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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Education</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05295b.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="In the broadest sense, education includes all those experiences by which intelligence is developed, knowledge acquired, and character formed. In a narrower sense, it is the work done by certain agencies and institutions, the home and the school, for the express purpose of training immature minds"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="05295b.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/e.htm">E</a> > Education</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Education</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <h2>In general</h2> <p>In the broadest sense, education includes all those experiences by which intelligence is developed, <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> acquired, and character formed. In a narrower sense, it is the work done by certain agencies and institutions, the home and the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>, for the express purpose of training immature <a href="../cathen/10321a.htm">minds</a>. The child is born with latent capacities which must be developed so as to fit him for the activities and <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duties</a> of life. The meaning of life, therefore, of its purposes and values as understood by the educator, primarily determines the nature of his work. Education aims at an <em>ideal</em>, and this in turn depends on the view that is taken of man and his destiny, of his relations to <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, to his fellowmen, and to the physical world. The <em>content</em> of education is furnished by the previous acquisition of <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">mankind</a> in literature, art, and <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">science</a>, in moral, social, and religious principles. The inheritance, however, contains elements that differ greatly in value, both as <a href="../cathen/10321a.htm">mental</a> possessions and as means of culture; hence a selection is <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a>, and this must be guided largely by the educational ideal. It will also be influenced by the consideration of the educative process. Teaching must be adapted to the needs of the developing mind, and the endeavour to make the adaption more thorough results in theories and methods which are, or should be, based on the findings of biology, physiology, and <a href="../cathen/12545b.htm">psychology</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>The work of education begins normally in the home; but it is, for obvious reasons, continued in institutions where other teachers stand in place of the <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">parents</a>. To secure efficiency it is <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> that each <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> be properly organized, that the teachers be qualified and that the subjects of instruction be wisely chosen. Since the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>, moreover, is so largely responsible for the <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellectual</a> and moral formation of those who will later, as members of <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a>, be useful or harmful, there is evidently needed some higher direction than that of the individual teacher, in order that the purpose of education may be realized. Both <a href="../cathen/14250c.htm">the Church and the State</a>, therefore, have interests to safeguard; education is to strive for the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> ideal through the obvious that education at any given time expresses while, in its practical control, the existing relations between the temporal power and the spiritual assume concrete form. As, moreover, these <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a> and relations have varied considerably in the course of <a href="../cathen/14726a.htm">time</a>, it is quite intelligible that a solution of the central educational problems should be sought in history; and it is further beyond question that historical study, in this as in other departments, has a manifold utility. But a mere recital of facts is of little avail unless certain fact of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> revelation be given its due importance. It is needful, then, to distinguish the constant elements in education from those that are variable; the former including man's nature, destiny, and relations to <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, the latter all those changes in theory, conduct of educational work. It is with the first aspect of the subject that the present article is mainly concerned; and from this standpoint education may be defined as that form of social activity whereby, under the direction of mature minds and by the use of adequate means, the physical, <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellectual</a>, and moral powers of the immature human being are so developed as to prepare him for the accomplishment of his lifework here and for the attainment of his eternal destiny. Neither this nor any other definition was formulated from the beginning. In primitive times the helplessness and needs of the child were so obvious that his elders by a natural impulse gave him a training in the rude arts that enabled him to procure the necessaries of life, while they taught him to propitiate the hidden powers in each object of nature, and handed on to him the tribal customs and traditions. But of education properly so called the savage knows nothing, and much less does he busy himself with theory or plan. Even civilized peoples carry on the work of education for a long time before they begin to reflect upon its meaning, and such reflection is guided by <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophical</a> speculation and by established social, religious, and political institutions. Often, too, their theorizing is the work of exceptional minds, and presents a higher ideal than might be inferred from their educational practice. Nevertheless, an account of what was done by the principal peoples of antiquity will prove useful by bringing out the profound modification which <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> wrought.</p> <h2>Oriental education</h2> <p>The invention of writing was of the utmost importance for the developments of language and the keeping of records. The earliest texts, chiefly of a religious nature, became the sources of <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> and the means of education. Such were in <a href="../cathen/03663b.htm">China</a> the <a href="../cathen/04223b.htm">writings of Confucius</a>, in <a href="../cathen/07722a.htm">India</a> the Vedas, in <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> the Book of the Dead, in <a href="../cathen/11712a.htm">Persia</a> the <a href="../cathen/02151b.htm">Avesta</a>. The main purpose in having these books studied by youth was to secure uniformity of thought and custom, and unvarying conformity with the past. In this respect <a href="../cathen/03663b.htm">Chinese</a> education is typical. The sacred writings contained minute prescriptions for conduct in every circumstance and station of life. These the pupil was <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> to memorize in a purely mechanical fashion; whether he understood the words as he repeated them was quite indifferent. He simply stored his memory with a multitude of established forms and phrases, which subsequently he employed in the preparation of essays and in passing the governmental examinations. That he should learn to think for himself was of course out of the question.</p> <p>With such a training, the development of free <a href="../cathen/11727b.htm">personality</a> was impossible. In <a href="../cathen/03663b.htm">China</a>, the <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a>, with its sacred traditions and its ancestor-worship was controlled by the State; in <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> by the <a href="../cathen/12409a.htm">priesthood</a>; in <a href="../cathen/07722a.htm">India</a> by the different castes. There was, doubtless, in the Oriental mind a consciousness of <a href="../cathen/11727b.htm">personality</a>; but no effort was made to strengthen it and give it value. On the contrary, the <a href="../cathen/07358b.htm">Hindu</a> philosophy, which regarded <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> as the means of <a href="../cathen/12677d.htm">redemption</a> from the miseries of life, placed that <a href="../cathen/12677d.htm">redemption</a> itself in nirvana, the extinction of the individual through absorption into the being of the world. The position of <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> was, in general, a degraded one. Though the early training of the child devolved upon the mother, her responsibility brought with it no dignity. But little provision was made for the education of girls; their only vocation was to <a href="../cathen/09707a.htm">marry</a>, bear children, and render service to the head of the <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>In view of these facts, it cannot be said that education as the Western world conceives it owes any great <a href="../cathen/04663b.htm">debt</a> to the East. It is <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> that some of the <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">sciences</a>, mathematics, <a href="../cathen/02025a.htm">astronomy</a>, and <a href="../cathen/03738a.htm">chronology</a>, and some of the arts, as <a href="../cathen/13641b.htm">sculpture</a> and architecture, were carried to a certain degree of perfection; but the very success of Oriental ability and skill in these lines only emphasizes by contrast the deficiencies of Oriental education. Even in the sphere of morality the same antagonism appears between precept and practice. It cannot and need not be denied that many of the sayings, e.g. of <a href="../cathen/04223b.htm">Confucius</a>, evince a high ideal of virtue, while some of the <a href="../cathen/07358b.htm">Hindu</a> proverbs, such as those of the "Pantscha-tantra", are full of practical wisdom. Yet these facts only make it more difficult to answer the question: Why was the actual living of these people so far removed from the formally accepted standards of virtue? Nevertheless, Oriental education has a peculiar significance; it shows quite plainly the consequences of sacrificing the individual to the interests of human institutions, and of reducing education to a machine like process, the aim of which is to mould all minds upon one unchanging pattern; and it further shows how little can be accomplished for real education by despotic authority, which demands, and is satisfied with, an outward observance of custom and law. (See Davidson. <em>A History of Education</em>, New York, 1901.)</p> <h2>The Greeks</h2> <p>If the education of the Oriental peoples was stationary, that of the Greeks exhibits a progressive development which passes from one extreme to another through a variety of movements and reactions, of ideals and practice. What remains constant throughout is the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> that the purpose of education is to train youth for citizenship. This, however, was conceived, and its realization attempted, in different ways by the several City-States. In <a href="../cathen/14209b.htm">Sparta</a>, the child, according to the Code of Lycurgus, was the <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> of the State. From his seventh year onward he received a public training whose one object was to make him a soldier, by developing physical strength, <a href="../cathen/06147a.htm">courage</a>, self control, and obedience to law. It was a hard training in gymnastic exercises, with little attention to the <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellectual</a> side and less to the æsthetic; even music and dancing took on a military character. Girls were subjected to the same severe discipline, not so much to emphasize the equality of the sexes as to train the sturdy mothers of a warrior race.