Chapter VIII. Certain Rules of Conduct Must Be Prescribed for Students

§ 1. The academies throughout Europe have been founded and fortified by the best laws and institutes; and for all their particular schools, as for a certain part of the state, their own statutes and rules are read. The Society certainly appears to me to have embraced the duty of a Christian and studious adolescent in those laws which it has prescribed for its hearers. They are set forth in this order.

RULE I

“Those who attend a school of the Society of Jesus for the sake of learning should understand that, with God’s help, care will be taken with no less effort that they be imbued with piety and the other virtues than with the liberal arts.”

There is a twofold end in attending a school: the first and best is virtue and piety; the secondary is erudition. Deservedly so, for letters without virtue make a man cunning rather than good. They burden the state; they do not assist it. Seneca judged it shameful to come with writing tablets to a philosopher in order to take down words, not things. Teacher and learner ought to have the same end and the same purpose: the teacher wishes to benefit, the pupil to advance; the one to infuse virtue, the other to receive it. Thus the Common Rules for Teachers of the Lower Studies state: “1. Let the master so instruct the adolescents who have been entrusted to the discipline of the Society that, together with letters, they may above all imbibe conduct worthy also of Christians.”

The following rules prescribe the means by which they may attain this:

1. “Let his particular intention, both in lectures when an occasion offers itself and outside them, be directed toward preparing the tender minds of the adolescents for obedience and love toward God and toward the virtues by which they ought to please him; but let him especially observe the things that follow.

2. “Before school begins, let someone recite the brief prayer appointed for this purpose, which the preceptor and all the pupils shall hear attentively with heads uncovered and knees bent. But before the lecture begins, let the preceptor himself, with his head uncovered, fortify himself with the sign of the cross and begin.

3. “Let him take care that all attend Mass and the sermon: Mass daily, but the sermon on feast days. In Lent, moreover, let him send them to it at least twice each week, or even lead them according to the custom of the region.

4. “Let Christian doctrine be learned and recited from memory on Friday or Saturday, especially in the grammar classes, or in others if there is need—unless perhaps in some place it should appear that it must be recited still more frequently, even by new pupils.

5. “Likewise on Friday or Saturday let him give a pious exhortation or explanation of doctrine for half an hour. Above all, let him exhort them to pray to God daily, and especially to recite the rosary of the Blessed Virgin or the Office each day; to examine their conscience in the evening; to receive frequently and rightly the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist; to avoid harmful associations; to detest vices; and, finally, to cultivate virtues worthy of a Christian man.

6. “Even in private conversations he shall inculcate the same things that pertain to piety, yet in such a way that he does not appear to entice anyone toward our religious order. But if he learns of anything of this kind, let him refer it to the confessor.

7. “On Saturday toward evening, let him order the Litany of the Most Blessed Virgin to be recited in his class; or, if it is customary, let him lead them into the church to hear it with the others. Let him also diligently commend to the pupils devotion toward that same Virgin and toward their guardian angel.

8. “Let him earnestly commend spiritual reading, especially concerning the lives of the saints. Conversely, let him not only himself refrain from reading to the young impure writers, and writers generally in whom there is anything capable of harming good morals, but also deter the pupils as much as he can from reading the same writers outside school.

9. “Let him ensure that no one omits monthly confession. He shall order them to give the confessors their given name, surname, and class written on a slip, so that, on afterwards examining the slips, he may understand who were absent.

10. “Let him often pray to God for his pupils and edify them by the example of his religious life.”

Nor ought anyone to wonder that piety and virtue are of such great concern to us, since it ought to be proposed to all that they know how to live rather than how to dispute. It is shameful that some have sat for many years in the sanctuary of the virtues without having acquired even their color. Seneca formerly rebuked this, Epistle 10: “Why should I not know them? They are indeed most persistent and assiduous; yet I call them not pupils of philosophers but tenants. Some come to hear, not to learn, just as we are drawn into the theater for the sake of pleasure, to delight our ears with speech, voice, or stories. You will see that this is a great part of the hearers, for whom the philosopher’s school is a lodging-house of leisure. They do not aim to lay aside some vices there, or to receive some rule of life against which they may measure their conduct, but to enjoy the delight of their ears. Some nevertheless come even with writing tablets, not to take down things but words, which they learn without benefit to another just as they hear them without benefit to themselves.

“Some are aroused by magnificent utterances and pass over into the emotion of those who speak, eager in countenance and spirit. They are stirred no otherwise than those Phrygian half-men who are accustomed to rage at command at the sound of the flute. The beauty of the things, not the sound of empty words, carries them away and incites them. If anything has been said sharply against death, if anything defiantly against fortune, it immediately pleases them to do what they hear. They are affected and would become such as they are ordered to be, if that form remained in their mind—if the multitude, the dissuader from what is honorable, did not immediately intercept the remarkable impulse. Few have been able to carry home the mind which they had conceived. It is easy to arouse a hearer to desire what is right. For nature has given to all the foundations and seed of the virtues; we are all born for all these things. When an inciter approaches, then those goods of the mind, as though asleep, are awakened.”

If, therefore, pagan philosophers took care that they imbued adolescents with virtues, or at least with the color of virtues, this will pertain much more to Christian professors. The sanctity of religion, the obligation of their office, and the fidelity owed to parents ought to impel them to regard the rule of living as their first concern.

RULE II

§ 2. “Let each person attend the class which has been assigned to him by the Prefect after examination.”

By the best right and deservedly so. For he who commits himself to a preceptor in order to receive from him the ornaments and laurel of the most beautiful sciences cannot prescribe to him by what method he must teach. One ignorant of the road ought not to be the guide of a man who knows all the signs and all the Mercurial heaps. It is a great error, sometimes of hearers and more frequently of parents, to wish to prescribe to the master and sometimes even to academies. He who prescribes to the master the order in which the disciplines are to be handed down, although by professing himself a learner he admits himself less learned,

nevertheless professes himself wiser in teaching. That swelling of mind greatly obstructs the disciplines. While each person strives to ascend to a higher grade of the schools before his years and knowledge allow, he does not learn the foundations and therefore does not understand the higher matters. “I do not understand this preceptor,” they say; “I do not grasp these trifles.” Each person scarcely judges himself without corruption, especially concerning his talent, an immense morbid desire of loving and proclaiming which has been implanted in everyone.

