| Summary: | This article presents the author's views related to history of letter writing among the Jesuits. The Jesuits were known for their eloquence in preaching and teaching. According to the author to understand the Jesuit mind, one must understand the rhetorical practices of order. The rhetorical practices were essential to the growth and success of the society. The Jesuits recognized that training individual preachers could have a significant effect on a vast audience, and they were unusual in the period for training that combined theology and rhetorical practice. The Jesuit General Claudio Aquaviva, instructed his provincial leaders to exercise "the greatest care in the provinces to educate capable and profitable preachers" so that they could bring souls to the Church through sermons that were "suitable in decorum, dignity, spirit, and profit. The Jesuits combined the moral elements of humanism with Christian virtues in their pedagogy. The confluence of rhetoric and humanism, in particular, produced a conviction that eloquence was based on validity in reasoning, wisdom, and clarity of thought and that the effect of eloquence, widely practiced, would be moral development and renewal throughout society.
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