RAMUS AND HIS EDUCATIONAL LABORS.

MEMOIR.

PETER RAMUS (Pierre la Ramee), whose life and labors present a summary view of the educational condition and reforms of the sixteenth century in France, was born in 1515, in an obscure village in Vermandois. His was descended from a noble family in Liege, which was driven away from Burgundy in the troubled reign of Charles the Bold. His grandfather was reduced to great poverty, and to manual labor, as was also his father, and when a boy, the future teacher and author was a pig-watcher. But in this stern school of poverty and early labor he acquired that resolute purpose which overcame ordinary weaknesses and defied the most formidable hindrances. On the death of his father, when quite a lad, he hurried to Paris, where he was kindly received by an uncle, a carpenter by trade, who gave him shelter, purchased a few books, and sympathized in his purpose to become a scholar. When these slender resources failed, he entered the domestic service of a master regent, who lived in the College of Navarre, one of the most renowned institutions of the University. By day he performed such labors as were assigned, hearing portions of the lectures by stealth, and by night read and meditated on what he had heard. In the course of eight or ten years he worked his way through the long and winding course which led to the degree of master—and at the age of twenty, he defended with such fertile resources of argument and rhetoric his bold thesis-assailing the soundness of the whole Aristotelian philosophy, against all comers, for an entire day, as to obtain his degree amid a storm of applause. To enable him to pay the fees exacted by the University, his mother and uncle united their slender means the former parting with articles of house-keeping, and the latter alienating a portion of his little field for this purpose-a sacrifice which the poor scholar made every effort immediately to restore, and ever after remembered his family with gratitude. He at once exercised his privilege as master by teaching logic and belles-letters in the College of Mans, and soon afterwards of Ave-Maria, and gathered quite a crowd of listeners.

He extended his readings and criticism to Quintilian aud Cicero, and encouraged free questions and discussions among his hearers. Not content with assailing the substance and method of Aristotelian philosophy, orally, he resorted to the press, and published in Latin, his Divisions, or Didactic Institutions, and Remarks on Aristotle. The debate, with his adversaries, was soon adjourned from the forum of scholars and professors to the domain of the courts, and finally to the highest tribunal of the realm, where Francis I., King of France, the Founder of the Royal College, whose mission it was to welcome new studies, promulgated the following decree :

FRANCIS, by the grace of God, King of France, to all who will see this present, Greeting. Whereas, there is slight warning of the trouble occurring to our dear and well beloved daughter, the University of Paris, because of two books made by Master Pierre Ramus, intitled, Dialecticae Institutiones, and the other Aristotelia animadversiones, and of the suit and differences arising, etc.-we have contemned, suppressed and abolished, we do contemn, suppress and abolish the said books, and have made and do make prohibitions and warnings to all printers and booksellers of our Kingdom, fiefs, domains, and seigniories, and to all other subjects of whatever condition and estate they be, that they neither sell, retail, etc., under pain of confiscation or corporal punishment; and likewise to the said Ramus to read (no more to teach) his said books, nor to have them written, or copied, or published, or spread abroad in any manner, nor to read in dialectics or philosopy, in any way whatever, without our express permission, and also to use no longer such slanders and invectives against ARISTOTLE and other ancient authors received and approved, against our said daughter, the University, and suffered by the same, under penalties above mentioned. So we give commandment to our provost of Paris, preserver of the privileges of said University, that he may cause the present ordinance and judgment to be executed, etc. In testimony of this, we have affixed our seal to this present. Given at Paris, March 2, year of Grace 1543. By the King, you, the Chancellor of Chesnage, being present.

