would have opposed the Romish-international tendencies of the Order."[1] Here we must ask: Was not the Latin language, for Catholics as well as for Protestants, the language of learning, of diplomatic intercourse, of the most celebrated code of laws? And was not the mastery of this language, equally for the Catholics, the indispensable condition for a career in Church and State, and for every participation in the higher intellectual life? Consequently, the Jesuits had to insist on this language as well as the Protestants, and that for the very same reasons. Why, then, impute to them other motives of rather a suspicious character?
Nor are scholarly works of prominent American writers free from similar misstatements. Dr. Russell, Dean of Teachers' College, Columbia University, writes: "Catholic and Protestant schools alike at the beginning of the seventeenth century, gave little heed to the substance of the ancient civilization. Both alike were earnestly devoted to the study of the Latin language – the Jesuits, because it was the universal speech of their Order; the Protestants, because it was the first step towards a knowledge of Holy Writ."[2] No proof is given to substantiate the discrimination between Protestants and Catholics. Latin was, as
- ↑ Ib., p. 2. There it is also stated that "the greatest Greek authors were all excluded from the Jesuit schools, and that the mother tongue and its literature received some attention for the first time in the Revised Ratio of 1832." How utterly false these assertions are will appear from later chapters of this book. Suffice it to state here that among the Greek authors studied in Jesuit schools were Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Demosthenes, etc. See below chapter XIII, § 1, 4-5. On the study of the mother tongue see chapter IV.
- ↑ German Higher Schools, New York, 1899, p. 50.
