223
Disputation, the place of, in the Jesuit system, 198, 209 _et seq._;
syllogistic or discursive, 212;
numerous attendance upon required, 213;
superintendence of, 215
Divinity, courses in, 191 _et seq._
Doctrine, uniformity of, among the Jesuits, 142
Domench, Father Jerome, 110
Drevon, M., 287
Dupanloup, 99
Educational system of the Jesuits, the tributes of Ranke and
D'Alembert to, 4;
the Revolution the sequel of the overthrow of, 6;
explanation of its rise, 14;
kinship between it and the Paris university, 32;
defined, 43;
development of, 52;
as formulated in the Constitution, 56 _et seq._;
Laynez's rule concerning the system of colleges, 59;
no tuition fees, 66, 117;
system and method of, 67;
number of colleges, 70;
number of students, 71 _et seq._;
ramifications of, 74 _et seq._;
scope and method of, 82 _et seq._;
classification of, 87;
grades in, 89;
subordinate elements in, 89 _et seq._;
moral scope of, 98 _et seq._;
vacations, 104;
ascendency of the masters, 107;
law and medicine in, 116;
the study of mathematics in, 127;
the development of geography, history, and physics, 127;
the _Ratio Studiorum_, 143 _et seq._;
the practice and order of studies, 152;
result of, the formation of professors, 156;
the literary curriculum, 158;
proficiency in belles-lettres, 159;
the study of history, 168;
of geography, 169;
of mathematics, 170;
manner of instruction, 176;
philosophy studied after the literary courses, 178;
masters advance with their scholars, 180;
the rectors, 186;
the study of divinity, 191 _et seq._;
courses in divinity, 197;
thoroughness of, 205;
the use of disputation, 208 _et seq._;
the place of dictation in, 217 _et seq._;
co-ordination of the courses in, 227;
the prelection, 233;
study of the classical literatures, 250 _et seq._;
school management, 255 _et seq._;
the lowest grade, 260;
system of examinations, 262 _et seq._;
academic degrees, 265;
literary curriculum, 270;
philosophical curriculum, 274;
theological curriculum, 278;
distribution of time, 279;
origin and evolution of the system, 286
Expurgating authors, 103
Fribourg, Jesuit university suppressed at, 130
Frederick the Great, letter of, to Voltaire, 79, 129
Generals of the Order, 124 _et seq._
Geography, method of teaching, 169
Germany, Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order in, 114
German college in Rome, 117
Goa, seminary at, 74, 109
Gonzaga, Aloysius, 113
Gonzales, Gaspar, 144
Grammar, 179;
prelection in the grade of, 237;
method of teaching the classical languages in, 238;
the daily lesson in, 241
Gregory XIII., papal seminaries founded by, 73
Grotius, 79
Guisani, Anthony, 144
Huebner, Baron von, 7
Humanity, the course in, 83 _et seq._, 158, 188;
the prelection in the grade of, 237
Ingolstadt, university at, 115
Janssen, 118
Jesus, Society of, birthday of, 33, 34;
receives its bull of confirmation, 51;
constitution of, 54 _et seq._;
not admitted to Germany at the present day, 123
Jouvancy, 29, 127;
his _Ratio Discendi et Docendi_, 162, 242
Kessel, Father, 60
Kleutgen, Father, _Ars Docendi_ of, 167
Knox, John, 144
Kostka, Stanislaus, 113
Latin composition, elegant command of, by the Jesuits, 188
Laval, university of, 269
Law and medicine studied in the Jesuit universities, 116
Laynez, James, 28, 33, 54;
elected successor to Loyola, 55, 59, 124
Le Jay, Claude, 33
Lefèvre, Peter, 33, 110 _et seq._
Lenormant, Charles, 100
Literary productiveness of the Jesuits, 134
Literary curriculum of the Jesuits at present, 270 _et seq._
Loyola, St. Ignatius of, 8;
begins his education, 15;
story of his life, 19 _et seq._;
becomes a master of arts, 33;
his self-discipline, 36;
at Rome, 40, 53;
promulgates the constitution of his Order, 55;
death of, 55, 119;
his educational system, 56;
his care for Germany, 114;
founds a German college in Rome, 117;
his educational policy successful, 118
Maistre, Count de, 6
Maldonado, a double-headed disputant, 212
Moriana, 112, 168
Mathematics in the Jesuit system of education, 170 _et seq._
Mercurian, Father Everard, the fourth General of the Order, 126
Montague, college of, Loyola at, 31
Montmorency, Father, 65
_Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica_, the, 75
Moral education, the, prescribed by Loyola, 102
Nadal, Jerome, 120
Netherlands, Jesuit schools in, 5
Nickel, Father Goswin, 128
