Accomplished by education
“The Protestant notions extended their vivifying energies to the most remote and most forgotten corners of Europe. What an immense domain had they conquered within the space of forty years! FromIceland to the Pyrenees, from Finland to the heights of the Italian Alps. Even beyond the latter mountains opinions analogous had once, as we are aware, prevailed.Protestantism embraced the whole range of the Latin church.It had laid hold of a vast majority of the higher classes, and of the minds that took part in public life; whole nations clung to it with enthusiasm, and states had been remodeled by it. This is the more deserving of our wonder, inasmuch as Protestantism was by no means a mere antithesis, a negation of the papacy, or an emancipation from its rule; it was in the highest degree positive, a renovation of Christian notions and principles, that sway human life even to the profoundest mysteries of the soul.”[128]Notice again that this was due to the educational ideas propagated by Protestants, and the reason why the papacy was so fast losing its foothold was because it had not yet learned that this Reformation,which began in schools, and was carried forward by Christian schools, must be defeated in schools and by teachers. For forty years Protestants had the right of way in education, and the results were stupendous.
Protestant schools winning everywhere
Ranke says: “Protestant opinions had triumphed in the universities and educational establishments. Those old champions of Catholicism [the teachers] who had withstood Luther were dead, or in advanced years: young men capable of supplying their places had not yet arisen. Twenty years had elapsed in Viennasince a single student of the universityhad taken priest’s orders. Even in Ingoldstadt, pre-eminently Catholic as it was,no competent candidates of the faculty of theology presented themselves to fill the places that had hitherto been always occupied by ecclesiastics. The city of Cologne founded an endowed school; but when all the arrangements for it had been made, it was found that the regent was a Protestant. Cardinal Otto Truchess established a new university in his city of Dillingen,with the express design of resisting the progress of Protestantism. The credit of this institution was maintained for some years by a few distinguished Spanish theologians; but as soon as these left it,not a single scholar could be found in all Germany to succeed to their places, and even these were likewise filled with Protestants.About this periodthe teachers in Germany were all, almost without exception, Protestants.The whole body of the rising generation sat at their feet, and imbibed a hatred of the pope with the first rudiments of learning.”[129]
Success of Reformation due to schools
Stress is not laid on their hatred of the pope, but on the fact that the rising generation sat at the feet of Protestant teachers throughout Germany; that parents withheld their children from the papal school, even though it might be necessary in so doing to send them from home to be educated; and finally, that the papacy was dying, and Protestantism was spreading through the work of the schools. Would that those schools might have retained their pristine purity and simplicity. No power on earth could then have retarded the progress of Protestantism, and instead of only modifying the history of many countries, it would eventually have swept from the earth all forms of tyranny, both civil and religious, for it breathed the freedom of the gospel, and no oppression could stand before it. It is as impossible to withstand pure Christian education as it is to withstand Christ, whose power is its life and strength.
Protestants failed to recognize its strength
It is with a pang that one is forced to trace in this movement that oft-repeated chapter in the history of mankind. As the leader of Israel was allowed to view the promised land from the top of Pisgah, but must there lay aside his armor and sleep the sleep of death because of a departure from right principles, so Protestantism, through its schools, looked across Jordan, but failed to maintain the principle of faith which could at the crucial moment command the waters to part.