Alexander once devoted himself to geometrical ἀναλύσεσι, analyses, and demonstrations. Since, as happens in the most abstruse matters, the greatest difficulties required the greatest attention and subtlety, with royal haughtiness he commanded the teacher to express them more clearly. The latter answered truly and rightly that all these things were equally difficult for all, for fortune does not furnish talent but more frequently veils it with haughtiness. Let him therefore have a preceptor who teaches what is necessary and lays foundations: if these fail, the man who has raised the edifice of learning higher constructs a ruin. Those make the best progress who behold the works of their first labor more slowly. A man who pours wine copiously into a jar with a narrow neck loses the greater part. Things proportioned to the measure of a talent assist it; talents are sharpened by moderate labor and collapse beneath a greater burden. Haste has harmed very many, while they measure progress by a change of classes, as though an unlearned man could not penetrate to the same place.

RULE III

§ 3. “At least every month let all confess their sins; and at the appointed hour each day let them becomingly attend the sacrifice of the Mass, and on feast days the sermon.”

That law contains three things: the precept of monthly sacred confession, daily sacred Mass, and the sacred sermon on feast days. Thus the Constitutions, part 4, chapter 16: “Let diligent care be taken that those who betake themselves to the universities of the Society for the sake of learning letters learn at the same time with them good conduct worthy of Christians. It will greatly assist toward this if all approach the sacrament of confession at least once each month; if they hear Mass daily and the sermon on every feast day when it is delivered. Let each of the preceptors take care that his pupils perform this.”

The declaration of the Constitutions adds that if anyone does not perform these things and is furthermore dissolute and a stumbling block to others, he must be expelled from the schools.

I am not unaware that these things are mocked by heretics, devoted to curses, despised by politicians, and negligently performed by the frivolous. But in this matter the Society has many illustrious authorities. First, confession was in use from the primitive Church: Clement, Epistle 1 to James; Dionysius to Demophilus; Origen on Psalm 32; Eusebius, book 5, chapter 27, and book 6, chapter 27; Cyprian, On the Lapsed: “God sees the hearts and breasts of individuals and is to judge not only our deeds but also our words and thoughts. He beholds the minds and the intentions of all while they are yet conceived in the hidden places of the closed breast. Finally, how much greater in faith and better in fear are those who, although bound by no crime of sacrifice or certificate, nevertheless, because they have so much as thought about it, confess this very thing sorrowfully and simply before the priests of God, make confession of their conscience, expose the burden of their mind, and seek saving medicine even for small and slight wounds, knowing that it is written: ‘God is not mocked.’”

§ 4. But it is not my purpose now to touch upon controversies of religion; nor indeed is it necessary. For the mockers of Catholic confession themselves, in this year in which they imagine the jubilee of their opinion, prescribe confession in a program posted on the thirtieth day of October.

Confession is therefore necessary for the remission of sins, as Augustine truly says, homily 49 of book 50: “Let no one say to himself: ‘I act in secret; I act before God. God who pardons me knows that I act in my heart.’ Was it therefore said without cause, ‘Whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven’? Were the keys therefore given to the Church of God without cause? Do we frustrate the Gospel of God? Do we frustrate the words of Christ?”

§ 5. When, however, we require monthly confession, we do this so that they may serve God with greater purity, flee offenses, and be armed against the temptations of the Devil and the assaults of the world. Another’s presence is a great bridle upon one about to sin; so too is his knowing that there will sometime be an accuser and witness of the sin. It is certainly established that very many are drawn back from sins by that remedy, when they know that there is no secret belonging to any crime. It therefore ought to seem burdensome neither to the bad nor to the good. Not to the bad, because nothing is more useful to them than immediately to leave contumacy, be freed from disease, feel that God is appeased, and cast off the dominion of the Devil.

Not to the good—that is, those who sin little or lightly, for no one does not sin—because it is easy to be absolved from light and daily sins. Saint Chrysostom, Jerome, and others advise that when anyone has committed a sin, he should submit himself to the care of priests at the first opportunity. For if a serpent strikes you with a venomous tongue, you wait neither years nor months, nor even days or hours, but seek remedies while the venom has not yet spread to the vital parts. But will you neglect a wound fixed by the Tartarean tooth of the ancient serpent in the innermost recesses of the soul, raging with the danger of eternal death?

§ 6. The second requirement is that they attend the sacrifice of the Mass daily. “I would prefer that time to be expended on good letters,” the Politician objects. On the contrary, the time is expended upon the highest good, from whom come both letters and the mind capable of letters. How much is it that, out of twenty-four hours, half an hour is consecrated to the worship of the divine power? If it is just to return tithes of goods to God, why does it seem excessive to you to dedicate one forty-eighth part of time to him in whom we live and have our being, who extends for us the spans of time, who makes his sun rise over the just and unjust? Moreover, the most powerful kind of prayer occurs when vows are poured forth in God’s presence at the time of the oblation.

Saint Chrysostom reckoned this among his reasons, homily 24 on 1 Corinthians: “Let us therefore approach him with fervor and ardent charity, lest we undergo punishment. For the greater the benefits with which we have been affected, the more shall we be punished when we are found unworthy of the benefit. The Magi revered this body even when it lay in the manger; and impious men, barbarians, left fatherland and home, completed a long road, and, when they had come, adored with much fear and trembling. Let us, citizens of heaven, imitate even the barbarians. For although they saw him in a manger and a hut and saw none of the things such as you now see, they approached with great reverence. But you see him not in a manger but upon an altar; not a woman holding him, but a priest standing by, and the Spirit flying over the things set forth with great abundance. You do not merely see this same body as they did, but know both its power and its dispensation, and are ignorant of none of the things accomplished through it, since you have been exactly and carefully initiated in all the mysteries. Let us therefore arouse ourselves, let us fear, and let us display a far greater reverence than those barbarians did,

lest, if we approach rashly and without consideration, we heap fire upon our head.”

And in book 6 of On the Priesthood: “At that time angels sit beside the priest, and the whole order of the heavenly powers raises cries; and the place near the altar is full of choirs of angels in honor of him who is sacrificed. This may be sufficiently believed even from the great sacrifice which is then performed. I myself heard someone recalling that a certain old man, an admirable man to whom many mysteries of revelations had been divinely disclosed, had told him that he had once been judged worthy by God of such a vision; and that at that time he had suddenly seen a multitude of angels, so far as human sight could bear it, clothed in shining garments and surrounding the altar itself; finally, with heads so bowed as if one were to see soldiers standing in the presence of a king.”