Olave, Martin, 120
Oliva, General Paul, 73, 128
Pachtler, Father, 63, 76
Papal Seminaries founded by Gregory XIII., 73
Parma, Duke of, 69
Paris University, the, 13;
Loyola at, 25
Parsons, Robert, 57
Pascual, John Sacrista, 21
Pedagogics in the _Ratio Studiorum_, 147
Peltier, Father John, 111
Perry, 67
Petau, Father Denis, 167
Philosophy, course of, what it includes, 173
Philosophical Curriculum, the, at the present time, 275 _et seq._
Piccolomini, Father Francis, 128, 231
Polanco, John, 115, 120
Porée, Père, Voltaire's preceptor, 132, 245
Playfer, Dr., 94
Plato, 98
Possevino, Father Anthony, Bacon's forerunner, 94, 103, 107
_Prælectio_, the typical form of Jesuit instruction, 232 _et seq._
Professors formed by the Jesuit system, 156 _et seq._;
literary productions expected from, 188;
in the Jesuit Seminaries, coördination between, 230
"Provincial Letters" of Pascal, 105
Quintilian, use of, 166
Ranke, Von Leopold, 4, 114, 118
Rapin, Père, 132;
works of, 246
_Ratio Studiorum_, the, 8, 32, 52, 56, 86, 89, 143;
formation of, by Aquaviva, 144 _et seq._, 151, 152;
final form of, 154, 183, 230, 235
Rectors of colleges, duties of, 186
Repetition, in the scheme of Jesuit education, 198;
in the Grammar Grade, 240
Revolution, the French, 6
Rhetoric, instruction in, 89, 178 _et seq._;
double prelection in, 234
Ribadeneira, 29, 54, 87, 89, 102
Riccioli, Father, 169
Robertson, 79
Rochemonteix, Father, 80, 88
Rodriguez, Simon, 33
Roman College, the, 103;
founded by Lefèvre, 111;
other colleges following its course, 112
Roothaan, Father, 289
Rossignol, 135
Rue, Father de la, author of the Delphin Virgil, 246
Sacchini, 54, 177
Saint-Yves, college of, 80
Salmeron, Alphonsus, 33
Secchi, Father, 67
Schall, Adam, 169
Scheiner, Father, 169
Scholastics, Jesuit, expected to teach, 176
Schools, the cathedral, 9;
of study, of the Jesuits, 127
School management, 255 _et seq._
Sirmond, James, 167
Sodalities, the, 103, 258
Sommervogel, 67, 134
Southwell, Father Nathaniel, 133
Sorbon, Robert of, 208, 211
"Spiritual Exercises," the, 27
Stonyhurst, 268
Strada, Damian, 168
Strada, Father Francis, 191
Strassmeyer, 67
Studies, Practice and Order of, in Jesuit seminaries, 152
Suarez, Francis, 112, 203
Text-books of the Jesuits, 131
Theological instruction, method of, 202 _et seq._
Theological curriculum at the present time, 278 _et seq._
Theology, scholastic, Jesuit authors in, 203
Tiraboschi, 165
Toffia, Vittoria, 112
Tucci, Stephen, 144
Tyre, James, 144
University system, rise of the, 10
Urban VIII., 42
Vacations in the Jesuit system, 104
Verbiest, Ferdinand, 169
Vernacular, the study of, 164, 242
Vienna and Ingolstadt, the Jesuits first centres in Germany, 115
Villanova, Francis, 24, 110
Visconti, Ignatius, 3, 128
Vitelleschi, Mutius, 70, 108;
the sixth general of the order, 126, 131
Voltaire, tribute of, to the morality of the Jesuits, 105, 132;
and Père Porée, 244
Xavier, Francis, 33, 37, 69, 109
Zaccaria, literary productiveness of, 134
Ziegler, Father, 170
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Christian Schools and Scholars, by A. T. Drane; 1881; last chapter.
[2] On the Furthering of Humane Studies; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica,
vol. ix, p. 129.
[3] History of the Papacy, vol. i, book v, § 3; Jesuit Schools in
Germany.
[4] Sur la destruction des Jésuites, par un auteur désintéressé, p. 19.
[5] Imago Primi Sæculi, lib. vi, Societas Flandro-Belgica, cap. iii, §
1, p. 772.
[6] Crétineau-Joly, Histoire de la Compagnie de Jésus, tom. iv, ch. 3,
p. 210; 3^{me} edit. 1851.
[7] Histoire de l'Université de Paris, par Charles Jourdain, liv. i,
ch. 1; quoted with other testimonies, in the learned work, Un Collège
de Jésuites aux xvii and xviii siècles, Le Collège Henri iv de la
Flèche, par le P. Camille de Rochemonteix, 1889; tom. i, ch. 1, p. 3.
[8] Exercitia Spiritualia.
[9] Ranke, History of the Papacy, vol. i, book ii, § 7.
[10] Genelli, Life of St. Ignatius Loyola, p. 351.
[11] Imago Primi Sæculi, lib. iv, cap. ix, pp. 521-2; De Calumniis.
[12] Jouvancy, Epitome Hist. S. J., p. 168, ad annum 1551.
[13] Advancement of Learning, book i; Philadelphia edit. 1841, vol. i,
p. 167.
[14] Month of July, tom. vii; auct. J. P., § xviii, pp. 443-4.
[15] Genelli, Life of St. Ignatius Loyola, part i, ch. 8.
