CLAUDE FLEURY ( ) AS AN EDUCATIONAL HISTORIOGRAPHER AND THINKER

Transcription

1 CLAUDE FLEURY ( ) AS AN EDUCATIONAL HISTORIOGRAPHER AND THINKER

2 ARCHIVES INTERNATIONALES D'HISTOIRE DES IDEES INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS RAYMOND E. WANNER CLAUDE FLEURY ( ) AS AN EDUCATIONAL HISTORIOGRAPHER AND THINKER Directors: P. Dibon (Paris) and R. Popkin (Washington Univ., St. Louis) Editorial Board: J. Aubin (Paris); J. Collins (St. Louis Univ.); P. Costabel (Paris); A. Crombie (Oxford); I. Dambska (Cracow); H. de la Fontaine-Verwey (Amsterdam); H. Gadamer (Heidelberg); H. Gouhier (Paris); T. Gregory (Rome); T. E. Jessop (Hull); P. O. Kristeller (Columbia Univ.); Elisabeth Labrousse (Paris); S. Lindroth (Upsala); A. Lossky (Los Angeles); J. Orcibal (Paris); I. S. Revaht (Paris); J. Roger (Paris); H. Rowen (Rutgers Univ., N.Y.); C. B. Schmitt (Warburg Institute, London); G. Sebba (Emory Univ., Atlanta); R. Shackleton (Oxford); J. Tans (Groningen); G. Tonelli (Binghamton, N.Y.).

3 CLAUDE FLEURY ( ) ASAN EDUCATIONAL HISTORIOGRAPHER AND THINKER by RAYMOND E. WANNER With an introduction by WILLIAM W. BRICKMAN MARTINUS NIJHOFF / THE HAGUE /1975

4 To Linda pulchra, fortis, et sapiens 1975 by Martinus NijhoJ!, The Hague, Netherlands Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st Edition 1975 All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form ISBN-13: e-isbn-13: DOl: /

5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface IX An Introduction. Claude Fleury - A Man to Remember I. CLAUDE FLEURY AND HIS CAREER I. College and Introduction to Society 2. Lawyer, Priest, and Humanist 5 3. Teacher and Scholar 13 XI II. THE SOCIO-CUL TURAL ENVIRONMENT 24 I. The Structure of French Society The European Cultural Environment 35 III. COLLEGES, PETITES ECOLES, AND ACADEMIES: THE EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT OF FLEURY'S TRAITE 47 I. Sixteenth-Century Origins Mother Tongue and Education for Life The Great Secondary School Traditions: University, Jesuit, Oratorian, and Port-Royalist The Petites Ecoles, Education of the Poor, and Other Educational Endeavors 69 IV. CLAUDE FLEURY AS AN EDUCATIONAL HISTORIAN 76 I. The Beginnings of a Tradition On the Writing of History Languages, Libraries, and Colleagues: The Tools of the Trade A Place in the Age of Erudition 98 v. FLEURY'S SURVEY OF EDUCATIONAL HISTORY 104 I. A Question of Text Fleury's Survey of Educational History 109

6 VI TABLE OF CONTENTS A. Greek Education 112 B. Roman Education 114 C. Christian Studies I 19 D. Frankish Studies 122 E. Arabic Education 125 F. Scholastic Studies 130 G. Universities and Their Four Faculties 132 H. The Faculty of Arts 133 I. The Faculties of Medicine, Law, and Theology 138 J. Students: General Characteristics and Customs 142 K. The Renewal of the Humanities 146 L. On the Present State of Public Schools A Central Theme 155 A. Utilitarian Realism 155 B. Variations on a Theme The Traite and Some Examples of Educational Historiography Before and After It 160 VI. THE CHOICE AND METHOD OF STUDIES 165 I. The Sources of Fleury's Educational Thought School, Society, and Students: The Foundations of a Curriculum Theory 170 A. The Purpose of Education 170 B. A Social Structure Ordained by God 173 C. Students and How They Learn A Matter of Choice: Selectivity in Studies 181 A. Studies which are Necessary for Every Citizen 184 B. Studies which are Necessary for Men (and Women) of Means 192 C. Studies which are Useful but not Necessary for All 200 D. Studies Interesting and Good in Themselves but Necessary Only for Selected Students 204 E. Useless Studies 206 F. Studies for Women 208 G. Professional Studies 2 I I 4. Fleury as an Educational Thinker: A Summing Up 215 VII. THE SPREAD AND IMPACT OF FLEURY'S EDUCATIONAL THOUGHT 218 I. Fleury and his Associates: Bossuet and Fenelon Fleury's Educational Writings and the Evolution of Education in France Fleury, Locke, and the Encyclopedists Translations and Reputation Abroad Fleury and Education in the United States 250

7 TABLE OF CONTENTS VII VllI. CLAUDE FLEURY, EDUCATIONAL HISTORIOGRAPHER AND THINKER: A SYNTHESIS 254 Appendix 257 Bibliography 264

