§ 1. In his seventh year the boy shall be led to a master; for by then he will attend to serious things, yet things suited to his age. For twenty-one months he has heard and formed an image of the words of his mother and nurses; then his sound broke forth into words. Meanwhile, up to his seventh year, it will have been useful for him to hear not only the vernacular language but Latin also, which perhaps he will learn in large part through habituation. I wonder why magnates and princes, if they do not wish within the first seven years to burden their children’s talents with the care of learning, do not assign some attendants who always speak Latin, question one another, and express the same things now in German and now in Latin; who sometimes consult the little child and ask from him things which it is established that he knows, so that by praise they may arouse him to learn. In former times they certainly learned the Latin language without grammar.
But now we must treat of preceptors and masters, to whom Aristotle, Plutarch, and others judge boys should be brought in their seventh year. So too the Golden Bull of Charles IV, title 26: “Since the Highness of the Holy Roman Empire possesses the laws and moderates the governments of diverse nations distinguished in customs, life, and idiom, it is fitting—and is judged expedient by the opinion of all wise men—that the Prince Electors, the columns and sides of that Empire, be instructed in the differences of diverse idioms and languages, so that they may understand more persons and be understood by more, since they assist the Imperial Highness in relieving the needs of very many and have been established to share its solicitude. We therefore decree that the sons, heirs, and successors of the illustrious Princes—namely, the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine, the Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg, Electors—since they may presumably know the German idiom naturally implanted in them and have learned it from infancy, shall, beginning with the seventh year of their age, be instructed in the German, Italian, and Slavic languages, so that by the fourteenth year of their age they may be learned in such things according to the grace given them by God. For this is held not only useful but, for the reasons stated above, supremely necessary, because those languages have generally been customarily employed for the use and advantage of the Holy Empire, and in them the weighty affairs of that Empire are debated.
“We have established that the following manner of advancement should be observed in the foregoing matters: it shall be left to the choice of the parents whether they send their sons, if they have any, or those near of kin whom they believe likely to succeed them in the principalities, to places in which they can be instructed in languages of this kind; or whether in their own homes they associate with them pedagogues, instructors, and boy companions skilled in these languages, by whose conversation and teaching alike they may be instructed in those languages.”
§ 2. Therefore let the first care of the state be that suitable masters and preceptors be chosen not only to educate the sons of princes and magnates, but also to instruct the offspring of private persons. Nor do I speak only of literary studies, but of every kind of art. For although the danger is not equal everywhere, it is nevertheless great if one errs here. I judge that state most fortunate to which good preceptors have fallen. For it is far more excellent to be well educated than to be fortunately born. The dispositions of adolescents generally pass over into the morals of their masters. It is of great importance to whose fidelity, skill, and diligence a man entrusts himself who seeks the Indies through the vast windings of the ocean. Nor is it enough that the ship be strong and furnished with provisions and armaments; the shipmaster must also not be ignorant of the region and its dangers. Much greater care at home is necessary for all, lest the turnings of an improvident age strike against their limits.
I therefore take “masters” generically, whether they are so called from admonishing, or from showing, or rather because they owe care to those over whom they preside. The jurists call the preceptors of all disciplines masters. Law 57, On the Signification of Words, “Those to Whom the Chief.” Thus there are masters of societies, colleges, districts, augurs, offices, sacred bureaus, the people, the horsemen, and morals. We speak of masters of arts and morals, for they ought to be teachers of learning and virtues. Great was the dignity of the censors and their jurisdiction without appeal: to assess property, brand a citizen with ignominy, expel him from the senate, take away his horse, and preside over discipline. This last duty especially belongs to masters of the liberal arts, except that they preside only over youth; in the meantime they equip Quirites so that they may be able to endure the censorship.
§ 3. Therefore the magistracy must first of all provide suitable professors of the sciences and liberal arts. Reason teaches that this is the duty of the magistracy itself. For since youth is the seed-bed of the state, since from them in a few years will come citizens, senators, and princes, care must be applied lest, when they are corrupted, the whole state suffer harm. Then examples teach this same thing. Teachers of the law were appointed by Moses, Aaron, Jehoshaphat, and others. There was always greater care in the Church of Christ for the appointment of masters. For princes and the Supreme Pontiff, as though the head of the whole of religion, established schools. Charlemagne, book 2 of the Capitularies, chapter 5: “Let schools for instructing or teaching sons and ministers, just as you promised us at Attigny in time past and as we enjoined upon you, not be neglected by you, but be established in suitable places where this has not yet been completed, for the utility and advancement of many.”
And lest the cunning of certain men impose upon princes or the people, the Council of Trent, session 5, chapter 1, On Reform, wished bishops to be censors and approvers of teachers. “In public academies also,” it says, “where so honorable a lectureship, and one most necessary of all others, namely theology, has not hitherto been established, let it be established by the piety and charity of the most religious princes and states, for the defense and increase of the Catholic faith and the preservation and propagation of sound doctrine; and where it has been established but is neglected, let it be restored.
“And lest impiety be disseminated under the appearance of piety, the same holy Synod decreed that no one should be admitted to the office of such a lectureship, either publicly or privately, unless he had first been examined and approved by the bishop of the place concerning his life, morals, and knowledge; this, however, is not to be understood of lecturers in cloisters.”
Thus the Ecumenical Synod made this matter of such importance that it entrusted to bishops the care of examining professors. For the safety of the city depends altogether upon the education of youth.
