688 paul f. grendler
(b. 1696; doge 1762–63), and the last doge, ludovico Manin (b. 1725; doge
1789–97, d. 1802)—studied at the Jesuit school in bologna.38
the Venetian patriciate held sharply contrasting views about the Soci-
ety of Jesus, and schools were a key issue. one faction hated the Jesuits,
seeing them as undercover agents of the papacy and Spain determined to
undermine the Venetian state. they reached this conclusion even though
no evidence of Jesuit political activity in Venice beyond support of the
papacy during the interdict has come to light, and despite the fact that
the Jesuits had their own problems with several popes and the Spanish
crown. other patricians loved the Jesuits; they sent their sons to Jesuit
schools even when the Society was banned. Venetian subjects in the terra-
ferma reproduced the divisions. during the interdict and during the years
of Jesuit banishment, Veneto residents crossed into the Mantuan state in
order to receive the sacraments from Jesuit priests, and they flocked to
Jesuit schools after 1657.39 by contrast, bergamo did not permit the Jesuits
to establish a school in the town until 1711 and then dismissed them in
1729.40 a comprehensive study of Venetian and Veneto attitudes toward
the Jesuits awaits its historian.41
The Reforms of the 1770sa third phase in Venetian education occurred in the late 18th century. the
leaders of La Serenissima, like the rulers of other italian civil governments,
embraced Enlightenment educational ideas. the state must control
education, the regular clergy should be driven out of the classroom, and the
curriculum needed to be more practical. beginning in 1768 and continuing
to the end of the Republic, the Venetian government imposed changes
on the schools and teachers of Venice along these lines. nevertheless,
much of the school system erected in the Renaissance remained in place
in weakened form. and it is doubtful that the new pedagogical structure
served students and society any better in the short term than Renaissance
schools.
38 brizzi, “Scuole,” p. 504.
39 Giuseppe Gorzoni, Istoria del Collegio di Mantova della Compagnia di Giesù scritta
dal padre Giuseppe Gorzoni. Parte prima, ed. antonella bilotto and flavio Rurale (Mantua,
1997), pp. 106–07.
40 carlsmith, A Renaissance Education, pp. 176–93.
41 Gaetano cozzi, “fortuna, e sfortuna, della compagnia di Gesù,” in Zanardi, ed.,
I Gesuiti e Venezia, pp. 59–88, makes a good start.