Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/763

 SEMINARY

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SEMINAR?

pitals or other institutions, where they acquire a fore- taste and gain some experience of their future work among the sick and the poor. On Sunday they all assist at a solemn High Mass and at Vespers, and in some places they also attend a conference on Holy Scripture. The summer vacation, lasting about three months, is spent either at the seminary villa, as is the general practice in Italy, or at home, as is com- monly done in the United States and other countries.

The ordinary working day is divided between prayer, study, and recreation. Summer and winter, the student rises at 5 or 5.30 a. m., makes his medita- tion for a half-hour, hears Mass, and usually receives Communion. Breakfast is about two hours after rising. In the forenoon there are two classes of one hour each, while two hours also are devoted to private study. After dinner there is about an hour of recrea- tion. In the afternoon four hours are divided be- tween class and study, and as a rule another hour of study follows supper. A visit to the Blessed Sacra- ment, the recitation of the Rosary, and spiritual read- ing take place in the afternoon or evening; and the day closes with night prayer. Thus the student has de- voted about three hours to exercises of piety and nine hours to work. After six years of this mental and moral training in retirement from the world, and in the society of fellow students animated by the same purpose and striving after the same ideals, he is deemed worthy of receiving the honour and capable of bearing the burden of the priesthood : he is an educated Chris- tian gentleman, he possesses professional knowledge, he is ready to live and to work among men as the am- bassador of Christ.

IV. History. — A. Late Origin. — This system of seminary education, which has now become an essen- tial feature of the Church's life, had its origin only in the sixteenth century in a decree of the Council of Trent. Since Christ's work on earth is to be con- tinued chiefly through diocesan priests, the Apostles and the early popes and bishops always gave special care to the selection and training of the clergy. St. Paul warns Timothy not to impo.se hands lightly on any man (I Tim., v, 22). In the scanty records of the early Roman pontiffs we invariably read the number of deacons, priests, and bishops whom they ordained. But although the training of the clergy was ever held to be a matter of vital importance, we should look in vain during the first centuries for an organized sys- tem of clerical education, just as we should look in vain for the fully-developed theology of St. Thomas.

B. Individual Training in Early Times. — Before St. Augustine no trace can be found of any special in- stitutions for the education of the clergy. Professors and students in the famous Christian schools of Alex- andria and Edessa supplied priests and bi.shops; but these schools were intended for the teaching of cate- chumens, and for general instruction; they cannot, therefore, be considered as seminaries. The training of priests was personal and practical; boys and young men attached to the servicie of a church assisted the bishop and the priests in the discharge of their func- tions, and thus, by the exercise of the duties of the minor orders, they gradually learned to look after the church, to read and explain Holy Scripture, to prepare catechumens for baptism and to administer the sacraments. Some of the greatest bishops of the period had moreover received a hberal education in pagan schools, and before ordination spent some time in retirement, penitential exercises, and meditation on Holy Scripture.

C. From St. Augustine to the Foundation of the Universities. — St. Augustine established near the cathedral, in his own house (in domo ecclesiw), a mo- nasterium clericorum in which his clergy lived together. He would raise to Holy orders only such as were will- ing to unite the community hfe with the exercise of the ministry. In a few years this institution gave

ten bishops to various sees in Africa. It was, how- ever, rather a clergy house than a seminary.

The example of St. Augustine was soon followed at Milan, Nola, and elsewhere. A council held in 529 at Vaison, in Southern Gaul, exhorted parish priests to adopt a custom aheady obtaining in Italy, to have young clerics in their house, and to instruct them with fatherly zeal so as to prepare for themselves worthy successors. Two years later the second Council of Toledo decreed that clerics should be trained by a superior in the house of the Church {in domo Ecclesice), under the eye of the bishop. Another CouncU of Toledo, held in 633, urges that this training be begun early, so that future priests may spend their youth not in unlawful pleasures but under ecclesias- tical discipline. Among those cathedral schools, the best known is that establi-shed near the Lateran Basil- ica, where many popes and bishops were educated ab infantia. Besides, not a few monasteries, such as St. Victor in Paris, Le Bee in Normandy, Oxford, and Fulda, educated not only their own subjects, but also aspirants to the secular clergy.

D. From the Thirteenth Century to the Council of Trent. — Out of the local episcopal schools grew the medieval universities, when illustrious teachers at- tracted to a few cities, e. g. Paris, Bologna, Oxford etc., students from various provinces and even from all parts of Europe. As in these schools theology, philosophy, and canon law held the first rank, a large proportion of the students were ecclesiastics or mem- bers of religious orders; deprived of their ablest teach- ers and most gifted students, the cathedral and monastic schools gradually declined. Still, only about one per cent of the clergy were able to attend univer- sity courses. The education of the vast majority, therefore, was more and more neglected, while the privileged few enjoyed indeed the highest intellectual advantages, but received little or no spiritual train- ing. The colleges in which Ihoy lived maintained for a while good discipline; but in less than a century the life of ecclesiastical students at the universities was no better than that of the lay students. What was lacking was character-formation and the practical preparation for the ministry.

E. The Decree of the Council of Trent. — After the Reformation the need of a well-trained clergy was more keenly felt. In the work of the commission ap- pointed by the pope to prepare questions to be dis- cussed in the Council of Trent, ecclesiastical educa- tion occupies an important place. When the council convened "to extirpate heresy and reform morals", it decreed in its Fifth Session (June, 1546) that pro- vision should be made in every cathedral for the teaching of grammar and Holy Scripture to clerics and poor scholars. The council was interrupted before the question of clerical training could be formally taken up. Meanwhile, St. Ignatius established at Rome (1553) the Collegium Germanicum for the education of German ecclesiastical students. Car- dinal Pole, who had witnessed the foundation of the German College and had been a member of the com- mi.ssion to prepare for the Council of Trent, went to England after the death of Henry VIII to re-establish the Catholic religion. In the regulations which he issued in 1556, the word seminary seems to have been used for the first time in its modern sense, to designate a school exclusively devoted to the training of the clergy. After the council reopened, the Fathers re- sumed the question of clerical training; and after discussing it for about a month, they adopted the decree on the foundation of ecclesiastical seminaries.

On 15 July, in the Twenty-third Session, it was solemnly proclaimed in its present form, and has ever since remained the fundamental law of the Church on the education of priests. In substance it is as fol- lows: (1) Every diocese is bound to support, to rear in piety, and to train in ecclesiastical discipUne a certain