Teachers had more weight with the children than the parents themselves, and became leaders of the older members of the family, so that “the feelings thus engendered in the schools were propagated throughout the mass of the population by preaching and confession.”
The final results in Germany, Ranke gives thus: “They occupied the professors’ chairs, and found pupils who attached themselves to their doctrines.... They conquered the Germans on their own soil, in their very home, and wrested from them a part of their native land.”[144] So much for Germany and its Jesuit schools.
Jesuit schools in France
Concerning the capture of France by the Jesuits it is not necessary to say much. Ranke gives a few strong paragraphs, showing the work of the order as teachers. The Protestants of France made a great mistake, and brought their cause into disrepute, especially in Paris, by taking up arms in a time of commotion, and Ranke says: “Backed by this state of public feeling, the Jesuits established themselves in France. They began there on a somewhat small scale, being constrained to content themselves with colleges thrown open to them by a few ecclesiastics.... They encountered at first the most obstinate resistance in the great cities, especially in Paris, ... but they at last forced their way through all impediments, and were admitted in the year 1564 to the privilege of teaching. Lyons had already received them. Whether it was the result of good fortune or of merit, they were enabled at once to produce some men of brilliant talents from amongst them.... In Lyons, especially, the Huguenots were completely routed, their preachers exiled, their churches demolished, and their books burned; whilst, on the other hand, a splendid college was erected for the Jesuits in 1567. They had also a distinguished professor, whose exposition of the Bible attracted crowds of charmed and attentive youth. From these chief towns they now spread over the kingdom in every direction.”[145] Through the influence gained as educators, 3,800 copies of Angier’s Catechism were sold in the space of eight years in Paris alone. France no longer leaned toward Protestantism. She had been regained by the Jesuit schools.
Jesuitical schools in England
Concerning the work in England, more is said, and our own connection with that kingdom adds weight in our eyes to the history of her education. Thompson says: “During the reign of Elizabeth the papal authorities renewed their exertions to put a stop to Protestantism in England, and sent more Jesuits there for that purpose.”[146] What they could not accomplish through intrigue and civil policy they were more sure to gain through the schools; hence Thompson says: “They accomplished one thing, which was to carry away with them several young English noblemen, to be educated by the Jesuits in Flanders, so as to fit them for treason against their own country,—repeating in this the experiment Loyola had made in Germany.... The Jesuits endeavored to become the educators of English youths as they had those of Germany.... The pope therefore established an English college at Rome, to educate young Englishmen.”
English college at Rome
Of this college, Ranke tells us further: “William Allen first conceived the idea of uniting the young English Catholics who resided on the continent for the prosecution of their studies, and, chiefly through the support of Pope Gregory, he established a college for them at Douay. This, however, did not seem to the pope to be adequate for the purpose in view. He wished to provide for those fugitives under his own eyes a more tranquil and less dangerous retreat than could be found in the disturbed Netherlands; accordingly he founded an English college in Rome, and consigned it to the care of the Jesuits. No one was admitted into the college who did not pledge himself, on the completion of his studies, to return to England, and to preach there the faith of the Roman Church.”[147]
Jesuits as teachers in America
America was settled when the Jesuit power was at its height. Those teachers who penetrated Germany without fear, and secretly stole into England when it was unsafe for them to be identified, followed closely the paths of discovery and settlement. “In the beginning of the seventeenth century we find,” says Ranke, “the stately fabric of the Catholic Church in South America fully reared.... The Jesuits taught grammar and the liberal arts, and a theological seminary was connected with their college of San Ildefonso. All branches of theological study were taught in the universities of Mexico and Lima.”[148]