What wonder is it, therefore, if we lead our pupils daily to Christ, who is daily offered and received in an unbloody sacrifice? We present them to him; with them and for them we pray. Formerly many refreshed their souls every day with the Eucharist, even secretly at home. Let us at least thus far imitate our ancestors, that we join our prayers to the public liturgy.

§ 7. The third requirement is that they attend the sacred sermon on feast days. For that divine fire kindles minds and breasts; it is oil for charity as it gradually grows cold. Ambrose, sermon 18, on the words “Your utterance is exceedingly fiery”: “First kindle this fire in your minds, so that the light of Christ may shine forth for you. With this fire the bush burned and was not consumed. For the divine word burns in order to correct the sinner’s conscience; it does not consume in order to destroy. This fire has been accustomed to blunt, this fire to extinguish, the savage conflagrations of material flames. Finally, the Hebrews, kindled by this fire, could neither fear nor feel the heat of the burning furnace. Deservedly, therefore, the good servant loves the fiery utterance of the Lord, by which charity, which excludes fear, is put on. He beautifully added ‘exceedingly,’ because every teacher indeed inflames the affection of the hearer, but above all is the word of God, penetrating the divisions of joints and the inmost marrow. Therefore describe the fiery utterance of God for yourself in three ways: as that which cleanses, that which kindles, or that which illuminates its hearers.”

The Council of Trent invites not only students but absolutely all the faithful to sacred sermons: “Because the preaching of the Gospel is no less necessary to the Christian state than its reading, and this is the principal office of bishops, the same holy Synod has established and decreed that all bishops, archbishops, primates, and all other prelates of churches are bound personally to preach the holy Gospel of Jesus Christ, unless they are legitimately impeded. But if it should happen that bishops and the others aforesaid are detained by a legitimate impediment, according to the form of the General Council they shall be bound to assume suitable men for salutarily executing this office of preaching.”

RULE IV

§ 8. “Let all attend the explanation of the Catechism each week and learn its compendium by heart as the masters have appointed.”

The fourth rule for preceptors likewise prescribes this. Both preceptor and hearer will frequently revolve in his mind that those who long ago received the mark of the Lord and the token of their commander must be instructed in Christian doctrine with greater care than those who aspire to the Church from among Jews or pagans. For recruits who have already sworn the oath and have been enrolled in the legions of the Church must be instructed and strengthened for daily battle; for they do not offend against the laws of their commander without common danger to the camp. Those who are already brethren require a brotherly mind in their teacher. Augustine wrote a book On Catechizing the Uninstructed, in which he both teaches the method of catechizing and arms catechists against weariness in always repeating the same things.

Every master who instructs little ones in the sacred faith will avoid with the greatest effort the weariness which causes him neither to speak eloquently—that is, suitably to the capacity of little ones—while his discourse creeps languidly, producing yawning rather than eagerness in his hearers. There is a distinguished lesson in Augustine, On Catechizing the Uninstructed, chapter 12: “Now if we grow weary of frequently repeating things customary and suited to little ones, let us conform ourselves to them through brotherly, fatherly, and motherly love; and, once joined to their heart, those things will appear new even to us. For the affection of a sympathizing mind possesses such power that, when they are affected as we speak and we as they learn, we dwell mutually in one another; and thus what they hear is as though they speak in us, while we in a certain manner learn with them the things we teach.

“Does this not customarily happen when we show to those who had never seen them before certain spacious and beautiful places, whether of cities or fields, which we ourselves had often passed without any pleasure, so that our delight is renewed in their delight at the novelty? And it happens the more, the dearer they are, because through the bond of love, to the extent that we are in them, to that extent things which were old become new also to us. But if we have made some progress in contemplating things, we no longer wish those whom we love merely to rejoice and marvel when they behold works of human hands; rather, we wish to raise them up to the very citadel and counsel of their maker, and thence to rise into admiration and praise of God, maker of all things, where lies the most fruitful end of love. How much more, therefore, ought we to delight when human beings approach now to learn the Lord himself, for whose sake all things that must be learned are to be learned, and to be renewed in their novelty, so that if our preaching is colder than usual, it may grow warm through their unaccustomed hearing.”

§ 9. I see some adolescents diligent in the oratorical faculty, laborious in composing verses, victorious even over difficulties in learning the Greek language, diligent in the thickets of Dialectic, the depths of Physics, the secrets of Metaphysics, and the mathematical sciences, but immediately wearied in sacred doctrine. For either they devise reasons for not coming at all, or, when they have come, turn their minds elsewhere and by looking about and yawning show that they wish to depart or are present unwillingly. They show themselves either entangled in great vices or so gaping after the perishable honors of the sciences that they bear pagan minds in a Christian profession.

For what will you answer to your God? You turn over Cicero or Demosthenes for whole days; you eagerly drink the fables of the poets, with the sweetness of their song and very frequently with muddy poison; you grow pale over Aristotle and Euclid, destined to gain this, that the more things you learn, the more things you doubt. And do you despise the utterances of the Lord—chaste utterances, sweeter than honey, more excellent than a precious stone? He labors under a grave disease for whom the best food produces nausea. What happens to travelers is accustomed to happen to them: those who apply themselves to describing the manners of various peoples, rivers, and towns are ignorant of the bounds of their own patrimony and the limits of their fields. Hence they can neither govern their conscience, nor render an account of the faith, nor answer a Jew or heretic, nor even an unlearned man. This is the more serious for the reason that they possess the authority

of orators and philosophers and the title of masters, but the ignorance of boys in the Christian faith. Hence they pay great penalties for so great a contempt, sometimes by shipwreck of religion, displaying their ignorance to the world.

Accordingly, I judge this counsel salutary for all schools and academies: that they admit no one to a higher school who has neglected to learn the things handed down in religion by the lower class. Let there be an examination not only of secular erudition, which puffs up, but also of sacred erudition, which edifies. Let no one be distinguished with academic honors and titles unless he has also exercised himself in Christian doctrine as much as is fitting. For it is shameful for a Christian if an academy produces him as a disciple of Plato or Aristotle rather than of Christ. For to what end is it useful to bring into public affairs men swollen with sciences and unstable in opinions, but ignorant of Christian truth?

RULE V

§ 10. “Let none of our pupils enter the school with weapons, small swords, knives, or other things of that kind which have been forbidden according to places or times.”

