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 CONVENTUALS

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CONVENTUALS

used by the Board of Education as well as by the Teachers Syndicate of the Cambridge University; and the teachers' diploma of that university, necessaiy for "registration", is granted to successful students at the end of the course. Many of the other teaching orders send their subjects to these colleges, where while following the usual course with otlier students, special arrangements are made for them to carry out the duties of their religious life and to follow their own rule as far as possible. The theoretical studies in- clude history and methods of education, logic, psy- chology, ethics, school management, and hygiene, tested by a written examination; and the practical work, taken in the secondary schools attached to the two colleges, is awarded the diploma after one year's practice and a test lesson given before a Gov- ernment inspector. The syllabus of the Cambridge Syndicate is followed in all subjects except philosophy, for which a course of Catholic philosophy is allowed to be substituted.

Hitherto only Catholic students have been admitted to the.se colleges, but regulations issued by the Board of Education (which came into force September, 1908) require that no qualified student applying for admission may be rejected, if there is room, on the score of religion. The Catholic hierarchy have pro- tested against this and memorialized the prime minis- ter, but the authorities adhere to their decision and rule that no training college failing to comply with these regulations will in future be recognized. The Catholic training colleges had therefore to face the alternative of the introduction of non-Catholic stu- dents to the exclusion of Catholics, where numbers are limited, or serious monetary loss through the with- drawal of the State-aided King's Scholars.

Higher Education fob Women. — The higher edu- cation of women, in connexion with convents, is hardly out of the experimental stage. The university class in the Notre Dame Training College and its affili- ation to the Liverpool University have already been mentioned. Up to 1895 Catholics were prohibited (by ecclesiastical authority) from entering the older residential universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and the removal in that year of the prohibition favoured men only. _ Women had to wait still longer; but this restriction~was taken away in June 1907, by a decree from Rome, which sanctions under certain conditions the opening of houses for women, both secular and religious, at O.xford and Cambridge, to enable them to secure the advantages of a university education. The Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus were the first com- munity to avail themselves of this concession. They have opened a convent at Oxford, recognized and licensed by the University authorities, where twenty secular students and an unlimited number of religious may reside whilst following the university course. St. Ursula's Convent, also at Oxford, likewise receives ladies and religious desirous of reading for honours in modern languages or for the B. A. degree examina- tion, which they may do either by attending the uni- versity lectures, or by means of private tuition in the convent itself. Women are not eligible for degrees, either at Ox-ford or at Cambridge, but they are al- lowed to attend almost all the imiversity lectures and to sit for the degree examinations, receiving if success- ful a diploma instead of the degree itself. It is pro- posed to establish at Cambridge a college for Cutliolic women, .similar to tho.se of Newnham and dirt on. wliic^h will probably, in accordance with the desires of Propaganda, be placed under the charge of one of the princijial teaching orders. A committee to carry out the proj(!ct has the Archbishop of Westminster at its head.

Secondary Education in Ireland and Scot- land. — The convent schools of Ireland and Scotland compare favourably with those of Flngland, and their general character, scope, and conditions being prac-

tically similar, they need no further description here. There are in Scotland about ten different orders en- gaged in secondary education, with upwards of twenty schools under their care, besides two training colleges — one at Glasgow for primary teachers, under the Sisters of Notre Dame, and the other at Edinburgh for secondary teachers, conducted by the Sisters of Mercy. In Ireland the chief teaching orders are the Institute of the B. V. M. (with thirteen convent schools), the Faithful Companions of Jesus (with three schools), the Dominicans, Ursulines, and the St. Louis Nuns, each with several prominent secondary schools. The equivalent in Ireland of recognition and inspection by the Board of Education is the "In- termediate System", introduced in 1878, which pro- duces practically the same results and has been adopted by most of the religious in.stitutes engaged in secondary education. This system arranges examina- tions and awards medals, money prizes, and e.xhibi- tions. Catholic girls wishing to pursue a higher course after completing that of the Intermediate System, have had to take the examinations and degrees of the "Royal University of Ireland." To meet the de- mand several orders have colleges under their care in Dublin, the most prominent and successful being Loreto College, -belonging to the Institute of the B. V. M., and the Dominican College. The Irish edu- cational authorities do not insist on the formal train- ing of secondary teachers; consequently each religious institute is responsible for the training of its own members. The results, however, of their work prove that this is no less thorough and efficient than that obtainable at one of the recognized English training colleges.

There is very little published liter.iture on this subject, but scattered information can be had in Eckensteii^, Woman under Monasticism (Cambridge. 1S96), for the educational woric of medieval convents, and Steele, The Convents of Great Britain (London, 1902), for particulars as to the teaching orders of the present day. Some infoniijitifni may also be found in various articles in The ';,.,.''. .itxt.ril. quarterly. 1905-08) and in the Catholic Dirr,-!.. I i ;, I'.IOS). The foregoing article has been compilei! i i ■■ ;:ipublished information

supplied by the superiors ul du: ijiui- ip:d teaching orders work- ing in England.

G. Cyprian Alston.

Conventuals, Order of Friars Minor. — This is one of the three separate bodies, forming with the Friars Minor and the Capuchins what is commonly called the First Order of St. Francis. All three bodies to-day follow the rule of the Friars Minor, but whereas the Friars Minor and the Capuchins profess this rule pure and simple, differing only accidentally in their particular constitutions, the Conventuals observe it with certain dispen.<:ations lawfully accorded.

There has been some difference of opinion as to the origin of the name "Conventual". Innocent IV de- creed (Bull "Cum tamquam veri", 5 April, 1250) that Franciscan churches where convents existed might be called Conventual churches, and some have maintained that the name "Conventual" w-as .first given to the religious residing in such convents. Others, however, assert that the word Convcniualis was used to distinguish the inmates of large convents from those who lived more after the manner of her- mits. In any event it seems safe to assert that the term Conventual was not used to signify a distinct section of the Order of Friars Minor in any official dofumont prior to 1431. Since that time, and more especially since 1517, this term has been employed ' to ilesignate that branch of tlie Franciscan Order which has accepted dispen.sations from the substan- tial observance of the rule in regard to poverty. It may be noted, however, that the name "Conventual" hiis not been restricted to the Franciscan Order. Thus the statutes of the Cainaldolose approved by Leo X distinguish between the Conventuals and the Observants in thtit ortler, and St. Pius V (Bull "Superioribusmcnsibus", 10 April, 1507) says: "That