Page:Jesuit Education.djvu/175

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JESUIT COLLEGES BEFORE THE SUPPRESSION.
155

mar first saw the light. The Quichua grammar of Holguin is the most complete and elaborate that has been written, and his dictionary is also the best."[1] – Similar commendations have been bestowed on the linguistic works of the Fathers Rubio, de Acosta, Barzena, Bertonio, Bayer, Febres (whose grammar and dictionary of the Auracanian dialect were republished for practical use in 1882 and 1884 at Buenos Ayres and Rio de Janeiro), Anchieta, Figueira, Ruiz, and others. Ruiz' grammar and dictionary of Guarani, in the words of Mulhall, are a lasting monument to his study and learning.[2] Many most valuable books and manuscripts of the Jesuits were ruthlessly destroyed, when the Fathers were expelled from their colleges and missions in South America. Protestant writers, as Bach and Kriegk, lament that this vandalism of the enemies of the Society has destroyed for ever most valuable literary treasures.

In the field of mathematics and natural sciences several Jesuit professors have attained to high distinction. We mention the names of a few. Clavius († 1610), who was called the "Euclid of his age", was the leading man in the reformation of the calendar under Pope Gregory XIII. Professor Cajori says with reference to this work: "The Gregorian calendar met with a great deal of opposition both among scientists and among Protestants. Clavius, who ranked high as a geometer, met the objections of the former most ably and effectively; the prejudices of the latter passed

  1. Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, Boston, 1889, vol. I, p. 279. See also pp. 262-264.
  2. Mulhall, Between the Amazon and Andes, London, 1881, p. 263. (Dahlmann, l. c., p. 85.)