[16] Bollandists, as above, nn. 313-4; ibid., Suarez, Nigronius, and
others.
[17] Genelli, Life of St. Ignatius Loyola, part ii, ch. 13.
[18] Bulla canoniz. S. Ign. de Loyola, § 22.
[19] Bollandists, nn. 313-4; 317.
[20] Bollandists, July, tom. vii, auct. J. P., §§ xxvii, xxviii.
[21] Nigronius; Bollandists, n. 317.
[22] Apocalypse, ch. xviii, 13.
[23] Advancement of Learning, book i, p. 176; Phila. edit.
[24] Père Charles Daniel S. J., Des Études Classiques dans la Société
Chrétienne, ch. 8, La Concile de Trente; 1853.
[25] Bollandists, auct. J. P., nn. 293-7.
[26] Bollandists, n. 292.
[27] Gagliardi.
[28] Hist. S. J., 2da pars, Lainius; ad annum 1564, n. 220, p. 340.
[29] Chiefly from P. Enrico Vasco, S. J., Il Ratio Studiorum Addattato
ecc, vol. i, cap. vii, n. 33, a private memoir, 1851.
[30] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, ii, p. 71; Ratio Studiorum, etc.,
by G. M. Pachtler, S. J.; Berlin, 1887.
[31] Ibid. Pachtler, p. 334 _seq._
[32] Ibid. Pachtler, p. 337 _seq._
[33] Genelli, part ii, ch. 8.
[34] Jouvancy, Epitome Hist. S. J., Anno Christi, 1547.
[35] Vasco, vol. i, cap. vii, n. 33 seq.
[36] Orlandini, Bollandists, n. 843.
[37] Bollandists, n. 839.
[38] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, p. 72.
[39] Constitutiones S. J., pars iv, declarationes in prooemium.
[40] Sacchini, pars iii, lib. i, nn. 36-42.
[41] Sacchini, pars iii, Borgia; lib. i, nn. 36 seq.
[42] Sacchini, pars v, Claudius Aquaviva, tom. prior; lib. iv, n. 81.
[43] Recherches sur la Compagnie de Jésus en France au temps du Père
Coton, par le P. Prat, tom. ii, p. 296.
[44] Constitutiones S. J., pars iv, cap. vii, n. 3.
[45] Bibliothèque des Écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus, Preface, 1869.
[46] Crétineau-Joly; Histoire Religieuse, Politique et Littéraire de la
Compagnie de Jésus, tom. ii, ch. iv, p. 176; troisième édit. 1851.
[47] De Institutione Juventutis; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol.
ix, p. 61.
[48] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii; Pachtler, p. xx.
[49] They are catalogued by Rochemonteix, Collège Henri IV, tom. ii,
ch. i, p. 57, note.
[50] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ix; Pachtler, p. 192, n. 3.
[51] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ix, pp. 110-2.
[52] Arch. Rheni Sup., quoted by Pachtler; Monumenta Germaniæ
Pædagogica, vol. ix, p. 110; see also the letter of the General John
Paul Oliva, ibid. p. 106.
[53] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii; Pachtler, p. xx.
[54] Vol. ix, pp. 322-389.
[55] Maynard; The Studies and Teaching of the Society of Jesus, at the
Time of its Suppression, 1750-1773; Baltimore edit. 1885, ch. 2; The
Jesuits in Germany, pp. 112-3.
[56] 1777, 18 novembre, OEuvres de Voltaire, vol. xcv, p. 207; edit.
1832.
[57] Lettre à Voltaire, 7 juillet, 1770; OEuvres de Voltaire, tom. xii,
p. 495; edit. 1817.
[58] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, pp. 358-9.
[59] Le Collège Henri IV, tom. ii, ch. 1, p. 20.
[60] Fernand Butel, Docteur en Droit, etc.; L'Éducation des Jésuites
autrefois et aujourd'hui, Un Collège Breton, ch. 1, p. 51; p. 19; p.
28; Paris, Firmin-Didot, 1890.
[61] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ix, p. 65.
[62] Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 7, n. 1.
[63] Formulæ acceptandorum Collegiorum, etc., summarium; Monumenta
Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, p. 338.
[64] Ibid.
[65] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, p. 76, 5. Their
curriculum was enlarged in 1829; ibid., p. 110, 6.
[66] Ratio Studiorum 1599; Reg. Prov. 21, § 4. Pachtler, Monumenta
Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, p. 258.
[67] Constitutiones, ibid.
[68] Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 12.
[69] Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 5, n. 1.
[70] Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 9, n. 3.
[71] Ibid., c. 5, n. 1, C.
[72] Ch. xi. below.
[73] Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 6, n. 2.
[74] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, p. 311.
[75] Ibid., p. 310, note.
[76] Ribadeneira, Bollandists, July, tom. vii, nn. 335 _seq._
[77] Le Collège Henri IV., tom. iii, pp. 5-7.
[78] Compare the ordinance of Father Oliver Manare, 1583, n. 114;
Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii. p. 269.
