THE COURSES OF DIVINITY AND ALLIED SCIENCES. PRIVATE STUDY. REPETITION.
1. Having finished his course of teaching literature, the Jesuit
returns to his higher studies. Divinity and its allied sciences stand
out in prominence for their intrinsic dignity; but they have, besides,
a studied preëminence assigned them in the system before us. The almost
universal rule, of intermitting the higher studies with a course of
literary teaching, undergoes a special exception in the case of those
"theologians, whose number is few, and use so manifold";[206] of whom
Aquaviva says that, "according as the higher courses are developed,
the fewer proportionately, out of many students, become qualified
to profess those exalted sciences."[207] The same policy holds with
respect to those who have an eminent talent for oratory. Laynez,
himself a great preacher, and a competent judge in the matter, relieved
Father Francis Strada of the office of Provincial, to set him free for
the ministry of the pulpit; and he wrote, as he did so: "If only he had
a sufficiency of those whom he could put in the office of Provincial,
he would relieve all preachers of that office, that they might devote
themselves entirely to spreading the seed of the Divine Word."[208]
Of these and others, "who give eminent promise of being equal to the
graver occupations, or for whom an immediate need exists in that
direction,"[209] an immediate application is to be made to the study of
Theology.[210]
All who graduate in these higher courses do so, as "qualified to
profess"; just as they had graduated in Philosophy and its cognate
branches.[211] But, though a master in the matter of his philosophical
triennium, no student is called upon to profess any of those branches,
until he has graduated also in Theology. Here we may advert to
several lines of strict parallelism in the system, both with regard
to admitting any students, whether Jesuits or not, to the respective
courses of study, and with regard to admitting Jesuits themselves to
profess in the chairs.
As a condition for admitting any students at all into the higher
courses, the Society introduced a much-needed reform, in requiring that
literary qualifications of a sufficiently high grade should precede
matriculation. Thus the University of Ingolstadt ordains that no one
shall be admitted to Academic, that is, University lectures, except
after one year of Rhetoric; and it adds very strict regulations about
the election of courses, repetitions, disputations, etc., in the three
years' curriculum of Philosophy.[212]
In like manner, to be admitted as a student of Divinity and its
correlative sciences, it is necessary to have graduated in the course
of Arts, that is to say, Philosophy and its branches. Thus the
University of Würzburg ordains that no one shall be admitted as an
auditor of Scholastic Theology, unless he be _Magisterio insignis_,
"a Master of Arts"; it excepts only the members of religious Orders
in attendance, and also _Principis Alumnos_, "the Prince's scholars."
Others, who have not so graduated, it will admit to Moral Theology
and its supplementary branches. It will not even examine, for the
Mastership in Arts, any one, whether a Religious or not, who has
studied Philosophy in a private institution or a monastery.[213] To
apply for Academic Degrees, "they must prove that they have followed
all the courses in some approved public University."[214]
The curriculum, now before the student, is a quadriennium, or four-year
course. It is prolonged into a fifth and sixth year, for reviewing the
whole ground of one's studies; for preparing a public defence against
all comers; and, in the case of Jesuit students, for an immediate
preparation to fill the Professor's chair, the pulpit, or to discharge
other functions. Hence the University of Cologne specifies, in general,
a sexennium, or six-year course for Theology.[215]
Not unlike to this is the parallelism which we may notice, in
appointing the members of the Society to Professors' chairs. Though
qualified to teach literature after his own complete course of
letters in the seminary, yet, as we have seen, no one is to be put
over the classes of Grammar or Humanity who has not first studied his
Philosophy. And so again, at this stage, though apparently competent to
teach Philosophy, and approved as being qualified to profess it, yet no
one is to be put in a chair of that course who has not also studied his
Theology.[216]
The reasons for this are assigned by the critics of 1586. The
philosopher, they say, who has not yet become a theologian, will
not be so safe in his conclusions, in his proofs, in his manner of
expression. He will be of an age less mature. His learning will be
less superabundant. He will scarcely be able to answer the arguments
of unbelievers. Nor will he treat Philosophy in a way to render it
useful to Theology. In fine, the proprieties of things cannot be well
observed, if he who has just filled a chair of Philosophy has to sit
down as a mere student in Theology.[217]
The branches of this theological course are Scholastic Theology,
Moral Theology, Sacred Scripture, Hebrew and Oriental Languages,
Ecclesiastical History, and Canon Law. The general category of students
is naturally more limited than in the philosophical curriculum. There
the auditors were young men, who would betake themselves, at its
close, to Medicine, or other walks of life. They may have taken to Law;
though Possevino, himself eminent in jurisprudence, would seem to imply
that Canon Law must have been pursued first.[218] The students now are
chiefly Ecclesiastics, with various careers before them; or they are
Religious of different Orders; or, finally, the members of the Society
itself. The principal object of our consideration is the formation of
these latter, as qualified to profess. The pedagogical elements before
us may be ranged under three heads: Private Study; Repetition, which
includes Disputation; Lecturing, which is supplemented by Dictation.