§ 4. The Elamites, or ancient Persians, were not ignorant of this; and so they placed the princes themselves over youth. Xenophon, book 1 of the Education of Cyrus, narrates it thus: “The first care under these laws seems to take its beginning from the public good. For they do not begin as very many other cities do, which, permitting parents to educate their sons according to their pleasure and those more advanced in age to lead their lives according to their judgment, command them not to steal, not to plunder, not to enter another’s house by force, not to strike anyone unjustly, not to commit adultery, not to refuse the prince’s command, and the rest of that kind in like manner. And if anyone transgresses any of these things, they have established a punishment against him. But the laws of the Persians, anticipating such acts, take the greatest care that citizens not be of such a kind at the outset as to be seized by desire for either wickedness or baseness. They take care of this in the following manner.
“They have a marketplace which is called free, where both the royal and the other palaces are. Merchandise, petty traders, their cries, and their follies are removed from here to another place, lest the crowd of these be mingled with the ordered morals of those who have received education. The marketplace around the palaces is divided into four parts, one of which is for boys, the second for youths, the third for men who are already of mature age, and the fourth for those who are discharged from service. By law each of these groups is present in its own place: the boys as soon as day has dawned, and mature men likewise; but the elders when leisure permits each one, except on appointed days, on which they must be present. The youths also sleep in the palaces with their gymnastic arms, except married men, who are not even required to do so unless they have previously been commanded to be present; yet neither is it regarded as honorable to be absent too often.
“Twelve princes preside over each of these divisions, for the Persians are divided into twelve tribes. Those preside over the boys who, chosen from the elders, appear likely to render them as excellent as possible. Over the youths preside those chosen from the mature men who are thought likely to make them as excellent as possible. Over the mature men themselves are appointed those by whose education they are thought most likely to perform what has been established and commanded by the highest magistrate. Presidents of the elders also are chosen, who preside so that these too may discharge their duty. We shall relate what each age is commanded to do, so that it may become clearer whether they apply diligence that the citizens may be as excellent as possible. The boys, therefore, coming regularly to the schools, devote their labor to learning justice; and they say that they study this matter just as among us those who go to learn letters. Their masters consume a great part of the day in judging their disputes. For the boys too, just like men, have accusations among themselves concerning theft, plunder, violence, fraud, reviling, and other crimes, as is proper.”
§ 5. They were called masters of justice, to whose houses anyone was free to send his children. The system among the Lacedaemonians was not dissimilar, but they meditated upon almost one thing alone: namely, that they should make them warlike. Now that the world has been cultivated, masters of all the arts must be maintained. What sort of masters, then, must be appointed? I answer: learned and upright. Under learning I include not only knowledge but also skill in teaching and interpreting. Therefore let a teacher of the liberal arts be a learned, skillful, eloquent man, an artisan of disputation, of honorable life, sober, rather severe, courteous, a hater of vices and lover of another’s salvation, and finally one who willingly uses another’s counsel.
The Theodosian and Valentinian laws require these things in those whom the assemblies dignify, Code 12, title 15: “If grammarians, both Greek and Latin, sophists, and jurists practicing their profession in this royal city and numbered among those appointed have shown that there is in them a praiseworthy life of upright morals; if they have made manifest that they possess skill in teaching, eloquence in speaking, subtlety in interpreting, and abundance in disputing; and if, in the judgment of the most august assembly, they have been deemed worthy—when by continuous observance and the diligent labor of teaching they have reached twenty years—it has been resolved that they be honored and numbered among those who possess the rank of vicar.”
§ 6. Therefore, first, it requires that they demonstrate in themselves a praiseworthy life of upright morals. This was most difficult in former times. Antoninus selected fourteen teachers from the entire Roman world for his Commodus; from these he soon removed five at the beginning, offended by their levity of morals. He retained nine, yet not without grief to himself. But if we look upon the noble preceptors of kings, it will scarcely be possible to see one who was not most wicked. Pytharchus is said to have been Cyrus’s master, from whom he imbibed ferocity. I omit the crimes of Heraclitus, Menander, Xenocrates, Aristotle, Chilon, Palaemon, and others who were masters of great princes, as also those of others whose wicked and lustful life Laertius describes for us. Seneca confesses that philosophers did not live according to virtue, but spoke about it.
Plutarch himself hesitates to condemn the foulest crimes when he considers Socrates, Plato, Xenophon, Aeschines, Cebes, and that whole chorus of those men, οἳ τοὺς ἄρρενας ἐδοκίμασαν ἔρωτας καὶ τὰ μειράκια προήγαγον ἐπί τε παιδείαν καὶ δημαγωγίαν καὶ τὴν ἀρετὴν τῶν τρόπων—“who approved loves between males and led the young onward to education, public leadership, and virtue of character.” Thus they gave authority to the gravest and most shameful sins. But let us look at later times. The school of Plotinus flourished in Christian times and had many very acute and very skillful men as disciples. But some of them were depraved by curiosity concerning the magic arts. Augustine, Epistle 56. Plotinus himself and Olympius himself were devoted to magic, as is clear from Porphyry, who recounts their deeds and was himself a sorcerer. If we examine most cases, histories will teach that nearly all the philosophers—that is, the teachers of the ancient world—were magicians.
§ 7. I too judge that, when humane letters began to flourish again in Italy, France, and Germany in the preceding age, an immense ruin of morals threatened the Christian world. For when men had devoted themselves wholly to letters, antiquity, the poets, and the knowledge of virtues and vices, they slipped into grave crimes—to such a degree that they were swept even into atheism and deeds of a reprobate mind.
Youth saw Dolet, Politian, and the other monsters; then followed Beza and that whole death-bearing battle line, who, by lust, shattered the minds of adolescents already weakened and drove them into heresies. They had a reputation for learning and eloquence, but made themselves infamous through vices. For they lectured upon the ancient authors as they stood, impure, and corrupted youth with dishonorable little verses.
