Benedykt Herbest (1531–1598) and Grzegorz Knapski (1564–1639) – Teachers of Jesuit Teacher Training Seminars with Great Merits for Culture and Education

Abstract

While opening their educational activity in the 16^th century, the members of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) faced the problem of well-prepared teachers. That is why, during the 2nd General Congregation in 1565, they established their own teacher training seminar (Rhetorica Nostrorum). Each Jesuit province was to organise a seminar the task of which was to prepare the staff of professors for secondary and high schools. The seminars employed the best-prepared teachers, with pedagogical talents and with experience in working in schools. They constituted the order’s vanguard not only in the field of education, but also in the area of broadly understood culture. The group included distinguished philologists, poets, playwrights, lexicographers, mathematicians, etc. The article presents the profiles of two seminar teachers who carried out their activity in the first fifty years of the functioning of the seminars in Poland. The first teacher is Benedykt Herbest, the organiser of schools, author of handbooks, preacher, polemicist, and the founder of the first teacher training seminar in Poland. The other one – Grzegorz Knapski – is a distinguished philologist, expert in classical languages, lover and defender of Polish language, and the author of the famous Thesaurus – Polish-Latin-Greek lexicon. The example of those prominent pedagogues may be inspiring for modern pedagogues who train future teachers.