2. As to the method of private study, all the auditors of the course
are directed to look over, prior to the lecture,[219] the text
in Aristotle, St. Thomas, etc., which the Professor is about to
explain.[220] Then, while the lecture is being delivered, they take
down notes; the copying of mere dictation is not favored. After the
lecture, they are to read over the notes which they have taken down.
Let them endeavor to understand their annotations. Understanding what
they have written, they are to make objections to themselves against
the thesis established, and endeavor to solve their own objections.
If they cannot find a solution, let them note the difficulties, and
take occasion to ask the Professor, or reserve them for disputation.
Such is the method of private study prescribed for the members of
the Order,[221] and laid down in more general terms for the other
students.[222] To develop habits of such study, and to afford the
requisite leisure, a certain custom, then prevailing in Portugal, of
keeping the Professors of Philosophy and their students during two
hours and a half consecutively in the lecture room is discountenanced
by the critics of 1586: "That the philosophers should remain two
whole hours and a half in class, as is now done, is burdensome to the
Professor and troublesome to the students; for these latter should get
accustomed to private study, lest, like parrots, they seem to be always
talking by rote."[223]
This curtailing of class hours was characteristic of the Society's
system. In 1567 the General Father Francis Borgia wrote, through his
secretary Polanco, correcting, in this respect, a school-regulation
which had been followed in the lower classes of the German Province.
The secretary writes: "It is found by experience, in the schools of the
Company, that to teach three consecutive hours in the forenoon, and
three more in the afternoon, is injurious to the health of our Masters,
and does no good to the health of the scholars; for which reason it is
now ordained that in our schools the morning classes shall not last
longer than two and a half hours, and the same in the afternoon."[224]
Nothing intensifies more the results of studies than concentration, nor
dissipates them more than division of attention, while a given pursuit
is in progress. This principle applies to the number of courses taken
up at one time, the conduct of private studies in any single course,
and the degree to which the appointed teachers and the standard authors
have full justice done them. On this head, the critics of 1586 give
recommendations, derived from the Constitution, for the direction
of all the students in general, and for the members of the Order in
particular. The recommendations are embodied briefly in the _Ratio
Studiorum_.[225] With Aristotle in Philosophy, or with St. Thomas in
Theology, one commentary is to be designated, and that a specially
chosen author, suited to the individual's capacity. In the second year
of Theology, one of the Fathers of the Church can be added, "to be
read at odds and ends of time, or after the fatigue of a long stretch
of study. Another can be substituted, if after a while they ask for
another. But care should be taken that they do not spend too much time
on this reading, as if they were getting up a sermon."[226]
All this, no doubt, tends to make the student "a man of one book," who,
as the adage says, is much to be feared. However, when he goes through
every course, and is everywhere a man of concentrated attention, while,
for the purpose of public disputation and the attempted refutation of
his own and the Professor's conclusions, the side avenues of various
authors and systems are studiously and necessarily kept open, it is
probable that, after being "a man of one book," in many courses
successively, he will also be well-rounded by the time his formation
is complete. With students in general, this can be accomplished by
the age of twenty-five; with the Jesuits themselves, about the age of
thirty-three.
