SCHOOLS
580
SCHOOLS
vigour to the educational mustard seed. A school
appears to have been founded by the Jesuits in Mary-
land not \ery long after the arrival of the first colo-
nists, though there is some uncertainty as to the exact
date and its first location. But even before the com-
ing of the Calverts, Cathohc schools existed in New
Mexico and Florida. B.v the year 1C29, many schools
for the natives of New Mexico nad been estabhshed
by the Franciscans, and this was eight years before the
first school in the thirteen eastern colonies. The first
schools within the present limits of the United States
were thus founded by Catholic missionaries. It is
probable that the eaj-liest of these mission schools in
New Mexico were inaugurated soon after the effective
occupation of the region by Don Juan de Onate in
1598. In Florida, school work among the natives
appears to have been begun about the same time. A
classical school existed at St. Augustine as early as
1606. The Jesuits estabhshed a series of flourishing
schools for the natives of Lower Cahfornia, early in
the eighteenth century; and the Franciscans, during
its last quarter, developed the singularly successful
mission schools in Upper California. AH of these
schools for the natives had an industrial character.
In New Orleans, a parish school was opened in 1722,
four years after the founding of the city; and five
years later a band of Ursuhne Sisters established a
convent and school there for the education of girls.
There is evidence also of the existence of Catholic
schools at a very early period at St. Louis, Kaskaskia,
Mackinaw, Detroit, and Vincennes. A college was
opened b\' the Jesuits in Maryland in 1677, and an-
other in the city of New York, about 1684, under the
administration of Governor Dongan; and, when they
founded Catholic missions in Pennsylvania, schools
were opened in connexion with the more important
parishes as a matter of course.
The era of religious freedom ushered in by the Revolution resulted in the multiplication of Catholic educational institutions of every kind. Colleges were founded at Georgetown and Mount St. Mary's, and plans were framed for the development of Catholic education on a larger and more systematic scale. Fathers Badin and Nerinckx in Kentucky, and Father Richard at Detroit, were energetic and farseeing edu- cational pioneers. Religious teachers for the schools also began to appear. Ahce Lalor opened a school at Georgetown in 1799, which became the mother-house of the Visitation Si.sters in the United States. Mother Seton established her community at Emmitsburg in 1809; Father Nerinckx founded the Sisterhood of Loretto in Kentucky two years later, and about the same time Father David organized the Sisters of Charity of Kentucky. From this time until about the year 1840 there was a slow but solid Catholic edu- cational growth throughout the eastern half of the country, with the steafly increase of the Catholic population. Bishop Kenrick at Philadelphia, Bishop Dubois at New York, Bishop Bfnedict Fenwick at Boston, Bishop Englanrl at Charleston, Bishop Du- bourg in Ixjuisiana, and Bishops Flaget, Rosetti, Ed- ward Fenwick, Res<';, and Brut^i in the west, were unremitting in their labours in behalf of Cathohc education in their respective dioceses.
About the year 1840 a new period of school growth began, with the inpouring of the great streams of emigration from Germany and Ireland. During the years 1840-f)0 twice as many dioceses were organized as the number existing at the br-ginning of this period, and the heads appointed for these new sees were as profoundly convinced of the necessity of Catholic schools a« had been the great bishops of the earlier periods. "The school alongside- the church" was ever>'where the accept r-d ((liKaiional maxim. The laity were of one mind with the clergy in the matter, and the building of schorjls went everywhere hand in hand with the building of churches. The immi-
grants were poor, but they gave unstintedly of their
hmited means for the erection and equipment of both.
The first school buildings were often of the most
makeshift character, but they were gradually replaced
by larger and more commodious structures. The re-
sult was that the two hundred parish schools existing
in the country in the year 1840 were nmltiplied sev-
eral times over before the beginning of the Civil War.
The problem of providing teachers for the new schools
was generally solved b}' an apj^eal to the existing re-
ligious communities of Europe. Many of these sent
colonies to America, and so rapid was the growth of
these colonies that their members, within a few years,
outnumbered those of the teaching communities pre-
viously established in the country. Most of these
new boches, too, became independent of the parent
organizations. The greater number of the teaching
communities now in the United States trace their
American origin to the little pioneer bands that
crossed the ocean to take charge of schools for the
children of the Irish and German immigrants.
Towards the year 1860 the period of greatest growth in the historj^ of the schools may be said to have ended, and the period of development begun. All through the eastern half of the country, the Catho- lic school system was bj' this time solidlj' established. In the Far Western and South-western States, the work of educational growth and expansion still went on, with the opening of the country there to settle- ment; and great bishops, like a Blanchet in Oregon, an Alemany in California, a Lamy in New Mexico, and a Macheboeuf in Colorado, were called upon to do heroic pioneer labour in the founding of schools, like that which had been done farther East by the bishops of an earher period. But, by the close of the immigration period, the main lines of the vast net- work of schools were clearly laid down. It remained to provide for the internal development and progress of the SA'stem, and to adjust more perfectly the rela^ tions of its component elements. This has been the chief aim since the Second Plenary Council of Balti- more in 1866. The specific purpose and results of the work that has been accomplished in this direction will be dealt with more in detail in the sections that follow. Legislation. — At the First Provincial Council of Baltimore in 1829, it was declared by the assembled Fathers to be "absolutely necessary that schools should be established, in which the young may be taught the principles of faith and morality, while be- ing instructed in letters". This was the first author- itative declaration of the Church in the United States on the subject of Cathohc schools, and the decrees of subsequent councils have but reiterated, amplified, or given more precise practical effect to, the general law thus laid down. The First Plenary Council of Balti- more, held in 1852, exhorted the bishops "to see that schools be established in connexion with all the churches of their dioceses", and, if necessary, to pro- vide for the support of the school from the revenues of the church to which the school was attached. Sev- eral of the bishops of the W(!st urged even stricter leg- islation, and at the Second Provincial Council of Cin- cinnati, six years later, these views were embodied in a formal decree.
The Second Plenary Council of Baltimore did little more than ratify the decrees of previous coimcils. In 1875, however, the Congregation of Propaganda is- sued an "Instruction to the Bishops of the United Statc!8 concerning the Public Schools", in which it was pointed out that the public schools as conducted involved grave danger to the faith and morals of Catholic children, and that consequently both the naturnl and the Divine law forl)ade the attendance of Catliolic cliildren at sudi scliools, unless the proximate dang<'r could he removed. At the same time, tlu; Sa- cred Congregation admitted the possible existence of causes which would excuse Cathohc parents in the