Let no one wonder that weapons are removed from schools, because we instruct neither a soldier nor a boxer. And weapons are carried without cause into a place where fighting is not permitted. Pompey lowered the fasces, together with their axes, before a philosopher, although he was already great in deed and even in name. How much less must adolescents be permitted to display small swords or daggers in the sanctuary of wisdom? Yet this is rare and is done not by those who study military affairs, but by those whom empty ostentation has bound to iron.

I have seen a man who considered this law contrary to his dignity and walked about the courtyard armed with a sword. “Will you ungird me? My nobility no more permits my weapons to be torn away than my limbs.” You err, adolescent: weapons are honorably laid aside when they are laid aside by law. It is proud insolence for you to be armed among so many unarmed men. Look at the ancient laws: weapons were taken away from private persons; forums, crossroads, streets, and suburbs were trodden by unarmed nobility; they took up arms against the enemy.

Justinian, Novella 17, chapter 17: “For these things, when preserved by you, make the belt longer-lasting and more glorious for you, provided that, above other things, you permit no one who is not serving in the military to use weapons. The designation ‘weapons’ certainly signifies not only shields, swords, and helmets, but also clubs and stones.”

But since a great authority, the legislator himself, explains to us the ancient custom which endures even today in many places—and does so concerning the whole state, although we now by no means follow it—I shall show that adolescents studying humane letters, philosophy, theology, or even law and medicine cannot complain if they approach unarmed professors and the altar of prudence without weapons, the instruments of madness and slaughter. Novella 85 therefore states:

“Always invoking our great God and Savior Jesus Christ and his aid, we strive to preserve all our subjects, whose government God has entrusted to us, unharmed and free of injury, and to restrain the wars which they undertake against one another by their own deliberation and by which they cause suffering, thereby bringing a double punishment upon themselves: both that which they inflict upon themselves and that which they suffer from the laws that punish their madness.”

CHAPTER I

“Wishing, therefore, to free human beings from deaths of this kind, we have provided that no private person perform the work of weapons manufacture, but that only those make weapons who are assigned to the public arms factories, or who are called fabricenses. Let those who work upon weapons sell them to no private person. Nor do we permit those arms-makers who are enrolled in the military units, who are also called deputati and receive provisions from the fisc, either to manufacture or to sell weapons to anyone; but only to have care of the weapons of the soldiers enrolled in the unit in which they serve. But if they make anything new, let it be offered by them and brought into our sacred armory, to be added there to the public weapons already deposited.”

CHAPTER II

“We wish those who are in the orders of ballista-makers, whom we have established in various cities by enrolling them and decreeing that they make weapons, to observe this also: that they repair and renew only the public weapons stored in the public armories of each city. But if any one of them has constructed any single weapon, let them likewise furnish it among the public weapons and sell it to absolutely no one else. Let those assigned to the ballista factories also observe this, at the risk of the fathers of the cities under whom we have placed those same ballista-makers and established the care and custody of the public armories. Thus, if either the deputati or the fabricenses are seen selling weapons, let the judges in the localities take care to subject them to punishments and, furthermore, to take the weapons without payment from those who buy them and claim them for the public.”

CHAPTER III

“With God governing us in this thought, we have decreed by the present law that in no city or province of our state shall private persons or anyone else have license to make, sell, or acquire weapons in any manner, but that only those numbered among the fabricenses shall construct them and deliver them to our sacred armory. And we decree that this be observed by your Highness and by those who after you receive the belt.

“We assign some of the chartularii who are placed under your Highness in the bureau of the fabricenses, at the risk of the five senior men among them, men possessing a good reputation and suitable for the task. Seeking out those who make weapons in this most fortunate city and in the other cities of our state, they shall prohibit private persons, or any others apart from those assigned among the fabricenses, from undertaking the business of weapons manufacture; and in whatever places they find private persons daring this, they shall take these things away and attach them to the armory of the fisc.

“But if among private craftsmen they have been able to find artisans suitable for the task, they may, if they wish, place them in the service, enter their names in the register, and send us the register of the artisans, so that by our sacred rescript they may be established in those places in which the public factories are situated, and thus may both manufacture weapons and receive provisions from the fisc. For when this has been done and carefully observed by the persons aforesaid, license will be granted to absolutely no one—neither private inhabitants of the cities nor rustics dwelling in villages—to use arms against one another, to presume upon killings, and thereby to cause very many human beings to be slain and public services to perish, while cultivators of the earth, fearing the loss of life, resort to flight because of fear.

“Therefore those who are dispatched by your Highness from the aforesaid bureau of the fabricenses to prohibit private makers of weapons must also receive an acknowledgment in the localities from the judges, the offices subject to them, and the defenders and fathers of the cities, that henceforth they will have no power to do any of the things prohibited by us, but will observe the things decreed by the present law, fearing punishment both in their property and upon their very head. For we decree that a negligent judge of great Alexandria shall pay a penalty of twenty pounds of gold and lose his belt; and that his office shall likewise pay a penalty of twenty pounds of gold

and undergo capital punishment. But the judges of the other provinces shall sustain a loss of ten pounds of gold and shall themselves likewise be subject to loss of the belt, as shall their offices. The defenders and fathers of cities shall be fined a penalty of three pounds of gold and shall undergo danger to their head if, after discovering that any such thing has been done, they do not punish it or report it to those capable of taking action, but permit it to remain hidden.”

CHAPTER IV

“In order that the things which we have prohibited from being made by private persons and certain others, apart from those numbered among our sacred fabricenses, or from being sold to private persons may be made manifest, we have taken care to signify this also by the present law. For we prohibit private persons from manufacturing or buying bows, arrows, spathae, and the swords which they customarily call semispathia; those called zabae, or coats of mail; pikes; lances made in any manner or shape; those which among the Isaurians are named monocopia; and the so-called sitinni, or missiles. Furthermore, we prohibit oval shields, shields, helmets, or headpieces. For we permit no one other than those assigned among our sacred fabricenses to construct these things. We permit only smaller knives, which no one uses in battles, to be made and sold by private persons and to private persons. Therefore let your Highness publish the present general law in this royal city and also throughout the other cities of our state, so that all, knowing the things which have pleased us, may observe them.”

