Eugeniusz M. Schummer's article "History and Development of the University of Vilnius", published in the journal "Świat", 1928, no. 13, pp. 5-7 (public domain, reprinted from the Library of the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL), describes the history of the University from its foundation in 1579 by Stefan Batory, through the reforms carried out successively by the Commission of National Education and the later tsarist authorities, until the liquidation of the university in 1842 and its reopening in 1919. Schummer's article also focuses on the contemporary fate of the University, i.e. the staff and educational situation, as well as the University's achievements in the 1920s. The article also includes space to list the most important people associated with the University since its inception. Mention is made of, among others, Piotr Skarga, Jakub Wujek, Franciszek Smuglewicz, Joachim Lelewel and Adam Mickiewicz.

A modernised reading of the text

The history and development of Vilnius University.

For many years the Jesuit Order deliberated on how to establish an academy in Vilnius, as its absence had long been felt. Above all, the Jesuits needed the title of an academy for their degrees, so that no one would vainly wander overseas to obtain them and bring back religious "innovations" that often offended God. This was the 16th century, when two hostile camps, Catholic and Protestant, clashed in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Bishop of Vilnius, Valerian Protasewicz, seeing the fruitful work of the Jesuits in the Crown, brought them to Vilnius to strengthen Catholicism in the borderlands threatened by infidels.

In 1570 the Jesuits establish the first grammar school in Vilnius. Although they were promised an academy by King Sigismund Augustus, who was very sympathetic to the Jesuits because of his state, his death prevented the plan from being realised. Severely disappointed, the Jesuits had to content themselves with the library bequeathed to them by the king. Stefan Batory, introduced to the Polish throne by the infidels, could have been a serious obstacle to the realisation of Jesuit intentions. Meanwhile, Batory chose the order as a particular object of his care.

There were deeper reasons for this policy. Batory, from his convictions a supporter of strong royal power, was not happy with the republican rule existing in Poland. He wanted to eradicate those republican customs in society, and instil the principle of monarchism. The young generation had to be brought up in this conviction. The Jesuits were not only superior to the Protestants in organisation, but also in the regularity of their teaching. Their beliefs were strictly monarchical. There were also political considerations.

By supporting the Jesuits, Batory was winning Rome over to his side, and thus weakening the influence of the German Empire. Through the Pope, Batory hoped to assuage Austrian claims to the Polish throne and successfully settle disputes concerning his hereditary Transylvania. The Jesuits, confident that the opportune moment had arrived, turned to Bishop Protasevich to facilitate their confirmation of the college in Vilnius, together with the higher school attached to it, to the king. Protasewicz, together with his co-adjutor, Jerzy Radziwiłł, presented their request, arguing that the country, which was "rich in wit", would benefit greatly if it had a main school where young people could be educated, and mature people could acquire "lustre and virtue".

The king graciously accepted the request through the intermediary of the chaplain Sulikowski, also friendly to the Jesuits, and, having arrived in Lviv, issued a privilege on 7 July 1578, establishing the Lviv academy. Standing on a firm foundation, the Jesuits obtained approval of their rights and privileges at the Warsaw Sejm a.d. The "Academy of Struggle", as it is aptly called by J. I. Kraszewski, develops very rapidly under the guidance of enlightened leaders, making a serious dent in the Protestant camp. It is attracting more and more scholars. In the second year of its existence, it numbered six hundred, and in 1598 - eight hundred.

A 1604 census shows that Italians, Hungarians, Germans, Inflantics, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians and even Scots studied at the Vilnius academy. The academy's splendour is enhanced by the presence of eminent scholars, such as Piotr Skarga, whose greatest concern was that his homeland should become an "emporium in septentrionem". - and, next to him, Jakób Wujek, Antoni Arias, Emanuel de Vega and the Latin poet, Maciej Sarbiewski, a professor of pronunciation in Vilnius, famous throughout the world (and least in Poland). The apogee of the academy's development came in the 17th century. Kings granted the academy numerous privileges and patronage, with Kazimierz Lew Sapieha funding a faculty of law, and Władysław IV making efforts to ensure that both secular laws and medicine were taught at the academy. From the second half of the 17th century, the whole of European civilisation experienced a period of general decline. Poland also went through this period.