[79] Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 13, n. 4.
[80] Bollandists, ibid., 376-7.
[81] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, p. 169.
[82] L'Éducation des Jésuites autrefois, etc., par Dr. F. Butel, ch. 1,
pp. 22-8. This author sketches agreeably the means touched upon in the
text, and his references are useful.
[83] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, p. 261. Addita
quædam Exercitiis Litterariis Humanistarum, 1580; prior to the
completed Ratio Studiorum.
[84] Ibid., p. 262.
[85] Lettre xc.
[86] Compare Chateaubriand's Genius of Christianity, part iv, book vi,
Recapitulation; translation by Dr. Chas. I. White; Baltimore, 1884, p.
637 _seq._
[87] Paris, Victor Palmé, 1880.
[88] Works; Philadelphia edit. 1859, vol. i, p. 244.
[89] Bibliotheca Selecta in qua agitur de Ratione Studiorum, in
Historia, in Disciplinis, in Salute Omnium procuranda. De Backer in
his Bibliothèque des Écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus gives the list
of republications, either in whole or in part. Sommervogel's new work,
royal quarto, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, 1890, has reached
thus far only to the letter B; hence Possevino is not yet entered.
[90] Ibid., p. 187.
[91] Ibid., p. 136.
[92] Ch. 10, of book 1, Ratio Collegiorum et Scholarum, etc., end of
chapter; Roman edit.
[93] Histoire d'un Collège Municipal aux XVI^_e_, XVII^_e_, et
XVIII^_e_ siècles ... à Bayonne avant 1789. Thèse presentée à la
Faculté des Lettres de Toulouse, par J. M. Drevon, censeur des Études
au Lycée d'Agen, 1890. About 500 pages.
[94] Pp. 160-234.
[95] P. 429.
[96] Dante, Parad. viii.
[97] De La Haute Éducation Intellectuelle, liv. iv, ch 4. Compare
Vasco, vol. i, n. 24.
[98] Essais sur l'Instruction Publique, par Charles Lenormant, membre
de l'Institut; quoted by Rochemonteix, Le Collège Henri IV, tom.
ii, ch. 1, p. 49, in his very instructive discussion on the Jesuit
_internat_, or _pensionnat_.
[99] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, p. 78.
[100] Const., part iv, ch. 3, decl. B.
[101] Turpissimis signis.
[102] Bibliotheca Selecta, lib. i, ch. 44; Quasnam tetenderit insidias
humani generis hostis, etc.
[103] Ribadeneira, Bollandists, nn. 373 _seq._
[104] Bibliotheca Selecta, lib. i, ch. 40.
[105] Ratio Studiorum of 1599 and 1832, Reg. Prov. 37. The higher
courses are allowed a midsummer vacation of between one and two months;
in the lower or literary course, Rhetoric is allowed one month, the
others classes less. Besides certain feast-days during the year, every
week must have one day free, which, in the higher courses, is the whole
day, but, in the lower, is only the latter part of it.
[106] 1602; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, p. 467.
[107] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, p. 411.
[108] Bollandists, n. 374.
[109] Lettre 7 février, 1746; OEuvres, tom. viii, p. 1128; edit. 1817.
[110] Crétineau-Joly, Histoire de la Compagnie de Jésus, tom. iv, ch.
3, p. 209; edit. 1851. This chapter and the following one, ch. 4, in
Crétineau-Joly, pp. 158-297, contain the most varied information on our
subject, regarding professors, writers, scholars, etc.
[111] Epistola de Institutione Juventutis, et Studiis Litterarum
Promovendis, 1639; Mon. Germ. Pæd., vol. ix, Pachtler, p. 62.
[112] Paradise Lost, book iv.
[113] Notice sur le Pensionnat, etc. à Fribourg en Suisse, 1839, pp. 56
_seq._
[114] 1585; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, p. 411.
[115] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ix, Pachtler, p. 59.
[116] Manare, Commentarius.
[117] Crétineau-Joly, tom. i, ch. 3, p. 150.
[118] Compare Cretineau-Joly, tom. i, ch. 6; tom. iv, chs. 3, 4.
[119] The more heavily the strain of war bore upon Germany, the more
assiduously were the succors sent in; no part of the field was more
under Loyola's eye.
[120] History of the Papacy, vol. i, book v, § 3; The First Jesuit
Schools in Germany; Foster's translation, p. 417.
[121] Compare Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ix, Pachtler, Nr. 72;
Nr. 91; Nr. 92, etc.
[122] This very instructive correspondence may be seen sketched in
Genelli's Life of St. Ignatius of Loyola, part ii, ch. 8, pp. 342
_seq._ 1889.
[123] Ch. 6, above, p. 84.
[124] Const., pars iv, c. 7, decl. E.
[125] Compare Mon. Germ. Pæd., vol. ii, Pachtler, Nr. 38, the
theological faculty of the University of Würzburg, p. 303, n. 7; Mon.
Germ. Pæd., vol. ix, Pachtler, Nr. 67, p. 162, and Nr. 68, p. 178, the
theological and philosophical faculties of the University of Trier, etc.