</p> <p>The ideal of <a href="../cathen/02043b.htm">Athenian</a> education was the completely developed man. Beauty of mind and body, the cultivation of every inborn faculty and energy, harmony between thought and life, decorum, temperance, and regularity  such were the results aimed at in the home and in the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>, in social intercourse, and in civic relation. "We are lovers of the beautiful", said Pericles, "yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the mind without the loss of manliness" (Thucydides, II, 40). The means of culture were music and gymnastics, the former including history, poetry, the drama, oratory, and <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">science</a>, along with music in the narrower sense; while the latter comprised games, athletic exercises, and the training for military <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a>. That music was no mere "accomplishment" and that gymnastics had a higher aim than bodily strength or skill is evident from what <a href="../cathen/12159a.htm">Plato</a> tells us in the <em>Protagoras</em>. The Greeks indeed laid stress on <a href="../cathen/06147a.htm">courage</a>, temperance, and obedience to law; and if their theoretical disquisitions could be taken as fair accounts of their actual practice, it would be difficult to find, among the products of human thinking, a more exalted ideal. The essential weakness of their moral education was the failure to provide adequate sanction for the principles they formulated and for the counsels they gave to youth. The practice of religion, whether in public services or in household worship exerted but little influence upon the formation of character. The Greek <a href="../cathen/04683a.htm">deities</a>, after all, were no models for imitation; some of them could scarcely have been objects of reverence, since they were endowed with the weaknesses and passions of men. Religion itself was mechanical and external; it did not touch <a href="../cathen/04268a.htm">conscience</a> nor awaken the sense of <a href="../cathen/14004b.htm">sin</a>. As to the future life, the Greeks believed in the <a href="../cathen/07687a.htm">immortality</a> of the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a>; but this <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">belief</a> had little or no practical significance. Thus the motive for virtuous action was found, not in respect for <a href="../cathen/09071a.htm">Divine law</a> nor in the hope of eternal reward, but simply in the desire to temper in due proportion the elements of <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">human</a> <a href="../cathen/10715a.htm">nature</a>. Virtue is not self-repression for the sake of <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a>, but, as <a href="../cathen/12159a.htm">Plato</a> says, "a kind of health, and beauty and good habit of the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a>"; while vice is "a disease and deformity and sickness of it." The just man</p> <blockquote><p>will so regulate his own character as to be on good terms with himself, and to set those three principles (reasons, passion, and desire) in tune together, as if they were verily three chords of a harmony, a higher, and a lower, and a middle, and whatever may lie between these; and after he had bound all these together and reduced the many elements of his nature to a real unity as a temperate and duly harmonized man, he will then at length proceed to do whatever he may have to do. (Republic, IV, 443) </p></blockquote> <p>This conception of virtue as a self-balancing was closely bound up with that <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of personal worth which has already been mentioned as the central element in Greek life and education. But the <a href="../cathen/11727b.htm">personality</a> referred to was not that of man for the sake of his humanity, nor even that of the Greek for the sake of his nationality; it was the <a href="../cathen/11727b.htm">personality</a> of the free citizen, and from citizenship the artisan and the slaves were excluded. The mechanical arts were held in bad repute; and <a href="../cathen/01713a.htm">Aristotle</a> declares that "they render the body and <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> or <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellect</a> of free <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> unfit for the exercise and practice of virtue" (Politics, V, 1337). A still more serious limitation, affecting not only their concept of human dignity, but their regard for <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">human</a> <a href="../cathen/09238c.htm">life</a> as well, consisted in the exposure of children. This was practised at <a href="../cathen/14209b.htm">Sparta</a> by the <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">public authority</a>, which destroyed the child that was unfit for the service of the State; while at <a href="../cathen/02046a.htm">Athens</a> the fate of his offspring was committed to the father and might be decided in accordance with purely personal interests. The mother's position was not much better than it had been in the Orient. <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">Women</a> were generally regarded as inferior beings, "impotent for good, but clever contrivers of all <a href="../cathen/05649a.htm">evil</a>" (Euripdes, <a href="../cathen/10116a.htm">Medea</a>, 406). At best she was a means to an end, the bearing of children and the care of the household; her education consequently was of the scantiest sort. The only exceptions were the <em>hetaerae</em>, i.e. the <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> who were outside the home circle and who with greater freedom of living combined higher culture than the legitimate wife could hope for. Under such circumstances marriage implied for <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">woman</a> a lowering of personal worth that was in marked contrast with the ideals set up for the education of men.</p> <p>These ideals, again, underwent a decided change during the fifth century B.C. In one respect at least it was a change for the better; it extended the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> of citizenship. The constitution of Solon was set aside and that of Clisthenes adopted in its stead (509 B.C.) The democratic character of the latter, with the increase in prosperity at home and the widening of foreign relations, afforded new opportunities for individual ability and endeavour. This heightened activity, however, was not put forth in behalf of the common good, but rather for the advancement of personal interests. At the same time morality was deprived of even the outward support it had formerly drawn from religion; philosophy gave way to scepticism; and education, while it became more <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellectual</a>, laid emphasis on form rather than on content. The most influential teachers were the <a href="../cathen/14145c.htm">Sophists</a>, who supplied the growing demand for instruction in the art of public discussion and offered information on every sort of subject. Developing in practical directions the principle that "man is the measure of all things", they carried <a href="../cathen/07761a.htm">individualism</a> to the extreme of subjectivism alike in the sphere of speculative thought and in that of moral conduct. The purposes of education were correspondingly modified, and new problems arose. Now that the old standards and basis of morality had been rejected, the main question was to replace them by others in which due allowance would be made on the one hand for individuality and on the other for social needs. The answer of <a href="../cathen/14119a.htm">Socrates</a> was: "Know thyself" and "Knowledge is virtue", i.e. a <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> drawn from personal experience, yet possessing universal validity; and the means prescribed by him for obtaining such <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> was his <em>maieutics</em>, i.e. the art of giving birth to <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a> through the method of question and answer, by which he developed the power of thinking. As an <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellectual</a> discipline, this scheme had undoubted value; but it left unsolved the chief problem; how is <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a>, even of the highest kind, to be translated into action? <a href="../cathen/12159a.htm">Plato</a> offered a twofold solution. In the <em>Republic</em>, setting out from his general theory that the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> alone is real, and that the good of each thing consists in harmony with the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> when it originated, he reaches the conclusion that <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> consists in the perception of this harmony. The aim of education, therefore, is to develop <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> of the good. So far, this scheme contains little more promise of practical results than that of <a href="../cathen/14119a.htm">Socrates</a>. But <a href="../cathen/12159a.htm">Plato</a> adds that <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> is to be ruled by those who attain to this <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a>, i.e. by the <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophers</a>; the other two classes, soldiers, and artisans, are subordinate, yet each individual being assigned to the class for which his abilities fit him, reaches the highest self-development and contributes his share to the social weal. In the <em>Laws</em>, <a href="../cathen/12159a.htm">Plato</a> attempts to revise and combine certain elements of the <a href="../cathen/14209b.htm">Spartan</a> and of the Athenian system but this reactionary scheme met with no success.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>This problem, finally, was taken up by <a href="../cathen/01713a.htm">Aristotle</a> in the <em>Ethics</em> and the <em>Politics</em>. As in his philosophy, so in his educational theory, he departs from <a href="../cathen/12159a.htm">Plato's</a> teaching. The goal for the individual as well as for <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> is <a href="../cathen/07131b.htm">happiness</a>: "What we have to aim at is for the <a href="../cathen/07131b.htm">happiness</a> of each citizen, and <a href="../cathen/07131b.htm">happiness</a> consists in a complete activity and practice of virtue" (Politics, IV). More precisely, <a href="../cathen/07131b.htm">happiness</a> is "the conscious activity of the highest part of man according to the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> of his own excellence, not unaccompanied by adequate, external conditions." Merely to <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a> the good does not constitute virtue; this <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> must issue in practice the <a href="../cathen/06636b.htm">goodness</a> of the <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellect</a> (knowledge of universal <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a>) must be combined with <a href="../cathen/06636b.htm">goodness</a> of action. The three things which make men good and virtuous  nature, habit, and reason </p> <blockquote><p>must be in harmony with one another (for they do not always agree); men do many things against habit and nature, if reason persuades them that they ought. We have already determined what natures are likely to be most easily moulded by the hands of the legislator. All else is the work of education; we learn some things by habit and some by instruction. (Politics, Bk. VII) </p></blockquote> <p>Education, however, must always be adapted to the peculiar character of the State: "The citizen should be moulded to suit the form of government under which he lives" (ibid., VIII). And again, "It is right that the citizens should possess a capacity for affairs and for <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a>, but still more for the enjoyment of peace or leisure; right that they should be capable of such actions as are indispensable and salutary, but still more of such as are moral <em>per se</em>. It is with a view to these objects, then, that they should be educated while they are still children, and at all other ages, till they pass beyond the need of education" (ibid., IV). "Neither must we suppose that any one of the citizens belongs to himself, for they all belong to the State, and are each of them a part of the State, and the care of each part is inseparable from the care of the whole" (ibid., VII).</p> <p>In the theories of <a href="../cathen/12159a.htm">Plato</a> and <a href="../cathen/01713a.htm">Aristotle</a> are found the highest reaches of hellenic thought regarding the purpose and nature of education. Each of these great thinkers established <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> of <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophy</a>, and each has profoundly affected the thought of all subsequent time, yet neither succeeded in providing an education sound and permanent enought to avert the moral and political downfall of the nation. The diffusion of Greek thought and culture throughout the world by conquest and colonization was no remedy for the evils which sprang from an exaggerated <a href="../cathen/07761a.htm">individualism</a>. Once the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> was accepted that each man is his own standard of conduct, neither brilliancy of literary production nor fineness of philosophic speculation could prevent the decay of patriotism, and of a virtue which had never looked higher than the State for its sanction. <a href="../cathen/01713a.htm">Aristotle</a> himself, at the close of his <em>Ethics</em>, points out the radical difficulty:</p> <blockquote><p>Now if arguments and theories were able by themselves to make people good, they would, in the words of Theognis, be entitled to receive high and great rewards, and it is with theories that we should have to provide ourselves. But the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a> apparently is that, though they are strong enough to encourage and stimulate young men of liberal minds, though they are able to inspire with <a href="../cathen/06636b.htm">goodness</a> a character that is naturally noble and sincerely loves the beautiful, they are incapable of converting the mass of men to <a href="../cathen/06636b.htm">goodness</a> and beauty of character. </p></blockquote> <p>No such "conversion" was aimed at by the <a href="../cathen/14145c.htm">Sophists</a>. Appealing to the natural tendencies of the individual, they developed a spirit of selfishness which in turn broke out in discord, thus opening the way for the conquest of <a href="../cathen/06735a.htm">Greece</a> by Roman arms.