This was at the end of the eighteenth century. In our own time in one classroom Father Cardella counted seventeen different orders of all different nationalities present at the lectures of theology in the Roman College. * * * * * The Roman College was the type of the Jesuit College. It was begun by Francis Borgia, in 1551, at the foot of the Capitol in Rome, with fourteen members of the Order and Father John Peltier, a Frenchman, as Superior. The professors taught rhetoric and three languages,--Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. There were present there at a given time 2107 students, 300 in theology. The most eminent professors filled the chairs: theologians like Suarez and Vasquez; commentators such as Cornelius a Lapide and Maldonatus; founders of national history schools, as Mariana and Pallavicini; Clavius, reformer of the Gregorian Calendar; Kircher, universal in the exact sciences, while the other colleges throughout the world remained provided with their own required forces and maintained their own prestige. * * * * * From this college came forth distinguished men in every line of intellectual life, and general eminence, men of elevated thought and of noble and generous minds. In particular three characters came--young men that were to fill with admiration of their greatness the succeeding century. Stanislaus Kostka, a Polish noble who died at seventeen years of age; Aloysius Gonzaga, an Italian prince of twenty-three; and John Berchmans, a Flemish townsman of twenty-two. Among some of the famous men educated by the Jesuits we find Bossuet, Corneille, Moliere, Tasso, Fontenelle, Diderot, Voltaire, and Bourdaloue, himself a Jesuit. * * * * * When Pere Poree replied to the remark that he was not one of the great poets, he said, "At least you may grant that I have been able to make some of them." A few others were Descartes, Buffon, Justus Lipsius, Muratori the historian, Calderon, and Vico, the author of "Ideas of History," Richelieu, Tilly, Malesherbes, Don John of Austria, Luxembourg, Esterhazy, Choiseul, St. Francis de Sales, Lambertini, afterward Benedict XIV, the most learned of the popes, and the present Pontiff, Pope Leo XIII, renowned for his learning and wisdom. Nearly all the Jesuit writers had been Jesuit professors, with almost no exception, and nearly all had taught humanities, belles-lettres, and rhetoric. Father Southwell in 1676 numbers 2240 authors, and Father de Backer in 1876 counts 11,100. AUTHORS We find some remarkable authors among the Jesuit writers. Foremost come the Bollandists, renowned throughout the world for their monumental work, the "Acta Sanctorum." Similar gigantic works were carried on by Fathers de Backer, Sommervogel, and Pachtler. In the various branches of learning we need mention a few of the greater writers. In astronomy, we find Ricci, Perry, De Vico, Secchi, Curley, Sestini.