Education by faith lost
One reason for the decline is thus stated by Painter: “In their efforts to give Christian doctrine a scientific form [that is, to formulate it],they lost its spirit.Losing its early freedom and life, Protestantism degenerated in a large measure into what has been called ‘dead orthodoxy.’ ...Christian lifecounted for little, and the Protestant world broke up into opposing factions. Says Kurtz, who is disposed to apologize for this period as far as possible: ‘Like medieval scholasticism, in its concern for logic, theology almost lost vitality. Orthodoxy degenerated into orthodoxism;externally,not only discerning essential diversities, but disregarding the broad basis of a common faith, and running into odious and unrestrained controversy;internally, holding to the formof pure doctrine, but neglecting cordially to embrace it and to live consistently with it.’”[130]
Scholasticism killed Protestant schools
How narrow the line between truth and error! How easy for those who had been given to eat of the tree of life to turn to the tree of knowledge of good and evil! What a pity that Protestant educators could not remain true to their trust! When on the eve of success, they turned to the old paths, and “called into existence a dialectic scholasticism which was in no way inferior to that of the most flourishing period of the Middle Ages.”[131]Papal principles are papal, whether advocated by Catholics or Protestants; having left the fountain of the pure waters of faith, they turned to the only other accessible source of knowledge—the pagan world. That system of education introduced by Luther and Melancthon, founded upon theHoly Scriptures, and through them viewing the sciences, mathematics, and literature, using the latter onlyas a means of illustrating God’s Word, was replaced by thescholasticism of the Middle Ages. One involuntarily asks, “How many times, O Israel, wilt thou return into Egypt?”
Form took the place of life
This decline is described in the following quotations taken from Painter, and they need no comment: “During the period extending from the middle of the sixteenth to the beginning of the eighteenth century, three leading tendencies are apparent in education. These may be characterized as the theological, the humanistic, and the practical.... A large share of the intellectual strength of the age was turned to theology. Every phase of religious truth, particularly in its doctrinal and speculative aspects, was brought under investigation. Theology was elevated to a science, and doctrinal systems were developed with logical precision, andextended to trifling subtilities.”[132]
In the figure of the Bible they strained for gnats, meanwhile swallowing the camel. The life was thus lost in the pulpit and in the theological schools. It was again the “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”
Further return to papal methods
Painter further says: “The schools, which stand in close relation to religion, were naturally influenced in a large measure by the theological tendencies of the age. Theological interests imposed upon the schoolsa narrow range of subjects, a mechanical method of instruction, and a cruel discipline. The principle of authority,exactinga blind submission of the pupil, prevailed in the schools of every grade. The young were regarded not as tender plants to be carefully nurtured and developed, but as untamed animals to be repressed or broken.”[133]
Notice the creeping in of those very characteristics of papal education so often referred to heretofore: 1, narrow range of subjects; 2, mechanical instruction,—memory work devoid of understanding; 3, arbitrary government, as seen in the matter of discipline. To this we must add that which is the natural accompaniment in papal instruction—the teaching of Latin. Says Painter, quoting Dittes: “‘In the higher institutions, and even in the wretched town schools,Latin was the Molochto which countless minds fell an offeringin return for the blessing granted to a few.A dead knowledge of words took the place of a living knowledge of things.Latin schoolbooks supplanted the book of nature, the book of life, the book of mankind. And in the popular schools youthful minds were tortured over the spelling book and catechism. The method of teaching was almost everywhere, in the primary as well as in the higher schools, a mechanical and compulsory drill in unintelligible formulas. The pupils were obliged to learn,but they were not educated to see and hear, to think and prove, and were not led to a true independence and personal perfection.The teachers found their function in teaching the prescribed text, not in harmoniously developing the young human being according to the laws of nature—a process, moreover, that lay under the ban of ecclesiastical orthodoxy.’”[134]
Cramming system and memory work
That there was a cramming process followed equal to any twentieth-century school, is evident. “The discipline answered to the content and spirit of the instruction.... The principle was to tame thepupils, not to educate them. They were to hold themselves motionless, that the school exercises might not be disturbed. What took place in their minds, and how their several characters were constituted, the school pedants did not understand and appreciate.”
Sturm’s school a compromise
In order to appreciate the rapidity with which the relapse took place from the educational system introduced by Luther to the medieval principles and methods, our attention is directed to the school of John Sturm. This man, “regarded as the greatest educator that the Reformed Church produced during this period,” died in 1589, less than seventy years after the Diet of Worms; hence his work fell within the half century following those forty years of unusual prosperity for Protestantism which has already been noticed. His work is contemporary with the first Jesuit school of Germany. The decline is visible in every feature of his work.