Therefore, as Plutarch rightly admonishes, masters must be sought for children whose life is both blameless and whose morals are not liable to just reproach, and who possess skill by no means ordinary. For upright education is the fountain and root of virtue and of honorable life. And just as farmers place props beside young plants, so upright masters support adolescents with exact precepts and admonitions, so that right morals may spring from them. But now one may even spit in contempt of certain parents who, before they have made any trial of a future master, deceived sometimes by ignorance or even by inexperience, entrust their sons to obscure persons, and indeed even to men of evil repute.
Theodosius acted excellently when he gave Arsenius as preceptor to his sons. He said that, if the sons were to show themselves such as to conform their morals and life to discipline and the laws of God, he would readily entrust the empire to their hands, adapted to the advantage and utility of citizens and subjects; but if otherwise, he said that it would be more advantageous for them to pass their lives as private men than to rule without learning and with danger.
In my judgment, however, those men therefore fail in educating youth because they do not keep before their eyes the end for which the young were to be educated: the salvation of their disciples and, arising from that salvation, the glory of GOD.
§ 8. The SOCIETY OF JESUS has, by its institute, undertaken the care of schools and of youth with great endeavor and, as the world bears witness, with immense fruit. God assists its sincere endeavor, because it undertakes so difficult a province for the glory of God alone.
Its Constitutions, part 4, chapter 12, show the endeavor: “Since the end of the Society and of its studies is to assist our neighbors toward the knowledge and love of God and the salvation of their souls, and since the faculty of Theology is the more proper means to that end, the Society’s universities will principally devote themselves to it; and through thoroughly suitable preceptors they will diligently treat those matters which pertain to scholastic doctrine and Sacred Scripture, and also positive theology insofar as it accords with this end fixed before us—without, however, touching that part of the canons which serves the contentious forum. And because both the doctrine of Theology and its use require—especially in these times—a knowledge of humane letters and of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, suitable professors of these also, and indeed in a proper number, shall be appointed. Moreover, teachers could be appointed for other languages, such as Chaldaic, Arabic, and Indian, where they might appear necessary or useful for the said end, account being taken of the different regions and of the reasons which prompt their teaching.
“Likewise, since the Arts or natural Sciences dispose talents for Theology, serve the perfect knowledge and use of it, and of themselves assist toward the same end, let them be treated with proper diligence and through learned preceptors, sincerely seeking in all things the honor and glory of God.
“The study of Medicine and Laws, as more remote from our Institute, shall either not be treated in the Society’s universities, or at least the Society itself will not undertake this burden by itself.”
The same is contained in rule 1 of the Provincial concerning the plan of studies, and in the first rule of the Rector: “Since the Society embraces colleges and universities for this reason, that in them our members may conveniently be instructed both in learning and in the other things which contribute to assisting souls, and may communicate to their neighbors what they themselves have learned, after the care for religious and solid virtues, which must be principal, let him devote himself especially to this: that, with God’s help, the Society may attain that end which it proposed to itself in admitting schools.”
§ 9. Finally, rule 1 of all the preceptors: “Let the preceptor’s particular intention be directed, both in the lectures when occasion offers itself and outside them, toward moving his pupils to the service and love of God and to the virtues by which they ought to please him, and toward having them refer all their studies to this end.”
It is not my task to prove at greater length whether it has attained this end. This I know: in every place very many men of distinguished piety have flourished, and even now flourish, in the civil order, the Church, and monasteries, who owe their advancement in virtue and learning to the Society. Nor must we listen to those whom either ignorance of our affairs or a hostile disposition sweeps, without consideration, into accusation of useful labors. We have testimony from the opposing camp. The ministers of sects of every kind hate no class of men more bitterly than those who live in the Society, because they bear with the greatest indignation that through them youth—and consequently the state—is instructed and confirmed in the true religion.
When I contemplate the course of the world and compare old things with new, I judge the Society of Jesus to be one of the greatest benefits which God has conferred in this time upon a world growing old and raving. Let no one maliciously interpret my words: with gratitude I recount the benefits of God; I ascribe the whole to him. I speak of the good of adolescents. For if that method of teaching letters which men of a wanton page and a still more wanton mind had followed had persevered in the Christian world, they would long ago have corrupted youth. Whatever was scurrilous in Plautus, slippery in Terence, obscene in Martial, tender in Ovid, broken in Tibullus, fiery in Propertius—the eloquent masters of vices instilled it into innocent minds, even before their years and before they had any perception of wickedness. So far had the darkness of errors depressed the wretches even below the vices of the gentiles, although even Aristotle, book 7, chapter 17 of the Politics, wishes every obscene word to be far from the ears of boys, and all images and painted tablets which teach love to be removed.
But now in the schools of our Society such regard is paid to purity that not even a single verse is expounded from any author if it carries poison into the mind; and there is no one who judges the unhappiness of Latin eloquence to be so great that it can be taught only through lusts. Saint Augustine relates that he learned useful words, but words which could be spoken about matters that were not vain.
How pernicious that custom is, he explains thus in book 1 of the Confessions, chapter 16: “But woe to you, river of human custom! Who will resist you? How long will it be before you are dried up? How long will you roll the children of Eve into the great and fearsome sea, which scarcely those who have climbed upon the wood cross? Did I not read both of Jupiter thundering and of Jupiter committing adultery? And certainly he could not do both; but it was contrived so that real adultery would possess authority for imitation, with false thunder acting as its pander. But which of the cloaked masters hears with sober ear a man from the same dust crying out and saying, ‘Homer fabricated these things and transferred human things to the gods; I would rather that he had transferred divine things to us’? But it is more truly said that he indeed fabricated these things, but by attributing divine status to wicked men, so that crimes might not be thought crimes, and so that whoever committed them might appear to imitate not ruined men but heavenly gods.