</p> <h2>The Romans</h2> <p>In striking contrast with the Greek character, that of the Romans was practical, utilitarian, grave, austere. Their religion was serious, and it permeated their whole life, hallowing all its relations. The <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a>, especially, was far more sacred than in <a href="../cathen/14209b.htm">Sparta</a> or Athens, and the position of <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">woman</a> as wife and mother more exalted and influential. Still, as with the Greeks, the power of the father over the life of his child  <em>patria potestas</em>  was absolute, and, in the earlier period at least, the exposure of children was a common practice. In fact the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> of the Twelve Tables provided for the immediate destruction of deformed offspring and gave the father, during the whole life of his children, the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to imprison, sell, or slay them. Subsequently, however, a check was placed on such practices. The ideal at which the Roman aimed was neither harmony nor <a href="../cathen/07131b.htm">happiness</a>, but the performance of <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> and the maintenance of his <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a>. Yet this ideal was to be realized through service to the State. Deep as was the <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> feeling, it was always subordinate to devotion to the public weal. "Parents are dear," said Cicero, "and children and kindred, but all loves are bound up in the <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">love</a> of our common country" (DeOfficiis, I, 17). Education therefore was essentially a preparation for civic <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a>. "The children of the Romans are brought up that they may one day be able to be of service to the fatherland, and one must accordingly instruct them in the customs of the State and in the institutions of their ancestors. The fatherland has produced and brought us up that we may devote to its use the finest capacities of our mind, talent, and understanding. Therefore we must learn those arts whereby we may be of greatest service to the State; for that I hold to be the highest wisdom and <a href="../cathen/15472a.htm">virtue</a>."</p> <p>These words express, at any rate, the spirit of the early Roman education. The home was the early <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>, and the <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">parents</a> the only teachers. Of scientific and æsthetic training there was little or none. To learn the Laws of the Twelve Tables, to become familiar with the lives of the men who had made <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> great and to copy the virtues which he saw in the father were the chief endeavour of the boy and youth. Thus the moral element predominated, and virtues of a practical sort were inculcated: first of all <em>pietas</em>, obedience to <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">parents</a> and to the gods: then <a href="../cathen/12517b.htm">prudence</a>, fair dealing, <a href="../cathen/06147a.htm">courage</a>, reverence, firmness, and earnestness or <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophical</a> reasoning, but through the imitation of worthy models and, as far as possible, of living and concrete examples. <em>Vitæ discimus</em>, "We learn for life," said Seneca; and this phrase sums up the whole purpose of Roman education. In the course of <a href="../cathen/14726a.htm">time</a>, elementary <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> (<em>ludi</em>) were opened, but they were conducted by private teachers and were supplemented to the home instruction. About the middle of the third century B.C. foreign influence began to make themselves felt. The works of the Greeks translated into Latin, Greek teachers were introduced and <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> established in which the educational characteristics of the Greeks reappeared. Under the direction of the <em>literatus</em> and the <em>grammaticus</em> education took on a literary character, while in the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> of the <em>rhetor</em> the art of oratory was carefully cultivated. The importance which the Romans attached to eloquence is clearly shown by Cicero in his "De Oratore" and by Quintilian in his "Institutes"; to produce the orator became eventually the chief end of education. Quintilian's work, moreover, is the principal contribution to educational theory produced in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>. The hellenizing process was a gradual one. The vigorous Roman character yielded but slowly to the intellectualism of the Greeks, and when the latter finally triumphed, far-reaching changes had come about in Roman <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> government, and life. Whatever the causes of decline  political, <a href="../cathen/12213b.htm">economic</a>, or moral  they could not be stayed by the imported refinement of Greek thought and practice. Nevertheless, <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> education as a whole, with its ideals, successes, and failures, has a profound significance. It was the practical, that the world has known. It pursued in turn the ideals that appeal most strongly to the <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">human</a> <a href="../cathen/10321a.htm">mind</a>. It engaged the thought of the greatest <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophers</a> and the action of the wisest legislators. Art, <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">science</a>, and literature were placed at its service, and the mighty influence of the State was exerted in its behalf. In itself, therefore, and in its results, it shows how much and how little <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">human</a> <a href="../cathen/12673b.htm">reason</a> can accomplish when it seeks no guidance higher than itself and strives for no purposes other than those which find, or may find, their realization in the present phase of existence.</p> <h2>The Jews</h2> <p>Among the pre-Christian peoples the <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> occupy a unique position. As the recipients and custodians of <a href="../cathen/13001a.htm">Divine revelation</a>, their conception of life and morality were far above those of the <a href="../cathen/06422a.htm">Gentiles</a>. <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> manifested Himself to them directly as a Person, a Spirit, and an <a href="../cathen/05556a.htm">ethical</a> Being, guiding them by His providence, making known to them His will, and prescribing the minutest details of life and religious practice. Throughout the <a href="../cathen/14526a.htm">Old Testament</a>, <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> appears as the teacher of His chosen people. He sets before them a standard of righteousness which in none other than Himself: "You shall be holy, because I am holy" (<a href="../bible/lev011.htm#vrs46">Leviticus 11:46</a>). Through Moses and the Prophets He gives them His Commandments and the promises of a <a href="../cathen/10212c.htm">Messiah</a> to come. But He also placed upon them the <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> of instructing their children.</p> <blockquote><p>Hear, O <a href="../cathen/08193a.htm">Israel</a>, the <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">Lord our God</a> is one Lord. Thou shalt <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">love</a> the <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">Lord thy God</a> with thy whole heart, and with thy whole <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a>, and with they whole strength. And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart: and thou shalt tell them to thy children, and thou shalt <a href="../cathen/04324b.htm">meditate</a> upon them sitting in thy house, and walking on thy journey, sleeping and rising. (<a href="../bible/deu006.htm#vrs4">Deuteronomy 6:4-7</a>) </p></blockquote> <p>In accordance with this injunction, education, at least in the earlier period, was given chiefly in the home. Jewish <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> life, indeed, far surpassed that of the <a href="../cathen/06422a.htm">Gentiles</a> in the purity of its relations, in the position it secured to <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">woman</a>, and in the care which it bestowed on children, who were regarded as a blessing vouchsafed by <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> and destined for His service by fidelity to the <a href="../cathen/09071a.htm">Divine law</a>. An important function of the <a href="../cathen/14379b.htm">synagogue</a> also was the instruction of youth, which was committed to the scribes and the <a href="../cathen/05072b.htm">doctors</a>. Schools, as such, came into existence only in the later period, and even then the teaching was permeated by religion. Though the <a href="../cathen/14526a.htm">Old Testament</a>, contains no theory of education in the stricter sense, it abounds in maxims and principles which are all the more weighty because they are inspired by Divine wisdom and because they have a practical bearing upon life. <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> Himself showed the dignity of the teacher's office when he declared: "They that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the <a href="../cathen/06079b.htm">firmament</a>: and they that instruct many to <a href="../cathen/08571c.htm">justice</a>, as stars for all <a href="../cathen/05551b.htm">eternity</a>" (<a href="../bible/dan012.htm#vrs3">Daniel 12:3</a>). In the light, however, of a more perfect revelation, it is clear that <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God's</a> dealings with <a href="../cathen/08193a.htm">Israel</a> had an ultimate purpose which was to be realized "in the fullness of time." Not only the utterances of the Prophets, but many signal events in the history of the <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> and many of their ritual observances were types of the <a href="../cathen/10212c.htm">Messiah</a>; as <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a> says, "All these things happened to them in figure" (<a href="../bible/1co010.htm#vrs11">1 Corinthians 10:11</a>), and "The law was our pedagogue in Christ" (<a href="../bible/gal003.htm#vrs24">Galatians 3:24</a>). As the Supreme Teacher of <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">mankind</a>, <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, while imparting to them the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a> which they presently needed, also prepared the way for the greater <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truths</a> of the Gospel.</p> <h2>Christian education</h2> <p>As in many other respects so for the work of education, the advent of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> is the most important epoch in the history of <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">mankind</a>. Not only does the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> conception of life differ radically from the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> view, not only does the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> teaching impart a new sort of <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> and lay down a new principle of action, but <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>, moreover, supplies the effectual means of making its ideals actual and of carrying its <a href="../cathen/12372b.htm">precepts</a> into practice. Through all vicissitudes of conflict and adjustment, of changing civilizations and varying opinions, in spite even of the shortcomings of its own adherents, <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> has steadfastly held up before men the life and the lessons of its Divine Founder.