3. I come now to the subject of Repetition, of which two chief forms
offer themselves. One is just what the word of itself indicates; it
belongs to all the faculties, but chiefly to the lower courses. I
shall call it by the generic name of Repetition. The other has place
principally in the higher; it is Disputation; of which a preparatory
exercise, called _Concertatio_, prevails also from the lowest class of
Grammar upwards.
Repetition then rehearses in full class, under various forms or
modifications of that exercise, what the Professor has explained in
class. Just before the close of the hour spent on his lecture, the
Professor of Philosophy or Theology signifies that he is ready for
questions on the matter treated; he asks sometimes an account of the
lecture, and he sees that it is repeated. The revised _Ratio_ of
1832 puts it, in more general terms, thus: "He is often to require
an account of the lectures, and to see that they are repeated"; and
then it desires that, after the lecture, either in the class-room, or
somewhere near, he remain accessible to the students for at least a
quarter of an hour, to answer their questions.[227] This is all from
the Constitution of Ignatius.
The Repetition, which he is to see to personally, is that which takes
place in small circles of about ten students each. "At the close of the
lectures let them, in parties of about ten apiece, repeat for half an
hour what they have just heard; one of the students, and, if possible,
a member of the Society, presiding over each party, _decuria_."[228]
Neither the preliminary, nor the final, _Ratio_ demands that the
Professor himself preside over any of these parties. But "those who
do preside will become more learned, and will be practising to become
Masters themselves."[229]
It must be admitted that the tenor of many remarks in the earlier
document of 1586, shows the presence of Jesuits among the auditors
to have acted on the course as a leaven and a relief; although the
concurrent testimony of historians, about the Jesuit schools, indicates
little or nothing there of that license of manners, such as Possevino
described for us in a former chapter.[230] In a special manner, those
Jesuit students, already young priests, who, having gone through their
four-year course, were now reviewing in a biennium, of a fifth and
sixth year, all their long studies of the higher sciences, stood ready
at hand for many functions in the arena of direction and presidency,
either over the repetitions or the disputations, or in the chair; to
which as many of them as were needed would be officially assigned, when
their private studies left them at last free.[231]
To say a word upon this class of Jesuit students, they show us the
Professor's formation at its last stage. They are reviewing all
Theology, Philosophy, Sacred Scripture, Canon Law, Polemical or
Controversial Theology, and ecclesiastical erudition generally. The
last of their rules for self-guidance says: "In particular, they are
to devote themselves most of all to that pursuit, to which they feel
chiefly drawn, without, however, omitting any of the rest."[232]
Meanwhile, they present, in various ways, specimens of their talent
and erudition; they throw into the form of a digest, "from their
own genius," all Theology, under certain heads and principles; they
can choose some "splendid subject,"[233] and deliver ten public
lectures thereupon to the auditors who choose to attend, which, we may
observe, was precisely the status of all Professors in the mediæval
universities. In their acts of public defence, five of which are
prescribed during the two years, they are free to follow or to leave
the opinions of their late Professors.[234]
These students then are assistant and extraordinary Professors. They
have begun the work, which some of them will continue when called upon
to become Professors in ordinary. They are already in training for
that independent work, which the revised _Ratio_ of 1832 shows some
anxiety about preserving; for it says to all who occupy any chair in
these faculties, that, in case they adopt a standard author to follow
in their lectures, which is a custom rather prevalent in more recent
times, they must nevertheless deliver each year some special question
elaborated independently by themselves.[235] This independence of
style, perfect command of the matter, with express leave for the
incipient Professor, in the course of his final biennium, to relinquish
the opinions of his late Professors, are made the subject of many a
remark by the critics of 1586. Withal, it is clear enough that for a
younger man to leave an approved opinion safely, it is very necessary
for him to know well what he is about; and doubly necessary when he
comes forward in a public defence; for his own late Professors are
among the Doctors present, and are there to assail him in all his
tenets.