The Swedish, Muscovite and Tartar wars exhausted the state organism, directing all national energy towards defending the borders. The preponderance of the monastic element did not allow science to modernise, nor access to new branches of knowledge developed in Western Europe. The Vilnius University was saved from complete extinction by the papal breve of 1773, which cancelled the Jesuit Order. Joachim Chreptowicz organises the immense Educational Commission, which puts education on a new track. The Education Commission carried out a major reform of the university in 1781, renaming it the Main School of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The University was renamed the Main School of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1781. The university's lecturers are: Marcin Poczobut, Wawrzyniec Gucewicz, Hieronim Stroynowski and others no less prominent in science.

Under Russian rule, the Main School was transformed into Vilnius Main School and finally Vilnius University (19th century). This is the academy's most splendid period, when it was the only major Polish cultural institution and a focal point of Polishness in the rapidly russified lands. This period of the university is adorned with the names of such professors as Śniadecki, Jędrzej and Jan, Stanisław Jundziłł, Franciszek Smuglewicz, Groddeck, Euzebjusz Słowacki, Leon Borowski, Tadeusz Czacki, J. Lelewel and a long list of others. The Vilnius University was renamed Vilnius Academy in 1832, and lasted until 1842, when it was finally closed. Fortuna variabilis, Deus mirabilis! -

"It happened in the Columned Hall of the ancient walls of the Vilnius Academy on 11 October 1919, the year following the birth of Christ the Lord, 555 years after the foundation of the first Polish University in Krakow, 341 years after Stefan Batory opened his University of Vilnius, on the 100th since the memorable moment when the Bard of the Polish Nation, Adam Mickiewicz, received his diploma in this very same hall, and on the 81st since those painful days when the enemy closed the doors of the walls and tried to extinguish the bright stream emanating from Vilnius' Supreme University...".

These are the words of the foundation act that opened the revived Stefan Batory Academy on 11 October 1919. By order of the Commander-in-Chief, the provisional statute of the Stefan Batory University was adopted and six faculties were established: humanities, theology, law and social sciences, mathematics and natural sciences, medicine and fine arts. In addition, the Faculty of Medicine had its own pharmaceutical college from the beginning, and in the academic year 1923/24 an agricultural college was established at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The authority of the U.S.B. was entrusted to the General Assembly of Professors, the Senate, the Rector, the Faculty Councils and the Deans.

Numbers alone are capable of presenting a picture of the rapid development of the M.S.B. Since the reopening of the university, the statistical table shows an increase of more than fivefold in the total number of young people studying. At a time when the Universities of Krakow, Poznan and our two Polytechnics were experiencing a decline in the number of students, Vilnius University, in spite of a significant reduction in subsidies (by 30% on the previous year) and in spite of the reduction and austerity policies applied to the University, had a growth of 268 students in the academic year 1925/26, and in 1926/27 had a growth of 300 students.

In the previous year, the total number of students at the U.S.B. was 2806 - with a very favourable change in the proportion of free students. The number of free students from 35.84% in the first academic year finally drops to 6.73% in the current academic year. The university issued scientific diplomas last year. 128. it nostrified six foreign doctorates, of which one was awarded in the Faculty of Theology and five in the Faculty of Law. In the Faculty of Humanities, honorary doctorates were awarded to the following scholars: Al. Bruckner, L. Finkel and J. Kallenbach. The teaching staff at the U.S.B. has also increased in recent years, with the ratio of deputy professors to full and associate professors changing so favourably that the number of deputy professors, which in the first academic years accounted for less than half of the lecturers, has now been reduced to less than 20%. Academic productivity has increased significantly.

In the academic year 1924/25, 80 scientific papers were produced for every 100 professors, associate professors, assistant professors and senior assistants. If we consider that, for example, at the Jagiellonian University in 1913/14, i.e. in the normal, pre-war period, and at a university that had been organised for a long time, there were 130 research papers per 100 academics, this comparison, taking into account the much worse conditions in 1924/25, shows that scientific work at Vilnius University was developing very well.

Every year, professors participate in scientific congresses abroad, thus forging ever closer links with foreign scientific institutions. In 1925/26, Prof. Dr. Julian Szymański presented papers at the Ophthalmological Congress in Paris and in Rio de Janeiro, while Prof. Dr. St. Władyczko, one of the world's most eminent neurologists, presented 4 papers at international and French neurological congresses. In 1925, Prof. Dr. Marjan Zdziechowski was specially invited by the Sorbonne to give a series of lectures at the "Institut Slave" in Paris.