</p> <h3>Jesus Christ as teacher</h3> <p>"God who, at sundry-times and in divers manners, spoke in times past to the fathers by the <a href="../cathen/12477a.htm">prophets</a>, last of all, in these days hath spoken to us by his Son" (<a href="../bible/heb001.htm#vrs1">Hebrews 1:1-2</a>). This communication through the <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">God-Man</a> was to reveal the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> way of living: "The grace of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">God our Saviour</a> hath appeared to all men; instructing us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly, and justly, and godly in this world, looking for the blessed hope and coming of the great <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> and our <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Saviour Jesus Christ</a>" (<a href="../bible/tit002.htm#vrs11">Titus 2:11-12</a>). Of Himself and His mission Christ declared, "I am come a light into the world; that whosoever <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">believeth</a> in me, may not remain in darkness" (<a href="../bible/joh012.htm#vrs46">John 12:46</a>); and again, "For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a>" (<a href="../bible/joh018.htm#vrs37">John 18:37</a>). The <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> which He came to impart was no mere <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellectual</a> possession or theory: "I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly" (<a href="../bible/joh010.htm#vrs10">John 10:10</a>). He taught therefore, as one "having authority"; He insisted that His heirs should believe the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truths</a> which He taught, even though these might seem to be "hard sayings." His doctrines, indeed, made no appeal either to <a href="../cathen/12405a.htm">pride</a> of <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellect</a> or to selfishness or to passion. For the most part, as in the Sermon on the Mount, they were dramatically opposed to the maxims that had obtained in the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> world. They were, in the highest sense, <a href="../cathen/14336b.htm">supernatural</a>, not only in proposing eternal life as the ultimate goal of man's existence and action, but also in enjoining the denial of self as the chief requisite for attaining that destiny. Service to the neighbor was insisted upon, but this was to be rendered in the spirit of <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">love</a>, the new commandments which Christ gave (<a href="../bible/joh013.htm#vrs34">John 13:34</a>). Faithfulness also to civic <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> was required, but the sanction which imparted force to such <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligation</a> was man's elevation to a higher citizenship in the Kindgom of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>. To strive after this and to realize it in one's earthly life, so far as possible, was the ideal to which every other good was subordinate; "Seek ye first the <a href="../cathen/08646a.htm">kingdom of God</a>, and his <a href="../cathen/08571c.htm">justice</a>, and all these things shall be added unto you" (<a href="../bible/mat006.htm#vrs33">Matthew 6:33</a>).</p> <p>Truths of this kind, so far removed from the natural tendencies of human thought and desire, could be imparted only by one who embodied in himself all the qualifications of a perfect teacher. The <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophers</a> no <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> might, and did, formulate beautiful theories regarding <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> and virtue; but Christ alone could say to His disciples: "I am the way, the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a>, and the life" (<a href="../bible/joh014.htm#vrs6">John 14:6</a>). And whatever worth they attached in theory to <a href="../cathen/11727b.htm">personality</a> was of far less ideal in <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ's</a> own Person. He could thus rightfully appeal to that imitative tendency which is so deeply rooted in <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">man's</a> nature and from which so much is expected in modern education. The axiom, also, that we learn by doing and that <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> gets its full value only when it issues in action, finds its best exemplification in <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ's</a> dealings with His disciples. He "began to do and to teach" (<a href="../bible/act001.htm#vrs1">Acts 1:1</a>). In His <a href="../cathen/10338a.htm">miracles</a> he gave evidence of His power over all nature and therefore of His authority to require <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> in His words: "The works themselves which I do give testimony of me, that the Father hath sent me" (<a href="../bible/joh005.htm#vrs36">John 5:36</a>). To His disciples, when they hesitated or were slow to realize that the Father abided in Him, the answer was given: "Otherwise believe for the very works' sake" (xiv, 12). What He demanded in turn was no mere outward profession of <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> or loyalty: "Not every one that saith to me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the <a href="../cathen/08646a.htm">kingdom of heaven</a>; but he that doth the will of my Father" (<a href="../bible/mat007.htm#vrs21">Matthew 7:21</a>).</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>The necessity of manifesting <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">belief</a> through action is constantly pointed out both in the literal teaching of Christ and in His parables. These, again, illustrate His practical wisdom as a teacher. They were drawn from objects and circumstances with which His hearers were familiar. In each instance they were adapted to the manner of thinking suggested by the local surroundings and the customs of the people; and they were often called forth by an incident that seemed unimportant or by a question which was asked now by His followers and again by His tireless enemies. Thus the simplest things of nature  the vine, the lily, the fig-tree, the birds of the air, and the grass of the field  were made to yield lessons of the deepest moral significance. His aim was not to adorn His own discourse, but rather to bring its content into the minds of his hearers more vividly, and to secure for it greater permanence by associating in their thought some <a href="../cathen/14336b.htm">supernatural</a> <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a> with the facts of daily experience. Sensory perception, memory, and <a href="../cathen/07672a.htm">imagination</a> were thus developed to form a <a href="../cathen/10321a.htm">mental</a> setting for the great <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truths</a> of the Kindgom. The same principle found its appreciation in the institution of the <a href="../cathen/13295a.htm">sacraments</a> whereby natural elements are made the outward signs of inward grace. As <a href="../cathen/08452b.htm">St. John Chrysostom</a> aptly says,</p> <blockquote><p>If you were incorporeal, he would have bestowed on you incorporeal gifts in their bare reality; but because the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> is bound up with the body, he gives you intelligible things under sensible forms. (Homilia, lx, as populum Antioch) </p></blockquote> <p>In fact the whole teaching of Christ is the clearest <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proof</a> of the principle that education must adapt itself in method and practice to the needs of those who are to be taught. In accordance with this principle He prepared the minds of His followers beforehand for the institution of the <a href="../cathen/05572c.htm">Holy Eucharist</a> for His own death, and for the coming of the <a href="../cathen/07409a.htm">Holy Ghost</a> (<a href="../bible/joh006.htm#vrs14">John 6:14-15</a>); and he even reserved certain <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truths</a> to be made known by the <a href="../cathen/11469a.htm">Paraclete</a>: "I have yet many things to say to you: but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a>, is come, he will teach you all <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a>" (xvi, 12, 13). Thus the completion of His work as a teacher is left not to human conjecture or speculation, nor to the theories of <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophical</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, but to the <a href="../cathen/07409a.htm">Spirit of God</a> Himself. This of course was best realized by those who were nearest to Him; yet even those of the <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> who were not among the Apostles, but were, like <a href="../cathen/11066b.htm">Nicodemus</a>, disposed to judge fairly, confessed His superiority: "We <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">know</a> that thou art come a teacher from <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>; for no man can do these signs which thou dost, unless <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> be with him" (<a href="../bible/joh003.htm#vrs2">John 3:2</a>).</p> <h3>The aim of Christian education</h3> <p>Had <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ's</a> mission ended when He quitted the earth, He would still have been in word and work the ideal teacher, and would have influenced for all time the education of <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">mankind</a> so far as its ultimate aims and basic principles are concerned. But as a matter of fact, He made ample provision for the perpetuation of His work by training a select body of men who for three years were constantly under His direction and were thoroughly imbued with His spirit. To these Apostles, moreover He gave the command: "Going therefore, teach ye all nations . . . . and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world" (<a href="../bible/mat027.htm#vrs19">Matthew 27:19-20</a>). These words are the charter of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Christian Church</a> as a teaching institution. While they refer directly to the <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">doctrine</a> of <a href="../cathen/13407a.htm">salvation</a>, and therefore to the imparting of religious <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a>, they nevertheless, or rather by the very nature of that <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a> and its consequences for life, carry with them the <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligation</a> of insisting on certain principles and maintaining certain characteristics which have a decisive bearing on all educational problems.</p> <p>1. The <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a> of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> is to be made known to all men. It is not confined to any one race or nation or class, nor is it to be the exclusive possession of highly gifted <a href="../cathen/10321a.htm">minds</a>. This characteristic of <em>universality</em> is in plain contrast with the highest conceptions of the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> world. The cultured Greek had only contempt for the barbarian, and the Roman looked upon outside nations a subjects to be governed rather than as people to be taught. But at <a href="../cathen/02046a.htm">Athens</a> also and at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> there was the distinction between free citizens and slaves, in consequence of which the latter were excluded from the benefits of education. As against these narrow limitations Christ charged His apostles to "teach all men"; and <a href="../cathen/11567b.htm">St. Paul</a>, in the same spirit, professes himself a debtor to all men, Greeks and barbarians, the wise and the unwise alike. All, in fact, were to be dealt with as children of the same Heavenly Father and heirs of the <a href="../cathen/08646a.htm">Kingdom of God</a>. In respect of these <a href="../cathen/14336b.htm">supernatural</a> perogatives, the distinctions which had hitherto prevailed were set aside: <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> appeared as one vast <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> with <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">mankind</a> at large for its disciples.</p> <p>2. The commission given to the Apostles was not to expire with them; it was to remain in force "all days, even to the consummation of the world." <em>Perpetuity</em>, therefore, is an essential feature in the educational work of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>. The institution of <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">paganism</a> had indeed flourished and advanced from phase to phase of development, but they did not contain the element of enduring vitality. In the higher departments of learning, as in <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophy</a>, <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> had followed <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> into vigour and into decay. And in education itself, one ideal after another had been put forward only to be displaced. <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>, on the contrary, while it could never become a rigid system, held up to <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">mankind</a> certain unchangeable <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truths</a> which should serve as criteria for determining the value of every fundamental theory of life and of education. By insisting, especially, that man's destiny was to be attained, not in any form of temporal service or success but in union with <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, it proposed an ideal which should be valid for all time and amid all the variations of human thought and endeavour. That such changes would inevitably come to pass, <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>, without <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a>, foresaw. In view of these, a merely human teacher would have provided for the stability of his work by devices which would, if successful, have attested his foresight, or shrewdness, or <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> of <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">human</a> <a href="../cathen/10715a.htm">nature</a>. But Christ's guarantee to the Apostles is at once simpler and surer: "Behold I am with you all days." The task of instructing the world in <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a> would have been impossible but for this permanent abiding of Christ with His appointed teachers. On the other hand, once the force of His promise is realized, the significance of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> as a perpetual institution becomes evident: it means that Christ, Himself through a visible agency was to continue for all time the work He began during His earthly life as Teacher of the <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">human race</a>.