CHAPTER V

“We give notice to the chartularii from the aforesaid bureau of the fabricenses who shall in future preside over this custody that, for negligence, they shall not only sustain monetary penalties but also suffer corporal punishments and lose their service. Furthermore, we shall not permit that same bureau thereafter to be involved in a concern of this kind, but shall commit the care of the fabricenses to others.”

Such were the ancients. But I marvel that in certain academies students walk armed, quarrel, challenge, fight, and even run about armed at night—things Nero and the most wicked men did—haughtily address, attack, and strike those they meet, which is the practice of urban robbers. Thus license in bearing weapons has summoned disgrace, dangers, and robberies out of woods and dens into cities and the schools of the most civilized men. For we are not unaware that there are cities in which the pupils of Justice herself and sacred Themis cut one another to pieces with mutual wounds and criminally assault citizens and residents. What interpreters of justice or presidents over laws will the state someday hope for in men who maraud as though they were being trained for robberies?

What, then, do you advise? What else? Let the Prince impose military laws upon these martial chicks, since through their little ferocious boastfulness they turn away from academic gentleness. The laws of German military service must be brought back from the camps to the academies. At Speyer in the year 1570, the following was decreed concerning cavalrymen.

Law 66. “Moreover, during expeditions, watches, a march under full standards, or the very station of the guard, let no one attack another with armed hand or challenge him to single combat. Whoever does this shall be bound by the prefects present and brought before the tribune of cavalry or the court.”

Law 67. “Let no one discharge a firearm against another, whether within or outside the camp; nor attack with weapons anyone standing with his back turned or his face averted; nor challenge another to an equestrian contest; nor in any manner insolently inflict violence upon anyone, under a penalty to be determined according to equestrian law.”

Law 68. “Let no one insolently burst into the tents or pavilions of others, either by day or by night, nor inflict violence, under a most grave penalty and a declaration of equestrian law.”

Law 73. “During the expedition, let no one renew inveterate enmities and discords, whether in the camp or in the garrisons, nor attempt deliberately to avenge them. Instead, let all either suppress affairs of this kind, permit them to be settled by the tribune of cavalry and his prefects, or use the ordinary course of law. Whoever acts otherwise shall be fined the lawful penalty.”

Law 74. “Whoever has either personally beheld two or more men disagreeing with one another or even drawing weapons against one another, or has learned of it while absent through the report of others, shall establish peace between the disagreeing parties. After the matter has been settled, let the factious parties observe without any contradiction the peace established between them for the duration of the expedition.”

The laws speak thus concerning the infantry. Law 29:

“Let all and each abstain from rash duels under penalty of death, but diligently pursue familiar association, peace, and union of minds.”

30. “Let them not use firearms, spears, or similar weapons in duels, under their military oath; but let swords be permitted to each for the defense of his life, both by cutting and by thrusting.”

31. “Let no one renew in any military expedition an old hatred or rancor lying hidden deep in his breast, nor in any manner avenge himself, whether by word or deed, except by the course of law. But whoever transgresses this constitution or contravenes it shall be brought before the judge and, after the case has been examined, punished with loss of honor or life.”

32. “Let no one stir up factions between different parties. But if quarrels and enmities arise between any persons, let each of the nearest men faithfully and without any regard for persons constitute themselves mediators for a first, second, and third time. If anyone afterwards does not acquiesce in this settlement, the man who kills him will have inflicted the penalty due to him. But whoever attacks a mediator or an unarmed man shall be brought before the court and, after sufficient investigation of the matter, punished with death.”

33. “But whoever should still assail another with a sword or cast it against him, whether before or after the quarrel has been broken up, shall be punished with death.”

34. “In order that grave disadvantages and dangers may be forestalled, if quarrels have arisen between two or more persons, or if they have even come to arms, let no one present himself as a partisan of one party rather than the other, but as a separator of the combat. Transgressors of this law shall be punished at the discretion of the commander.”

To such a point have evils advanced that studious adolescents devoted to all the arts and virtues cannot be governed even by military discipline! “But when liberty has been taken away, youth will run riot.” It is better to depart well than to remain badly. Yet not all will be driven away: only the rash, braggarts, the unskilled, and those who use the privileges of students for wickedness will change their soil. More will arrive, for discipline attracts and dissolution puts to flight.

RULE VI

“Let them altogether abstain from swearing, insults, injuries, detractions, lies, forbidden games, places that are harmful or prohibited by the Prefect of Schools, and, finally, from all things opposed to uprightness of conduct.”

Concerning these things it is necessary to admonish nothing else than that students must especially avoid those vices. Certainly, the more learned each person is, the more need there is for him to be better. But enough has been said about these vices in the third book.

RULE VII

§ 11. Let them understand that, in matters which concern morals and the study of the good arts, when precepts or admonitions are of less avail, the masters will not fail in their duty to punish them. Let those who refuse punishments, who show no hope of amendment, or who are troublesome to the rest and harmful through their example know that they are to be dismissed from our schools.

I have already shown above that what Plato judged is true: namely, that all are made worse by indulgence. Plato’s words are:

ἡ μὲν τρυφὴ δύσκολα καὶ ἀκράχολα καὶ σφόδρα ἀπὸ σμικρῶν κινούμενα τὰ τῶν νέων ἤθη ἀπεργάζεται, τὸ δὲ τούτων ἐναντίον, ἥ τε σφοδρὰ καὶ ἀγρία δούλωσις, ταπεινοὺς καὶ ἀνελευθέρους καὶ μισανθρώπους ποιοῦσα, ἀνεπιτηδείους συνοίκους ἀποτελεῖ.

That is: indulgence renders the characters of children difficult, peevish, irascible, and such as are violently disturbed by slight occasions; excessive and savage servitude, on the contrary, renders their characters abject, illiberal, and averse to the intercourse of human society, and consequently makes them such as are altogether unfit for every association and familiarity.

§ 12. But another question is now at issue: whether adolescents ought to be governed by fear of punishments. Because this question is rather long and demands a separate place, I reserve it for another time. I admonish only this: it is just that those who neither offer hope of amendment nor cease to be a scandal to others should be banished from academies. I was pleased that this law of schools had also been approved by a military decree of the Senate issued by the German princes. For concerning cavalrymen, Law 45 ordains as follows:

“Likewise, on Sundays, and whenever the signal is given for divine offices or sermons, let masters and nobles, as well as their servants, diligently apply themselves to hearing the word of God and the sacred office of the Mass. Whoever in the meantime is found in drinking-parties, taverns, or other places devoted to scandals and frivolities shall be punished, account being taken of the offense. If he is a servant, he shall be confined in bonds and prison. But if he is a master or noble, he shall be sharply rebuked in words by the master of cavalry or any other prefect. If, however, he shows no amendment and has previously been arraigned before the military tribune, then, according to the laws of the cavalry, notice shall at last be given to him that, for this reason also, if he does not altogether cease from public scandal and an impious manner of life, he will, by a public declaration of law, be dishonorably discharged as an example to others.”