John Sturmpresided for forty years over the gymnasium of Strasburg, and his boast was that his institution “reproduced the best periods of Athens and Rome; and, in fact, he succeeded in giving to his adopted city the name of NewAthens.” Sturm’s school stood as a halfway mark between the Christian schools and the purely papal schools of the Jesuits, but since compromise always places a person or institution on the side of wrong, in weighing the worth of his school the balances necessarily tip in favor of the papacy.
Course of study in Sturm’s school
That his was a mixture of the medieval classical literature with a thin slice of Scripture sandwiched in for effect, is seen in the course of study as outlined by Painter. The school was divided into ten classes covering ten years, but only so much is given as is necessary to show the character of the studies: “Tenth class—The alphabet, reading, writing, Latin declensions and conjugations, German or Latin catechism.” “Ninth class—Latin declensions and conjugations continued. Memorizing of Latin words.” The eighth and the seventh classes are about the same. In the sixth, Greek is begun. The fifth class is as follows: “Study of words, ... versification, mythology, Cicero, and Virgil’s eclogues, Greek vocabulary.... On Saturday and Sunday, one of Paul’s epistles.”[135]The remaining four classes have much“learning by heart,” rhetoric, Paul’s epistles, orations of Demosthenes, the Iliad of Odyssey; memorizing and recitation of the Epistle to the Romans, dialectics, and rhetoric continued; Virgil, Horace, Homer, Thucidides, Sallust, weekly dramatic entertainments, and again a reading of Paul’s epistles.
Such a course of instruction was well fitted to bridge the gulf between the papacy and Protestantism. It was imbibing perhaps unconsciously the spirit of the new papal schools. “History, mathematics, natural science, and the mother tongue are ignored. A great gap is left between the gymnasium and life—a gap that could not be filled even by the university. In aiming to reproduce Greece and Rome in the midst of modern Christian civilization, Sturm’s scheme involves avast anachronism.”[136]
Influence of Sturm’s school
The Strasburg gymnasium at one time numbered several thousand pupils representing Denmark, Poland, Portugal, France, and England. “Sturm’s influence extended toEngland, and thence to America.” An English writer says: “No one who is acquaintedwith the education given at our principal classical schools,Eaton,Winchester, andWestminster, forty years ago, can fail to see that their curriculum was framed in a great degree on Sturm’s model.”[137]And yet it is acknowledged that his “scheme involves avast anachronism.”
Modern schools follow Sturm
To show that Sturm is the father of much of the instruction now given in our high schools and universities, Rosenkranz says: “John Sturm, of Strasburg, long before Comenius, had laid the foundation of what has become thetraditional course of instruction and methods of study in the classical schools for preparation for college.”[138]
Reaction as seen in discipline
The decline in the matter of instruction was accompanied by a corresponding retrogression in the morals of university students. Painter tells us that “the state of morals at the universities of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was very low. Idleness, drunkenness, disorder, and licentiousness prevailed in an unparalleled degree. The practice ofhazingwas universal, and new students were subjected to shocking indignities.”Duke Albrecht, of the university of Jena, wrote in 1624: “‘Customs before unheard of, inexcusable, unreasonable, and wholly barbarian, have come into existence.’” Then he speaks of the insulting names, the expensive suppers, and the carousing of the students, until “‘parents in distant places either determine not to send their children to this university, ... or to take them away again.’”[139]
Protestantism lost much because she ceased to educate her children.Had Protestantism remained true to her first principles of education, her overthrow would have been impossible. She paved the way for her own fall by departing gradually from the gospel, and by leaning more and more toward the classics and scholasticism.