“And yet, O infernal river, the sons of men are cast into you with fees so that they may learn these things; and a great affair is conducted when this is conducted publicly in the forum, in the sight of laws decreeing salaries in addition to fees. And you strike your rocks and resound, saying: ‘From here words are learned; from here eloquence, most necessary for persuading in affairs and explaining thoughts, is acquired.’ As though, indeed, we could not know the words golden shower, lap, deceit, and temples of heaven, and the other words written in that passage, unless Terence introduced a wicked young man who sets Jupiter before himself as an example of rape while looking upon a certain tablet painted on a wall, where there was a picture of Jupiter and by what means they say he sent a golden shower into Danaë’s lap, making a deceit for a woman. And see how he arouses himself to lust as though by heavenly instruction: ‘But what god?’ he says. ‘He who shakes the temples of heaven with his supreme thunder. Should I, a little man, not do it? Indeed, I did it, and gladly.’ Not at all are those words more conveniently learned through this baseness; rather, through those words that baseness is more confidently perpetrated. I do not accuse the words, as though they were choice and precious vessels, but the wine of error which was offered to us in them by drunken teachers; and unless we drank, we were beaten, nor was it permitted to appeal to any sober judge. And yet, my God, in whose sight my recollection is now secure, I gladly learned these things and delighted in them, wretched as I was; and on this account I was called a boy of good promise.”
§ 10. Behold, Augustine: in our time, happier than your years, the Society has resisted that river. God has dried up the river through a humble and very small religious order—not through racks, long exiles, and swords avenging chastity, but through unarmed professors of grammar whom the world holds in contempt. It no longer rolls the children of Eve into the great and fearsome sea. Eloquence may now be chaste; the good arts are no longer handmaids of pimps. In three hundred colleges and three thousand classes, instruction is publicly handed down chastely by the Society, and by many who, in imitation of the Society, preserve the virgin Muses chastely and modestly, and by others who, in imitation of the Society, hand down eloquence without mention of crimes.
In former times there were not lacking those who accused that most wise care of the Society; but these same men, with unabashed brow, could watch the Floralia—far worse than that man who departed from the theater amid the applause of a most vicious people, a people nevertheless applauding virtue. For how much difference is there whether an infamous actor sings the play, or the counterfeit majesty of a barbarous master not only illustrates those obscenities with commentary and inculcates them by repetition, but also compels them to be learned by abuse and blows? Cicero saw this, and Plato before him. Cicero indeed does not conceal so great evils in Tusculan Disputations 3: “But do you see what evil the poets bring? They introduce the bravest men lamenting; they soften our minds; then they are so sweet that they are not only read but even learned by heart. Thus when poets too are added to bad domestic discipline and a life passed in shade and luxury, they destroy all the sinews of virtue. Rightly, therefore, are they led out of that city which Plato fashioned when he sought the best morals and the best condition of the state. But we, learned of course by Greece, read and learned these things from boyhood; this we regard as liberal education and learning.”
§ 11. Therefore let the state place over youth those governors whose mind, tongue, and style are as far removed as possible from baseness. For this reason I would altogether advise that so great a matter be entrusted to religious and consecrated men. For since they have vowed chastity to God, and since they have recognized that it is among the parts of their office both to consult their own salvation and to make others good, they will avoid not only buffoonery and obscenity of words, but also every appearance of evil. Thus the sons of princes are also generally entrusted for education to bishops, or else to some grave prelate of proven virtue. To this zeal for such great purity I also attribute the fruit which the Society receives from its schools. Certainly it so instructs its preceptors that they display honorable conduct by example and words. Rule 28 in the Summary thus commands: “The things which pertain to the vow of chastity require no interpretation, since it is established how perfectly it must be observed: namely, by striving to imitate angelic purity and the cleanness of our body and mind.”
And rule 29: “Let all take the most diligent care to guard the gates of their senses—especially the eyes, ears, and tongue—from every disorder; to preserve themselves in peace and true humility within; and to exhibit that humility in silence when silence must be observed, but, when one must speak, in circumspection and the edification of words, and in modesty of countenance and maturity of gait and of all movements, without any sign of impatience or pride; procuring and desiring in all things to yield the preferable parts to others; regarding all in their minds as superior to themselves; and outwardly displaying with simplicity and religious moderation the honor and reverence which the status of each requires. And let this be done so that, mutually considering one another, they may grow in devotion and praise God our Lord, whom each should endeavor to recognize in another as in his image.”
§ 12. And certainly the Society urges the zeal and love of chastity in all things no less energetically than it prescribes it. I have lived in it now for twenty-four years and have heard no foul speech in any college. But if anyone should wish to sprinkle a stain upon so precious and shining a veil, it punishes him gravely and cuts him away from its body. Indeed, with regard to its conscience and vowed chastity, it punishes even those light excesses in the world concerning which people are not usually even challenged, so that by removal it may consult more rightly the security of its own members, the salvation of their neighbors, and its reputation.
If, therefore, the safety of the state is dear; if Plato, book 6 of the Laws, and Aristotle, book 7, chapter 6 of the Politics, rightly require at least twenty-five years in men for marriage and twenty in virgins, and yet lust—against which the struggle is difficult—occupies the inward parts much more quickly like poison, how great is the madness of teaching by the public authority of a profession those things by which a growing age, to which destructive Venus is present, is inflamed? Woe to the world because of scandals! Adolescents go toward vice by nature; the preceptors, who ought to resist with every weight and endeavor, lead them down. An improvident age rushes by its own weight, and the master pushes it. They act so that it may not grow up without vice. The mind of the young is corrupted through lusts, and the lecture of a lascivious master assists it; nor does he merely increase the evil:
As a flame is accustomed to grow when a pyre is added,
but from a master of morals he becomes a shameful teacher of adultery:
It becomes an art when crime is learned from the earliest years.
