Pierre Dubois, who calls himself an advocate of cases of the kings of France and England at Coutances in Normandy, addressed his treatise On the Recovery of the Holy Land first to Edward I of England, then, after adding chapters 1-142 favorable to the universal dominion and exaltation of the French crown, to Philip IV the Fair of France. We are not here concerned with this side of it or with its anti-clerical, anti-papal and secularizing tendencies, but with the plan which its author outlines for educating certain specially selected young people to fit them to hold the Holy Land and to convert the Orient. His plan discloses certain analogies with the camps, schools and courses for hurriedly educating prospective army and navy officers which were organized in the United States in the First World War, to say nothing of still further analogies with Waves, Wacs and the program of training in international administration in connection with the Second World War. But, although cramming and attempted short-cuts play a prominent part in it, it is a much more deliberate and far-sighted program, involving a pro longed and thorough training from infancy to maturity. No doubt this pro gram for the most part remained on paper and, except for the provision for the study of oriental languages made in 1312 by the Council of Vienne, was not realized or put into effect, for there is only one manuscript of The Recovery of the Holy Land extant. Probably, too, it was in many respects impractical, and it certainly seems somewhat fantastic and overdrawn. Nevertheless it is obviously an attempt to modify for a special purpose and to improve upon the ordinary curriculum of grammar and secondary school and of university. It therefore reflects for us fairly faithfully, if we allow for a little distortion, the actual educational program with which Dubois was acquainted.
In each province, according to the resources of the localities available for this purpose and the size of the population, instead of the priories of the Templars or Hospitalers there located, there should be established what would be more opportune for this purpose‹two or more schools for boys and about the same number for girls, who should be chosen to be instructed there at the age of four or five years. And let them be selected by some wise philosopher who would recognize the natural disposition likely to make progress in philosophical studies. To these should be added nobles of either sex, if and in so far as they shall be found; afterwards others who shall be taught continuously according to the program below outlined, which may be altered, perfected and added to by more prudent persons. These children are to be taken on the understanding that they shall never henceforth be returned to their parents, unless they refund all expenses incurred on their account. The others shall be sent from school to school and finally to the Holy Land and to other regions, as the holy Roman church may decide by persons deputed to this purpose. These students and their teachers shall live on the goods of the said priories and the funds provided for the Holy Land, or as the trustees of the foundation, selected by the archbishop with the advice of skilled suffragans, may see fit to arrange.
All these children shall be instructed first in the Latin language to the extent that they know it sufficiently, or at first little by little; and after that they shall be instructed more fully, some of them in Greek, others in Arabic, and so with other literary idioms, especially of the catholics in the far east, so that in the end the Roman church and likewise catholic princes may through them, instructed in speaking and writing in all languages, communicate with all men, drawing them to the catholic faith and the unity of its single head. Now when the youth are instructed in grammar, in which the younger are occupied, if some are instructed in logic, so much the better. Of whom let some be rapidly instructed in the articles of faith and sacraments the Old and New Testaments; so that instructed, as soon as they are prepared, they may be sent to the said land to take charge of souls and may be promoted to the priesthood, and provision be made for the churches and people. Let others be trained in medicine, others in surgery both human and veterinary, by whom the whole army and populace of both sexes may be helped.