</p> <p>3. It has already been pointed out that some of the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> peoples, and notably the Greeks, had attained a very high conception of <em>personality</em>; and it has also been shown that this conception was by no means perfect. The teaching of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> in this respect is so far superior to any other that if a single element could be designated as fundamental in <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> education it would be the emphasis which it lays on the worth of the individual. In the first place, <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> had its origin, not in any abstract speculation as to <a href="../cathen/06636b.htm">goodness</a> or virtue, but in the actual, concrete life of a Person who was absolutely perfect. It was not, then, <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> to cast about for the ideal man, or to present a theory as to what that ideal might possibly be: it passed the most exalted <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a> of human wisdom. In Christ first appeared the full dignity of <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">human</a> <a href="../cathen/10715a.htm">nature</a> through its elevation personal union with the Word of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>; and in Him, as never before or since, were manifest those traits which furnish the noblest models for imitation.</p> <p><a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>, furthermore, elevated human <a href="../cathen/11727b.htm">personality</a> by the value it set upon each human <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> as created by <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> and destined for eternal life. The State is no longer the supreme arbiter, nor is service to the public weal the ultimate standard. These, it is <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> within their legitimate sphere have just claims upon the individual. <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> by no means teaches that such claims can be disregarded or the corresponding <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duties</a> neglected, but rather that the discharge of all social and civic <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligations</a> will be more thorough when subordinated to, and inspired by, fidelity in the <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duties</a> that man owes to <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>. While the value of <a href="../cathen/11727b.htm">personality</a> is thus enhanced, the sense of responsibility is correspondingly increased; so that the freer development of the <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">person</a> is not allowed to culminate in selfishness nor in that extreme <a href="../cathen/07761a.htm">individualism</a> which is a threat to social organization.</p> <p>4. From these principles <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> drew consequences which were totally at variance with the thought and practice of <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">paganism</a>. The position of <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">woman</a> was lifted at once to a higher plane; she ceased to be a chattel, or a mere instrument of passion, and became the equal of man, with the same personal worth and the same eternal destiny. Marriage was no longer a union entered into through caprice or convention, but an indissoluble bond involving mutual <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> and <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duties</a>. Moreover, it was raised to the dignity of a sacrament, which not only sanctified the marital relation and its purposes, but also conferred the <a href="../cathen/06689a.htm">graces</a> needful for the due fulfilment of its <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligations</a>. The whole meaning of the <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> was thus transformed. Parental authority was indeed maintained, but such an exercise of the patria potestas as the destruction or the exposure of children could not have been tolerated once it was realized that the child's <a href="../cathen/11727b.htm">personality</a> also is sacred, and that <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">parents</a> are responsible not simply to the State, but also to <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, for the proper education of their offspring. <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>, moreover, laid upon the child the <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> of respecting and obeying his <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">parents</a>, not out of servile fear or hard necessity, but through a spirit of reverence and filial <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">love</a>. The ties of home-life were thereby strengthened, and the whole work of education took on a new character because it was <a href="../cathen/04276a.htm">consecrated</a> in its very source by religion.</p> <p>5. In respect of its content <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> opened up to the <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">human</a> <a href="../cathen/10321a.htm">mind</a> wide realms of <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a> which unaided reason could not possibly have attained, and which nevertheless are of far deeper import for life than the most learned speculations of <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> thought. Upon those <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truths</a>, also, which the <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophers</a> had but vaguely discerned, or about which they had remained in <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a>, it shed a new light. There could be no further questioning, for the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a>, as to the existence of a personal <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, the reality of His providence, the <a href="../cathen/07687a.htm">immortality</a> of the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a>, the freedom of the will, and the resulting accountability of man to Divine Justice. Above all, the nature of the moral order was set forth in unmistakable terms. <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> insisted that morality was not mere outward conformity to custom or law, but the inner rectitude of the will, that æsthetic refinement was of far less consequence than purity of heart, and that <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">love</a> of the neighbour as proven in deed, not personal gain or advantage, was the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">true</a> norm of human relationships. That such a conception of life, with its emphasis on really spiritual aims, must lead to the formation of educational ideals unknown to the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> world, is obvious. But on the other hand it would be wrong to infer that <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>, in its "other worldliness", reduces or neglects the values of the present life. What it consistently maintains is, that life here gets it highest value by serving as a preparation for the life to come. The question is not whether one should live now without any regard to the future or look forward to the future with no concern for the present; but rather how one should profit by the opportunities of this life in such wise as as to secure the other. The problems, then, is one of establishing proportions, i.e. of determining values according to the standard of man's eternal destiny. When education is defined as "preparation for complete living" (Herbert Spencer), the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> can take no objection to the words as they stand; but he will insist that no living can be "complete" which leaves out of consideration the ultimate purpose of life, and hence that no education really "prepares" which thwarts that purpose or sets it aside. It is just this completeness  in teaching all men in harmonizing all <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truths</a>, in elevating all relationships, and in leading the individual <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a> back to the Creator  that forms the essential characteristic of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> as an educational influence.</p> <h2>The educational work of the Church</h2> <p>Next in importance to <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ's</a> personal teaching was the establishment of a teaching body whose mission was identical with His own: "As the Father hath sent me, I also send you" (<a href="../bible/joh020.htm#vrs21">John 20:21</a>); and "He that heareth you, heareth me" (<a href="../bible/luk010.htm#vrs16">Luke 10:16</a>). He was not content with proclaiming once for all the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truths</a> of the Gospel, nor did He leave its wider dissemination to individual enthusiasm or initiative; He founded a Church to carry on His work. The spread of His <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">doctrine</a> was entrusted, not to books, nor to <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> of <a href="../cathen/12025c.htm">philosophy</a>, nor to the governments of the world, but to an organization that spoke in His name and with his authority. No other body of teachers ever undertook so vast a work, and no other ever accomplished so much for education in the highest sense. Apart from the preaching of the Apostles, the earliest form of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> instruction was that given to the <a href="../cathen/03430b.htm">catechumens</a> in preparation for <a href="../cathen/02258b.htm">baptism</a>. Its object was twofold: to impart a <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a>, and to train the candidate in the practice of religion. It was conducted by the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> and, as the number of <a href="../cathen/03430b.htm">catechumens</a> increased, by <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, <a href="../cathen/04647c.htm">deacons</a>, and other <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clerics</a>. Until the third century this mode of instruction was an important adjunct to the Apostolate; but in the fifth and sixth centuries it was gradually replaced by private instruction of the converts, who were then less numerous, and by the training given in other <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> to those who had been <a href="../cathen/02258b.htm">baptized</a> in infancy. The catechumenal <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, however, gave expression to the spirit which was to animate all subsequent <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> education: they were open to every one who accepted the <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a>, and they united religious instruction with moral discipline. The "catechetical" <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, also under the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop's</a> supervision, prepared young <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clerics</a> for the <a href="../cathen/12409a.htm">priesthood</a>. The courses of study included philosophy and <a href="../cathen/14580x.htm">theology</a>, and naturally took on an apologetic character in defense of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a> against the attacks of <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> learning. One of the oldest of these <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> was at the Lateran in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>; the most famous was that of Alexandria (see <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE</a>).</p> <p>In addition to this formal instruction, the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> from the beginning carried on through her worship and educational work embodying the deepest and soundest <a href="../cathen/12545b.htm">psychological</a> principles. The ritual at first was of necessity simple; but as the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> was allowed a larger freedom, and her worship passed from the <a href="../cathen/03417b.htm">catacombs</a> to the basilica, statelier forms were introduced; yet their essential purpose was the same. The Mass, which has always been the central <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> function, appeals to the mind through the medium of sense. It combines light and colour and sound, the action of the <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priest</a>, and the dramatic movement that fills the sanctuary, especially in the more solemn service. Beneath these outward forms lies the inner meaning. The altar itself, in every detail, is full of a symbolism that brings vividly to mind the life and <a href="../cathen/11727b.htm">personality</a> of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>, the work of <a href="../cathen/12677d.htm">redemption</a>, and the enduring sacrifice of the Cross. In due proportion, each item fo the liturgy conveys a lesson through eye and ear to the highest faculties of the <a href="../cathen/14153a.htm">soul</a>. Sense, memory, <a href="../cathen/07672a.htm">imagination</a>, and feeling are thus aroused, not simply as æsthetic activities, but as a support of <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellect</a> and will which thereupon issue in adoration and thanksgiving for the "mystery of <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a>." On the other hand, the liturgy has always included in its purpose the participation of the <a href="../cathen/05769a.htm">faithful</a>, and hence it prescribes the response of the people to the <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> at the altar, the chanting of certain portions of the service, bodily postures and movements in keeping with the various phases of the sacred rite. The faithful are not merely bystanders or onlookers; they are not to maintain a passive, receptive attitude, but rather to give active expression to the <a href="../cathen/12738a.htm">religious</a> thought and feeling aroused in them. This is especially evident in the sacramental system. While each of the <a href="../cathen/13295a.htm">sacraments</a> is a sign to be perceived, it is also a source of grace to be received; and the reception involves in each case a series of actions which manifest the <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> and disposition of the recipent. Moreover, each sacrament is adapted to some particular need, and the whole system for <a href="../cathen/13295a.htm">sacraments</a>, from <a href="../cathen/02258b.htm">baptism</a> to extreme unction, builds up the spiritual life by processes of cleansing, strengthening, nourishing, and healing, which parallel the stage and requirements of organic growth.