ABSTRACT
Religious congregations, as known in France, are associations of persons who, consecrating themselves to the service of God. Among the religious orders that have consecrated the efforts to the work of teaching, the first place must be assigned to the Jesuits and the Jansenists. Primary instruction, scarcely entered at first into the settled plans of the religious orders. It is only in secondary instruction that the Jesuits have taken position with marked success. The basis of their teaching is the study of Latin and Greek. The Jesuits considered emulation as one of the essential elements of discipline. It is the Jansenists who triumph in reality, and they control the secondary instruction of France. Between the Jesuits, their adversaries, and the Jansenists, their friends, the Oratorians occupy an intermediate place. Through some happy innovations, the Oratorians approach the more elevated and more profound education of Port Royal. Vigilance, patience, mildness are the instruments of discipline in the schools of Port Royal.
