Lietuvos istorijos institutas

The aim of the article is an attempt to prepare a collective portrait of a group of former Jesuits who joined the order in Vilnius and, after the dissolution of the order, remained in the service of the Commission of National Education. In order to present the full image of this group, the numerical composition of ex-Jesuits (214 people), their territorial and social origin, education, employment history in the structures of the Commission of National Education and their age at the time of establishing the Commission were established. The article also presents the fate of the members of the described group after the end of the activities of the Commission of National Education, as well as their intellectual activity. The vast majority of the presented group were secondary school teachers in the Lithuanian Department in the years 1773–1794. Of the 10 schools of the Lithuanian Department, seven were post-Jesuit schools: in Grodno, Białystok, Pastawy, Vidzy, Vilnius, Vishnyev and Vawkavysk. Two of schools (in Szczuczyn Litewski and Lida), were Piarist schools. Jesuits taught at the school in Merkinė until 1776, after which the school was handed over to the Dominican Order The article brings out from oblivion ex-Jesuits, members and collaborators of the Society for Elementary Books, professors of the Vilnius Academy (later the Main School of Lithuania), general inspectors of the Commission, inspectors of parish schools, rectors of the schools of the Departments of Lithuania, Nowogrodek and Samogitia, as well as several people holding other important functions for the Commission of National Education.

On the map of schools in 18th-century Vilnius, a prominent place was occupied by the Vilnius Academy, which during the times of the Commission of National Education was called the Main School of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and after the loss of independence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Vilnius Main School. In addition to the university, there were also schools providing secondary and elementary education, as well as educational institutions. The paper is an attempt to look at the possibilities of education in Vilnius during the period of the Commission of National Education and in the years after the Commission, until the reform of Alexander I in 1803.

This article uses the last wills and testaments of 18th-century Vilnius burghers to analyse the degree of attention they paid to the education of their children, presenting their attitudes to this issue prior to the establishment of the Commission of National Education and after 1773. The author attempts to gain insight to the changes that occurred and to assess whether Enlightenment ideas and the founding of the Commission of National Education had an influence on the attitudes of Vilnius’ inhabitants on the education of their offspring, and whether the last wills and testaments from the last quarter of the 18th century dedicated more attention to children’s education.