COLLEGES
Responsibility of the Society for loss of Faith in Europe--The
Loi Falloux--Bombay--Calcutta--Beirut--American Colleges
--Scientists, Archæologists, Meteorologists, Seismologists,
Astronomers--Ethnologists.
The Society of Jesus is frequently charged with being responsible for
the present irreligious condition of the Latin nations, of France in
particular, because, having had the absolute control of education in the
past, it did not train its pupils to resist the inroads of atheism and
unbelief.
In the first place, the charge is based on the supposition that the
Society had complete control of the education of Catholic countries,
which is not the case. Thus, for instance, Montesquieu, one of the first
and most dangerous of the assailants of the Church in the eighteenth
century, was educated by the Oratorians. As much as thirty-seven years
before the French Revolution, namely, in 1752, Father Vitelleschi, the
General of the Society, addressed the following letter to the Jesuits
throughout the world:
"It is of supreme importance that what we call the _scholæ inferiores_
(those namely below philosophy and theology) should be looked after with
extreme solicitude. We owe this to the municipalities which have
established colleges for us, and entrusted to us the education of their
youth. This is especially incumbent upon us at the present time, when
such an intense desire for scholastic education everywhere manifests
itself, and has called into existence so many schools of that kind.
Hence, unless we are careful, there is danger of our colleges being
considered unnecessary. We must not forget that for a long time there
were almost no other Latin schools but ours, or at least very few; so
that parents were forced to send their sons to us who otherwise would
not have done so. But now in many places, many schools are competing
with ours, and we are exposing ourselves to be regarded as not up to the
mark, and thus losing both our reputation and our scholars. Hence, our
pupils are not to be detained for too long a period by a multiplication
of courses, and they must be more than moderately imbued with a
knowledge of the Classics. If they have not the best of masters, it is
very much to be feared that they will betake themselves elsewhere and
then every effort on our part to repair the damage will be futile."
In the second place, after the year 1762, that is twenty-seven years
before the Revolution, there were not only no Jesuit colleges at all in
France, but no Jesuits, and consequently there was an entire generation
which had been trained in schools that were distinctly and intensely
antagonistic to everything connected with the Society. Furthermore, it
is an undeniable fact, provable by chronology, that the most conspicuous
men in that dreadful upheaval, namely, Robespierre, Desmoulins, Tallien,
Fréron, Chenier and others were educated in schools from which the
Jesuits had been expelled before some of those furious young demagogues
were born. Danton, for instance, was only three years old in 1762; Marat
was a Protestant from Geneva, and, of course, was not a Jesuit pupil;
and Mirabeau was educated by private tutors. The fact that Robespierre
and Desmoulins were together at Louis-le-Grand has misled some into the
belief that they were Jesuit students, whereas the college when they
were there had long been out of the hands of the Society. The same is
true of Portugal and Spain. The Society had ceased to exist in Portugal
as early as 1758, and in Spain in 1767.
Far from being in control of the schools of France, the whole history of
the French Jesuits is that of one uninterrupted struggle to get schools
at all. Against them, from the very beginning, were the University of
Paris and the various parliaments of France, which represented the
highest culture of the nation and bitterly resented the intrusion of the
Society into the domain of education.
Not only is this true of the period that preceded but also of the one
that followed the French Revolution. It was only in 1850, namely
seventy-seven years after the Suppression of the Society, that the
Jesuits, in virtue of the _Loi Falloux_, were permitted to open a single
school in France. The wonder is that the incessant confiscations and
suppressions which followed would permit of any educational success
whatever. Nevertheless, in the short respites that were allowed them
they filled the army and navy with officers who were not only
conspicuous in their profession but, at the same time, thoroughgoing
Catholics. Marshal Foch is one of their triumphs. Indeed it was the
superiority of their education that provoked the latest suppression of
the Jesuit schools in France.
It is this government monopoly of education in all the Continental
countries that constitutes the present difficulty both for the Society
of Jesus and for all the other teaching orders. Thus after 1872, the
German province had not a single college in the whole extent of the
German Empire. It could only attempt to do something beyond the
frontiers. It has one in Austria, a second in Holland, and a third in
Denmark. Austria has only one to its credit; Hungary one and Bohemia
another. The province of Rome has one; Sicily two, one of which is in
Malta, and Malta is English territory; Naples had three and Turin four,
but some of these have already disappeared. All the splendid colleges of
France were closed by Waldeck-Rousseau in 1890. Spain has five excellent
establishments, but they have no guarantee of permanency. Belgium has
thirteen colleges, packed with students, but the terrible World War has
at least for a time depleted them. Holland has three colleges of its
own. England four, and Ireland three.
The expulsions, however, have their compensations. Thus when the Jesuits
were expelled from Germany by Bismarck, the English government welcomed
them to India, and the splendid college of Bombay was the result. Italy
also benefited by the disaster. Not to mention other distinguished men,
Father Ehrle became Vatican librarian, and Father Wernz, rector of the
Gregorian University and subsequently General of the Society. In South
America, the exiles did excellent work in Argentina and Ecuador. The
Jesuits of New York gave them an entrance into Buffalo, and from that
starting-point they established a chain of colleges in the West, and
later, when conditions called for it, they were assimilated to the
provinces of Maryland, New York and Missouri, thus greatly increasing
the efficiency of those sections of the Society.
When driven out of their country, the Portuguese Jesuits betook
themselves to Brazil, where their help was greatly needed; the Italians
went to New Mexico and California; and the French missions of China and
Syria benefited by the anti-clericalism of the home government; for
Zikawei became an important scientific world-centre and Beirut obtained
a university. The latter was, until the war broke out, a great seat of
Oriental studies.