[126] Compare Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, p. 38,
note about Perugia.
[127] Ibid., p. 51, note about Valencia.
[128] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, p. 369, Letter to Father
Kessel.
[129] Compare Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler,
Papstliche Privilegien, pp. 1-8.
[130] Bollandists, J. P., n. 612.
[131] The pedagogic legislation, from this date onwards, is to be found
in Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, pp. 70-125.
[132] Pachtler, ibid., p 75.
[133] Pachtler, ibid., pp. 126-132.
[134] European Civilization, ch. 46.
[135] National Education, part ii, vol. ii, p. 659; p. 74; New York,
1872.
[136] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ix, Pachtler, p. 57.
[137] Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Lecture 26.
[138] Lecture 35.
[139] Eulogy pronounced by the Cardinal Maury on his predecessor in
the Institute of France, the Jesuit De Radonvilliers, 1807.--Orateurs
Sacrés, Migne, tom. lxvii, column 1161.
[140] A classification of eminent students may be found in
Crétineau-Joly, tom. iv, ch. 3, p. 207.
[141] Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, nouvelle édition, par
Carlos Sommervogel S. J., Strasbourgeois, tom. i, from Abad to Boujart;
large quarto edition, 1890.
[142] Doctrina Christiana, etc.; Traductions; Sommervogel, _sub voce_,
_Bellarmine_, columns 1187-1204.
[143] In the matter of general philology alone compare the monograph,
Die Sprachkunde und die Missionen, von Joseph Dahlmann S. J., 15
January, 1891, fiftieth supplement to the Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, 121
pages.
[144] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, Pachtler, p. 29.
[145] Ibid., vol. v, p. 9 _seq._
[146] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 12 _seq._
[147] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 26 _seq._
[148] Disputatio acris oriebatur.
[149] Ibid., Nr. 8, p. 65.
[150] Vol. v, pp. 67-217.
[151] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 15 _seq._
[152] As an instance of the minute criticism brought to bear upon it
in Germany, consult Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 218
_seq._ Similar animadversions are to be understood as coming from other
quarters.
[153] Supercheries littéraires dévoilées iii, 446, f; Sommervogel,
Dictionnaire des Ouvrages Anonymes et Pseudonymes, etc., S. J., _sub
voce_, _Ratio_.
[154] Quoted by Ch. Daniel, S. J., Les Jésuites Instituteurs de la
Jeunesse, etc., last ch. p. 297.
[155] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, Nr. 11, p. 227.
[156] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 252, Ratio Studiorum of
1599, Reg. Prov. 19, § 11.
[157] Compare Lord Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, book ii, p. 186,
1st column; Philadelphia edit. 1846.
[158] Chapter vi, above, p. 83.
[159] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 129, Ratio Studiorum of
1586, c. Stud. Philos.
[160] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 491, n. 32.
[161] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 154, n. 6, Humanitatis
Doctores quos et quales, etc.
[162] Vitelleschi, 1639, Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ix, p. 60,
n. 4.
[163] Ratio Stud., Reg. Prov. 19; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol.
v, p. 242.
[164] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, pp. 84, 93.
[165] Ibid., vol. ii, p. 101.
[166] Rt. St. 1599, Reg. Prof, Rhet. 6; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica,
vol. v, p. 404.
[167] Sommervogel fills twenty-four columns with a partial enumeration
of the editions of Alvarez; Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus,
1890, _sub voce_, _Alvarez_.
[168] Compare Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, p. 269, n. 114;
Manare's Ordinance for Germany.
[169] Rationarium Temporum, Paris, 1632.
[170] Daniel, Les Jésuites Instituteurs, etc., ch. 10, p. 216.
[171] Geographiæ et Hydrographiæ Reformatæ Libri xii, Bologna, 1661, in
folio.
[172] See the pleasant sketch in Daniel's Les Jésuites Instituteurs,
etc., chs. 2-5; also Maynard's The Jesuits, their Studies and Teaching,
ch. 4, Scientific Condition of the Jesuits, etc.
[173] Rome, 1583, 8vo, pp. 219.
[174] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 141, De Mathematicis.
[175] Reg. Prov. n. 20.
[176] First edition in 1697.
[177] De l'Église Gallicane, liv. i, ch. 8, p. 46; edit. 1821.
[178] The medal is in the Coleman Museum of the Georgetown University,
where De Vico, with Sestini, was astronomer for some time.
[179] For an historical sketch of Bavarian Jesuits, under the aspect of
scientific eminence, see Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ix, pp.
445-6, where Father Pachtler gives the Prospectus of a new scientific
and literary review, to be issued in Bavaria, 1772. The Suppression
forestalled it.
[180] Histoire des Mathematiques, t. iv, p. 347; quoted by
Crétineau-Joly, t. iv, c. 4, p. 283, who contains a large amount of
literature upon this subject. According to late researches, made by MM.