</p> <p>In a larger way, also, the <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> year, as it commemorates the principal events in the life of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>, brings into <a href="../cathen/15710a.htm">Christian worship</a> a variety which affects to some extent both the details of the liturgy itself and the religious feelings which it inspires  from the <a href="../cathen/07131b.htm">joy</a> of <a href="../cathen/03724b.htm">Christmas</a> to the triumph of <a href="../cathen/05224d.htm">Easter</a> and Pentecost. For the due observance of the greater festivals the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> provides, as in <a href="../cathen/01165a.htm">Advent</a> and <a href="../cathen/09152a.htm">Lent</a>, by seasons of preparation. The <a href="../cathen/10582c.htm">Old Law</a> with its types foreshadowed the New; the Baptist announce the <a href="../cathen/10212c.htm">Messiah</a>; Christ himself prepared His disciples beforehand for the mystery of the Eucharist, for His death, and for the coming of the <a href="../cathen/07409a.htm">Holy Ghost</a>. The <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, following the same practice arouses in the mind of the faithful those thoughts and feelings which form an apperceptive preparation for the central mysteries of <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> and their proper observance at appointed times. Along with these greater solemnities come year by year the commemorations of the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">Christian heroes</a>, the men and <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> who have walked in the footsteps of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>, laboured for the spread of His kingdom, or even shed their blood for His sake. These are held up as models to be imitated, as realizations more or less perfect of the sublime ideal which is <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a> Himself. And among the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saints</a> the foremost place is given to <a href="../cathen/15464b.htm">Mary the Mother of Christ</a>, the ideal of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> womanhood, to whom the <a href="../cathen/14142b.htm">Son of God</a> was "subject" in the home at <a href="../cathen/10725a.htm">Nazareth</a>. Each festival in her <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a> is at once an exhortation to copy her virtues and an evidence of the high station to which <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">woman</a> was raised by <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>. The liturgy, then, is an application on a large scale of those principles which underlie all real teaching  appeal to the senses, association, apperception, expression, and imitation. The <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> did not began by theorizing about these, nor did she wait for a <a href="../cathen/12545b.htm">psychological</a> analysis to determine their value. Instructed by her founder, she simply incorporated in her liturgy those elements which were best fitted to teach men the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a> and lead them to act in conformity with the Gospel. It is none the less significant that modern education is adopting for its own purposes, i.e. the teaching of secular subjects, the <a href="../cathen/12545b.htm">psychological</a> principles which the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> from the beginning has put into practice.</p> <p>While the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, in her interior life and in the execution of her mission, gave <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proof</a> of her vitality and of her ability to teach mankind, she necessarily came into contact with influences and practices which were the legacy of <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">paganism</a>. In point of religious <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">belief</a> there was, of course, a clean breach between the <a href="../cathen/12223b.htm">polytheism</a> of <a href="../cathen/02046a.htm">Athens</a> and <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> and the <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">doctrines of Christianity</a>. But philosophy and literature were factors which had to be counted with as well as the educational system, which was still largely under <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> control. Schools had been opened by converts who were imbued with the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">ideas</a> of Greek philosophy  by <a href="../cathen/08580c.htm">Justin</a> at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, and Aristides at <a href="../cathen/02046a.htm">Athens</a>; while, at Alexandria, Clement and <a href="../cathen/11306b.htm">Origen</a> enjoyed the highest repute. These men regarded philosophy as a means of guiding reason to <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a>, and of defending that <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> against the attacks of <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">paganism</a>. Others again, like <a href="../cathen/14520c.htm">Tertullian</a>, condemned philosophy outright as something with which the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> could have nothing to do. In regard to the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> classics the conflict of opinion was even sharper. Some of the greatest <a href="../cathen/14580a.htm">theologians</a> and Fathers, like <a href="../cathen/02330b.htm">St. Basil</a>, <a href="../cathen/07010b.htm">St. Gregory Nazianzen</a>, and <a href="../cathen/07016a.htm">St. Gregory of Nyssa</a>, had studied the classics under <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> masters and were therefore in favour of sending <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> youths to non-Christian <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> on the ground that literary studies would enable them the better to defend their religion. At the same time these Fathers would not permit a <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> to teach in such <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> lest he should be <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> to take part in <a href="../cathen/07636a.htm">idolatrous</a> practices. <a href="../cathen/14520c.htm">Tertullian</a> (de Idolatriâ, c. x) insists on the same distinction, the teacher, he says, by reason of his authority, becomes in a way the "catechist of <a href="../cathen/04710a.htm">demons</a>"; the pupil, imbued with <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a>, profits by the letter of classical instruction, but rejects its <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">false doctrine</a> and holds aloof from the <a href="../cathen/14339a.htm">superstitious</a> practices which the teacher can hardly avoid. Such a distinction was naturally the source of difficulties and gave rise to much discussion. The situation was not remedied by the edict of <a href="../cathen/08558b.htm">Julian the Apostate</a>, forbidding the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> to teach; though this called forth some protests and suggested the creation of a <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> literature based on classical models of style, nothing decisive resulted. On the other hand, fear of the corrupting influence of <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> literature had more and more alienated <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> from such studies; and it is not surprising to find among the opponents of the classics such men as <a href="../cathen/08452b.htm">St. John Chrysostom</a>, <a href="../cathen/01383c.htm">St. Ambrose</a>, St. Jerome, and <a href="../cathen/02084a.htm">St. Augustine</a>. Though they had received a thorough classical education, and though they appreciated fully the worth of the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> authors, their final attitude was adverse to the study of <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> literature. Apart from many controverted points in this subject, it is clear that the Fathers, at a time when the enviroment of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> was still <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a>, were far more anxious for the purity of <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> and <a href="../cathen/10559a.htm">morals</a> than for the cultivation of literature. In later ages, as the danger of contamination grew less, classical studies were revived and encouraged by the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>; but their value has more than once been questioned (see Lalanne, Influence des Pères de l'Englise sur l'éducation publique, <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> 1850).</p> <p>Meanwhile the work of education was not neglected. If the Empire gave way before barbarian invasion, the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> found a new field of activity among the vigorous races of the North. To these she brought not only <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> and civilization, but also the best elements of classical culture. Through her missionaries she became the teacher of <a href="../cathen/06484b.htm">Germany</a> and <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, of <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a> and <a href="../cathen/08098b.htm">Ireland</a>. The task was a difficult one, and its accomplishment was marked by many vicissitudes of temporary failure and hard-won success. At times, indeed, it would seem that the desire for learning had quite disappeared even among those for whom the acquisition of <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> was a sacred <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligation</a>. Yet these drawbacks only served to stimulate the <a href="../cathen/15753a.htm">zeal</a> of <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> and civil rulers in behalf of a more thorough and systematic education. Thus the salient feature of the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a> is the co-operation of <a href="../cathen/14250c.htm">Church and State</a> for the development of <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>. Theodoric in <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>, Alfred in <a href="../cathen/05445a.htm">England</a>, and <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a> in the <a href="../cathen/06238a.htm">Frankish</a> Kingdom are illustrious examples of princes who joined their authority with that of <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> and councils to secure adequate instruction for <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> and people. Among <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">churchmen</a> it suffices to mention <a href="../cathen/03729b.htm">Chrodegand of Metz</a>, <a href="../cathen/01276a.htm">Alcuin</a>, <a href="../cathen/02384a.htm">St. Bede</a>, <a href="../cathen/02610b.htm">Boethius</a>, and <a href="../cathen/03405c.htm">Cassiodorus</a> (see the several articles). As a result of their efforts, education was provided for the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> in the <a href="../cathen/03438a.htm">cathedral</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> under the direct supervision of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishop</a> and for the <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">laity</a> in <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parochial</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> to which all had access. In the curriculum, religion held the first place; other subjects were few and elementary, comprising at best the <em>trivium</em> and <em>quadrivium</em> (see <a href="../cathen/01760a.htm">THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS</a>). But the significance of this education lies not so much in its content as in the fact that it was the means of arousing a <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">love</a> of learning among peoples that had just emerged from barbarism, and of laying the foundations of Western culture and <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">science</a>. This history of education records no greater undertaking; for the task was not one of improving or perfecting, but of creating and had not the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> gone vigorously about her work, modern civilization would have been retarded for centuries. (See <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">SCHOOLS</a>; <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">MIDDLE AGES</a>.)