The most imposing institutions in Beirut, a city with a population of
over 150,000, made up of Mussulmans, Greeks, Latins, Americans and
Jews, are those of the Jesuits. They maintain and direct outside of
Beirut 192 schools for boys and girls with 294 teachers and 12,000
pupils. There is, in the city, a university with a faculty of medicine
(120 students) founded in 1881 with the help of the French government;
its examinations are conducted before French and Ottoman physicians and
its diplomas are recognized by both France and Turkey. The university
has also a seminary (60 students) for all the native Rites. Up to 1902
it had sent out 228 students including three patriarchs, fifteen
bishops, one hundred and fifteen priests and eighty-three friars. Its
faculty of philosophy and theology grants the same degrees as the
Gregorian University in Rome. Its faculty of Oriental languages and
sciences, founded in 1902, teaches literary and conversational Arabic,
Hebrew, Syriac, Coptic and Ethiopic; the comparative grammar of the
Semitic languages; the history and geography of the Orient; Oriental
archæology; Græco-Roman epigraphy and antiquities. Its classical college
has 400 pupils and its three primaries 600. A printing-house,
inaugurated in 1853, is now considered to be the foremost for its output
in that part of the world. Since 1871 it has published a weekly Arabic
paper, and since 1898 a fortnightly review in the same language, the
editors of which took rank at once among the best Orientalists. Besides
continually adding to their collection of philological papers, they
contribute to many scientific European reviews. (The Catholic
Encyclopedia, II, 393.)
There are Jesuit colleges, also, throughout India, such as the great
institutions of Bombay and Calcutta with their subsidiary colleges, and
further down the Peninsula are Trichinopoly, all winning distinction by
their successful courses of study. Indeed the first effort the Society
makes in establishing itself in any part of the world, where conditions
allow it, is to organize a college. If they would relinquish that one
work they would be left in peace.
An interesting personage appears in connection with the University of
Beirut: William Gifford Palgrave. It is true that one period of his
amazing career humiliated his former associates, but as it is a matter
of history it must needs be told.
He was the son of an eminent English Protestant lawyer, Sir Francis
Palgrave, and had Jewish blood in his veins. He was born in 1826, and
after a brilliant course of studies at Oxford began his romantic career
as a traveller. He went first to India and was an officer of Sepoys in
the British army. While there, he became a Catholic, and afterwards
presented himself at the novitiate of Negapatam as an applicant for
admission. Unfortunately his request was granted, and forthwith he
changed his name to Michael Cohen, as he said to conceal his identity.
This was a most amazing mask; for Palgrave would have escaped notice,
whereas everyone would immediately ask, who is this Jesuit Jew? How he
was admitted is a mystery, especially as he proclaimed his race so
openly.
After his novitiate he was sent to Rome to begin his theology--another
mystery. Why was he not compelled to study philosophy first like
everyone else? Then he insisted that Rome did not agree with his health,
and he was transferred to Beirut to which he betook himself, not in the
ordinary steamer, but in a sailing vessel filled with Mussulmans. On the
way, he picked up Arabic. Inside of a year, namely in 1854, he was made
a priest and given charge of the men's sodality which he charmed by his
facility in the use of the native tongue; in the meantime he made many
adventurous journeys to the interior to convert the natives, but failed
every time. In 1860 he was sent to France for his third year of
probation under the famous Father Fouillot, whom he fascinated by his
scheme of entering Arabia Petrea as its apostle. He succeeded in getting
Louis Napoleon to give him 10,000 francs on the plea that he would thus
carry out the scheme of the Chevalier Lascaris whom Napoleon Bonaparte
had sent to the East.
At Rome, he found the Father General quite cold to the proposition, and
when he had the audacity to ask Propaganda for permission to say Mass in
Arabic, he was told: "Convert your Arabs first and then we shall see
about the Mass." The brother who was to go with him fell ill, and the
General then insisted that he should not attempt the journey without a
priest as companion; whereupon Palgrave persuaded the Greek Bishop of
Zahlé to ordain one of the lay professors of the college, after a few
days' instruction in moral theology. Fortunately this improvised priest
turned out well, and he became His Beatitude Mgr. Geraigri, patriarch of
the Greek Melchites.
In 1862 the travellers set out by way of Gaza in Palestine, Palgrave as
a physician, the other as his assistant. They covered the entire Arabian
peninsula and were back again in Beirut at the end of fourteen months.
Palgrave had made no converts, and was himself a changed man. Even his
sodalists remarked it. What had happened no one ever knew. In 1864 he
was sent to Maria-Laach in Germany, where the saintly Father Behrens
wrestled with him in vain for a while, but he left the Society and
passed over to Protestantism, securing meanwhile an appointment as
Prussian consul at Mossul. In the following year he published an account
of his travels and the book was a European sensation. In it he made no
secret of his having been a member of the Society, which he says was
"so celebrated in the annals of courageous and devoted philanthropy. The
many years I spent in the East were the happiest of my life." In 1884 he
was British consul at Montevideo and remained there till 1888 when he
died.
For twenty years he seemed never to have been ashamed of his apostasy,
but three or four years before his death the grace of God found him. The
change was noticed on his return from a trip to England. He had become a
Catholic again. He went to Mass and received Holy Communion. Although a
government official, he refused to go to the Protestant Church even for
the queen's jubilee, in spite of the excitement caused by his absence.
He died of leprosy. A Jesuit attended him in his last sickness, and he
was buried with all the rites of the Church. These details are taken
from a recent publication by Father Jullien, S. J., entitled "Nouvelle
mission de la Compagnie de Jésus en Syrie" (II, iii.)