Girls should be instructed in medicine and surgery with other subjects prerequisite to these. These girls, thus trained and knowing how to write, namely the noble and other more prudent ones, suited in body and form, will be adopted as daughters and granddaughters of the greater chiefs of those regions, the Holy Land and others near it, so that they may conveniently be given as wives to the greater princes, clergy and other wealthy Orientals; being so adorned by the aforesaid foundation that they will be taken for the daughters of princes; which expenses, after they are married to all the magnates, they will promise to repay during their lifetimes, if they can, to the aforesaid foundation, and if not then, at least when they die, in order that the fund may thus be increased without measure. It would be a fine thing if the married eastern prelates and clergy who are quite unwilling to join the Romans and other westerners in renouncing the privilege of matrimony, should have such wives, by whom, lettered, articled, and believing in the sacraments in Roman style, it is likely that their children and husbands would be drawn to so hold, believe, and sacrifice by far stronger reasons and occasions than those which induced Solomon, the supreme sage, to idolatry by the counsel of women. These from affection for their land of birth would procure many girls from the foundation established for schools of this sort to marry their sons and other great men of the country; they also would have chaplains celebrating and chanting by the Roman ritual, and gradually would draw the inhabitants of those places to the Roman ritual, especially the women whom they helped by their practice of medicine and surgery, especially in their secret infirmities and needs. It could hardly help but be the case that they, nobler and richer than other matrons and everywhere having knowledge of medicine and surgery and experimental science, would attract matrons who required their counsels, who admired their prudence and proficiency, and who loved them on these accounts‹would attract these strongly to communicating with them, delighting and agreeing in the same articles of faith and sacraments.
Also any future pope, at such time as such persons could be instructed in the idioms of oriental catholics, would keep near his court such elegantly lettered persons through whom he could write to the prelates and other magnates of those regions. Greek scholars could easily be procured for this purpose. Moreover, when in the more remote schools many were well founded in Latin and Greek, those who seemed to get on better than the others and were more teachable should be selected to study, hear lectures, and afterwards teach, some in civil and canon law, others in astronomy and in other mathematical and natural sciences, others in theology, others in medicine. Of these sciences there would be fervent schools, separated from one another to prevent their hampering one another by jealousy or other causes, for as the Philosopher says in his Rhetoric, "Philosophers are naturally invidious." Then, if the pope for arduous causes should send a legate to the land of the Greeks--and I mean the same for other idioms and lands--he would send with him at the same time two or more of those most skilled in each science, who would overcome the experts of that land in disputations, giving counsel, holding conferences, and every way, so that naught could resist the wisdom of the Roman church. And by those employing reason the wisdom of the Romans would be praised and feared in eastern parts, just as the queen of the east commended the wisdom of Solomon.
By provision of schools of this sort and transmission of instructors of both sexes to oriental parts we westerners would get trade in precious commodities abounding in those regions, lacking to us and very dear here, and we would import them cheaply once the world were made catholic....
Let boys be chosen not more than four or five or six years old at most with heads well formed and disposed for learning, never to return to their parents without permission of the foundation. Of these a hundred or more should be instructed in one place well suited for this, first in reading the Psalter, later in the third part of the day in singing and things pertaining thereto, in other parts of the day successively in Donatus, composed in the Roman style, in accidents, declensions, and in turn in other matters of grammar. When the boy comes to hear the book of Cato and other minute authors, let him have four long lessons a day or as much as his ability can stand, over which he shall not go to sleep. Let him first hear the teacher read, then another pupil repeat, after whom he shall immediately repeat as many times what he seems to know. Let declensions and rules of voices be first told him, afterwards let him quickly repeat as he is asked for each. Let the rules be told him in winter; only in the evening shall he do Latin composition. But when they have begun to make a little headway, they are always to speak Latin, accustoming themselves to this at all times and in every place. After several elementary authors they shall hear the Bible in childish fashion three or four times a day; of its historians and poets only shall they do Latin composition in order, because they write but rudely. When they first begin to construe on solemn days, let them construe the Gradale, afterwards the Breviary, not the Missal except the Biblical portion; when they've finished construing the Breviary, let them construe the Golden Legend of the Saints and stories extracted from the poets briefly and in prose. Besides these let them make compositions from histories that will be of future use to them, not from the usual superfluous tales; or, what is more appropriate, let them Latinize; then they will lose nothing in idle time as has hitherto been the case; all that they do will be of enduring worth to them. When they have heard the entire Bible, let them repeat it daily for at last one sexternum, and the same with the histories of the saints, and they shall do the verses of poets but only plain ones for a short time.
