Hughes Thomas
Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits

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CHAPTER XIII
THE COURSES OF DIVINITY AND ALLIED SCIENCES. PRIVATE STUDY. REPETITION

1. Having finished his course of teaching literature, the Jesuit returns to his higher studies. Divinity and its allied sciences stand out in prominence for their intrinsic dignity; but they have, besides, a studied preëminence assigned them in the system before us. The almost universal rule, of intermitting the higher studies with a course of literary teaching, undergoes a special exception in the case of those "theologians, whose number is few, and use so manifold";²⁰⁶ of whom Aquaviva says that, "according as the higher courses are developed, the fewer proportionately, out of many students, become qualified to profess those exalted sciences."²⁰⁷ The same policy holds with respect to those who have an eminent talent for oratory. Laynez, himself a great preacher, and a competent judge in the matter, relieved Father Francis Strada of the office of Provincial, to set him free for the ministry of the pulpit; and he wrote, as he did so: "If only he had a sufficiency of those whom he could put in the office of Provincial, he would relieve all preachers of that office, that they might devote themselves entirely to spreading the seed of the Divine Word."²⁰⁸ Of these and others, "who give eminent promise of being equal to the graver occupations, or for whom an immediate need exists in that direction,"²⁰⁹ an immediate application is to be made to the study of Theology.²¹⁰

All who graduate in these higher courses do so, as "qualified to profess"; just as they had graduated in Philosophy and its cognate branches.²¹¹ But, though a master in the matter of his philosophical triennium, no student is called upon to profess any of those branches, until he has graduated also in Theology. Here we may advert to several lines of strict parallelism in the system, both with regard to admitting any students, whether Jesuits or not, to the respective courses of study, and with regard to admitting Jesuits themselves to profess in the chairs.

As a condition for admitting any students at all into the higher courses, the Society introduced a much-needed reform, in requiring that literary qualifications of a sufficiently high grade should precede matriculation. Thus the University of Ingolstadt ordains that no one shall be admitted to Academic, that is, University lectures, except after one year of Rhetoric; and it adds very strict regulations about the election of courses, repetitions, disputations, etc., in the three years' curriculum of Philosophy.²¹²

In like manner, to be admitted as a student of Divinity and its correlative sciences, it is necessary to have graduated in the course of Arts, that is to say, Philosophy and its branches. Thus the University of Würzburg ordains that no one shall be admitted as an auditor of Scholastic Theology, unless he be Magisterio insignis, "a Master of Arts"; it excepts only the members of religious Orders in attendance, and also Principis Alumnos, "the Prince's scholars." Others, who have not so graduated, it will admit to Moral Theology and its supplementary branches. It will not even examine, for the Mastership in Arts, any one, whether a Religious or not, who has studied Philosophy in a private institution or a monastery.²¹³ To apply for Academic Degrees, "they must prove that they have followed all the courses in some approved public University."²¹⁴

The curriculum, now before the student, is a quadriennium, or four-year course. It is prolonged into a fifth and sixth year, for reviewing the whole ground of one's studies; for preparing a public defence against all comers; and, in the case of Jesuit students, for an immediate preparation to fill the Professor's chair, the pulpit, or to discharge other functions. Hence the University of Cologne specifies, in general, a sexennium, or six-year course for Theology.²¹⁵

Not unlike to this is the parallelism which we may notice, in appointing the members of the Society to Professors' chairs. Though qualified to teach literature after his own complete course of letters in the seminary, yet, as we have seen, no one is to be put over the classes of Grammar or Humanity who has not first studied his Philosophy. And so again, at this stage, though apparently competent to teach Philosophy, and approved as being qualified to profess it, yet no one is to be put in a chair of that course who has not also studied his Theology.²¹⁶

The reasons for this are assigned by the critics of 1586. The philosopher, they say, who has not yet become a theologian, will not be so safe in his conclusions, in his proofs, in his manner of expression. He will be of an age less mature. His learning will be less superabundant. He will scarcely be able to answer the arguments of unbelievers. Nor will he treat Philosophy in a way to render it useful to Theology. In fine, the proprieties of things cannot be well observed, if he who has just filled a chair of Philosophy has to sit down as a mere student in Theology.²¹⁷

The branches of this theological course are Scholastic Theology, Moral Theology, Sacred Scripture, Hebrew and Oriental Languages, Ecclesiastical History, and Canon Law. The general category of students is naturally more limited than in the philosophical curriculum. There the auditors were young men, who would betake themselves, at its close, to Medicine, or other walks of life. They may have taken to Law; though Possevino, himself eminent in jurisprudence, would seem to imply that Canon Law must have been pursued first.²¹⁸ The students now are chiefly Ecclesiastics, with various careers before them; or they are Religious of different Orders; or, finally, the members of the Society itself. The principal object of our consideration is the formation of these latter, as qualified to profess. The pedagogical elements before us may be ranged under three heads: Private Study; Repetition, which includes Disputation; Lecturing, which is supplemented by Dictation.

