system aims at nothing but "mere formalism, at cleverness in speaking and disputing," will naturally ask in surprise, whether the Jesuits had any place for these subjects in their course of instruction. However, a mere glance at the Ratio, the commentary of Jouvancy and other sources will convince any one that the teaching of antiquities is even prescribed in the colleges of the Society. Under the name of eruditio, i. e. general erudition or general learning, the study of antiquities forms an essential part of the explanation of the authors. The professor of Rhetoric (Sophomore) is told that "one of the three principal points of this grade consists in general erudition. This is to be drawn from the history of the nations and their culture, from the best authors and from every field of learning; but it is to be imparted sparingly and according to the capacity of the pupils." The fifteenth rule of the professor says that "for the advancement of erudition, sometimes, instead of reading the historical author, other subjects might be treated, e. g. hieroglyphics, and symbolic signs, epitaphs,[1] the Roman or Athenian Senate, the military systems of the Romans and Greeks, the costumes, gardens, banquets, triumphs, sibyls, etc., in short – as the Revised Ratio has it – archaeology. The first rule of the professor of Humanities mentions the same. But that it was intended for all classes, though naturally not to the same extent, is evident from Jouvancy's treatise "On the Explanation of Authors," which we shall give in substance in the next chapter. There it will also be explained why antiquities,
- ↑ In 1830 the German Jesuits declared these three points to be antiquated. (Pachtler IV, 439.)
