The Jesuits--The School Masters of Europe

[Dave Monroe]

In Our Time
Thursday 9.00-9.45am, repeated 9.30pm.

Programme details
Thursday 18 January 2007

THE JESUITS 

Today we’re discussing the Jesuits, a Catholic
religious order of priests who became known as “the
school masters of Europe”. Founded in the 16th century
by the soldier Ignatius Loyola, they became a major
force throughout the world, from China to South
America. “Give us a boy and we will return you a man,
a citizen of his country and a child of God”, they
declared. By the 17th century there were more than 500
schools established across Europe. Their ideas about a
standardised curriculum and teaching became the basis
for many education systems today.

They were also among the greatest patrons of art in
early modern Europe, using murals and theatre to get
their message across. However, their alleged influence
over monarchs, their wealth and their adaptability to
local customs abroad provoked suspicion, prompting
their eventual suppression in the late 18th century.
They were re-established in 1814 and now have more
than twenty thousand members.

So why was education so important to the Jesuit
movement? How much influence did they really have in
the courts of Europe and in the colonies? And were
they really at the heart of conspiracies to murder
kings?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/index.shtml


 
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