Hughes Thomas
Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits
CHAPTER XI
FORMATION OF THE MASTER. HIS COURSES OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY
It seems an apt distribution of our subject, to consider, first, the formation of the Master, and secondly, the formation of the Scholar. The Master's development will conduct us chiefly through the higher studies; the Scholar's, rather through the lower. Thus the two persons, about whom the science of education revolves, will be directly under inspection; while the elements which go to form them will, at the same time, pass under review.
Without theorizing on pedagogy, the Jesuit system itself, merely as observed and realized, results in the formation of Professors. There are several reasons, apparent on the surface, why it should do so. The studies, which the members of the Order pursue, are the same courses as the Order professes for the world at large. But, for the Jesuit members of the divers courses, a most elaborate system of examinations at every stage, with a specially searching manner of testing the students, is made to regard one objective point, which is the capacity of the Jesuit to teach what he has learnt, and this, as evinced, while under examination. The manner, in which this point is judicially determined, consists in referring the examiners to a standard, called "mediocrity." After a personal and oral disputation with the young Jesuit, lasting either half an hour, or one hour, or two consecutive hours, according to the stage at which he happens to be, a preponderating vote of the four or five examining Professors must aver that he has "surpassed mediocrity." The learning, prudence, and sincerity of the examiners are appealed to without further sanction, except at the very last stage in the young man's progress, when success under the ordeal will entitle him to Profession in the Society. Then each examiner's prudence is stimulated, and his sincerity bound down, by an oath. Only at one initial stage, that of the first examination in the course of his three years' Philosophy, is a certain margin allowed the beginner, in favor of bare mediocrity.
"Mediocrity" is defined to be that degree of intelligence, and comprehension of the matters studied, which can give an account of them to one asking an explanation. "To surpass mediocrity" designates the student's ability to defend his entire ground with such erudition and facility as show him qualified, in point of actual attainments, to profess the philosophy or theology studied. The final degree in the Order, which is that of Profession, requires this competency for all Philosophy and Theology together. Here then we see, that the capacity to teach is made the criterion of having learned sufficiently well. Passing through all the grades with this mark of excellence, the man who, after a general formation of seventeen years, and the requisite development of other qualifications, is then appointed to profess in a chair of the higher faculties, has been very much to the manner born of "surpassing mediocrity," and of doing so with the characteristics of a Professor.156 How the same principles, if not in the same form, affect the conduct of the literary curriculum, we shall now see in the rest of this chapter.
The literary curriculum has been already finished by the Jesuit, before entering the Order. But, after his admission, special means are taken to have him revise those studies, extend them, and grasp them from the standpoint of the teacher. It happens in Jesuit history, and the nature of secondary education will always have it so, that the largest amount of teaching has been done in the arena of these literary courses. And it was no small part of the general revival of studies, effected by Ignatius of Loyola, that justice was done to literature, as well by students who were to enter on philosophical or scientific courses,157 as by those who contemplated embarking on life in the world. We noticed, on a former occasion, the reasoning of Aquaviva with respect to this policy.158 The literary courses in question are those of Grammar, Humanities, and Rhetoric, which fill from five to seven years. The Fathers of 1586 urge the importance of these studies for the English and German students in Rome, as if special difficulties were experienced with them.159
If we inquire what were the results of the stringent regulations adopted to enforce this policy, and what degree of proficiency was attained in the Jesuit courses of Belles-Lettres and eloquence, we have only to consult the concordant testimony of history upon the "handsome style" and literary finish of the scholars. An interesting answer, from a domestic point of view, is casually afforded us by a remark, which the Fathers of Upper Germany make, when in 1602 they send to Aquaviva some animadversions of theirs upon the Ratio. They say that students in the class of Rhetoric might deliver their own orations, "since there are generally found in that class, particularly among those of the second year, young men who often surpass even their own Professors in genius, and in the variety and fluency of their language."160
The bearing of all this is obvious, in determining the grade of those students who ask for admission into the Order. It is after a full gymnasium course of this kind, that the life of the Jesuit is to begin. And these are the studies which he will have to possess after the manner of a teacher. He will review them as soon as his two years of novitiate are over.