The great difficulty that confronts educators of youth in our times, is
state control. In the United States it has not yet gone to extremes, but
every now and then one can detect tendencies in that direction. Meantime
the Society has developed satisfactorily along educational lines.
According to the report of October 10, 1916 (Woodstock Letters, V 45),
there were 16,438 students in its American colleges and universities. Of
these 13,301 were day scholars and 3,137 boarders. There were 3,943 in
the college departments, 10,502 in the high schools and 1,416 in the
preparatory. Besides all this, there were commercial and special
sections numbering 737. The total increase over the preceding year was
523.
The Maryland-New York provinces had 1,848 students of law, 341 of
medicine, 127 of dentistry, 122 of pharmacy. Missouri had 786 students
of law, 643 of medicine, 776 of dentistry, 245 of pharmacy, 126 of
engineering, 530 of finance, 240 of sociology, 425 of music, 43 of
journalism, and 61 in the nurse's training school. New Orleans had a law
school of 81 and California one of 232 students.
It is sometimes urged as an objection to Catholic colleges that they
give only a Classical education, and are thus not keeping pace with the
world outside. To show that the objection has no foundation in fact, it
would be sufficient to enter any Jesuit college which is at all on its
feet, and see the extensive and fully equipped chemical and physical
laboratories, the seismic plants and in some cases the valuable museums
of natural history which they possess. If it were otherwise, they would
be false to all their traditions; for the Society has always been
conspicuous for its achievements in the natural sciences. It has
produced not only great mathematicians and astronomers, but explorers,
cosmographers, ethnologists, and archæologists. Thus, for instance,
there would have been absolutely no knowledge of the aborigines of North
America, their customs, their manner of life, their food, their dress,
their superstitions, their dances, their games, their language had it
not been for the minute details sent by the missionaries of the old and
new Society to their superiors. In every country where they have been,
they have charted the territories over which they journeyed or in which
they have labored, described their natural features, catalogued their
fauna and flora, enriched the pharmacopeia of the world with drugs,
foodstuffs and plants, and have located the salts and minerals and
mines.
That this is not idle boasting may be seen at a glance in Sommervogel's
"Bibliothèque des écrivains." Thus the names of publications on
mathematics fill twenty-eight columns of the huge folio pages. Then
follow other long lists on hydrostatics and hydraulics, navigation,
military science; surveying; hydrography and gnomics; physics, chemistry
and seismology call for thirty columns; medical sciences; zoology,
botany, geology, mineralogy, paleontology, rural economy and agriculture
require eight. Then there are two columns on the black art. The fine
arts including painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, music,
equitation, printing and mnemonics take from column 927 to 940.
According to this catalogue, the new Society has already on its lists
one hundred and sixty-four writers on subjects pertaining to the natural
sciences: physics, chemistry, mineralogy, zoology, botany, paleontology,
geography, meteorology, astronomy, etc. The names of living writers are
not recorded. Nor does this number include the writers who published
their works during the Suppression, as de Mailla, who in 1785 issued in
thirteen volumes a history of China with plans and maps, the outcome of
an official survey of the country--a work entrusted by the emperor to
the Jesuits. Father de Mailla was made a mandarin for his share of the
work.
The extraordinary work on the zoology of China by the French Jesuit,
Pierre Heude, might be adduced as an illustration of similar work in
later times. He began his studies in boyhood as a botanist, but
abandoned that branch of science when he went to the East. While
laboring as a missionary there for thirty years he devoted every moment
of his spare time to zoology.
He first travelled along all the rivers of Middle and Eastern China to
classify the fresh-water molluscs of those regions. On this subject
alone he published ten illustrated volumes between 1876 and 1885. His
treatise "Les Mollusques terrestres de la vallée du Fleuve Bleu" is
today the authority on that subject. He then directed his attention
particularly to the systematic and geographical propagation of Eastern
Asiatic species of mammals, as well as to a comparative morphology of
classes and family groups, according to tooth and skeleton formations.
His fitness for the work was furthered by his extremely keen eye, his
accurate memory, and the enormous wealth of material which he had
accumulated, partly in the course of his early travels and partly in
later expeditions, which carried him in all directions. These
expeditions covered chiefly the eight years from 1892 to 1900. They took
him to the Philippines which he visited three times; to Singapore,
Batavia, the Celebes, the Moluccas, New Guinea, Japan, Vladivostock,
Cochin-China, Cambodia, Siam, and Tongking. He carried on his work with
absolute independence of method. He contented himself with the facts
before him and sought little assistance from authorities; nor did he
fear to deduce theoretical conclusions from his own observations which
flatly contradicted other authorities. He continued his scientific work
until shortly before his death which occurred at Zikawei on January 3,
1902. (The Catholic Encyclopedia, VII, 308.)
Albers in his "Liber Sæcularis" maintains that "in the cultivation of
the natural sciences, the restored Society won greater fame than the
old," and that "a glance at the men whom the Italian provinces alone
have produced would be sufficient to convince the doubter." Angelo
Secchi, of course, stands out most prominently, and a little later
Father Barello, who with the Barnabite Denza established the
Meteorological Observatory of Malta. Giambattista Pianciani was regarded
with the greatest veneration in Rome because of his vast erudition as a
scientist, as were Caraffa, Mancini and Foligni for their knowledge of
mathematics. Marchi was the man who trained the illustrious de Rossi, as
an archæologist, and also the Jesuit Raffaele Garrucci whose "Monumenta
delle arte cristiane primitive nella metropoli del Cristianesimo" laid
the foundations of the new study of archæology. The writings of Father
Gondi and Francis Tongiorgi have also contributed much to advancement in
those fields of knowledge.
