three men distinguished in these branches. This he shall accomplish, if, from time to time, he takes care that some of them who have a special talent and inclination for these studies, and are sufficiently trained in other branches, devote themselves exclusively to this vocation, so that, through their efforts and industry, a stock of good teachers is formed."
In order to give the young teachers, who were to be trained in this Seminary, a reliable guide, the general assembly of the Society, in 1696-97, passed a decree that, "besides the rules whereby the masters of literature are directed in the manner of teaching, they should be provided with an Instruction and proper Method of Learning, and so be guided in their private studies even while they are teaching."[1] Father Joseph de Jouvancy (Latinized Juvencius), one of the greatest authorities on education of his age, was ordered to revise, and adapt to the requirements of this decree, a work which he had published five years previously. This book, after a careful examination by a special commission, appeared in 1703, as the authorized handbook for the teachers of the Society, under the title: Magistris scholarum inferiorum Societatis Jesu de ratione discendi et docendi.[2] The General Visconti in 1752 wished the little book to be in the hands of all Jesuit
- ↑ Pachtler, I, pp. 101-2. – Duhr, p. 40. – Hughes, p. 162.
- ↑ A German translation of this work, with introduction and notes, by Robert Schwickerath, S. J., was published in 1898, in Herder's Bibliothek der katholischen Pädagogik, vol. X, pp. 207-322. – An excellent sketch of the life and the works of this "model of a Jesuit Professor" is contained in the Études religieuses, Paris, November and December 1872. – The correct form of the name is Jouvancy, not Jouvency, which latter originated from the Latinized Juvencius.