Impiety has long brought infamy upon camps:

There is no faith or piety in men who follow camps; Their souls are for sale: right is where the greatest payment is.

Yet the assemblies of the most august council in Germany prosecute even the impiety of nobles with punishment and dishonorable discharge. But if the leading men judge that camps must be purged of offenses and evil examples, although in camps there are few who are not an evil example, what must be done among youth most tender in years, whose innocence is both weak and unwary? I would wish the entire city in which an academy is to be established to be like a temple; but because there has been a departure from that purity, the greatest care must be taken concerning those who, under the name of students, smear upon others the vices by which they themselves perish. But those for whom it is more gratifying and profitable to count many hearers rather than disciples do not do this.

RULE VIII

§ 13. Let all obey their respective masters; and let them observe as diligently as possible the method of study prescribed by those masters, both in the schools and at home.

I shall speak of obedience—an account of which all must render to God, the state, and their parents—when I have explained with what honor pupils are bound to attend upon their teacher. Method is a thing as necessary as the labor of studying itself. A great part of the best minds, having entered an unknown road, have wandered away from the goal.

RULE IX

§ 14. Let them apply their mind to their studies seriously and constantly; let them be assiduous in attending the schools early, and diligent in hearing and reviewing lectures and in performing the other exercises. But if they comprehend anything imperfectly or have any doubt, let them consult the master.

What assails studious youth with the greatest danger to their studies and morals is the sweetness of idleness. It is a great evil because, by doing nothing, it overthrows everything; and it not only deprives the idle of fruit but also enervates the very powers of memory, intellect, and judgment.

Therefore let them seek diligent, industrious, and energetic adolescents, for whom Stimula may shake off idleness, whom Agenoria may bring forward upon the benches, and to whom Strenua may give strength and perseverance. Let their age, flourishing through learned and honorable labor, dispel both the vices of idleness and those of adolescence; by this one means above all it will flee the enticements of sloth. A certain Thessalian was asked which of his fellow countrymen were the most wicked. He answered: those who had respite from war. I answer freely—and if I am mistaken, I am surely mistaken in very few cases—that I trust no adolescent unless I see industry, diligence, and labor in him. However composed for probity their faces may appear, although their words and gestures display holiness and they wear away the thresholds of all the churches, I do not believe that religion, virtue, and chastity are dear to them if they delight in idleness. Piety is not idle, nor is it languid, any more than it is proud. That affectation is devoid of life, because it fails in its duty and therefore soon dissolves into corruption. Are you a student? Practice virtue; learn letters and sciences. The first part of piety is to obey one’s calling and comply with the will of one’s parents. The body itself grows feeble in idleness and is overwhelmed by cold diseases, if we believe Galen. The mind, however, becomes altogether brutish. I place among the highest objects of praise the exercises of the Gymnosophists and their education of youth, proposed also for our imitation. For, after summoning the adolescents to table, before the dishes were set down, they asked what they had done up to that hour, so that shame at having to answer might burden those who had passed the day idly, while praise might arouse others whose industry had been conspicuous in some work.

§ 15. Let them hear of diligence greater than human, and follow it so far as they can. Pliny the Younger writes thus concerning the elder Pliny:

“His intellect was keen, his zeal incredible, his wakefulness supreme. He began to work by lamplight from the festival of Vulcan onward, not for the sake of an auspicious beginning, but for study, while much of the night still remained; in winter, however, from the seventh hour, or, at the latest, the eighth, often the sixth. He was certainly most ready for sleep, which sometimes came upon him and left him even amid his very studies. Before dawn he went to the emperor Vespasian, for he too used the nights, and from there to the duty delegated to him. Having returned home, he gave whatever time remained to his studies. After taking food—which during the day he often took lightly and simply, according to the custom of the ancients—if there was any leisure in summer, he lay in the sun; a book was read, and he made notes and excerpts. For he never read anything from which he did not make excerpts. He also used to say that no book was so bad that it could not in some part

be useful. After the sun he generally bathed in cold water. Then he took a light meal and slept very briefly. Soon, as though it were another day, he studied until dinnertime. Over dinner a book was read and annotated, and indeed rapidly. I remember that one of his friends, when the reader had pronounced certain things incorrectly, called him back and compelled him to repeat them. My uncle said to him, ‘You understood, surely?’ When he nodded assent, my uncle said, ‘Why, then, did you call him back? By this interruption of yours we have lost more than ten verses.’ So great was his economy of time. In summer he rose from dinner while it was light; in winter, within the first hour of night, but as though compelled by some law. These things he did amid his labors and the din of the city. In retirement only the time of the bath was withdrawn from study. When I say the bath, I mean its inner parts; for while he was scraped and dried, he heard something or dictated. On a journey, as though released from other cares, he devoted himself to this alone. At his side was a secretary with a book and writing tablets, whose hands in winter were protected by sleeves, so that not even the harshness of the weather might snatch away any time from study. For this reason he was also carried in a chair at Rome. I recall being reproved by him when I was walking. ‘You could,’ he said, ‘have avoided losing these hours.’ For he considered all time lost which was not spent upon studies. By this concentration he completed all those volumes and left me one hundred and sixty notebooks of selected passages, written, indeed, on both sides and in a very minute hand, by which method this number is multiplied. He himself used to relate that, when he was procurator in Spain, he could have sold these notebooks to Largius Licinus for four hundred thousand sesterces, and at that time there were somewhat fewer of them. When you recall how much he read and how much he wrote, does he not seem to you never to have held any offices nor to have enjoyed the friendship of princes? Again, when you hear how much labor he spent upon studies, does he not seem to have written too little and read too little? For what is there that either those occupations could not have hindered or this persistence could not have accomplished? And so I am accustomed to laugh when certain men call me studious, for, if I am compared with him, I am most idle. And am I so only, I whom duties partly public and partly owed to friends distract? Who among those who sit at letters their whole life, when compared with him, would not blush as though devoted to sleep and indolence? I have prolonged the letter, although I had resolved to write only that which you asked, namely, what books he had left. Yet I trust that these things too will be no less pleasing to you than the books themselves, since they can excite you by the spurs of emulation not only to read them but also to work out something similar.”