Faustino Arévalo was one of the exiles from Spain at the time of the
Suppression. He was born at Campanario in Estremadura in 1747, and
entered the Society in 1761. Six years afterwards he was deported to
Italy by Charles III. In Rome he won the esteem and confidence of
Cardinal Lorenzano, who proved to be his Mæcenas by bearing the expense
of Arévalo's learned publications. He was held in high honor in Rome,
and was appointed to various offices of trust, among them that of
pontifical hymnographer and theologian of the penitenziaria, thus
succeeding the illustrious Muzzarelli. When the Society was restored, he
returned to Spain and was made provincial of Castile. One of his works
was the "Hymnodia hispanica," a restoration of ancient Spanish hymns to
their original metrical, musical and grammatical perfection. This
publication was much esteemed by Cardinal Mai and Dom Guéranger. It was
accompanied by a curious dissertation on the Breviary of Cardinal
Quignonez. He also edited the poems of Prudentius and Dracontius and
those of a fifth century Christian of Roman Africa. Besides this, he has
to his credit four volumes of Jouvancy's "Gospel History," the works of
Sedulius and St. Isidore and a Gothic Missal. He stands in the forefront
of Spanish patristic scholars, and has shed great lustre on the Church
of Spain by his vast learning, fine literary taste and patriotic
devotion to the Christian writers of his fatherland.
The founder of the science of archæology, according to Hurter, was
Stefano Antonio Morcelli. He was a member of the old Society and
re-entered it when it was restored. Even before the Suppression, which
occurred twenty years after his entrance, he had established an
archæological section in the Kircher Museum of Rome. When he found
himself homeless, in consequence of the publication of the Brief of
Clement XIV, he was made the librarian of Cardinal Albani. He refused
the Archbishopric of Ragusa and continued his literary labors in Rome.
His first publication was "The Style of Inscriptions." In the town of
Chiari, his birthplace, to which he afterwards withdrew, he founded an
institution for the education of girls, reformed the entire school
system, devoted his splendid library to public use, and restored many
buildings and churches. Meantime his reputation as master of epigraphic
style increased and he was placed in a class of his own above all
competitors. Besides his many works on his special subject, he gave to
the world five volumes of sermons and ascetic treatises. When the
Society was re-established he again took his place in its ranks, and
died in Brescia in 1822 at the age of eighty-four. Hurter classifies him
as also a historian and geographer.
Nor was Morcelli an exception. Fathers Arthur Martin and Charles Cahier
are still of great authority as archæologists, chiefly for their
monograph in which, as government officials, they described the
Cathedral of Bourges; and likewise for their "Mélanges archéologiques,"
in which the sacred vessels, enamels and other treasures of
Aix-la-Chapelle and of Cologne are discussed. They also wrote on the
antique ivories of Bamberg, Ratisbon, Munich and London; on the
Byzantine and Arabian weavings; and on the paintings and the mysterious
bas-reliefs of the Roman and Carlovingian periods. Their works appeared
between 1841 and 1848.
A very famous Jesuit archæologist died only a few years ago, and the
French government which had just expelled the Jesuits erected a monument
at Poitiers to perpetuate his memory. He was Father Camille de la Croix.
He was a scion of the old Flemish nobility and was born in the Château
Saint-Aubert, near Tournai in Belgium, but he passed nearly all his life
in France, and hence Frenchmen considered him as one of their own. He
got his first schooling in Brugelette, and, when that college was given
up, went with his old masters to France. In 1877 we find him mentioned
in the catalogue as a teacher and writer of music. Three years later,
the French provinces had been dispersed by the government, and he was
then docketed as an archæologist at the former Jesuit college of
Poitiers.
De la Croix's success as a discoverer was marvellous. Near Poitiers he
found vast Roman baths, five acres in extent, whose existence had never
even been suspected. There were tombs of Christian martyrs; a wonderful
crypt dating from the beginning of the Christian era; a temple dedicated
to Mercury, with its sacred wells, votive vases etc. At Sauxay, nineteen
miles from Poitiers, he unearthed the ruins of an entire Roman colony; a
veritable Pompeii with its temple of Apollo, its theatres, its palaces,
its baths etc. He had the same success at Nantes, Saint-Philibert, and
Berthouville;--the French government supplying him with the necessary
funds. The "Gaulois" said of him that "in his first ten years he
discovered more monuments than would have made twenty archæologists
famous." Meantime he lived in a wooden cabin, on the banks of the Clain,
and there he died at the age of eighty, on April 14, 1900; and there
also the French government built his monument. At the dedication, all
the scientific men of the country were present, and the King of Belgium
sent a representative.
Although the well-known François Moigno severed his connection with the
Society, it was only after he had achieved greatness while yet in its
ranks. He entered the novitiate on September 2, 1822, when he was
eighteen years of age. He made his theological studies at Montrouge, and
in his spare moments devoted himself to the study of the natural
sciences. At the outbreak of the Revolution of 1830, he went with his
brethren to Brieg in Switzerland, where he took up the study of
languages, chiefly Hebrew and Arabic. When the troubles subsided in
France he was appointed professor of mathematics in Paris at the Rue des
Postes, and became widely known as a man of unusual attainments. He was
on intimate terms with Cauchy, Arago, Ampère and others. He was engaged
on one of his best known works: "Leçons de calcul différentiel et de
calcul intégral" and had already published the first volume when he left
the Society. He had been a Jesuit for twenty-one years. He was then made
chaplain of Louis-le-Grand, one of the famous colleges owned by the
Jesuits before the Suppression, and became the scientific editor of "La
Presse" in 1850; of "Le Pays" in 1851, and in the following year,
founded the well-known scientific journal "Cosmos," followed by "Les
Mondes" in 1862, editing meanwhile "Les Actualités scientifiques." As a
matter of fact, it was the Society that had formed him and enabled him
to publish his greatest works.