Ignatius Loyola solves the problem
It was this decline on her own part, caused by the insidious workings of the Jesuits, which made possible the great victories of this order in later years. It was when Rome saw her youth slipping from her hands into the Protestant schools, and as a result, a few years later, found whole nations refusing obedience, and building for themselves new forms of government, that, in herdistress, she grasped the offer made byLoyola. And while the power he represented in its organization, placed itself above the pope, becoming, as it were,a papacy of the papacy, still she accepted his offer, and thecounter educational movebegan.The Jesuits organized to combat reformation in educational lines.In speaking of the Jesuits, Painter says: “This order, established by Ignatius Loyola [in 1534], found its special mission in combating the Reformation. As the most effective means of arresting the progress of Protestantism, it aimed at controlling education, particularly among the wealthy and the noble. In rivalry with the schools of Protestant countries, it developed an immense educational activity, and earned for its schools a great reputation.” Again, the same writer says: “More than any other agency it stayed the progress of the Reformation, and it even succeeded in winning back territory already conquered by Protestantism. Although employing the pulpit and the confessional, itworked chiefly through its schools, of which it established and controlled large numbers. Education in all Catholic countries gradually passed into its hands.”
Jesuit schools
In order to understand the reason for the success of the Jesuits as teachers it is necessary to glance at the plan of studies prepared in 1588 from a draft made by Loyola himself. “Every member of the order,” says Painter, “became acompetent and practical teacher. He received a thorough course in the ancient classics, philosophy, and theology. During the progress of his later studies he was required to teach.” Jesuit schools contained two courses, the lower corresponding very closely to the work of Sturm. Rosenkranz gives an excellent description of the educational system of the Jesuits. He says:—
Course of instruction
“In instruction they developed so exact a mechanism that they gained the reputation of having model school regulations, and even Protestants sent their children to them. From the close of the sixteenth century to the present time they have based their teaching upon theRatio et institutio studiorum Societatis Jesuof Claudius of Aquaviva. Following that, they distinguished two courses of teaching, a higher and a lower. The lower included nothing but an external knowledge of the Latinlanguage, and some fortuitous knowledge of history, of antiquities, and of mythology.The memory was cultivated as a means of keeping down free activity of thought and clearness of judgment.The higher course comprehended dialectics, rhetoric, physics, and morals. Dialectics was expounded as the art of sophistry. In rhetoric, they favored the polemical and emphatic style of the African Fathers of the church and their gorgeous phraseology; in physics, they followed Aristotle closely, and especially encouraged reading of the books ‘De Generatione et Corruptione’ and ‘De Coelo,’ on which they commented after their fashion; finally, in morals, casuistic skepticism was their central point. They made much of rhetoric, on account of their sermons, giving to it careful attention. They laid stress on declamation, and introduced it into their showy public examinations through the performance of Latin school comedies, and thus amused the public, disposed them to approval, and at the same time quite innocently practiced the pupil in the art of assuming a feigned character.
“Diplomatic conduct was made necessary to the pupils of the Jesuits, as well by their strict militarydiscipline as by their system of mutual distrust, espionage, and informing. Implicit obedience relieved the pupils from all responsibility as to the moral justification of their deeds. This exact following out of all commands and refraining from any criticism as to principles, created a moral indifference; and, from the necessity of having consideration for the peculiarities and caprices of the superior on whom all others were dependent, arose eye service. The coolness of mutual distrust sprang from the necessity which each felt of being on his guard against every other as a talebearer. The most deliberate hypocrisy and pleasure in intrigue merely for the sake of intrigue—this subtilest poison of moral corruption—were the result. Jesuitism had not only an interest in the material profit, which, when it had corrupted souls, fell to its share, but it also had an interest in the educative process of corruption. With absolute indifference as to the idea of morality ... or the moral quality of the means used to attain its end, it rejoiced in the efficacy of secrecy, and the accomplished and calculating understanding, and in deceiving the credulous by means of its graceful, seemingly scrupulous, moral language.”[140]
Spread of Catholicism by schools