Those years of novitiate are blank, under the aspect of secular pursuits. But, in other respects, being a time for reflection and for internal application to the affairs of his mind and heart, they are worth a long season in the process of developing character, by habits of assiduous labor, of acquiring a taste for retirement and virtue, and practising the spirit of docility to counsel. Indeed, on issuing from this period of intense application to the knowledge of self, the young religious student is already started on his career of knowing men, and dealing successfully with human characters. Henceforth, ecclesiastical knowledge and other acquirements will be proper to his state, as a Religious; but, for the special vocation of the Society of Jesus, he returns to secular studies.
In view of his approaching "regency," or Professorship in the curriculum of letters, the critics of 1586 give this advice: "It would be most profitable for the schools, if those who are about to be Preceptors were privately taken in hand by some one of great experience; and, for two months or more, were practised by him in the method of reading, teaching, correcting, writing, and managing a class. If teachers have not learnt these things beforehand, they are forced to learn them afterwards at the expense of their scholars; and then they will acquire proficiency only when they have already lost in reputation; and perchance they will never unlearn a bad habit. Sometimes, such a habit is neither very serious nor incorrigible, if taken at the beginning; but, if the habit is not corrected then, it comes to pass that a man, who otherwise would have been most useful, becomes well-nigh useless. There is no describing how much amiss Preceptors take it, if they are corrected, when they have already adopted a fixed method of teaching; and what continual disagreement ensues on that score with the Prefects of Studies. To obviate this evil, in the case of our Professors, let the Prefect in the chief College, whence our Professors of Humanities and Grammar are usually taken, remind the Rector and Provincial, about three months before the next scholastic year begins, that, if the Province needs new Professors for the following term, they should select some one eminently versed in the art of managing classes, whether he be, at the time, actually a Professor, or a student of Theology or Philosophy; and to him the future Masters are to go daily for an hour, to be prepared by him for their new ministry, giving prelections in turn, writing, dictating, correcting, and discharging the other duties of a good teacher."161
This advice was in keeping with an ordinance of the second general assembly, held in 1565, nine years after the death of Ignatius. It had been resolved, that at least one perfect Seminary of the Society should be established in each Province for the formation of Professors and others, who would be competent workmen in the vineyard of Christ, in the department of Humane Letters, Philosophy, and Theology, so as to suffice for the needs of the whole Province. This was to be done as soon as convenient in each Province.
Henceforward, it became a matter of general observance that all should have spent "at least two years in the school of eloquence," besides repeating grammar, if that were necessary.162 "And if any are so gifted as to promise great success in these pursuits, it will be worth while seeing whether they should not spend three years in them, to lay a more solid foundation."163 To such a solid foundation in Humane Letters corresponds a special privilege in the crowning of a member's formation, inasmuch as the Society admits to Profession one who is altogether eminent in literature, even though in Theology he may not have surpassed mediocrity; a privilege which was extended to great proficiency in the Indian and Oriental languages, as also to a marked excellence in Greek and Hebrew.164
Examining more in detail this literary formation, we may take up the programme for the seminary of the junior members, as drafted by Jouvancy. He drew it up in pursuance of a decree to that effect, passed a hundred years later, by the general assembly of 1696. This decree required that, "besides the rules, whereby the Masters of Literature are directed in the manner of teaching, they should be provided with an Instruction and Method of learning properly, and so be guided in their private studies even while they are actually teaching."165 The method in question is outlined in the first part of Jouvancy's little book, entitled Ratio Discendi et Docendi, "The art of Learning and of Teaching." A cursory glance at this part shows that, while addressing Masters on the subject of their own private studies, his directions bear chiefly upon their efficiency as teachers.
Jouvancy divides his subject into three chapters: first, the knowledge and use of languages; secondly, the possession of sciences; thirdly, some aids to study.
As to languages, they are three in number: Greek, Latin, and the native tongue. Laying down some principles on style in general, he says: "If a correct understanding, according to Horace, be the first principle and source of writing well, it follows that style, which is nothing else than a certain manner of writing, has two parts; first, the intelligent thought or sentiment, properly conceived; secondly, the expression of the same; so that, as man himself is made up of soul and body, all style likewise consists of the underlying thought and the manner of its expression." Thought must be true, perspicuous, and adapted to the subject. To think truly or justly of things, there is required mental power and insight, which distinguishes what is really the gist of a subject-matter from what is only a deceptive appearance, or is superficial. Assistance is to be had for all this from the reading of good books, from accurate reflection and protracted thought, which does not merely skim over the subject, or touch it in a desultory way; again, from the analysis of parts, causes, adjuncts; finally, from the prudent judgment of others, or what is called criticism. As to the ways of acquiring proper diction, Jouvancy says: "I would have you avail yourself of books which treat of this matter, not so as to imagine all is done by thumbing them; you will gain much more by the plentiful reading of the best writers"; and again, "'abundance of diction,' copia verborum, will be easily acquired by reading much." It is by reading, writing, and imitating the best authors that a good style is formed; and only the best authors are to be read, "lest the odor of a foreign and vicious style cling to the mind, as to new vases."
