=Influence of the Schools of the Christian Brothers.=--The work of the Christian Brothers has met with steady growth and development. By the time of La Salle’s death (1719), there had come to be twenty-seven houses of the order, with two hundred and seventy-four brothers, educating about nine thousand pupils. Before the close of the century these numbers had about quadrupled, and now they have increased nearly a hundredfold since the founder’s day. During the nineteenth century these institutions were established in all the states of Europe, Asia, Northern Africa, and America. The educational system has been much modified and expanded, and now includes colleges, technical and industrial schools, academies and high schools, elementary and grammar schools, commercial schools, asylums, and protectories. Thus La Salle and his schools of the Christian Brothers have performed a great service for education in all lines, but especially in the promotion and enrichment of elementary training, which had previously been so neglected. [Sidenote: Religious and theological.] =Aim and Content of Education in the Reformation.=--It can now be seen that, as a result of the Reformation, the religious and theological aim of education at all stages became very prominent with Catholics and Protestants alike. In the elementary schools, beside the rudiments, the Scriptures, the Lord’s prayer, the ten commandments, and the Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, or Anglican creed and catechism were taught, and, with the Protestants, also the hymns of the church. The courses in the secondary schools and universities contained large religious elements, as well as the formal humanism into which the Renaissance of the North had degenerated. Likewise, there was furnished in all universities a training in dialectic, rhetoric, and theology for the sake of efficient controversy with ecclesiastical opponents. [Sidenote: Coöperation with civil officials.] =Effect of the Reformation upon Elementary Schools.=--But while the Catholics were inclined to leave the organization of education in the hands of various religious bodies, the Protestants more often thought it wise to have its support and control administered by the princes and the state. Owing to this secular management and their position on universal education, the Protestants, with the exception of the Anglicans, who had altered but little in doctrine, were inclined to establish state school systems and hold to the duty of providing and requiring elementary education at public expense. In this way the germs of the modern tendency toward universal, free, and compulsory education began to appear, although they did not ripen until much later. [Sidenote: Germany,]