2. As to the method of private study, all the auditors of the course are directed to look over, prior to the lecture,²¹⁹ the text in Aristotle, St. Thomas, etc., which the Professor is about to explain.²²⁰ Then, while the lecture is being delivered, they take down notes; the copying of mere dictation is not favored. After the lecture, they are to read over the notes which they have taken down. Let them endeavor to understand their annotations. Understanding what they have written, they are to make objections to themselves against the thesis established, and endeavor to solve their own objections. If they cannot find a solution, let them note the difficulties, and take occasion to ask the Professor, or reserve them for disputation. Such is the method of private study prescribed for the members of the Order,²²¹ and laid down in more general terms for the other students.²²² To develop habits of such study, and to afford the requisite leisure, a certain custom, then prevailing in Portugal, of keeping the Professors of Philosophy and their students during two hours and a half consecutively in the lecture room is discountenanced by the critics of 1586: "That the philosophers should remain two whole hours and a half in class, as is now done, is burdensome to the Professor and troublesome to the students; for these latter should get accustomed to private study, lest, like parrots, they seem to be always talking by rote."²²³

This curtailing of class hours was characteristic of the Society's system. In 1567 the General Father Francis Borgia wrote, through his secretary Polanco, correcting, in this respect, a school-regulation which had been followed in the lower classes of the German Province. The secretary writes: "It is found by experience, in the schools of the Company, that to teach three consecutive hours in the forenoon, and three more in the afternoon, is injurious to the health of our Masters, and does no good to the health of the scholars; for which reason it is now ordained that in our schools the morning classes shall not last longer than two and a half hours, and the same in the afternoon."²²⁴

Nothing intensifies more the results of studies than concentration, nor dissipates them more than division of attention, while a given pursuit is in progress. This principle applies to the number of courses taken up at one time, the conduct of private studies in any single course, and the degree to which the appointed teachers and the standard authors have full justice done them. On this head, the critics of 1586 give recommendations, derived from the Constitution, for the direction of all the students in general, and for the members of the Order in particular. The recommendations are embodied briefly in the Ratio Studiorum.²²⁵ With Aristotle in Philosophy, or with St. Thomas in Theology, one commentary is to be designated, and that a specially chosen author, suited to the individual's capacity. In the second year of Theology, one of the Fathers of the Church can be added, "to be read at odds and ends of time, or after the fatigue of a long stretch of study. Another can be substituted, if after a while they ask for another. But care should be taken that they do not spend too much time on this reading, as if they were getting up a sermon."²²⁶

All this, no doubt, tends to make the student "a man of one book," who, as the adage says, is much to be feared. However, when he goes through every course, and is everywhere a man of concentrated attention, while, for the purpose of public disputation and the attempted refutation of his own and the Professor's conclusions, the side avenues of various authors and systems are studiously and necessarily kept open, it is probable that, after being "a man of one book," in many courses successively, he will also be well-rounded by the time his formation is complete. With students in general, this can be accomplished by the age of twenty-five; with the Jesuits themselves, about the age of thirty-three.

3. I come now to the subject of Repetition, of which two chief forms offer themselves. One is just what the word of itself indicates; it belongs to all the faculties, but chiefly to the lower courses. I shall call it by the generic name of Repetition. The other has place principally in the higher; it is Disputation; of which a preparatory exercise, called Concertatio, prevails also from the lowest class of Grammar upwards.

Repetition then rehearses in full class, under various forms or modifications of that exercise, what the Professor has explained in class. Just before the close of the hour spent on his lecture, the Professor of Philosophy or Theology signifies that he is ready for questions on the matter treated; he asks sometimes an account of the lecture, and he sees that it is repeated. The revised Ratio of 1832 puts it, in more general terms, thus: "He is often to require an account of the lectures, and to see that they are repeated"; and then it desires that, after the lecture, either in the class-room, or somewhere near, he remain accessible to the students for at least a quarter of an hour, to answer their questions.²²⁷ This is all from the Constitution of Ignatius.