The German, Father Ludwig Dressel, who was for many years the director
of the Polytechnic in Quito, is well-known for his treatises on
geology, chemistry and physics. Kramers, in Holland, is the author of
three volumes on chemistry. In entomology, Father Erich Wasmann is among
the masters of today, and has written a series of works which have
elicited the applause of the scientific world, especially his "Die
moderne Biologie und die Entwicklungstheorie." (Modern Biology and the
Theory of Evolution.) The writings of Bolsius on biology won for him a
membership in the scientific societies of Russia, Belgium, Italy and
Holland.
The first meteorological society, the "Palatina," was founded by Father
Johann Hemmer in 1780, and it is noteworthy that nearly all its
contributors were members of the various religious orders of
Austria-Hungary, Italy and France. Its scope was not restricted to the
study of meteors, for it accepted papers on ethnology, linguistics, etc.
Hence we find Father Dobrizhoffer writing to it from Paraguay, Joseph
Lafitaux from Canada, Johann Hanxleden, the Sanscrit scholar from
Hindostan, and Lorenzo Hervás. Hanxleden and his colleague Roth were the
pioneers in Sanscrit. The former was the first European to write a
Sanscrit grammar and to compile a Malabar-Sanscrit-Portuguese
dictionary. Hervás was one of the Jesuits expelled from Mexico, and
after the Suppression was made prefect of the Quirinal Library by Pius
VII. While there, he worked in conjunction with several of his former
brethren in the compilation and composition of scientific works, mostly
of an ethnological character. He also wrote a number of educational
works for deaf mutes.
The Observatory of Stonyhurst dates back to 1838-39, when a building
consisting of an octagonal centerpiece with four abutting structures was
erected in the middle of the garden. But it was not until 1845 that a
4-inch Jones equatorial was mounted in its dome. Meteorological
observations were begun as early as 1844, and magnetic in 1856 by Father
Weld. In 1867 an 8-inch equatorial was set up. The chief workers were
Fathers Stephen Perry, Walter Sidgreaves and Aloysius Cortie. All three
were members of the Royal Astronomical Society and were frequently
chosen to fill official positions. Father Perry achieved special
prominence. He was the director from 1860 to 1862, and again from 1868
till his death in 1889. He was a member of more scientific expeditions
than any other living astronomer. He was at Cadiz for the solar eclipse
in 1870; he was sent as astronomer royal in 1874 for the transit of
Venus to Kerguelen or Desolation Island, and for another observation to
Madagascar in 1882. In 1886 he observed a total eclipse at Carriacou in
the West Indies. For the eclipse of 1887 he was sent to Russia, and for
that of 1889 to Cayenne. On the latter expedition he was attacked by a
pestilential fever and died on board the warship "Comus" off Georgetown,
Demerara, after receiving the last sacraments from a French Abbé
resident in Georgetown. Father Perry was buried there in the cathedral
cemetery. His death was that of a saint, and a touching account of it
has been left by his assistant, a Jesuit lay-brother.
Father Perry's prominence in the scientific world may be judged by the
honors bestowed upon him. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a
member of the Council; also a member and Fellow of the Royal
Astronomical Society and, shortly before he died, he had been proposed
as Vice-President. At the time of his death he held the post of
President of the Liverpool Astronomical Society. He was a Fellow of the
Royal Meteorological Society, a member of the Physical Society of
London, and an associate of the Papal Academy of the Nuovi Lincei, the
oldest scientific society in Europe. He belonged also to the Societé
Géographique of Antwerp, and had received the degree of Doctor of
Science _honoris causa_ from the Royal University of Ireland. For
several years before his death, he served on the committee of the
council on education, as well as on the committee for comparing and
reducing magnetic observations, for which work he had been appointed by
the British Association for the Advancement of Science, a body of which
he was a life-member. In 1887 and 1889 he attended at Paris the meetings
of the Astrographic Congress for the photographic charting of the
heavens.
In the "Monthly Notices" of the Royal Astronomical Society (L, iv) the
following resolution appears on the occasion of his death: "The Council
having heard with the deepest regret of the death of the Rev. S. J.
Perry while on the Society's expedition to observe the total eclipse at
the Salut Islands, desire to put on record their sense of the great loss
which astronomy has suffered by the death of so enthusiastic and capable
an observer, and to offer to his relations and to his colleagues at
Stonyhurst the expression of their sincere sympathy and condolence on
this sad event." The list of his scientific papers covers twelve pages
of his biography. Father Cortie, his associate in the Stonyhurst
Observatory, says of him: "His death was glorious, for he died a victim
to his sense of duty and his zeal for science. Truly he may lay claim to
the title of 'martyr of science,' and a part of the story of the eclipse
of December 22, 1889, will be the account of how Father Perry was
carried from a sick bed to take his last observation."
Besides the Observatories in Granada and Oña the Spanish Jesuits have
another near Tortosa. The main object of the latter is the study of
terrestrial magnetism, seismology, meteorology, study of the sun, etc.
It has five separate buildings and a valuable periodical regularly
published by the observers.
The Zo-se Observatory near Zikawei in China is in charge of the French
Fathers. The Observatory is about 80 feet in length. It has a library of
20,000 volumes with numerous and valuable Chinese manuscripts. They have
another station in Madagascar, which is 4,600 feet above sea-level, and
consequently higher by 100 metres than the Lick Observatory in
California. When the Jesuits were expelled from Madagascar, the
Observatory was demolished by the natives who thought it was a fortress.