</p> <p>One of the chief factors in this progress was <a href="../cathen/10459a.htm">monasticism</a>. The <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictine</a> <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> especially were homes of study and depositories of the ancient learning. Not only sympathetic writers, like <a href="../cathen/10513b.htm">Montalembert</a>, but those also who are more critical, acknowledge the service which the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> rendered to education.</p> <blockquote><p>In those restless ages of rude culture, of constant <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">warfare</a>, of perpetual lawlessness and the rule of might, monasticism offered the one opportunity for a life of repose, of contemplation, and of that leisure and relief from the ordinary vulgar but <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duties</a> of life essential to the student . . . . Thus it happened that the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> were the sole <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> for teaching; they offered the only professional training; they were the only <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">universities</a> of research; they alone served as publishing houses for the multiplication of books; they were the only <a href="../cathen/09227b.htm">libraries</a> for the preservation of learning; they produced the only scholars; they were the sole <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">educational institutions</a> of this period. (Paul Monroe, A Text-Book in the History of Education, New York, 1907, p. 255) </p></blockquote> <p>In addition to their prescribed studies, the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> were constantly occupied in copying the classic texts.</p> <blockquote><p>While the Greek classics owed their safe preservation to the <a href="../cathen/09227b.htm">libraries</a> of Constantinople and to the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of the East, it is primarily to the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of the West that we are indebted for the survival of the Latin classics. (Sandys, <em>A History of Classical Scholarship</em>, 2nd ed. Cambridge, 1906, p. 617) </p></blockquote> <p>The specific work of education was carried on in the <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> and was intended primarily for the <a href="../cathen/11144a.htm">novices</a>. In some cases, however, a <em>schola exterior</em>, or outer <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> was added for lay students and for aspirants to the <a href="../cathen/13675a.htm">secular priesthood</a>. The course of study included, besides the seven liberal arts, the reading of Latin authors and the music of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. Finally, through their annals and chronicles, the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> provided a rich store of information concerning <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> life, which is invaluable to the historian of that period. The Chief importance, however, of the <a href="../cathen/10459a.htm">monastic</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> is found in the fact that they were conducted by an organized body of teachers who had withdrawn from the world and devoted their lives under the guidance of religion, to literary pursuits and educational work. The same <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> that had sanctified the <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> now gave to the profession of teacher a sacredness and a dignity which made teaching itself a noble vocation.</p> <p>Two other movements form the climax of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church's</a> activity during the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a>. The development of <a href="../cathen/13548a.htm">Scholasticism</a> meant the revival of Greek philosophy, and in particular of <a href="../cathen/01713a.htm">Aristotle</a>; but it also meant that philosophy was now to serve the cause of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a>. Men of <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> and learning like <a href="../cathen/01264a.htm">Albertus Magnus</a> and <a href="../cathen/14663b.htm">Thomas Aquinas</a>, far from dreading or scorning the products of Greek thought, sought to make them the rational basis of <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">belief</a>. A synthesis was thus effected between the highest speculation of the <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> world and the teachings of <a href="../cathen/14580x.htm">theology</a>. <a href="../cathen/13548a.htm">Scholasticism</a>, moreover, was a distinct advance in the work of education; it was an <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellectual</a> training in method, in systematic thought, in severe <a href="../cathen/09324a.htm">logical</a> reasoning, and in accuracy of statement. But taken as a whole, it furnished a great object-lesson, the purport of which was that, for the keenest <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellect</a>, the findings of reason and the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truths</a> of Revelation could be harmonized. Having used the subtilities of Greek thought to sharpen the student's mind, the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> thereupon presented to him her <a href="../cathen/05089a.htm">dogmas</a> without the least fear of contradiction. She thus united in a consistent whole whatever was best in <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">science</a> and culture with the <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">doctrine</a> entrusted to her by <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Christ</a>. If education be rightly defined as "the transmission of our <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellectual</a> and spiritual inheritance" (Butler), this definition is fully exemplified in the work of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> during the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">Middle Ages</a>.</p> <p>The same synthetic spirit took concrete form in the <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">universities</a>. In founding these the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> and the secular rulers co-operated; in <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">university</a> teaching all the then known branches of <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">science</a> were represented; the student body comprised all classes, <a href="../cathen/08748a.htm">laymen</a> and <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clerics</a>, seculars and religious; and the diploma conferred was an authorization to teach everywhere. The <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">university</a> was thus, in the educational sphere, the highest expression of that completeness which had all along characterized the teaching of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>; and the spirit of inquiry which animated the <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">university</a> remains, in spite of other modification, the essential element in the <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">university</a> of modern times. The changes which have since taken place have for the most part resulted in separating those elements which the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> had built into a harmonious unity. As <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestantism</a> by rejecting the principle of authority brought about innumerable divisions in <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">belief</a>, so it led the way to rupture between Church and state in the work of education. The <a href="../cathen/12765b.htm">Renaissance</a> in its extreme forms ranked <a href="../cathen/11388a.htm">pagan</a> culture above everything else; and the <a href="../cathen/12700b.htm">Reformation</a> in its fundamental tenet went beyond the <a href="../cathen/07761a.htm">individualism</a> which led to the decline of Greek education. Once the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> were secularized, they fell readily under influences which transformed ideals, systems, and methods. Philosophy detached from <a href="../cathen/14580a.htm">theology</a> formulated new theories of life and its values, that moved, at first slowly then more rapidly away from the positive teachings of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>. Science in turn cast off its allegiance to philosopy and finally proclaimed itself the only sort of <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> worth seeking. The most serious practical result was the separation of moral and religious from purely <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellectual</a> education  a result which was due in part to religious differences and political changes, but also in large part to <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">erroneous</a> views concerning the nature and need of moral training. Such views again are in general derived from the denial, explicit or implicit, of the <a href="../cathen/14336b.htm">supernatural order</a> and of its meaning for <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">human</a> <a href="../cathen/09238c.htm">life</a> in its relations to <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>; so that, during three centuries past, the main endeavour outside the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> has been to establish education on a purely naturalistic basis, whether this be æsthetic culture or scientific <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a>, individual perfection or social service. In its earlier stages <a href="../cathen/12495a.htm">Protestantism</a>, which laid so much stress on <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a>, could not consistently have sanctioned an education from which <a href="../cathen/12738a.htm">religious</a> ideals were eliminated. But according to its principles worked out to their legitimate consequences, it became less and less capable of opposing the naturalistic movement. The <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> has thus been <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> to carry on, with little or no help from other <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> bodies, the struggle in behalf of those <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truths</a> on which <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a> is founded; and her educational work during the modern period may be described in general terms as the steadfast maintenance of the union between the natural and the <a href="../cathen/14336b.htm">supernatural</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>From a human point of view the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> was under many disadvantages. The loss of the <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">universities</a>, the confiscation of monastic and other ecclesiatical <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a>, and the opposition of various governments seemed to make her task hopeless. Yet these difficulties only served to call forth new manifestations of her vitality. The <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a> gave the impulse by decreeing that a more thorough education of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> should be secured through the <a href="../cathen/13694a.htm">seminaries</a> and by urging upon <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> and <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a> the <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> of building up the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parochial</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>. Similar measures were adopted by provincial and <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">diocesan</a> symbols throughout <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a>. Then came the <a href="../cathen/12748b.htm">religious</a> orders founded for the express purpose of education <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> youth. (See especially <a href="../cathen/08056a.htm">INSTITUTE OF THE BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS</a>; <a href="../cathen/14081a.htm">SOCIETY OF JESUS</a>; ORATORIANS.) And to these finally must be added the numerous congregations of <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> who devoted their lives to the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> training of girls. However different in organization and method, these institutions had for their common purpose the spread of religious <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a> along with secular <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> among