8 PREFACE This study has grown out of an interest in French education and culture that dates from fondly remembered student days in France. Specifically, it is an attempt to explain the educational thought of Claude Fleury, a literate, responsible homme de leures who analyzed the historical origins of public education as it existed in seventeenth-century France and, on that basis, proposed what he considered to be a more generally useful program of studies. Generous space has been devoted to historical, social, and pedagogical background in an effort to place Fleury's thought in its proper cultural context; namely, that of the decline of the Classical Age and the dawn of the Age of Reason. This background material represents also an attempt to explain, at times in detail, the origin of Fleury's Traite du Choix et de la Methode des Etudes and his rise to scholarly and pedagogical prominence at court. It is possible that Fleury's thought, while of most immediate interest to students of seventeenth-century cultural history, will be of interest also to a more general audience. In particular, those charged with providing education that must respond to the ever increasing practical needs of society and at the same time give to contemporary man a sense of his cultural heritage may find in Fleury's thought some useful historical perspective. It is a pleasure to acknowledge that this study would not have been possible without the encouragement and guidance of Dr. William W. Brickman, Professor of Educational History and Comparative Education at the University of Pennsylvania. For the privilege of working under his direction and for the example of his scholarship and personal integrity at a time of transition in my life, I am profoundly grateful. To Dr. Saul Sack whose friendship and daily commitment to study and to truth are a source of continuing inspiration and to Dr. Werner L. Gundersheimer whose critical reading of this text was of invaluable

9 x PREFACE assistance, I express my thanks. I am grateful also to Miss Joyce White, librarian of the Penniman Library, University of Pennsylvania, and to her staff for their kindness in providing office space and sharing with me the unique talents that only skilled librarians can bring to scholarship. For the shortcomings of this study I assume sole responsibility. For what merit it has, I thank all those, named and unnamed, who in large ways and small have been of assistance.

10 CLAUDE FLEURY - A MAN TO REMEMBER AN INTRODUCTION WILLIAM W. BRICKMAN Graduate School cif Education, University cif Pennsylvania Nearly a century ago, a French historical writer referred to Claude Fleury as a forgotten man in pedagogy (un pedagogue oublie). There is no reason to believe that this French priest-scholar's name has become more familiar during the past century. Why resurrect someone who apparently has been consigned to oblivion? One answer is that learning is useful for its own sake and that it is its own reward. This will hardly convince the utilitarians. To satisfy those who disdain "inert knowledge" in favor of what they conceive of as instantly functional, it may be politic to point out that the educators of today and tomorrow might learn something from the writings of a man who combined historical scholarship with concern for the improvement of curriculum and instruction. Too many contemporary reformers, innovators, creativists, anti-schoolers, and others who are on the frontiers and cutting edges of educational endeavor do their work - and often perpetrate damage - with confident assurance in the rectitude of their own rhetoric. No need to learn from past thinkers; yesterday is "irrelevant." The study of our predecessors provides, among other values, perspectives on the present and future. This i.s what Fleury did with results that impressed and inspired some other educational theorists and practitioners after his time. Strictly speaking, he was not un pedagogue oublie, as the four foreign translations of his Traite du Choix et de Methode des Etudes testify. Even though his name will probably elicit a blank stare from most - and average - educators of Europe and North America, his work is known to the scholars, especially those specializing in the history of education. Apart from Fleury's other contributions, which are analyzed thoroughly by Dr. Wanner, it is important to call attention to the fundamental fact that, in all probability the Traite was the first work to

11 XII INTRODUCTION encompass the history of education on a broad and reasonably balanced scale. This concise work may have devoted excessive space to universities and may have omitted some of thc content which a current historian would include - China for example. However, it should be realized that seventeenth-century Europe was just beginning to get reliable data about the Far East. The Trait! was not as impressive a performance as Fleury's Histoire EccUsiastique in twenty volumes, but it showed signs of historical scholarship, as well as pertinence toward the pedagogical problems of the time. In the words of Dr. Wanner, "Fleury was among the first to found his call for reform on a serious historical analysis of general educational history... [and thus] contributed both to educational historiography and to the reform of studies." Also worthy of quotation is Dr. Wanner's concluding sentence: "Fleury was a simple man and an honest man, and he marshalled his great powers of scholarship in the service of education which, in his opinion, should be consistent with sound tradition, dedicated to the pursuit of useful academic knowledge, and as responsive as possible to the real needs of students and society." The unique contribution to educational history by Abbe Fleury did not come about ex nihilo. Dr. Wanner points out correctly that the predecessors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries concentrated on the history of higher education, whereas he treated the development of education in general. It might be added that the Chinese dynastic histories included education as far back as the first century of the Christian era. What Fleury accomplished, even more than sketching the scope of Western educational history, was the utilization of the past as a basis for a program to improve education. Modern man may disapprove of Fleury's very negative attitude toward the Huguenots - but how many French Catholics of his time were kinder? Nor will he applaud the French scholar's restrictions on the education of the poor. This judgment is more justifiable, since some predecessors and contemporaries of Fleury were more broadminded in recommending educational provisions for the economically disadvantaged. On the other hand, he did reject unbridled royal despotism and spoke up for peace. Dr. Wanner's study fills a lacuna in the literature on educational history. While others, principally Frenchmen, have worked on Fleury, none is as thorough-going, scholarly, and penetratingly interpretative as he is. Equipped with an excellent command of classical, medieval, and Renaissance Latin and several other languages, he has spared no

12 INTRODUCTION XIII effort to be accurate, comprehensive, and objective. Working in the libraries and archives on both sides of the Atlantic, Dr. Wanner has produced a work which will edify the experts and capture the interest of those who are not as committed to the exacting experience of scholarship. In recent decades, the humanistic and humanitarian values in edution and life seem to have fallen on hard times. The aim of the education of the person, according to Fleury, was the production of a habile et honnete homme, an individual who is at home with himself and of value to society. The study of Fleury's life, work, and thought serves as a reminder that useful ideas of the past can strengthen the determination to make the education of our time and of the future more human and more humane.