And since this kind of struggle requires flight rather than assault, as Saint Cyprian most excellently admonishes, filthy books drive death-bearing stings into those who flee and harm cities no less than brothels. I shall close with the judgment of Antonio de Guevara, book 2 of the Dial of Princes, chapter 39: “The masters of princes must be free of every mark of wantonness. For adolescents, since by both the weakness of their age and the depravity of nature they are inclined toward lust, have neither sufficient virtue to be chaste nor prudence to be cautious and not permit themselves to be deceived. Therefore it is necessary that their masters be most holy. For a disciple will never be chaste when he sees that his master is vicious.”
Not only the masters of princes, but the masters of all. For in every class of persons what Valerius says, book 2, chapter 1, is true: “The passage from virtue to luxury is easier than that from luxury to virtue.” In every body there is a spark which, unless it is suppressed, will mingle fires. Yet it is too little that a master be of good reputation if he expounds books branded with disgrace and incapable of bearing witness. No one will believe him chaste who so teaches things that have been eloquently expressed that the boys at the same time learn things that are dishonorable. He acts wickedly who stains the purple-edged toga of a modest age with Sotadean verses and makes it eloquent at the cost of modesty. Let what Ambrose teaches us on Psalm 118 remain stored high in the mind: “Life must be sought before learning; for a good life without learning possesses grace, but learning without life does not possess integrity.” Let that salutary law of chastity remain in the Society’s dwellings and schools, a standard of innocence and a cause of great advancement: that no one not only explain but even possess obscene books; indeed, that he knock from the hands of disciples books whose handling can corrupt freeborn minds. In former times those who inscribed their own sins upon the gods did nothing other than remove from men the shame of sinning, if they believed that the gods were such. Thus the Ion of Euripides accuses Apollo’s lusts in order to excuse human beings:
Οὐκ ἔτ’ ἀνθρώπους κακῶς
Λέγειν δίκαιον, εἰ τὰ τῶν θεῶν κακὰ
Μιμούμεθ’, ἀλλὰ τοὺς διδάσκοντας τάδε.
One ought no longer to speak ill of human beings if we imitate the evils of the gods, but rather of those who teach such things.
The madness of preceptors who nourish the vices of adolescence is manifest. For how will a severe father rebuke a son who recounts what a preceptor—more learned, wiser, and more chaste than his father—has dictated from the tripod? What mother will endure her little son singing on the master’s authority things she has never heard? Therefore schools, unless administered with the greatest diligence, will carry into households the vices from which virtue was being sought. Against all the father’s admonitions will be set the authority of scholastic custom, the academy, and the masters, just as in former times crimes were defended among the gentiles by the deeds of the gods. Hence too, says Seneca in On the Shortness of Life, chapter 16, comes “the madness of poets nourishing human errors with fables, in whose eyes Jupiter, enticed by the pleasure of intercourse, doubled the night. What else is it to set vices ablaze than to inscribe the gods as their authors and to give the disease an excused license through the example of divinity?”
The disciples will imitate and surpass the preceptor, for vices never stop where they began.
§ 13. Learning necessary for teaching knowledge must therefore be joined to these morals. This matter, indeed, requires no proof. To wish to teach another what you do not know is madness. Learned parents will instruct their sons excellently in private, but they flee this task, either distracted by occupations or from weariness with the laborious charge. The Chaldaeans and Egyptians instructed their own at home, Diodorus Siculus, book 2, chapter 8, and book 1, chapter 6. Hence Agesicles the Spartan also said: “I wish to be the disciple of those whose son I am.” Let masters be learned and possess a reputation for learning. The road to erudition is difficult even for the most talented, even for the most industrious, even for those most free from the care of other matters. Many lay down their lives while they are midway in the attempt; and not a few, standing at the foot of the mountain, become feeble after they have advanced a little. By far the greatest part consists of those who console themselves with a most pleasant opinion and enjoy the greatest peace as though they were learned.
Great learning is a great praise if it serves virtue and salvation, for immense glory is promised to them: “But those who have been learned shall shine like the brightness of the firmament; and those who instruct many unto justice, like stars unto perpetual eternities.” The Seventy Interpreters render συνιέντες, “those who understand”; for the Hebrew משכילים, maskilim, signifies teachers themselves, although it also signifies those who understand, Jeremiah 10:21, Psalm 64:10, 1 Kings 18:14, Daniel 4. But “those who instruct unto justice,” or מצדיקי הרבים, matsdiqe rabbim: “those who justify many shall shine like the stars.” I do not doubt that our times—and in them the knowledge of very many bishops, priests, jurists, and philosophers—are designated by the words that follow: “But you, Daniel, close the words and seal the book until the appointed time; very many shall pass through it, and knowledge shall be manifold.” Before the appointed time, and with the writings sealed, knowledge will be multiplied; for against the sloth, frauds, and sophisms of many, manifold knowledge will be given—not from a variety of opinions, but from the unity of the divine Spirit. Today in the Catholic Church, amid so many hundreds of thousands of learned men, there is great concord and varied knowledge, so that in this part also God renders his Church unconquered.
§ 14. Our Society has embraced this part also with remarkable care. I shall speak in its proper place about the method which it uses. Now I would dare affirm this also: that by divine goodness as much has been bestowed upon it in this part as it had never hoped. Thus in every kind of knowledge, but especially in Philosophy and Theology, it has many men comparable to any of the most learned. Nor do the heretics deny these things; rather, they calumniate us, and, being envious, detract from us in such a way that they nevertheless confess it. For toward what end do the accusations of certain persons tend, who say that if the Society plants its foot in their territory or is permitted to teach publicly, the crown of disciples—which is the glory of a master—will turn toward the Society? A steady abundance of hearers is proof of a good orator. The workshops and libraries will speak about the books published by fathers of the Society; entire armies bear witness throughout Europe and India concerning the learning of its disciples.