Here is a picture ofthis papacy of the papacy. Again I say, had Protestantism remained true to principle, even this system could not have accomplished its overthrow; but since truth was neglected by Protestant schools, this system of the Jesuits easily carried every country into which it was introduced. “The Jesuit system of education ... was intended to meet the active influence of Protestantism in education. It was remarkably successful, and for a century [following 1584] nearly all the foremost men of Christendom came from Jesuit schools. In 1710 they had six hundred and twelve colleges, one hundred and fifty-seven normal schools, twenty-four universities, and an immense number of lower schools. These schools laid very great stress onemulation. Their experiments in this principle are so extensive and long-continued that they furnish a most valuable phase in the history of pedagogy in this respect alone. In the matter of supervision they are also worthy of study. They had a fivefold system, each subordinate being obedient to his superior. Besides this, there was a complete system of espionage on the part of the teachers and pupil monitors.”[141]
Methods of Jesuitical schools
On the subject of emulation, as made use of in the schools of the Jesuits, Painter gives us these thoughts: “The Jesuits made much of emulation, and in their eager desire to promote it they adopted means that could not fail to excite jealousy and envy. Says the Plan of Studies: ‘He who knows how to excite emulation has found the most powerful auxiliary in his teaching. Let the teacher, then, highly appreciate this valuable aid, and let him study to make the wisest use of it. Emulation awakens and develops all the powers of man. In order to maintain emulation, it will be necessary that each pupil have a rival to control his conduct and criticise him; also magistrates, questors, censors, and decurians should be appointed among the students. Nothing will be held more honorable than to outstrip a fellow student, and nothing more dishonorable than to be outstripped. Prizes will be distributed to the best pupils with the greatest possible solemnity. Out of school the place of honor will everywhere be given to the most distinguished pupils.’”[142]
As the Colossus of Rhodes stood astride the Greek waters, so the Jesuit schools spanned thegulf of education. One foot stood in Greece amidst its classics (for “Aristotle furnished the leading text-books”), the other on Christian soil, having theformof godliness; but like the demigods of Greece, it was neither human nor divine. The results of the educational system of the Jesuits are well summed up in another paragraph from Painter:—
“The Jesuit system of education, based not upon a study of man, but upon the interests of the order, was necessarily narrow. It sought showy results with which to dazzle the world. A well-rounded development was nothing. The principle of authority, suppressing all freedom and independence of thought, prevailed from beginning to end. Religious pride and intolerance were fostered. While our baser feelings were highly stimulated, the nobler side of our nature was wholly neglected. Love of country, fidelity to friends, nobleness of character, enthusiasm for beautiful ideals, were insidiously suppressed. For the rest, we adopt the language of Quick: ‘The Jesuits did not aim at developingallthe faculties of their pupils, but merely the receptive and reproductive faculties. When the young man had acquired a thoroughmastery of the Latin language for all purposes; when he was well versed in the theological and philosophical opinions of his preceptors; when he was skillful in dispute, and could make a brilliant display from the resources of a well-stored memory, he had reached the highest points to which the Jesuits sought to lead him. Originality and independence of mind, love of truth for its own sake, the power of reflecting and of forming correct judgments, were not merely neglected, they were suppressed in the Jesuits’ system. But in what they attempted they were eminently successful, and their success went a long way toward securing their popularity.’”[143]
Wherein Jesuit schools worthy of imitation
One can not condemn without reserve the Jesuitical system of education; for all false systems contain some points of truth, and the strength of all these systems lies in their close counterfeit of the true. Hence we can agree with these words: “Whatever its defects as a system of general education, it was admirably suited to Jesuit purposes, and in some particulars it embodied valuable principles.” As the progress of the papacy through the Jesuitical schools is followed into one countryand then another, one admires the constancy and self-sacrifice of those who have committed their lives to the order. Had Protestants been one half as diligent in advocating the principles of Christian education as the Jesuit teachers have been in counteracting the influence of the Reformation, far different results would to-day be seen in the world.
Spread of Jesuit schools
In tracing the growth of the schools of the Jesuits we begin with Germany, the heart of the reform movement, and follow quite carefully the history as given by Ranke: “Bishop Urban became acquainted with Le Jay and heard from him, for the first time, of thecollegestheJesuits had founded in several universities.