At length when they are about ready to study logic, in the three months of summer they shall hear all poetry, namely, on the first day Cato, the second Theodulus, the three following Tobias, and so on with the others; on each day they shall hear six lessons with two teachers, which they could almost all see by themselves, having acquired the stories and the figures of common words. In such writings where simply the arrangement and conception of what is figured is sought, any youth as soon as he has begun to make any progress can see and read as if it were a romance. At every season of the year and by day and night, deducting sufficient time for sleep, continuously laboring at these tasks, those well disposed towards learning by their tenth or at least their eleventh year, others at least by their twelfth year, God granting, could have gone over all the grammatical sciences. Among which let the boys, as their teachers may deem expedient, hear the Doctrinale as far as it is concerned with declensions of nouns and conjugations of verbs, and finally the Graecismus so that they briefly comprehend its literal sense, not yet insisting on other solemnities.
When they have got this far, the boys will change their locality and in another school begin to be taught in logic, and at the same time in Greek, Arabic, or any other language which those in charge think fit, in the study of which new language they shall first be taught word forms and order as far as matters of grammar. In logic let them hear treatises and summulae composed to explain these; it ought to be arranged that someone wise in this art should extract briefly and plainly for them the art obscurely handed down by the Philosopher in each logical treatise, and succinctly so that after the treatises they may hear that brief art, not requiring exposition of writings, two or three times in a short time after they have once heard the books solemnly. This much ought to be accomplished by their fourteenth year.
Then let them begin to hear natural science, on account of the prolixity and profundity of which it is desirable that the Naturalia of brother Albert, containing fully the whole thought of the Philosopher with many additions and digressions should be abbreviated as far as may be, and so plainly that readers can understand this extract sufficiently without the writings themselves. The youth will hear this extract entire in the first year at the rate of four lessons a day without questions; this they will hear a second time with questions; afterwards they will hear the books once as they are read in the schools. Also it would be well for them to have Natural Questions extracted from the writings of brother Thomas, Siger, and other doctors, all arranged in one collection, for instance, concerning first matter, form, composition, generation, corruption, each of the senses, their objects, each faculty of the soul, their operations and natures, concerning the elements of nature and their operations, concerning the heavenly bodies, their natures, influences and movements; in this holding to such order that things could easily be found and because of their orderly arrangement be more easily understood. But such an arrangement would be very difficult, though very advantageous from the pedagogical standpoint, since in this way things would be learned easily in a short time, retained when acquired, and readily recalled to mind.
When they have done this, they would hear the moral sciences, monostica, ethics, rhetoric and politics, similarly extracted and abbreviated. I have seen the Ethics in ten books abbreviated by Hermann the German. After this preliminary survey, they would hear the books solemnly with questions, as in the case of the Naturalia, in order, with a few arguments written in each science, since a multitude of arguments rather induces confusion of intellect and rational judgment than science.
Having accomplished this in one year, let them hear the Bible twice a day biblically and the book of Summae in the morning with questions, omitting those on nature. Those who are to be preachers will so hear for two or three years, but if some do this, it will be enough for others to hear it once for a year or even less time. After that certain ones would hear the laws for two years and they could perfectly hear the five volumes of the Corpus Iuris, and afterwards the Decretum and Decretals, the Decretum twice a day and the Decretals once. Those who were to live as clergy in the church of God could omit the laws but not the Decretals and Decretum; those who were to live secularly could omit the Naturalia and spend the more time on morals, and civil and canon law. Those who want to hear medicine could do so after Naturalia, although it would be better not to ignore the Bible and Summae, since in these are touched the principles which are the foundations of all the sciences, conformant to over all the sciences are connected." And it that saying of the Philosopher, "More is indeed a great thing to know the principles of all sciences or at least not to be ignorant of them.