Coming to treat of one's native tongue, Jouvancy lays down these points: "The study of the vernacular consists chiefly in three things. First, since the Latin authors are explained to the boys, and are rendered into the mother-tongue, the version so made should be as elegant as possible. Wherefore, let the master elaborate his version for himself, or, if he draws on any writer in the vernacular, let him compare first the Latin text with the version before him; thus he will find it easy to perceive what is peculiar to either tongue, and what is the respective force and beauty of each. The same method is to be observed in explaining and translating histories in the lower classes. Secondly, all the drafts of compositions, which are dictated in the vernacular, must be in accord with the most exact rules of the mother-tongue, free from every defect of style. [Thirdly,] it will be of use to bring up and discuss, from time to time, whatever has been noticed in the course of one's reading, and whatever others have observed regarding the vicious and excellent qualities of speech. The younger Master should be on his guard against indulging too much in the reading of vernacular authors, especially the poets, to the loss of time, and perhaps to the prejudice of virtue."
The interest here manifested in the vicious and excellent qualities of the mother-tongue was a contribution of the schools to the development of modern languages. Nor was the severity, which is here prescribed, with reference to the use of poetry, a barrier to the formation of some good poets among the Jesuits themselves. Friedrich von Spee is considered a distinguished lyric poet of the seventeenth century. Denis, as the translator of Ossian into German, helped to inaugurate the later period of German literature. In Italian prose, Bartoli, Segneri, Pallavicini, have ranked as classics; Tiraboschi, as the historian of literature; Bresciani, in our days, as the popular novelist. As writers of French prose, Bourdaloue and Bouhours appertain to the choicest circle of Louis XIV's golden age; Du Cygne, Brumoy, Tournemine, besides others already mentioned in these pages, took their place as literary critics. And, in their several national literatures, Cahours, Martin, Garucci, have attained their literary eminence as art-critics.
Reverting to solidity of thought as the basis of style, Jouvancy eliminates the false ornaments of a subtle and abrupt style, by reducing the conceptions to a dialectical analysis: "What does the thing mean?" And he gives examples.
In the second chapter of the same part, the Ars Discendi, he comes to the acquisition of those sciences, which are proper to a Master of Literature. He says: "The erudition of a religious master is not confined to mere command of languages, whereof we have spoken heretofore; it must rise higher to the understanding of some sciences, which it is usual to impart to youth. Such are Rhetoric, Poetry, History, Chronology, Geography, and Philology or Polymathy, which last is not so much a single science as a series of erudite attainments, whereof an accomplished person should at least have tasted." History he divides into Sacred, Universal, and Particular. "As to the histories of particular nations, writers of the respective nationalities record them;" "and if you do not add Chronology to History, you take out one of History's eyes." For Geography, he designates the books and maps which were then to be had. And, for all the branches, he indicates standard authors.
Now, in this little rhetorical sketch of Jouvancy's, we may take note of two features, one pedagogical, the other historical. The distinctively pedagogical cast is put upon these private studies, in as much as they are magisterial, being pursued with express reference to the Master's chair. The historical feature, to be noted here, is common to the Jesuit educational literature in general; which, in its many departments, marked several epochs and, as a whole, made an era in education.
Thus, at the time of the Ratio Studiorum, there were indeed several guides of the very first rank, in the path of a literary formation. They were three in number, Cicero, Quintilian, and Aristotle. From these the Professor of Rhetoric had to derive his matter and make clear his method. The Ratio names them as his text-books for the Precepts.166 From these sources the literary activity and experience of many generations of Professors, in several hundred colleges of the Order, tended to mark out the best line to follow, for the attainment of literary perfection. The literary course, in which they themselves were proximately formed for the duties of teaching, served but to organize the matter, and to digest it. The numberless pedagogical text-books, issued before Jouvancy, and after him, exhibit the progress of the movement during the several centuries. And, at present, the system may be seen in its most developed form, if one consults the newest guides, like Father Kleutgen's Ars Dicendi, or Father Broeckaert's Le Guide du Jeune Littérateur. But, long before our day, the most ordinary systems of literary instruction have embodied the method; and the commonest text-books have it.
