Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/329

 Martin Bucer on Education 325 instruct the men of God, that from day to day they may profit more in all the knowledge of God. . . . The administration of the Word should consist in reading and recitation of the Holy Scriptures, and the interpretation and explication of them, and in exhortations taken from them, and in repetition and catechism, which is carried on by the mutual questions and answers of the catechist gnd the catechumen. There shall also be holy convocations, and discussions of difficult problems of our religion. According to this manifold dispensation of saving instruction, the duties of religious teachers are multiplied. For whatever pertains to the most excellent method of teaching must be applied with the greatest zeal in the administration of instruction unto salvation, since it is a matter of teaching the science which, as it is the most divine of all, is also the most difficult that of living like God when you are a man. Now those who diligently teach arts contained in certain books, for example those who set out to teach mathematics from Euclid, first of all will read the book in question in their lectures; then will explain single words not commonly known, of which each art has its own, both nouns and verbs. Then, if the argument and proof happen to be rather concise, they will explain by analysis, and illustrate particu- lars by many examples, and from general precepts wil Ibrin-g out particular ones. This is proper teaching. Yet indeed the faithful teacher is not content with this instruction in knowledge, however faithful it may be; he returns to what he has taught and examines it, and often puts himself at the disposal of his students, that they may be able to ask from him a fuller explanation of anything about which they are in doubt. In addition he assigns the things he has taught to be examined in public disputations, that no doubt at all may remain. Besides this, he applies himself often to exhortations to make proper progress in the knowl- edge which has been set forth, and to dissuasions from those things by which pupils can be impeded, and to general admonitions, reproofs, and censures. Finally, such a teacher observes with diligence how each of his pupils progresses, and if he observes that any of them ceases from learning, he privately corrects him, and admonishes him of his duty. If he observes one who proceeds lazily in learning, he immediately summons him, praises him, and inflames him more and more to follow after knowledge. All these seven methods of teaching Christ our Lord himself employed with diligence. In the synagogue at Nazareth he read and interpreted the Sixty-first Chapter of Isaiah (Luke 4) ; on the Mount he explained the laws of God (Matthew 5) ; and he frequently taught, encour- aged, censured, and rebuked from the word of God; he also answered all those, good and bad, who asked questions, and in turn interrogated them (Matthew 22) ; he repeatedly catechized his disciples, and was himself catechized (Luke 2). 21 Bucer, for whom theory and practice were never far separ- ated, himself carried out, as we gather from the accounts of his English admirers and pupils, the seven parts of teaching- reading, interpreting, answering questions, exhorting, catechiz- 21 Scripta Anglicana, pp. 562-3.