Now I appeal to the conscience of those who are older. Let them traverse in mind or with their eyes those places in which studies now flourish most richly. They will understand that in former times, in those same places, young men of mature age struggled amid grammatical dust over the things in which little adolescents or boys are now taught Rhetoric and Philosophy. It is a sign of remarkable advancement to have rapidly traversed the cycle of the sciences. He is a diligent master whose disciples advance beyond their age. I remember an old man saying, when at Mainz he saw a distinguished cohort of adolescents marked with the doctorate of arts and philosophy, the cheeks of most of whom age had not yet marked with their first down:
“The world is turning around. In my time we handled boyish studies when we were bearded; now boys are skilled in the sciences of men.”
§ 15. Uprightness and learning alone, however, are not sufficient for forming youth; there is need of a method and of skill in teaching. Those who, strong in talent, labor, and resources, strive after erudition abuse the good talents of adolescents and envelop them in great darkness unless they hand down the sciences in a fixed order and by an exact method. Although you run with great strength and rapid effort, unless you keep to the right road you will reach the goal late. Nothing must be learned with such art as the arts themselves. Not only do the liberal arts, such as painting, sculpture, and typography, possess their own shortcuts, but the ruder arts do so as well. For craftsmen and all artisans excel in almost this one thing: that with the most skillful speed they accomplish things which are achieved by the ignorant with great expense and long, troublesome labor.
Our Society, therefore, long and deeply labored upon that method. When some years earlier it had proposed the method that appeared best, after a number of years it recalled it to the anvil, having heard the judgments of the individual provinces, and only then perfected it, so that I strongly doubt whether anything more perfect exists in that kind; I am certain that I myself have never seen anything more perfect. Since our professors use this standard, the result cannot fail to be the best. I recently replied on this matter to Louis the Jurist, in my little book On the Secrets of the Society, at the place where he disputed about our cunning. First, the outcome of our affairs is generally fortunate. The one and only cause of it is the grace of God, who, since he wished us to be consecrated to himself for these labors, also bestowed for the safety of his Church and for the consolation of the Society the result which anyone grateful to God will acknowledge. From the same grace remarkable means flow forth: first, the things which I have said—prayer, meditation, and others; then the fact that no one in any office, even the least which he conducts, rests upon his own prudence or judgment, but executes his duty according to the rules. But the rules were made by most prudent and experienced men, and now have been examined, approved, corrected, augmented, and explained by long use. It is not permitted to depart from them; and whatever is done according to their standard, although it sometimes does not obtain the outcome, has nevertheless been done orderly and wisely.
I shall make the matter clear by an example. Some prudent and learned man governs and instructs the youth entrusted to him; he expounds the prescribed lectures and exacts the assigned task. But because he uses only his own judgment, he must often err in many things; and no one who trusts his own judgment thinks and does all things so prudently that another person would not do many things more prudently in the same field. He therefore brings the prudence of one man into the academy. But a professor of the Society uses both his own prudence and talent and, relying upon the aid of all the rules and instructions, undertakes his charge. For he carries with him into the school everything which has been handed down by many most learned men of different nations, and he polishes youth according to most excellent institutes.
§ 16. The fourth thing which I require in all professors, great and small, is that they use another’s counsel in governing and teaching youth. For the counsels and talents of many possess greater power. It belongs to a prudent man not to trust too greatly in his own prudence. It is difficult for grave and experienced men to understand that they do not know what they do not know; for the habit of φιλαυτία, self-love, leads them to such misery that they think even their own vices and their errors in teaching ought to be approved. And just as they are not understood by adolescents, or are tolerated once understood, so too they judge it fitting that these things be overlooked by others.
There are certain statutes of academies which, through the fault of men and times, have produced great abuses. Nevertheless, some defend them—not as though they are not done badly, but because they were done in former times, as though a custom of error were not the worse the longer it endures. I shall bring forward one example from many. Consider deposition, which many defend tooth and nail. What utility is there in this? Boys are harassed, mocked, beaten, hear buffooneries, and are injured; and in Germany, where that histrionic farce alone is retained, the comedy passes over into revelry. So many have been wounded, and many even killed by those savage games. They judge it right to remove these things; but, clinging to statutes, they prefer to retain evils rather than abandon antiquities. It is altogether difficult to give counsel to a wise man; but the wiser each man is, the more keenly he sees that he needs another’s opinion and counsel. If you found those things in another academy, you would not tolerate them; in your own, you praise them.
They think a man is tested by that rite. Thus Middendorp, On Academies, chapter 5, number 4, and Heinrich von Montagu, The Devil’s Farce, chapter 8. Some refer to this the labors and insults by which those who wished to be initiated into the mysteries of Mithras were harassed; they were vexed in many ways, as the Suda bears witness. But others may judge it excusable for Christian academies to take examples from the worship of a most shameful idol and from ceremonies by which men were consecrated to enormous crimes; I certainly do not judge it praiseworthy. Indeed, that stain now clings to few academies.
Therefore I judge that no one should be admitted to teach in any faculty who does not promise that he will accept with a willing mind the investigations and visitations of his superiors. Let the prince require this altogether and maintain it against all. Let there be frequent inspection, which neither displays hope of impunity nor leaves room for sins. Let there be an exacting overseer of labors and a remunerator of work. What farmer entrusts a matter to an agricultural laborer or vine-dresser in such a way that he does not frequently inspect him digging, trenching, and pruning? And shall the state not care whether youth is rightly educated? He who fears witnesses and examination comes little short of doing badly. This one thing has caused the most beautiful and flourishing academies to perish: gradually they began to teach seldom, then badly, and finally nothing at all, content with their stipends; and while the magistrate was occupied with other things, they indulged one another and their leisure.