C. André and G. Rayet, astronomers of the observatory of Paris, the
number of observatories established in the whole world, towards the
close of the last century, was 130. Of this number, 32 were founded
by Jesuits, or were under their direction.--Victor Van Tricht, La
Bibliothèque des Écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus, etc., appendice
1^{er}, p. 221; 1876.
[181] Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 13, n. 4.
[182] Bollandists, J. P., n. 871.
[183] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 151 _seq._
[184] Ratio St., Reg. Prov. 28; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v,
p. 260.
[185] Ibid., vol. ix, p. 59.
[186] Ibid., vol. v, Rt. St. 1586, Humanitatis Magistri, n. 5, p. 153.
[187] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, p. 415.
[188] Ibid., vol. v, n.. 3, p. 152.
[189] Ibid., vol. v, n. 4, p. 152.
[190] Ibid., vol. v, p. 260; Reg. Prov. 24, 25.
[191] Ibid., vol. ix, p. 60; letter of the year 1639.
[192] Ibid., vol. v, p. 154.
[193] Ibid, vol. ix, p. 130, n. 2.
[194] Ibid., n. 6.
[195] Ibid., vol. v, p. 352.
[196] Ibid., vol. v, p. 149.
[197] Ibid., p. 153.
[198] Rt. St., Reg. Rect. 3; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p.
268.
[199] Ibid., n. 18, p. 272.
[200] Reg. Prov. 33; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, p. 262.
[201] Ibid., vol. ix, p. 131.
[202] Jouvancy, Ratio Discendi; c. Ordo Studendi.
[203] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 144.
[204] Ibid.
[205] Ibid., vol. ii, p. 126; Reg. Prov. n. 50.
[206] Rt. St. 1586; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 150.
[207] Formula Acceptandorum Collegiorum, b; Monumenta Germaniæ
Pædagogica, vol. ii, p. 339.
[208] Hist. S. J., Sacchini, pars ii, Lainius, lib. viii, n. 219, ad
annum 1564.
[209] Rt. St. 1586, ibid.
[210] Rt. St. 1599, Reg. Prov. 27; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol.
v, p. 260.
[211] Chapter xi, above, p. 155.
[212] Statuten der philos. Fak. Ingolstadt, 1649; De Auditoribus;
Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ix, p. 284.
[213] Qui non in Academia, sed privatim in aliquo Auditorio aut
Monasterio audierunt philosophiam.
[214] Nisi probent se omnes materias publice audivisse in aliqua
Academia probata: Würzburger Promotionsgebrauche, 1662; Monumenta
Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ix, p. 387.
[215] Rhetius S. J. für Reform der theol. Fak. zu Köln, November, 1570;
Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, p. 217.
[216] Rt. St., Reg. Prov. 28; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p.
260.
[217] Ibid., vol. v, p. 133, n. 10, Studium Philos.
[218] Biblioth. Selecta; de Cultura Ingeniorum, cap. 27.
[219] Prævidere.
[220] Prælegere.
[221] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 450, n. 4.
[222] Ibid., p. 460, n. 9.
[223] Rt. St. 1586, Studium Philos. n. 12; Monumenta Germaniæ
Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 134. Compare also the German Province, where, in
1586, four hours are reduced to three, ibid., vol. ii, p. 283.
[224] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, p. 154.
[225] Ibid., vol. v, p. 108, De Privato Studio Scholasticorum; ibid. p.
133, n. 11, Studium Philos.
[226] Ut concionabundi.
[227] Rt. St., Reg. comm. Prof. sup. fac., n. 11; Monumenta Germaniæ
Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 290.
[228] Rt. St. 1599, Reg. Prof. Phil. n. 16; 1832, n. 9, Monumenta
Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, pp. 340, 332.
[229] Rt. St. 1586, Repetitiones, n. 3; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica,
vol. v, p. 99.
[230] Chapter vii, above, The Moral Scope, p. 101.
[231] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 268; Reg. Rect. n. 6.
[232] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, p. 456; Institutio pro biennio, n.
14.
[233] Præclara aliqua materia.
[234] Ibid., p. 454.
[235] Reg. comm. Prof. sup. fac., n. 9; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica,
p. 288.
[236] Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 6, H.
[237] Rt. St. 1586, Repetitiones, Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol.
v, p. 99.
[238] Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 14, B.
[239] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, p. 245.
[240] Ibid., vol. v, p. 68.
[241] Consult the five volumes of Nomenclator Litterarius Recentioris
Theologiæ Catholicæ, by H. Hurter, S. J., 1871-1886.
[242] Rt. St., Reg. comm. Prof. sup. fac., n. 12; Monumenta Germaniæ
Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 290; compare also Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica,
vol. ix, Ordnung Einer Selbst. Univ. der Ges. J. 1658, pars ii, c. 4,
p. 355; De Repetitonibus et Disputationibus Scholasticorum S. J.
[243] Ibid., n. 14.
[244] Ibid., n. 20.
[245] Ibid., n. 13.
[246] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, p. 95; Congr. gen. 11.
[247] Reg. Prof. S. Script., n. 19, 20; also Statuten der philos. Fak.
Ingolstadt, 1649, Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ix, p. 291.
