LEVEL OF INTELLECTUAL TRAINING OF TEACHERS OF JESUIT SCHOOLS IN THE EAST OF THE POLISH PROVINCE OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS IN 1648–1675: FACTORS OF FORMATION, TRENDS OF CHANGES, IMPACT ON THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION

Abstract

The article analyzes trends in changes in the level of intellectual training of the Jesuits who taught in the east of the Polish Province of the Society of Jesus in 1648– 1675, as well as the prerequisites of these qualitative changes and their impact on the quality of education in local centres of the Jesuit Order. The author emphasizes that the figure of the teacher was given a key role in the Jesuit school model. This is evidenced not only by the regulation of various aspects of education by the school charter of the Order ("Ratio atque institutio studiorum"), but also by the great attention paid to the intellectual education of the Jesuits.

        The permanent military operations that took place on the territory of the Polish Province in 1648–1675 dealt a significant blow to its personnel potential. The death of many Jesuits, the termination or suspension of activities a number of centres of the Order, the migration of their representatives inside and outside the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the disruption of the staff reproduction system caused by them –  all this had a negative impact on the level of education of the teachers of the Jesuit schools in the east of the Polish Province. The main indicator of this process was the numerous lacunae in the intellectual formation of magisters, which at the end of the 1660s – in the first half of the 1670s. became the most numerous category of Jesuit teachers of studia inferiora courses in this region. A slight improvement in the level of their mastery of rhetoric during this period was fully compensated by a simultaneous decrease in the prevalence of philosophical education. These gaps in education were a consequence of the urgent involvement of novities in teaching in a situation where there was a lack of experienced personnel. At the same time, among Jesuits priests teaching studia inferiora, the specific gravity of persons who have mastering the course of rhetoric pro nostris is decreasing in parallel. The only island of stability remained the group of the Jesuits priests who taught the studia superiora courses. This can be explained by the relevant selection of those persons who were involved in teaching ideologically important disciplines. However, this group of Jesuit teachers was small and worked with a narrow range of pupils, and therefore did not significantly affect the general situation in Jesuit schools in the east of the Polish Province. Instead, negative trends in the level of education of studia inferiora teachers (both magisters and Jesuit priests) directly affected the level of education in local Jesuit schools. This is evidenced by a several crisis phenomena that were reflected in the documentation of the Society of Jesus at the time, i.e. the efforts of Jesuits to avoid teaching, the negligence of teachers in fulfilling their duties, and the indifference of the managers to the matter of encouraging pupils to learn as well as to raising the level of education in general. The leadership of the Order was aware of the existing problems, but fought against them with conservative methods, trying to ensure the clear implementation of the "Ratio studiorum" provisions.