all classes. Thus there arose, by force of circumstances, a distinctly <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> system of education, including <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parish</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, academics, colleges, and a certain number of <a href="../cathen/15188a.htm">universities</a> which had remained under the control of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> were founded anew by the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>. It is especially the <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parochial</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> that has served in recent times as an essential factor in the work of religion. In some countries, e.g. <a href="../cathen/03227a.htm">Canada</a>, it has received support from the Government; in others, as in the <a href="../cathen/15156a.htm">United States</a> it is maintained by <a href="../cathen/15506a.htm">voluntary</a> contributions. As <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> have also to pay their share of taxes for the public <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> system they are under a double burden; but this very hardship has only served to place in clearer light their practical loyalty to the principles on which <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> education is based. In fact, the whole <a href="../cathen/11499b.htm">parochial</a> <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> movement during the nineteenth century forms one of the most remarkable chapters in the history of education. It proves on one side that neither loss of the State's co-operation nor lack of material resources can weaken the determination of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> to carry on her educational work; and on the other side it shows what <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> and devotional on the part of <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">parents</a>, <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a>, and teachers can accomplish where the interests of religion are at stake. (See <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">SCHOOLS</a>.) As this attitude and this action of <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> place them in a position which is not always rightly understood, it may be useful to present here a statement of the principles on which the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> has based her course in the past, and to which she adheres unswervingly at the present time when the problems of education are the subject of so much discussion and the cause of agitation in various directions. The <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> position may be outlined as follows:</p> <div class="bulletlist"><ul><li>Intellectual education must not be separated from moral and religious education. To impart <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a> or to develop <a href="../cathen/10321a.htm">mental</a> efficiency without building up moral character is not only contrary to <a href="../cathen/12545b.htm">psychological</a> law, which requires that all the faculties should be trained but is also fatal both to the individual and to <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a>. No amount of <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellectual</a> attainment or culture can serve as a substitute for virtue; on the contrary, the more thorough <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellectual</a> education becomes, the greater is the need for sound moral training.</li><li>Religion should be an essential part of education; it should form not merely an adjunct to instruction in other subjects, but the centre about which these are grouped and the spirit by which they are permeated. The study of nature without any reference to <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, or of human ideal with no mention of <a href="../cathen/08374c.htm">Jesus Christ</a>, or of human legislation without <a href="../cathen/09071a.htm">Divine law</a> is at best a one-sided education. The fact that religious <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a> finds no place in the curriculum is, of itself, and apart from any open negation of that <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a>, sufficient to warp the pupil's mind in such a way and to such an extent that he will feel little concern in his school-days or later for religion in any form; and this result is the more likely to ensue when the curriculum is made to include everything that is worth knowing except the one subject which is of chief importance.</li><li>Sound moral instruction is impossible apart from religious education. The child may be drilled in certain desirable habits, such as neatness, courtesy, and punctuality; he may be imbued with a spirit of <a href="../cathen/07462a.htm">honour</a>, industry, and truthfulness  and none of this should be neglected; but if these <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duties</a> towards self and neighbour are sacred, the <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> towards <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> is immeasurably, more sacred. When it is faithfully performed, it includes and raises to a higher plane the discharge of every other <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligation</a>. Training in religion, moreover, furnishes the best motives for conduct and the noblest ideals for imitation, while it sets before the mind an adequate sanction in the <a href="../cathen/07386a.htm">holiness</a> and <a href="../cathen/08571c.htm">justice</a> of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>. Religious education, it should be noted, is more than instruction in the <a href="../cathen/05089a.htm">dogmas</a> of <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a> or the <a href="../cathen/12372b.htm">precepts</a> of the <a href="../cathen/09071a.htm">Divine law</a>; it is essentially a practical training in the exercises of religion, such as <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a>, attendance at <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">Divine worship</a>, and reception of the <a href="../cathen/13295a.htm">sacraments</a>. By these means <a href="../cathen/04268a.htm">conscience</a> is purified, the will to do right is strengthened, and the mind is fortified to resist those <a href="../cathen/14504a.htm">temptations</a> which, especially in the period of adolescence, threaten the gravest danger to the moral life.</li><li>An education which unites the <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellectual</a>, moral and religious elements is the best safeguard for the home, since it places on a secure basis the various relations which the <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> implies. It also ensures the performance of social <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duties</a> by inculcating a spirit of self-sacrifice, of obedience to law, and of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">love</a> for the fellow-man. The most effectual preparation for the citizenship is that schooling in virtue which habituates a man to decide, to act, to oppose a movement or to further it, not with a view to personal gain nor simply in deference to public opinion, but in accordance with the standards of right that are fixed by the <a href="../cathen/09071a.htm">law of God</a>. The welfare of the State, therefore demands that the child be trained in the practice of virtue and religion no less than in the pursuit of <a href="../cathen/08673a.htm">knowledge</a>.</li><li>Far from lessening the need of moral and religious training, the advance in educational methods rather emphasizes that need. Many of the so-called improvements in teaching are of passing importance, and some are at variance with the <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">laws</a> of the mind. Upon their relative worth the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> does not pronounce, nor does she commit herself to any particular method provided the essentials of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> education are secured, the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> welcomes whatever the <a href="../cathen/13598b.htm">sciences</a> may contribute toward rendering the work of the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a> more efficient.</li><li><a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholic</a> <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">parents</a> are bound in <a href="../cathen/04268a.htm">conscience</a> to provide for the education of their children, either at home or in <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a> of the right sort. As the bodily life of the child must be cared for, so, for still graver reasons, must the <a href="../cathen/10321a.htm">mental</a> and moral faculties be developed. Parents, therefore, cannot take an attitude of indifference toward this essential <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> nor transfer it wholly to others. They are responsible for those earliest impressions which the child receives passively, before he exercises any conscious selective imitation; and as the <a href="../cathen/08066a.htm">intellectual</a> powers develop, the <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">parents</a> example is the lesson that sinks most deeply into the child's mind. They are also <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> to instruct the child according to his capacity, in the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truths</a> of religion and in the practice of religious <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duties</a>, thus co-operating with the work of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> and the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">school</a>. The virtues, especially of obedience, self-control, and purity, can nowhere be inculcated so thoroughly as in the home; and without such moral education by the <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">parents</a>, the task of forming upright men and <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> and worthy citizens is difficult, and if not impossible.</li></ul></div> <p>That the need of moral and religious education has impressed the minds of non-Catholics also, is evident from the movement inaugurated in 1903 by the Religious Education Association in the <a href="../cathen/15156a.htm">United States</a> which meets annually and publishes its proceedings at <a href="../cathen/03653a.htm">Chicago</a>. An international inquiry into the problem of moral training was started in <a href="../cathen/09341a.htm">London</a> in 1906, and the report has been edited by Professor Sadler under the title, <em>Moral Instruction and Training in Schools</em> (London, 1908).</p> <p>For the respective <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> and <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duties</a> of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">church</a> and the <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">civil authority</a>, see <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">SCHOOLS</a>; STATE.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">GENERAL: MONROE, Bibl. of Education (New York, 1897); HALL AND MANSFIELD, Bibl. of Educaion (Boston, 1893); CUBERLEY, Syllabus of Lectures on the Hist. of Ed. (New York, 1902). CATHOLIC WRITERS: STÖCKL, Gesch, d. Pädagogik (Mainz, 1876); DRIEG, Lehrb, d. Pagagogik (Paderborn, 1900); DRANE, Christian Schools and Scholars, 2d ed, (London, 1881); KUNZ, ed., Bibliothek d. katholischem Pagagogik, a series of monographs, biographical and expository (Frieburg, 1888-); NEWMAN, The Idea of a University (London, 1873); BROTHER AZARIAS, Essays Educational (New York, 1896); WILLMAN, Didaktik als Bildungstehre, 2d ed. (Brunswick, 1894); SPALDING, Education and the Higher Life (Chicago, 1890); IDEM, Means and End of Education (Chicago, 1895); IDEM, Religion, Agnosticism and Edcuation (Chicago, 1902); DUPANLOUP, De l'éducation (Paris, 1850); IDEM, De la haute education intellectuelle (Paris, 1855-57); GAUME, Du Catholicisme dans l'éducation (Paris, 1835); IDEM, Lettres sur le paganisme dans l'éducation (Paris, 1852); KLEUTGEN, Ueber, die alten und neuen Schulen (Munster, 1869). <br>NON-CATHOLIC WRITERS; K.A. SCHMID, Gesch. d. Erziehung (Stuggart, 1884-96); K. SCHMIDT, Gesch. d. Pädagogik (Kothen, 1891); MONROE, Source Book of the Hist. of Ed. (New York, 1891); LAURIE, Historical Survey of Pre-Christian Ed. (New York, 1900); HARRIS, ed. International Educational Series (New York, 1857-); ROSENKRANZ, tr. BRACKETT, The Philosophy of Education (New York, 1905); BUTLER, The Meaning of Education (New York, 1905); SPENCER, Education (New York, 1895); BAIN, Education as a Science (New York, 1883); HORNE, The Philosophy of Education (New York, 1904).</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Pace, E.</span> <span id="apayear">(1909).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Education.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05295b.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Pace, Edward.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Education."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 5.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1909.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05295b.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Beth Ste-Marie.</span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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