[248] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ix, pp. 359-381.
[249] Rt. St. 1586, Disputationes; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol.
v, p. 103.
[250] Ibid.
[251] Ibid., vol. v, Commentariolus, p. 45 _seq._
[252] Nihil perfecte scitur, nisi dente disputationis feriatur; see the
Life and Labors of St. Thomas of Aquin, by Bede Vaughan, 1871, vol. i,
ch. 16, p. 388. The two chapters on Paris, in this learned work, are
replete with information pertinent to our subject.
[253] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 71, n. 5; De Scripturis.
[254] Reg. Prov., n. 5; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 234.
[255] Commentariolus, Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 53.
[256] Cum non raro, quæ splendescere videntur in cubiculo, sordeant in
Scholasticis concertationibus.
[257] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, Disputationes, n. 8, p.
102.
[258] Ibid.
[259] Ibid., p. 147, Separandane sint Seminaria, etc.
[260] Reg. comm. Prof. sup. fac., n. 16; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica,
vol. v, p. 292.
[261] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 292; Rt. St. 1599, Reg.
comm. Prof. sup. fac., n. 18; Rt. St. 1586, Disputationes, ibid., p.
106.
[262] Ibid., p. 102, n. 7, p. 276, n. 6.
[263] Rt. St., Reg. Prof. Stud., nn. 12, 21; Monumenta Germaniæ
Pædagogica, vol. v, pp. 278, 282.
[264] Ibid., Reg. Prov., n. 19, p. 244.
[265] Chapter xi, above, p. 157.
[266] De Ratione et Modo Prælegendi; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica,
vol. v, p. 82.
[267] Ad literam legibilem.
[268] Ad prælegendum egregie.
[269] Rt. St. 1586, De Ratione ac Modo Prælegendi; Monumenta Germaniæ
Pædagogica, vol. v, pp. 81-5.
[270] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, Reg. comm. Prof. sup.
fac., nn. 9, 10, p. 288.
[271] Why, if the paper drops, the wisdom too must be off!
[272] Possevinus, Biblioth. Selecta, lib. i, de cultura ingeniorum, cc.
25-6, edit. Venet. 1603, pp. 21-2. He refers to the publication of the
Conimbricenses, a consolidated work of the faculty of Coimbra, just as
the "Wirceburgenses," later on, and at present, under Father Cornely,
the writers of the Cursus Scripturæ Sacræ are publishing their works as
a corporate whole.
[273] Rt. St. 1599, Reg. Prov., n. 4; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica,
vol. v, p. 234.
[274] Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 13, n. 3; Monumenta Germaniæ
Pædagogica, vol. ii, p. 55.
[275] Reg. comm. Prof. sup. fac., n. 20; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica,
vol. v, p. 292.
[276] Constitutiones, ibid., C.
[277] Ibid.
[278] Vitelleschi, 1639; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ix, p. 59.
[279] Chapter xi, above, p. 162.
[280] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, Commentariolus, p. 43.
[281] Ibid.
[282] Ibid., p. 41.
[283] Ordinatio pro Stud. Sup., 1651; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica,
vol. ix, p. 88.
[284] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, Utrum Quinquennium, etc.,
p. 76.
[285] Ibid.
[286] Modus Prælegendi, n. 10; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v,
p. 84.
[287] Rt. St. 1599, Reg. comm. Prof. sup. fac., nn. 7, 8; Monumenta
Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 288.
[288] Rt. St., Reg. Prof. Rhet., n. 8; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica,
vol. v, p. 406.
[289] Ibid., n. 1.
[290] Ibid., nn. 6, 7.
[291] Reg. Prof. Hum., n. 5; ibid., p. 420.
[292] Rt. St. 1856, Classis Hum.; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol.
v, p. 195.
[293] Ibid., Class. Rhet., n. 6, p. 198.
[294] Ibid., Exercitationes lat. et græc., n. 2; Monumenta Germaniæ
Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 166.
[295] Maxime rudi Minerva.
[296] Rt. St., Reg. Præf. stud. inf., n. 8, § 4; Monumenta Germaniæ
Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 354.
[297] Ibid., Reg. comm. Prof. cl. inf., n. 24; ibid., p. 388.
[298] Exercitationes lat. et græc., Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol.
v, p. 167.
[299] Rt. St., Special rules of the respective classes, Monumenta
Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, pp. 398-448. Rules of the Academies,
ibid., pp. 460-480.
[300] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, p. 166, Schulregeln um
1560-61.
[301] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ix, p. 145.
[302] Jouvancy, Ratio Docendi; c. De interpretatione vernacula, etc.
[303] Modus explicandæ prælectionis.
[304] Eruditio ex omni doctrina, Reg. Prof. Rhet., n. 1, ex omni
eruditione, ibid., n. 8.
[305] Lettre 7 février, 1746, OEuvres, t. viii, p. 1127; edit. 1817.
[306] De Backer, Bibliothèque des Écrivains de la Compagnie, _sub
voce_, _Cerda_.
[307] Sommervogel, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie, _sub voce_, _Abram_.