It was rebuilt later at the expense of the French government and the
director, Father Colin, was made a corresponding Member of the French
Academy. In 1890, 1895, 1898 and 1899 the observers were honored by
their home government with purses of considerable value, one being of
6,000 and another of 3,000 francs.
There are other observatories at Calcutta, Rhodesia, Feldkirch, Louvain,
Oudenbosch (Holland), Puebla (Mexico), Havana, Woodstock and other
Jesuit colleges in the United States; these are attracting notice
principally by their seismographical reports. The most conspicuous of
all these North American observatories is that of Georgetown which was
founded in 1842-43, about the same time as the Naval Observatory. It was
built under the direction of Father Curley, whose determination of the
longitude of Washington in conjunction with Sir G. B. Airy, the
Astronomer Royal of Greenwich, England, was made by observing a series
of transits of the moon, and was later shown by the electric telegraph
to have been correct to within the tenth of a second. Fathers De Vico,
Sestini and Secchi labored at Georgetown. Secchi's "Researches in
Electrical Rheometry" was published in 1852 by the Smithsonian
Institute. It was his first literary contribution to science. Sestini's
drawings of the sun spots were published by the Naval Observatory. In
1889 Father Hagen, then the director, published his "Atlas stellarum
variabilium." In 1890 Father Fargis solved the question of "the personal
equation" in astronomical observations by his invention of the
Photochronograph. It had been attempted by Father Braun in Kalocsa
(Hungary) and by Repsola in Königsberg, but both failed. Professors
Pickering and Bigelow in the United States had also given it up, but
Father Fargis solved the difficulty by a fixed photographic plate and a
narrow metal tongue attached to the armature of an electric magnet. It
has proved satisfactory in every test.
In Sommervogel's "Bibliothèque" the list of the astronomical works
written by Secchi covers nineteen pages quarto, in double columns. He
was equally active in physics and meteorology and his large meteorograph
described in Ganot's "Physics" merited for him the Grand Prix (100,000
francs) and the Cross of the Legion of Honor at the Paris Universal
Exposition in 1867. It was conferred upon him by the hand of the Emperor
Napoleon, in the presence of the Emperors of Russia and Austria and the
Kings of Prussia and Belgium. The Emperor of Brazil sent him a golden
rose as a token of appreciation.
The "Atlas stellarum variabilium" by Father Johann Hagen is according to
"Popular Astronomy" (n. 81, p. 50) the most important event in the star
world. Ernst Harturg (V. J. S., vol. 35) says: "It will without doubt
become in time an indispensable requisite of the library of every
observatory just as the Bonn maps have become." Father Hagen has also
won distinction in the mathematical world by his "Synopsis der höheren
Mathematik," in four volumes quarto.
The seismological department of Georgetown, under Father Francis A.
Tondorf, has attained an especial prominence in the United States. Its
equipment is of the latest perfection, and its earthquake reports are
those most commonly quoted in the daily press of America.
Important in their own sphere are the books "Astronomisches aus Babylon"
by Fathers Joseph Epping and Johann Nepomuk Strassmaier, and "Die
babylonische Mondrechnung" by Epping. F. K. Ginzel (in V. J. S., vol.
35.) expresses the following opinion of them: "It is well known that the
investigations made by the Jesuit Father Epping, in conjunction with the
Assyriologist Father Strassmaier, upon many Babylonian astronomical
bricks have had as a consequence that the scientific level upon which
the history of astronomy had formerly placed the Babylonians must be
taken considerably higher. Epping's investigations now receive a very
valuable extension through the labor of Father Kugler of Valkenburg,
Holland. From the communications received concerning Kugler's work the
importance of his book to the history of astronomy may be inferred."
"Die Gravitations-Constante" (Vienna, 1896), by Father Carl Braun of
Mariaschein, Bohemia, represents about eight years of patient work, and
according to Poynting (Proc. of the Royal Soc. Inst, of Great Britain,
XVI, 2) "bears internal evidence of great care and accuracy. He obtained
almost exactly the same result as Professor Boys with regard to the
earth's mean density. Father Braun carried on his work far from the
usual mechanical laboratory facilities and had to make much of the
apparatus himself. His patience and persistence command our highest
admiration."
With regard to the "Kosmogonie vom Standpunkte christlicher
Wissenschaft," by Father Braun, Dr. Foster says: (V. J. S., vol. 25)
"this problem, mighty in every aspect, is treated from all points of
view with clearness and impressiveness. One could hardly find at this
time in any other book all the essential features of a theory of the sun
collected together in such a directive manner."
Perhaps the famous phrase of St. Ignatius, _Quam sordet tellus quum
cælum aspicio_, had something to do with the Society's passion for
astronomy. "How sordid the earth is when I look at the sky." His sons
have been looking at the sky from the beginning not only spiritually but
through telescopes, and many of them have become famous as astronomers.
This is all the more notable, because star-gazing was only a secondary
object with them. They were first of all priests and scientific men
afterwards. As early as 1591 Father Perrerin, in his "Divinatio
astrologica," denounced astrology as a superstition although his
Protestant friend, the great Kepler, did not admit the distinction
between it and astronomy. The book of Perrerin's went through five
editions. Father de Angelis published in 1604 five volumes entitled "In
astrologos conjectores" (Against astrological guessers). As late as
1676, the work was still in demand, for illustrious personages like
Rudolph II, Wallenstein, Gustavus Adolphus, Catherine de' Medici and
even Luther and Melanchthon with a host of others were continually
having their horoscopes taken.