Those who are ruder in learning, after they know a little logic and more natural science, when that is possible, let them hear the surgery of men and horses; and with this, if possible, medicine, at least those who are more capable, so that they can apprehend the art of surgery more readily by the aid of the medical art. Let those physicians and surgeons have wives similarly instructed, with whose assistance they can relieve the sick more fully.
Some may oppose our foregoing argument thus, "What advantage will it be to those who cannot carry so many volumes with them to hear the laws for two years?" I answer, If they do not have books when they ought to use them, it will profit them little; yet on account of the canon law it will do them some good and they will not totally be ignorant of it; if, however, they carry their books with them, it will profit them far more. We ought to suppose that there will be some auditors who will bring books with them, and others who don't bring any will acquire them, and because of their good foundation in the sciences they will make progress even by studying the books by themselves after they have left the schools.
Moreover it would be a good thing for those scholars who are shortly to govern and judge great states and peoples to have the laws in a single volume, plain, brief, and clear, written just once without repetition of like points, containing perfect opinions so that they could be read and understood without glosses and commentaries, with all the laws on one subject comprehended under one title so that persons, who were well-educated otherwise, could understand them without a teacher. It would be advantageous to have the Decretum and Decretals similarly abbreviated, so that scholars pressed for time from laws confused and prolix could carry away with them and retain in brief form the general and special law of each subject, combining which with experience they would rule themselves and others civilly by these general and special powers to which they would gradually become accustomed, and, aided by experience, and acquiring books, they would grow more perfect in them. These abbreviations and extracts would be portable books of poor scholars, and even those occupied with other sciences as philosophy and theology would not carry their usual and necessary study to perusal of great volumes, because the brevity of human life and the occupations of spiritual and secular business rarely permit men to study and know perfectly the civil and canon law, so prolix, together with philosophy and theology. Yet those continuing right docilely in the prescribed mode of study could by thirty become skilled enough in philosophy, civil law, canon and divine law, and expert in how to preach. For the Old and New Testament with the Legends of the Saints learned in childhood, repeated solemnly with the book of Summae, as is prescribed, for one year after the attainment of philosophy, sufficiently disposes them from boyhood on to understand, deliver, and commit to memory sermons for single feast days, so that the way to preach would become a sort of second nature to them, according to what the Philosopher says, that Plato taught boys to grow used to works of virtue, so that in the process of time these might become natural to them, and that they might be as ready towards these as towards natural impulses. For as he says there, "Custom is a second nature;" that is, it alters nature.
That it is thus expedient that prelates who rule the church should be learned in philosophy, theology, and both laws, and in the use and experience of sciences of this sort is sufficiently taught by experience, that supreme mistress of life, as many sacred canons acclaim, having regard to the defects of those prelates who learn only civil law without canon and divine, though it may be very thoroughly, and also of those who study only canon law, like some monks and regular canons
Moreover, in mathematical sciences on account of their many utilities, especially touched upon in the little book Super utilitatibus made by brother Roger Bacon of the Order of Minorites, it will be advisable to instruct some disciples of this foundation, as they shall appear to show intelligence, skill, and speed therein, but rather dwelling on those matters which may be of service in taking and keeping the Holy Land. It is especially desirable that every catholic should know written figures, the situation and places of the elements, their magnitude and shapes the thickness of the celestial orbs, their magnitude; the velocity, motion, and influences of sun, moon, and other stars; and how small the earth is compared to them, and how great with respect to man; so that admiration of these may swell the praise of their Creator, and that, repelling the lust for things worldly, man may not grow proud because of all these inferior things, which are as nothing in the universe that contains them all, and should be regarded as nothing.
In each study of this foundation it will be advisable to retain some who would be feeble for crossing the sea, who, that it may be done more perfectly, themselves educated beyond the prescribed amount, may teach others and finally be made heads of studies. It will be advisable to seek many Greek, Arabic, and Chaldean 6 doctors, and so in the case of other idioms, as they are thought more helpful, to instruct our better students in their literary languages, and others, who may be somewhat less learned in literary matters, to be linguistic interpreters in speech with uneducated persons. I think that, just as among us Latins, we see under each literary idiom diverse native vernaculars contained, of which it would be enough to learn the more common, as French is among Latins, in the case of those who are not thought able to learn several.
