The Jesuits

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2007

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 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. To their enemies they were a sinister collective whose influence reached into the courts of kings. 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 and colonies of Europe? And were they really at the heart of conspiracies to murder kings?With Nigel Aston, Reader in Early Modern History at the University of Leicester; Simon Ditchfield, Reader in History at the University of York; Dame Olwen Hufton, Emeritus Fellow of Merton College, Oxford.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for downloading the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:09.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:11.0	Hello, today the Jesuits, the Catholic religious order of priests who became known as the
0:17.0	schoolmasters of Europe. Founded in the 16th century by the Basque soldier Ignatius
0:22.4	Loyler. They became a major force throughout the world from China to South America.
0:27.0	Give us a boy and we will return you a man, they said, a citizen of his country and a child of God. By the 17th century there were more than 500
0:36.6	schools established across Europe. Their ideas about a standardized curriculum and teaching
0:41.2	became the basis for many education systems today.
0:45.4	They were also among the greatest patrons of art in the early modern Europe using murals
0:49.5	and theatre to get their message across.
0:51.6	More surprisingly, they played an important part in the Enlightenment.
0:54.8	However, their alleged influence over monarchs and their wealth and their adaptability to local customs
0:59.7	abroad provoked envy and suspicion, prompting their eventual suppression in the late 18th century.
1:05.0	They were re-established in 1814 and now have more than 20,000 members.
1:09.0	So why was education so important to the Jesuit movement?
1:12.0	How much influence did they really have in the courts of Europe and in the colonies?
1:16.0	And were they really at the heart of conspiracies to murder kings?
1:20.0	Joining me to discuss the Jesuits and Nigel Aston, reader in early modern history at the University of Leicester,
1:26.4	Dame Alwinn Huffton, Emeritus Fellow of Merton College Oxford,
1:30.0	and Simon Ditchfield, reader in history at the University of York.
1:34.0	Nigel Aston, can you as a way set the scene for us in about the 1530s
1:39.4	when the Jesuits began to come into being?
	...

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