500TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PUBLIC PAULISTS GYMNASIUM IN LEPOGLAVA

The stamp has been issued in a 20-stamp sheet, and there is also the commemorative First Day Cover (FDC) From the 13th century on, we have had records of the presence of the hermits’ communities of Paulists, sometimes called White Friars, in the vicinity of Zagreb, but the real beginning of their activities in Croatia is considered to be the establishment of the religious house in Dubica in the year 1244. The Paulists then started dedicating special attention to the education of their brothers friars as well as of the local population. After the establishment of a wide net of monasteries, particularly the one in Lepoglava in 1400, the monastery that was to become the centre of the Paulist activity in Croatia and this part of Europe, the material basis was established that led to an intense educational activity developed by the Paulists, the activity they were to continue until the order was abolished in 1786. Their activities were not engaged in purely monasterial and religious duties, they were a significant factor in the overall life in Croatia, particularly in areas of science, culture, art, education, even politics. Very soon after having been established, the Paulist monasteries became centres of considerable artistic, cultural and educational activity that was to spread far beyond the monastery walls. Systematic work in the educational area within the Paulist order began as early as the 14th century, and in the first half of the 15th century, in 1437 to be precise, following the recommendation of Pope Eugene IV, their activity in the same area started developing in Lepoglava, too. The first gymnasium in Lepoglava was founded in 1503, and continued working until the battle of Mohacz in 1526. Education in the gymnasium in Lepoglava was based on Septem artes liberales, the seven classical arts that could be divided into trivium (grammar, logic and rhetoric) and quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy). In the initial phase, special significance was attached to the first levels of education, to grammar and learning Latin as preparatory work for further studies at universities, seminaries or as requisites for doing the administrative work. After a break of almost sixty years, the educational activity of the gymnasium in Lepoglava was renewed in 1582, primarily owing to the strenuous efforts of the monastery prior, Stjepan Trnavljanin, who charged Martin from Dubrava with the administration of the gymnasium. At the beginning, the curriculum of the renewed gymnasium was based on the medieval grammar school curriculum. In 1607 a new curriculum was adopted, based on the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum. It was well known that this curriculum was also applied in the gymnasium in Križevci, which had only four grades, and in Senj where the gymnasium also had two higher grades. The New Age gymnasium, with its humanities curricula, paid special attention to the teaching of Latin, the study of the Roman classics and ancient art. Together with Latin, other languages were being taught: Greek, German, as well as Croatian, the language of the people. Croatian was the medium of instruction in the lower grades. The Paulists have traditionally paid close attention to the preservation of the Croatian language. From the earliest times, their very arrival in Croatia, the Paulists equally used both Latin and Croatian in liturgy, literature and education. They used Croatian, the language of the people, in all their dialectal varieties - chakavian, kajkavian and štokavian. In the littoral region of Croatia and in Istria they even used the Glagolitic script. The Croatian language played a great role in the activities of the Paulist order: this has been proved by the words of Pope Julius II in 1504, when he addressed the Paulist brothers as “priores et fratres, sub lingua sclava”. It was precisely for the needs of learning Croatian that the professor at the gymnasium in Lepoglava, Ivan Belostenec, wrote his dictionary ‘Gazophylacium seu latino-illyricorum onomatum aerarium’. How much importance was paid to the learning of Croatian can be further proved by the fact that one of the earliest orthographic handbooks and Croatian grammar exercises, used in all Paulists’ institutions of learning, was written by the Paulist brother Hilarion Gašparotti. Among the outstanding writers, members of the Paulist order, a special place belongs to Tito Brezovački, the author of the plays ‘Matijaš Grabancijaš dijak’ and ‘Diogeneš’ (meaning approximately ‘Matijaš, the Seminarian and Latinist’, and ‘Diogenes’). Tito Brezovački was writing his works at the time the Paulist order was in the process of being abolished, accompanied by a strong breakthrough of Germanization. He tried to put up strong resistance to it by his texts written in Latin and Croatian, standing up for the individuality of the Croatian people. The significance of the gymnasiumin Lepoglava and the teaching establishment that later developed from it in the course of the 17th century can be proved by the fact that the teaching of philosophy at the institution of higher education in Lepoglava started in the year 1656. Not long afterwards, in 1671, Pope Clement X formally recognized the university status of the teaching establishment in Lepoglava, and Emperor Leopold I afterwards extended the formal recognition in 1674. The influence of the educational institution in Lepoglava was specially emphasized after the establishment of a separate Croatian Paulist province in 1696, which lasted until the ban was put upon the activities of the order at the time of the absolutist reforms introduced by Emperor Joseph II in 1786. The Paulists’ secondary schools and institutions of higher education performed their activities in the course of several centuries and offered their pupils and students education based on highest pedagogical standards of those times, spreading not only literacy but also building bases for a varied cultural, artistic, historiographic and scientific activity in Croatia. The Paulists’ schools, headed by the gymnasium in Lepoglava, continued to be places of complex educational processes for a period of almost two centuries. Their multi-dimensional activity has left an indelible mark upon the foundations of Croatian cultural heritage. Miroslav Gašparović