The Repetition, which he is to see to personally, is that which takes place in small circles of about ten students each. "At the close of the lectures let them, in parties of about ten apiece, repeat for half an hour what they have just heard; one of the students, and, if possible, a member of the Society, presiding over each party, decuria."²²⁸ Neither the preliminary, nor the final, Ratio demands that the Professor himself preside over any of these parties. But "those who do preside will become more learned, and will be practising to become Masters themselves."²²⁹

It must be admitted that the tenor of many remarks in the earlier document of 1586, shows the presence of Jesuits among the auditors to have acted on the course as a leaven and a relief; although the concurrent testimony of historians, about the Jesuit schools, indicates little or nothing there of that license of manners, such as Possevino described for us in a former chapter.²³⁰ In a special manner, those Jesuit students, already young priests, who, having gone through their four-year course, were now reviewing in a biennium, of a fifth and sixth year, all their long studies of the higher sciences, stood ready at hand for many functions in the arena of direction and presidency, either over the repetitions or the disputations, or in the chair; to which as many of them as were needed would be officially assigned, when their private studies left them at last free.²³¹

To say a word upon this class of Jesuit students, they show us the Professor's formation at its last stage. They are reviewing all Theology, Philosophy, Sacred Scripture, Canon Law, Polemical or Controversial Theology, and ecclesiastical erudition generally. The last of their rules for self-guidance says: "In particular, they are to devote themselves most of all to that pursuit, to which they feel chiefly drawn, without, however, omitting any of the rest."²³² Meanwhile, they present, in various ways, specimens of their talent and erudition; they throw into the form of a digest, "from their own genius," all Theology, under certain heads and principles; they can choose some "splendid subject,"²³³ and deliver ten public lectures thereupon to the auditors who choose to attend, which, we may observe, was precisely the status of all Professors in the mediæval universities. In their acts of public defence, five of which are prescribed during the two years, they are free to follow or to leave the opinions of their late Professors.²³⁴

These students then are assistant and extraordinary Professors. They have begun the work, which some of them will continue when called upon to become Professors in ordinary. They are already in training for that independent work, which the revised Ratio of 1832 shows some anxiety about preserving; for it says to all who occupy any chair in these faculties, that, in case they adopt a standard author to follow in their lectures, which is a custom rather prevalent in more recent times, they must nevertheless deliver each year some special question elaborated independently by themselves.²³⁵ This independence of style, perfect command of the matter, with express leave for the incipient Professor, in the course of his final biennium, to relinquish the opinions of his late Professors, are made the subject of many a remark by the critics of 1586. Withal, it is clear enough that for a younger man to leave an approved opinion safely, it is very necessary for him to know well what he is about; and doubly necessary when he comes forward in a public defence; for his own late Professors are among the Doctors present, and are there to assail him in all his tenets.

These, then, or others presiding over the circles, "one person repeats, the others listening; they propose difficulties mutually, and, if they cannot solve their own objections, they consult the Professor."²³⁶ The one who repeats is to do so, not from his notes, but from memory. Thus "the memory is exercised; practice is afforded those who are to be Masters, so that they accustom themselves to develop their thoughts before others; it makes them all keep alive and attentive during the lecture, to take down the necessary notes, as they might not do, if they were free from such repetition."²³⁷ There are several other possible forms of conducting this exercise.

When once the first crude repetition is over, the series of disputations begins, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. Without counting in the "Grand Acts" of public defence against all objectors, at stated times and by specially designated persons, we may enumerate as many as seven ordinary rehearsals of the same matter.

First, before going to the lecture hall, the student looks over the text. This is done easily enough in St. Thomas or Aristotle, if one of these is the standard. As Ignatius expected would be done, many standard works have been published by writers of the Society.²³⁸ Their recommendation is, as he intimated, that they are "more adapted to our times"; and they have incorporated recent researches in progressive branches. In the sense of this adaptation to times and circumstances, the theologians in Cologne, making their announcement for the year 1578, say that they follow St. Thomas as a general rule, but not so "as to treat all that he treats, nor only what he treats… Every age," they say, "has its own debated ground in matters of doctrine, and this brings it to pass that Theology is not only constantly enlarged with a variety of new disputations, but assumes, as it were, a new cast."²³⁹ And the critics of the preliminary Ratio, treating of the Scripture course, lecture at some length all whom it may concern, – theologians, professors, preachers, – precisely on this ground, the need of amplifying and adapting the course of Scripture to the conditions of the times.²⁴⁰ Accordingly, works always new and adapted to latest needs, have poured forth from the writers of the Order. And such as furnish the conditions of a text, which may readily be followed, also supply the conditions for conning over, before going to the lecture hall, what the Professor means to treat. If no such standard is being followed, still, as I find noted in a documentary report of 1886, "the Professors should always, as far as possible, throw out directions enough for the students to look up the subject before coming to the lecture."