Seneca’s diligence was no less. In Epistle 8 he says: “You bid me avoid the crowd, withdraw, and be content with conscience. Where are those precepts of yours which command a man to die in action? What? Do I meanwhile seem to you to be sitting idle? I have hidden myself away and closed my doors for this purpose, that I may be of use to more people. No day passes for me in leisure; I reclaim part of the nights for study. I have no leisure for sleep, but succumb to it, and I keep my eyes, wearied by wakefulness and falling shut, upon their work.”

This is to apply the mind seriously to studies. I do not admonish you to declaim with Demosthenes against the roar of falling rivers, or, with pebbles placed in your mouth, to wrench the canine letter from your tongue; nor, in the manner of Carneades, to let an ecstasy of speculation withdraw your hands from food even at table; much less to tear out your eyes with Democritus lest they turn the mind’s concentration elsewhere. Those deeds of Carneades and Democritus are monstrosities. I require living and vigorous diligence, which does not withdraw minds from human affairs but adapts them to them. Let both their labor and their industrious leisure be useful to the state.

§ 16. In the lectures themselves I require the greatest attention together with modesty. Strabo relates in Book 15 of his Geography that among the Brahmans, the philosophers of India, it was not lawful to speak, sneeze, or spit. But if carelessness or nature had wrung anything of this kind from anyone, the punishment was to be excluded from the lecture hall for one day. Their censure reproved yawning as though it were vomiting, for they thought that it signified the mind’s wandering freedom from care and its very slight attention to present matters. Gellius also records, in Book 5, chapter 20, that in the Attic Academy not even laughter was permitted at first. It is therefore fitting to listen with the greatest care, lest the teacher seem, in the presence of so many people, to be speaking to the walls.

Masters must also be consulted in doubtful matters and without foolish shame; for many make no progress because they do not dare profess their ignorance. The lectures must therefore be reviewed and ruminated upon, and if any difficulty occurs, its resolution must be learned from the master. Thus our Constitutions admonish, Part 4, chapter 3, §3.

And Common Rule 11 states: “After the lecture let him remain in the school, or near the school, for at least a quarter of an hour, so that the hearers may be able to approach him to ask questions; and from time to time let him require an account of the lectures and take care that they be repeated.”

Attalus showed himself such a man to his pupils, whom Seneca, a grateful pupil, praises in Epistle 108: “I remember Attalus instructing us in these things, when we besieged his school, arrived first, and departed last. Even while he was walking we called him forth to certain discussions. He was not only prepared for learners, but met them halfway.”

RULE X

§ 17. In the schools let them not wander this way and that, but let each remain modestly and silently beneath his own bench and in his own place, intent upon himself and his affairs. Let them not leave the school unless the master has granted permission to leave. Let them not disfigure or mark the benches, the chair, the seats, the walls, the doors, the windows, or anything else by painting, writing, a small knife, or any other means.

I do not linger over explaining this law, because it is manifest of itself and from the dictate of Themis; nor is it transgressed except by boys or by those who are childish.

RULE XI

§ 18. Let them flee the depraved or even suspect company of others; let them associate only with those by whose example and company they may make progress in the study of letters and of virtues.

I consider it an error in the state that no action lies for a depraved friendship and association. For how great a protection would it be if a day could be appointed for such a man to appear in court, and if the praetor granted an action against one who associated with a wicked man? The society of depraved men is, and always will be, a great evil to the state and to schools; for diseases, plague, and madness spread themselves by contagion, whereas health is not transmitted to a companion. Let all, therefore, choose the best men with whom to associate—those in whose company they would not blush to be seen and from whom they may gather fruit, not disgrace. Some evil always comes from an evil neighbor; all evils are never absent from academies, and often very many are present. In every academy there are

ὁμωρόφοι χελιδόνες,

swallows under the same roof, which are troublesome by their chattering and filth. Pythagoras gave excellent admonition:

γαμψώνυχα μὴ τρέφειν,

not to nourish things with curved claws. Yet, with their weapons drawn in, they too insinuate themselves, and they are not revealed until after they have done harm.

Σκυμνὸν λέοντος πᾶσα μὲν πόλις τρέφει.

Every city indeed nourishes a lion’s cub; but it does not know that its nature is a lion’s, and when it has become a lion, the city will understand this to its own loss. Every likeness is efficacious for conciliating

love, but likeness of studies most of all. That saying is elegant:

Γέρων γέροντι γλῶτταν ἡδίστην ἔχει, Παῖς παιδί, καὶ γυναικὶ πρόσφορον γυνή, Νοσῶν τ’ ἀνὴρ νοσοῦντι, καὶ δυσπραξίᾳ Ληφθείς, ἔποδός ἐστι τῷ πεπραγμένῳ.

An old man has a most pleasant tongue for an old man, a boy for a boy, and a woman for a woman; a sick man for a sick man, and one who is beset by misfortune for one who has experienced the same.

One must be cautious even in the very school of virtues. It has been said severely but truly: you dwell with scorpions. Scorpions are those whose society is pestiferous, who strike swiftly with an arched tail, and with the same weapon with which they open the wound also pour in poison, for they bear a hollow sting. Wicked companions likewise insinuate themselves into familiarity by art and destroy by that same art. A scorpion’s tail is always ready for a blow, and at no moment does it cease to prepare, lest it fail to seize an opportunity. It strikes with an oblique and curved stroke. Because it is not possible to distinguish all these men, those who have recognized them are commanded by law to flee them. But if anyone associates familiarly with publicly infamous men, he is deservedly driven from the company of the more honorable; for by such impious association he has already proscribed his own reputation.

RULE XII

§ 19. Let them altogether abstain from reading pernicious and useless books.

All rectors of academies must attend to this seriously, so that they may cast out bad books. Certainly Rule 8 for our professors requires it: “Let him earnestly commend spiritual reading, especially the lives of the saints. On the other hand, not only is he himself to abstain from reading to the young impure writers and, in general, those in whom there is anything capable of harming good morals, but he is also to deter his pupils as much as he can from reading those same writers outside the school.”

