The Society of Jesus when it was…

The Society of Jesus when it was founded in 1540 had not originally envisaged running a network of schools, but it had soon become progressively involved in and then largely associated with educational work.

The many schools taken over or started by the Society in its first decades all needed plans (rationes).

In addition, an increasing number of young men are entering the Society in need of the educational background that is required for priestly service, and the Society has begun to assume a greater and greater role in the direction of its own formational program.

For these two reasons, there has grown a great desire for a standard plan for all of the Society's educational institutions.

Under the generalate of Claudio Aquaviva, in 1581, a committee of twelve Jesuit priests had been appointed without clear results.

A new committee of six had soon been formed in 1584: Juan Azor (Spain), Gaspar González (Portugal), James Tyrie (Scotland), Peter Busée (Holland), Anthony Ghuse (Flanders), and Stephen Tucci (Sicily).

This committee had produced a trial document, the Ratio of 1586, which was sent to various provinces for comments from the teachers.

This plan was not intended for actual use in the classrooms.

Reflection on the reactions led to the issuance of another document in 1591, which was to be employed in all Jesuit schools for three years.

The reflection on these experiments was then used by the committee in Rome to create the final official document of 1599.

Ratio atque Institutio Studiorum Societatis Iesu ("The Official Plan for Jesuit Education"), known as the Ratio Studiorum ("Plan of Studies"), the document formally establishes the globally influential system of Jesuit education.