Jesuit college in Vienna
“Upon this the bishop advised his imperial master [Ferdinand I] to found asimilar college in Vienna, seeing how great was the decay of Catholic theology in Germany. Ferdinand warmly embraced the suggestion; in a letter he wrote to Loyola on the subject, he declares his conviction that the onlymeans to uphold the declining cause of Catholicism in Germany, was to give the rising generation learned and pious Catholics for teachers.” Wecan understand the grounds for this decision when we recall the statement that about 1563 it was said that “twenty years had elapsed in Vienna since a single student of the university had taken priest’s orders.” “The preliminaries,” says Ranke, “were easily arranged. In the year 1551 thirteen Jesuits, among them Le Jay himself, arrived in Vienna, and were in the first instance, granted a dwelling, chapel, and pension, by Ferdinand, until shortly after he incorporated them with the university, and even assigned to them the visitation of it.” “Soon after this they arose to consideration inCologne,” but for a time had little success. In 1556 the endowed school referred to before governed by a Protestant regent, “gave them an opportunity of gaining a firmer footing. For since there was a party in the city bent above all things on maintaining the Catholic character of the university, the advice given by the patrons of the Jesuits to hand over the establishment to that order, met with attention.” “At the same period they also gained a firm footing inIngoldstadt.” “From these three metropolitan centers the Jesuits now spread out in every direction.” These schools were, some of them atleast, training schools for Catholic teachers; for Ranke tells of a certain man in Hungary, Olahus by name, and dedicated in infancy to the church, who, “contemplating the general decay of Catholicism in Hungary, saw that the last hope left for it was that of maintaining its hold on the common people, who had not yet wholly lapsed from its rule. To this end, however, there lacked teachers of Catholic principles, and to form whom, he founded a college of Jesuits at Tyrnau in the year 1561.” “Two privy councilors of the elector Daniel, of Mainz, ... conceived likewise that theadmission of the Jesuits was the only means that promised a recovery of the University of Mainz. In spite of the opposition made by the canons and feudal proprietors, they founded a college of the order in Mainz, and a preparatory school in Aschaffenburg.”
School at Heidelberg
The Jesuits advanced up the Rhine. “They particularly coveted a settlement at Spires, both because ... there were so many distinguished men [assembled there] over whom it would be of extraordinary moment to possess influence; and also in order to be placed near the Heidelberg University, which at that dayenjoyed the highest repute for its Protestant professors. They gradually carried their point.” It is interesting to note how they shadowed the Protestant schools, as if, like a parasite, to suck from them their life. “In order to bring back his University of Dillingen to its original purpose, Cardinal Truchess resolved to dismiss all the professors who still taught there, and to commit the establishment entirely to the Jesuits.”
Rapid growth of Jesuit schools
To show the rapidity with which the Jesuits worked, Ranke says: “In the year 1551 they had not yet any fixed position in Germany;” “in 1556 they had extended over Bavaria and the Tyrol, Franconia, and Swabia, a great part of Rhineland, and Austria, and they had penetrated into Hungary, Bohemia, and Moravia.” True to the purpose of the order, “their labors were above all devoted to the universities. They were ambitious of rivaling the fame of those of the Protestants.”
Jesuits’ preparatory schools
“The Jesuits displayed no less assiduity in the conduct of their Latin schools. It was one of the leading maxims of Lainez that the lower grammatical classes should be supplied with good teachers,since first impressions exercise the greatest influence over the whole future life of the individual.” The Jesuits were willing to devote a lifetime to one phase of education. “It was found that young persons learned more under them in half a year than with others in two years; even Protestants called back their children from distant schools, and put them under the care of the Jesuits.” From this last sentence two things are to be observed. Protestants had lost sight of the importance of education, and their schools had greatly deteriorated, else they would not have intrusted their children to the Jesuits. While the Jesuits began by working into the universities, “schools for the poor, modes of instruction adapted for children, and catechizing followed.”
