Page 201 - Transcriptions d'actes notariés - Tome 20 - 1682-1686

A Jesuit Journal in the Age
of the Enlightenment

Rev. Cyril O'KEEFE, S.J.,
Jesuit Hou~e 01 SIU~~CS, Toronto. Onlario
Although in recent yeare hiatorians have shown considerable
interest in that very formative period of Eiiropean History, the Age of
lhe Enlightenment, there still remain many problems in ihe priod which
deserve furher investigation. It wae a Lime of radical and sudden change,
so rapid, in fact, that witb reason it has ben termed aii intellectual
Revolution. The nature of the change, of conree, is rnost important
and has been the snbject of long study ; it is not so clear why the inove-
nierit became so popuIar in such a short tiiiie. While the main contri-
butions to the Age of ldeas were niade liy an intellectiial élite, the student
of the period is impressed by the speed with which the* ideas were
taken up by the ediicated public who enthusiastically accepted tbem as
significant signs of the intellectual enperiority OC that age.
The problein is a most complen oiie, yet certain approaches to a
solution might be suggested. Many of ihe writjngs of the philosophes
were, to be enre, written with a popular appeal and were widely read:
Diderol's Encyclopediu provided a compeiidium of the new ideas whicb
was consulted with avid intercat; the salons, where the new learnin, was
disensd, were iashionable meeting places for the iritelligentia of both
upper aiid iniddle clames. Still another method 01 popularuation, and a
most valuable one, was found in a new type of publication which first
appeared in France iii the nid-seventeenth century, and waa aimed at
makiiig available to the publie digests of al1 the main eurrent publications
in almost every field of knowledge. The new publication, a monthly
periodical, called a jouriial, best deacribed perhaps as a combination of
the moderii book digests end the wholarly journals, fulfilled a dehnite
need. Aiid yet even though by ~he begiiiiiing of the eighteeiith ceiitury
there were many journals in existence, it was the original, the lournal des
sawanir, aii officiat publication of the French Academy, which remained
the inost popular, and aftei which iiew journals were niodelled. 3t wae
to this journal thet the Jesuils turned in 1701 wlieir they began their
lourn~l de Tréuour. Using it as their mode1 they began a new journal
which grew to fame in its owii right, and is still of importaiice today as a
valuable source of information oii curreiit opinion of the Enlightenment
movement.
It js a curious inrident: perhaps one which reflects on the lack of
interest on the part oi Cathoiic hietcirians in dealing wilh the period oi