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 theJesuit."176Of 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!"177Eximeno, 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 inhis 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 recenttimes.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 generaldestruction."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 inall."181During 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."
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 hisclass.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 sowith 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 consideredparum 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 todole 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 preliminaryRatioin 1586 were of opinion that the Masters in the literary courses should be assigned to their work, not after their course of Philosophy, butbefore.183They 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 severalreasons, 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 teachLetters.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 hadfrom 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 beinjured."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 onekind 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'spart.186In 1583, Father Oliver Manare, visiting the German Provinces by the General's authority, had noticed this point, in his ordinance for the management ofconvictus, or boarding colleges; that "frequent changes were burdensome to the students themselves, because they were forced to accommodate themselves often to new teachers orprefects."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 inhand.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, scarcelyseems 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 preliminaryRatioargue about in both senses, for and against; and they finally arrive at a solution, or rather acompromise.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 theRatio Studiorum.190As 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 thepost."191The 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 themost 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 somuch."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 isurgent."193Add, 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 nochange."194It 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. TheRatioof 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 oneteaching."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 singlesystem 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 knowinghow."196The "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 forassistance; 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 theposts.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 thehigher.198Every 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 theRatio, 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 ofrules.199Books are never to be wanting, in the sufficiency desired by the members generally, whether they are engaged in teaching, or are pursuing theirstudies.200To this regulation, which concerns the chief authority in a Province, the revisedRatioof 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 illspent."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 oferudition."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 severalheads: 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 learnedmen.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 nativeshoots."204And 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 literaryseminary.205So 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.
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 somanifold";206of whom Aquaviva says that, "according as the higher courses are developed, the fewer proportionately, out of many students, become qualified to profess those exaltedsciences."207The 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 thatoffice, that they might devote themselves entirely to spreading the seed of the DivineWord."208Of these and others, "who give eminent promise of being equal to the graver occupations, or for whom an immediate need exists in thatdirection,"209an immediate application is to be made to the study ofTheology.210
All who graduate in these higher courses do so, as "qualified to profess"; just as they had graduated in Philosophy and its cognatebranches.211But, 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 ofPhilosophy.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 beMagisterio insignis, "a Master of Arts"; it excepts only the members of religious Orders in attendance, and alsoPrincipis 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 amonastery.213To apply for Academic Degrees, "they must prove that they have followed all the courses in some approved publicUniversity."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 forTheology.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 hisTheology.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 inTheology.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 pursuedfirst.218The 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 thelecture,219the text in Aristotle, St. Thomas, etc., which the Professor is about toexplain.220Then, 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 theOrder,221and laid down in more generalterms for the otherstudents.222To 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 byrote."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 theafternoon."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 theRatio Studiorum.225With 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 asermon."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 ofone 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, calledConcertatio, 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 revisedRatioof 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 theirquestions.227This 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."228Neither the preliminary, nor the final,Ratiodemands 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 Mastersthemselves."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 formerchapter.230In 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 lastfree.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 therest."232Meanwhile, 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 "splendidsubject,"233and 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 lateProfessors.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 revisedRatioof 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 ratherprevalent in more recent times, they must nevertheless deliver each year some special question elaborated independently bythemselves.235This 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 theProfessor."236The 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 suchrepetition."237There 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 theSociety.238Their 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 newcast."239And the critics of the preliminaryRatio, 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 thetimes.240Accordingly, worksalways 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 takesplace, 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 thedebate."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 tohear."243Sixthly, 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 theydefend."244Seventhly, 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 vacationarrives."245The whole of thismatter forms the subject of the year's examination for the Jesuit members of thecourse.246To all these argumentative repetitions may be added the discursive form, in the shape of lectures given by the students themselves, or dissertations read on statedoccasions.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 ifconvictores, 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 andStudia 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 "recommendsnothing 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 withoutit."249In the lower classes it takes the form ofconcertatioand 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 preliminaryRatio. 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 inwriting."250Elsewhere, 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 obligationof 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 withthem.251