The Jesuit teacher: his preparation, &c. training schools, called Juvenats,* one of which was founded in each province. Few, even of the most distinguished students, received dispensation from giving elementary instruction. Salmeron and Bobadilla performed this duty in Naples, Lainez in Florence, Borgia (who had been Viceroy of Catalonia) in Cordova, Canisius in Cologne. § 6. During the time the Jesuit held his ost as teacher he was to give himself up entirely to the work. His private studies were abandoned; his religious exercises shortened. He began generally with the boys in the lowest form, and that he might be able to study the character of his pupils he went up the school with them, advancing a step every year, as in the system now common in Scotland. But some forms were always taught, as the highest is in Scotland, by the same master, who remained a teacher for life. § 7. Great care was to be taken that the frequent changes in the staff of masters did not lead to alteration in the conduct of the school. Each teacher was bound to carry on the established instruction by the established methods. All his personal peculiarities and opinions were to be as *Karl Schmidt (Gesch. d. Päd., iij. 199, 200), says that however much teachers were wanted, a two years' course of preparation was considered indispensable. When the Novitiate was over the candidate became a "Junior" (Gallicè "Juveniste"). He then continued his studies in literis humanioribus, preparatory to teaching. When in the "Juvenat" or “Juniorate” he had rubbed up his classics and mathematics, he entered the "Seminary," and two or three times a week he expounded to a class the matter of the previous lecture, and answered questions, &c. For this information I am indebted to the courtesy of Father Eyre (S. J.), of Stonyhurst. Supervision. Maintenance. Lower Schools. much as possible suppressed. To secure this a rigid system of supervision was adopted, and reports were furnished by each officer to his immediate superior. Over all stood the General of the Order. Next came the Provincial, appointed by the General. Over each college was the Rector, who was appointed (for three years) by the General, though he was responsible to the Provincial, and made his reports to him. Next came the Prefect of Studies, appointed, not by the Rector, but by the Provincial. The teachers were carefully watched both by the Rector and the Prefect of Studies, and it was the duty of the latter to visit each teacher in his class at least once a fortnight, to hear him teach. The other authorities, besides the masters of classes, were usually a House Prefect, and Monitors selected from the boys, one in each form. § 8. The school or college was to be built and maintained by gifts and bequests which the Society might receive for this purpose only. Their instruction was always given gratuitously. When sufficient funds were raised to support the officers, teachers, and at least twelve scholars, no effort was to be made to increase them; but if they fell short of this, donations were to be sought by begging from house to house. Want of money, however, was not a difficulty which the Jesuits often experienced. § 9. The Jesuit education included two courses of study, studia superiora et inferiora. In the smaller colleges only the studia inferiora were carried on; and it is to these lower schools that the following account mainly refers. The boys usually began this course at ten years old and ended it at sixteen.* * So says Andrewes (American Journal of Education), but other authorities put the age of entrance as high as fourteen. The studia superiora were begun before twenty-four. Free instruction. Equality. Boarders. § 10. The pupils in the Jesuit colleges were of two kinds : Ist, those who were training for the Order, and had passed the Novitiate; 2nd, the externs, who were pupils merely. When the building was not filled by the first of these (the Scholastici, or Nostri, as they are called in the Jesuit writings), other pupils were taken in to board, who had to pay simply the cost of their living, and not even this unless they could well afford it. Instruction, as I said, was gratuitous to all. "Gratis receive, gratis give," was the Society's rule; so they would neither make any charge for instruction, nor accept any gift that was burdened with conditions. § 11. Faithful to the tradition of the Catholic Church, the Society did not estimate a man's worth simply according to his birth and outward circumstances. The Constitutions expressly laid down that poverty and mean extraction were never to be any hindrance to a pupil's admission; and Sacchini says: "Do not let any favouring of the higher classes interfere with the care of meaner pupils, since the birth of all is equal in Adam, and the inheritance in Christ."* § 12. The externs who could not be received into the building were boarded in licensed houses, which were always liable to an unexpected visit from the Prefect of Studies. § 13. The "lower school" was arranged in five classes (since increased to eight), of which the lowest usually had two divisions. Parallel classes were formed wherever the number of pupils was too great for five masters. The names given to the several divisions were as follows: * "Non gratia nobilium officiat culturæ vulgarium: cum sint natales omnium pares ir. Adam et hæreditates quoque pares in Christo." Each was "absolved" in a year, except Rhetorica, which required two years (Stöckl, p. 237). Jesuits and Protestants alike in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries thought of little but literary instruction, and that too connected only with Latin and Greek. The subject-matter of the teaching in the Jesuit schools was to be "præter Grammaticam, quod ad Rhetoricam, Poësim et Historiam pertinet," in addition to Grammar, whatever related to Rhetoric, Poetry, and History. Reading and writing the mother-tongue might not be taught without special leave from the Provincial. Latin was as much as possible to supersede all other languages, even in speaking; and nothing else might be used by the pupils in the higher forms on any day but a holiday.* To gain a supply of Latin words for ordinary use, the pupils committed to memory Latin conversations on general topics, such as Francis Pomey's "Indiculus Universalis" and "Colloquia Scholastica." § 14. Although many good school-books were written by the Jesuits, a great part of their teaching was given orally. The master was, in fact, a lecturer, who expounded sometimes a piece of a Latin or Greek author, sometimes the * Even junior masters were not to be much addicted to their own language. "Illud cavendum imprimis juniori magistro ne vernaculis nimium libris indulgeat, præsertim poetis, in quibus maximam temporis ac fortasse morum jacturam faceret."-Jouvency. Teacher Lectured. Exercises. Saying by heart. rules of grammar. The pupils were required to get up the substance of these lectures, and to learn the grammar-rules and parts of the classical authors by heart. The master for his part had to bestow great pains on the preparation of his lectures.* § 15. Written exercises, translations, &c., were given in on every day, except Saturday; and the master had, if possible, to go over each one with its writer and his appointed rival or æmulus. § 16. The method of hearing the rules, &c., committed to memory was this :-Certain boys in each class, who were called Decurions, repeated their tasks to the master, and then in his presence heard the other boys repeat theirs. The master meanwhile corrected the written exercises.† 66 Multum proderit si magister non tumultuario ac subito dicat, sed quæ domi cogitate scripserit.—It will be a great gain if the master does not speak in a hurry and without forethought, but is ready with what he has thought out and written out in his own room."-Ratio Studd., quoted by Schmid. And Sacchini says: "Ante omnia, quæ quisque docturus est, egregie calleat. Tum enim bene docet, et facile docet, et libenter docet; bene, quia sine errore; facile, quia sine labore; libenter, quia ex pleno Memoriæ minimum fidat : instauret eam refricetque iterata lectione antequam quicquam doceat, etiamsi idem sæpe docuerit. Occurret non raro quod addat vel commodius proponat. -Before all things let everyone be thoroughly skilled in what he is going to teach; for then he teaches well, he teaches easily, he teaches readily well, because he makes no mistakes; easily, because he has no need to exert himself; readily, because, like wealthy men he cares not how he gives. Let him be very distrustful of his memory; let him renew his remembrance and rub it up by repeated reading before he teaches anything, though he may have often taught it before. Something will now and then occur to him which he may add, or put more neatly." In a school (not belonging to the Jesuits) where this plan was adopted, the boys, by an ingenious contrivance, managed to make it |