Reputation of Jesuit schools
“The instruction of the Jesuits was conveyed wholly in the spirit of that enthusiastic devotion which had from the first so peculiarly characterized their order.” This had its effect; for earnest, whole-hearted work on the part of the teacher, even though the methods may be wrong and material false, will surely react in the lives of the pupils. Viewing the work of Jesuit teachers, one feelsto exclaim, “Since thou art so noble, I would thou wert on our side!” And so “erelong the children, who frequented the schools of the Jesuits in Vienna, were distinguished for their resolute refusal to partake on fast days of forbidden meats which their parents ate.”
Jesuits conquered Germany by their schools
Teachers had more weight with the children than the parents themselves, and became leaders of the older members of the family, so that “the feelings thus engendered in the schools were propagated throughout the mass of the population by preaching and confession.”
The final results in Germany, Ranke gives thus: “They occupied the professors’ chairs, and found pupils who attached themselves to their doctrines....They conquered the Germans on their own soil, in their very home, and wrested from them a part of their native land.”[144]So much for Germany and its Jesuit schools.
Jesuit schools in France
Concerning the capture of France by the Jesuits it is not necessary to say much. Ranke gives a few strong paragraphs, showing the work of the order as teachers. The Protestants of France made a greatmistake, and brought their cause into disrepute, especially in Paris, by taking up arms in a time of commotion, and Ranke says: “Backed by this state of public feeling, the Jesuits established themselves in France. They began there on a somewhat small scale, being constrained to content themselves with colleges thrown open to them by a few ecclesiastics.... They encountered at first the most obstinate resistance in the great cities, especially in Paris, ... but they at last forced their way through all impediments, and were admitted in the year 1564 to the privilege of teaching. Lyons had already received them. Whether it was the result of good fortune or of merit, they were enabled at once to produce some men of brilliant talents from amongst them.... In Lyons, especially, the Huguenots were completely routed, their preachers exiled, their churches demolished, and their books burned; whilst, on the other hand, a splendid college was erected for the Jesuits in 1567. They had also a distinguished professor, whose exposition of the Bible attractedcrowds of charmed and attentive youth. From these chief towns they now spread over the kingdom in every direction.”[145]Throughthe influence gained as educators, 3,800 copies of Angier’s Catechism were sold in the space of eight years in Paris alone. France no longerleanedtoward Protestantism. She had been regained by the Jesuit schools.
Jesuitical schools in England
Concerning the work in England, more is said, and our own connection with that kingdom adds weight in our eyes to the history of her education. Thompson says: “During the reign of Elizabeth the papal authorities renewed their exertions to put a stop to Protestantism in England, and sent more Jesuits there for that purpose.”[146]What they could not accomplish through intrigue and civil policy they were more sure to gain through the schools; hence Thompson says: “They accomplished one thing, which was to carry away with them several young English noblemen, to be educated by the Jesuits in Flanders, so as to fit them for treason against their own country,—repeating in this the experiment Loyola had made in Germany.... The Jesuits endeavored to become the educators of English youths as they had those of Germany.... The pope therefore establishedan English college atRome, to educate young Englishmen.”