A similar epoch was made, as early as 1572, by the Grammar of Father Emmanuel Alvarez, De Institutione Grammatica Libri Tres, a work adopted by the Ratio, then republished in editions so numerous as to baffle all calculation, translated either entire, or in part, into thirteen languages; while one portion, well-known in our times as a "Latin Prosody," is credited to divers authors or publishers.167 The latest editions of this Grammar, issued in different languages, are of the last twenty-five years. This era of development in grammar superseded the subtleties and metaphysical abstractions of mediæval methods.168
In history, not to mention the voluminous James Sirmond, whose researches among original sources were made before the sixteenth century had closed, Father Denis Petau (Petavius), early in the following century, composed his great work on Chronology, laying down the exact basis in this respect for Universal History, both sacred and profane.169 Geneva and Holland alike reproduced the work. Labbe's publications on ancient and modern History and Chronology, the greater part of his eighty works being upon these subjects, with several abridgments and geographical adjuncts; Father Buffier's "Practical History," which was published for the schools in 1701, and then rapidly went through divers editions, to be supplemented in 1715 by his "Universal Geography," his treatise on the Globe and his Maps, all of which went through some scores of French, Italian and Dutch editions; these and other works of the kind indicate the line of pedagogical development going on at the same time in the various colleges. Hence, the "New Elements of History and Geography for the use of the Scholars of the Collège Louis-le-Grand," which was an abridgment of Buffier's book, could say, with some propriety, on its first page: "How great has been the carelessness of an age, otherwise so judicious and cultivated as ours, in not having as yet made the science of History and Geography an essential part of the education of youth? The public and posterity will perhaps be grateful to the College of Louis-le-Grand, for having shown in this regard an example, which ought to do honor to our time."170 Thus the same resources were at the service of Jesuit education as, in the general literary world, helped to form the Jesuit historians: Mariana, historian of Spain; Damian Strada, of the War in the Netherlands; Balbin, of Bohemia; Naruszewicz, of Poland; Katona, of the Kings of Hungary; Damberger, of the Middle Ages; Francis Wagner, of Leopold I; G. Daniel, historiographer royal of France.
Geography is not to be separated from History. Up to the end of the sixteenth century, Ptolemy's Geography, corrected, modified, altered, according to the reports of navigators, had been the scientific standard, but uncertain, vacillating, and self-contradictory. From the earlier part of the seventeenth century, the astronomical observations, sent from the far East by the Jesuit missionaries, emphasized the need of a general reform, already sufficiently evident. Father Riccioli, assisted by Father Grimaldi, who is known in science as one of the precursors of Newton, undertook, in his Geographia Reformata, the reform of Geography by means of Astronomy.171 For this purpose, he created first his own metrology, identifying, and reducing to a common denomination, all the measures received in reports from different parts of the earth. The first eclipse of the moon which he makes mention of, among his astronomical reports, had been observed on the night of November 8, 1612, by Father Scheiner at Ingolstadt and by Father Charles Spinola at Nangasaki in Japan. At the time that Riccioli was writing, the Jesuit missionaries had multiplied in China. Adam Schall died in 1666, holding the post of President of the Mathematical Tribunal at Pekin; he was followed by Ferdinand Verbiest; and then a long line of imperial astronomers of the Celestial Empire, Koegler, Hallerstein, Seixas, Francesco, De Rocha, Espinha, continued to send their reports, either to the colleges of their respective Provinces, or to other mathematical centres, or to the learned societies in Europe, whereof not a few Jesuits were members. Meanwhile, scientific returns from Hindustan, Siam, Thibet, on one side of the globe, and from San Domingo on the other side, poured into the Collège Louis-le-Grand, and made of this educational centre an indispensable auxiliary to the Bureau of Longitudes. All this, reacting on education, was received with satisfaction by the general world, and drew the pedagogic bodies steadily, though with some difficulty, on the line of progress. The University of Paris was quite tardy in following up the steps of the Jesuits.172