Ramus was silenced-but found a friend and patron in Cardinal of Lorraine, who had been a fellow student of his at Navarre, and who on the death of Francis I. obtained in 1547 from his successor, a revocation of the literary interdict. In the meantime he taught mathematics, and in 1544 published a Latin version of Euclid, and made this branch one of the most popular in Paris. In this year he was invited by the principal of the College of Presles to lecture on Eloquence, where his fervid utterances restored the attendance of pupils, which had been greatly reduced by the plague. In the following year he was made principal of the institution, which post he held to the end of his life, and for the most of his time, after 1551, he was professor of eloquence and philosophy in the college of France. In all the educational discussions of his time, touching grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, philosophy, mathematics, the French, Latin, and Greek languages, he not only spoke in his lecture-room, but published-his different treatises amounting to upwards of fifty-many of which passed through several editions. His criti

cisms on the studies and administration of the university, subjected him to bitter attacks from the regents, and his adoption of the reformatory doctrines, involved him in the religious persecutions of the day, and he died one of the victims of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, on the 26th of August, 1572.

Simple in his personal habits, he slept on straw, rose with the dawn, and worked all day in his study and lecture room. After setting apart enough to meet his own frugal expenses, he shared with the members of his family, and with poor scholars, the moiety of his earnings, and the other portion he consecrated to the endowment of the chair of mathematics in the College of France, the occupant of which was to be named in convocation, and to hold the position for only three years, without formal re-election.

EDUCATIONAL WORK.

The influence of Ramus on educational progess was felt (1,) in bis persistent opposition to Aristotelian scholasticism which then ruled the University; (2,) in his efforts to renovate the organization and administration of higher studies; and (3,) his sagacious simplification of text-books and methods of instruction.

1. He was eminently successful in recognizing the value of other studies and authors than those of the Aristotelian philosophy, and by the fire of his own eloquence he illustrated the fervid genius of Demosthenes, and the finished rhetoric of Cicero, to whose works he introduced his students.

2. His Avertissement sur la reforme de l'universite de Paris, at once exposes the abuses which had overgrown the university organization, and points out the remedy. Having felt the sting of poverty, and the hardship which the fees exacted of all candidates for degrees imposed on the indigent [that of a licentiate being fifty-six livres; of a doctorate of medicine, eight hundred and eighty-one livres; and of theology, one thousand], he says to the king: "Put a stop to such impositions, which bars the course of philosophy, theology and medicine, to honest, worthy, and talented poverty; redeem the number of able masters; pay the most deserving from the coffers of the State, and make their lectures free-or else let the remuneration of all the lectures be drawn from the monastic endowments which are now practically wasted. In the faculty of Arts establish chairs of mathematics and physics; in the juridical faculty, a chair of civil law; in the medical faculty, chairs of Botany, Anatomy, Pharmacy, and practical Chimie, under the eyes of their professors, in the style of Hippocrates and Galen; in the the

ological faculty, the interpretation of the Old and New Testaments in their original languages. Draw a distinction between the studies of the schools and the colleges, and those of the University proper, remanding to the former Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, and thus improve the methods of higher instruction." The reforms here briefly stated it was reserved for another century to suggest, and to still another to introduce; and their fruitful instruction is only now, part of the glory of the modern University.

3. The labors of Ramus in simplifying text-books-in epitomiz-. ing the recorded truths of science, and arranging them in clear log-, ical sequence for the learner, were more immediately successful., He published grammars introductory to the study of the Latin,. Greek, and French languages; and was the first eminent teacher. who made his vernacular a regular study in the schools.

In Rhetoric he followed Cicero, excluding much before taught, as belonging to logic, and made it eminently a popular study.

In Dialectic, he simplified the details and restricted the field of discussion. He resolved the whole subject into nature, art, and practice. The art must proceed from the observation and imitation of what men actually do from natural reason and human experience. Logic he would bring out of the study of terms, into the necessities of discourse. He carried his pupils beyond the form of words into the beauty and science which they were intended to embody. Milton adopted the views of Ramus in his 'Summary of Logic published in 1673, and Andrew Melville made them his guide in his logic classes at Glasgow.

In Mathematics and Physics he was eminently the creator of new disciplines, making arithmetic, geometry, ethics, mechanics, astronomy, and the phenomena of nature, subjects of study in French schools long before they became embodied in the curriculum of other nations. In his methods of treating them he was truly philosophical. He laid down but few rules, and these were evolved from the problems, and illustrated by numerous applications.