The Constitution, Part 4, chapter 5, and its Declaration proceed in the same spirit: “In pagan books of humane letters, let nothing opposed to decency be read in lecture. The Society will be able to use the rest as the spoils of Egypt. Although the works of Christians might be good, if the author is nevertheless bad, they are not to be read, lest some become attached to the author. And it is fitting, descending to particulars, to determine which books are to be read in lecture, both in humane letters and in the other disciplines, and which cannot be read in lecture.”

And chapter 14 states: “In general, those books shall be read in lecture which are held to contain the more solid and secure teaching in each faculty. Nor are those to be touched whose teaching or authors are suspect. These, however, are to be named individually in each university. In theology, the Old and New Testaments and the scholastic doctrine of St. Thomas shall be read; and in that theology which they call positive, those authors shall be selected who seem more suitable for our purpose.

“As regards Latin or Greek books of humane letters, in universities as well as in colleges, so far as this can be done, let there be abstention from reading to the young those in which there is anything capable of harming good morals, unless they have first been purged of dishonorable matters and words.”

And the Declaration states: “Although a book is free of suspicion of bad doctrine, nevertheless, when its author is suspect, it is not fitting that the book be read. For a work is accustomed to cause its reader to become attached to its author, and the authority which the author possesses with him in matters in which he speaks well may afterwards persuade him of something among those matters in which he speaks badly. It is also rare for no poison to be mixed into things which issue from a heart full of poison.”

And concerning books of humane literature it ordains thus: “If any cannot be altogether purged, as Terence cannot, let them rather not be read, lest the nature of their subject matter offend purity of mind.”

§ 20. No one can rightly complain here. If it is disgraceful to speak about obscene matters, why should you desire eloquence in expounding them? Certainly today books contain very many incitements to vice, and evil books are read more eagerly. This concerns the state: a polity which maintains severe laws concerning the striking of coinage must also make laws concerning books, for it is more serious that minds be corrupted than the credit of commerce.

I prefer that the counsels which our most learned Delrio offers on this matter in his Sacred Adages be read in his own words. On Ecclesiastes 12: “But if you dispute diverse and discordant things, and with excessive curiosity lead your mind this way and that, even in one book there are many books. Whence it has been said, ‘From much speaking you will not escape sin.’ There is therefore no end to such books. For goodness and truth are bounded by a definite end, but wickedness and falsehood are without end; and the more they are sought, the greater the sequence of them that is born.” Alcuin, Lyra, Arboreus, and others agree, except that these direct the passage chiefly against the writers themselves, for:

—the insatiable itch of writing possesses many.

This certainly ought to be restrained by still stricter laws, so that nothing not reviewed by censors may be published, and, if anything has been published by an evil hand, it may be expurgated. This is the wish of a Catholic heart. But the saying of Joseph Scaliger in his Elenchus is: “To have expurgatory indexes belongs to Marranos”—a maxim worthy of a heretic and an apostate from the right faith.

Others also judge this teaching of Solomon useful to readers, and deservedly so. John Terus says prudently: “He who departs from that one book of Sacred Scripture and turns to those many books, that is, to the various inventions of men, will never arrive at the true end, which is God; or he will never arrive at true knowledge. As Paul says, they are ‘always learning and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth,’ since they are moved by every wind of doctrine. Therefore, just as we do not rashly admit any foods whatever to the palate without discrimination unless beforehand we are certain in every respect, so too—and indeed much more diligently—care must be taken that you not dignify the trifles of any men whatever with your reading. For in the former matter only the body is endangered; in the latter, however, the soul.”

Thus speaks that author. Olympiodorus the Elder enumerates the kinds of volumes from which Solomon restrains us: namely, first, the volumes and monuments of the gentiles, who overturn and attack one another’s opinions and always wage a most grievous war among themselves; second, the books of heretics who disagree with one another; third, the recent and secondary volumes of the Jews—that is, the Deuterotic works of the Talmudists—which are almost infinite and filled with fables. For while they strive to interpret the Scriptures by certain novel figures, they have been turned aside into ridiculous fables and genealogies and have produced traditions wandering far from the meaning of the writer. Concerning these last, the reader will be able to consult our Nicolaus Serarius’s commentary On the Rabbis. Concerning heretics, the matter is known and settled and has likewise been approved by the judgment of the Church. Concerning the books of the gentiles, moderation and selection are advised, not complete flight from them. I spoke at length in the preface to my Tragic Syntagma, dedicated to Laevinus Torrentius, worthy of eternal remembrance and at that time bishop of my native land.

I add only the opinion of a learned and pious Father. This is Isidore of Pelusium, Book 2, Epistle 3, to Timothy. Arousing him to the study of Sacred Scripture, and having recalled its dignity, usefulness, and sweetness, he concludes that from the external learning of secular wisdom we must gather, like a little bee, only as much as conduces to our philosophy,

and must bid the rest farewell:

ὅσον μὲν οὖν χρήσιμον εἰς τὴν καθ’ ἡμᾶς φιλοσοφίαν ἐκ τῆς ἔξωθεν παιδεύσεως, ὥσπερ ἡ μέλιττα, δρεψάμενος, τὸ λοιπὸν ἅπαν χαίρειν ἔα.

I end with Quintilian’s admonition in Book 10, chapter 1, of the Institutes of Oratory: “One must become accustomed to the best, and the mind is to be formed, and its color imparted, by reading much rather than by reading many authors.”

RULE XIII

§ 21. Let them not go to public spectacles, comedies, games, or the executions of condemned persons; nor let them act any character upon the stages of outsiders unless permission has first been given by the master or by the prefect of the school.

I spoke about spectacles in the third book. Anyone who wishes to read what was said there will approve this law with his own vote.

RULE XIV

§ 22. Let them strive to preserve a sincere and pure mind and to obey the divine laws with the greatest diligence. Let them very frequently and from the heart commend themselves to God, to the most holy Virgin Mother of God, and to the other saints. Let them continually implore the aid of the angels, and especially of their guardian angel. Let them always observe modesty elsewhere, but most particularly in church and in school.

RULE XV

§ 23. Finally, in all matters and actions let them so conduct themselves that anyone may easily understand that they are no less devoted to virtue and integrity of life than to letters and learning.

They will therefore attend to these things with great zeal, taking thought not only for their own salvation but also for the honor of the schools and academies. I have already treated piety and the pursuit of virtue in two books; nevertheless, I commend them especially to students of letters, as the nobler members of Christian youth.