It has been most prudently provided that this should never happen to the Society’s academies. First, as I said, all use that common method of teaching; and not only in this manner, but also constantly, because a diligent account of their industry is exacted. The Rector’s rule 3: “Let him so distribute and regulate his other business that he may foster and enlarge all literary exercises. Let him visit the schools from time to time, even the lower ones; let him frequently attend the disputations of theologians and philosophers, both private and public; and let him observe whether, and for what causes, the fruit of this exercise is impeded.”
A Prefect is joined to the Rector, whose duty is to visit all things very frequently, according to rule 2 of the Provincial: “Therefore let him not only commend this very greatly to the Rector in the Lord, but also associate with him a Prefect of Studies, or Chancellor, a man excellently versed in letters,
who possesses both good zeal and judgment for the matters to be committed to him. His office shall be to serve as the Rector’s general instrument for arranging studies well. All professors and scholastics—both those in the same college and any who perhaps live in seminaries for boarders and alumni—as well as the Prefects of Studies themselves in the seminaries, shall obey him with the humility that is fitting in matters pertaining to studies.
“3. But if, because of the size of the academy and the variety of its schools, it does not appear that the needs of all the schools have been sufficiently provided for through one Prefect of Studies, let him appoint another, who, according to the prescription of the General Prefect, shall govern the lower studies. Indeed, if the matter so requires, let a third be added, who shall preside over the school hall.”
Indeed, a grave law is proposed for observance even to the Prefect of Higher Studies, lest there be departure from the established method. His rule 3 thus states: “Let him change nothing of those things contained in the Order of Studies, nor grant dispensation; but where there is need, let him refer the matter to the Superior.”
And rule 4: “Let him have the book concerning the plan of studies at hand, and let him diligently take care that the rules be observed by all authors and professors; above all, those which prescribe the doctrine of Saint Thomas for theologians and the selection of opinions for philosophers. Let him be especially vigilant in this when conclusions are to be defended, and most especially when they are to be printed.”
And rule 27: “Let him prescribe through the masters, for our members, alumni, and externs alike, not only the method of studying, reviewing, and disputing, but let him also so distribute all their time that they may use well the hours of private study.”
And rule 17: “Let him sometimes hear the preceptors, at least once a month; from time to time let him also read the notes taken down by the disciples. If either he himself observes anything worthy of correction or hears it from others, when he has ascertained it with certainty, let him admonish the preceptor as kindly and courteously as possible; and if necessary, let him refer the entire matter to the Rector.”
The same system is prescribed for the Prefect of Lower Studies. His rule 2: “In matters which pertain to the discipline of morals in our schools, let him consult the Rector alone; but in matters which pertain to studies, the General Prefect of Studies. Let him not depart from their prescription; let him abolish no custom or received practice, nor introduce a new one.”
And rule 3: “Let him take care that whatever will be declaimed publicly, at home or abroad, by the students of Rhetoric and the lower faculties is delivered to this same Prefect for examination. But let the emblems and poems which are posted publicly on certain very celebrated days be read in their entirety by two persons designated by the Rector, and let the best be selected.”
And rule 4: “Let him possess the rules of the masters of the lower schools and of the hearers, and diligently take care that they be observed just as his own. Let him assist and direct the masters themselves, and take the greatest care that nothing be done among others—especially among their disciples—to detract from their reputation and authority.”
And rule 5: “Let him take very great care that new preceptors diligently retain their predecessors’ manner of teaching and other customs, provided they are not foreign to our system.”
And rule 6: “At least every fifteenth day let him hear each teacher. Let him observe whether they give Christian doctrine its due time and labor; whether they advance sufficiently both in completing and in reviewing their assigned task; and finally whether they conduct themselves becomingly and praiseworthily with their disciples in all things.”
§ 17. Nor can an origin of suspicions, distrust, and complaints arise from this matter, nor those words which have corrupted many academies: “If you hold us to be good or diligent, why do you observe the actions and words of those who teach? If bad, substitute better men. If you appoint a guardian, you show that you doubt us. It is harsh and insulting that inquiry should be made every day into our life, doctrine, and individual words.” Those murmurs neither exist nor can exist in the Society; or if they resound in someone’s thought, he is already in danger of not belonging to the Society, since by private judgment he struggles against the institute of the whole Society. These inquiries are conducted by law; all have now voluntarily bound themselves to that standard. No one teaches under another condition; no teacher regards the office of the visitor as a demand arising from sinister suspicion, but as a debt owed to the laws.
§ 18. But there are six things especially which make them not only capable of, but even lovers of, observation, admonition, and even correction—and not only the younger and beginners, but veterans too, and indeed even those who have acted as prefects, rectors, and provincials. This is frequent and customary among us and is a support of discipline.
The first is that from their very novitiate they are instructed toward humility and obedience. They learn what is the head of prudence: in treating sciences, talents, and morals, nothing is safer than to employ common counsel; and the Greeks rightly say, βαδίζειν τῇ λεωφόρῳ, “to walk by the royal road.” Therefore, from the heart, they greatly desire to be directed by the rules, by the guardians of the rules, and by their superiors. The second is consideration of the great advantage which thereby comes to themselves and their disciples. For he who so teaches and governs disciples that he has not only young men as hearers and readers of his dictations, but learned men also as spectators and judges—truly, he will not easily approach teaching unprepared or rashly. He who fears error will not easily err. Even he who teaches little boys the small and first rudiments knows that he must do so in such a way that his method of teaching, exercising, and examining may be approved by prudent men. Daily experience, through the evil of too many, teaches us how greatly it harms a tender little age to be allotted masters who cling to their own judgment and despise the counsel of others.