* In 1209, the council of Soissons interdicted the reading of Aristotle, and condemned his writings to be burned; in 1215, the legate of the Pope excepted the Organon from that condemnation, and allowed it to be taught in 1231, Gregory IX partially allowed the reading of the Metaphysics and Physics; in 1254, his successor removed all restriction; in 1266, his works were commanded to be taught in the university of Paris; whi'e, in 1447, Pope Nicholas V. not only allowed them, but, to facilitate their reception, himself translated parts of them into Latin. The fortunes of Aristotle, in the different eras of speculative netivity, form an interesting chapter in the history of philosophy. Denounced at one time as the father of lies, and his works proscribed as the fountains of heresy; accepted at another t me as divinely inspired, and his works prescribed as the criterion and text of truth; claimed by antagonistic parties; often identified with powerful sects, and seeming for a while to share in their disgrace, if not to perish with their fall. he has, nevertheless, ever arisen with new strength in every era of intellectual activity, and in the end asserted his supremacy as crowned king in the empire of human thought.-Baynes.

JOHN BUGENHAGEN.

JOHN BUGENHAGEN, the fellow laborer with Luther and Melancthon in the ecclesiastical and school reorganizations of the 16th century, was born at Wollin, Pomerania, in 1485, and died in 1558. He studied philosophy, theology, and the classics at Greifswalde, and at the age of eighteen took charge of a classical school (founded in 1170, and now called Bugenhagen Gymnasium), at Treptow, on the Riga. In 1517 he read lectures in theology at the Abbey of Belbrick, and in 1520 in response to Luther's pamphlet on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, he resorted to Wittenberg, where he was appointed to the chair of theology in 1523. From this time Bugenhagen is identified with the new organization of church affairs in all the principal cities of Northern Germany-Brunswick, Hamburg, Lubeck, Bremen, and in the dominions of the Duke of Pomerania, and the King of Denmark. In the Brunswick church order of 1528, 'the superintendent, besides preaching, was instructed to give lectures in Latin for the learned, and supervise the discipline, doctrine and funds of the church, and see to the establishment of two Latin schools (each with two classes, the first with four, and the last with three teachers), two German schools for boys, and four for girls at four places, so that the girls might not have far to go from home to their school. In all the schools, catechetical instruction and singing must be given to all the pupils, and obscure private schools must be discontinued.'

In the Hamburgh church order of 1520 a Latin school was instituted in the Convent of St. John (and designated the Johanneum); one German school for boys; and a girls' school in each parish. The Johanneum was provided with a rector and seven teachers; Virgil, Ovid, and Cicero's Officia and Letters, dialectics, rhetoric, mathematics, and in the 5th (highest) class the rudiments of Greek and Hebrew, are specified in the course of study. Wednesday was assigned for review in all the classes, and Saturday was devoted to the catechism. Singing was to be carried to the highest proficiency for the service of the church. Public lectures by the church superintendent and his adjutor (4 times a week); by the rector of the Johanneum; by two jurists, a physician, a surgeon were also established, together with the foundation of a public library-making a quasi city university. The same system in its main features was established in Lubeck in 1532, the classical school of which still exists.

In Pomerania the church and school order was issued in 1535, and for the town of Stralsund two schools, one for Latin and German for boys, and the other for girls. The boys' school was to follow the book of visitation of 'Magister Philippus Melancthon.'

In the church order drawn up by him for Denmark and Norway, in 1587, extended by the Diet at Rendsburg in 1542, the system of schools provided for Hamburg was recognized, the university of Copenhagen being constituted the head of the system. In his letters he complains that the greedy grasp of the mighty ones' devoted to their own use the goods of the monasteries which should go to churches, schools and the poor.'

His church orders for Brunswick-Wolfenbüttal in 1528 and 1542 extend the establishment of schools for girls as well as boys to the country parishes, where the organist was to be schoolmaster, and to give special attention to singing and the memorizing of bible texts.'