Now-a-days a great interest is taken in the historical aspects of educational systems. The first question, then, which presents itself is: From what sources did the Jesuits derive the principles and methods by which they were enabled to obtain such success? It is evident that the Jesuit system was not altogether the original work of a few clever men who produced a system with methods previously unheard of; their Ratio Studiorum was, to a great extent, a prudent adaptation and development of methods which had existed before the foundation of the Order. It has frequently been maintained that all, or at least much, of what is good in the Ratio Studiorum, was drawn from the famous Plan of Studies of John Sturm, the zealous Protestant reformer and schoolman of Strasburg. Dr. Russell is convinced of this fact, when he writes: "Sturm could have received no greater compliment than was paid him by the Society of Jesus in incorporating so many of his methods into the new Catholic schools."[1] Indeed, Sturm himself expressed in 1565 the suspicion that the Jesuits had drawn from his sources.[2] As we shall see in the next chapters, both Sturm and Ignatius of Loyola drew, in all likelihood, from the same sources, namely, the traditions of the great University of Paris and the humanistic schools of the Netherlands.
It is a very common error to argue: post hoc, ergo propter hoc. Anything good found after the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, is by many writers directly ascribed to its influence. Thus it is said that, after the Protestants had awakened a zeal