Another eminent worker was Father Riccioli, of whom we read: "If you
want to know the ancient follies on this point consult Riccioli."
(Littrois in "Wunder des Himmels," 1886, 604.) The implication might be
that Riccioli approved of them, but the reverse is the case, for, as
Thomas Aquinas furnishes a list of every actual and almost every
possible theological and philosophical error, but after each adds
_videtur quod non_, which he follows up by a refutation, so does
Riccioli in his Astrology. He was a genius. He became a Jesuit when he
was sixteen, and for years never thought of telescopes. He taught
poetry, philosophy and theology at Parma and Bologna, and took up
astronomy only when his superiors assigned him to that study. Being an
Italian, he did not like Copernicus or Kepler. They were from the
Protestant North and had refused to accept the Gregorian Calendar. He
admitted, indeed, that the Copernican system was the most beautiful, the
most simple, the best conceived, but not solid, so he made one of his
own, but did not adhere to it tenaciously.
Appreciating the deficiencies of the astronomy of the ancients, he
composed the famous "Almagestum novum," which placed the whole science
on a new basis. Beginning by the measurement of the earth, he produced,
though he made mistakes, the first meteorolog-system. His lunar
observations revealed 600 spots on the moon, which is fifty more than
had been found by Hevelius. His collaborator, Grimaldi, the greatest
mathematician of his age, made the maps. His remarks on libration fill
an entire volume, and the writer in the "Biographie universelle" gives
him the credit of experimenting on the oscillations of the pendulum
before Galileo. His health was always poor, but he worked like a giant.
His "Almagestum" consists of 1500 folio pages, and is described as a
treasure of astronomical erudition. Lalande quotes from it continually.
His "Astronomia reformata" is in two volumes folio, and he has twelve
folio volumes on geography and hydrography. Its learning is astounding.
Thus, for instance, in the second part of his "Chronologia" there is a
list of the principal events from the creation to the year 1688, along
with the names of kings, patriarchs, nations, heresies, councils, and
great personages, which was really collateral matter.
What the Jesuit astronomers accomplished in China from the time of Ricci
down to Hallerstein in 1774 has been continued there to the present day.
The first government observatory in Europe was erected in the University
of Vienna, then in the hands of the Jesuits. There were others at Vilna,
Schwetzingen and Mannheim. Twelve other private ones had been built in
the various European colleges of the Society. The establishment of these
observatories was providential, for when the Society was suppressed they
afforded occupation and support to a great number of dispersed Jesuits,
who remained in charge of them during their forty years of homelessness
and kept alive the old spirit of the Order in its affection for that
particular study. As in the old Society this work is still a matter of
private enterprise. As far as we are aware there is only one observatory
where a government assists, the Observatory of Manila, in which the
employees are salaried by the United States government. The equipment
itself, however, was provided by the Jesuits, who reduced their living
expenses to the minimum in order to build the house and buy the
instruments.
On the other hand, the number of actual Jesuit observatories in the
strict sense of the term already rivals that of the old Society. The
Roman establishment which had been made famous by Scheiner, Gottignes,
Asclepi, Borgondius, Maire and Boscovich was continued during the
Suppression by the secular priest Calandrelli. In 1824 Leo XII restored
it to the Society, and Father Dumouchel took charge of it with De Vico
as an assistant. The latter's reputation was European. He was known as
the Comet Chaser, for he had discovered eight of them. The well-known
five and a half years periodic comet bears his name. He succeeded
Dumouchel as director in 1840, and was holding that office when the
Revolution of 1848 drove the Jesuits from Rome. He was received with
great enthusiasm in France by Arago, and in England he was offered the
directorship of the Observatory of Madras but he preferred to go to
Georgetown in the United States. Being called to London on business, he
died there on November 15, 1848, at the age of 43. Herschel wrote his
obituary in the "Notices of the Astronomical Society."
Secchi had gone with De Vico to Georgetown, but was recalled to Rome in
1849 by Pius IX, and given charge of the observatory. He was born at
Reggio in 1818, and, after studying in the Jesuit college there, entered
the Society at the age of sixteen. He began as a tutor in physics and
continued at that work when he went to Georgetown. Astronomy had as yet
not appealed to him, but in Washington he met the famous hydrographer,
meteorologist and astronomer, Maury, and a deep affection sprang up
between them, and Secchi dedicated one of his books to his American
friend. His appointment to the Roman Observatory in 1859 was due to the
recommendation of De Vico, and in two years his brilliant success as an
observer attracted the attention of the scientific world. He began by a
revision of Struve's "Catalogue of Double Stars," which necessitated
seven years' strenuous work, and he was able to verify 10,000 of the
entries. Meantime he was studying the physical condition of Saturn,
Jupiter, Mars and the four great moons of Jupiter. In 1852 the moon
became the special object of his investigations, and his micrometrical
map of the great crater was so exact that the Royal Society of London
had numerous photographs made of it. In 1859 he published his great work
"Il quadro fisico del sistema solare secondo il piu recenti
osservazioni." The study of the sun spots was his favorite task, and his
expedition to Spain in 1860 to observe the total eclipse established the
fact that the red protuberances around the edge of the eclipsed sun were
real features of the sun itself and not optical illuminations or
illuminated mountains of the moon. He began the "Sun Records" in Rome,
and they are kept up till this day. No other observatory has anything
like them. All this, with his inventions, and the study of the
spectroscope, heliospectroscope and telespectroscope, besides the mass
of scientific results which he arrived at, has put him in the very first
rank of astronomers. He was equally conspicuous as a meteorologist and a
physicist. When the Piedmontese took Rome, Secchi was offered the rank
of senator and the superintendency of all the observatories of Italy if
he would leave the Society. Of course he scoffed at the proposal; but
his authority in Italy was so great that the invaders did not dare to
expel him from his observatory. He died in 1878.
