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instruction, and the study of the mother tongue was well nigh neglected. In many Protestant schools the use of the Latin language in conversation, school exercises and dramatic performances was more strictly enforced than in Jesuit colleges, and those who spoke the vernacular were punished.^[1] Should we not suppose that in Protestant and Jesuit schools the same reasons suggested the use of the Latin tongue? Some Protestant critics assign quite different reasons, but without proof. In a work published by order of the Prussian Ministry for Instruction,^[2] we find the following: "The School System of Saxony of 1528 provided Latin schools pure and simple. Why? Because it demanded an extraordinary amount of time to make Latinists of German boys, so that little time and energy were left for other subjects. Melanchthon, for this reason, excluded even Greek from his plan of studies. As Latin, at that time, was the universal language of all Western Christendom, the official language of the Roman Church and of diplomatic intercourse, the language of the most celebrated code of laws, the only language of learning, mastery of this language was the first and indispensable condition for a career in Church and State, and for every participation in the higher intellectual life." However, when speaking of the great stress laid on Latin in the Jesuit schools, the same author does not hesitate to assert: "A more zealous cultivation of the mother tongue

1. Paulsen, Geschichte des gelehrten Unterrichts auf den deutschen Schulen und Universitäten vom Ausgang des Mittelalters bis zur Gegenwart, p. 239. (2. ed. vol. I, p. 352.)
2. Deutschlands höheres Schulwesen im neunzehnten Jahrhundert, von Professor Dr. Conrad Rethwisch. Berlin, 1893, p. 12.