As to Mathematics in education, it is evident that a similar process of development must have been the history of this branch, with the limitation however, that mathematical science has not been so nearly created anew within these last centuries, as some other departments. Father Christopher Clavius, "the Euclid of his time," was engaged by Gregory XIII in reforming the Calendar, the same which we use to-day; he died in 1612. His death intervening, while his complete works were being republished, Father Ziegler superintended the new edition, till it was finished in five tomes. Francis Coster, at Cologne, Hurtado Perez, at Ingolstadt, Henry Garnet, an Englishman, and Grienberger, successor of Clavius, both at Rome, belonged, with other mathematicans of the Order, to the sixteenth century. The writers of the preliminary Ratio, 1586, require that, in a brief course of Mathematics, "Euclid's Elements" "be seasoned always with some application to Geography or the Sphere"; then, in the following year, the rest of Father Clavius' "Epitome of Practical Arithmetic"173 is to be finished;174 and special courses are provided for members of the Order, who give promise of eminence.175
Indeed, whether as Professors of officers for the army and navy, or as constructing and directing observatories, the members pursued every branch of Mathematics, pure and applied. Father L'Hoste's "Treatise on Naval Evolutions" was used in the French navy, as "the Book of the Jesuit."176 Of this book the Count de Maistre writes quaintly in 1820: "An English Admiral assured me less than ten years ago, that he had received his first instructions in the 'Book of the Jesuit.' If events are taken for results, there is not a better book in the world!"177 Eximeno, at the school of Segovia, instructed young nobles in Mathematics and the science of Artillery. And so, in general, courses were provided, according as the needs of respective localities required. The Republic of Venice struck a gold medal in honor of Vincent Riccolati, the Jesuit engineer, just as the King of Denmark honors De Vico, the astronomer, with a gold medal struck in his honor, and having the words inscribed, "Comet Seen, Jan. 24, 1846."178
Kircher, Boscovich, Pianciani, Secchi, Perry, honored with the fellowship of so many learned and scientific Academies, and exercising a distinct influence to-day, either by the far-reaching effects of their researches, or by their actual contact with science, may be looked upon as belonging to our most recent times.179
It is remarked that to the Order was due the multiplication of observatories, in the middle of last century. Father Huberti superintended the building of an observatory at Würzburg; Father Maximilian Hell, the court astronomer, built one at Vienna. At Manheim, a third was erected by Mayer and Metzger; at Tyrnau, one by Keri; at Prague, another by Steppling; one at the Jesuit College of Gratz; similarly at Wilna, Milan, Florence, Parma, Venice, Brescia, Rome, Lisbon, Marseilles, Bonfa. In short, Montucla remarks: "In Germany and the neighboring countries, there were few Jesuit colleges without an observatory. They were to be found at Ingolstadt, Gratz, Breslau, Olmütz, Prague, Posen, etc. Most of them seem to have shared the fate of the Society; though there are a few which survive the general destruction."180
These few indications go to illustrate the pedagogical epochs made by the system of the Order. And the young member, who is being formed to contribute his own share towards carrying on the education of the world, passes all these branches under review. One of them, Mathematics, is conducted outside of the philological seminary, which we have so far been considering; it is left for his course of Philosophy, which he will pursue during three years, before actually embarking on the life of the class-room, or his "regency." We may now suppose that the time has arrived for his entering the class-room, as a Master of Grammar and Elementary Literature.
When he does so, he has possessed himself, in that philosophical triennium, of positive intellectual attainments, neither meagre nor common. He has surveyed the whole field of natural thought and investigation, in the various branches, mental, physical, and ethical. To enumerate them, there is Logic, including dialectics, and the criteria, objective and subjective, of truth; Ontology, or general metaphysics; Special Metaphysics, in its three divisions: – Cosmology, which immediately underlies physics, chemistry, and biology; Psychology, which underlies all the anthropological sciences about the human compound, its principles, and the formation of its ideas; Natural Theology. All this is theoretic or speculative philosophy. There is besides the science of moral life, which comprises Ethics, Natural Right, and Social Right. Concurrent with Philosophy, there has been a double course of Physics and Chemistry, during one year, with a course of higher Mathematics, varying from one year to three; as well as a half-year's course of Geology, Astronomy, and some other subsidiary matters. This is the general formation. The principle which guides individual cases was laid down by Ignatius in these terms: "In the superior faculties, on account of the great inequality of talents and age and other considerations, the Rector of the University will consider how much in each line individuals shall learn, and how long they shall stay in the courses; although it is better for those who are of the proper age, and who have the requisite facility in point of talent, that they should endeavor to advance and become conspicuous in all."181 During all this course of higher natural sciences, some attention has still been paid to accessories; literature has not been entirely neglected; oratory has been practised, and poems presented on stated occasions. And then the new Master is introduced into his course of "regency."