[308] Sommervogel, ibid.
[309] De Backer, _sub voce_, _Rapin_.
[310] Rt. St. 1586, c. 8, De Libris; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica,
vol. v, p. 178.
[311] Reg. Præf. Stud., n. 29; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, p. 284.
[312] Ibid., p. 179.
[313] Ch. xi, above, p. 164 _seq._
[314] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 180.
[315] Rt. St. 1586, Class. Rhet., pp. 197-8.
[316] Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres; lecture XII, at
the end.
[317] Ibid., lecture XIX, On Forming Style, at the end.
[318] Rt. St. 1586; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, pp. 160-4.
[319] Reg. Præf. stud. inf., n. 31; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol.
v, p. 364.
[320] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 491.
[321] Ratio Docendi, c. ii, De discipulorum eruditione, art. 3.
[322] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, Exercit. lat. et græc., n.
8, p. 170.
[323] Sicut porcelli inter se commixti.
[324] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 493.
[325] Reg. Externorum Auditorum Soc., Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica,
vol. v, p. 458.
[326] Rt. St., Reg. Præf. stud. inf., 11; Monumenta Germaniæ
Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 358.
[327] Rt. St. 1586, Ratio promovendi, etc., Monumenta Germaniæ
Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 177.
[328] Reg. Præf. stud. inf., n. 8, § 12.
[329] Rt. St., Reg. Præf. stud. inf., n. 13; Monumenta Germaniæ
Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 360.
[330] Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 15, n. 2; Monumenta Germaniæ
Pædagogica, vol. ii, p. 60.
[331] Ibid., n. 3.
[332] Rt. St. 1586, De Gradibus, etc., Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica,
vol. v, p. 110.
[333] Vol. ix, pp. 359-387.
[334] Rt. St., Reg. Prov., 17, § 2.
[335] Rt. St. 1832, Reg. Præf. stud. inf., n. 8, § 11.
[336] Ibid., nn. 12, § 2; 28, § 2.
[337] Ibid.
[338] Alumni sive convictores.
[339] Externi.
[340] Reg. Rect., n. 12.
[341] Reg. Prov., n. 21, § 4.
[342] Excitetur ingenium; excolatur ingenium.
[343] De Mathematicis; Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. v, p. 141.
[344] Crétineau-Joly, Histoire de la Compagnie, tom. iv, ch. 3, p. 202.
[345] Compare the ordinance for the upper German Province, 1763, n. 7;
Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ix, p. 441.
[346] Rt. St. 1832, Pro Physica, nn. 34-5.
[347] Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol. ii, p. 245.
[348] Rt. St., Reg. Prov., n. 39.
[349] Reg. Præf. Stud., n. 27.
[350] Chapter vi, above, p. 96.
[351] By M. D'Alembert, M. L'Abbé de Condillac, and others.
[352] L'Abbé Proyart, De L'Éducation Publique.
[353] Id., ibid.
[354] Histoire d'un Collège Municipal, etc., Bayonne; par J. M. Drevon,
1889; last chapter, Réforme et conclusion, pp. 443 _seq._
[355] Ex omnibus aliquid: in toto nihil.
[356] Epistola P. Roothaan, 1832, Monumenta Germaniæ Pædagogica, vol.
v, p. 228 _seq._
[357] For Thee these meadows smile, and, on the hill-top smoothed away,
these beds bedeck themselves with flowers, and the youth from every
clime unfolds, in virtue and in science, the hopes of Christian manhood.
[358] The urns thou see'st around breathe the fragrance of their
flowers to Christ. Pluck them not, with hand unhallowed, whosoe'er thou
be.
Transcribers' Notes:
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not
changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced
quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
Index not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references.
The abbreviation "S. J." has been regularized here to always include a
space, as that seems to be how it mostly was printed.
Page 117: "et eximium facinus" was printed that way.
Page 171: "mathematicans" was printed that way.
Footnote 180 (referenced on page 172): "Mathematiques" was printed that
way.
Page 204: "Repetitonibus" was printed that way.
Page 205: Footnote anchor 248 (originally 3) was missing from several
editions of this book and has been added at a likely position by the
Transcriber.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Loyola and the Educational System of
the Jesuits, by Thomas Hughes
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOYOLA, EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF JESUITS ***
***** This file should be named 46018-8.txt or 46018-8.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/4/6/0/1/46018/
Produced by David Garcia, Charlie Howard, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)
Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.
Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
redistribution.
*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
www.gutenberg.org/license.
Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
States.
1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
copied or distributed:
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
1.E.9.
1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg-tm License.
1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
that
- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is
owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments
must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License. You must require such a user to return or
destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
Project Gutenberg-tm works.
- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
of receipt of the work.
- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the
Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
1.F.
1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
your equipment.
1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
opportunities to fix the problem.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
people in all walks of life.
Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809
North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email
contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
For additional contact information:
Dr. Gregory B. Newby
Chief Executive and Director
[email protected]
Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation
Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.
The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To
SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.
International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works.
Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
www.gutenberg.org
This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
