The Liberal Arts and the Jesuit College System. by A. ScaglioneReview by: Thomas M. McCoogThe Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Summer, 1989), p. 342Published by: The Sixteenth Century JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2540696 .

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342 The Sixteenth CenturyJournal XX no. 2, 1989

The Liberal Arts and the Jesuit College System. A. Scaglione. Amster- dam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1986. 248 pp. n.p. Investigations of the educational system established by the Society of Jesus and

attempts to explain its rapid growth are not uncommon. Scaglione, however, hopes to move beyond the efforts of his predecessors by firmly situating the Jesuit colleges in their historical context.

The opening chapter analyzes the state of education at the close of the middle ages, especially its stress on the preeminence of speculative theology and its emphasis on directing the soul to God. Renaissance humanism challenged this traditional approach. Through the introduction of the liberal arts, it sought to redirect education towards the cultivation of civic virtue. In its newly established colleges, the Society preserved these ideals and allied them with a renewed Christianity. Outside France the Society's most important educational contribution was a coherent, graduated curriculum in which students passed from one level to the next in an orderly fashion (the modus parisiensis). Within France the Society built on the common educational tradition by taking control of many colleges that had been run by laymen since their foundation by municipal authorities early in the sixteenth century. Unlike Protestant schools that had grown out of the same humanist concern, the Jesuit schools not only did not turn against humanism but "turned more decidedly toward it" (49).

In an attempt to cover so much in such a short book, there are issues that are too quickly dropped or statements that are left without nuance. The author rightly notes that the Society's involvement in education did not result from any "special 'deal' with the Church or coordinated and calculated plan" (2) but he fails to weigh the intra-societal effects of that involvement. Education was not one of the ministries of the Society envisioned by Ignatius Loyola. His subsequent decision to enroll the Society in the war against ignorance had serious effects on the Society's style of life and manner of proceeding, effects that were not universally supported. Scaglione also underestimates the problem the Society had with the innumerable requests for col- leges. With limited manpower, the Society could not fulfill all requests. Thus at various times it sought to control the demand by increasing the requirements: the Fifth General Congregation (1593) insisted that an endowment provide enough annual income to support thirty Jesuits in a small college and one hundred in a large one. One wonders about the author's odd comment that the Society's involvement in England "was a losing cause, and the Jesuit colleges that survived for a short while were helped by the English Catholic College founded at Douai in 1568" (63). What colleges are these? The colleges founded on the continent by the English Jesuits lasted much longer than "a short while" and the schools that they opened in England early in the seventeenth century continued at least until the 1650s. Finally, regarding the place of Erasmus in the Society's curriculum (78), the reader should consult the articles by John O'Malley, S.J. ("The Jesuits, Ignatius and the Counter-Reformation," Studies in the Spirituality ofJesuits 14 [1982]) and John C. Olin ("Erasmus and St. Ignatius Loyola" in Six Essays on Erasmus [New York, 1979]).

Scaglione concludes his study with helpful suggestions for future research. There are many areas about which we know little: popular attitudes towards the Jesuit colleges, the clientele of the colleges, and local adaptations of the curriculum. These studies may help us understand Francis Bacon's judgement that, as far as education is concerned, "consult the schools of the Jesuits; for nothing better has been put into practice. " Thomas M. McCoog, S.J. Loyola College, Baltimore

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