Clerke says of him: "The effective founders of stellar photography were
Father Secchi, the eminent Jesuit astronomer of the Collegio Romano, and
Dr. Huggins with whom the late Professor Mullen was associated. The work
of each was happily made to supplement that of the other. With less
perfect appliances, the Roman astronomer sought to render his work
extensive rather than precise; whereas, at Upper Tulse Hill, searching
accuracy over a narrower gauge was aimed at and attained. To Father
Secchi is due the merit of having executed the first spectroscope view
of the heavens. Above 4000 stars were all passed in review by him and
classified according to the varying qualities of their light. His
provisional establishment (1863-7) of four types of stellar spectra has
proved a genuine aid to knowledge, through the facilities afforded by it
for the arrangement and comparison of rapidly accumulating facts.
Moreover it is scarcely doubtful that these spectral distinctions
correspond to differences in physical conditions of a marked kind."
"I saw the great man," said one who was in the audience of the splendid
hall of the Cancelleria, "when he was giving a course on the solar
spectrum. The vast auditorium was crowded with a brilliant throng in
which you could see cardinals, archbishops, monsignori and laymen, all
representing the highest religious, diplomatic and scientific circles.
Though an Italian, Secchi spoke in French that was absolutely perfect.
Everyone was enthralled, but what captivated me was the gentleness and
even deference with which he spoke to the men who were adjusting the
screens. He almost seemed to be their servant and I could not help
saying to myself, 'Oh! I love you.' I saw him later in the street. It
was in the turbulent days of the Italian occupation. He was walking
alone; his head slightly bowed. Suddenly the cry was heard: 'Death to
the Jesuits!' and an excited mob was seen rushing towards him. He stood
still; grasped the stout stick in his hand, glared at them; and they
fled. I never saw anything like it. I loved him before. I adored him
now." In brief, Secchi was a great man in the eyes of the world, but he
was a greater religious. Indeed it is said that when his superiors told
him to apply himself to mathematics he burst into tears. He wanted to be
a missionary. He was such, while being at the same time one of the most
distinguished men in the scientific world.
The Manila Observatory in the Philippines, strictly speaking, began its
meteorological service in 1865, though observations had been made many
years previously. In 1881 it was officially approved by the Spanish
government and in 1901 by that of the United States. The meteorological
importance and efficiency of the Manila Observatory overshadows its
astronomical, for the reason that it is situated in the eastern typhoon
path. Astronomy, however, is by no means neglected. From 1880 up to the
present time it has rendered very valuable services to the world. First,
the official time was given to the city of Manila and, after the
American occupation, it was extended to all the telegraph stations
throughout the islands. Secondly, about one hundred ship chronometers
are annually compared and rated at the Observatory free of charge.
In 1894 Father José Algué began to complete the astronomical equipment
and erected a new building at the cost of $40,000, equipping it with
instruments of the latest and best type. Three years later he was given
charge of the whole establishment, and is now rendering immense and
indispensable service to the shipping interests of the Far East by his
weather predictions. His barocyclonometer is carried on every ship in
those waters. In 1900 he was sent to Washington by the United States
government to supervise the printing of his immense work entitled "El
Archipiélago Filipino," and he gave later to the World's Fair at St.
Louis one of its remarkable exhibits,--a relief map covering a great
expanse on the ground and representing every island, river, bay, cape,
peninsula, volcano, village and city of the Archipelago. Previous to his
appointment in Manila Father Algué had worked for several years in the
Georgetown Observatory.
In the matter of the theological teaching it will suffice to note that
the Collegium Germanicum was given back to the Society in 1829 and
entrusted to Father Aloysius Landes as rector. The German government
for some time forbade German students to attend its classes, but in 1848
there were 251 on the roster. Since it opened its doors to the present
day, it has given to the Church 4 cardinals, 4 archbishops, 11 bishops,
3 coadjutor bishops, 1 vicar Apostolic, besides a number of
distinguished professors, canons and priests.
A very notable recognition of the Society in the field of education was
given by Pius IX, when he confided to it the government of the college
known as the Pium Latinum. The distinguished ecclesiastic who suggested
it was the Apostolic prothonotary, José Ignacio Eyzaguirre, a Chilian by
birth. The college was founded in 1858 to prepare a body of learned
priests for the various countries of South America. In 1908 at its
golden jubilee it could show a record not only of distinguished priests
but of a cardinal, Joachim Arcoverde de Albuquerque Cavalcanti, and of
30 bishops, though it began with only 15 students. The house that first
sheltered them was extremely small, but the Pope saw to it that they had
a larger establishment. While urging the bishops of Latin America to
support it liberally--for having been Apostolic delegate in Chili no one
knew better than he the urgent necessity of such a school--he himself
was lavish in his gifts of money, books, vestments, etc. In 1867 a part
of the old Jesuit novitiate was purchased from the Government, and
although in 1870 the Jesuits were expelled from Rome those in the Pio
Latino were not disturbed. In 1884 a new site was found near the Vatican
and on the banks of the Tiber where there is now a splendid college with
a capacity of 400 students. In 1905 Cardinal Vives y Tuto published an
Apostolic Constitution which gave the title "Pontifical" to the college
and confided the education _in perpetuum_ to the Society. This
Constitution had been asked for by the Latin American Bishops during the
Council, it was promised by Leo XIII, and finally realized by Pius X.
When formally handed over to the Jesuits there were 104 alumni present.
The trust was accepted in the name of Father General by Father Caterini,
provincial of the Roman province.