The third is that this inspection, the expeller of indolence and awakener of industry and alacrity, is both common to all and gravely enjoined upon superiors. No one casts suspicion upon the fidelity or diligence of others when he discharges his office. Not my suspicion, not your negligence, but the nature of the office requires inspection. I would desire that, in all academies, censors and judges of lecturers be appointed according to this example, just as lecturers are; and that this charge be entrusted to men of proven learning and integrity, even to magistrates and nobles. For if magistrates are placed with authority and dignity over roads, bridges, and aqueducts, why not over the education of youth?
The fourth is that they rejoice in the witness of a good conscience. Either the disciples are assiduous, industrious, modest, and advance toward learning; or at least by negligence and wickedness they render the preceptor’s labor fruitless. In either outcome the preceptor not only retains a quiet conscience, because another’s wickedness rendered vain the result of his counsels and labors—he himself nowhere failed in his duty, and those who should have received the benefits were lacking, not the one who gave them, so that both fault and loss remain with the same persons—but also,
since he has lived in the sight of his Prefects and Rector, he is supported by their testimony. Antonio de Guevara, book 2, chapter 43, advised his prince to employ this method of examining, visiting, inspecting, and admonishing the instructors of his sons. In his account Seleucus speaks thus about his inspection, by which he daily inquired into his son’s governors: “I have ascertained, my friends, that no friend is found today upon earth who will put his dignity and reputation at risk for the sake of a friend. But if even rustic men do not do this, how much less must wise men do it? For what is there for whose sake men labor more in this life than to have and leave behind an excellent reputation concerning themselves? Since you are both wise men and the masters of my son, and moreover counselors of my household, it is not right that you should be offended by anyone. For in the courts of princes, by the best right, only that man should be received among the greatest intimates and necessary persons who dares to give true counsel to the Prince.
“The command which I gave to Parthenius neither renders your fidelity suspect nor creates danger to your authority; and if you weigh the matter itself in an equal balance, it is both good for us and in no way harmful to me. The reason is ready at hand. For you are either good or evil. If good, it is fitting that you rejoice that your services are reported to me daily. For in the ears of Princes a recollection of services recalled from time to time cannot fail to be fruitful on some day. But if you are evil and not very solicitous and assiduous concerning the education of my son, it is right that I be admonished, lest, if the father is deceived, negligence in education be destructive to the son; indeed, lest your counsel bring stain and disaster even upon me and my kingdom. For it is not fitting for a good Prince openly to have wicked men numbered among his counselors.
“If my son Antiochus—may the gods avert it!—should turn out wicked, the loss flows back upon me, since my kingdom will both go to ruin, my reputation will be diminished, and he himself will not enjoy his inheritance. If all these things happen thus, it will be of very little consequence to you, since you will say that you are free of fault because the adolescent refused to receive your teaching. Therefore it does not appear to me a bad counsel that I should observe you just as you observe him. For it is my task to take care that you are good; yours to strive that your disciples are not evil.”
Formerly Plutarch entrusted this to parents, and it must altogether be observed in household masters and pedagogues: “Parents must now be rebuked who, after entrusting their children to pedagogues and preceptors, are themselves altogether neither spectators nor hearers of their instruction. In this they depart especially far from their duty. For they themselves ought, with only a few days intervening, to take a sample of their children’s progress, and not place all their hope in the disposition of a salaried master. For those men will have more care for the boys when they always expect to render accounts.” And here the statement of a certain groom is surely witty: “Nothing fattens a horse so much as the eye of the king.”
This practice, therefore, must be introduced everywhere into morals: that directors and censors of teachers be sought at greater expense than the teachers themselves. Such is the weakness of human beings that they readily incline toward idleness. Even the best gladiators sometimes seek a whetstone, for practice itself makes one blunt; and he who is often diligent at times permits himself something and relaxes. How many stipends belonging formerly to teachers in academies do we now see remain with those who neither wish nor are able to teach? How many benefices formerly assigned to theological and juridical lectureships are now possessed without the labor of teaching? Whence came that custom? Because gradually the teaching was conducted negligently and then nothing at all began to be taught.
The fifth thing which I require in a preceptor is a paternal love toward his disciples. Masters stand in the place of parents to their disciples. Nature implanted a great love toward their sons in parents because the great trouble and patience needed for rearing them cannot remain constant without great charity. The difficulty in instructing is greater, and therefore greater and more divine charity is needed in the secondary and external parent, so that he may consult his disciples, not himself. He whom hunger and the fee alone entice will never accomplish this with sufficiently sincere fidelity; the man whom his own advantages incite to labor is a hireling. If anyone is applied to so great a matter through another’s recommendation or favor rather than his own merit, he will discharge his office only so long as he can do so without loss. The harshness, ferocity, pride, and ingratitude of many must be tolerated. Just as the care of physicians does not forsake madmen who revile and threaten death, so too let the master’s charity not be diminished by injuries. That law of charity will make teachers not only industrious and laborious but also talented and skillful.
The sixth is that they be courteous and affable, that they not conceal vices, that they be courageous so as not to fear giving offense for the salvation of their subjects, furnished with civil manners, and tranquil in mind. There is no need to pursue these matters at greater length, since it was abundantly accomplished in the third book. For if these virtues are deservedly commended to all citizens, how much more to the teachers of citizens, who are certain public mirrors, at the sight of whom the city is accustomed to conform its morals? Their evil morals and vices are spread abroad as from a public place into the whole state.