Loyola and the Educational System of the JesuitsHughes, Thomas
History
Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits
Hughes, Thomas
Education -- History; Ignatius, of Loyola, Saint, 1491-1556; Jesuits
I will continue now from Possevino, describing the Roman College, which
was an object of daily observation to the capital of the Christian
world.[104] "Here," he says, "you have two thousand youths, among whom
reigns a deep silence; there is no commotion. In the classes there is
no reading of profane author or poet, who might inoculate the mind with
defilement." I may remark that Ignatius had, from the very first, begun
the method of expurgating authors, a task which was then carried on
with diligence by the literary men of the Society. Our author resumes:
"A hundred daily occasions of sin and idleness are precluded; a
continuous series is going on of lectures, repetitions, disputations,
conferences." Then he portrays, as visible there in every-day life,
many of the features which Ribadeneira has mentioned.
While idleness was under a ban, vacation was not debarred. Its
principles, however, were defined on new lines. There was a sufficiency
of rest to be provided; but then no new intermissions were to be
granted. The "sufficiency" would appear spare luxury to our looser
times.[105] "One week of doing nothing," say the Fathers of Upper
Germany to the General Aquaviva, "is more hurtful to students, than
four weeks in which some literary exercise is kept up"; and "parents
take very much amiss this state of idleness, if the boys remain on our
hands."[106]
In all this, there was no question of making religious men of the
students. It was a question only of Religious making men of them.
Father George Bader, Provincial of Upper Germany in 1585, left it in
his instructions for the management of the convictus, at Dilingen,
that "the Prefects were not to despair or despond, if they did not see
at once, or in all, the improvement desired; nor were they to require
the perfection of Religious from them, nor introduce among them such
practices of life, as elsewhere the students could not keep up in their
calling; but the directors should be content with having a manner of
life followed, which was ordinary, virtuous, and pious."[107]
According to this idea, the religious teacher being a man, a
citizen, and an ecclesiastic, his educational industry has produced
its effect, when it has made accomplished men, worthy citizens,
competent Ecclesiastics, or Religious; "when in the school," says
Ribadeneira, "as in an arena, the students, foreshadowing the future,
practise already, in their own way, those same virtues and duties,
which in maturer years they will exhibit, in the management of the
republic."[108] The rich material of the youthful mind and soul
receives the manifold influence which the teacher's mind and heart
possess; and receives it after the manner of the recipient, according
to his future vocation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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