These, then, or others presiding over the circles, "one person repeats,
the others listening; they propose difficulties mutually, and, if they
cannot solve their own objections, they consult the Professor."[236]
The one who repeats is to do so, not from his notes, but from memory.
Thus "the memory is exercised; practice is afforded those who are to
be Masters, so that they accustom themselves to develop their thoughts
before others; it makes them all keep alive and attentive during the
lecture, to take down the necessary notes, as they might not do, if
they were free from such repetition."[237] There are several other
possible forms of conducting this exercise.
When once the first crude repetition is over, the series of
disputations begins, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. Without counting
in the "Grand Acts" of public defence against all objectors, at stated
times and by specially designated persons, we may enumerate as many as
seven ordinary rehearsals of the same matter.
First, before going to the lecture hall, the student looks over the
text. This is done easily enough in St. Thomas or Aristotle, if one
of these is the standard. As Ignatius expected would be done, many
standard works have been published by writers of the Society.[238]
Their recommendation is, as he intimated, that they are "more adapted
to our times"; and they have incorporated recent researches in
progressive branches. In the sense of this adaptation to times and
circumstances, the theologians in Cologne, making their announcement
for the year 1578, say that they follow St. Thomas as a general
rule, but not so "as to treat all that he treats, nor only what he
treats.... Every age," they say, "has its own debated ground in matters
of doctrine, and this brings it to pass that Theology is not only
constantly enlarged with a variety of new disputations, but assumes, as
it were, a new cast."[239] And the critics of the preliminary _Ratio_,
treating of the Scripture course, lecture at some length all whom it
may concern,--theologians, professors, preachers,--precisely on this
ground, the need of amplifying and adapting the course of Scripture
to the conditions of the times.[240] Accordingly, works always new
and adapted to latest needs, have poured forth from the writers of the
Order. And such as furnish the conditions of a text, which may readily
be followed, also supply the conditions for conning over, before going
to the lecture hall, what the Professor means to treat. If no such
standard is being followed, still, as I find noted in a documentary
report of 1886, "the Professors should always, as far as possible,
throw out directions enough for the students to look up the subject
before coming to the lecture."
In this connection many familiar names of authors occur. For Scholastic
Theology and Philosophy, there is, in the first place, the prince
of modern theologians, Francis Suarez, with his library of tomes;
there are the three Cardinals Toletus, Bellarmine, De Lugo; Valentia,
Vasquez, Lessius, Franzelin; and, in the modern school of Scholastic
Philosophy, the elegant Liberatore, Kleutgen, Tongiorgi, Pesch, along
with the writers of Louvain, Stonyhurst, Innsbruck, and elsewhere; in
Positive Theology and Controversy, Canisius, Becanus, Petau, Sardagna;
in Exegesis, Maldonado, Salmeron, À Lapide, Menochius, Patrizi,
Cornely, with the school of Maria Laach; in Moral Theology, an endless
number, Sanchez, Laymann, Busembaum, with his two hundred editions,
Gury, Ballerini.[241]
Secondly, the student hears the Professor's lecture. Thirdly, one of
the forms of regular repetition is gone through. Fourthly, the daily
disputation takes place, at least among the Jesuit Scholastics: "At
home, every day except on Saturdays, free and feast days, one hour is
to be appointed," during which, after a preliminary summarizing of the
matter for defence, the disputation follows; and, if time remains over,
difficulties may be proposed. "In order to have some time remain over,
the president must have the syllogistic form of discussion rigidly
observed; and, if nothing new is being urged, he will cut off the
debate."[242]
Fifthly, there is the weekly disputation: "On Saturday, or some other
day, as the custom of the University has it, let them hold disputations
in the schools during two hours, or longer still, whenever there is a
large concourse of persons who come to hear."[243] Sixthly, the more
solemn disputation follows, every month, or nearly so: "Each month,
or, if the students are few, every other month, let disputations be
held on a certain day, both morning and afternoon. The number of