It will be advisable that scholars of this foundation, namely the more robust, be instructed in the military art; and others, who as time goes on are found stupid at their books, in mechanical arts, especially those of service in war, as smiths and carpenters....
It will also be advisable that some of them be instructed according to the contents of the aforesaid book, De utilitatibus mathematicarum, in making various instruments such as burning glasses and other instruments useful for war, as this may be feasible by the perspective of mathematics and the natural sciences, by which arts many things might be made which are unknown in these western regions....
It is certain, as anyone can see, that in two scarcely, and in as many as three arts never, is anyone found skilled; how then could anyone be found skilled in all the arts which are infinite in number among us? If not in the arts, then not in their determination, causes, and diversity. Whence it follows that their perfect doctrine cannot be set forth by one author, of which the reason seems to be that the Author of nature, wishing to take away any occasion of pride and also of lusting after the things of the world, and further to give color, cause, and occasion to everyone to tolerate with himself possessors of property and workers in the arts with no more selfishness and envy than is due, made all things of human interest infinite in number, namely languages both literary and vernacular, places, regions; also he so multiplied the arts that neither one man nor a hundred, nor a thousand, nor a hundred thousand, nor a hundred thousand thousand could suffice unto themselves to live well, and in order to attain well-being, as is customary, the men of one province would not suffice unto themselves, nor of one kingdom, nor of three, nor of ten. Which is in so far true that it appears that all the men of this world need to help one another to produce well-being, whence it follows that without selfishness or envy of each other's natural prosperity men ought to be mutually tolerant after the example of those gregarious animals which tolerate one another. So the Saviour of all souls expressed his will more in his acts than in his words. . .
It will be advisable that all the girls of the foundation like the males be instructed in Latin grammar, afterwards in logic, and in one other language, later in the rudiments of natural science, finally in surgery and medicine. These subjects, except grammar and surgery, are intended for those who are found docile and disposed towards these things above the rest; and let these too be instructed only in those parts of each science bearing on medicine and surgery, in a manner as far as possible more perceptible to the senses and plainer and easier because of the weakness of the sex, and because they run through their ages more quickly than men, attain more rapidly to such perfection as is possible for them, which is a sign of the weakness of their natural virtue. We see the like, as the Philosopher says, speaking of this in the book on animals, in trees and other plants, "Those which last less long grow more quickly." Of these girls those more prudent, who seem too weak to cross the sea, may stay permanently with us to train others, by whose aid the others will be kept more securely and instructed more fully both in theory and practice of surgery as well as medicine, and in those matters pertaining to the apothecary's art.
But it will be expedient that those girls whom it is intended to marry with those who do not hold the articles of our faith as the Roman church holds, teaches, and observes, be taught to carry with them briefly and plainly written all the articles so that they may understand them sufficiently. And the same knowledge would likewise not harm, rather be advantageous, to other disciples of the said foundation who have not had fuller theological training. Besides, to educate the girls in medicine and surgery it will be advisable that two girls more highly trained than the others in medicine and surgery and their experiences remain to teach the others both theory and practice, so that the girls when they leave school may have skill in practice with the sciences. In school more readily than later they could learn and get much experience without which such sciences are of little use, as the Philosopher testifies, saying: "In human activities we see that those having experience without art do better than those having a notion of the science without experience."
Similarly it would be a good thing to train the male auditors of sciences of this sort in experience of them while they were in school, and to hold there an apothecary shop and make compound medicines, so that they might learn to know the herbs and other medicines, the unguents and other customary concoctions, so that when they left school they would know enough and might practice.
In divine science especially should its students exercise themselves in its practice, preaching to the scholars of this foundation, repeating the sermons of their elders, and still more frequently making brief collations.. ..