In the previous year, Prof. Dr. Wacław Komarnicki travelled to Romania to give a series of lectures on the amendment of the Polish Constitution, Prof. Mieczysław Limanowski took part in a congress of geologists in Bucharest, Prof. Pruffer attended a congress of zoologists in Budapest, and Prof. J. Szymański travelled to the Sorbonne for a series of lectures on the amendment of the Polish Constitution. J. Szymański travelled to Paris for a congress of ophthalmologists and participated as a Polish delegate in the work of the organising committee of the international congress of ophthalmologists in The Hague, as well as taking an active part in the congress of English ophthalmologists in Oxford. Last year Vilnius University welcomed two professors from Bucharest, guests of the Administrative Institute.

In the same year, Vilnius hosted conventions of dermatologists, Polish paediatricians, ethnologists and Slav ethnographers. Thanks to the efforts of individual professors, scientific periodical publications are published at the university. Thus, the "Theological Quarterly" edited by Rev. Prof. Wilanowski and the "Legal Yearbook", the organ of the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, run by an editorial committee headed by Prof. Wacław Komarnicki, were both published. Further on, there was the "Bulletin of the Astronomical Observatory", superbly edited by Professor Władysław Dziewulski, and the "Archives of Hygiene", edited by Professor Kazimierz Karaff-Korbutt.

In discussing the University's activities pro foro externo, outwardly, it is impossible to ignore the General University Lectures organised by Professor Stefan Glixelli. These lectures take place in the autumn and spring trimesters, twice a week. The organisation of all five faculties has developed and normalised. Only the Faculty of Fine Arts was reduced in size last year as a result of the abolition of the architecture department by the Ministry of the Interior and Administration. The Faculty of Agriculture, which the public was very concerned about when it was to be abolished, has been preserved. The development of the University Library came to a partial halt as a result of the reduction in subsidies.

Last year, 2336 people used the Library (in 1925/26 - only 1675 people). Annual attendance showed 47,996 visits, compared to 32,310 the previous year. The university's budget for 1926 totalled 2,502,260 zlotys, of which 1,970,355 zlotys went on personnel expenses and 531,911 zlotys on material and administrative expenses. Compared to 1925, the budget sum decreased by 137,000 zlotys, with the reduction affecting only the material-administrative subsidy account, i.e. those representing the material growth of the institution.

Significant support for the scientific work of assistants was provided by the Marshal Piłsudski Fund, established from the whole of Marshal Piłsudski's salary from the period when Józef Piłsudski was Chief of State. Several prizes for printed scientific works by U.S.B. assistants have so far been paid from the interest on this fund. The government and the public also provide considerable material support for the University. Fifty state scholarships have been awarded to the University. In addition, the Senate has created twelve more scholarships from student fees for the academic scholarship fund.

In total, these scholarships amounted to PLN 55,800 for last year. What are the needs of the Bator University today? There are many. One of the most urgent is to obtain investment loans, especially for new buildings. In this area, the most pressing is the issue of university clinics. So far, with the exception of one gynaecology-obstetrics clinic, all of them are housed in either military or municipal hospital buildings, i.e. in buildings that are not owned by others and are highly inadequate for their needs. There is also a need to build an Astronomical Observatory, the instruments of which are housed in a makeshift wooden pavilion. With each passing year, the need for new and much larger lecture theatres and the expansion of seminars and establishments becomes more acute.

The library, collections and instruments in those establishments whose stock of teaching aids is inadequate will also need to be improved. Tandem: the most important need is for premises. This is evidenced by the steady and significant increase in the number of students. It will not be difficult to answer the question to what extent the Stefan Batory University fulfils its cultural mission on the eastern fringes of the Republic. There is no university town in the whole of Poland in which the university plays such an overwhelming influence on the whole of social life - as in Vilnius.

There is no cultural, scientific or economic activity without the participation of the University of Vilnius. The University fulfils its first and fundamental mission - the education of young people - with great care. Out of a total of 2,806 students in the academic year 1926/27, 1,351 came from the Eastern Borderlands, including 327 from Vilnius alone. Of this number, twenty-eight are Belarusians and twenty-two Lithuanians. Belarusian and Lithuanian youths set up their own study groups at the U.S.S.B., freely cultivating their native cultural and national heritage. The University radiates to the widest strata of society by holding numerous general lectures.

The Faculty of Fine Arts fulfils a very important task in the field of the preservation of the numerous art monuments in the Eastern Territories. The Faculty of Fine Arts has a very important task in the preservation of the numerous art monuments in the Eastern Territories, and is eager to acquaint both fellow countrymen and the increasing number of foreigners visiting Vilnius with them and their value. The Society of Friends of Science, the Medical Society, and a long series of others were revived under the invigorating breath of the University's beneficial influence. This is the great significance of Stefan Batory University. This is the manifestation of its immense strength, rooted in the great traditions of the Vilnius Academy.