Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/395

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PRAGUE


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system of the country. In the meantime the Em- peror Ferdinand I had called the Jesuits to Prague, m 1556, and these had opened an academy near St. Clement's, the imperial letter of foundation being dated 1562. This academy comprised a gymnasium of six classes as well as an institute for teaching the- ology and philosophy arranged according to the "Plan of Study" (Ratio studioTum) of the Society. At first there was only one teacher for each of the two departments of theology and philosophy. In addi- tion, a large college was built near St. Clement's, which on this account was called the Clementina, or, after its founder, the Ferdinandea. The right of giving degrees, which it received from the emperor in 1.562, was sharply contested by the old university, the Carolina.

After the battle of the White Mountain, the Jesuits, who had been expelled in the years 1618-21, came to have a predominant influence over the emperor in matters concerning instruction on account of their "Plan of study", and the great work they did for Catholicism. An imperial decree of 19 September, 1622, gave them the supreme control of the entire school sy.stem of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. In November of the same year, after the resignation of the remaining four professors, they were also given con- trol of the Carolina together with nine colleges, and all the rights and revenues of these, so that whoever was rector of the Jesuit college was the future rector of the Carolo-Ferdinandea. The right of giving de- grees, of holding the chancellorship, and of appoint- ing the secular professors was also granted to the Jesuits. Cardinal Ernst, Count von Harrach, who opposed this union of the university with another institution and the withdrawal of the archiepiscopal right to the chancellorship, prevented the drawing-up of the imperial Golden Bull for the confirmation of these grants. He also founded an archiepiscopal seminary of his own, the Collegium Adalbertinum, in order to secure his influence over the students in training for the priesthood. In 1638 Ferdinand III limited the monopoly of teaching enjoyed by the Jesuits by taking from them the rights, properties, and archives of the Carolina, the faculties of law and medicine, and making these once more independent under an imperial protector. During the last year of the Thirty Years' War the Karls Bridge of Prague was courageously defended against the Swedes by the students of the Carolina and Clementina under the leadership of the Jesuit Father George Plach^. After this war the university received its permanent con- stitution and by a formal ceremony (4 March, 16.54) the Carolo-Ferdinandea was again united and placed under a chancellor, the Archbishop of Prague, and an imperial superintendent. The Jesuits retained all the professorships in the philosophical and theo- logical faculties up to 1757, when a Dominican and an Augustinian were also appointed to give theological instruction. In the two secular faculties the number of lay professors increased after the abolition, in 1612, of the obligatory celibacy of the professors. The secular professors were appointed by the em- peror, the Jesuit professors were merely presented to him. They held closely to the Ratio studiorum of the Society and, in regard to discipline and juris- diction, they were entirely their own masters. The theological faculty had four regular professorships; tliat of law, four to six; the philosophical, three to five; the medical, five.

The dilapidated Carolinum was rebuilt in 1718 by Max Kanka at the expense of the State. The university was strictly Catholic: the profession of faith that had to be made on receiving a degree before the chancellor, the Archbishop of Prague, excluded non-Catholics from the professorships; the rector granted the degrees for the ecclesiastical chancellor (pro canceUario) . The laws of the university prescribed


that the whole teaching corps should receive Commu- nion on Maundy Thiu-sday, and (after 1602) should take part as a body in the Corpus Christi procession. From 1650 those who received degrees took an oath to maintain the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin as long as the Chiu-ch did not decide against it, and this oath was annually renewed on 8 December by all the cives academici. Such, on the whole, was the status which continued until the bureaucratic reform of the universities of Austria in 1752 and 1754. This reform deprived the universities of many of their corporate rights, and rectors appointed by the State were placed at the head of the faculties; as neither the rectors nor the deans so appointed w-ere pro- fessors, the Senate was little more than an ornamental body. Matters remained thus until 1849. A great change was brought about in the entire school system of Austria by the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773: secular priests now received positions in the theological facultj', and laymen were appointed to the philosophical faculty. In 1781 the prevailing Josephinism opened academic offices to non-Catho- lics, and this was followed, in 1785, by the appoint- ment of the first Protestant as professor in the philo- sophical faculty; in 1781 Jews were permitted to study at the university, and in 1790 they were allowed to receive degrees. The juramentum de Immaculata Conceptione and the profession of faith on receiving a degree were dropped in 1782. The new regula- tions concerning studies (1784) increased the number of professorships and teaching positions in all the faculties; German was made the language of in- struction, only pastoral theology and obstetrics were taught in Czech. In 1784 the professors dropped the dress peculiar to the university, which has been re- tained to the present only by the five proctors, the upper proctor and the proctors for the four faculties. The university was completely under the guardian- ship of the state, which prescribed the text-books, themes for disputation, semi-annual examinations and fees; in making all these changes, practical train- ing was kept in view. It was not until the revolu- tionary year of 1848 in which the students of the Uni- versity of Prague took up arms that a radical change was made.

The "regulation respecting study" of 1 October, 1850, is based upon freedom of teaching and learning. By this law and that "concerning the organization of academic boards of control" the early autonomy of the university with its independent election of rectors and deans was restored. The religious limitations upon academic degrees and positions were to be entirely removed; although as late as 1863 a Protestant elected dean of the philosophical faculty failed of confirmation by the State. Since that time the election of non-Catholics as deans and rectors has been of common occurrence. Jews, also, have held the office of dean, but not, so far, that of rector, two who were elected having declined the position. Great difficulties have arisen from the national condi- tions. One indication of the con.stitutional tendency was a constant development of the national and political consciousness of the Czech majority of the Bohemian people. The university recognized this to a limited degree by founding parallel Czech pro- fessorships. Thus, in 1863, out of 187 lectiu'S courses 22 were in Czech ; the number was increased but even this did not satisfy the Czechs. Conse- quently, after long negotiations, the Carolo-Fer- dinandea was divided into a German and a Bohemian Karl-Ferdinand University, by the law of 28 Feb- ruary, 1882. The academic authorities and institu- tions of each section are entirely independent of the other section; onlj- the aula in the Carolinum and the university librarj' are in common. The separa- tion came into effect in the winter semester of 1882- 83, but it did not include the theological faculty,