Edmund Rice: 1762-1844 by Dáire Keogh (review)

122BOOK REVIEWS ing Human Understanding, which was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1734. But they enthusiasticaUy endorsed the study of experimental science. Bianchi has done a good job in bringing to Ught some forgotten proposals for educational reform. His book includes one hundred pages from the writings of GerdU, Pujati, and Rossignol, plus considerable documentation from printed works of the eighteenth century, archival references, and recent bibUography .This book opens a window into the educational aspirations of some dedicated teachers and scholars of the eighteenth century. Paul F. Grendler University ofToronto Late Modern European Edmund Rice: 1762-1844. By Dáire Keogh. (Dublin: Four Courts Press. Order from International Specialized Book Services, Portland, Oregon. 1996. Pp. 126. $14.95.) This short volume would perhaps be better entitled "The Irish Education Question, the CathoUc Church, and the Role of Edmund Rice," since, though it is advertised as a "new biography" of Rice, his Ufe is very secondary to the major thrust of the book.The reason for this fact, the author admits, is due to the serious lack of primary sources which makes it impossible to provide more than a "mere glimpse" (p. 101) of Rice; that would surely disqualify it from being caUed a"biography."However,Rice's beatification on October 6, 1996,would appear to be the major reason for the book's appearance at this time. Given this objective, there are elements of the "pious" and "apologetic" throughout, and while this weakens it, the book does often provide a critical assessment of Rice and the chaUenges that faced Irish Catholic education. Still, some questions remain unanswered and, perhaps due to lack of space, remain unexplored. For example, Rice's inability to get along with his colleagues was, we are told, aU due to their "nasty scheming" (p. 102), though the accusation is left unanswered. Again, the statement that eighteenth-century Irish hedgeschools were "an effective parish school system over much of the country" (p. 36) leaves the reader wondering why there was an education problem Ln the first place. The author concludes that since hedge-schools were aU fee-based, Rice set out to provide free schools for the poor. Why then in the 1830's did Rice and the Irish Christian Brothers refuse to support the National School Board,which gave the Catholic bishops, its essential managers, a tax-supported, denominationally controlled national school system that centered upon the education ofthe poor.A desire to be free ofdirect episcopal control would appear a possible answer, but Keogh explains the disagreement by stating that Rice had a "commitment to Catholic education" and a"faith in Divine Providence" (p. 85). Did not the bishops have a simUar "commitment" and "faith"? BOOK REVIEWS123 Nationalism is another important issue that does not receive sufficient treatment . However,it had a major influence in the rise ofboth modern Irish Catholicism and the national school system.When it entered the nineteenth century, the Church was far from strong, united, or respected, as Keogh implies. Rather the radical end of the eighteenth century, foUowed by the disunity occasioned by the Union, left the Church in the early nineteenth Ui desperate need of a unifying force that would strengthen its otherwise very weak influence among most of the Irish Catholic laity, poor as weU as middle class. Given theU motto, "CathoUc and Celtic, to God and IrelandTrue," the Irish Christian Brothers, like the Irish bishops, were strongly influenced in building up theU own organization by making use ofthe new nationalistic lay fervor that Daniel O'ConneU had so effectively enkindled in 1823 with the founding of the CathoUc Association. However, in so doing, each seemed determined to maintain theU independence from the other. Still, despite these questions or omissions, Keogh has given us a very worthwhUe study that is a solid addition to our growing knowledge of the Irish Catholic Church. Vincent J. McNally Sacred Heart School ofTheology Hales Corners, Wisconsin A Harvest ofHope:Jesuit Collegiate Education in England, 1 794-1914. By Ian D. Roberts. [Series III: Original Studies Composed in EngUsh, Number 12.] (Saint Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources. 1996. Pp. xvii, 253- $27.95 paperback ) In the introduction to England...