defendants will correspond to the number of Professors whose theses
they defend."[244] Seventhly, towards the close of the scholastic year,
though no time is to be set aside for the purpose, so as to prejudice
the continuous course of the Professor's lectures, yet "all the matter
of the year is to have been gone through, by way of repetition, when
the time of vacation arrives."[245] The whole of this matter forms
the subject of the year's examination for the Jesuit members of the
course.[246] To all these argumentative repetitions may be added
the discursive form, in the shape of lectures given by the students
themselves, or dissertations read on stated occasions.[247]
It is evident that the members of the Society are the chief subjects of
this completeness of formation; and that for two reasons. In the first
place, no other students, even if _convictores_, that is, boarders
in the Jesuit colleges, can be brought under such a thoroughness of
system. Secondly, other students are not in the same way subject to
the regular gradation of examinations from year to year. When they are
competent, they may apply for admission to the requisite public tests,
or Acts of Defence; and, in the philosophical courses, they become
Bachelors, Licentiates, and Masters of Arts; in Theology, Bachelors
in the first and then in the second grade, Licentiates, Doctors.
"No degree is to be conferred on any one who has not stood all the
tests, which, according to the custom of Universities, must precede
the conferring of these degrees." The character of each degree, its
conditions, tests, formalities, are treated of fully in the "Form and
Method of conducting Academies and _Studia Generalia S. J._," 1658.[248]
Here, then, the spirit of the Constitution is fully observed, with
regard to repetition and also disputation. The Fathers remark that
Ignatius "recommends nothing with more urgency than disputation, and
constancy in its exercise; so much stress does he lay upon it, as not
to let the students of Letters and Grammar go without it."[249] In the
lower classes it takes the form of _concertatio_ and mutual challenges,
in the matter of Grammar and literary doctrine. Here it is in its full
form; and we may pass on to consider it in the next chapter, not as a
manner of repetition, but on its own merits.
I will make the transition, by quoting an important passage or two from
the preliminary _Ratio_. They bear not only on disputation, but on that
very essential point, where it is that the vital power for actuating
the whole system lies; and what is the intrinsic value of any system,
as a mere code of legislation.
The critics say that, to counteract the apparent decline of
disputation, and to restore this exercise to its ancient form and
splendor, everything depends on the vigilance and diligence of those
in authority. "Without this, nothing will be effected, even though,
for the proper administration of this department of studies, many laws
and precepts are put down in writing."[250] Elsewhere, acknowledging
in another connection that there is indeed a multitude of points
defined for observance, the same writers go on to make these pertinent
reflections: "The perfection of doctrine, like the perfection of
moral life, stands in need of many aids; whence it is that there is
no people under the direction of more laws than the Christian people,
nor any Religious Order more under the obligation of Constitution
and Decrees than our own." They undertake to prove the advantage of
this, both from the side of those in authority, and of those under
authority. "Aristotle and St. Thomas," they say, "are both of opinion
that as few points as possible should be left to the private opinions
of a judge, and as many as possible should be determined by the clear
definition of law. They prove it; for it is easier to find the few
wise men, whose wisdom is equal to the task of determining fixed rules
of guidance, than to find the multitude, which otherwise is required
to pass judgment in all contingencies of time and place; there is the
sanction of greater maturity in laws which have stood the test of time
and experience, than in the off-hand decision of the present hour;
there is less of a corrupting influence on law-givers, when they are
defining things in general and for the future. Wherefore, whatever
can be despatched by general law is so to be despatched; what cannot
be provided for by such law is to be left to the judge, as the living
rule. Under this head come the particular decisions to be passed in
given junctures, whereof the general law cannot take cognizance."
So far Aristotle and St. Thomas; and the Fathers of 1586 agree with
them.[251]