In this connection many familiar names of authors occur. For Scholastic Theology and Philosophy, there is, in the first place, the prince of modern theologians, Francis Suarez, with his library of tomes; there are the three Cardinals Toletus, Bellarmine, De Lugo; Valentia, Vasquez, Lessius, Franzelin; and, in the modern school of Scholastic Philosophy, the elegant Liberatore, Kleutgen, Tongiorgi, Pesch, along with the writers of Louvain, Stonyhurst, Innsbruck, and elsewhere; in Positive Theology and Controversy, Canisius, Becanus, Petau, Sardagna; in Exegesis, Maldonado, Salmeron, À Lapide, Menochius, Patrizi, Cornely, with the school of Maria Laach; in Moral Theology, an endless number, Sanchez, Laymann, Busembaum, with his two hundred editions, Gury, Ballerini.²⁴¹

Secondly, the student hears the Professor's lecture. Thirdly, one of the forms of regular repetition is gone through. Fourthly, the daily disputation takes place, at least among the Jesuit Scholastics: "At home, every day except on Saturdays, free and feast days, one hour is to be appointed," during which, after a preliminary summarizing of the matter for defence, the disputation follows; and, if time remains over, difficulties may be proposed. "In order to have some time remain over, the president must have the syllogistic form of discussion rigidly observed; and, if nothing new is being urged, he will cut off the debate."²⁴²

Fifthly, there is the weekly disputation: "On Saturday, or some other day, as the custom of the University has it, let them hold disputations in the schools during two hours, or longer still, whenever there is a large concourse of persons who come to hear."²⁴³ Sixthly, the more solemn disputation follows, every month, or nearly so: "Each month, or, if the students are few, every other month, let disputations be held on a certain day, both morning and afternoon. The number of defendants will correspond to the number of Professors whose theses they defend."²⁴⁴ Seventhly, towards the close of the scholastic year, though no time is to be set aside for the purpose, so as to prejudice the continuous course of the Professor's lectures, yet "all the matter of the year is to have been gone through, by way of repetition, when the time of vacation arrives."²⁴⁵ The whole of this matter forms the subject of the year's examination for the Jesuit members of the course.²⁴⁶ To all these argumentative repetitions may be added the discursive form, in the shape of lectures given by the students themselves, or dissertations read on stated occasions.²⁴⁷

It is evident that the members of the Society are the chief subjects of this completeness of formation; and that for two reasons. In the first place, no other students, even if convictores, that is, boarders in the Jesuit colleges, can be brought under such a thoroughness of system. Secondly, other students are not in the same way subject to the regular gradation of examinations from year to year. When they are competent, they may apply for admission to the requisite public tests, or Acts of Defence; and, in the philosophical courses, they become Bachelors, Licentiates, and Masters of Arts; in Theology, Bachelors in the first and then in the second grade, Licentiates, Doctors. "No degree is to be conferred on any one who has not stood all the tests, which, according to the custom of Universities, must precede the conferring of these degrees." The character of each degree, its conditions, tests, formalities, are treated of fully in the "Form and Method of conducting Academies and Studia Generalia S. J.," 1658.²⁴⁸

Here, then, the spirit of the Constitution is fully observed, with regard to repetition and also disputation. The Fathers remark that Ignatius "recommends nothing with more urgency than disputation, and constancy in its exercise; so much stress does he lay upon it, as not to let the students of Letters and Grammar go without it."²⁴⁹ In the lower classes it takes the form of concertatio and mutual challenges, in the matter of Grammar and literary doctrine. Here it is in its full form; and we may pass on to consider it in the next chapter, not as a manner of repetition, but on its own merits.

I will make the transition, by quoting an important passage or two from the preliminary Ratio. They bear not only on disputation, but on that very essential point, where it is that the vital power for actuating the whole system lies; and what is the intrinsic value of any system, as a mere code of legislation.

The critics say that, to counteract the apparent decline of disputation, and to restore this exercise to its ancient form and splendor, everything depends on the vigilance and diligence of those in authority. "Without this, nothing will be effected, even though, for the proper administration of this department of studies, many laws and precepts are put down in writing."²⁵⁰ Elsewhere, acknowledging in another connection that there is indeed a multitude of points defined for observance, the same writers go on to make these pertinent reflections: "The perfection of doctrine, like the perfection of moral life, stands in need of many aids; whence it is that there is no people under the direction of more laws than the Christian people, nor any Religious Order more under the obligation of Constitution and Decrees than our own." They undertake to prove the advantage of this, both from the side of those in authority, and of those under authority. "Aristotle and St. Thomas," they say, "are both of opinion that as few points as possible should be left to the private opinions of a judge, and as many as possible should be determined by the clear definition of law. They prove it; for it is easier to find the few wise men, whose wisdom is equal to the task of determining fixed rules of guidance, than to find the multitude, which otherwise is required to pass judgment in all contingencies of time and place; there is the sanction of greater maturity in laws which have stood the test of time and experience, than in the off-hand decision of the present hour; there is less of a corrupting influence on law-givers, when they are defining things in general and for the future. Wherefore, whatever can be despatched by general law is so to be despatched; what cannot be provided for by such law is to be left to the judge, as the living rule. Under this head come the particular decisions to be passed in given junctures, whereof the general law cannot take cognizance." So far Aristotle and St. Thomas; and the Fathers of 1586 agree with them.²⁵¹