English college at Rome
Of this college, Ranke tells us further: “William Allen first conceived the idea of uniting the young English Catholics who resided on the continent for the prosecution of their studies, and, chiefly through the support of Pope Gregory, he established a college for them at Douay. This, however, did not seem to the pope to be adequate for the purpose in view. He wished to provide for those fugitives under his own eyes a more tranquil and less dangerous retreat than could be found in the disturbed Netherlands; accordingly he founded an English college in Rome, and consigned it to the care of the Jesuits. No one was admitted into the college who did not pledge himself, on the completion of his studies, to return to England, and to preach there the faith of the Roman Church.”[147]
Jesuits as teachers in America
America was settled when the Jesuit power was at its height. Those teachers who penetrated Germany without fear, and secretly stole into England when it was unsafe for them to be identified, followedclosely the paths of discovery and settlement. “In the beginning of the seventeenth century we find,” says Ranke, “the stately fabric of the Catholic Church in South America fully reared.... The Jesuits taught grammar and the liberal arts, and a theological seminary was connected with their college of San Ildefonso. All branches of theological study were taught in the universities of Mexico and Lima.”[148]
Jesuits in the United States
In North America their vigilance was no less marked. “In 1611 Jesuit missionaries came over and labored with remarkable zeal and success in converting the Indians.”[149]In Maryland, a Catholic colony from the first, they held unbounded sway. Speaking of the time of Lord Baltimore, Thompson says: “At that time, in England, the papists were chiefly under the influence of the Jesuits, whose vigilance was too sleepless to permit the opportunity of planting their society in the New World to escape them.”[150]Their work has been quietly done from the very first, and some thinkthat because of the papal decree of 1773, suppressing the order, they have ceased their work. This, however, is a mistake; for “Gregory XVI, whose pontificate commenced in 1831, was the first pope who seemed encouraged by the idea that the papacy would ultimately establish itself in the United States. His chief reliance, as the means of realizing this hope, was upon theJesuits, upon whose entire devotion to the principles of absolutism he could confidently rely.”[151]But the Jesuits always accomplish their work largely by means of education, hence we may look for them to use the same tactics in our country that had proved so eminently successful to their cause in England and Germany.
Object of Jesuit schools in America
“The chief thing with the Jesuits,” as Gressinger writes, “was to obtain the sole direction of education, so that by getting the young into their hands, they could fashion them after their own pattern.” It has been the avowed aim of the Jesuits to stamp out Protestantism, and with this, republicanism. In this country, where these two principles were pre-eminently conspicuous, and so closely associatedthat whatever kills one kills the other, it is doubly true that by gaining control of the educational system the order could work for the papacy the utter ruin of America, both from a religious and a civil standpoint. From the dawn of our history there has been within our borders, mingling with our loyal citizens, a class of educators who carry out this principle described by Thompson. “The Roman Catholic youth are forbidden by the papal system from accepting as true the principles of the Declaration of Independence or of the Constitution of the United States.”[152]Leo XIII, who was educated a Jesuit [Thompson], remains true to his principles. His biographer says “that the ‘false education’ and ‘antichristian training’ of the young which prevail in the United States and among the liberal and progressive peoples of the world must be done away with, abandoned, and ‘Thomas Aquinnas [a Catholic of the thirteenth century] must once more be enthroned as the “angel of the schools;” his methods and doctrines must be the light of all higher teaching, for his works are only revealed truth set before the human mind in its most scientific form.’”[153]
Progress of papal principles
It is unnecessary to state the number of schools established by Catholics in the United States, which have been placed under the control of the Jesuits; neither is it necessary to trace the attempts which have been made by the papacy, at irregular periods in our history, to obtain the control of our public school system. The affairs at Stillwater, Minn., and at Farabault, in the same State, while unsuccessful, were weather vanes showing the direction of the wind,—were posers to test the public pulse, and just so surely show the policy of the papacy in educational matters. Of far greater importance to us as Protestants is the fact thatJesuitical principles may and do prevail in our popular system of education, and these principles, whether carried out by Jesuits, or by the ordinary teacher who is unconscious of her situation, and unmindful of the result of her methods, bring about the fall of Protestantism and republicanism. Our nation has repudiated her foundation principles; are our Protestant churches doing likewise? The history of the educational institutions of the United States, which are discussed in the next chapters, will show how the plan of work now followedin our universities, colleges, and schools of lower grades, are patterning after Sturm, and how they go farther back, connecting the twentieth century with the scholasticism of the Middle Ages. It is without the slightest feelings of animosity toward the Jesuits or the papacy that these facts are traced. These both do for their cause what will best serve to upbuild it. Their methods, in so far as they accomplish their desired end, are to be commended, and their zeal is ever to be admired.